The Rise Up Women Podcast Miki

Hi Everyone, 

This episode is an interview with Stacey Womack, who is the founder and executive director of Abuse Recovery Ministry Services (ARMS). She started this ministry for those who have experienced abuse in 1997 out of her home. ARMS domestic violence recovery program, "Her Journey", is their largest program and has served 26,000 women over the last 22 years.  ARMS has expanded across the US, and now has leaders in Mexico, Canada, Kenya and soon Zambia.  ARMS provides multiple programs serving the whole family, including domestic violence intervention for men and women. (This is one of the reasons I decided to partner up with ARMS, not only it is faith-based but also  I love that they serve both men and women and their families!) 

Stacey is a respected member and has co-chaired many Domestic Violence Councils in multiple counties. Stacey is also the recipient of the 2012 Judge Herrald Award for Outstanding Collaborative Efforts to End Family Violence in Multnomah County, OR.

Stacey and her husband Jerry have been married for 39 years, have 6 kids and 11 grandchildren.

In this Episode you will hear:

* How Stacey got this ministry started

* How domestic violence effects all parties involved - whole family!

* How both women and men are affected by the devastation of domestic abuse

* How she saw the need to help abusers (primarily men) and how ARMS helps them

* How ARMS serves 



This is how you can get in touch with ARMS:

www.abuserecovery.org

www.facebook.com/abuserecovery 

www.instagram.com/abuserecoveryservices 

www.twitter.com/abuseservices 

www.linkedin.com/company/abuserecovery



Rise Up Women podcast is all about empowerment, encouragement, hope, inspiration, and betterment of ourselves. There are so many women who are going through or have gone through trauma like domestic violence, betrayal, and divorce.

Thank you for listening!

The Rise Up Women Movement and Podcast

PS: This podcast is supported by listeners like you! If you have it in your heart to support this podcast, please visit https://www.patreon.com/riseupwomenmovement and donate. I thank you so much for your support!

Where you can find me:
Connect with me on Facebook: Connect with me on the following social media!
https://www.facebook.com/coachingwithmiki/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riseupwomenmovement/

Join our movement: https://www.facebook.com/groups/riseupwomenmovement/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mikisturges/
https://www.instagram.com/riseupwomenmovement/

Domestic Violence Hotline
National Domestic Violence Hotline : 1800-799-SAFE (7233) / 1800-787-3234






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Hello everyone!

This is an episode #13!  Thank you so much for listening!

I have a special guest in this episode!  I had an honor of speaking with Indrani Goradia, who is a philanthropist and advocate for women’s health and empowerment. She is the founder of Indrani’s Light Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving the level of care for domestic violence survivors by training and supporting front-line domestic violence caregivers in reducing compassion fatigue and burnout.

Indrani is a tireless advocate for girls and women leading empowerment trainings in several countries around the world. She is an author, speaker and certified life coach, she has delivered numerous speeches around the world. 

She is a board member of Everywoman Treaty and Think Equal. In 2013, Indrani joined forces with the global health organization PSI and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to transform the lives of girls and women and lift them out of poverty. In partnership with PSI, Indranis Light Foundation launched programs to eradicate gender-based violence in India and her home country of Trinidad in 2014.

An author, speaker and certified life coach, Indrani has delivered keynote addresses at conferences and leads workshops around the world. Indrani has participated as a speaker at the World Women’s Health and Development Forum at the United Nations. She also recently participated on the keynote panel at the Nexus Conference in Jamaica, the UBS’s “It’s a Girl” conference in Switzerland, Global India Fund’s Girl Rising Screening and panel in D.C, Women Moving Millions, TEDx Port of Spain 2015 Conference and at the 2016 Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen. 

Her Tedx Talk, titled “Love Expressed as Violence is a Lie” can be found here.=> https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=XVntxzk9QUo

Indrani completed her formal education in New York City, attending Queens College and Kent State University. She is currently preparing to begin a certification in Social Impact Strategy at UPenn and an executive leadership program at THNK in Amsterdam for 2019. She is also tri-athlete and marathoner in her spare time.

In this interview, We discussed from her own experiences, parenting tips to how domestic violence affects not only women themselves, but their children and everything else in between. I so enjoyed my time together with her, she's an amazing woman!!

If you’d like to get in touch with Indrani, all the links are in the show notes. But she is in our Rise Up Women facebook group so you can get in touch with her there too!

