May I Ask You A Question?

My next guest is Aimee Ray, friend from church and a PreK teacher at Arrow Preparatory Academy here in Edmonds, WA. I wanted to talk to Aimee to hear her story of faith, and to talk about education, its purpose, its difficulty, and its worthiness. Aimee is everything you’d want in an early education teacher: caring, compassionate, and thoughtful. 

I really enjoyed hearing the details of her testimony and her perspective on education. As someone who didn’t really like school, I came away with a greater appreciation for school, and especially for what teachers do. 

I hope you enjoy listening!

My next guest is Rachel Myhre, friend from church where she also spearheads our church’s foster care ministry. I wanted to talk to Rachel to hear her heart for foster care, and to simply find out more of what our church actually does to care for those in the foster care community. 

In foster care ministry, Rachel has found the intersection of her passion and her deep compassion and this was a conversation I found deeply moving. 

I hope this conversation gives you a greater appreciation for the weight and world of orphan care. Thanks for listening.

My next guest is  Kendra Higa, friend from church and a marriage and family therapist. Thoughtful and candid, Kendra shares her story of faith, and what led her to become a counselor. We also discuss her experience of counseling before, during, and after COVID, some observations she has about what’s plaguing our society, and what she has learned about God as a counselor. 

I found talking with Kendra easy and pleasant, almost how one might expect a conversation with a therapist to be. I hope you also enjoy listening.

My next guest is Rachael Menzie, friend from church, true creative, and thankfully for me, the artist behind my intro and outro music. I wanted to talk to Rachael because I am someone who has spent all my life in the conservative Christian context, one that can be rigid and unwelcoming to independent and exploratory thought.  I’ve grown increasingly curious to know what it’s like in the conservative Christian church for those who are creative, who like to push the boundaries, but who also love Jesus and the Bible.

In this conversation, Rachael shares a detailed testimony, which I found both compelling and relatable as she vividly recounted her formative memories and also shared her sensitivity towards her feelings and what has moved her. All of this giving a full picture of what makes her a creative and what drives her today. 

Before we get to the episode, the morning of our conversation, Rachael sent me a note saying that instead of preparing for the podcast, she wrote a five minute song. In one morning. Yes, this is what she does. For fun, I’ve included that song, Coral Bells,  in its entirety at the end. Hope you enjoy the song and hope you enjoy the conversation. Thanks for listening!

My next guest is Kyle Stewart, friend from church, and a special education teacher. I wanted to talk to Kyle to hear his story of faith, and because the times that he and I have discussed his work as a teacher, he speaks with such joy and passion about getting to work with kids who have special needs. As someone not too familiar with those who have special needs, I had the simple thoughts that teaching them must be difficult and whoever does it must be incredibly patient. After talking with Kyle, it seems being a special education teacher may in fact be difficult, require a good amount of patience, maybe even a different perspective, but it’s also totally worth it. 

I really enjoyed hearing from Kyle, and I’m glad to share it. I hope you enjoy it as well. Thanks for listening!

My next guest is Meredith Woodruff, friend from church, wife to my previous guest, Reece Woodruff, and founder of Concrete Conversations. I wanted to talk to Meredith to hear her story of faith and to find out why she created Concrete Conversations. Little did I know that Concrete Conversations is in part a beautiful outgrowth of her story of faith. Hearing the intricacies of this was a sweet story of God’s kind faithfulness, and it was also just cool to see how God could use Meredith’s redemption to create a product to serve others.

I hope you enjoy getting to know Meredith as much as I did.

Thanks for listening!

And don’t forget to go to https://concrete-conversations.com/. I’m not recommending it because I just spoke to the founder. My family uses it almost every night, and I find out gems of info. Alright, until next time, Lord bless!

My next guest is Reece Woodruff, lead pastor at Sound City Bible Church, which is the church I call family. Reece’s disposition is calm, intentional, and thoughtful. I wanted to talk to Reece because at a previous stop, he led a team seeking to equip the church for evangelism in today’s culture. He developed a training document for that church, which it still uses today. Like many, I could also sense the culture changing, and that the approach to evangelism needed some evolution, but as usual, I had more questions than answers. Reece kindly shared the equipping document with me and needless to say, it has impacted the way I think, not only about evangelism, but even in certain aspects of my faith. 

In this conversation, we discuss Reece’s story of faith, the story behind the training he developed, the training’s general structure, and its impact on me so far. Reece even turned the tables and started asking me questions–not my preferred seat in the conversation. 

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the discussion as much as I did. Thanks for listening!

My next guest is Kyle, founder and Executive Director at Bible Translation Fellowship. BTF aims to integrate Bible translation with the mission of the church. In doing this, it does so through advocacy, mentoring, networking, and translation consulting.  Kyle also lives in the western cape of South Africa with his wife, Hannah, and their dog. 

In talking with Kyle, I was struck by the passion that God has instilled in him throughout his journey of faith. Additionally I was really encouraged by his thoughtful, principled, and earnest approach to see the word of God go out to all peoples. The Bible translation world is one I’m quite ignorant of, and this conversation was revelatory for me. 

I hope you find it encouraging as well. If you want more info, you can visit BTF’s website at Bibletranslationfellowship.org

Thanks for listening!

My next guest is Rusty McKie who is a spiritual director, host of the Art of Stability podcast, founder of Steadfast Ministries, and the author of a book called Sabbaticals. He’s currently working on book also called The Art of Stability. 

This conversation was informative for me as I didn’t know much about spiritual direction. It was also refreshing as we discussed certain elements of the Christian experience to which I had not put much thought or articulation. Like how do we define or experience intimacy with God or rest? 

I didn’t even get to all my questions! But, there is only so much time; I hope you find this conversation as engaging as I did!

Thanks for listening!

https://www.steadfastmin.com/