Everyone has a story to share and a God-given purpose. We must motivate each other to take courage and speak up! I worked for approximately 17 years in the health care industry as a Nursing Assistant, Social Worker, Group Home Manager, Public Speaker for the Alzheimer's Association, and Program Coordinator/Activities Director until my health began to decline after being exposed to Lyme disease in 2009. Eight years ago, I decided to turn my pain into a purpose and started a writing ministry with my original blog, Broken Places. My mission is to educate the public about invisible illnesses, offer hope in suffering, promote a healthy lifestyle, and inspire others to find joy in all circumstances.
My daughter, Annika, was also exposed to Lyme disease several years ago and was recently diagnosed this past year during a particularly difficult flare up while attending her first year of college. Annika also has a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), something we did not share publicly until she made the decision to share her own testimony. She is thriving with using her unique characteristics of ASD as a strength to enhance her skills as a musician, composer, and instrument collector with an aspiration to repair band instruments as a career.
My blogs have reached out to more than 70,000 people worldwide with a message of heartache and hope. My goal is to raise awareness so that people are more sensitive to chronic conditions and to offer both inspiration and hope through my testimony and the testimony of others. Annika and I decided to take my mission and purpose a step further in hopes of touching even more lives with our video ministry, which we decided to name, Heart of the Dragon.
We came up with the title from an excerpt of the novel, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which later was made into a motion picture. In both the novel and the movie, one of the characters, Eucstice Scrubb, antagonizes his cousins with his annoying and "bratty" behavior. While on an adventure in the magical land of Narnia, Eustice makes a foolish decision that leads him into being turned into an ugly dragon. The transformation into a dragon was just what Eustice needed to wake up as he finally saw himself or who he really was. In the process of outwardly becoming an ugly dragon, he was inwardly transformed for the better. Eustice Scrubb had a heart change.
We all have "dragons" in our lives--those ugly and painful aspects that grieve us. Our "dragons" can be diseases/conditions, financial hardships, relationship struggles, addictions, undesirable habits, and other unpleasant experiences. Out of our ugliness, hardships, and individual struggles, God shows His power by using the seemingly weak, insignificant, and unattractive to do His work. The process of going through difficult situations to build character is often referred to as sanctification. God sanctifies us to build our character and prepare us for something greater. This involves a transformation of the heart and what inspired the name of our new vlog, Heart of the Dragon. Just as Eustice becomes a victorious warrior out of his "dragonish" experience, we become victorious with our "dragonish: hardships. With God's help we can face each day as a victor!
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JOYFUL TREASURES: What Makes us Extraordinary!
"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." --CS Lewis
The title Heart of the Dragon is based by a quote in CS Lewis's novel, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. These are words of encouragement for a boy who was grieved over being turned into an ugly dragon: "Extraordinary things only happen to extraordinary people. Maybe it's a sign that you've got an extraordinary destiny--something greater than you could've imagined." May we all face our challenges head on as victors and embrace our extraordinary destinies!
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Here is our 1st video of our new series with original music composed by Annika for the intro!
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