Warrior Women - Help and Hope

There are times in each of our lives when we need someone ahead of us in the journey, someone we can turn to with questions, confusion, hurts, disappointments and even our tears. Sometimes we don't even know what to say or how to describe our feelings or we're too embarrassed to or ashamed to even reach out. 

In this inspirational Warrior Woman series, you will meet women who know what that feels like.

Featured
A Widow's Journey
A Widow's Journey

“So who am I now that there’s only one place at the table….one pillow with a head dent, one towel damp after a shower? There’s only one toothbrush in the holder. The seat is never left up anymore. I can still write…

Hope In The Midst Of Grief
Hope In The Midst Of Grief

In this wide-ranging interview, two mothers who have experienced the grief of losing their children transparently answers questions from how to push the question “why” through the grid of God’s love and sovereignty, to how to protect marriages assaulted by grief. Nancy’s loss of two children uniquely qualifies her to offer help and hope in sorrow’s darkest night.

Faith That Doesn't Quit
Faith That Doesn't Quit

Andrea Herzer, a woman well acquainted with long term debilitating health issues, having spent the last twenty years with multiple illnesses, including regional pain syndrome and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, joins read more…

Can You Just Sit With Me?
Can You Just Sit With Me?

Days, months, and years after the loss of her sister, Natasha Smith tried to hide the grief she carried. But the pandemic took away her ability to hide her sorrow and her five-year-old’s response to her unexpected tears gave her permission to grieve – not in a room by herself but with her https://markinc.org/help-and-hope/can-you-just-sit-with-me-with-natasha-smithread more…

Now I Lay Me Down to Fight - Breast Cancer
Now I Lay Me Down to Fight - Breast Cancer

When Clarissa Moll’s young husband, Rob, died unexpectedly, she soon realized she was at a crossroads. Would she walk toward hope or slide into hopelessness? In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Clarissa answers such questions as: 

Is there any way to prepare for such a tragedy? Are there stages for grief? What kind of work can grief do in our hearts that grows the fruit of the spirit? How is it helpful to “welcome” an emotion like fear – how does dissecting an emotion help us keep those emotions in check – or should we even try to keep them in check? What about regrets? Either for our own behavior or read more…

Hidden Wounds and Scars of Chronic Illness – Is There Hope?
Hidden Wounds and Scars of Chronic Illness – Is There Hope?

Roasann has experienced disappointment, pain, and loss – but her scars and wounds are not obvious – very much like many of you. Today Rosann lives with the kinds of chronic illness that many of you contend with – often alone in your struggles because they are not visible wounds or scars. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Rosann offers encouragement to fellow travelers, that though the pathway is often hard and you feel hopeless and helpless, there is a light in the darkness and purpose in the pain.

Breast Cancer - Faith Wears Pink
Breast Cancer - Faith Wears Pink

Christine Runge Weiss, Founder of Faith Wears Pink, an online support platform for women battling breast cancer, shares how she learned she had breast cancer at the age of forty-four. Her diagnosis followed wave after wave of personal crises. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, herself a breast cancer survivor, Christine offers hope and practical help to breast cancer warriors. One evening she realized she was helping over twenty women with their questions, fears, and the unknowns of their journeys. She decided they all needed a way to talk to each other so she started a “Breast Friends” Facebook page. She eventually changed the name to Faith Wears Pink and as of today over 1000 women have connected through this platform. Faith Wears Pink not only connects breast cancer warriors but also gives gifts to women read more…

Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture
Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture

There are many blessings that come with age: retirement, grandchildren, travel, and life experience. Today’s culture, however, marginalizes old age, often portraying it as burdensome and hopeless. Many older women read more…

Abortion Survivor
Abortion Survivor

In this poignant conversation Claire describes how her birth mother told her about the abortion, Claire’s response to the news, and how she is watching the Lord bring beauty from ashes as she shares her story across the country as a means of showing a real life baby is the victim of abortion.

An Unexpected Twist in Life
An Unexpected Twist in Life

When Erin Kauffman was 29 years old, the unthinkable happened.—a driver fell asleep at the wheel and at sixty miles per hour slammed head first into Erin’s car. In this conversation, Erin describes the devastation of realizing the bottom half of her body was crushed, the long rehab, and how this accident changed the direction of her life. Though Erin continues to struggle with long term pain and time consuming medical care, she offers hope to anyone in similar circumstances.

 

These are stories from the hearts of women engaged in warfare and they don't want anyone on the same battlefield to feel alone. Some of them battle publicly, many privately. 

None of these women see themselves as extraordinary. They don't consider themselves warriors. Yet each one had to make hard decisions when faced with unexpected calamity, pain inflicted by others, terrifying diagnoses, shattered dreams or consequences because of their own choices. These women ultimately chose life, to push their behavior through a worldview that requires dying to self when everything inside cries out for other pathways. When asked how they face the struggles of each day, they mention weapons that are similar. These Warrior Women are guides for those coming behind them. They are calling back that you can face fear, broken places, rejection, addiction, disease, loss that feels unbearable, grief, and other dark times with courage, determination, grit and hope. 

In the next few months we will be interviewing more women who have and are facing enormous life crises with courage, strength, and determination to experience all that God has for them in this life. Their stories will inspire listeners to "keep on keeping on" in their own life journeys.

As you are introduced to "new friends" through this series, we hope you will share these resources with friends and through social media. Take time to browse through the entire Help and Hope Audio Library where you will find numerous resources that address life crises that are often experienced in isolation.

Please let us know what impact these stories have on your life (markinc@markinc.org). Check back often for new stories (www.markinc.org). Better yet, SUBSCRIBE to the Help and Hope series podcast to be alerted every time we launch a new resource.

Do you know a Warrior Woman whose story needs to be told? What is your story? Please share those stories with me via markinc@markinc.org.

In His grip,
Sharon

Sharon Betters