The Collide Podcast

Parenting is no joke. Whether you’re in the newborn, toddler, school-age, preteen, or teenage years, there are unique joys and challenges to be navigated. Loran and Staci Zenonian just celebrated 25 years of marriage and have 3 kids, so they certainly know what they’re talking about. In this episode of the podcast, Willow chats with the Zenonians about parenting together, adjusting to differences between children, and reflecting Jesus through your parenting.

Traditionally, Christmas is a time when we think more about serving others, volunteering in the community, and giving of ourselves. After all, we’re celebrating the birth of a King who came to show us what it looks like to serve in humility, grace, and sacrifice. Yet often, we get too caught up in our own traditions, families, and celebrations to be truly willing and available to seek the lost, lonely, broken, and impoverished. So today we invited Wendy Powell (Community Outreach Pastor at Christ the King Church) to come on the podcast to talk to us about what it looks like to bust out of our self-centeredness and make giving and serving a part of our Christmas, and our everyday life.

Family is almost always complicated. Whether yours is small, large, united, dispersed, chosen, young, or old, you’ve probably experienced both the joys and difficulties of being related to others. And there’s no time like Christmas, for both the happiest moments and the painful points. In this episode, we chat with Matt Atkins, who is currently the lead pastor of a missional community called Mosaic church and he is the Sr. Financial Advisor at Clearbrook Investment Management. Matt, and his wife Laura have been married for 38 years and have 5 children, 4 grandchildren, with #5 on the way. Being a father and grandfather is his greatest love and the most important part of his life and his way of relating to family as a follower of Jesus is as inspirational as can be.

Doug and Laurie Bunnell are an incredible couple full of wisdom, grace, and spirit. Doug is a Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham and Laurie is a Preschool Director at Kids Central Preschool - which is to say, they are both PEOPLE people and have incredible hearts to serve others. In this episode, the Bunnell’s vulnerably share about their experience with massive grief, and what it looks like to continue to have hope, especially during the Christmas season.

Tear Soup Book: https://griefwatch.com/collections/tear-soup-home

Beka Overby is a worship pastor, wife, and mama to two young boys. The Overby Family lives in SE Portland. Beka is passionate about adoption education and reform and is actively involved in ongoing adoption conversations and the creation of safe spaces for birth mothers to find support, healing and quality long term care. Her own story of ongoing healing and restoration is the driving force behind her advocacy. In this episode Beka vulnerably shares her story of cultivating a grateful spirit, even amidst immense pain and hardship.

In this episode, Willow interviews our very own staff member, Tanya Biersdorff. A few years ago, Tanya moved to the US from Canada, and has since experienced MANY transitions, including her newest transition into a role as Collide’s Content Coordinator. We get to learn from this wise woman on how to remain grounded, grateful, and searching for God’s big plan for our lives, even as we’re going through immense change.

Carrie Butler is an amazing young woman who works in bi-vocational ministry. Splitting her time between being the owner of Haven Interiors, which is a real estate staging company, and serving as the Campus Director at a local church called Christ the King Downtown, this woman makes waves in so many areas of her community, and is loved and known by so many. In this episode, we chat about finding gratitude when things don’t go as planned.

Are you needing resiliency now more than ever? In a pandemic, an election season, and the holidays, this could be a time where your mental health feels more fragile than normal. You're not alone.

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The guest in this special episode is Amber Cullum. Amber is a lover of connecting with people and learning the stories of God’s grace in their lives. This passion for peoples’ stories led her to start her podcast, Grace Enough. In our chat with Amber today we talked about the definition of grace, how comparison can actually be helpful, and the ways that God’s beauty can show up in our brokenness.

Here at Collide we are firm believers in giving women the space to share their story and be authentic. When a woman is brave enough to share her story, it emboldens other women to share theirs and as we share, we grow. Today’s guest, Aleia Gefre, has experienced some life changing collisions with Jesus at our conferences, through our counseling program, and now through giving back to help the programs she was blessed by. Aleia’s story of saying yes to healing after trauma is one that we pray will inspire hope in you.

Follow Willow: Website | Instagram | Facebook

💑Check out Collide’s website for info on upcoming conferences, events, and resources.

📲Follow Collide on Facebook and Instagram for encouragement, inspo and a fun peek into our ministry.

📰Plus, subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on all things Collide!