Podcast appearances and mentions of Crystal Lewis

In this episode of The Crosswalk Devotional, we address the common struggle of seeking answers when life’s challenges leave us questioning God’s plan. We’ve all had moments when we want to understand the “why” behind our circumstances. Together, we’ll explore biblical perspectives on doubt, the importance of trusting God even when we don’t have clarity, and how to find peace amidst uncertainty. Join us as we share stories of faith, encourage each other in our questions, and discover the transformative power of surrendering our need for answers to God. Join the Conversation: We’d love to hear from you! What questions have you brought to God in your life, and how have you found peace in the unknown? Share your experiences with us on social media @LifeaudioNetwork or via email. What challenges have you faced in trusting God without having all the answers?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Records_(record_label)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8-G6oGEWH8&list=PLPcTOx34g9XQ8LgRhpJRrkki_I7FBKoyG&index=2https://christiantapeunderground.wordpress.com/2018/04/27/level-heads-flirting-with-the-world/https://www.discogs.com/artist/2649989-Level-Headshttps://youtu.be/iUX6or66UtQ?si=ajWWsSit_KZGRWLShttps://youtu.be/4ZQR9WGuxZM?si=IE-HPZWgrYKc2deOhttps://youtu.be/1kN8evXWYUM?si=Gh0y49lF44jBXj7thttps://youtu.be/jafUe8JtKZI?si=_tv3sfskbtyGCtlPhttps://youtu.be/2J1g_4zIXug?si=EblGTWmOuheWwYnlhttps://youtu.be/nutsu8VFSRc?si=yf5WSXyOT-h3ik4Chttps://real80sccm.com/2020/05/07/lifters-self-titled-1983/

