Partnering
This ministry is supported by donations from those God has called to help with this work. The funds donated by people like you provides pastoral counseling to many who would otherwise not be able to afford it, supports the website and blog, and enables giving to others who are doing similar ministry around the world. If you’d like to contribute either on a one-time or recurring basis, please do so here. Recurring donations will be processed once a month. All donations are tax deductible and you will receive a receipt for taxes. Checks can be mailed to Broken & Hopeful, P.O. Box 620061, Littleton, CO 80162. Thank you!!
2018 Successes
Counseling & Discipleship
On track to log 1,000 hours of donation-based counseling by the end of 2018
90% of counseling from referrals from previous counselees
Testimonials from counselees and others who read the blog (see below)
Counseling load continues to grow
Someone asked me how we measure the work being done and quantify the effect of the donations given. That’s a difficult one because people are never “finished” but I do find it incredible that 90% of my counselees find me because of referrals from others who have worked with me in counseling previously. That, to me, says that those people have found freedom, emotional health and joy in a way they hadn’t prior to our work together and want to recommend this to others. Thanks to God for all the work He does in each of us on this journey! I am so grateful for being able to participate.
Some have also asked me about the basis for my counseling. I use techniques learned from Mike Wells, a former mentor and friend, in taking a history and personality test to begin with each counselee, allowing me to understand their perspective and particular hurts better. I also often use an emotional God concept test to get a read on their emotional experience of God. Different negative emotional God concepts leads to a frustration between the mind and emotions in terms of trusting God. We move forward from these foundational pieces to discuss some of the issues that come out of these history and personality combinations. I want to address all aspects of the person, so sometimes this requires coaching, sometimes listening, sometimes challenging and sometimes reminding of the truth. We examine lies in a person’s identity messages, look for who Jesus promises to be in the middle of hard circumstances and walk through how to practically work out the abundant life of Jesus within in dealing with whatever individual struggles may be presented.
Testimonials
Hannah…I know Jesus has met me here, another morning validating His work in my life. Reading this I couldn’t help but think of all the different ways you’ve encouraged me to do just as Jesus spoke to me this morning. He is more real to me today than He has been in a long time. The beauty is – I don’t even care “why” my winter happened, or looking for ways to develop a strategy of preventative maintenance – NO! I just know “apart from Him I can do NOTHING”. -T
I want to thank you again for the work we did together a while back. It was powerful and helpful and God is amazing! -C
My mom’s stuff is not my stuff!My kid’s stuff is not my stuff!My husband’s stuff is not my stuff! God gives me the ability and privilege to choose. Satan grooms, pushes, drives us to choose before we know what is happening. God helps us to untangle our enmeshments that wound our souls and the souls of those we love. –M
The Lord significantly used my time with Hannah to deal specifically with my fear of man and my fear of abandonment. These issues have both played out significantly in my family of origin and at the time with my husband’s role as senior pastor of one international church and associate pastor of another international church. My family and my husband love me and a real threat of abandonment wasn’t there; the pain came more in the sense of being overlooked when someone else had something bigger going on. Which in my case, happens quite frequently. Even though this part of my journey isn’t finished, I’m a little excited in the process. Excited to walk with God as my family stuff continues to come up. Excited and humbled to maybe be a part of His healing for them. Most of all, I’m excited to grow closer to Him and to reflect Him more and me less. -Kelly (read the rest of the Story of Hope here)
I decided to seek a counselor and Hannah was who God led me to. As a man, I was not really excited about going through counseling with a woman, but the Lord made it clear He wanted Hannah to be my counselor, so I contacted her, and we began a journey into some pretty dark and hidden stuff in my soul and heart. As we worked together, the Lord began to show me the lies I had believed about myself and Him. I grew up with a mother who rejected me, and a father who was passive and emotionally distant. My emotional concept of God was: there is something very wrong with me, so I need to perform to receive His acceptance and love, if I behave in a way that pleases Him, He might be willing to give me His love and approval, occasionally, but only if I am consistent (the relationship is all on me, what a load to bear). Self-effort, shame, performance and condemnation was the foundation of my relationship with God. I hated myself and lived with an ongoing inward anger and resentment toward God and women that was hidden deep in my heart, but growing like a cancer.
Over time, as Hannah and I unpacked the emotional bags, Jesus began to reveal the false identities and beliefs that had kept me mentally and emotionally tied up and imprisoned. Slowly I handed Him all the idols I trusted in, instead of running to Him each moment. He began to reveal to my heart, who He really is: a loving Papa father who doted over me and thought about me every moment of every day, whose love is unconditional and based solely on who He is, not what I do or accomplish. My acceptance was based on my new birth in Christ, and now I was His son. He was not my mother and father with their flawed version of love (though I know now they loved me the best that they could, considering their own hurts and hang-ups).
The story isn’t over, I’m learning to live with an unknown illness and its effects (though some of the symptoms have improved for which I am grateful) while abiding in Jesus each moment with thanks. And I haven’t arrived yet in my concept of God as a gracious, amazing, loving Papa Father and Jesus as my very life. I find myself defaulting back to old identities and beliefs, running to idols that can’t help, and each time my Papa Father takes my hand and says, “come dance with me Scott, I love you!” I’m learning to receive His overwhelming, abundant, extravagant love and grace in Jesus, abiding in Him as MY LIFE, not asking Him to somehow help me do better. I’m learning to forgive Scott for all his past junk, and to love him in the moment, as one created in God’s image. How strange it is to love the person God made me to be, instead of loathing and despising myself, and to experience Jesus each moment who is my rest, rather than living in constant anxiety and fear. -Scott (read the rest of the story here)
Projects
10-day email course published
Second printing of Identity: Truth vs. Lie
Support Team & Fundraising
Because of the donation model, I am able to work with many who could not afford to work with a $120/hour counselor. I talk with pastors, missionaries, college students, survivors of trauma, domestic violence survivors, orphans, and many others who would otherwise be limited by finances. Many more are able to work through their issues while paying as much as they can afford—sometimes that’s $100 per month and sometimes $20. I love how the body of Christ supports others in need, helping them to move forward into a healthy relationship with Jesus.
Last year, donations equaled $38,000 for the year. In other words, we’ve managed to do $120,000 worth of counseling for $38,000.With keeping overhead down, doing most of the administrative and marketing tasks myself and promoting as much as possible using word-of-mouth, we hope to continue to operate and grow for a minimal cost and be able to help as many as possible with this money. My board members are key in this success, as they help with so many of the fundraising and accounting tasks that are quite beyond my skill set.
We have a very generous business donor match for our November contributions again, allowing us to enter 2019 with a solid financial base from which to draw the whole year.
2019 Plan
Release of intensive video course early 2019
Continued donation-based counseling
Maintain low overhead with hourly rental of office, utilization of technology like Skype, Facetime and Zoom
We hope to release a self-paced, intensive video course early 2019. This is designed to be like sitting in counseling with me for several hours, thus magnifying work done while reducing time. People will be able to discover why they act the way they do and the messages they have about identity in a self-paced course. My hope is that those who take this video course will be able to find freedom and hope in the midst of their situation because they see Jesus in it, and recognize His Life as their identity rather than the negative messages they have received from their past.
I also plan to do continued donation-based counseling next year, equaling or excelling the 1,000 hours we have accomplished this year.
Thanks be to Jesus Christ for His continued kindness to each of us in our own circumstances as He draws us each to know Him through our story!