Bio for TedX Talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXee2B0zs_c

TedX Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=XVntxzk9QUo

Indrani Goradia addresses the United Nations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSTk_ppbS58

If you’d like to get in touch with Indrani, all the links are in the show notes. But she is in our Rise Up Women facebook group so you can get in touch with her there too!

Enjoy the interview!  Thank you for listening! 

PS: This podcast is supported by listeners like you! If you have it in your heart to support this podcast, please visit https://www.patreon.com/riseupwomenmovement and donate. I thank you so much for your support!













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Hey There!

I have a special guest, Valerie Close on this episode.  She is a whitty married mother of three who has a huge heart. She lives in South Carolina with her husband and teenage son, she works as a medical biller and writes for her blog "Anchored in a Trove”.  Her mission in life is to encourage and show the people around her that there is hope even if the world looks dim. She loves the Lord and can’t help but to share the love of God to the people she meets. She plans to write a book about her experiences in life so that other women like her can avoid going through some of the same things and to be able to see how real God is and how much grace He has to offer. As a domestic violence survivor she now has a passion to educate and raise awareness.  She loves music and can probably find an appropriate song to go with any issue or occasion. She is a deep thinker and analyzer and loves to learn what makes people tick. She puts her heart into every creative piece of art she makes and loves to give her pieces away as gifts.

As you will hear in the interview, she has gone through tough situations starting at age 18, 3 different domestic violence situations.  She wanted to share about all 3 relationships because she said they were different each time. Abuse comes in all kinds of ways, physical, emotional, verbal, all about power and control. She is passionate about raising awareness and spread the light of hope to everyone. God has restored her life since and continues to heal from these traumatic experiences.

Once again, I’d like to warn you that as we discuss her abuse experience, this episode might trigger some of you. If so, you may stop listening, take a deep breath, and remind yourself of all the blessings and good things that are happening to you, and remind yourself that it is NOT happening to you right now. If you are still in an abusive situation, we highly recommend you to get some help. I can’t urge you enough. Don’t put yourself and if you have children, don’t put your precious children in danger. You may call domestic violence hotline, Help for Domestic Abuse, at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

If you’re interested in connecting with Valerie, here are her links:


Social Media:

Instagram - @anchoredinatrove

Facebook – @anchoredinatrove

Twitter – @anchoredtrove

Website:  Kingdom Winds – https://kingdomwinds.com/valerie-close/ 

Email: anchoredinatrove@outlook.com

Thank you for listening!

The Rise Up Women Movement and Podcast

PS: This podcast is supported by listeners like you! If you have it in your heart to support this podcast, please visit https://www.patreon.com/riseupwomenmovement and donate. I thank you so much for your support!

Where you can find me:
Connect with me on Facebook: Connect with me on the following social media!
https://www.facebook.com/coachingwithmiki/
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mikisturges/
https://www.instagram.com/riseupwomenmovement/
Domestic Violence Hotline
National Domestic Violence Hotline : 1800-799-SAFE (7233) / 1800-787-3234






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Hey there! 

This is the short second half of the interview with Melinda Kunst!

To be honest with you, I hesitated to publish this episode. I was not sure if I should even share my story though it came up during the interview. 

Melinda, being the strong & encouraging woman she is, inspired me to just publish unedited.  So here it is!

Just wanted to give you a heads up - we talk about sexual abuse - subtle, but indeed is sexual abuse when we are forced to do things we don't want to do. Even though we have a choice to say no, we are afraid of consequences that follow (most of the time, end in violence or harsh verbal abuse or belittling etc.)

We also talk about my experience with the attorney - frustrating experience, I might add. Melinda shared what you could do on your own as well. 

Once again, I’d like to warn you that as we discuss her abuse experience, this episode might trigger some of you. If so, you may stop listening, take a deep breath, and remind yourself of all the blessings and good things that are happening to you, and remind yourself that it is NOT happening to you right now. If you are still in an abusive situation, we highly recommend you to get some help. I can’t urge you enough. Don’t put yourself and if you have children, don’t put your precious children in danger. You may call domestic violence hotline, Help for Domestic Abuse, at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

If you’re interested in being a guest on this postcast and ready to share your story, please connect with me on Facebook (link below). I'd love to connect and chat with you! 

Thank you for listening!

The Rise Up Women Movement and Podcast

PS: This podcast is supported by listeners like you! If you have it in your heart to support this podcast, please visit https://www.patreon.com/riseupwomenmovement and donate. I thank you so much for your support!