Interview with singer Crystal Lewis - The Culture News

Today, we're talking all about the recently-released Confession of Evangelical Conviction:-        What the confession is and what it says-        Why we signed it and got involved promoting it-        How the American church got to the point where a confession of very basic political theology like this is necessary-        And after that conversation, we talk the many layers of Christian nationalism involved in the debacle at Trump's recent trip to Arlington National CemeteryMentioned on the episode:-        The Confession of Evangelical Conviction, and the associated resources-        The video we produced to promote the confessionCredits-            Follow KTF Press on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Subscribe to get our bonus episodes and other benefits at KTFPress.com.-        Follow host Jonathan Walton on Facebook Instagram, and Threads.-        Follow host Sy Hoekstra on Mastodon.-        Our theme song is “Citizens” by Jon Guerra – listen to the whole song on Spotify.-        Our podcast art is by Robyn Burgess – follow her and see her other work on Instagram.-        Editing by Multitude Productions-        Transcripts by Joyce Ambale and Sy Hoekstra.-        Production by Sy Hoekstra and our incredible subscribersTranscriptIntroduction[An acoustic guitar softly plays six notes in a major scale, the first three ascending and the last three descending, with a keyboard pad playing the tonic in the background. Both fade out as Jonathan Walton says “This is a KTF Press podcast.”]Sy Hoekstra: When we first started doing this work and we published our anthology, we went on a couple of podcasts about it. A common thing that people asked of us at the time was, where do you think the White American church, where do you think the like 81 percent of the church, the White evangelical church that voted for Trump is going? And the first time I said it, I sort of surprised myself and I was like, look, it's being cut off the vine for not bearing good fruit and thrown in the fire. There's been a long time coming of a divorce, like a complete split between White evangelicals in America and followers of Jesus.[The song “Citizens” by Jon Guerra fades in. Lyrics: “I need to know there is justice/ That it will roll in abundance/ And that you're building a city/ Where we arrive as immigrants/ And you call us citizens/ And you welcome us as children home.” The song fades out.]Sy Hoekstra: Welcome to Shake the Dust, seeking Jesus, confronting injustice. I'm Sy Hoekstra.Jonathan Walton: And I'm Jonathan Walton.Sy Hoekstra: We have a great show for you today. We're doing something a little bit different. We are talking about a bit of a movement, a little, a confession that we have signed onto that we're a part of that we're producing some media around that you may have seen by the time this episode comes out. And it's a confession of sort of evangelical faithfulness to Jesus in a political context. And it is probably a little bit off the beaten path of kind of some of the political commentary that we normally engage in. And we wanted to talk to you about why we think it is a good and strategic thing for us to do during this season, give you some of our thinking behind how we kind of strategize politically and think about ourselves as part of a larger theological and political movement.So I think this will be a really good conversation. We're also gonna get into our Which Tab Is Still Open and talk to you about Christian nationalism and whiteness through the lens of Donald Trump doing absurd things at Arlington National Cemetery [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: But we will get into all of that in a moment. Before we do, Jonathan Walton.Jonathan Walton: Hey, remember, if you like what you hear and read from us at KTF Press and would like for it to continue beyond the election season, I need you to do two things. Go to KTFPress.com and become a paid subscriber. Now, you could also tell other people to do that as well if you've already done that. We've got a ways to go if we're going to have enough people to sustain the work, but we think it's valuable, and I hope you do too. So go to KTFPress.com, sign up, and that gets you all of the bonus episodes of this show, access to our monthly Zoom calls with the two of us and more. So again, KTFPress.com. Become a paid subscriber.What is the Evangelical Confession of Conviction, and Why Is KTF Involved?Sy Hoekstra: All right, Jonathan, let's get started in our conversation. We've signed onto this document called The Confession of Evangelical Conviction. We've produced some media around it. First of all, what is it and what does it say?Some Basic Political Theology That We Need to Restate at This Cultural Moment with UnityJonathan Walton: [laughs] Well, I think the question of what it is, it's words [Sy laughs]. Like there's these things that we put together, it's words. And I think the reason that it's powerful is because of when and how it's said. And so these are basic confessions that every Christian should believe, but it seems like the reason that we're doing it right now and that I've signed onto is because there are seasons when the discipleship and formation of the church needs to be plain and centered. And so being able to say, “I give allegiance to Christ alone,” and then have that be reverberated across denominations, across movements of quote- unquote, Christians around the country that are usually so disparate, they usually don't communicate, they usually disagree with each other in very public ways, to say, “Hey, hey, hey.”We need people to understand who don't follow Jesus, that when Gandhi said, “I like Christ, I don't like Christians,” that's part of the problem. We are part of that problem. Where we don't articulate what we know, what we believe, what we know to be true. I think this is an articulation of that, speaking particularly to a cultural and political and social moment that needs the clarity that Jesus can bring.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. So this is just to get into the weeds of it. It's a confession signed by I would say, the sort of extreme ends, at least to the people that we know about right now, I don't know who's gonna sign it in future, but center-right to more progressive left. And the basic confessions, like the seven statements of the confession are, “We give our allegiance to Jesus Christ alone. We will lead with love, not fear. We submit to the truth of Scripture. We believe the Gospel heals every worldly division. We are committed to the prophetic mission of the Church. We value every person as created in God's image.” And “We recognize godly leaders by their character.” So this is very basic theology [laughs] like you said. And you got a little bit at why it matters to put this out there, why we are involved. I agree with you. I think it's more about the context and it's also about who is saying it more than it is about the content.Because, and by the way, we should say we are giving you our reasons for signing this and why we think it's important. This is not… like there's a group of people that were involved in writing it, so there's lots of people involved who we don't know precisely why they signed [laughs] or precisely why the people who wrote it decided it was necessary. We're talking to you about our opinions. So to me, if you have something that says we pledge our allegiance to Christ alone, that's a rebuke of Christian nationalism to me.We judge godly leaders by their character, that's a rebuke of people who argue that Trump is a godly leader or a leader who has been appointed by God in some way or another. So those are important things to say. And it's with people across a pretty big spectrum of, as I said, the political range. Would Jonathan and I go a lot further than this if we said what we thought is important for political discipleship? Yes, we would, and you know that, because you've heard our other episodes. Or if you haven't, go listen to our other episodes [laughs]. We would go a lot further than that, yes. But we think, I think it's good to work with a broad range of people during a political campaign.Reaching a Broad Audience and Pushing the American Church to ChangeSy Hoekstra: Like I think when you're talking about discipleship at a moment when tensions are extremely high around theology and politics, it is good to do these kinds of things where you are trying to scale your efforts.Where you're trying to reach as many people as possible in the hopes that you will change some minds, both so that they will more faithfully follow Jesus, and in this specific context, so they won't vote for Donald Trump. That's one of my personal reasons for being involved in this [laughs]. And that's how you do campaigns in general. That's how campaigns operate. You try and call as many people as you can. You try and put commercials out there as widely as you can toward your targeted audience, whatever. Not in the hopes that the vast majority of the people who see it are going to suddenly be like, “Oh my goodness, I agree with everything you say,” but in the hopes that you'll reach enough of the people whose minds you can change to make a difference in their decision when it comes to November.You will reach them and you will start to be one of the people who affects their choices, is what I'm trying to say. So I don't know, that's kind of the strategy of it from my point of view. It is a similar way of thinking to me from the anthology. When we published the anthology four years ago, it was different because we were letting people say their own beliefs. And it was people from all over the spectrum kind of saying why they weren't voting for Trump in whatever way they saw fit [laughs], on whatever topic they saw fit. That was our approach. But this is the way some other people are going to do it, and we're gonna be happy to work with them in that way.Jonathan Walton: I think for me, I see the political strategy of it. I see the strategery that's happening, to use a word from SNL. My hope is that…Sy Hoekstra: From SNL 25 years ago [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yeah. My hope… [laughs]. It was such a great sketch. “Strategery,” it was so good. “I'm the decider” [Sy laughs]. So I think one of the things that stands out to me, particularly in reviewing it more and assign it and then come on board, is, I hope that this is a Belhar Confession type moment for the United States and followers of Jesus. Particularly, because when we look at the Dutch Reformed Church, the Dutch Reformed Church was the theological backbone and framework for apartheid in South Africa. They gave the covering for those things to happen. It gave theological and moral legitimacy to a movement that was oppressive, violent, exploitative, and un-Christian at every level. Because there are Christian leaders who are willing to say, “You know what? This is really good. This is actually right. This is good and just, and God intended this.” And we have the exact same type of nonsense happening in the United States.There are quote- unquote, prophets and apostles and preachers and teachers and publishing houses and Amazon independent book publishers rolling out materials that say, “America first.” America is the kingdom of God. America is the kingdom of heaven. America is this baptized land on the earth, as opposed to being a land that is rooted in land theft, genocide, violence, patriarchy, greed and exploitation. Which it is that. It's actually not the kingdom of God at all. And so I hope that this creates a groundswell that goes beyond November 5th and beyond January 20th. And could this be a pivot point of orientation for people who followed Jesus to say, “You know what? Actually Jesus didn't say any of that.” If all of these people, right, left, middle, above, otherwise are saying this, maybe I should consider. “Oh, Randall Balmer said that, and Mercy Aiken” [Sy laughs]? “Shane was there too? Alright. Shane is on the same page as Curtis Chang and Sandra Van Opstal? Alright, let me jump in and get on this.” That's what I hope happens, is that it becomes impossible to avoid the question of allegiance to Jesus, or allegiance to the United States. Just like in South Africa the question was, are you pledging allegiance to apartheid or are you gonna follow Jesus?Sy Hoekstra: I totally agree with that. And I would say that it is 100 percent in line with the sort of premise of this podcast, which is helping people shake the dust and walk away [laughs] from the places where the word of God is not accepted as Jesus put it. And you let your peace return to you and you move along on your way.Jonathan Walton: Yes.How Did We Get to the Point Where This Confession Is Necessary?Sy Hoekstra: So let's actually talk about that thing that you were just saying. The thing where all these people from these different walks of life are coming together to make this specific statement at this time. How did we get here, aside from the obvious thing that Donald Trump is very good at uniting people who oppose him [laughter]. How did we get to this point in the church in America?Jonathan Walton: I think we need to narrow the scope a little bit.Sy Hoekstra: Okay.Jonathan Walton: Of how we got to this point, I think I would start at Acts 2 [laughter]. But, and then the church and then the alliance with the empire to escape persecution. Constantinople like Nicea, I mean…Sy Hoekstra: Let's focus on America.Jonathan Walton: Yeah, let's focus on the United States.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs] Zoom in a little bit.The Moral Majority Took Us Very Far down a Path Away from JesusJonathan Walton: I think that one of the pivot points in the United States is 2008 in the ascendance of Barack Obama. With Barack Obama, you have what was roiling and starting with Al Gore, but like can Christians vote for Democrats and still be Christians? Because with the ascendance of the moral majority, with what Randall Balmer talks about this coalescing around abortion as a position, and then the policies laid out by Jerry Falwell. And there was a conference in 1979 in Houston. Lots of organizations came out of that gathering. And so when those types of things occur, I think we are living in the wake of that wave, but that wave wasn't really challenged until 2008 when many, many, many, many people said, “Oh, I wanna vote for Barack Obama.”And so with the ascendance of Obama, then the question particularly among the Black community from evangelical Christians is like, can you be a Christian and vote for Obama? And that was talked about extensively in Tamice's book, Faith Unleavened, which is amazing. And that scene that she describes of the dissonance between the White evangelical church that she was sitting in, and the conversation she was having with her grandma on the phone, who she called Momma.Sy Hoekstra: Where her family was having a party because Obama had been elected and her White church was having a mournful prayer service.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. I think a lament session basically, for the United States being now overtaken by a demonic force. And so I think if we start there and move forward, like if this was a ray coming from a point, then the line actually starts to diverge from there, from the center point. And now we are actually so far apart that it's very, very difficult to justify what's happening. So if we're at our end points right now, we have followers of Jesus legitimizing sexual violence by saying Trump is fine. You have followers of Jesus legitimizing fraud, saying that that's fine. You have followers of Jesus legitimizing insurrection, saying that's fine. We are way, way down the road and very far apart from these basic confessions.And so I think people that are co-opted and indoctrinated by Fox News and the conservative White evangelical and conservative Catholic and conservative… because there's a smattering of Christian movements that have so aligned themselves with political power that it is very apparent even to non-Christians, that this is not Christ-like. And so I think for us, similar to the church in South Africa, to say, “Hey, we need to just make very plain every person is made in the image of God, and you shouldn't enslave, violate and steal from people.”If we could articulate that and do that, and have a movement around that, then I think that is how we got here, is that basic tenets of following Jesus have stayed the same, but forces, institutional, the powers, the principalities, and also people who chose to align themselves with that have taken the ball and run so far down the road that even people who don't follow Jesus and folks who just have basic biblical engagement are seeing that this is just not the way. And so I think followers of Jesus across the spectrum are starting to say, “You know what? This is a moment that we can actually speak into.”The White Evangelical ChurchA Divorce between White Evangelicals and Followers of JesusSy Hoekstra: Yeah, I agree with all that. I think, I mean, look, when we first started doing this work and we published our anthology, we went on a couple of podcasts about it. A common thing that people asked of us at the time was, where do you think the American church, where do you think the like 81 percent of the church, the White evangelical church that voted for Trump is going?” And the first time I said it, I sort of surprised myself, but I was like, “Look, it's being cut off the vine for not bearing good fruit and thrown in the fire.” That's it. There's been a long time coming of a divorce, like a complete split, I think, between White evangelicals in America and followers of Jesus.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: White evangelicals have had a whole long history of being involved in, as you said, in the exact same way that the Dutch Reformed Church was involved in apartheid, just being involved in everything. Every [laughs] terrible thing America's ever done, we've been there cheering it on and supporting it in all kinds of ways. And I think a lot of what Trump in particular, and it's sometimes a little bit hard to put my finger on why it was him, but Trump in particular, I think highlighted to a lot of Christians who viewed themselves as kind of like just nice, gentle, center right Christians who were a part of a larger movement where maybe there were some people who were a little bit off the deep end, but overall, these institutions and these people are trying to accomplish good things in the world and follow Jesus faithfully, realized that that wasn't the case.I think there are a lot of people who realized that they actually had opinions about what it meant to follow Jesus that were dramatically different than the average person in their institutions, or the average evangelical Republican.Policy Debates for White Evangelicals Have Been a Cover for Power HungerSy Hoekstra: Peter Wehner, I think would be one of these people, who writes for the New York Times. He was a George W. Bush speech writer. He recently wrote an article saying, “Look, Donald Trump has explicitly said that if you took one of these super restrictive state abortion bans and you passed it in Congress and you put it on my desk, I would veto it. I would not pass a national abortion ban.”Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: Which for the pro-life movement, that's the end goal. That would be [laughs], that would be the thing they've been fighting for for decades [Jonathan laughs]. And he has said, “I will not sign this.” And do you hear anything about that from Franklin Graham [laughs]?Jonathan Walton: So Al Mohler was on the Run-Up of the New York Times this week, when you listen to this probably like two weeks ago, talking about how, “Hey, Donald Trump just said he's not gonna sign a national abortion ban. What's your position on that?” And his position hasn't changed, because again, it is framed as you all are the radical people, not us. We are the victims, not you. There's a constant revision of reality that they are gonna continue to turn out and communicate that is rooted in fear and a lust for power and control and dominance. And that is toxic as all get-out, and obviously un-Christian.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, that was the end of my point, was that a thing that people have been arguing for a long time, which is that, this focus on abortion, this focus on prayer in school, or this focus on whatever the evangelical issue of the day is, has in fact been about power from the perspective of the leaders.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: Maybe not the rank -in-file people like marching and the March for Life or whatever.Jonathan Walton: Exactly.Sy Hoekstra: But the leaders are after power, and they always have been. That's what, if you go back a couple years to our episode with Mako Nagasawa, the first episode of season two where we talked about abortion. That's what his whole book is about, is the history of abortion policy and how it's almost never been about abortion. It's almost always been about something else like anti-immigrant sentiment or professionalizing the medical profession or whatever. It's always been about some other issue of people trying to establish themselves and gain power over somebody else. That's what I think a lot of people are realizing, and so a lot of people who are, I think more to the right in the group of people who have signed this document that we have are on that journey, like are in the middle of it.Or not in the middle of it, but they've been going on it for a few years and they've been rejected by who they thought were their people for saying things like, “Hey, should we maybe adhere a little more closely to the teachings of Jesus?” [laughs] And now they're saying, okay, they've gotten to a point where they're like, “I need to draw a line in the sand. I need to make something clear here.” And that I think is different. That is genuinely different than eight years ago when everybody was, a lot of people in the middle were just kind of waffling.