From Widowhood to Courageous Living

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SPEAKER 03 : 1:01

Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.

SPEAKER 05 : 1:09

It’s Angie Austin here with The Good News, and The Good News is my new radio friend, Rachel Kerr Schneider, is joining us. And she wrote the book, The Widow Chose Red, My Journey with Jesus, John, and ALS. Welcome back, friends.

SPEAKER 08 : 1:24

Hi, Angie. It’s always good to be with you.

SPEAKER 05 : 1:27

I wanted to have you back because after we talked about your book, Losing Your Husband, Raising Your Boys, and just the journey with Jesus through all of this, I knew that you would have all kinds of life experiences and feedback on the book because it was just coming out and other interviews, et cetera. But when you called today, I haven’t been to Europe yet. It’s like my big thing. I’ve been trying to get there. for the last three years. My husband apparently doesn’t want me to go without him, but he feels he’s too busy to go. And I just told him last week, I’m like, hey, why aren’t we going this summer? He goes, I said, all my friends are going. And he said, we have kids. I’m like, everybody has kids. Like all of our friends have kids. So what brings you to France?

SPEAKER 08 : 2:06

Well, I have actually a college girlfriend who was actually one of my early readers for the book. And Marianne married a Danish man. She went to a girls’ trip to Monaco, and that’s where she met her husband. And so they split their time. Get this. They have a home in Denmark. They have a home in Nice, which is where I am. And they will have a home in Miami next summer. So talk about an international jet set lifestyle. I have a pen here.

SPEAKER 05 : 2:43

I was wondering if I could get her number and then I’m going to let her know we’re friends and then say, you know, have you ever heard of girls trips? Have you ever heard of girls trips? Many girls go, you know?

SPEAKER 08 : 2:52

Oh, absolutely. And I tell you, it’s always good to have a friend like that because we have had, and they have a boat. It’s a big boat. And they’ve already taken, Kevin and I are here. And so we’ve been here almost a week. And the timing is too, Angie, that one of my bonus daughters, Catherine, is actually doing one of those student abroad. She studies French. And so she had the chance to come here for a month. And so we are meeting, we’re meeting her here. And so how cool is it? We’re just going to drive over to Italy for the weekend. Who does that?

SPEAKER 05 : 3:34

I don’t want to talk about it. I’m bitter. I’m very bitter. No, I’m not. My best girl, you would not believe, I’m going to send you the text that really my best friend ever in the world that I’ve been friends with for the majority of my life, she sent me a photo yesterday. And she’s a month in France with a huge family gathering. And she goes, this is my view today. And I wanted to just reach her through the phone and punch her. But that’s every Christian of me, you know?

SPEAKER 08 : 4:04

You’re right. Yes, you’re right. But oh, my goodness. Oh, well, how wonderful for her. And, you know, you’ll get here, Auntie. You will get here. I will tell you, I waited and I waited and I waited while all the other girlfriends came. And all I would hear about was Mary Ann and how lovely it was and everything. And I would just bite my tongue. And say, okay, okay. So, I mean, I’ve waited a long, long time.

SPEAKER 05 : 4:29

Yes, you did have to nurse your husband through ALS, losing him, raising your boys, your older boy going through just really the ringer with life and rehab and all kinds of other things. So you definitely did your time in the waiting room to get to France. Yes. When I reached out to you, because the minute I interviewed you, I saw it. First, I got the press release. So then immediately when we did an interview, I’m like, oh, we would be friends. We would be friends. And so you’ve come back. And since our first three interviews or so, I knew that you’d start getting feedback on the book, you know, losing your husband, the Christian community that you spoke about that embraced you when you were nursing him through the ALS. having young boys at the time, you know, elementary, middle school age boys at the time that you were going to have to raise alone and waiting like a year to even tell the boys that he was going to, you know, be passing away due to ALS. So since you wrote the book, like what kind of feedback are you getting? What kind of interviews are you doing? Like, what are you hearing and how are you feeling?

