EDEN Speaks Pastor Shannon McLeod and Amy Martella, LMFT

God has been SO good to us in the season - a season of challenge, change, transition, growth and connection.  We started this podcast in a time when we couldn't gather in person and we wanted nothing more than to be able to stay connected.  EDEN Speaks was our answer to that.  But we realize that while God called us into this, He also calls for us to create space for other things that He has for us.  So, in this farewell episode we reflect on how much this meant, our favorite moments and the funny blooper moments that also brought us joy.  We hope you enjoyed listening as much as we did sharing with you.  

We are back after a short break in April and we felt like the season was right to talk about transitions.  Transition in the literal season to summer (hopefully soon!), transition out of the school year, transition in all things big and small.  We dig into how we can struggle with this for a million different reasons but that when we take a step back, we know we are always equipped to walk through these transitions because of Jesus.

A lot has changed since we last recorded!  Over the last month and a half Shannon and Amy have been figuring out how to stay connected while being geographically in different places.  In this episode, we dig into friendship and the challenges that come with relationships, having hard conversations, being intentional and navigating new and unknown territory.  This is the first conversation, of many to be certain, about relationships of all kinds.  

At our EDEN Gathering last Friday (sorry we are late y'all!) Pastor Stacy brought us a beautiful and encouraging message on healing. If you weren't able to make it in person for that you should definitely go back and listen, you won't be sad you did.  In this episode we recap that and discuss what it means to be active participants in our own healing while recognizing that we don't have to earn the healing that Jesus readily gives us.  #letthehealingbegin

This week we have an EDEN Gathering-EDEN Speaks mashup featuring Katie Barnhart! We are continuing with the sharing of our story but we are also continuing the topic of sex.  At our EDEN Gathering we heard from Aloysia, Stacy, Shannon and Amy about their sexual stories but we wanted to continue that theme with another angle that is extremely important - the story of someone who waited until marriage to have sex.  Katie shares with us her experience in walking that path, the positive and negative aspects of the "Purity Culture" and how those things impacted her as a person, how she parents her children and the challenges and blessings that it brought to her marriage.

It's February!  Which means that our EDEN Gathering was all about sex and sexuality.  A topic that is deep and vast and complicated......and sometimes hard to talk about.  So here we are, talking about it, because it is important.  The episode is a recap, kind of. We reference our Gathering, but since it wasn't recorded and those who were not able to attend can't go back and listen, we don't do a full recap.  Instead, we are just diving a little deeper into the topic as a whole and what that means for us as women and as Christians.