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. Yeah, right.Sy Hoekstra: Were not really sure what to do yet. And they still viewed the people on the far right who were all in for Trump as possibly a minority on their side, or possibly just something like a phase people were going through. Something that would flare up and then die, and it just didn't turn out that way. I think that's kind of how I view a lot of how we got to the place that we are now.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: Again, zoomed in on America and not looking at the entirety of church history, which is where you wanted to go [laughter].Jonathan Walton: Yeah. And I mean, and I'll name some of the people that are key to that. So, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, like her book Jesus and John Wayne, Jemar Tisby's book, The Color of Compromise. And we could also throw in some Christianity adjacent, but loved by them books as well. So like all of the quote- unquote, anti-racist books, where people who are trying to leave the race-based, class-based, gender-based environmental hierarchy that White evangelicalism enforces, like I wrote about that in Twelve Lies as an explicit book. But you could say that Ibram X. Kendi's book is trying to get away from that. That White Fragility is trying to get away from that. That all of these books pushing back against [laughs], what now is called like Trad Wife and all these different things, it's trying to push back against these things. They're trying to call people to another reality because the one that some people have found themselves in is deeply unhelpful and not Christian.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. I feel like that's been like you're refrain of this podcast. “And also, not Christian” [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Not Christian. Right.Sy Hoekstra: And not Jesus.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: Do we have any other thoughts on this subject, or do we want to jump into our segment?Jonathan Walton: I just think people should go sign it.Sy Hoekstra: Oh, yeah.Jonathan Walton: And there's a fun bible study there that [laughs] we talked about two weeks ago on the podcast and spread the word about it. I think it's gonna be a good thing.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, the link to the website, the people who organized it, Jonathan said, “Hey, you can put the Bible study that we talked about in our last episode up, if you want a place for people to go to scripture on these subjects.” And they did.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: So that's cool. We will have the link to the confession in the show notes, as well as the link to the video that we created, which has a bunch of the signers of the confession reading parts of it, which we would love it if you would all share as widely as possible on your social media, and share the confession as well. We hope that this, as I said, changes somebody's hearts and minds, has some good effect on some people both in their discipleship and in their politics, which is what we're all about.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. Amen. There's actually a worship album that came out too. So along with Phil Vischer's cartoons for kids that can be shown in churches, there's a Return to Love album by a bunch of folks that you all may know like Will Matthews, Crystal Lewis, Ryan Edgar. These are folks that have led worship in great places that the evangelical world has followed for a long time. And so having worship leaders willing to call us out as well is pretty great. Along with Phil Vischer, because these videos will definitely be great for kids.Sy Hoekstra: Is that worship album already out?Jonathan Walton: Yeah, it's out right now [laughs]. You could click on it.Sy Hoekstra: I don't know how they did that that fast. That's incredible [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Hey man, listen. There's a thing called the Holy Spirit.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs].Jonathan Walton: And I think we all know that when Jesus moves, Jesus can do some things.Which Tab Is Still Open?: Trump at ArlingtonJonathan Walton: And so let's get into our segment, Which Tab Is Still Open?, where we dive a little deeper into one of our recommendations from the newsletter. And remember, you can get our newsletter for free by signing up for the mailing list at KTFPress.com. You'll get recommendations on articles, podcasts, and other media from both of us on things that will help you in your political education and discipleship. Plus, you'll get reflections to keep you grounded and hopeful as we engage in this challenging work together. News about KTF and what's going on, and a lot more. So go get that free subscription and a paid one too. Alright. So this is your recommendation, so let's jump into it.Sy Hoekstra: This actually has a lot to do with what we were just talking about.Jonathan Walton: Yes, it does.Sy Hoekstra: This is all about Christian Nationalism [laughter]. And Trump kind of stepping in it when it comes to dealing with his Christian Nationalist followers. So here's the story, and the article that I recommended in the newsletter was actually, it both gave the details of the story, but it was actually for me, an example of kind of the thing that I was critiquing [laughs]. It was an Atlantic article, and basically the facts of what happened are as follows. Trump went to Arlington National Cemetery, which if you don't know, is I just learned the second, not actually the largest, the second largest national cemetery in the country.Jonathan Walton: Oh. Huh.Sy Hoekstra: The largest one's on Long Island, Jonathan, I had no idea.Jonathan Walton: What!Sy Hoekstra: [laughs] Yeah.Jonathan Walton: [laughs] I did not know that.Sy Hoekstra: So the people who are buried in Arlington are soldiers who served in active duty. Some of them died, some of them were retired and passed away later. And then like very high ranking government officials, like Supreme Court justices or presidents or whatever. So Trump went and visited a specific spot that had I think 13 soldiers who died during the evacuation of Afghanistan when there was a suicide bomb attack from the Taliban.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: And he did this basically to highlight Biden administration screw ups. You didn't handle this evacuation well. And so because Harris is part of the administration, he's criticizing his opponent. And he went and took some pictures, which is fine, but he then was like specifically taking pictures in this area and like narrating a video talking about Biden screw ups and everything. And an employee of the cemetery pointed out correctly that campaign activities are illegal under federal law [laughs] at Arlington National Cemetery. And they kept going anyways. And they got in a little bit of an argument with her, and then later to the press said that she is mentally ill and was having a mental health crisis in that moment, and that she needed to be fired.And, fortunately the cemeteries said, “No, that's all a lie, and she was correctly telling you that you shouldn't have been doing what you were doing and et cetera.”Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: But there were a number of people, and I don't know if this is a majority or anything like that, but there were actually some Trump supporters who viewed this as a violation, like something that Trump really shouldn't have done. He was being disrespectful to the dead, the troops who were there, by doing partisan stuff at the National cemetery. It was not necessarily about the things that he was saying, but just by conducting yourself in a way that you're not supposed to conduct yourself at a national cemetery.Sy's Experience with Arlington and it's Strong Christian NationalismSo here's my in for this. I have a very long history of military [laughs] service in my family. Somebody in my family went on Ancestry.com one time, and I have a direct ancestor who was a drummer boy in the Continental Army with George Washington [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Oh, wow.Sy Hoekstra: And somebody who enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. And my great-grandfather was in World War II in Korea, grandfather was in Vietnam. And my grandfather who was in Vietnam, he died when I was about 10. My grandmother remarried a very highly decorated army colonel also from Vietnam, who he passed away and we had a funeral for him at Arlington. And Arlington does like 20, 30 funerals a day. So if you're a rank-in-file soldier, it's like a very, it's an in and out thing [laughs]. But because of either his rank or his awards or both [laughs], it was an event, Jonathan. It was like, we had the bigger, more beautiful chapel, and then we had a procession, because I can't see, I can't tell you how many it was, but at the very least, dozens of soldiers with a commanding officer taking his casket from the church to the burial site, there was a 21-gun salute. There was the presentation of the flag with the shell cases from the 21-gun salute to my grandmother. It was a big thing.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: And if you've been to Arlington, you know that one of the key messages there is that the people who served America and the army served the kingdom of God, served Jesus. That is what they did. They served, and they may have died serving heaven [laughs] effectively. And so what that means is this is one of the holiest sites for Christian nationalism. This is one of the places where you go to be reassured with some of the highest level, like some of the world's greatest pomp and circumstance. The world's most convincing showing of pageantry and religious activity that the United States Army and the people who died serving it are also serving God, which is, you can't get more Christian nationalist than that.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: Which is also why we have talked about Christian nationalism, actually far more common than people think it is [laughs]. It is absolutely normal in how we talk about the military. So what I think happened here with Trump is that because what I believe about Trump is that he's a conman to the core. He is pure... he's like self-interest incarnate [laughs]. He is out to promote Donald Trump and nothing more, and nobody more than that.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: I think he forgot that his self-interest can actually diverge from Christian nationalism [laughs]. I think that he forgot that he can step on his people's toes in a way that he doesn't want to. And he's basically going to look out for where those things diverge in future in order to not have this happen again. Because he's just there doing what he does, which is promoting himself anytime, anywhere at all costs. And he forgot that one of the things that he harnesses, which is Christian nationalism, is not actually something that he believes in, and so he can misfire [laughs]. The irony to me is that I want to gain enough power to do anything and not be held accountable for it to better myself in my own position, is a pretty good summary of how kind of the operating principle of the US military in our foreign policy has been for so long.So it's actually, it's like [laughs], it's two entities, a former president and the US military kind of clashing in their basically excuse making for their own unaccountability and their own sin. Which is how I view the Christian nationalism of a place like Arlington. What I just said Jonathan, is [laughs] blasphemy to a [laughs] lot of the people that I probably, to some people that I know personally. So I will just acknowledge that. But that is what I believe, and I think is true to the Bible. So hopefully you can at least give me that credit [Jonathan laughs]. Jonathan, boy, did I just talk for a long time. I'm sorry. I actually had in the outline that I wanted to ask you first what your thoughts were before I went on my rant, and I just couldn't help myself. So, [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Well, Sy, I mean…Sy Hoekstra: Jonathan, what are your thoughts?Jonathan Walton: I think one, I just appreciated the explanation of the closeness, why it's still open for you. Because I think when I was writing Twelve Lies, I wrote about the military, and I wanted to say, “Oh, they're only going to these types of communities to get people.” That would've been my hypothesis or was my hypothesis, but the research proved different.Sy Hoekstra: And when you say that, you specifically mean exploiting like poor Black and Brown neighborhoods?Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: You're saying like, “We'll get you into college, we'll give you benefits, et cetera, if you come fight and die for us.”Jonathan Walton: Exactly. And so…Sy Hoekstra: Potentially die for us.Jonathan Walton: Right, there's this exchange that's gonna happen for your body. Whether alive or dead, there will be benefits and resources for you or your loved ones. And so I went in with that lens, but what my research showed me was that the majority of people who serve in the military are family. Their parents were in it, their grandparents were in it, their cousin was in it. It's actually like only about two percent of the United States population is affiliated with the military. We're recruiting from the same groups of people. And this would also be true for law enforcement. People who were in it essentially raise their children and bless and send them into it as well as most often. It's not actually about income.The income, if I remember correctly, was between 50 to 70 thousand dollars a year in a household, which in a rural area is at the time, 10 years ago, felt like a living wage. And so that reality was also something that's interesting for me. So when Trump came out against Mark Milley, when Mark Milley challenged him to say, “Hey, you will not use me, quote- unquote, the military, as a prop in your racism, standing in front of St. John's church holding that Bible up,” which was literally the distorted cover of our book, our anthology, because these things were happening. When he insulted John McCain, that was a moment where the military and I think those who are beholden to Christian nationalism tried to speak up. Tried to say, “Hey, we won't do this.” But then the ball continued down the road.I don't know what the fallout of the Arlington stuff will be, but I do know based on Up First the NPR podcast this morning in the morning that we're recording September the seventh, they said the military and the employees actually let this go. But the reason they brought it back up was because Trump got on Truth Social , used platform and stature to say, “This did not happen. There was no altercation. This person had a mental health episode.” And when you go into that, that's where I think the, “We will not be disrespected” thing kind of came up. Like what do you mean? No, we're gonna talk about this and we're gonna name that. You will not desecrate this holy site. Holy in holy site of Christian nationalism, as you were saying.So I hope that there are more people that are offended, because I think that if we allow ourselves to be offended, to be bothered, to be uncomfortable, then maybe there will be some movement. Because I think you're absolutely right. He is, you said self-interest incarnate. I think that is a great quote [laughs].Trump Cheapened the Spiritual Cost People Pay to Be in the MilitaryJonathan Walton: What's painful to me, so I too have, my father was in Vietnam. My brother was in the Navy, my uncle was in the Army. My other uncles were in Vietnam. And Brodnax, the town where I'm from, has many gravestones from Vietnam and Korea. And so what is fascinating to me is the level of belief that you have to have to commit acts of atrocity or commit acts of violence. Like Shane Claiborne would say, we were not made to kill people, you have to be taught to do that.And I am in no way condemning a soldier or a person who's in military service, who's listening. That's not what I'm saying. I'm observing, it costs us something to do these things. And I think the thing that Trump did was cheapen the cost that many, many, many thousands of people have paid for something that they thought was a collective interest blessed by God when Trump said, “No, you are a pawn in my game. And I will use you for my benefit.” Now you again, you will have people that say that's what's happening anyway. Trump is just doing in like what everybody else does behind closed doors. But I think that tension that he articulates or brings up for us, I hope it's allowed to rise to the surface, and then we can have a conversation about the cost.Like the silent war in the military right now is that even soldiers who have not seen active duty are committing suicide. I hope it brings to the surface the, like my dad, Agent Orange ruined some of his life. They're still figuring out what the effects of that were. You have people who are saying they support troops in one hand, but then voting against resources and benefits for them in the other hand, when the legislation comes up. Lauren Boebert did that yesterday. I hope that the perceived belovedness of our veterans and military versus the reality of how they're exploited and taken advantage of and dismissed and cast aside, we would actually acknowledge that and then do real work to ensure that they don't end up on the street.They don't end up stuck on painkillers. They do get the medical resources they need. They do get the mental health support that they need. Their families do get the resources that they need on and off-base and not just a discount at the PX. If that could be the conversation because of this, then I'd be very glad.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. Just one more thing you said there. You said lots of people use the military as pawns and it's true. Or like props for their campaigns. It is just another one of those things about Trump where he will just do what everybody else did, but he'll turn it up to 11 [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yeah, no, yeah. It's true.Sy Hoekstra: Everybody else, every politician, if they have a military background, if their family does, if they can visit a military site or whatever, they do it all the time. And even if their love for the military or for America is real, it is also true that they use them for their campaigns [laughs]. Use them to prop up. That has been… since we elected George Washington, the general of the Continental Army, has been true [laughter]. Right?Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: So Trump is just the one who says, “Whatever your rules of decorum are, I'm going to break them.” And in most cases, that is actually his appeal. “Yes. I break rules of decorum and there's no consequences. And that's because these elitist can't tell me what to do and we need to take back power.Jonathan Walton: Oh Lord have mercy, Jesus [laughs].Sy Hoekstra: You need someone like me who can just break through all this nonsense.” You know what I mean?Jonathan Walton: Right. Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: That's usually his appeal. And in this case, it just happened to be that he crossed the wrong line for some people. I'm sure there's a lot of people who probably don't care [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Right. It may not wrangle a lot of people, but I hope it wrangles the right people.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: And him stretching out this poop that he stepped on and not wiping it off his foot and continue his campaign, I hope that roils people. He is a disrespectful person.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: And for Christians, literally James chapter four, it's that God opposes the proud. We are called to be humble people, and so I pray for Trump. I pray for his family. Not that he would win an election and all those things, but literally that they would come to know Jesus. Literally that they would know the freedom in him. Literally, that they would be able to experience the freedom that money cannot purchase and privilege cannot provide for you. And so I say all these things in hopes that everyone who is watching what happens is disquieted because we should not be comfortable with what's happening. Especially as followers of Jesus [laughs].Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. Amen to that Jonathan. Amen.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: I think we'll wrap it up there. Just as a reminder, as we finish, please again, go to KTFPress.com, get that newsletter and sign up as a paid subscriber to support everything that we do. We're centering and elevating marginalized voices. We're helping people seek Jesus in their discipleship and in their politics. We really do need some more support than we have right now if we're gonna make this sustainable kind of past this election season. So please do come and sign up as a paid subscriber at KTFPress.com. Our theme song is “Citizens” by Jon Guerra. Our podcast Art is by Robyn Burgess, transcripts by Joyce Ambale, editing by Multitude Productions. I am the producer along with our lovely paid subscribers. Thank you so much for joining us, and we will see you in two weeks.[The song “Citizens” by Jon Guerra fades in. Lyrics: “I need to know there is justice/ That it will roll in abundance/ And that you're building a city/ Where we arrive as immigrants/ And you call us citizens/ And you welcome us as children home.” The song fades out.]Jonathan Walton: Give me one second. One moment. I'm gonna get the name right so that you don't have to go edit this later [Sy laughs]. … So yes, we… Robert Mohler. The—Richard Mohler. Al Mohler. That's his name [Sy laughs]. Al Mohler [laughs]. It says R dot Albert Mohler. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ktfpress.com/subscribe