SPEAKER 08 : 5:25

Well, so what I’m finding still is that a lot of people don’t know what it is. And, you know, Yeah, a lot of people still don’t know what ALS is. They probably in the United States are more familiar with Lou Gehrig’s disease, but even then they don’t know exactly what it is. And the people that do know, unfortunately, it’s because they probably had some kind of direct experience with the disease. But I will tell you that shortly after we talked, Eric Dane, Mr. McSteamy or Dr. McSteamy from Gray’s Anatomy. Yes. His diagnosis, yes, his diagnosis was confirmed and And, you know, and he’s a very, you know, he’s in a show, Euphoria or something. I don’t watch it, but he’s at 52 years old, and he’s had it for a year, and they’ve just now been able to confirm what it was. And so here we are. Unfortunately, usually, though, it takes somebody with some kind of celebrity status to really bring attention to this disease because people, As I’ve mentioned earlier, it’s still such a small, there are only about 30,000 people in the United States that are living with it and only between 5,000 and 6,000 that are diagnosed at any given year. So it’s still a very, very small percentage of people. So I’m finding that I’m still explaining what the disease is and how it works, but Eric, his interview, he was interviewed with Diane Sawyer earlier, And they actually brought, you know, a doctor on. And of course, you know, everybody has hope and we never want to take that away. But you could also see or sense there’s, there’s, there’s, he’s scared. He’s scared. And I totally get that. And I was just sitting there. I think he’s got two teenage girls. He is separated from his wife, but they’re, they’re co-parenting, I guess. Well, but you could just see that he is like, okay. If the doctor, he said, if the doctor told me to go to Germany and eat the head off of a rattlesnake, I would do it. So there’s still, you know, all these years later, my husband’s been gone for 14 years and was diagnosed 17 years ago. There’s still like this little bit of desperation, right? Like I’ll do whatever you tell me to, whatever you tell me to. And that’s just it. The doctors still can’t tell you anything. that could possibly make it better. And so I’m really, you know, I just hope that he has faith. I don’t know what any part of that part of his life, but, you know, we all hope because at least it won’t make all the pain go away, but it can give us some strategies to help us fortify ourselves as we do go through these things, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER 05 : 8:22

You know, I looked up Eric to see if he – you know, family. You had the two boys. He’s got two girls, and it looks like the youngest one’s around 14, the other girl. I mean, I’ve never seen more beautiful young girls in my life. Aren’t they? Yeah. Oh, unbelievable. Well, Eric Daines, the dad and the actress. Yeah. Gay Heart. Rebecca Gay Heart is the mom.

SPEAKER 08 : 8:43

Rebecca, yeah.

SPEAKER 05 : 8:43

Yeah. It’s their mom. So, yeah, it’s a shame that this Lou Gehrig’s disease slash ALS becomes well-known when more people who are well-known get it, like an actor like in this case. But also that ice bucket challenge, people were like, oh, well, it is ALS. Let me Google that and then figure out what it is. And people abbreviate it because it’s hard to pronounce ALS. Now, in terms of feedback that you’re getting from The Widow Chose Red, because your book hasn’t been out that long, what kind of feedback are you getting? Because you have a perfect rating on Amazon.

SPEAKER 08 : 9:18

Well, I’m finding that a lot of people, A, number one, I’m excited, Angie, that people are reading. Yay! Yes, yes. Because reading is good, right?

SPEAKER 06 : 9:29

Yes.

