Connecting Hearts: Recent Episodes
Holly VanBerkel
Welcome to the Connecting Hearts Podcast! I’m your host, Holly VanBerkel. I invite you to join me as I search for deeper connections. I hold the strong belief that connection all starts with our Heavenly Father, but we’re also beautifully created as relational beings and need human connection. In this podcast, I’ll offer vulnerable conversations with others who have stepped out in faith, all while chatting about our passions, God’s calling for their life and how it’s all helped them grow in the name of Jesus. So find a nice cozy spot, grab your coffee and join me with your heart. Let’s grow together.
An unexpected episode of just a solo chat. Being that I, Holly VanBerkel, am the host of Connecting Hearts, I never thought I would choose to do an episode on my own, but I think God thought otherwise. In this episode, I get real and honest about what this past season has been like for me, as we've been again living overseas.
It can get isolating and hard at times, and unfortunately that can open up opportunities for spiritual warfare, as Christ followers. I share a little bit about what that has looked like for me, but more importantly, how I've been trying to counter it all with God's truth. It's still an ongoing process, but Jesus holds victory over it all and so I'm choosing to remain in Him to claim that victory for myself. I hope you can listen and feel encouraged, and not alone in whatever you may be experiencing for yourselves.
In this episode, I get to introduce my friend, Bonnie Clarke, and even more specifically, a little girl named India, who at the time was 1 year old when she was diagnosed with Leukemia. Bonnie is a wife to Brandon, and mother to three children, Moses, India and Canon. Originally an Island girl, Bons and her family had moved from Vancouver Island to mainland British Columbia not even a year before India was diagnosed.
The Clarke’s family story taught me that even being faced with a nightmare, you can still choose how to respond and choose to experience God’s goodness and promises. Bonnie shares her family’s experience when India was diagnosed and the journey that was about to unfold for them for the next 2.5 years as India undergoes endless appointments, hospital stays and treatments; we unpack how Bonnie and her family coped and managed all the logistics, but also how she grew and felt God’s hand the whole time. Her growth and outlook on choosing to worship in tragedy is inspiring, and I was touched with her newfound perspective on opening her hand to the Lord with her role as a mother; how often do we hold onto our children so tightly because we think we have all the control? I hope you leave this conversation, not just inspired by Bonnie and her family, but more importantly, in awe of how God can heal, restore and transform each and every one of our situations and stories. Please listen and be encouraged!
Today’s episode, we are joined by the business beauty herself, Danielle Wiebe, the founder of Business Babes Collective, a global community of female entrepreneurs, as well as the host for the Business Babes Collective podcast. She started her business with the intentions of helping other female entrepreneurs build their businesses and create full time income without working around the clock. Danielle is a wife and a new mom, all while continuing to grow her 7-year business with the perspective to show God’s love among a business world that doesn’t always welcome Him. This chat was so fun, as she shared her insights on how essential building community is for business networking, but more importantly, for building a safe place for others to experience God and how He wants business to be conducted, even when we can’t always outwardly talk about Him in those environments. We dive into her journey of starting it all, how COVID impacted the business and how that impacted her trust in the Lord with her career; we also discuss burnout, transitioning as a mom while managing your business, and how we can best set ourselves up to hold firm to our faith and values within the business world, when it can sometimes bring on some really challenging and uncomfortable situations. It’s amazing to see and hear God still being present, even among the business industry.
It was so great reconnecting with Danielle, and I hope you enjoy the conversation and find pieces that can encourage or help challenge you in your own journeys of business with God being your focus. Enjoy!
Connect with Danielle Wiebe:
On Instagram: @businessbabesco or @danilivinglife
Podcast: Business Babes Collective
Website: www.businessbabescollective.com
Today’s episode, I’m excited to introduce my friend, Lorna MacDonald, a fellow Christ-follower, loving wife and mom. Lorna is a former employee of the Bodenseehof Bible College in Friedrichshafen, Germany, who, with her husband Andy, felt a calling from the Lord to leave behind their friends and family in America and set their hearts and roots in Germany, indefinitely. We discuss her process of simply going to the 6-month Bible school when she was 18 years old, and over a decade later, still living in Friedrichshafen with her husband and now, four children. We get a glimpse of how she grew up and ultimately, how it all impacted her into embracing and accepting her current life overseas for Jesus. Lorna holds such a content heart within her unique callings, from working at the Bible school to now being full-time in motherhood. She also shares all about how her relationship with God has defined, molded and transformed her into all that’s been needed to do His will over the years. If you want to feel encouraged in seeing God’s character in your circumstances and remembering His faithfulness, this is the chat for you. I can only imagine you leaving this conversation feeling as blessed as I did!
On today’s episode, I’m chatting with my dear friend, Emily Aspinall!
Emily is the host for the blog, The Blazed Trail, which all started as a way for her to keep herself accountable for staying deep in the Word. She shares how TBT has grown through the Lord’s guidance as a ministry to share the gospel and her adventure of following Jesus, the original trailblazer. We dig into how Scripture has transformed her perspective and relationship with God and her own experiences of faith, along with her passions behind blogging, where it all began and how you can change because of interacting with The Blazed Trail, and any future plans as she sees where God leads.
A godly wife and mom, along with her husband, seeking to show God’s Word to the rest of the world through Scripture, passion and vulnerability. Emily is originally from Maple Ridge BC, moved out to Victoria and then all the way to the cold prairies in Saskatoon, SK.