This episode is a conversation with my dear friend, sister in Christ, and partner in the ministry of the Word for women at our church. Stef Dowd shares how engaging the Word of God impacted her life and helped her discover that the Lord was calling her to serve Him as a Bible teacher. She also provides practical tips that will help you engage the Word at any age or stage, as she is learning to navigate through a new season in her life. Her insight and transparency is sure to equip and encourage you. To God be the glory! The Bible Recap: https://www.thebiblerecap.com Echo Prayer App: https://www.echoprayer.com Beauty for Ashes by Crystal Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDhlTzbyFRo

About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.   About Guest: LaToryla Jones The dream began many years ago when God spoke to Spencer about providing a creative atmosphere where people can relax and enjoy finding Jesus. Then God added other pieces to the dream, and to Spencer's life, when he met his lovely wife La Toryla. That's when the vision began to explode. Spencer and LaToryla Jones, founder & Creator of Flames of Passion Women's Event, love God and love people. This dynamic team seeks God to effectively engage culture by providing power-packed, life-changing experiences in entertainment productions, life resources, speaking events, and trainings. Over the years Spencer and La Toryla have spent countless hours serving in Church Leadership in various formal capacities, and volunteering whenever and wherever possible. They believe God has prepared them in this moment to step out and fulfill their God-given dream called "Jireh's Joint"   Flames of Passion Women's Event  "The Return" September 7, 2024

Experience Whitefish Gallery Nights with captivating exhibits by Pamela Caughey and Rachel Rollins, then join Glacier Queer Alliance for lively Pride Month events. Enjoy live jazz at the Daily Inter Lake's Press Play concert and explore a pop-up market at Kalispell Center Mall. Finally, don't miss Crystal Lewis' performance at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center. Featured events this week:Thursday, June 6th - Whitefish Gallery NightsPride month with Glacier Queer AllianceFriday, June 7th - Press Play with Barrel Stove ComboJune 8th and 9th Kalispell Weekend MarketSaturday, June 8th - “On the Stage” with Crystal LewisJune 21st and 22nd - Food Truck Festival To see all local event listings, please visit dailyinterlake.com/events. Want to include your event? It's free! You can ticket and promote your events with Daily Inter Lake, click here to learn more.Subscribe to all our pods! Stay in the know with timely updates from News Now, keep up with northwest Montana sports on Keeping Score, dig into stories with Deep Dive, and keep grooving to local artists with Press Play. Visit DailyInterLake.com to stay up-to-date with the latest breaking news from the Flathead Valley and beyond. Support local journalism and subscribe to us! Watch this podcast and more on our YouTube Channel. Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Got a news tip, want to place an ad, or sponsor this podcast? Contact us!

Welcome back to the house that is Round! This time we are picking two episodes and pitting them up against each other to see which of them is the better of the two. Special guest Trisha Haywood is returning along with new guest judge Jill St. John. You know if we're talking Roundhouse we've got to have someone from the show with us. Back with us is Mark David to share with us some stories of both episodes. Which episode will rise victorious? Join us in the under construction studio to find out. Show some love to Crystal Lewis: https://linktr.ee/thecrystallewis Make sure to check out Mark David on an episode of 'We Baby Bears' on Max. Get your tickets to SplatCon. Use code attack10 for 10% off / attack25 for $25 off hotel https://www.splatcon.com/tickets Unlock Bonus Content on Patreon Shop at our Splat Attack Merch Store Email Us: SplatAttack2021@gmail.com   YouTube: Splat Attack! Podcast Instagram: @SplatAttackPodcast Please leave us a review in your podcast app! 

Brent Henderson is a nationwide speaker, published author, professional outdoorsman, John Maxwell certified life coach, ordained pastor, national recording artist, and the Executive Director of Unleashed.Men. He's toured with Dove and Grammy Award winning artists including Steven Curtis Chapman, Sandi Patti, Avalon, and Crystal Lewis. Brent is an in demand speaker and has been featured at hundreds of outreach events including the Billy Graham Crusade and Promise Keepers. Brent also speaks at men's retreats, wild game dinners, men's conference's, schools, and in churches all around the world. Brent understands what makes men tick, how to capture and hold their attention, and how to move men to action. His transformational message has moved over 13,000 men to receive Christ in just the past decade alone. Brent's hard to top guy stories and powerful message will guide you through the wilderness, equip you to overcome the harsh realities of the unseen with overwhelming force, and awaken the roar within. https://unleashed.men TOPICS: LIFE SENTENCE  MY ADVICE TO A MAN WHO BECOMES A NEW CHRISTIAN IS…. THE THING THAT MAKES MY MINISTRY FOR MEN UNIQUE IS…. THE COMMON MISCONCEPTION ABOUT MEEKNESS AND SERVANT LEADERSHIP IS …. MEN IN A RUT COLLECTIVELY ARE WE STAGNANT OR IN A RUT? REASON MEN LOSE PURPOSE? TIME IN YOUR LIFE: WHAT WORKED? DEFEAT DEPRESSION UNLEASHED CHRISTIAN MEN AS WHOLE TOO MUCH LAMB? RE-IGNITE THE LION WITHIN? FEEDBACK FROM PODCAST? NEEDS OF MEN TODAY?

Night of Joy, Kingdom Bound, Fish Fest, Explo '72, Creation Festival, Cornerstone, Soulfest. So many. And so many acts from Larry Norman and Johnny Cash to Jars of Clay, Crystal Lewis, DeGarmo and Key, Jennifer Knapp... You all sent us hilarious and heartwarming stories. Such a fun episode to record. Don't forget to follow I Was A Teenage Fundamentalist podcast! Keep in Touch with our Free newsletter. Episode tithes and offerings can be dropped here. ❤️ Please Rate and Review. It means so much! Thank you. Book and other recs here. We have a P.O. Box! Deconversion Therapy 188 Front St. STE 116-79 Franklin, TN 37064 Find us on Instagram, TikTok, and our secret den on Facebook. And, finally, send us your true, funny stories for us to read on the podcast.  

Brent Alan Henderson is a nationwide speaker, published author, professional outdoorsman, John Maxwell certified life coach, ordained pastor, national recording artist, and the Executive Director of Unleashed.Men. He's toured with Dove and Grammy Award winning artists including Steven Curtis Chapman, Sandi Patti, Avalon, and Crystal Lewis. Brent is an in demand speaker and has been featured at hundreds of outreach events including the Billy Graham Crusade and Promise Keepers.  Brent also speaks more than 50 times per year for men's retreats, wild game dinners, men's conference's, schools, and in churches all around the world. Brent understands what makes men tick, how to capture and hold their attention, and how to move men to action. His transformational message has moved over 13,000 men to receive Christ in just the past decade alone. Brent's hard to top guy stories and powerful message will guide you through the wilderness, equip you to overcome the harsh realities of the unseen with overwhelming force, and awaken the roar within. www.unleashedmen.com  www.nukemhunting.com  www.taurususa.com www.cva.com www.citrusafe.com www.birddogcoffeebeans.com www.christianoutdoors.org  

About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.  

Guest, Sophia Strother Lewis Sophia is first and foremost a survivor and overcomer. She is also an entrepreneur, community advocate, and an inspirational speaker. Her goal is to empower others who are victims of domestic, sexual abuse and trafficking. She doesn't just want to help those who survive it, she wants to help to put an end to it. She does this by engaging with all level of survivors – the ones who witness the abuse, the ones who are abused, and the ones who are affected by a generation of abuse. She takes it a step further and shares her story and engages with those who have perpetrated abuse, in the hope they will be inspired to change their behaviors.  This is the true form of breaking the cycle of abuse.  She has spoken to audiences of all ages and in various settings. Sophia is a doctoral candidate at Liberty University focusing on Public Policy - diving into the intersectionality of race and sexual trauma. She holds an MBA in Marketing and BSBA in Business Management from American International College. She is the CEO of L2E Industries, Trustworthy Consulting and Learning to Exhale Restoration Strategies. She's certified as a Crisis Intervention Specialist, Mental Health First Aid Responder, and Advocate. Simply put Sophia is a survivor thriving, restoration strategist, national advocate, and inspirational speaker. About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.  

Guest: Sherelle Reed: D.I.R.T. Tour - Sat, Sept. 30, 2023 Abilene Christian University Sherelle Alexander Reed is a wife, mother, author, life coach, motivator and “Sister next door” who is called to Ministry of the Encouragement and Empowerment of others. Sherelle loves people and is dedicated to making a deliberate and intentional positive impact through her spoken messages and community initiatives. Her love of people and community impact stems from an appreciation for all of the advice and assistance she received from others during her life and she looks for opportunities to pay it forward. Sherelle is the Founder and Visionary of a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization called FIND YOUR RESILIENCE INC which is a movement that empowers females to Learn from their Past, Live Today and Pursue Purpose! ​ Sherelle is a retired corporate instructor. She can be found impacting lives through her various speaking engagements, coaching programs and her social media posts and videos.  Her brand is “THE BLOOMING AFFECT” where she teaches and coaches on how to overcome life's adversity and show up as your Best Self on the road from Present to Purpose. Sherelle is excited to launch her new podcast called “The Blooming Affect Convos”, Effectively impacting the world on the journey from Present to Purpose. ​ As you can see, Sherelle has devoted her life to the encouragement and empowerment of others as she firmly believes that her life would be much different had it not been for the personal impact she received from others. Sherelle is strong in her faith and understands that she is still standing as a direct result of the Grace and Mercy of an Almighty GOD!!! While she is no stranger adversity, Sherelle has learned that all experiences are necessary for one's Purpose! She encourages others not to forsake their process in life because the journey will build character and a personal testimony. ​ Sherelle says, “I'm just a Girl who LOVES GOD and as a result of that LOVE I am GOD's Girl! About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.  

