The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast

Every married couple believes they’ll be together forever. But what happens when that doesn’t come true? All too often we ignore little problems until they become large ones, and too many marriages end prematurely as a result. That was the case for both Mary and Dave Gothi. When both their first marriages failed, it seemed like the death of both of their dreams. But God had plans for both of them...

MARRIAGE SERIES PART THREE   One of the most defining characteristics of marriage is the promise of faithfulness. There is something sacred that happens when we stand before God and promise to love one person only, until death do us part. But for far too many, that promise ends up broken. Too often, we’re left asking “what now?” That was Hilarie and Joe Barry’s story. Both the product of a previou...

Sexual abuse and assault is a pain that is familiar to far too many. This extremely intimate wounding at the hands of another can leave scars and shame that last a lifetime. But they don’t have to. Healing and wholeness are available to us. That is the story of Nothing Is Wasted Ministries’ very own Aubrey Sampson. In this bonus episode for our Nothing Is Wasted Monthly Partners, Aubrey shares her...

MARRIAGE SERIES PART TWO   As a marriage and family counselor, Nicole Zasowski spent her days helping others walk through difficult seasons in their home life. But after two consecutive miscarriages, Nicole and her husband received news from a doctor that no one wants to hear. It would be incredibly difficult for Nicole to have a child, and every attempt would come with a large risk of walking thr...

MARRIAGE SERIES PART ONE   We’ve all been taught that marriage is a gift, and that is certainly true. A healthy, loving relationship between two people is one of the greatest joys many of us will experience in life. But as Leslie Vernick knows well, when two broken people try to make a life together without addressing their own brokenness, the results can be disastrous. A product of her parents’ d...

Perhaps now more than ever, anxiety is an ever-present force in our day-to-day lives. Whether from some traumatic experience, a physiological condition, or just the weight of the broken world all around us, many of us live anxious lives every day with no end in sight. Josh Weidmann knows this all too well. Josh has faced his own lifelong battle with anxiety, and as a pastor and Biblical counselor,...

Our families are among the greatest gifts we can receive in life, but with that gift comes a risk. When pain strikes among these people who are so close to us, it hits us especially hard. Jessica Ronne knows this all too well. When her second child was born with severe special needs, it seemed like that was more trial than anyone should have to endure. Jessica’s journey, however, was just getting...

When we go through trials in our lives, it can be hard to know what to do next. We want to make it through this dark season, and to make our pain mean something, but we’re not sure how. That’s the heartbeat behind Nothing Is Wasted Ministries, and it’s part of why we created the Pain to Purpose Course. But we’ve found that walking through the course by yourself isn’t always the easiest, or the mos...

For a long time, the church has been deprived of half of the voices it could be learning from. While the Bible is full of amazing examples of female leaders, a handful of passages taken out of context have led to women being forced into the sidelines in too many churches. Lisa Bevere is one of the people on the front lines of changing that. Lisa began her career as a speaker and writer in a time w...

SURVIVING ABUSE SERIES PART FOUR   Like many parts of our lives, our beliefs about God are often formed at a young age. When we go through painful experiences before even reaching adulthood, it can shape the way we view God and others in ways we don’t even realize. This was Carissa Gaughan’s story. As a teenager, Carissa was sexually abused by multiple men, and the scars from that trauma caused he...

SURVIVING ABUSE SERIES PART THREE   Teresa Glantz first experienced trauma at far too young an age. Born into a dysfunctional family, she spent most of her childhood living under the roof of an abusive father. Growing up fearing for her safety and even her life, Teresa walked through incredible loss and tragedy at a young age. Little did she know that years later, after she thought she had healed...

SURVIVING ABUSE SERIES PART TWO   For those who have experienced any kind of abuse, it can be hard to find a way to move forward in life. There’s this trauma that’s too big to process, and it’s easy to get stuck in it. Georgia Shaffer has dedicated her life to helping people in these exact situations, but the ability to help others didn’t come easy. After walking though a cancer diagnosis with alm...