SPEAKER 08 : 9:29

And so I’m finding that a lot of people are finding the book easy, and to get through, which is good, you know. And I’m finding, too, that a lot of people are saying, well, Rachel, the people that knew me that have known me for a while realized that there was so much of a story that they didn’t know. So they’re like, wow, Rachel, you know, we had no idea that it was actually, you were actually going through all of this or that you were wrestling with some things because, we didn’t see that, right? We didn’t see that part of you. And then I’ve had complete strangers who have left great reviews saying how it’s really been encouraging for them, how it’s really given them a new attitude about having gratitude in their life and appreciation for where they are. Even if they are going through something hard, they can kind of you know, look at it through a different lens and really kind of go, what is it that I’m supposed to be learning today while I’m going through this. So I have, yeah, I’m booking speaking engagements. I’m having, you know, women’s conferences call me and say, can we get you on the calendar in the fall? And so those things are coming along. I’ve had some great, you know, some great interviews with several television stations down on the Gulf Coast and over in Virginia. So I’m very excited to to still be talking about something that even though, you know, it seems, I know the story and I know the disease and I’m, you know, have lived with it and dealt with it. I’m still surprised by how many people Andy still don’t know about ALS.

SPEAKER 05 : 11:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER 08 : 11:20

I have come up with, I have come up with a new acronym. I’m going to share it with you.

SPEAKER 05 : 11:25

Okay.

SPEAKER 08 : 11:25

My version of a, my version of ALS always, living spiritually.

SPEAKER 05 : 11:34

Yes, because your faith is something that you talk about so in-depth, and I leaned on the Christian community. You were in Minnesota, but because of your husband, you were traveling yearly or even more just because of his high-powered job, and that you didn’t have roots in any communities. You were going to go back to the South and be in your original, you know, with family and friends, but you stayed in Minnesota, and you were It just blew your mind how they just wrapped you all with love and took care of you. And you’re back down in the South. But one thing I remember you mentioned and you use your journals for the book and that I saw one of the reviews that said how important journaling has become for the reviewer. And it’s something that you really credited with helping you through this journey, losing your husband and raising your sons.

SPEAKER 08 : 12:19

Absolutely. And I didn’t even realize how much I had been doing that until I went back and decided that I was going to write this book. And I think the important thing about journaling, because I know a lot of people get scared about it, I don’t know how to write, Am I going to have enough time? What am I really going to say? It is just really a way for you to take those thoughts that are in your head and get them down on paper. They don’t have to be complete sentences. You can use just words. You can talk about situations that happened during the day. You can, you know, things about your kids or your environment or just those phrases that maybe you heard or came into your head. those things that you are wrestling with. I mean, there’s so many things. And putting the pen to paper, I know we live in a very digital world, and I know we all like to type on our computers or press buttons on our phones and text and all of that. But I will tell you, I still believe in that power of that body and mind connection. And I still think there’s something that happens to us that helps us to physically release things when we write.

SPEAKER 05 : 13:33

Yeah, I would agree with you. I find that it is. very transformative when I do that and there’s a lot more clarity in my day and in my life. All right, Rachel Kirschneider, how do we find you and how do we find your book, The Widow Chose Red, My Journey with Jesus, John and ALS?

SPEAKER 08 : 13:49

You can find me at spiritedprosperity.com. You can find me at thewidowchosered.com. You can reach out to me on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on YouTube and Those are all great avenues to reach me. And, of course, the audio version I narrated, it is on Spotify, and the book is available on Amazon and at local retailers as well.

SPEAKER 05 : 14:16

Excellent, my friend. I can’t wait until our next interview.

SPEAKER 08 : 14:19

Angie, I miss you. I hope you’re summer. Tell me you’ve got something. Tell me you’ve got something planned.

SPEAKER 05 : 14:25

Oh, I have a huge family reunion in Northern California on rushing streams where we have – I’m staying at I rented a winery for my cousins and I, the giant house with the pool. So a bunch of us can stay there and we’ll cook there. But then a lot of the other rugged relatives are going to be camping on the creek or the river. But what’s cool about the rivers is you can jump off these giant rocks into the swimming hole. And we got the two best campsites like in the United States of America. They’re right on campus. the best swimming area. My cousin like stayed up until midnight, like a year ago or six months ago and books them the minute that it turned, you know, midnight. And she goes, I got the best ones in the whole world for us to have for our swimming hole. So we, I mean, we, it’s like adult camp when we, when all the cousins get together, we just, we’re best friends. So we text every day and we’re on a thread and I just can’t wait to get there.