Today's Guest: Brent Henderson.  Brent is an in-demand speaker, author, professional outdoorsman, John Maxwell certied life coach, ordained pastor, and recording artist. Brent's also the founder and Executive Director of Unleashed.men. He's toured with Dove and Grammy Award-winning artists including Steven Curtis Chapman, Sandi Patti, Avalon, and Crystal Lewis. Brent has been featured at hundreds of outreach and equipping events, including the Billy Graham Crusade, Promise Keepers, and Iron Sharpens Iron. He also speaks more than sixty times a year for men's retreats, wild game dinners, men's conferences, discipleship training, and in schools and churches all around the world. Brent's latest book, The Roar Within, was released by Revell (a division of Baker Publishing Group) on May 11, 2021, and has quickly been gaining the attention of radio and TV stations coast to coast.Here is a description of Brent's latest book taken from Barnes & Noble's website. “Every boy has dreams of the man he will become--exploring the world, fighting the enemy, and being dangerous for good. He imagines himself as the hero, the expert, the one others look up to. Then somewhere along the way, the lies of the enemy knock him down, his dreams are shattered, and he loses purpose as the enemy attempts to rob him of his true identity. In this hard-hitting book, world-class hunter, pastor, adventurer, and popular speaker Brent Henderson takes you on a journey to some of the most dangerous and deadly places on earth. Along the way, he helps each of us discover that the most powerful force in the universe can be found in our spirit, where God resides. He shows us how to recover what's been lost by answering our biggest questions: Who am I really? Where does my value come from? and Am I enough? The Roar Within will set you free and equip you to live lives of purpose, courage, and condence.” Producer note: Extremely sorry to our guest and listeners that we had to cut off the closing thoughts due to time constraints. Sincere thanks to today's guest host, our ministry and co-founder Lee Dudek. Lee hosts our local KING'S MEN FELLOWSHIP bible study, Tuesdays inside our ministry building.

About Guest, Licensed Professional Counselor, Patricia McGrew Patricia is an advocate for mental health, especially in communities of color. She believes in helping women re-think what it means to be a strong, Black woman. She encourages individuals to be whole: emotionally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. She emphatically believes it's ok to love the Lord AND have a therapist! newpathwaystx.com patricia@npctx.com 682-422-4479, Patricia McGrew   About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.   About Co-Host LaToryla Jones: The dream began many years ago when God spoke to Spencer about providing a creative atmosphere where people can relax and enjoy finding Jesus. Then God added other pieces to the dream, and to Spencer's life, when he met his lovely wife La Toryla. That's when the vision began to explode. Spencer and LaToryla Jones, founder & Creator of Flames of Passion Women's Event, love God and love people. This dynamic team seeks God to effectively engage culture by providing power-packed, life-changing experiences in entertainment productions, life resources, speaking events, and trainings. Over the years Spencer and La Toryla have spent countless hours serving in Church Leadership in various formal capacities, and volunteering whenever and wherever possible. They believe God has prepared them in this moment to step out and fulfill their God-given dream called "Jireh's Joint"   About Love Ministries: Love Ministries  

About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.   About Co-Host LaToryla Jones: The dream began many years ago when God spoke to Spencer about providing a creative atmosphere where people can relax and enjoy finding Jesus. Then God added other pieces to the dream, and to Spencer's life, when he met his lovely wife La Toryla. That's when the vision began to explode. Spencer and LaToryla Jones, founder & Creator of Flames of Passion Women's Event, love God and love people. This dynamic team seeks God to effectively engage culture by providing power-packed, life-changing experiences in entertainment productions, life resources, speaking events, and trainings. Over the years Spencer and La Toryla have spent countless hours serving in Church Leadership in various formal capacities, and volunteering whenever and wherever possible. They believe God has prepared them in this moment to step out and fulfill their God-given dream called "Jireh's Joint"   About Love Ministries: Love Ministries  

About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Kimberly McConnell: Adored Sistahs A native born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, who was eventually uprooted to South Bend, Indiana with her family, when entering high school. Kimberly Blake has two published books, “The Strength in The Life of An Ex-Military Wife”, and “Adored Sistahs and Young Sistah Power Book” which is a devotional for young ladies and older women alike that uplifts, and empowers young ladies, and women all over the world. Having experienced a variety of life's lessons in womanhood, and motherhood of two thriving young adults, she has found her purpose in paying it forward. Through her writing, inspiring, and sharing her walk with Christ, which is the best relationship she's ever had, her goal is to simply show that we can remind ourselves of our own worth, love on each other genuinely and be phenomenal without competition because God made room for each one of us. Through her organization, Kim reaches the masses with truth, information, and the love she's found within herself. She has not only discovered how self-love impacts and opens so many doors regarding the treatment of others and treatments received, but self-stewardship over the gifts, talents, and heart that God created in her from the very beginning. She also has products reflecting her personally created logo on to dwell in the lives of our Sistahs to remind us of the unity that exits if we just tap into it. We are stronger together than alone. If she can place the smallest glimpse of what a renewed mindset can do in a person's life, then she has achieved what she has set out to do, to prove that anything is possible if you believe. She is currently working on her third book and lives in San Antonio, Texas. Follow her on social media: Facebook: AdoredSistahsandYoungSistahPower Instagram: Kimblake50 Find her products on: www.etsy.com/shop/AdoredSistahs About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.  

Tony started his professional career in the music industry in 1980 at the age of 16 years old. Playing drums since the age of 3 Tony had been pounding on his dad's 1948 Radio King drum set that was a fixture in the basement of his Queens, NY home! Not only was Tony's dad a professional musician but his grandfather and his great grandfather back in Italy were as well.  It seems that music was Tony's destiny. With so many musicians in the family, Tony's listening palette was broad and wide! Opera and Big band jazz were the main stays on the turntables back then. As was the Beatles, Bee Gee's, James Taylor and all the pop artists of the day. One influential film Tony remembers was “The Glenn Miller Story”. In the story “Glenn” is searching for that “sound”. Tony's Mom would often refer to this, as Tony would come up from the basement looking for that “sound” on his drums - bewildered as to how the drums sounded so big and fat on the records. The quest was on for the “Holiest of Grails” a great drum sound!  As time passed, Tony went on to work in the Studio and Live concerts with the likes of Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Carrie Underwood, Ramone, Diane Warren, Keith Thomas, Kip Winger, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Broening, Amy Grant, Donna Summer, Roberta Flack, Paul Taylor, Discrete Drums Loop Series, Toby Mac, Cindy Bradley, Jay Soto, Stephanie Smith, Ayeisha Woods, Rebecca Saint James, Britt Nicole, Stevie B, Sweet Sensation, Kathy Troccoli, Regie Hamm, Crystal Lewis, Avalon, John Elefante, Van Zandt and on.  His career has taken him from NYC to LA to his current residence in Franklin, TN. (A quaint city 14 miles outside of Music Row in downtown Nashville.) Tony is a successful session drummer and producer in Nashville. After years of touring, he had the good fortune to get into the session scene in town. The scene was healthy but still changing. Session work was going through some severe changes due to budgets and technical changes.  After an encounter with LA session musician J.R Robinson, Tony was convinced that the future of tracking was going to be done in the home. Now for a gtr track or vocal overdub maybe so, but drums? Here we go again searching for that “sound” in a 25 x 25 Garage built for storing cars and gardening equipment not killer drum sounds. With much investigation and a great builder with vision, they turned the Garage and Utility room into what now is one of the busiest drum tracking rooms in town.  For 8 years now Tony Morra has been tracking drums for demos, custom records, indie projects. Sounds about right, but NO! There's more!( Billy Mayes moment) Tony is tracking drums for Masters, Television, Film, Loop Libraries you hear on TV and on radio everyday. Tony is one of the leaders in home recording through the Internet since it was possible to do so! He has been a beta tester for many online programs that make it easier to do sessions in real time. What was thought to be a little drum room for some extra work has turned into a livelihood. Tony's clients span the world! These sessions are done at his home with the sounds rivaling those done in the largest and most expensive studios.  A big part of Tony's career was happening when he thought he had no career! In between gigs and tours in NY when work was lean, Tony would find work as an assistant engineer at jingle studios for jingle writer friends of his. He would also get to play live drums for them from time to time, but this was when the industry was moving to drum machines and loops. These experiences, which he took for granted in that he was just “collecting a check when gigs were slow”, gave him a wealth of knowledge of the recording industry and working with midi and sequencers. Mind you this is before Pro Tools! All editing was done with a razor and a prayer. Oh and he knows how to align a tape machine!  That knowledge has paid huge dividends in that beyond being an accomplished musician, he is an accomplished tracking engineer. Still Tony will bring in Top Nashville engineers to help dial in new sounds and experiment with gear.  His room is outfitted with the best gear there is, Daking, API, GML, Avalon, Neve EQ's, DBX 160's, Distressors, Telefunken Pre's, vintage Orbans and so on! The mics are no joke; Neumann U47, AKG's, Audio Technica, KM 184's, modified Ribbons.........and a ProTools HDX system.  It's a new world and a new frontier in recording. Tony's embracing it! Using what's available to make the finest quality Drum Tracks available for those who might never have been able to afford to do so and for those where budget is not even a concern.  Some Things That Came Up:  -3:00 Italian Family Legacy  -7:00 Music was in the family blood.  -10:30 Sitting in with Margaret Manning.  -11:45 Compliments to Tony's drumming Dad  -13:45 George Lawerence now has Tony's Dad's Big Band Charts  -14:50 Playing drums while Mom did housework -18:30 Worked at The Modern Drum Shop in NYC and studying with Joe Cusatis -19:50 The Ted Reed Book and The Bellson Book  -20:00 Cusatis Method: Play any rhythm with the right hand and fill in the triplets with the left.  -24:05 The lost art of teaching swing  -27:00 Trying to impress music teacher at private school  -29:45 Auditioning for Queens College  -30:10 Danny Gottlieb, Rod Morgenstein in the neighborhood  -31:55 Tympani Tuning Incident  -35:00 Driving vans for a zipper company  -36:00 Drinking Grappa with Marco Soccoli -38:00 Hanging with world class drummers at Manny's Music  -38:30 Drum Programming inspired by Sammy Merendino  -39:00 Wedding bands in NYC were a right of passage  -40:33 Intern for “The Jingle Queen of NY” at age 23, learning engineering, MIDI  -43:00 Incorporating clicks and loops. The early days  -47:00 Getting the gig with SWEET SENSATION  -48:00 Playing with The Shirelles, The Platters, The Coasters as well as singer songwriters like Lisa Loeb at The Bitter End. Playing with Dee Dee Ramone at CBGB's.  -50:00 Living next to John Gotti, the prevalence of drugs in the neighborhood.  -52:00 Moving to Nashville in 1997 and meeting Tony at a Virgil Donati clinic.  -53:50 The California Connection  -55:40 Living at Dianne Warren's house.  -1:00 Temptations vs. Spiritually Aided Faith -1:01 Working with Kathy Troccoli -1:06 Chatting with John Robinson -1:08 MD. Hiring Musicians. CCM World. Paul Chapman -1:11 Genesis of creating The Downtown Batterie -1:19 The FAST Five! Rush, Pink Floyd, Journey… -1:20 Music and Sports analogies    Follow:  www.downtownbatterie.com Twitter: @TonyMorra4 IG: @ajmorra

