The Rise Up Women Podcast

Hi Everyone, 

This episode is an interview with Stacey Womack, who is the founder and executive director of Abuse Recovery Ministry Services (ARMS). She started this ministry for those who have experienced abuse in 1997 out of her home. ARMS domestic violence recovery program, "Her Journey", is their largest program and has served 26,000 women over the last 22 years.  ARMS has expanded across the US, and now has leaders in Mexico, Canada, Kenya and soon Zambia.  ARMS provides multiple programs serving the whole family, including domestic violence intervention for men and women. (This is one of the reasons I decided to partner up with ARMS, not only it is faith-based but also  I love that they serve both men and women and their families!) 

Stacey is a respected member and has co-chaired many Domestic Violence Councils in multiple counties. Stacey is also the recipient of the 2012 Judge Herrald Award for Outstanding Collaborative Efforts to End Family Violence in Multnomah County, OR.

Stacey and her husband Jerry have been married for 39 years, have 6 kids and 11 grandchildren.

In this Episode you will hear:

* How Stacey got this ministry started

* How domestic violence effects all parties involved - whole family!

* How both women and men are affected by the devastation of domestic abuse

* How she saw the need to help abusers (primarily men) and how ARMS helps them

* How ARMS serves 

This is how you can get in touch with ARMS:

Hello everyone!

This is an episode #13!  Thank you so much for listening!

I have a special guest in this episode!  I had an honor of speaking with Indrani Goradia, who is a philanthropist and advocate for women’s health and empowerment. She is the founder of Indrani’s Light Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving the level of care for domestic violence survivors by training and supporting front-line domestic violence caregivers in reducing compassion fatigue and burnout.

Indrani is a tireless advocate for girls and women leading empowerment trainings in several countries around the world. She is an author, speaker and certified life coach, she has delivered numerous speeches around the world. 

She is a board member of Everywoman Treaty and Think Equal. In 2013, Indrani joined forces with the global health organization PSI and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to transform the lives of girls and women and lift them out of poverty. In partnership with PSI, Indranis Light Foundation launched programs to eradicate gender-based violence in India and her home country of Trinidad in 2014.

An author, speaker and certified life coach, Indrani has delivered keynote addresses at conferences and leads workshops around the world. Indrani has participated as a speaker at the World Women’s Health and Development Forum at the United Nations. She also recently participated on the keynote panel at the Nexus Conference in Jamaica, the UBS’s “It’s a Girl” conference in Switzerland, Global India Fund’s Girl Rising Screening and panel in D.C, Women Moving Millions, TEDx Port of Spain 2015 Conference and at the 2016 Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen. 

Hey There!

I have a special guest, Valerie Close on this episode.  She is a whitty married mother of three who has a huge heart. She lives in South Carolina with her husband and teenage son, she works as a medical biller and writes for her blog "Anchored in a Trove”.  Her mission in life is to encourage and show the people around her that there is hope even if the world looks dim. She loves the Lord and can’t help but to share the love of God to the people she meets. She plans to write a book about her experiences in life so that other women like her can avoid going through some of the same things and to be able to see how real God is and how much grace He has to offer. As a domestic violence survivor she now has a passion to educate and raise awareness.  She loves music and can probably find an appropriate song to go with any issue or occasion. She is a deep thinker and analyzer and loves to learn what makes people tick. She puts her heart into every creative piece of art she makes and loves to give her pieces away as gifts.

As you will hear in the interview, she has gone through tough situations starting at age 18, 3 different domestic violence situations.  She wanted to share about all 3 relationships because she said they were different each time. Abuse comes in all kinds of ways, physical, emotional, verbal, all about power and control. She is passionate about raising awareness and spread the light of hope to everyone. God has restored her life since and continues to heal from these traumatic experiences.

Once again, I’d like to warn you that as we discuss her abuse experience, this episode might trigger some of you. If so, you may stop listening, take a deep breath, and remind yourself of all the blessings and good things that are happening to you, and remind yourself that it is NOT happening to you right now. If you are still in an abusive situation, we highly recommend you to get some help. I can’t urge you enough. Don’t put yourself and if you have children, don’t put your precious children in danger. You may call domestic violence hotline, Help for Domestic Abuse, at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

If you’re interested in connecting with Valerie, here are her links:


Social Media:

Instagram - @anchoredinatrove

Facebook – @anchoredinatrove

Twitter – @anchoredtrove

Hey there! 

This is the short second half of the interview with Melinda Kunst!

To be honest with you, I hesitated to publish this episode. I was not sure if I should even share my story though it came up during the interview. 

