Podcast appearances and mentions of Amber C Haines

In this episode, Amber C. Haines, Seth Haines and I talk about their latest book The Deep Down Things, which details the story of Amber's abuse in the church and her decision to step away. In the despair of loss, confusion, and disillusionment, a lifeline of hope was given. Seth and Amber give us practices and examples of what it looks like to find hope in the times of despair. We talk about calling out the truth of who people are, setting signs that can point to hope, attachment to Christ through adoration, the embodied power of the eucharist, and practicals like trail running and gardening. Join us as we find signs of hope when we are in the pit of despair. Amber C. Haines is the author of Wild in the Hollow: On Chasing Desire and Finding the Broken Way Home and The Mother Letters.   Seth Haines is the author of Coming Clean (winner of a Christianity Today Book Award of Merit) and The Book of Waking Up. Together with Tsh Oxenreider, he cohosts the podcast A Drink with a Friend.   Amber and Seth have experience speaking at conferences and events. They live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with their four boys.Amber & Seth's Book:The Deep Down ThingsSeth's Recommendation:Only Murders in the BuildingAmber's Recommendation:Demon Copperhead by Barbara KingsolverConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcastConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below.Support the show

This coming Sunday in the United States we celebrate Mother's Day. Eight years ago, I wrote a tribute to my writer-mom, reflecting on they way she modeled how to live the tension of being the mom she wanted to be while also being the writer she wanted to be. This tribute included family stories and my own memories and fun photos that helped me remember. To honor her publicly, I published it on my website, though I could have written it as a gift and presented it privately. Write Your Tribute It's not too late for you to write a tribute—a set of memories that celebrate and honor a mother in your life. This mother can be your biological or adopted mother or a grandmother. This mother might be your wife. Maybe your children are grown and you have a daughter or daughter-in-law who has herself become a mother. This mother can be a friend or a mother-figure—sometimes a Sunday school teacher, guidance counselor, aunt, or neighbor will fill that role for someone. Pick a mother you'd like to elevate, celebrate, and honor. Decide if you want to share it publicly and/or privately, then come up with a structure to write this tribute. Resources to Support and Inspire Your Process I'd like to suggest two resources that might help you, both of which—in full disclosure—are written or collected by friends of mine. The Mother Letters The first is The Mother Letters: Sharing the Laughter, Joy, Struggles, and Hope. This collection of short essays in the form of letters was compiled by Amber C. Haines and her husband, Seth Haines, who reached out to friends Amber knew online and in person asking them to send letters addressed to “Dear Mother.” Seth's plan was to collect them and present them all together as a surprise Christmas gift. So many letters poured in, Seth could barely manage all of them. But he did. He assembled and presented them to her that Christmas morning and Amber received a gift that spoke to her mama-life, as the letters, one after another after another, confessed, as she herself wrote, “how little any of us know and how precious it is to be right where we are and who we are” (The Mother Letters, 14). The letters were from mothers to a mother; tributes to motherhood itself, encouragement for a mother; they celebrated motherhood and the power of the letter form. Years later, Seth and Amber realized her Christmas gift held wisdom that could help many others, so they decided to pull a selection of the letters into a gift book. And that became The Mother Letters. I mention it not only because it's a lovely book and—full disclosure again—I confess I have a short essay included in the book. But I also mention it because the letter form is an excellent way to write a tribute. Consider writing your tribute as a letter. Pack it with memories and spotlight the strengths this mother in your life is known for—strengths she may need to hear spoken back to her. Everything That Makes You Mom The other resource that can help you collect memories, compose your thoughts, and structure your project is Everything That Makes Your Mom: A Bouquet of Memories, by Laura Lynn Brown. In this book, Laura offers prompts to draw out memories, often focusing on a topic or theme or time of year or type of memory. She includes brief vignettes—memories of her own mother—to serve as inspiration. She follows the vignette with questions which, as she writes in the introduction, “help to exercise your own memory muscles.” And this gift book leaves space to write out your memories directly on the pages, so that the book itself can be given to the mother you are honoring, if you wish. Write Your Tribute Today At the time of this writing, there's still time for you to write your tribute for Mother's Day. But if you're reading it later, write a tribute anyway. What mom wouldn't love to be celebrated in this way on Mother's Day or any day...memory by memory, by someone she loves who remembers her laughter, joy,