About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About author, Rachel Ann Ridge Rachel Ridge picked up a paintbrush at age 35 and became a professional artist, wrote the first of six books and started a speaking career at 50, and became a life coach/creativity coach at 56. She believes it is never too late to pursue your dreams, and loves helping people do just that. Founder of Ridgeline Creative Co., Rachel provides keynotes, workshops, retreats, and resources to individuals and groups seeking to foster creativity, problem-solving, and support through transformational art and creative practice. Creators, business owners, writers, collaborators, teams, and leaders can all benefit from the inspirational work she brings to audiences and participants. Aided by a stray donkey who arrived on her doorstep and never left, Rachel boot-strapped her art and design business through the Great Recession, all while raising a family and honing her story-telling craft. As an author and speaker, she delights audiences with humor and insight; as a creative coach she helps clients discover their passions, find their creative niches, and launch whole-hearted businesses. Mom to three adult children, and now two rescue donkeys. Nana to five.  About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.  

About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.  

The Bow Tie Guy is flying solo this week coming at you from beautiful Hilo! Listen in as he discusses his latest book that was just completed and should be on shelves in a matter of weeks. Our song of the week is from Crystal Lewis. To financially support the show you can text the word "MuM" to 760-WALLS-CA (925-5722).

About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.   

About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.    About Co-Host LaToryla Jones: The dream began many years ago when God spoke to Spencer about providing a creative atmosphere where people can relax and enjoy finding Jesus. Then God added other pieces to the dream, and to Spencer's life, when he met his lovely wife La Toryla. That's when the vision began to explode. Spencer and LaToryla Jones, founder & Creator of Flames of Passion Women's Event, love God and love people. This dynamic team seeks God to effectively engage culture by providing power-packed, life-changing experiences in entertainment productions, life resources, speaking events, and trainings. Over the years Spencer and La Toryla have spent countless hours serving in Church Leadership in various formal capacities, and volunteering whenever and wherever possible. They believe God has prepared them in this moment to step out and fulfill their God-given dream called "Jireh's Joint"    

About Courtney Kelly: Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Courtney grew up wanting to be a veterinarian - until Hurricane Katrina changed the course of her life. After attending numerous engineering and math camps, she left Louisiana to pursue degrees in civil engineering and mathematics at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas.   She began a career in construction project management of heavy civil infrastructure projects that has included work at DFW International and Love Field Airports, highways, and local municipalities. Courtney went on to obtain a master's degree in civil engineering with a concentration in structures from SMU and a master's degree in business at Lamar University in Beaumont, TX. She is also a licensed professional engineer in the state of Texas.  ​ In her spare time, Courtney serves on the board for SOSMC USA, a nonprofit raising funds to renovate three buildings on the campus of a school for low-income disabled children in Chennai, India. She enjoys traveling, attending arts events, discovering new music, watching Korean dramas, and spending time with her fluffy bunny, Albus. About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.     

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/jennifermonetcowley/ BIOGRAPHY Jennifer Monet Cowley has been painting and drawing since the age of 5. Her talent was recognized at an early age through her artwork collected by her parents and grandparents. In high school, she studied fashion design and commercial art. Upon entering college, she focused on architectural design, but her love for art prevailed. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art in Art and Performance from the University of Texas at Dallas. Jennifer works in various mediums: colored pencils, pastels, gouache, acrylic, watercolors, and collage. Jennifer also designs and paints wearable art. In addition to being an artist, she is a curator as well. While employed as Curator at Dallas' African-American Museum at Fair Park, Jennifer curated several groundbreaking art exhibitions. Sammetria Goodson, an attorney and advocate for the arts, has remarked that Jennifer's curating concepts are groundbreaking and rival some of the best in the world. Overall, Jennifer is an artist whose versatility and skills empower her to create distinctive works and concepts that give her a unique style and voice that is all her own. ARTIST STATEMENT Jennifer's artwork is full of color and symbolism. She feels that color and composition play a very important role in expressing the meaning of a particular piece. She also feels that craftsmanship is key in the presentation of her artwork. Jennifer works to ensure that lively color and craftsmanship show in each of her pieces so that each piece of art has special appeal to the viewer. A majority of the imagery that Jennifer depicts in her works of art focuses primary on women, black women in particular dealing with objectification, being devalued, joy, women's rights among other things. Jennifer also enjoys historical story telling through her art. About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.     

About Anna Ocansey-Jimenez: Anna Ocansey-Jimenez is a C-level accounting and finance professional and entrepreneur with nearly 30 years' experience transforming the operations of both non-profit organizations and large global brands.   An expert in streamlining operations and creating transparency in reporting, Anna has led organizations through transition and growth in multiple executive roles. Most recently, she served as Chief Accounting Officer at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, where she helped the institution navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, she served as VP of Finance for the Tenement Museum, also in New York. Previous employers included IBM, Fox News, and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.    In 2018, along with friend and business partner Oneida Franco, Anna co-founded The Whole Kitchen, Inc. (TWK) — a company that creates meaningful experiences around a shared appreciation for food, sustainability, culture, and introspection. On October 1, 2021, National Coffee Day, the pair launched Casa Dos Chicas Café (CDCC), a brand of TWK. CDCC offers organic, single-origin, specialty coffees sourced mainly from Latin America. The company's goal and mission are to celebrate Latin American heritage whilepromoting equitable, sustainable practices along the entire coffee supply chain.   Anna and her twin brother were born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Mexican parents. Shortly afterward, the family relocated to Ligonier, Indiana, where Anna spent her childhood. The first in her family to attend and graduate from a university, Anna completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Oral Roberts University School of Business in 1997. She later enrolled in the Becker CPA study course and passed all four parts of the New York State Certified Public Accounting exam.   Anna is married to Christopher Ocansey, a Ghanaian American, and they have three children together: Joshua, Cristiana, and Olivia.  About Oneida Franco: A multi-faceted entrepreneur and finance expert, Oneida Franco blends 25+ years of finance and accounting experience and education with a deep understanding of the needs of small-to-midsize business owners. After two decades in the corporate and non-profit worlds, Oneida's entrepreneurship journey began in 2017 when she found herself helping a growing number of friends and acquaintances with their finance questions. Recognizing a lack of practical guidance and tools, Oneida launched Franco  Blueprint (FB)  — an accounting and business management firm with the mission to up-level the businesses of artists, content creators and entrepreneurs. Often, individuals with brilliant ideas are looking to start their business and diversify themselves relying on different tools to get their business up and running as well as trying to understand the finance and operational side. That's where Oneida saw Franco Blueprint as the solution - a one-stop service and support system for business owners tuned into the frequency of creation and abundance. Shortly afterward, Oneida's partner Rick Diaz came on board as CFO, bringing an additional 25+ years of experience and expanding FB's roster to include financial real estate development and construction accounting. In 2018, Oneida and business partner Anna Ocansey co-founded The Whole Kitchen, Inc. (TWK) — a business that creates meaningful experiences around a shared appreciation for food, sustainability, culture, and introspection. The pair launched Casa Dos Chicas Café (CDCC), a brand of TWK, in October 2021. CDCC offers organic, single-origin, specialty coffees sourced mainly from Latin America. The company's goal and mission are to celebrate Latin American heritage while promoting equitable, sustainable practices along the entire coffee supply chain. Born and raised in New York with Dominican roots, Oneida puts family at the center of things and stays closely connected to her heritage. Along with her family, she founded Fundación Generaciones Sanas (FUNGESA), a non-profit organization committed to providing youth with ongoing educational opportunities and sustainability programs. Recent FUNGESA projects include the reopening of the library at Antonio L. Batista School in Oneida's family hometown of Sabana del Puerto, Bonao. Oneida is the second oldest of five siblings and mother to 19-year-old Nina, who is almost off to college. About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.    About Co-Host LaToryla Jones: The dream began many years ago when God spoke to Spencer about providing a creative atmosphere where people can relax and enjoy finding Jesus. Then God added other pieces to the dream, and to Spencer's life, when he met his lovely wife La Toryla. That's when the vision began to explode. Spencer and LaToryla Jones, founder & Creator of Flames of Passion Women's Event, love God and love people. This dynamic team seeks God to effectively engage culture by providing power-packed, life-changing experiences in entertainment productions, life resources, speaking events, and trainings. Over the years Spencer and La Toryla have spent countless hours serving in Church Leadership in various formal capacities, and volunteering whenever and wherever possible. They believe God has prepared them in this moment to step out and fulfill their God-given dream called "Jireh's Joint"

Metal health awareness and open talk about addiction within the celebrity circle, as well as the LGBTRQ circle, has only come to the forefront in the last few years. With COVID being a major player in the progression of depression and addiction, we are now sharing our stories. Entertainer Ty Herndon shared last year's relapse publicly, in hopes that others would learn from his journey. He has become empowered by getting back on his sober journey with new music and a podcast. On this episode, we chat about Ty's relapse, setting boundaries, what keeps him going, his relationship with religion, coming out as bipolar, his sober creative process, other LGBTQ trailblazers in country music, his personal mantra, life after coming out, his proudest moment of his career, his wish for the LGBTQ community, and, on a lighter note, getting back into the dating world….with host Alexander Rodriguez. Country music artist Ty Herndon burst onto the scene and made his chart debut in 1995 with "What Mattered Most," which became his first No. 1 song and garnered a Song of the Year award. It was also the title track to his first album, which debuted on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart and had the biggest first-week shipment in the history of Epic Records Nashville. Between 1995 and 2002, Herndon charted 17 singles. In 2014, Herndon became the first major male country artist to publicly come out as gay in an exclusive with People magazine. He received an outpouring of support that only strengthened his relationship with fans and the country music community, expanding his reach to new and diverse audiences. Shortly after, he made history when he hosted a first-of-its-kind country music event, The Concert for Love and Acceptance, now an annual event that provides a stage for LGBTQ and allied artists. In 2020, he created the Foundation For Love & Acceptance to further his work on behalf of LGBTQ youth. Herndon found himself back at No. 1 in 2020 — this time on iTunes with his remake of "Orphans of God," a collaboration with Kristin Chenoweth and Paul Cardall featured on his holiday release, Regifted. Over the last year, he has been working on the new album, JACOB, his first of all-new music since 2016's House On Fire. In addition to his own foundation, Herndon lends his time and talent to MusiCares, which has supported Herndon through his struggles and supports those in the music industry with a safety net of services. Most recently, Ty launched a new podcast titled SOUNDBOARD. The long-form podcast features conversations with high-profile artists discussing their struggles and wins along their mental fitness journeys - guests include LeAnn Rimes, Michael Ray, Crystal Lewis, and more! Check out Ty's cover interview for Metrosource on newsstands around the nation or at Metrosource.com

