Help & Hope

Kathy Chapell and Elizabeth Turnage join Sharon Betters to talk about how to care for aging parents. We’re going to talk about the challenges of caring for elderly parents. Kathy and Elizabeth share lessons learned as frailty and illness required their parents to make major changes in their living arrangements. They admit they wish they had done some things differently and their transparency will...

Kathy Chapel and Elizabeth Turnage join Sharon Betters to talk about how sharing our stories are a means of passing on a legacy of faith, even if our story is filled with disappointments and potholes. They start with Kathy sharing from her book, The Great Iowa Road Trip – Journey to Memories where Kathy has recorded not only precious family memories but teaching moments along the way. Four days sp...

In this poignant conversation a son, Dr. Chuck L. Betters, talks to his mother, Sharon Betters, about her grief journey after the loss of her sixteen-year-old son, Mark. They use Sharon’s book, Treasures in Darkness as a jumping off place and dive right into some of the hardest places of grief with the goal of offering help and hope to other grieving parents. Sharon’s journal is the center piece o...

What is your first response when mundane moments turn into irritations and set backs? Or your life suddenly takes a downward spiral? What about when life runs smoothly - are you counting your blessings with great joy every single day? Christa Threfel, author of Come to Jesus, joins us to talk about how a “first response” to the mundane moments will help prepare us for those hard, stomach churning...

Marissa Bondurant joins Sharon Betters to share how her caregiving journey started when her family received a devastating diagnosis for her four-year-old daughter. Not only does she have comfort to offer caregivers, but her story through the land of childhood cancer will also encourage us. Marissa takes listeners deep into her journey of caring for not just one child but two children diagnosed wit...

Lou Priolo says we are experiencing an epidemic of loneliness. In this conversation with Sharon Betters and Chuck L. Betters, Lou defines loneliness and encourages us to realize loneliness is painful but it can also bring blessings. He shares stories about people in the Bible who experience deep loneliness and points out that many of the Psalmists expressed their own loneliness. Knowing others hav...

When unexpected moments change life’s trajectory, we’re left with a choice: Do we overcome the unexpected, as the world recommends, or undergo it? In this conversation with Sharon Betters and Chuck L. Betters, Author Jillian Benfield says experiencing an unexpected season begins a transformation that deconstructs our old self and reconstructs us into who God intends us to become. Jillian shares th...

What is a grandmother’s role in the lives of her grandchildren? How can she pass on a legacy of faith? What if she is estranged from her grandchildren, or they don’t seem to be interested in having a relationship with her? What are some practical ways a grandmother can intentionally pursue a friendship with her grands and what if they don’t respond to her efforts? What about those envious feelings...

“A silver wave is coming,” says author and speaker Elizabeth Turnage. Baby boomers are facing the hardest challenge of their lives – how to die well. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Elizabeth challenges listeners to take steps now to make it easier for loved ones after you die. Elizabeth shares how her dad died without any intentional preparation of affairs or instructions for his childr...

Lauren Whitman, the author of A Painful Past – Healing and Moving Forward, answers this question and much more. For instance, why would anyone want to dig up their past? Isn’t it better to “let sleeping dogs lie”? Can we forgive and forget? How does our view of God influence our journey toward healing? How do you know when to ask a counselor for help? And how does having a counselor make the journ...

Darci and Mark Steiner’s lives turned inside out and upside down when Darci nearly lost her life after a debilitating fall down the stairs in her home. She was later diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and spent six years bedridden with such horrific pain she could not tolerate even a sheet touching her body. Her husband, Mark, immediately took on the role of caregiver for Darci and all...

How are you feeling today? Stressed, overwhelmed, drowning in too much to do, anxiety, the rubble of broken relationships – just life? Are these feelings seasonal or do you struggle with persistent gnawing anxiety? Sometimes, something happens that feels like the straw that breaks the camel’s back and we cry out, “I didn’t sign up for this!” Ann Swindell, author of The Path to Peace, Comfort When...

No matter your season of life, wherever God has placed you is your platform for glorifying Him. But sometimes, it’s really, really hard to see the rutted, muddy pathways of life as an opportunity to reflect Jesus, isn’t it? If you are in such a place, this special edition of the Help & Hope podcast is for you. Over the summer we held Beyond the Book, Ask the Author as a free virtual live event...

