Help & Hope

Paul and Jill Miller welcomed their sixth child, daughter Kim, into their home in 1982. It became apparent at a young age that Kim was behind in her developmental milestones. She was also nonverbal. Kim was diagnosed as having autism, a diagnosis that was just beginning to be recognized by doctors. Kim’s diagnosis not only created enormous stress on their family, but also isolated Jill as she learned how to parent their precious ch...

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 Virtual.co, an online biblical counseling service), talk with counselors Deepak Reju and Jonathan Holmes, who provide biblical strategies for guiding a fellow believer toward recovery...

What happens when a four-year-old gets an unwanted education in the darker side of humanity and experiences sexual abuse at the hand of her father? In this powerful, sometimes difficult to hear interview, Dr. Terry Eccles takes the listener into the abyss of the sexual abuse she experienced beginning at the age of four. This interview gives hope to the abused but also gives a window into the soul of the abused in a way that will be...

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 hundreds, maybe even thousands of wome...

"In August 1999 I sat by myself on my living room couch. Alone. Scared. I tried to piece together what 13 years of sexual addiction had just torn apart. My life was unraveling and I couldn’t harness my out of control behaviors. I remember thinking I might be better off dead than alive. As I sat there I had a lot to consider. I was a sex addict." (From 2.bebroken.com) Exposure to pornography at the age of 12 was Jonathan’s...

When a son, sister, or grandchild begins to behave in unexpected and disturbing ways, family members hope it is simply a phase. For some, it is instead a life-time illness – schizophrenia. The diagnosis of schizophrenia can bring shock, fear, and worry to everyone involved. But in the midst of the numerous challenges, hope doesn’t have to die. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Simonetta Carr shares the story of her beloved ...

Pastor Bob Allums, husband and father, learned at thirty-two years of age that he faced the battle of his life against throat and mouth cancer. The possibility that the disease and treatment would destroy his ability to speak, to preach and teach was real. Before the diagnosis, Bob struggled with overwhelming depression, a darkness whose roots he could not identify. In this rich conversation with Chuck Betters, Bob steps back into ...

Andrea Herzer, a woman well acquainted with long term debilitating health issues, having spent the last twenty years with multiple illnesses, including regional pain syndrome and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, joins Sharon Betters for this Help & Hope podcast. Numerous times Andrea experienced moments of hope only to have it dashed by another diagnosis, another setback. Certainly, her heart was a fertile place for bitterness and anger...

How do you pursue your dreams when congenital muscular dystrophy threatens your independence? When you are born with muscular dystrophy, you face a life of muscles breaking down, and therefore being unable to keep up with growth spurts. During a normal growth spurt, Tim’s spine curved so rapidly, that without a full spinal fusion, he would die. At fourteen years of age, Tim had a fourteen-hour surgery to straighten his spine. Tim d...

Almost 40% of young adults live with their parents or grandparents. This is the highest percentage in 70 years. The last time young adults did life in such proximity to their parents or grandparents was just before the Depression. Then it was out of financial need. Today it seems there is a whole different perspective on the part of the young adults. Dr. Chuck Betters talks to Jim Burns, author of Doing Life with Your Adult Childre...

When Lovette told her mother she was pregnant, her mother took her to an abortion clinic despite protests and tears. A few months later, Lovette was again pregnant, and though she cried, she followed the routine and returned to the abortion clinic. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Lovette shares her story with hope that her journey to healing will help other women avoid the pain and grief she experienced after her abortion...

It's tougher than ever to be both a kid and a parent today. The world's culture is continually pushing an anything goes sexuality on our children. What’s a parent to do in order to help their children navigate their sexuality, social media, the ever-present temptation of pornography, the continuous bombardment of our sexually explicit culture. In this Help and Hope resource, Dr. Betters and Sharon interview Dave and Heath...

Barbara Juliani and Jane Anne Wilson join Sharon Betters to talk about those feelings every mother experiences at one time or another. This conversation follows an interview with Barbara about prodigal children. Barbara and her father Jack Miller co-authored Come Back, Barbara, a raw and transparent story of Barbara’s rebellion against her parents and their faith and her journey “back home”. Whenever a child rebels or disappoints p...

If you’re a parent, it’s likely you have had more than one sleepless night reviewing the mistakes and perceived failures of that day. We resign ourselves to carry the emotions of fear, guilt, shame, and regret for the rest of our lives. But do we have to just let these emotions hang around and take over our thinking? The answer is no! Co-hosts Sharon Betters and Heidi Nequist talk to Lauren Whitman, counselor, author, speaker, and ...

Days, months, and years after the loss of her sister, Natasha Smith tried to hide the grief she carried. But the pandemic took away her ability to hide her sorrow and her five-year-old’s response to her unexpected tears gave her permission to grieve – not in a room by herself but with her daughter.

In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Natasha shares how culture insists we “move on” from loss quickly and even how the c...

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 You’re Feeling Overwhelmed gets it!...

It doesn’t take much research to realize anxiety is a primary emotion experienced not just by teens but also by adults. Our guest, Liz Edrington, is no stranger to anxiety. As a teenager, she felt overwhelmed by anxiety. Now, she is a mental health counselor and wants to pass on what she’s learned. She has written a 31 day devotional for teenagers called Anxiety, Finding the Better Story. In this conversation, Sharon Betters and Li...

“Edith, we urge you to learn Braille, train with a white cane, and learn to cook blindfolded...” These warnings from Doctors and a Rehab team along with major eye surgery and regular vision-loss monitoring by top specialists at Johns Hopkins University Hospital struck fear in Edith Yoder’s heart.. As a single Christian woman living alone in the mountains of Western Maryland she had already dealt with total vision loss in one eye. N...

According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly 1 in 3 of all adolescents ages 13 to 18 will experience an anxiety disorder. These numbers have been rising steadily; between 2007 and 2012, anxiety disorders in children and teens went up 20%. 
These stats, combined with the rate of hospital admissions for suicidal teenagers also doubling over the past decade, leaves us with many concerning questions. (source: https://www....