About Anna Ocansey-Jimenez: Anna Ocansey-Jimenez is a C-level accounting and finance professional and entrepreneur with nearly 30 years' experience transforming the operations of both non-profit organizations and large global brands.   An expert in streamlining operations and creating transparency in reporting, Anna has led organizations through transition and growth in multiple executive roles. Most recently, she served as Chief Accounting Officer at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, where she helped the institution navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, she served as VP of Finance for the Tenement Museum, also in New York. Previous employers included IBM, Fox News, and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.    In 2018, along with friend and business partner Oneida Franco, Anna co-founded The Whole Kitchen, Inc. (TWK) — a company that creates meaningful experiences around a shared appreciation for food, sustainability, culture, and introspection. On October 1, 2021, National Coffee Day, the pair launched Casa Dos Chicas Café (CDCC), a brand of TWK. CDCC offers organic, single-origin, specialty coffees sourced mainly from Latin America. The company's goal and mission are to celebrate Latin American heritage whilepromoting equitable, sustainable practices along the entire coffee supply chain.   Anna and her twin brother were born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Mexican parents. Shortly afterward, the family relocated to Ligonier, Indiana, where Anna spent her childhood. The first in her family to attend and graduate from a university, Anna completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Oral Roberts University School of Business in 1997. She later enrolled in the Becker CPA study course and passed all four parts of the New York State Certified Public Accounting exam.   Anna is married to Christopher Ocansey, a Ghanaian American, and they have three children together: Joshua, Cristiana, and Olivia.  About Oneida Franco: A multi-faceted entrepreneur and finance expert, Oneida Franco blends 25+ years of finance and accounting experience and education with a deep understanding of the needs of small-to-midsize business owners. After two decades in the corporate and non-profit worlds, Oneida's entrepreneurship journey began in 2017 when she found herself helping a growing number of friends and acquaintances with their finance questions. Recognizing a lack of practical guidance and tools, Oneida launched Franco  Blueprint (FB)  — an accounting and business management firm with the mission to up-level the businesses of artists, content creators and entrepreneurs. Often, individuals with brilliant ideas are looking to start their business and diversify themselves relying on different tools to get their business up and running as well as trying to understand the finance and operational side. That's where Oneida saw Franco Blueprint as the solution - a one-stop service and support system for business owners tuned into the frequency of creation and abundance. Shortly afterward, Oneida's partner Rick Diaz came on board as CFO, bringing an additional 25+ years of experience and expanding FB's roster to include financial real estate development and construction accounting. In 2018, Oneida and business partner Anna Ocansey co-founded The Whole Kitchen, Inc. (TWK) — a business that creates meaningful experiences around a shared appreciation for food, sustainability, culture, and introspection. The pair launched Casa Dos Chicas Café (CDCC), a brand of TWK, in October 2021. CDCC offers organic, single-origin, specialty coffees sourced mainly from Latin America. The company's goal and mission are to celebrate Latin American heritage while promoting equitable, sustainable practices along the entire coffee supply chain. Born and raised in New York with Dominican roots, Oneida puts family at the center of things and stays closely connected to her heritage. Along with her family, she founded Fundación Generaciones Sanas (FUNGESA), a non-profit organization committed to providing youth with ongoing educational opportunities and sustainability programs. Recent FUNGESA projects include the reopening of the library at Antonio L. Batista School in Oneida's family hometown of Sabana del Puerto, Bonao. Oneida is the second oldest of five siblings and mother to 19-year-old Nina, who is almost off to college. About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders.    About Co-Host LaToryla Jones: The dream began many years ago when God spoke to Spencer about providing a creative atmosphere where people can relax and enjoy finding Jesus. Then God added other pieces to the dream, and to Spencer's life, when he met his lovely wife La Toryla. That's when the vision began to explode. Spencer and LaToryla Jones, founder & Creator of Flames of Passion Women's Event, love God and love people. This dynamic team seeks God to effectively engage culture by providing power-packed, life-changing experiences in entertainment productions, life resources, speaking events, and trainings. Over the years Spencer and La Toryla have spent countless hours serving in Church Leadership in various formal capacities, and volunteering whenever and wherever possible. They believe God has prepared them in this moment to step out and fulfill their God-given dream called "Jireh's Joint"

About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders. 

About Bryson Robinson - Entrepreneur, Choral Director at Dunbar High School, Singer, Musician, Song Writer, Vocal instructor Bryson Robinson is originally from Pascagoula Mississippi, and now resides in Dallas Texas.  Bryson has a BA in Music from Mississippi University for Women, and an M.Div from Southern Methodist University.   He is also a world renowned singer, vocal coach, musician, choir director, and an up-and-coming recording artist that has traveled the world for over 20 years.  Bryson believes in empowering others to follow their dreams, and to seek their hearts desire.  About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders. E

"Whenever my life gets me so down, I know I can go down to where the music and the fun never ends." Welcome to the Roundhouse on SNICK! Both SNICK and Roundhouse have their 30th anniversary this month. While SNICK and shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark? are often fondly remembered by mainstream nostalgic audiences, Roundhouse falls into obscurity. This is truly a travesty! This show is high in energy, creativity, and raw talent! Both Brett & Alex want to bring more attention to this show that was ended just before it truly had the chance to take off. Our cohosts are joined by Jennifer Cihi, Crystal Lewis, Micki Duran, John Crane, Shawn Munoz, Julene Renee, Amy Ehrlich, Natalie Nucci, Seymour Green, David Nicoll, and creators Benny Hester and Rita Sheffield Hester. Join us for this special reunion and learn all about this criminally overlooked gem of Nickelodeon history.   We have a lot of links to share with you! If you would like to support Crystal Lewis' latest album you can find digital and physical copies here: https://sc.lnk.to/CLtwc-lp https://crystal-lewis-a3jv.squarespace.com/cds/together-we-can   If you would like to support David Nicoll's "A Poppin' Christmas" you can check it out here: https://youtu.be/Ri-AlZ2YKs4   Other interviews with the Roundhouse Cast: David Sidoni: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odrB0Ossx1I Crystal Lewis, Micki Duran, and Mark David: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH5up1ijbL4 John Crane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlFm_KQ-Fw4   Archive credit: Behind the scenes footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDePB5EVUto (posted from Paul Klekotta who did camera work on the show) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blehpPbWLNU  (posted from Marty Walsh from the band) Dom's Moment of Silence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6rvuUs5kFI&list=PLx5Al-BHE4drlcCAZURdzd82xa27JKiJx&index=3  (posted from Marty Walsh from the band) Dom on the VMAs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hgaFmiGUFY Amazon Reviews (I remember before seeing this before Rita told me. There used to be a lot more!): https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B00005JO2T/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_paging_btm_prev_1?pageNumber=1   Become a patron on Patreon today to access our exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/SplatAttack To be featured in a future “Mona's Mailbag” segment, email us at SplatAttack2021@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram: @splatattackpodcast Leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Podbean, and Spotify to let us know how we're doing with delivering quality 90s Nostalgic content to you. Thanks for listening, and we'll splat you later!

Flames of Passion Women's Event Celebrates 10 Years!   July 30th -Let's talk and forge moments for destiny. This Free Virtual Event is scheduled from 10am -3pm. Click here to register. After the event (around 6pm), if you are in the DFW area,  join us for dinner as we celebrate 10 years of doing what we do best! All guest will be paying for food and beverages of choice.  More information to follow.    About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders. E

About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders. 

Few voices command as much immediate respect as that of Crystal Lewis. This singer, songwriter, actress and author has garnered multiple Dove Award wins and Grammy nominations while inspiring a generation of strong vocalists.Part of Crystal Lewis's enduring strength lies in her ability to reinvent herself, which is exactly what she's done with her new jazz album Together We Can. Featuring duets from powerhouse vocalists like Tori Kelly, Kate Flannery and Crystal's own kids (Izzi Ray and Solomon Ray), Together We Can is a project of unity in a time of global discord.We talk about the album on this episode of Trevor Talks, and we also delve into all of the life experiences that made it: over 30 years of breaking music industry norms, a painful divorce, depression and the process of reimagining her personal faith. This is an episode full of insight, encouragement and humor from an industry icon.You can get Crystal Lewis's Together We Can at https://sc.lnk.to/CLtwc-lp.Follow Crystal Lewis:Website: www.crystallewis.comFacebook: Crystal LewisInstagram: @thecrystallewisTwitter: @thecrystallewisYouTube: Crystal LewisFor more Trevor Talks:SpotifyApple MusicGoogle PodcastsInstagramFacebook

About Love Ministries: Love MinistriesNew Premiere poster for my upcoming film. Positive Image Productions presents the Premiere of the long awaited movie Dry Places Thursday, May 12 and Friday, May 13 at 7:00pm. Order tickets now for either day through links below. Thursday, May 12, 2022 https://dry-places-the-movie.ticketleap.com/dpmga051222/ Friday, May 13, 2022 https://dry-places-the-movie.ticketleap.com/dpmga051322/ About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders. 

About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders. 