Where you can find me:
Connect with me on Facebook: Connect with me on the following social media!
https://www.facebook.com/coachingwithmiki/
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mikisturges/
https://www.instagram.com/riseupwomenmovement/
Domestic Violence Hotline
National Domestic Violence Hotline : 1800-799-SAFE (7233) / 1800-787-3234




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Hey there, thank you for visiting and listening to the Rise Up Women Podcast, Episode #10!  

This is an interview with Melinda Kunst, a mom, a wife, a survivor of child abuse and domestic abuse, also a blogger, and an author of Rising from the ashes, and call me master.  

When she shared with me that she felt that God was calling her to share her story, her pain and struggles, I immediately identified with her as I felt the same!   WE were both afraid to share our stories and even looked away but God kept speaking to us and encouraging us to share our stories.   One day it dawned on both of us, this is much bigger than our fear!  It is not about us, it is about how our stories could touch someone and give someone courage to leave and take their power back. It is our mission!

Once again, my conversation with Melinda went just a bit long, so this is the first part of our conversation with her just so you know that the ending might feel like it was cut off awkwardly. 

In this episode, she shares a lot about her experience how she was sucked into a marriage she didn't feel "right" and ended up in abusive marriage which she felt no way out, yet she still felt "bad for him".  Now she gives glory to God that she's now safe and makes a mission for her also to share and inspire others with her story.

Thank you for listening to this first Half of the interview with Melinda, stay tuned for the second half that is coming up next week! 

I hope you are blessed and inspired by this episode. 

For more information and the show notes for this episode, please visit https://mikisturges.com/010

If this show intrigues you in any way, please subscribe, share with others and leave usa feedback and review on iTunes! I’d love to hear from you! It helps us to rank higher, that means to spread more awareness to domestic violence and effects it has on us women and also children. The Rise Up women podcast is supported by listeners like you! Please visit www. patreon.com/riseupwomenmovement and consider donating to support this movement. 

Thank you again for listening!!

See you next time. 



Miki Sturges




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Hey there, Thank you so much for tuning in! 

For this week's episode I have decided to interview my good friend, Nicole Mattson.  As I was preparing to publish another podcast episode which was supposed to be a solo show, something just prompted me to have Nicole on the podcast. I originally asked her to talk about parenting from the teacher’s point of view, but I believe it was the Holy Spirit’s prompt that led her to share the story about her deceased son Tyler.  

Several years ago, she moved from Western Colorado where she taught my children to Indiana. Ever since, we have been talking about having her over so our boys and she could climb another 14-ers. ( Mountains taller than 14, 000 ft) which they have done several times before.  That finally came true and was visiting us when I decided to interview her for the Rise Up Women Podcast. 

She is the mother of 4 children, Jamie Mattson, Coty Day, Seth Day, and the deceased Tyler Day. She has been an educator for over 20 years and has actually taught my sons.  She currently lives in Indiana where she is the Superintendant of schools for the 13 Adventist schools there.  While she was teaching here in Colorado, I got to know her and I know that she is one of the courageous and strongest women I know and one of those who have huge heart and tremendous unwavering faith in God. I admire her greatly for her compassion, love for others (especially children!) and strength.  

In this episode, she goes into details of what her son, Tyler went through from 14 years of age till he passed away at age 19 and her cry to God and struggle as a mom, a teacher and caregiver.  In the midst of all the unimaginable events, she sought out God's will, cried out to save her son, and ultimately trusting God and His will.  She kept seeing the message of "The Best is Yet to Come".  She didn't know in the beginning what it meant, but it came clear to her at the end, the best is yet to come for Tyler who is waiting to wake up to see Jesus face to face - very very soon, where all of his family and friends will be reunited.  Oh What a day that will be!

You may also read her article here =>  http://circle.adventist.org/files/nadspiritual/BestIsYetToCome.pdf

In this world, there will be troubles and heartaches like this and everything seems to be hopeless and in despair, but we do have hope! I love this verse: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Thank you again for listening! 

Subscribe, Rate & Review!

I would love to hear from you and would love it if you'd subscribe to the podcast, share with others and leave an honest feedback /review!  This will encourage others to listen and allow us to grow as a community!  The more we grow as a community of women who support each other, the more impact we can make in the world!   

PS: This podcast is supported by listeners like you! If you have it in your heart to support this podcast, please visit https://www.patreon.com/riseupwomenmovement and donate. I thank you so much for your support! 

Where you can find me:
Connect with me on Facebook: Connect with me on the following social media!
https://www.facebook.com/coachingwithmiki/
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mikisturges/
https://www.instagram.com/riseupwomenmovement/ 






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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-rise-up-women-podcast/message