Profiles of Endurance Fr. Scott VanDerveer

If God spoke directly to you, would you follow the guidance you received, no matter what? Dan McHale had a moment of divine clarity when he was 20, but life presented many other worthy opportunities along the way that clouded the message. How did he get back in alignment with God's plans for his life? Listen as this newly ordained, 41-year-old priest shares his story with Fr. Scott.

Bashir Chedrawee thought he was called to be a doctor, but he misunderstood the reason for his interest in health and science.  Only later did he realize that he was not called to treat illness as a doctor, he was called to prevent illness and promote health as the creator and promoter of Simone’s Kitchen, a local restaurant that serves homemade Lebanese food, tailored for today’s American tastes and lifestyles.  Listen as Bashir shares with Fr. Scott the story of how the call he thought he had to be a healer led him not to medicine but to holistic nutrition.
 
Simone’s Kitchen: https://www.ordersimones.com/

Frances Cannon was born to a large Baptist family during the post-war baby boom. Along her life journey she collected nuggets from a number of Christian denominations before she found her home in the Catholic faith. But she didn't stop there. 
 
Listen as this mother of three and grandmother of three describes how she answered a call to become a nun in midlife, and what that journey from the Bible Belt to the convent has yielded in her life.

How do I know that I am being called to do something in particular with my life?  How does God issue a calling and what does it look like to respond?  
Danielle Epting discusses how she knew God wanted her to be a writer and what it takes for her to be faithful in following that calling.  Listen as she joins Fr. Scott (first known to her in 2008 as “Mr. V,” her middle school religion teacher) to discuss the anatomy of a call.

All of us want to treat others in welcoming and inclusive ways, but if we have little experience interacting with people who have disabilities, we may not know how to do that effectively.  You may even have had the experience of trying to connect respectfully with someone who has a disability, and realized that you had done so poorly, but did not know why or how to fix it.
 
Christina Serra is an actor, artist and educator in Ontario, Canada, and is the mother of three children, the oldest of whom, Bruno, has cerebral palsy, which makes him unable to speak and requires him to use a wheelchair.  She offers us her experience and helps guide us toward interacting more effectively with those with disabilities.

Spirituality is something that some of us inherit while others must go on a journey to find. Debbie Kirsch was raised in a loving, nominally Jewish household that she describes as simply “American.” In her youth, Jesus was a fascinating figure, but one as remote as Zeus or Sparticus. In college, experiences with Christians and praise music drew her in... so far, in fact, she joined a Christian household made up of a young family and other singles modeled on First Century Christianity as it is described the Bible in the Book of Acts. 
 
Today Debbie’s Christian faith is half a century in the making. She shares with Fr. Scott how faith helps her through the trials of living with an abundance of physical pain, and, for the past decade, in a wheelchair.