Melinda, being the strong & encouraging woman she is, inspired me to just publish unedited.  So here it is!

Just wanted to give you a heads up - we talk about sexual abuse - subtle, but indeed is sexual abuse when we are forced to do things we don't want to do. Even though we have a choice to say no, we are afraid of consequences that follow (most of the time, end in violence or harsh verbal abuse or belittling etc.)

We also talk about my experience with the attorney - frustrating experience, I might add. Melinda shared what you could do on your own as well. 

Once again, I’d like to warn you that as we discuss her abuse experience, this episode might trigger some of you. If so, you may stop listening, take a deep breath, and remind yourself of all the blessings and good things that are happening to you, and remind yourself that it is NOT happening to you right now. If you are still in an abusive situation, we highly recommend you to get some help. I can’t urge you enough. Don’t put yourself and if you have children, don’t put your precious children in danger. You may call domestic violence hotline, Help for Domestic Abuse, at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

If you’re interested in being a guest on this postcast and ready to share your story, please connect with me on Facebook (link below). I'd love to connect and chat with you! 

Thank you for listening!

The Rise Up Women Movement and Podcast

Hey there, thank you for visiting and listening to the Rise Up Women Podcast, Episode #10!  

This is an interview with Melinda Kunst, a mom, a wife, a survivor of child abuse and domestic abuse, also a blogger, and an author of Rising from the ashes, and call me master.  

When she shared with me that she felt that God was calling her to share her story, her pain and struggles, I immediately identified with her as I felt the same!   WE were both afraid to share our stories and even looked away but God kept speaking to us and encouraging us to share our stories.   One day it dawned on both of us, this is much bigger than our fear!  It is not about us, it is about how our stories could touch someone and give someone courage to leave and take their power back. It is our mission!

Once again, my conversation with Melinda went just a bit long, so this is the first part of our conversation with her just so you know that the ending might feel like it was cut off awkwardly. 

In this episode, she shares a lot about her experience how she was sucked into a marriage she didn't feel "right" and ended up in abusive marriage which she felt no way out, yet she still felt "bad for him".  Now she gives glory to God that she's now safe and makes a mission for her also to share and inspire others with her story.

Thank you for listening to this first Half of the interview with Melinda, stay tuned for the second half that is coming up next week! 

I hope you are blessed and inspired by this episode. 

For more information and the show notes for this episode, please visit https://mikisturges.com/010

Hey there, Thank you so much for tuning in! 

For this week's episode I have decided to interview my good friend, Nicole Mattson.  As I was preparing to publish another podcast episode which was supposed to be a solo show, something just prompted me to have Nicole on the podcast. I originally asked her to talk about parenting from the teacher’s point of view, but I believe it was the Holy Spirit’s prompt that led her to share the story about her deceased son Tyler.  

Several years ago, she moved from Western Colorado where she taught my children to Indiana. Ever since, we have been talking about having her over so our boys and she could climb another 14-ers. ( Mountains taller than 14, 000 ft) which they have done several times before.  That finally came true and was visiting us when I decided to interview her for the Rise Up Women Podcast. 

She is the mother of 4 children, Jamie Mattson, Coty Day, Seth Day, and the deceased Tyler Day. She has been an educator for over 20 years and has actually taught my sons.  She currently lives in Indiana where she is the Superintendant of schools for the 13 Adventist schools there.  While she was teaching here in Colorado, I got to know her and I know that she is one of the courageous and strongest women I know and one of those who have huge heart and tremendous unwavering faith in God. I admire her greatly for her compassion, love for others (especially children!) and strength.  

In this episode, she goes into details of what her son, Tyler went through from 14 years of age till he passed away at age 19 and her cry to God and struggle as a mom, a teacher and caregiver.  In the midst of all the unimaginable events, she sought out God's will, cried out to save her son, and ultimately trusting God and His will.  She kept seeing the message of "The Best is Yet to Come".  She didn't know in the beginning what it meant, but it came clear to her at the end, the best is yet to come for Tyler who is waiting to wake up to see Jesus face to face - very very soon, where all of his family and friends will be reunited.  Oh What a day that will be!

You may also read her article here =>  http://circle.adventist.org/files/nadspiritual/BestIsYetToCome.pdf

In this world, there will be troubles and heartaches like this and everything seems to be hopeless and in despair, but we do have hope! I love this verse: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Thank you again for listening! 

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I would love to hear from you and would love it if you'd subscribe to the podcast, share with others and leave an honest feedback /review!  This will encourage others to listen and allow us to grow as a community!  The more we grow as a community of women who support each other, the more impact we can make in the world!   