This coming Sunday in the United States we celebrate Mother’s Day. Eight years ago, I wrote a tribute to my writer-mom, reflecting on they way she modeled how to live the tension of being the mom she wanted to be while also being the writer she wanted to be. This tribute included family stories and my own memories and fun photos that helped me remember. To honor her publicly, I published it on my website, though I could have written it as a gift and presented it privately. Write Your Tribute It’s not too late for you to write a tribute—a set of memories that celebrate and honor a mother in your life. This mother can be your biological or adopted mother or a grandmother. This mother might be your wife. Maybe your children are grown and you have a daughter or daughter-in-law who has herself become a mother. This mother can be a friend or a mother-figure—sometimes a Sunday school teacher, guidance counselor, aunt, or neighbor will fill that role for someone. Pick a mother you’d like to elevate, celebrate, and honor. Decide if you want to share it publicly and/or privately, then come up with a structure to write this tribute. Resources to Support and Inspire Your Process I’d like to suggest two resources that might help you, both of which—in full disclosure—are written or collected by friends of mine. The Mother Letters The first is The Mother Letters: Sharing the Laughter, Joy, Struggles, and Hope. This collection of short essays in the form of letters was compiled by Amber C. Haines and her husband, Seth Haines, who reached out to friends Amber knew online and in person asking them to send letters addressed to “Dear Mother.” Seth's plan was to collect them and present them all together as a surprise Christmas gift. So many letters poured in, Seth could barely manage all of them. But he did. He assembled and presented them to her that Christmas morning and Amber received a gift that spoke to her mama-life, as the letters, one after another after another, confessed, as she herself wrote, “how little any of us know and how precious it is to be right where we are and who we are” (The Mother Letters, 14). The letters were from mothers to a mother; tributes to motherhood itself, encouragement for a mother; they celebrated motherhood and the power of the letter form. Years later, Seth and Amber realized her Christmas gift held wisdom that could help many others, so they decided to pull a selection of the letters into a gift book. And that became The Mother Letters. I mention it not only because it’s a lovely book and—full disclosure again—I confess I have a short essay included in the book. But I also mention it because the letter form is an excellent way to write a tribute. Consider writing your tribute as a letter. Pack it with memories and spotlight the strengths this mother in your life is known for—strengths she may need to hear spoken back to her. Everything That Makes You Mom The other resource that can help you collect memories, compose your thoughts, and structure your project is Everything That Makes Your Mom: A Bouquet of Memories, by Laura Lynn Brown. In this book, Laura offers prompts to draw out memories, often focusing on a topic or theme or time of year or type of memory. She includes brief vignettes—memories of her own mother—to serve as inspiration. She follows the vignette with questions which, as she writes in the introduction, “help to exercise your own memory muscles.” And this gift book leaves space to write out your memories directly on the pages, so that the book itself can be given to the mother you are honoring, if you wish. Write Your Tribute Today At the time of this writing, there’s still time for you to write your tribute for Mother’s Day. But if you’re reading it later, write a tribute anyway. What mom wouldn’t love to be celebrated in this way on Mother’s Day or any day...memory by memory, by someone she loves who remembers her laughter, joy,

My guest for Happy Hour #121 is Erin Loechner. Erin is the founder of Design for Mankind, and has been speaking and blogging for more than a decade. Her heartfelt writing and design work has been showcased in The New York Times, Lucky, Parenting, Dwell, Marie Claire, Elle Decor, Huffington Post, and a two-season HGTV.com web special, garnering more than one million fans worldwide. She has spoken for and appeared in renowned international events for clients such as Walt Disney World, IKEA, Martha Stewart and Home Depot. Now nestled in a Midwestern town, Erin, her husband, and their children strive for less in most areas except three: joy, grace, and goat cheese. If our conversation sounds like a personal counseling session, that's probably because it was. God has been doing a lot in my heart about where I find my approval, and my conversation with Erin was so timely and therapeutic. We talk about social media - the benefits, but also the pitfalls and dangers. We also chat about her upcoming book, Chasing Slow, and her thoughts and pursuits of a slower lifestyle. I read her book earlier this fall and highly recommend it. You can pre-order today for it's January 10 release. Y'all, let me just take a quick minute to say thank you so much for an incredible year. 2016 was a great year for The Happy Hour with more than 3 million downloads! I'm so thankful for you listening to the show, loving it and sharing it with your girlfriends. You make this show possible and I am so grateful. We have some exciting things planned for 2017, so make sure to stay tuned. Enjoy your New Year's, have a happy hour with a friend, and we'll see you on the other side! {You can listen to the showHERE. And of course, I would love if you would share with your friends. Just use the FB & Twitter links at the end of this post!} Links from the Show Erin's Book: Chasing Slow Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger + Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver + Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion + Blue Nights by Joan Didion + A Mile Wide by Brandon Hatmaker + She Reads Truth by Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams + Falling Free by Shannan Martin+ Wild in the Hollow by Amber C. Haines + Wild and Free by Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan + Rare Bird by Anna Whiston-Donaldson+ Eight Twenty Eight by Ian & Larissa Murphy What Erin is loving: Mrs. Meyer's Iowa Pine Candle, candied pecans, and her slippers Music from Jason Poe Connect with Erin Facebook // Twitter // Instagram Connect with Jamie Facebook // Twitter // Instagram Sponsors: Out of the Spin Cycle Out of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load by Jen Hatmaker helps moms step out of the ‘spin cycle’ of everyday life to sit down with Jesus every day. Following Jesus shouldn’t be just one more thing on our to-do list. Jen helps us understand, through 40 devotions, that creating space and time for focusing on our relationship with God is as important as making sure our kids eat breakfast or we get them to school on time. You can find this book online at amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. Africa New Life Africa New Life Ministries exists to help children escape the cycle of poverty in Rwanda. Key to this intervention is making sure children receive the food they need to succeed. Consistent, nutritious food is vital for children to not only have healthy bodies, but to also learn, grow, and thrive. Food is the first essential in establishing stability. For $.83 a meal, you can provide the gift of food this Christmas. Help release a child from poverty today at www.foodisrwanda.org

Part 2 - Three first-time authors share what they wish they'd known before they wrote their first books - HopeWriters Deidra Riggs, Mary Carver, and Amber C Haines.

Amber C. Haines shares her life story of desire, sin, sex, drugs, an abortion, an affair, and how she handled shame and found God in her most broken places. Amber's book: Wild in the Hollow: On Chasing Desire and Finding the Broken Way Home