Global Trellis: The Podcast

In this episode, Melanie Moxness joins Amy and Bernie to explore the characters who often shape our inner lives: Managers, firefighters, and exiles. Drawing on the book Boundaries for Your Soul by Dr. Allison Cook and Kimberly Mille...

Sometimes the guide you need shows up in the last place you'd look. For Amy, it was a book about seven U.S. presidents. Life After Power by Jared Cohen follows what each of them did once the White House was behind them, and somewhere around the third president she thought, "Wait, this sounds a lot like cross-cultural workers." Whether you're in the middle of a transi...

In this episode, Amy and Bernie talk with counselor and author Charlene Benson about her book Unstuck and her simple but powerful model for navigating relational conflict. Using the metaphor of a road with two ditches—Others-Focused and Me-Focused—Charlene unpacks how fear keeps us stuck and offers practical steps to move toward win–win, healthy rel...

Amy and Bernie have a fun and helpful conversation with Melanie Moxness who shares how long COVID, injury, and prolonged physical healing led her to a practical "theology of the body." Melanie shares her story helping listeners discover God's presence, grace, and purpose in physical limitation when that becomes more of your calling than you'd like.

You’re doing better than you think! In this episode, Amy shares five very different milestones—spanning 18 months to 90 years—converging to reveal one core truth: your quiet, faithful work is building more than you can see and why your faithfulness matters more than you know.

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Which zone are you in? Scott Brennan along with Amy and Bernie explore the comfort zone, stretch zone, and panic zone—a simple framework for understanding spiritual formation. Many cross-cultural workers stay in the  stretch and panic zones, burning out in the process. Drawing on the Desert Fathers, Celtic spirituality, and real field experience, Scott unp...

Lori Ferrell joins Amy and Bernie to explore play as a spiritual practice, drawing on her own burnout and the sabbatical that helped her rediscover joy. They talk through why adults lose the habit of play, and how small things — baking bread, nature exploration, or a simple 15 minutes of fun a day — can reconnect us to a playful God.

Amy and Bernie go through the High Five of Celebration as they review the first 100 episodes. High-five to you, our guests, listeners, and stream members who have one hundred episodes of Global Trellis: the Podcast possible. We also share from you and the listeners survey. Find out where around the world this podcast is listened to, favorite episodes, and more. Join ...

Amy and Bernie talk to author Heather Fallis about her newest book, For Those Who Send: Prayers for Those With Loved Ones Serving Abroad. Heather shares how launching her daughter to college exposed the deep, unseen cost borne by pa...

When a global move is on the horizon—be it planned or abrupt—how do you handle the logistics, as well as the soul work of leaving well? In this episode, Amy and Bernie talk again with Karli VonHerbulis about a transition workbook, created especially for cross-cultural workers. This valuable resource is packed with practical tools, reflective prompts, and ...

Have you ever gone from talking to a neighbor in one language straight into a team meeting in a different language? Or written a newsletter and then WhatsApp messaged siblings about aging parents? Or worked all day and then headed to a ministry event in the evening. If you have, I bet that at times, those daily transitions haven't always gone as smoothly as you'd hop...

Most organizations have a sexual harassment policy to handle incidents within their organization. Far fewer have a plan for what to actually do when an incident happens in the host culture. Stacey Covell returns to the show to join Amy and Bernie in unpacking best practices for handling the “dog bites” (isolated incidents) and “mosquito bites”...

It’s no surprise that Amy and Bernie love books! In this fun episode each brings three books they’ve recently read—a novel, a cross-cultural pick, and a surprise—to spark your imagination, help tend your soul, and strengthen long-haul life in ministry. What are you reading right now? Leave your answers in the comments! We’d love to know!...

Many men in cross-cultural work feel confused about their role when the women around them—wives, single teammates, daughters—face harassment. The instinct to protect and fix kicks in, but when that's not possible, many default to doing nothing. Tom Jones (husband of Rachel Pieh Jones) joins Amy and Bernie to move men past this paralysis, bringing a wealth...

Do you avoid conflict, or actually resolve it? Dr. Janeen Davis used to run from hard conversations on the field, until she found "Peace Pursuit," a biblically-grounded model for working through long-standing conflict with teammates. In this episode, she, Amy, and Bernie dig into what it means to address conflict one relationship at a time, starting with God, and how...

Amy and Bernie walk through the stages of singleness on the field—from flexible 20s to calling questions in the 30s, the “in-between” 40s, and the realities of aging parents and retirement later in life. You’ll get a clear, practical look at what singles carry in each decade and how teams can genuinely honor, include, and support them.

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Why do some third culture kids come through a cross-cultural childhood resilient and rooted, while others quietly struggle to feel like they belong anywhere? Author and coach Anna Danforth has spent years studying exactly that question, and in this episode she joins Amy and Bernie to talk about the answer she landed on: support — specifically, seven kinds of it...

Is it possible for Mom and Dad to sabbatical at the same time? If you’ve ever tried, you know it’s tough. In this “Mailbag Episode,” Amy and Bernie are joined by Jenilee Goodwin to explore how parents with kids at home can realistically experience a sabbatical. They unpack how to redefine sabbatical in a full season of life by slowing the pace...

Women's security on the field isn't solved by a checklist or a one-off self-defence session, it's built through listening, learning, and making changes that actually fit the context. Shannon Mureithi of Crisis Consulting Internationaljoins Amy and Bernie to share practical, accessible steps that...