Fruitless Endeavors
Rhonda Rhea I ALWAYS KEEP DRIED FRUIT IN MY DESK DRAWER SO I’LL HAVE A HEALTHY SNACK HANDY WHEN I’M WORKING. Except the fruits are so dry that all that’s…
Firey Lessons in Forgiveness
Rebecca Montgomery He said it was just a joke, but I was furious. I wished I could smite the smarty pants who implied my preacher father was a money-grubbing phony…
Does Your Perspective Need a Polish?
Marlene Houk Like Christopher Robin in a Winnie-the-Pooh episode called “Cleanliness Is Next to Impossible,” I too encountered his evil nemesis, the Crud monster, when spring cleaning my home for…
Clean Sweep Your Soul
Michelle S. Lazurek Most women love jewelry, flowers or candy for Valentine’s Day. Not this girl. I asked for a closet organizer. Weird, I know. But when anything in my…
EPA Award Winning Article: Sioni Rodriguez—The Freedom of Forgiveness
by Emily Walton in Leading Hearts Magazine
Congrats Emily for receiving 4th Place from the Evangelical Press Association for Student Writer of the Year
“FORGIVENESS IS A GIFT, AND YOU CAN GIVE IT TO YOURSELF AND GIVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE,” Sioni says. Sold three times and a survivor of unspeakable horrors, Sioni Rodriguez is a champion of the healing power that God and forgiveness can bring.
Raised in Costa Rica with her younger brother, Sioni’s early years were torturous.
“I was confused and afraid, living in poverty. I was
abused and violated,” Sioni says. “Our mother seemed to hate us so much.”
Her parents were alcoholics who physically, mentally and verbally abused them daily. When she was five she began getting raped nightly by her mother’s lover. “I would sit in my bed [at night], dreading his arrival,” Sioni says.
Sioni was sold for the first time when she was nine. Her mother took her to a brothel in the city and left her there. She accepted Jesus into her heart that day.
MEREDITH KENDALL: Through It All He is Faithful!
by Emily Walton in Leading Hearts Magazine
MEREDITH KENDALL HAS GONE THROUGH COUNTLESS STRUGGLES IN HER LIFE, from an alcoholic and abusive stepfather to having an affair. Today, Meredith uses her testimony to bring hope and healing to others.
Meredith never really knew God. Growing up in an abusive home, her family rarely went to church. In 1985, she became a teenage mother, married the baby’s father and moved to the Bible belt.
Her husband came from an extremely religious family, but neither of them had a relationship with God.
“We went to church, but it was really just something that you did on a Sunday,” says Meredith.
A few years into their marriage she had an affair. They were advised to talk about it and then never bring it up again.