Thank you for listening! 

Thank you for tuning into the Rise Up Women Podcast, episode 008, my interview with Kylie Ota continues.  Last week I interviewed Kylie, and our conversation continues into this week's show.

As you discovered in episode 007, Kylie ditched two ex-husbands and found her now-husband when she finally stopped looking. Her goal is to inspire single moms to stop settling and find a love worth their time and attention. Discover your love type today at alohaunveiled.com

In episode 008, Kylie discusses how she tried to find resources once she left her relationship, and she could only find mostly online resources for single individuals.  Kylie discusses how we have to find ways of forgiveness and ways to forgive ourselves.  

Kylie, of course, recognizes that the abuse was not her fault.  She did need to find her healing though.  "I could only heal the part that I was responsible for," says Kylie.  She had to discover what her part was in her relationship, and there she found her healing.

As we talked some more about forgiveness, it became more apparent that our conversation was certainly led by the Holy Spirit.  We both in tears, confessed our deep and long kept secret that were hardly shared with anyone, yet they were poured into this show!

Once again, I'd like to warn you that we discuss her abuse experiences, so this episode might trigger some of you. If so, you may stop listening, take a deep breath, and come back to it later.  Remind yourself that you're worthy and count your blessings. If you're in an abusive relationship presently, we urge you to go and get some help. Don't put yourself and your children in danger. You may call domestic abuse hotline, Help for Domestic Abuse, at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or local Domestic Violence shelter for help. 

Thank you for tuning into the Rise Up Women Podcast, episode 007, my interview with Kylie Ota. I'm super excited that you're here and so appreciate that you're taking the time to listen to this podcast! 

Today's podcast is an interview with my newly acquired friend, Kylie Ota. She's a transformational coach, also called a love coach, who helps single moms to be ready to find love again and have healthy loving relationships.   

In this episode, she shares her story of how first two marriages ended up, how she found out later on, after the fact, that her son was also being abused.  She also shares that she was at one point, so helpless that she wanted to commit suicide and what helped her gather her strength to fight back. 

We talked a lot about how domestic violence not only affects us, women, but also children in such traumatic ways. 

There are so many good points in this interview, but the take away message here is  "Don't wait, leave!" if you are in an abusive situation. God does not want you to suffer like that, it is NOT your fault. It's certainly not children's fault. For your sake, for children's sake, leave. 

Finding Your Self-Worth!

It’s so important to know who you are and what you have to offer to this world.  There are so many things that come with poor relationships, “that’s part of the cycle, we are worn down,” Kylie says.

Kylie ditched two ex-husbands and found her now-husband when she finally stopped looking. Her goal is to inspire single moms to stop settling and find a love worth their time and attention. Discover your love type today at alohaunveiled.com

Once again, I'd like to warn you that we discuss her abuse experiences, so this episode might trigger some of you. If so, you may stop listening, take a deep breath, and come back to it later.  Remind yourself that you're worthy and count your blessings. If you're in an abusive relationship presently, we urge you to go and get some help. Don't put yourself and your children in danger. You may call domestic abuse hotline, Help for Domestic Abuse, at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or local Domestic Violence shelter for help. 

Hello, Welcome to the Rise Up Women Podcast, episode #6!! It’s me, Miki Sturges!

I had a privilege of interviewing Celia Dye, she’s a domestic violence survivor and a thriver! 

She was a teenager when she first got into a violent relationship. At age 17, she experienced her first domestic violence relationship which involved with physical, verbal and emotional abuse.  She had to drop out of college because of this situation.  Then at age 21, she got married and had a child despite all the medical conditions she struggled with.  Her marriage ended due to emotional and verbal abuse by her now ex-husband.  She did not want her daughter to grow up in such an abusive house-hold. (This sounds familiar!) 

Then she went back to college and stayed in college regardless of what was going on with her life.  At one point, she was hit by a drunk driver and ended up with traumatic brain injury and also found herself with a completely unrelated deadly mass in her head and she had to step out of the college once again. But she once again went back to school and after 13 long years in and out of school, she finally finished and graduated this year! (Congratulations Celia!) She wanted to show her little girl she could do anything she set her mind to, and she wanted to be a good role model to her. 

Celia is a true and proud survivor. She’s so strong and Inspiring!  We only talked about her experiences of domestic abuse and relationships, and touched just a glimpse of her life journey. 

She is truly not only a role model for her little girl, but also for many women who might be feeling like too many curve balls are thrown at them and ready to give up. 

I hope her story inspires you to not give up and keep trusting the process and keep moving forward.