Category: Storytellers
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Jessie Smallwood
I give thanks for all you have done, I won’t forget all the battles you have won. The words to this song were counterintuitive in the wake of devastating loss. Yet there I was, singing out over my church family, leading a song of gratitude. And that simple act of obedience became the key to […]
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Brooke Rathbun
In 2016, I was living a different life. Had you asked me then where I saw myself in five years, my plan would look nothing like the one the Lord was laying out for me. At the time, I let anxiety, fear, and anger rule my life. I was a self-proclaimed atheist, after being raised […]
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Grieve Well
Farmer Don is an 88-year-old man I meet every so often on my morning walk. Sunrise changes our habits during summer, so I hadn’t seen him for a few months when I ran into him in September. After the initial, “Where have you beens,” my mom asked him how he had been doing. “Not well,” […]
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Allison Adler’s Story of Grief
I believe my story of grief is similar to that of many women. In the summer of 2017, I had my first miscarriage. Our oldest daughter was a year and half old, and we were so excited to give her a sibling, to watch another baby grow in my womb, and to add more life […]
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Amy Tyndall Grieves Through Music
The weeks leading up to Grandma’s death were exhausting and frustrating. I was in new territory, dealing with emergency room visits, rehab, social workers, and most of all, Grandma’s unhappiness with her circumstances. words + photographs AMY TYNDALL Her decline from independence to high-need care happened very quickly, and she never adjusted. Sometimes she lashed […]
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Heather Priebe’s Journey of Second Chances
The symptoms began in 2019: weight gain, bloating and swelling in my abdomen, pain in my lower abdomen, nausea, shortness of breath. On Sept. 5, 2019, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s follicular lymphoma. My oncologist said to me, “This is treatable, not curable; you will not die from this.” I walked out of her clinic with a […]
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Jennifer Harrison Searches for Answers in Grief
Prayer. It seems like the catch-all sometimes, the easy response. “I’ll pray for you.” But what happens when you pray, yet don’t receive the answer you desire? In 2009, I prayed that prayer, that heart-ripping, never-ending, always-on-repeat prayer: “God, please save my baby.” Because I was bleeding when I shouldn’t have been. I was 12 […]
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Grace To Grieve by Lori Matthews
On Oct. 14, 2014, my husband had emergency surgery for a mass in his colon. Two days later, Todd was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. My strong, healthy, 46-year-old husband, the father of our two sons, would endure four surgeries in six days and spend 19 days in the hospital recovering. And suddenly, grief […]
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Quote: Dr. Stephen Spates
I needed to stop trying to do things like others were doing them, and start taking advantage of my own talents. Dr. Stephen Spates
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Dr. Stephen Spates
Every fall season, when a new school year begins, I think about my first year of graduate school. I was excited to begin a new journey as a graduate student in communication studies. I also felt honored to be offered a full ride and stipend as a graduate teaching fellow. I expected this to be […]
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Heather Zoromski
I recently saw a quote that said, “Ten years from now, make sure you can say that you chose your life, you didn’t settle for it.” I don’t know who said it, and since I saw it on social media, it may have been created by a bot somewhere to steal my person information. Who […]
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Quote: Heather Zoromski
THIS was the moment when I decided I was done settling in life and was going to begin choosing my own path. Heather Zoromski
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Honoring Those Who Have Served Our Country By Serving Our Communities
Army. Air Force. Coast Guard. Veterans are my blood. When I was little, my brother and I played the best made-up game: Killer Bees. We were willing participants, always on board. We were the ones running for our lives. We were the ones fearful of the monster pollinators. words + photograph JULIE JOHNSON The object, […]
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Bastian White
Dogwood RanchOzark, Missouri Volunteers at Dogwood Ranch each have their own journey that brings them to this special place. I just so happened to stumble upon mine. In December 2019, I was preparing to move from California closer to my fiance (now my husband), who was in Tennessee at the time. words + photos BASTIAN […]
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Ben McVicker
Convoy of Hope Springfield, Missouri Early on in my life, my parents instilled the value of doing something for nothing. They taught me there was something to be earned in your soul from giving your time and not asking anything for it. These lessons have not steered me wrong. I have volunteered in many places […]
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Dennis Brotherton
Victory MissionSpringfield, Missouri I have enjoyed doing volunteer work at Victory Mission + Ministry for about six years. My wife and I retired from serving as missionaries in East Asia in 2014 and moved to Springfield to see what opportunities for ministries God would open up for us. words + photographs DENNIS BROTHERTON Our daughter […]
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Quote: Bastian White
Serving at Dogwood Ranch has been a bigger blessing than I have time to express in these few words. Bastian White
Homegrown Journal 