SPEAKER 08 : 15:19

Oh, Angie, I’m so excited. I am excited for you, girlfriend. I can’t wait to hear all about it next time we talk. And in the meantime, you take good care of yourself, okay?

SPEAKER 05 : 15:28

You too. All right, honey. Goodbye.

SPEAKER 08 : 15:30

All right. Take care.

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SPEAKER 06 : 16:33

Cheyenne Wells is tuned to KLTT Denver.

SPEAKER 05 : 16:42

Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news. And also joining me is Grace Fox. And today we are talking about her book, Finding Hope in Crisis, Devotions for Calm in Chaos. Hello, friend. Hi, it’s good to talk to you again. You have been on yet another adventure, haven’t you? I mean, seriously, girl.

SPEAKER 07 : 17:04

So this time I was off to visit family because my oldest grandchild graduated from high school. And then my six-year-old who, you know, I spent a lot of time with that particular family with the three little ones while my son-in-law was going to residency. And my daughter just was alone a lot and just needed some help getting through her pregnancies. So Lexi, the granddaughter who’s six, graduated from kindergarten and her folks had to go off to another family commitment. So I was the stand-in grandma for that and then cared for the kids for three days. That was my latest adventure. Exhausting. Exhausting.

SPEAKER 05 : 17:44

Yeah, but how fun. I always tease you because, you know, you joke that when you were raising your kids, you know, your husband was involved in ministry and you wanted to do something. So you’re like, Angie, I did every side job, side hustle I could, they call it now. Tupperware lady, you know, whatever it was. And I said, do you even realize like now you’ve written, you know, is it 14 or 15 books? Coming 15, my 15th will release in a week, so I ate. Yeah, so here you are, a grandmother, and I hear you think you’re this regular grandmother, but really, you’ve opened this whole world of opportunity. I mean, just in the last couple of months, you’ve been all over Europe. You had this great ministry deal going on in Poland. was telling my husband the other day when we watched this documentary on the ukraine and i said oh my goodness my friend grace she works for some of the people that are ministering to people in ukraine and she gives them kind of a respite and they they work with them and they go over the bible and christian faith and relaxation and regenerating them so that they can be re-energized to work with these poor people because we were blown away by this documentary what they’re going through and And then you went on the houseboat trip with your family recently. And then you just did this little adventure. I mean, really through your authoring and I guess through your faith, really, that God’s opened a lot of doors for you. And sometimes I don’t think you realize how blessed you are to have you get to touch so many people with your books and your speaking and your ministries.

SPEAKER 07 : 19:04

Thank you, Angie. You are very kind. I just, you know, I really have to say it is a God thing. And I think one thing that I’ve done right from the get-go is just, you know, understanding that he is, I guess I want to say, I want to use the word master. Because my latest group of books are on the names of God. They’re studies on the names of God. And so the one coming out is Names of God. knowing peace. And I just feel like it’s so timely for this season that our world is in. It’s just a nutty season of war and, you know, so much political unrest and strife and all the rest of it. And people need inner peace. So then I look at that and I say, wow, God, like how did I end up with this privilege of being able to address this during this It’s so timely and appropriate. And I just have to say, it’s like I’ve committed my life to the Lord. And I said, you lead me, lead me. You promised to lead my life. I give my life to you. I don’t want to live it on my own terms. I want to live it on yours. And my life has been not easy. I mean, I’ve had a lot of hard things, but it’s been an adventure where I’ve seen him lead and open doors that I could never have written script for.

SPEAKER 05 : 20:26

Well, yeah, I just and I was talking to my husband actually about one. Now, tell us again where you go. I know you go to Poland for your ministry, but where are some of the other places that you go around the world when you minister to people with your husband?