SURVIVING ABUSE SERIES PART ONE   Every child deserves to grow up innocent, free of some of the pains and worries of life that we all walk through later in life. But like too many, Becca Stevens was robbed of that chance when she experienced years of sexual abuse at the hands of a spiritual leader as a young child. With this one horrendous act, Becca’s life was forever altered. But where she could...

The first few months of 2020 left a mark on all of us that we never could have imagined. Now several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, all of our lives have been impacted in ways that we’ll feel for years to come. But at the beginning of March 2020, Nic and Cassie Brown hadn’t experienced that yet. What they thought was a minor sickness resulted in an extended hospital stay, a close call with dea...

Most of us have dreams for our life. Maybe it’s a great marriage, a successful job, or a happy family. We have some vision in our heads of what’s supposed to happen, and we tell ourselves that God will definitely give us these things. But sometimes he doesn’t. So what then? That’s the question Sheridan Voysey asked over and over. Sheridan and his wife felt like it was time to start having children...

Abortion is not a topic that is often brought up in churches. We might mention it in broad strokes or when talking about politics, but too often pastors and whole churches are afraid to engage in it personally. But whether we face it or not, many women like Serena Dyksen are facing this issue quietly in one way or another. When Serena found herself pregnant as a teenager following a terrible sexua...

If the last several months have taught us anything, it’s that the racial tensions we read about in our history textbooks aren’t limited to the pages of the past. The pain that our black brothers and sisters have felt at the hands of white America hasn’t gone away, and ignoring it isn’t going to make it any better. In the second part of this powerful conversation, Dr. Anita Phillips shares with Dav...

Dr. Anita Phillips sits at the intersection of several important conversations in our culture today. As a trauma therapist, a black woman, and the wife of a pastor, she is uniquely positioned to speak into the intersection of mental health, race, and faith. Through her own traumatic experiences and years of helping others, Anita has come to an understanding of the Kingdom of God, and how we can re...

Dawn Barton’s demeanor and her story don’t seem to match at a glimpse. She radiates hope, optimism, and cheerfulness. You’d be forgiven for thinking she’s had an easy life, but that’s far from the truth. Dawn has walked through an amount of darkness that most of us couldn’t imagine. Through trial after trial, she’s learned to choose joy when despair would be a much more natural option. Dawn sits d...

ADOPTION SERIES PART THREE   Sam Collier couldn’t be blamed for seeing his story as one of abandonment. Born to a 21-year-old single mother, Sam and his twin sister were given up for adoption. His birth parents never reached out, and he spent the entire time he was growing up never meeting either of his birth parents or the three other siblings he didn’t even know he had. But Sam looked past the a...

ADOPTION SERIES PART TWO   Sometimes the things God calls us to don’t make a lot of sense. We’re asked to give up our loaves and fishes, to step out of the boat, or to carry a cross, and there’s no telling what the outcome will be. Johanna and Brian Cannelongo had four biological children when they felt God calling them to not only adopt, but to adopt a child with special needs. Little did they kn...

ADOPTION SERIES PART ONE   Sara and Sam Ward were only just starting on their journey of adoption when they hit a wall that no one wants to experience. They went to the hospital for what they thought was a minor medical issue and left with a cancer diagnosis. Not only did this upend their entire lives, but they had to watch their dream of adoption seemingly die. Little did they know that this wasn...

American culture often makes the mistake of thinking success lies in what we do. We think a thriving life is one in which we accomplish great things, earn the most money, and climb our way to the top of whatever ladder we think we’re on. Joel Manby learned the hard way that this picture of life isn’t quite accurate. Having been at the top of multiple huge companies, Joel was “doing” everything rig...

If we’re honest, the church hasn’t always done a great job of elevating diverse voices. Women, people of color, and other marginalized groups often find themselves on the outskirts of our faith communities, with no one they can learn from who shares their life experiences. This is a problem that Ashlee Eiland knows well. Both as a black woman and as a pastor and author, Ashlee has felt this pain,...

For most of us, life-altering tragedies are something we experience in rare instances. For a firefighter in a big city, they’re everyday occurrences. Working as a first responder in the Oakland Fire Department, Jason Sautel saw suffering, tragedy, and death constantly. Jason looked to his job to make something of his life and to redeem his troubled childhood, but without any hope to draw from, he...