Struggle Well School

Jessica Honegger is a pioneer. As founder and co-CEO of Noonday Collection, the world’s largest fair-trade jewelry company, she has created a new breed of social entrepreneurship that empowers women, connects cultures, and celebrates handmade beauty. Her path to award-winning business leader was anything but traditional: from serving as a midwife in Bolivia, to earning her Master’s degree in Education, to renovating and selling houses in Austin, Texas, Jessica has followed her heart down several paths, gaining once-in-a-lifetime experiences that all still guide her decisions today. A mom to three, she is also a passionate adoption advocate who initially launched Noonday Collection to help raise the needed funds to bring her and her husband’s third child home. Jessica shares her story, along with heartening encouragement, in her compelling new book, Imperfect Courage: Live a Life of Purpose by Leaving Comfort and Going Scared, available August 14, 2018.

Kelly Sites is a wife and mom to 19-year-old twins who she homeschooled all the way through high school. She has been a registered nurse for 20 years and has worked as an international disaster response nurse with Samaritan's Purse since 2010. She has deployed over 13 times to disasters around the world, including the Cholera outbreak in Haiti, tsunamis, earthquakes, and hurricanes.  She deployed twice to Liberia to care for Ebola patients, Iraq twice to work in a mobile field hospital outside of Mosul where they cared for trauma patients including ISIS soldiers. Most recently she was in Bangladesh for a diphtheria outbreak in a refugee camp filled with close to a million Rohingya refugees.

This girl is authentic. She is honest and not afraid to speak up about her struggles because she knows that's how others can know they are not alone. She's my kind of girl. You're going to love hearing her share her heart towards mothering in particular and life in general. I know I did!

Some of us are able to tell stories eloquently. Some of our stories have rough places that can seem too dark to overcome. My friend Amber's story is both; incredibly difficult AND beautifully told. She is a gifted storyteller with a story of forgiveness and grace that will knock your socks off. Or, since it's summer, maybe just knock your flip-flops across the room.

Jim and Lynne have worked in the trenches with parents of all kinds – single parents, adoptive parents, parents of teens, parents of kids with intense behavior challenges, parents in blended families, parents of wealth and parents in poverty, and any other kind of parent you can think of. In other words, they have a lot of experience!  You're going to get a lot out of this chat. Grab a pen and paper!

Loss, disappointment, and fear of the unknown have marked Ellie's journey of wrestling through and coming to firmly believe in God’s faithfulness. Her new album Red Sea Road is clearly written as an act of obedience to sing in the middle of the heartbreak.  I loved the heart behind this album so much I wanted to share Ellie with you guys today!

Brandi is a single mom who was just sure God wouldn't use her after she was divorced. She wanted to help people but kept being told her usefulness had ended. She believed it until she sold some cows on Facebook. You'll just have to listen to the rest to believe this amazing story!

In this life-changing episode we chat about vegetables, small-group struggles, and Rebecca's dirty fingernails.  There's also a moment where we thought she might be getting mugged but (spoiler alert) it was just a misunderstanding.  

This week we're reading John 5:1-9. Read along at Bible.com or download the free YouVersion Bible app.

Originally an East Coast native, Heather Creekmore is a church planter/pastor’s wife living in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas. Through her ministry, Compared to Who?, Heather speaks and writes to encourage Christian women who struggle with body image and comparison. Heather’s passion is seeing women set free from all that holds them back from finding their true purpose in Christ.