SPEAKER 07 : 20:40

Slovakia. We’ve been to the Ukraine. We’ve done Romania a lot. Many times we’ve been to Romania. In fact, we’re just in the process of putting another small team together to go back this fall. And from there, we’re going to go to Egypt. And we’ve got a staff conference going on there. But I’ve worked in Lebanon. We’ve been to Cyprus. We have staff there as well. I’ve done women’s conferences. Yeah, yeah. I’ve done women’s conferences in India. And we’ve lived in Nepal. So I’ve done leadership training there with young pastors there. So I just, you know, like I say, I could never have written a script. I came from a small town in southern Alberta. And I never, ever… would have expected my life to have as broad a reach as it does. It’s just God.

SPEAKER 05 : 21:30

Wow. All right. Well, I want on my bucket list is to do some kind of ministry with you to do one of these mission trips with you. So I’m going to get on that. I know we have to fundraise and do things like that. So I’ve got two kids headed off to college, so I’m going to be having some more free time. So I might be getting in touch to get a little info on that fall trip because I told my husband, I’m like, you know, we’ve only got one left and she’s got two years of school. So there’s going to be a lot more opportunities, you know, for you know, outreach and travel, et cetera. So I may have to join my friend Grace on one of these trips. He, of course, is just, he gets all nervous, you know, but I’m like, well, Grace is still alive.

SPEAKER 07 : 22:11

It would be great to have you. It would be a lot of fun to have you.

SPEAKER 05 : 22:15

I would get a kick out of it. Okay, and I know how God really changes your life so many strips when you come into contact with other people and you’re able to speak about the Lord and how he’s touched your life. And I think because of my background, you know, working at all the major news stations and having that look of a news anchor and a weather woman over the years that I was blessed to be able to fit that mold, I guess, you know, where I could fit in in Los Angeles and do my hair and my makeup and I could look like one of them. But really, I had come from low-income housing and foster care and a father who’d abandoned us and drugs and alcohol and whatever. So I looked differently than my background would have made you believe that I would end up, if that makes sense. I didn’t end up in a trailer with seven kids and five baby daddies or whatever, right? So I think a lot of people were shocked by my background because I fit that mold of the perfect suit, the hair done, the makeup professionally done, and that mold that like, oh, I must have gone to an Ivy League school. No. So I think that that kind of better suits me to go out and minister to people because I have seen some things that the average American maybe hasn’t seen. So I really feel comfortable in all settings, whether it be absolutely nothing and really being in a setting where it’s very poor and it’s not as clean and maybe I’m staying in not luxury circumstances. That doesn’t bother me or it doesn’t faze me because I didn’t grow up with any luxuries. So, yeah, I think I actually might be well suited to some of the work that you guys do. So I’m excited about the possibilities.

SPEAKER 07 : 23:44

Well, we’ll have to keep talking about it.

SPEAKER 05 : 23:47

All right. Well, let’s get into big shoulders. That’s a transition. We’re talking about your book, Finding Hope in Crisis. And today we are on the page 70 talking about big shoulders. So explain this one to us.

SPEAKER 07 : 24:00

Well, I looked at the verse of Psalm 62, 7, 8, and they say, My salvation and my honor depend on God. He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, you people. Pour out your hearts in Him. God is our refuge. And those verses really… stood out to me because I think sometimes in our heads, we think that in order to be considered spiritual… Grace, you’re breaking up a little bit.

SPEAKER 05 : 24:31

I could hear you fine just a moment ago, but I’m just going to reread the psalm real quick so everybody knows which one. It’s Psalm 62, 7 through 8. Pardon me for doing that. My salvation and my honor depend on God. He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, you people. Pour out your hearts in Him. For God is our refuge. Oh, that’s beautiful. Okay, so go ahead and continue your explanation of that in Big Shoulders, the page for today.

