You've waited long enough! Join us in the PART 2 of one of the most fun episodes Katie and Julia have recorded this year! If you missed Part 1, go enjoy that first, and then come back for this episode, where Katie and Julia continue chatting with Katie's two nieces and her nephew about their poetry book and other fantastic books they or their family members have written.

There is a lot of joy in this episode, as well as a lot of genuine stories and depth. We unpack a little about what poetry is and the impact stories can have!

Links:⁠

In Sunshine or in Shadow: Poems for Every Season⁠⁠

SFC Poets Instagram⁠

Bethany's Books: ⁠The Land Beyond the Waste⁠ and ⁠The Ellyrian Code⁠⁠

Bethany's Website⁠

Anne's Book: ⁠From the Garden to the Grave: Walking in Eden⁠

Pat Daily (Matthew's Father-In-Law)'s Books: ⁠Spark⁠, ⁠Fire⁠, and ⁠Orcland⁠⁠

Pat Daily's Website⁠

Tom Flaherty's Book: ⁠One Thing: Daily Devotions to Inspire Intimacy

We see a lot of “joy” written and sung about during the holidays, and if there’s an episode filled with joy, it’s this one! What a JOYous time Katie and Julia had chatting it up with the Flaherty fam! (So much laughing!) 

Normally we have one guest, and occasionally we’ve had two guests, but never ever have we had three guest… until today! And what a fun gathering of guests! Katie’s nieces and nephew (Children of her brother Tom Flaherty who has been on several of our episodes) joined us from their trip in Mexico! 

Siblings: Anne, Bethany, Matthew and their sister Christina wrote a poetry book together, In Sunshine or in Shadow. And in this episode share a little bit about why and how this incredible book was written. There are poems from all seasons and for all seasons. They are so beautifully, and talentedly written; just dripping with relatable moments and well-thought out rhyming schemes. This family is jam-packed with talent. (Spoiler, they read some of their poetry in the episode!) Their hope is to encourage laughter through the tears, because we can be grateful for the love that carried us through the harder times in our lives. Poetry can be a tremendous vehicle for helping your heart heal.

And it gets better. Not only is their poetry book incredible, they (and some of their other family members) have written books for a variety of readers! 

This episode is SO much fun, but since there were FIVE of us chatting, we decided to cut it in half. So please enjoy PART 1 today, and look for PART 2 in a couple weeks!

Links:

⁠In Sunshine or in Shadow: Poems for Every Season⁠⁠

SFC Poets Instagram⁠

Bethany's Books: ⁠The Land Beyond the Waste⁠ and ⁠The Ellyrian Code⁠⁠

Bethany's Website⁠

Anne's Book: ⁠From the Garden to the Grave: Walking in Eden

⁠Pat Daily (Matthew's Father-In-Law)'s Books: ⁠Spark⁠, ⁠Fire⁠, and ⁠Orcland

⁠⁠Pat Daily's Website

⁠Tom Flaherty's Book: ⁠One Thing: Daily Devotions to Inspire Intimacy

Today’s episode is so fun! Join in on Katie and Julia, sipping their morning coffees and chatting about what some of their favorite books are, not only ones they’ve enjoyed but books they truly think would make fantastic Christmas presents for you and your loved ones! We also give you all a little sneak peak at what our next two Christmas Episodes will be… and they are full of another one of our favorite things: Family! 

There are so so many books listed in this episode (and stories too, of course!) So check out the links below if you’re looking for an easy find of one of the books that we mention in this episode: 

Devotional

My Utmost for His Highest

One Thing

Historical Fictions

Life is Hard. God is Good. Let’s Dance!

Demon Copperhead

The Chronicles of the Kings Collection

Thief of Corinth 

The Zion Chronicles

Mark of the Lion

The Nightingale 

Biographies

Greenlights

Finding Me

She Speaks Stories

King

Stories I Only Tell My Friends

Children’s Books

Love You Forever

Three Trees

Oh the Places You’ll Go

The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine

The Mysterious Benedict Society

There’s nothing wrong with adoring your family and wanting everyone to stay close and be happy. In fact, most mothers would agree that’s our hearts greatest desire. Jennifer shares with us what happens when you hold on that a little too tightly and how God brought her back to Him through lots of layers of hard, in a season of empty-nesting (Or “Extreme Empty-Nesting” as she calls it) during COVID. She walks in the mess of shame and blame during her crisis and discovers beautiful lessons because “God is not afraid of our big feelings.” She learned how to forgive, how to look to God for her source of identity and the importance of feeling heard. Because “When we feel heard we start to heel.” 