“I forgive you.” Simple words, and liberating ones – but hard, too. You may think the betrayal you have experienced is in the realm of the unforgivable. Wendy Alsup understands. She experienced severe church conflict while serving in the women’s ministry at Mars Hill Church, followed by an unwanted divorce. The losses of betrayal eventually forced her to move from her home in Seattle, leaving behi...

Some stats state that 50% of married couples in churches have experienced sexual betrayal in their marriage. When a wife learns about her husband’s sexual betrayal, in the blink of an eye, a bomb detonates and blows up her marriage. The very foundations on which she built her home shatter, and she can barely breathe, let alone find her way out from under the rubble. Ellen Dykas has walked with hun...

Rachel, founder of the Brave Mamas online community, validates bereaved parents in their pain, encourages them as they adjust to their new normal, and provides advice for sharing your loss with family, caring for your spouse, and recovering a postpartum body. She is a mother who lost 5 children, yet is filled with hope. Send us Fan Mail Support the show

We seldom hear this question let alone even think about the need if we have never experienced a miscarriage. Eric Schumacher, author of Ours: Biblical Comfort for Men Grieving Miscarriage talks to Sharon Betters about the grief a dad feels when his wife has a miscarriage. He addresses questions like, how does a dad help his wife, what about feeling the miscarriage is because of personal sin, and h...

Dr. Mikala Albertson aimed to be exemplary in all she did – marriage, motherhood, her career – but her seemingly picture-perfect life began crumbling when she realized her doctor husband was addicted to drugs and nothing was perfect after all. Listen in as Mikala shares her story of striving and suffering in the hunt for perfection and found that embracing her gritty, messy, complicated, tough ord...

A Conversation with Esther SmithSummaryMost of us can admit to seasons of struggling with unwanted thoughts, perhaps rooted in fear of the unknown, a broken relationship, a horrible past of abuse. For some people, unwanted thoughts are a nagging discomfort. Others experience them as a brutal and invisible form of torture. Thoughts spiraling out of control can lead to sleepless nights, uncomfortabl...

Pornography – do you know someone who is struggling with this particular sin? Unfortunately, it’s likely that you do, but you may not know how to help. In these two conversations host Dr. Chuck Betters, along with Rebekah Hannah (Director of Anchored Hope.co, an online biblical counseling service), talk with counselors Deepak Reju and Jonathan Holmes who provide biblical strategies for guiding a f...

Pornography – do you know someone who is struggling with this particular sin? Unfortunately, it’s likely that you do, but you may not know how to help. In these two conversations host Dr. Chuck Betters, along with Rebekah Hannah (Director of Anchored Hope.co, an online biblical counseling service), talk with counselors Deepak Reju and Jonathan Holmes who provide biblical strategies for guiding a f...

Are you tired of all the parenting books full of strategic checklists, how-to advice and quick tips? While some of the books are actually really helpful, Christina Fox, Sharon Betters and young mom Melissa Weisenfels talk through what it means to parent through the grid of how our heavenly father parents us, His children. They touch on questions like:How can a better understanding of God’s charact...

A child suffers multiple forms of abuse from her father from the time of being a little girl to a young woman. Is there any hope for not just surviving but thriving? Jennifer Greenberg proclaims there is. Jennifer knows the isolation and grief of abuse at the hands of her church-going father. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Jenn doesn’t flinch in talking through how she wanted to kill he...

What do you do when you are suddenly navigating a life you didn’t sign up for? Lisa Appelo understands deeply. She’s experienced the raw emotions and uncertainty that come when everything falls apart. Lisa went to bed married and woke up a widow and single mom to seven children. She wrestled with impossible questions about her future–and then found life-changing answers that gave her the strength...

What if your kind, gentle adult son started exhibiting bizarre behavior, so bizarre his wife got a restraining order and he ended up in prison? Our guest in this conversation, Robin, knows this terror as she lost her son little by little to an undiagnosed disease – Early Onset Dementia. Robin’s son, Justin, gradually changed from a kind, engaged husband, father and son into a man his family didn’t...