July 18, 2008
The Time has Come
The True Hope Counseling journey has now ended. It wasn't quite the way I planned it, but it is without question, the end of the road.
In the past two weeks, circumstances in my life indicated that I needed to return to work. For a week I considered rebuilding True Hope Counseling at a new office location, but in the end, God led me down another pathway for work. This pathway will allow me to continue to be a stay-at-home-wife-and-mother while at the same time, using my counseling degree and love for writing to reach other women. I will be writing for a new website that will be launchig in coming weeks, and topics will include everything from parenting to budgeting tips to meal ideas to issues women face such as depression and eating disorders.
With this new direction my life is taking, my heart has realized clearly that the season for True Hope has ended.
I am at peace.
Although I had once dreamed of passing it on to a new director and having the ministry continue, God seems to have other plans. Those plans have included allowing True Hope Counseling to exist for a period of time and then to have it end.
At first I was discouraged about this and felt like in the end, I had failed. But then I went through my "file of roses", re-reading old notes and letters from those whose lives were touched by True Hope Counseling and I knew it wasn't a failure. It was simply a season. God had us in place for a certain time, for certain lives, and now, we are no longer needed in this way.
This has always been God's ministry. He began it. He has the right to say when it is time to end. My job, these past few years, has been to listen closely to His promptings and obey them. And I am doing so now.
Thank you so much to everyone who supported us with prayer and finances. Lives were truly touched in the years True Hope Counseling existed and your stewardship helped make that happen!
Please feel free to stay in touch at: melissa@truehopecounseling.com.
Much love and blessings to all!
Melissa
April 09, 2008
April News
Many of you have been aware of a long battle I have had, attempting to get credentialed as a Christian Counselor but continually running into roadblocks due to my hours being private practice based with no supervisor above me.
I was told by a couple of agencies over the past two years, that they would certify or license me if I would give up my private practice and go work for an organization that would provide the needed professional supervision. In each of these conversations I had, I explained that I could not do this, because there was not an organization I could work for that would allow me to have the freedom to counsel from a Christian and Biblical standpoint. (Not to mention, I had just spend the last few years of my life investing time and money into building my own private practice! Something I did before NY state licensure laws, and requirements, went into affect)
I have felt so strongly the past few years that Biblically-based counseling was the only way to offer true hope and freedom for those in bondage, that I just could not give it up, despite the inability to be recoginized by my state and other certifcation boards. Today, that all ended for me!
March 06, 2008
A Girl's Best Friend
The second book in Krisitn Billerbeck's Spa Girls Collection, A Girl's Best Friend
February 24, 2008
She's all That!
She's All That (Spa Girls Series #1)
Becoming a Contagious Christian
Usually I finish a book before I write a review on it but I am currently two chapters into a book that I am finding so awesome I have to promote it before I finish! Becoming A Contagious Christian