SPEAKER 06 : 24:57

Well, I chose those verses for this reading because I believe that sometimes in our Christian faith,

SPEAKER 07 : 25:06

We might mistakenly believe that in order to be spiritual enough or sound spiritual enough, we have to pray in a certain way. We have to word our needs to God in a specific way, using the right sounding words or whatever. But truth be told, God is our refuge. And it says that we can pour out our hearts to him. So he gets what our hearts are feeling. He understands that. And he has big shoulders. Like, we can say to him exactly what we’re thinking. We’re not going to hurt his feelings. And he can take it. He can handle it. So there was one time when I just felt like the enemy was coming after my family. I got so sick and tired of this barrage of arrows that were flying our way that I remember saying something like this. And that is enough already. I’m done with the enemy trying to destroy my family. So do something already. And that didn’t sound very spiritual. We’re going to categorize our prayers or try to analyze them. But it’s exactly what I was feeling. And I knew that it was okay to pour out my heart to God because he makes that. And I’m so encouraged with that. We can tell him exactly how we feel because In reality, it’s no surprise anyways. He knows it already.

SPEAKER 05 : 26:35

you and i often talk about you know just the trials in life and getting through things and i i like your sections in your books uh that talk about the ponder and the prey and i love how you break down uh you know the devotions and so we talked about you know the psalm 62 7 through 8 uh when we started um the devotion big shoulders and then you you know tell your story about how you were you know sick of the enemy trying to destroy your family and do something already and uh You usually talk to God, you know, but maybe not as frustrated as that day. And I like the ponder because that really makes me think as well. I like to go through your devotions and the ponder really helps me because I like a specific call to action. And you say, what would you really like to say to God today? Like, you know, not just your sugarcoat and, hey, God, thanks for everything. Everything’s great today. Amen. You know, but like really like, hey, I’m frustrated or, you know, what’s going on with my family or when I was, you know, getting my – daughter, you know, who has ADHD into college and all the little hoops we had to jump through to prove that, you know, just because she can’t take tests doesn’t mean she doesn’t do well in her classes, you know, because she does well in her classes. But that’s hard to show the average person. And I was getting so frustrated by that. I discussed that with you on multiple occasions so i like the what would you really like to say to god today and then in your prayer father thank you for letting me be honest with you because so many times we’re not really honest because we don’t want to seem like we’re kicking sand in god’s face like i don’t appreciate what you’re doing for me like we feel like we’re take being uh you know disrespectful or we’re we’re not appreciating the other things that we do have you know but sometimes we just really need to say like hey help i’m really struggling and i don’t know what’s going on here

SPEAKER 07 : 28:16

Exactly. And I think you used a really good term just a moment ago when you said sugarcoat. I think we can tend to sugarcoat our feelings because we do want to be respectful of God. But at the same time, we can be honest with God. And so there is that truth that we can rest in. He knows our hearts. He totally gets how we’re feeling. And it’s okay to say, I don’t understand what you’re doing. And frankly, I really don’t like it right now. I don’t like what you’re doing right now. You know, I think it’s important to come around to that point, though, again, and say, but I trust you. I don’t like it, but I trust you because I know that you are good. Even when my emotions are saying otherwise, the truth is you are good. So we’ve got to keep going back to the truth, too, so that we don’t get hung up on, our feelings too much and our emotions. We can’t let those dictate us.

SPEAKER 05 : 29:14

I wanted to just read the end of your devotion. And if you want to find Grace in her book, Finding Hope in Crisis, Devotions for Calm and Chaos, gracefox.com. And this is from Johnny Erickson Tada, When God Weeps, Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty. Gut-wrenching questions. So let me start that again. Gut-wrenching questions honor God. Despair directed at God is a way of encountering him, opening ourselves up to the one and only, Someone who can actually do something about our plight. Gracebox.com. Thank you so much, my friends. All right. We’ll talk to you again.

SPEAKER 03 : 29:47

Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.