This episode is full of wisdom and perspective regardless of where you are at in your hard (We all have hard!) And how great of a feeling it is to release that control and free-fall into our Father’s arms, because He is with us, even when we don’t think so. 

Jennifer is an amazing gal to speak with! If you’re interested in connecting with her more check out these links to her current passions:

IG coaching page: https://www.instagram.com/mustard_seed_living/profilecard/?igsh=MWplN3c0MW05N2Y0cQ==

Email: [email protected] 

Zoe Freedom Center Website: www.ZoeFreedomCenter.org

Contact info: [email protected]

Four years ago, in 2020, Dana chatted with us on our podcast and we were thrilled to have her back on to share more about her story and the incredible things God has done in her life. Dana is full of wisdom and reminds us that “shame and guilt have no control anymore because God created us and HE gets to say what happens in our lives.” Nothing we do is a surprise. He uses the mess we make to use for others to hear about how amazing He is. It’s hard sometimes to push past the lies and the “deceptive evil” but God is so good and he replaced Dana’s desire for drugs with the desire to tell people about Him. 

Even if you don’t struggle with Dana’s struggles, she paints a picture of what it looks like to stop holding onto our sin and mistakes as our identity and instead hold onto who Jesus says we are! It takes a lifetime to get to redemption, so don’t give up, no matter where you are in your story. He’s got great things coming for you! 

Here are some links from Dana: 

Zoe Freedom Center: https://www.zoefreedomcenter.org/about

Dana’s Book: Desperate for a Fix https://a.co/d/1W9UYLS 

Susan’s Book: A Wanderer’s Journey: Part 1 https://a.co/d/7RJF5GJ

We love a good redemption story, and Melissa Huray’s story is a great one! As we wade through this season’s theme of addiction it’s important to us that we are chatting with authentic storytellers who want to share the truth of the hard and when and how they overcome it! Melissa shares her story, step by step, as she grew up and began to recognize the addiction in her life and what it took for her to say to Jesus, “I want to be done.” 

Oh and hey, if you enjoyed our chat with her today, we encourage you to check out her books (⁠Blackout to Blessings⁠ & ⁠Radical Freedom⁠) show (⁠The Hope Report⁠)  or ⁠website⁠ to hear more!

Join us this week as Katie and Julia chat about their summers! This summer She Speaks Stories had a NEW theme, where we dropped the "S" and had a summer filled with HEs! The He Speaks Stories Summer not only extended into our episodes but also our summer book club. The books we read over the summer were fantastic, so Julia and Katie share favorite parts and encourage all our listeners to get a copy:

1. The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers by Amy Hollingsworth (https://a.co/d/cRFSM5j)

2. Me, Myself & Bob by Phil Vischer (https://a.co/d/1lttBLJ)

3. A Burning in My Bones by Winn Collier (https://a.co/d/babNHTA)

After chatting about the FUN of their summer our lovely co-hosts shifted gears to what to expect from the She Speaks Stories podcast!

Today we have the pleasure of hearing from Lou Minichini! He was chatting with the lovely Katie Hawkins at their Sunday School get-together and shared his conversion story. Katie's response was “you HAVE to be on our podcast!” and we are SO thankful Lou agreed! 

His story walks us through how a New Jersey Italian Catholic found Jesus. How his upbringing grew from a traditional awareness of God to a life changing relationship with his Savoir. 

And after he found Christ, he talked about the importance of sharing the good news! The discussion that follows that: unpacking preferences vs principles in our faith, was so interesting and fun!

Our host Julia Sifers is head over heels in love with today’s guest, and that’s a good thing because he’s her husband! 

Yup, Nik Sifers’, Julia’s other-half, joins us today to share some perspective of the trust that develops for those of us “stuck on hard-mode.” Nik in his own sarcastic and thoughtful way walks us through a few examples of God’s specific care and direction in ways he was not expecting.

This episode helps us see that God will always provide, and it’s always good, but it’s rarely what we were expecting!

Are you tired? Just worn out? In this episode Tom breaks down the simple beauty of intimacy with God. It seems like a big feat, but it starts with desire and grows into something wonderful. 

Tom, Katie’s brother, has been on our podcast a few times before because he’s a great teacher, one of Katie’s best favorite brothers and he genuinely enjoys our podcast! So that works out nicely!

In this episode shares dreams he’s had and the transformation that came when the meaning of the dreams were revealed. 

It’s such a good perspective on the power of valuing the presence of God. 

Let’s get the ark back, let’s eat the spinach, let’s rest in the awesome power of his presence!