I'll be playing your favorite Gospel female artist from back in the day and today featuring:Mahailia Jackson,Shirley Ceasar,Inez Andrews,Cece Winans,The Clark Sisters,Martha Munizzi,Crystal Lewis and others,as we are continung to celebrate Womens History Month. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/samuel-wilsonjr/message

Guest: Jana Bell Jana Bell is energetic, intensely passionate for the Lord's presence, simply put, she is a true worshipper!   Jana toured internationally as an alto with Kirk Franklin from the Fall of 1998 to Winter of 2007. While traveling, the Lord continued to develop and prepare her for the call and anointing that He has placed on her life.   Jana later became a background vocalist for several other Contemporary Christian artists and ministries including Martha Munizzi and Freddy Rodriguez. She also spent a little time in early 2010 traveling as a wardrobe assistant for the overseas Year of the Gentleman Tour.   Jana has done studio work for several artist and companies such as Anthony Evans, Natalie Grant, Jeremy Camp, Joy Hill, Trinitee 5:7, Kirk Franklin, Arlington Jones, Ambassadors of Christ, Men of Standard, SuperNova Remnant, Churches Fried Chicken and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.   While traveling and performing, she continued to pursue her college degree through correspondence and night classes. In the summer of 2003, she received her Bachelors of Arts in Sociology at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Her love for the arts and learning would not allow her to stop with just one degree. In 2015, she received her Masters of Science in Entertainment Business from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fl.     Jana knew the Lord was calling her for more and began to pray that God would lead her to people that would disciple, administrate and labor with her in ministry. God honoring his word in Matthew 21:22 which says, And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive, put four individuals on her heart. Understanding that vision is birthed out of prayer, Jana asked these kingdom citizens to commit to a prayer conference call to gain direction from the Lord.  Again, God being true to His word in Ephesians 3:20 that states, (God) is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, this prayer call became a staple weekly session that has grown to committed prayer warriors around the United States.   About Love Ministries: Love Ministries About Host, Karla Nivens: After graduating from Texas Tech University, Karla earned her teaching certificate and began her career as an elementary music teacher in the Dallas Independent School District. She also sang for Grammy award-winning Gospel recording artists Kirk Franklin, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Donnie McClurkin, Crystal Lewis, Willie Neal Johnson, John P. Kee, Alvin Slaughter, Tamela Mann, and Michael Buble'. She's traveled the world and ministered to diverse audiences in music. During her travels, she had the opportunity to sing on the Jay Leno Show, Soul Train, the Stellar Awards, and the Billy Graham Crusade with Kirk Franklin. She took a hiatus while staying at home with her children for several years and re-entered the workforce as a worship leader at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Karla has worshipped with Highland Park for the past 17 years. Currently, Karla is building the Racial Justice ministry for Highland Park UMC. Karla has also served as an adjunct instructor for Visible Music College and in 2014 released a CD entitled “True Worship.” Five years ago a good friend suggested she turn her heart toward fulfilling the Great Commission. Karla began traveling on yearly mission trips to Costa Rica and Africa. On those trips the Lord began to awaken the motto He gave her in college – “Influencing Culture for the Good of the Kingdom.” As an answer to this awakening, Karla and Dr. Roosevelt founded Karla Nivens Entertainment. Under this umbrella, Karla partnered with Love Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, started a small group for women, and a radio show both titled “Every Heart Every Woman.” Karla encourages her audience to quiet the noise and restore balance in their daily lives through inspirational entertainment. The show airs Sundays as a podcast on iTunes and Podbean weekly. The show also airs in video on YouTube. In 2019, Karla released her book, True Leaders with Heart, packed with weekly meditations for leaders. 

This show is brought to you by www.gubbarum.com   Do you know not the day nor the hour? 

Dr. Crystal Lewis is the National Military Family Association's (NMFA) Director of Research. Matthew and Elena are the co-founders of Bloom, an organization that seeks to empower military teens around the world. In 2021, Bloom and NMFA designed a survey for military teens to evalute their mental health, food security, and more. After finding results that indicate military kids are "not okay", Bloom and NMFA created another survey to dig deeper into the well-being of military children. This new survey will be available February 1st. View the results of last year's survey here: https://www.militaryfamily.org/the-military-teen-experience/?fbclid=IwAR10ipEorN0o-n54z5kjFoQc-I4mzFzNIbNBXwZlzcGr0iyn-n6YDOPeGyA Link to this year's survey (available Feb 1): www.bloommiltaryteens.org/survey Check out NMFA's website here: https://www.militaryfamily.org/NMFA's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/militaryfamily Bloom's Website and Blog: www.bloomilitaryteens.org Follow Bloom @bloommilitaryteens on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok. Bloom on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloommilitaryteens/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theshanonshow/support

In this episode we have the privilege to speak with Chris Brigandi and Crystal Lewis of Wild Blue Yonder about their wonderful album. We also travel across the globe and spend quite a bit  of time in England discussing some of the most creative music to come from Great Britain. We talk rock, funk, soul, country, rock-a-billy and much more!https://www.facebook.com/groups/legacyccmsgreatestalbumswww,legacyccmsgreatestalbums.com

Tony Morra, drummer extraordinaire, has worked with the likes of Phil Ramone, Diane Warren, Amy Grant, Donna Summer, Roberta Flack, Paul Taylor, Discrete Drums Loop Series, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Toby Mac, Keith Thomas, Kip Winger, Bruce Springsteen, Fabrizio Grossi, Many Albums for “Frontier Records”, Cindy Bradley, Jay Soto, Stephanie Smith, Ayeisha Woods, Rebecca Saint James, Britt Nicole, Michael Whalen, Stevie B, Sweet Sensation, Kathy Troccoli, Regie Hamm, Crystal Lewis, Avalon, Twila Paris, John Elefante, Rebecca Saint James, Van Zandt, AJ Croce and on.For 17 years now Tony Morra has been tracking drums for demos, custom records, indie projects. Tony is tracking drums for Masters, Television, Film, Loop Libraries, Video Games you hear on TV, Gaming systems and on radio everyday. Tony is one of the leaders in home recording through the Internet since it was possible to do so! He has been a beta tester for many online programs that make it easier to do sessions in real time. What was thought to be a little drum room for some extra work has turned into a livelihood. Tony's clients span the world! These sessions are done at his home with the sounds rivaling those done in the largest and most expensive studios,which Tony loves playing in, although that is getting less and less these days with the Home recording “buzz.” His room is outfitted with the best gear there is, Daking, API, GML, Avalon, TL Audio, DBX 160's, Distressors, Telefunken Pre's, vintage Orbans and so on! The mics are no joke; Neumann U47, AKG's, Audio Technica, KM 184's, modified Ribbons, and a ProTools HDX system.It's a new world and a new frontier in recording. Tony's embracing it! Using what's available to make the finest quality Drum Tracks available for those who might never have been able to afford to do so and for those where budget is not even a concern.https://www.paiste.com/en/musicians/tony-morrahttps://soundbetter.com/profiles/175134-tony-morra@thecareermusician@nomadsplace

Here contentment is discussed, with reference scriptures from 2 Corinthians and Philippians. I kept hearing “Be Content”, and wanted to share. I heard it in 2 songs- “Contentment” by Pace Sisters; and another song, “I'm Satisfied” by Crystal Lewis; then I came across a lesson/devotional on it… I was like wow.. let me share.. be blessed!! 's books -“Healing To Prosperity: Restoration through God's Way and Purpose” available on Amazon or any online stores- (i.e. Barnes & Noble, Walmart); and “Love Revealed: Renewed Through God's Love” available on Amazon or any online bookstores. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Terron Brooks is joined by critically acclaimed singer/songwriter, multi-Dove Award winner, and 3 time Grammy nominee, Crystal Lewis, for a conversation about the source of happiness, fearlessness, being rebellious, finding your voice, and lies we tell ourselves. An inspiration to many, including host Brooks, Crystal opens up during an engaging exchange that cuts beneath the surface. Enjoy her Honest Answers. Follow Crystal www.crystallewis.com www.Instagram.com/www.thecrystallewis Sponsorships/BrandThe Clifton Wilson Brandhttps://cliftonwilson.net/https://instagram.com/the_cliftonwilson_brandLinks to follow Terron or Honest Answers Podcast https://www.terronbrooksofficial.com/ www.Instagram.com/TerronBrookswww.Facebook.com/TerronBrookswww.linktr.ee/TerronBrooksProduced by Terron Brooks, Brian PurcellArtwork by Brian PurcellEngineered & edited by Ethan CarlsonOriginal music by Terron Brooks, Sylvia MacCalla

Honest Answers with Terron Brooks invites listeners to reconnect to the soul. Everybody in the world asks the same questions but the answers are never the same. Terron takes you behind the scenes as his guests reveal honest parts of their story you've never heard before. Experience an unrehearsed, open and candid conversation with creative forces like LEON, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sheila E, Crystal Lewis and more. Looking for transparency and vulnerability from the most inspiring sources? 

Three-time Grammy nominee Crystal Lewis shares the struggle and pain of living through divorce after twenty-eight years of marriage.Connect with Crystal:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecrystallewis/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecrystallewis/Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecrystallewis?lang=enWebsite: http://www.crystallewis.com/Connect with JATW:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonahandthewhalepodcast/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonahandthewhalepodcast/Learn More: jonahandthewhale.showSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Blossoming in times of hardship and depression with Dr. Crystal Lewis Joining me on the show today is Dr. Crystal Lewis. Dr. Crystal is a mentor, author, motivational speaker, singer and change agent. She's also a minister in teen leadership programs and church events. She's passionate about helping people connect with God and pursue a purposeful life. Dr. Crystal uses Christianity as a tool to inspire and motivate all her readers and followers. Her book, The Diamond Transformation - How to Survive and Thrive in Tough Times is an inspiring biography of her life in school and how she persevered through dark times in her life. Dr. Crystal's Life Journey An introvert at heart, Dr. Crystal enjoys listening to women empowerment podcasts, karaoke singing, and journaling. All of which she finds therapeutic for herself when she's drained as a result of work. Life, however,hasn't always been easy for Dr. Crystal. About 9 years ago, she was accepted into Stony Brook University to pursue a PhD in Chemistry. Everything was going great, and life was a roller coaster ride for Dr. Crystal. All this took a sudden flip when a tornado hit the campus she was studying at forcing her to escape campus and seek refuge somewhere else. During the chaos, Crystal lost a lot of important personal files and documents. Her Naturalization certificate which proves her American citizenship was one of the documents she lost. In order to claim her fellowship and scholarship, Crystal needed her original Naturalization certificate. In the midst of trying to find a solution for her problem, Crystal found herself drowning in despair and hopelessness. Everyone she turned to for help turned her down. It was during this dark period of her life that Crystal had a conversation with God and wondered if He still had a purpose for her amidst all the darkness she was in. Thankfully for Crystal, He did. God wanted her to know that He had set a diamond in her which He was soon about to unleash. And this was the reason God was putting her through the pain and sadness she was going through at the time. The Diamond Process. At one point in our lives, we've all felt stifled and stuck in a hard situation. Stage 1: Positioning. In the first stage, diamond is actually graphite. Similar in life. We might feel like we're in a crisis and that God has completely forgotten us by placinging us and our family in an isolated position of failure. Stage 2: Processing. During processing, the graphite goes through intense heating and pressure.Just as in life, God through His tests, places us in intense and hostile environments to enable our growth. Stage 3: The plinian eruption stage. In this stage, the diamond travels through a Kimberlin pipe and beaks. You've probably heard of the saying ‘It's darkest before dawn'. Keep standing and praying. Quotes This is an opportunity to seek God's face and discover what He wants us to know during this season Your destiny is to fulfill God's purpose. Connect with Dr. Crystal Website - https://crystalslewis.com/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/10155192115441953 Twitter - https://twitter.com/DrCSLewis Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ms_cslewis/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/girlfriend-lets-talk/message