We sat in the car together, my mom and I, with the ignition turned off, and I cried. Kyle and I were less than two years into marriage and less than a year into ministry life, and I wasn't handling it very well. It's really hard. That's all I knew to say to help her understand, and I meant ministry more than I meant marriage. I felt as if I should know more of what to do and how to do it, and I was afraid to admit the extent of it, and I was mostly afraid to ask for help....Continue Reading Christine Hoover is a church planting pastor's wife, a mom, and an author who loves encouraging women to live and lead from grace. She is the author of two books, The Church Planting Wife and From Good to Grace: Letting Go of the Goodness Gospel.
Read more blog posts from Christine at Grace Covers Me.
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Women are influencers. We’re relational by nature, so we’re often the relational glue within our families, churches, and communities and, within these relationships, we have tremendous opportunities and a great responsibility to use our influence well.After almost 15 years of being my husband’s marriage, parenting, and ministry partner, I am just coming to understand the weighty responsibility...continue reading. Christine Hoover is wife to Kyle Hoover, mom to three energetic boys, and the author of The Church Planting Wife: Help and Hope for Her Heart and From Good to Grace: Letting Go of the Goodness Gospel. In 2008, their family planted a church in Charlottesville, VA. She enjoys encouraging ministry wives and helping all women apply the gift of God’s grace to their daily lives. Christine offers fresh doses of biblical truth and grace on her blog, GraceCoversMe.com and is a contributing writer to Flourish.me.
As a pastor’s wife, I find it an amazing and wonderful part of ministry to assist people during difficult times in their lives. However, as a bi-vocational pastor, the time is often not as available as I would like for it to be. Since the beginning of the year, two women from our North campus have had miscarriages; one had two miscarriages in six months. Another woman is undergoing fertility treatments. I sought a way to minister to these ladies. Complications in bearing children seem to be a major stressor for many women. You Version has a 54-day devotion called, “A Seed of Hope during Infertility.” I asked each of the ladies, the wives of our staff pastors and two other ladies to join the devotion with me. We set up a Facebook message group. Each day all of the ladies read the devotion and respond to it. I try to add commentary to devotion at least once a week. Many times, the devotion has just the right Word for one or more of the ladies. This has been an amazing way for us to study the Bible together. None of these ladies would have an evening every week for a Bible Study. Through this Bible app and our Facebook message, we study the Bible together every day. As I complete this devotion, I am looking for other devotions to complete with other groups of women. I think that this would be useful for discipleship classes. I am so thankful that God speaks through so many ways and gives us so many methods for outreach and ministry. Nora is an Assemblies of God credentialed minister with the Southern Missouri District. She is married to Dan Ross and together they pastor New Life Fellowship in Fenton. Additionally, she teaches English at Festus High School and is mother to their adult children, Daniel and Rebekah. Nora is passionate about souls. She gives sacrificially of her time to her community. When she sees a need, she goes above and beyond to minister to that need. Hormones are being spoken of more often and openly these days as the Western medical model shifts it’s attention to this somewhat overlooked area of health and wellness more than ever before. Women, thankfully, are now realizing that hormonal imbalance IS worth investigation and evaluation in their quest to live, look, and feel better. Today, even Church Women’s Groups are bringing this relevant topic to the forefront as a part of their program subject matter to engage and resource women in a unique way. This is a great thing to see happening, because hormones can wreak havoc on a woman’s body as she goes through the reproductive years, through the aging process, and as she simply adapts physiologically to life’s stress and unexpected difficulties. To leave out this critical aspect of health and concern in trying to be relevant to the needs of women would be a tremendous oversight. I hope this short blog will bring enough insight and interest, even with limited content, to encourage each reader to seek help in this area if personally struggling with suspected hormonal imbalance. Menstrual irregularities, endometriosis, infertility, miscarriage, polycystic ovaries, and early-aged hysterectomy can describe some of the reasons that a young woman might consider hormones as a contributing problem and then seek helpful restorative therapy. For those women in other stages of aging; anxiety, insomnia, depression, sexual difficulties, irritability, pelvic floor pain, weight gain, foggy thinking, incontinence, mood swings, hot flashes, rapid aging, high blood pressure, social withdrawal, palpitations, night sweats, and fatigue can definitely be linked to hormonal imbalance as well. Truly there are some women that seem to have very little trouble with hormone changes as they pass through various stages of aging. Even then, it is still important to know that hormone balance is now being studied as a benefit in the prevention of diseases such as osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, cancer, heart disease, thyroid disease, and more with compelling results. Family history alone can be a reason to monitor hormones, especially if there exists a strong family risk for certain diseases. Stress also must be considered when discussing the topic of hormones. The body is designed to release adrenal hormones such as cortisol or DHEA, during heightened states of stress or injury. This response is intended to address inflammation and increase energy to the body. Sadly, our culture is moving so fast with the demands of life these days, that adrenal fatigue, a condition linked to altered or diminished stress hormones, is becoming more of a norm and a concern all it’s own. Women are carrying heavy personal demands as they juggle countless responsibilities and commitments. Even those women that seem to have it ‘all-together’, could truly be falling apart inside emotionally, mentally, and physically as they deal with stress and lifestyle demands. Hormones can be connected in so many ways to good health and vitality in women. Furthermore, it’s probably safe to say that most women, at some point in life, will likely be affected by hormonal imbalance. If you or someone you care about is trudging along with no answers and no hope in what seems to be a hormone related problem, please take the initiative to connect with a provider that will give you the attention that you deserve….and that this issue needs. This article was provided for Refresh Ministry Women by Dr. Sonja O'Bryan, Pharm.D, ABAAHP, who is a Board Certified Healthcare Practitioner Diplomat, American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Minister, Professional, Consultant, Author and Speaker. She has been married for over 22 years and has three beautiful children and lives in the Springfield MO area. Sonja received her Bachelors degree from St. Louis College of Pharmacy and her Doctorate from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Dr. Sonja has 20+ years of experience professionally with practices in Administration, as an Advisory Board Member for various pharmaceutical companies, and has also served as an Adjunct Professor for colleges and universities. Other areas of experience for Dr. Sonja include retail, oncology, long term care/geriatric consulting, and compounding pharmacy. She currently practices at The Custom Compounding Center) Bolivar, MO as a specialized consultant dealing in anti-aging and integrative medicine along with providing Bio-identical hormone replacement therapy for men and women. She promotes and provides God-made therapies when possible and Man-made therapies only when necessary to help men and women achieve their health and wellness goals. She is a Board Certified member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. Dr. Sonja is also a licensed minister, and often meshes the spiritual and physical aspects of better living in her presentations with the audience walking away feeling renewed and refreshed mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Her speaking events are known to be extremely relevant to the majority of "issues" that people face in their daily lives and Dr. Sonja enjoys seeing the excitement of renewed vision and hope in the eyes of her listeners as she explains what's going on inside the body with aging. This is her passion and it's how she lives "On Purpose." You will clearly see that if you ever get the opportunity to sit in on one of her presentations. Her goal is that YOU feel better, look better, and live better. Dr. Sonja is also founder of "On Purpose Women" a ministry that is dedicated to equipping, educating and encouraging women in all aspects of their life-long journey. Visit http://www.onpurposewomen.com for details. |
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