Widowed Too Soon: When the Support Disappears but the Grief Remains | Michelle Bader Ebersole

I’m joined by Michelle Bader Ebersole, the voice behind Widow Too Soon, a Christian podcast built to help widows and widowers stop feeling isolated and start finding real community, practical tools, and faith-grounded hope.

Michelle shares her story of losing her husband Luke after a long cancer fight, and how early widowhood while raising kids exposed a gap many churches don’t see: support shows up fast after a death, then disappears when the casseroles are gone. 

We talk about why widows are often overlooked despite being mentioned repeatedly in Scripture, and what meaningful church support for widows can look like months down the road, including service projects, consistent check-ins, and programs that actually fit this kind of bereavement.

We also tackle grief myths that quietly harm people, from “the five stages of grief” to “time heals all wounds.” Michelle explains why grief is more like unpredictable waves, why feeling your pain matters, and what to say instead of “let me know if you need anything” or “at least…” 

She gives simple actions anyone can take: make specific offers, acknowledge the loss out loud, and put the hard dates in your calendar like the death anniversary, wedding anniversary, and birthday. We even discuss enshrinement, identity after loss, and why remarriage doesn’t erase grief, especially for kids navigating milestones.

If you want a grounded conversation on grief support, Christian faith and grief, widow resources, and how to care well for someone after a loss, press play. Subscribe, share this with someone who wants to help, and leave a review so more hurting people can find it.

Widow Goals is a nonprofit organisation Michelle created to support widows—especially in the first year after losing their spouse, when everything feels unfamiliar, overwhelming, and uncertain

Widowed Too Soon is Michelles powerful podcast. Through raw stories and practical wisdom, widow Michelle helps others find healing and connection in the widow journey while raising teens.

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Transcript

Welcome And Meet Michelle

Dave Quak 0:00

Well, welcome to Sunburn Souls on the show. I speak about life and faith in our mental well-being. And today we are overseas again with Michelle Beta Eversol. Did I pronounce that correctly, Michelle?

SPEAKER_00 0:12

You did. Good job. A lot of people say batter, so nice job.

Dave Quak 0:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did. I w I watched you pronounce yourself yesterday a couple of times on your podcast because I'm like, I don't want to get that wrong. Again, it's because I'm I'm Dave Quack and I'm just weathered by my name being pronounced and said and laughed at incorrectly. So I thought I'd give you a good section.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Oh thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Building A Christian Widow Podcast

Dave Quak 0:37

Because I came across you in the podcast sphere, and I think your podcast is one of the most niche and special podcasts I've ever come across. Could you tell us a little bit about it?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Yeah, thank you. So my podcast is called Widow Too Soon. And actually, today, when we're recording, is the five-year anniversary of when we started it. When I say we, I had a widower, we started it together. We were both under a year of being widowed, and we had met, we'd never actually met in person. Oh, we had at that point, but in the beginning we never met in person, and we just saw we were on this widowed Facebook group and we're like, these people need Jesus. Let's start a podcast. I had done a couple, he'd never done any. So I was like, I kind of know how to do this. I'd done like a few. And so we just got started with it. We had little kids, I had teenagers, and we just talked through the journey of being widowed, like everything, every topic you could imagine. So for the first three years, pretty much, we would have guests every once in a while. But then after he decided to leave after three years, and I continued. This is actually what happened. I thought, okay, maybe it's time to shut it down. And I had a vision, like I know it's from God. All of a sudden I saw myself handing megaphones to all these people. And it was like God was saying, you're not done, like there's all these people that need to share their stories. And so I just decided to start asking my guests, like, if you'd like to be a podcast guest, please contact me. And just started that way. And I do several guests a month from all over the world, all over Widowed Walks, you know, widows and widowers and those who are older, those who are younger, and everywhere in between. And so it's been the most amazing thing. It's what I wanted. As far as I know, it's the only Christian widow podcast. So yes, very niche, very small, small market. But I love that we have that. We have this place. I mean, I've had people say to me, like, I was thinking about ending my life until I found your podcast. And then I knew I wasn't alone, right? You get this as a podcaster. Like, that's what we want. Like to be that hope. It's not us, it's Jesus. And we can be that vessel who shows them they're not alone and that there's so much more hope in the world. And so I absolutely love podcasting. Also, have a nonprofit for widows called Widow Goals, which is all about getting groups of people together. When I was widowed and I was a 41-year-old widow, you know, fairly young. And there was nothing. I couldn't find any groups. I couldn't, I wanted to connect with other people. So I just started a group in my area. And then now we're in 30, over 30 cities. I just trained other widows to do what I do. In fact, we have a meeting tonight where we get together and I just talk about how do you lead groups? What do you do? And then we've had three retreats. Our fourth one's coming up in October, where we get together, we have speakers, praise and worship. We break out into groups based on how long you've been widowed and based on what you're interested in. Some people want to talk about dating again, some people don't, you know. So, anyways, that's a little bit. There's a whole big gamut. I was a teacher before this, and I teach now just in a different way. So my entire career changed after my husband died.

Dave Quak 3:34

Yeah, wow. I think you're right. I don't think there's another Christian widow podcast. Or if it is, I can't find it.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yes.

Dave Quak 3:41

You mentioned your husband. So that was all 2020, hey.

Cancer, Goodbye, And Early Widowhood

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Yes, he passed away May 23rd, 2020.

Dave Quak 3:47

Yeah, wow. Can we hear about that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Yes, yes. So my husband Luke and I had met in high school and we reconnected uh after college, and it happened pretty fast. Fell in love, got married a year later. And at that point, he had a lump in his ankle, but he had gone to the doctor, they're like, it's tendinitis, don't worry about it. It kept getting bigger and bigger and found out eventually that he had a very rare bone cancer. It's called mesinchymochondrosarcoma. They didn't know how to treat it, so they just started throwing all this chemo at it, didn't work. And he went on to have his leg amputated. And we considered that his cancer-free day, because that was the only place the cancer was. So we went on to have three kids. Well, we had one right before that. And then yeah, three total. And the cancer was gone for 13 years, and then it showed up in his lungs in about 2017. So he fought it for about three more years, and we just really enjoyed every moment. We got to go to Disneyland together. We got to like just it in, you know, enjoy every moment. COVID for us, you know, so it happened in March of 2020. He died in May of 2020. We look at the blessing of the time together. The kids weren't going to school anymore. My daughter and I were supposed to be gone a week to Washington, DC for a school trip that got canceled. And we just spent every waking moment with him. And so we can look back at that and see like God's blessing in that. And but it was a really hard time after he died, even though I was prepared. I was left with a 12, 14, and 15-year-old on my own, you know, not knowing the widow community. Like that's why I like to provide community for widows because I didn't know of any. I had a few friends here and there and just felt so lost. And so that is why I started originally on TikTok, just doing little videos to help people. And then I started the podcast, and then it's kind of grown to this huge thing that I do now. My most important thing is that I wanted widows to know they're not alone because it is so lonely. And a huge percentage of widows actually leave the church when they are widowed because it's so family-oriented. They're like, I don't fit in here. And this is actually my big thing that I love talking about. So widows are mentioned 103 times in the Bible, yet so few churches have any programs. So I always tell people, just ask your pastor, how do we support widows and listen? And hopefully you have something. If not, I have a program that can be put into churches. Because I just want everyone to have a support, a support system because so many widows don't. Anyways, that's that's a little bit about my story.

Dave Quak 6:11

I've got all kinds of parts of my story, but um with the church, because I'm a pastor as well as doing the podcast, and we're good at the casserole at the funeral for everyone because it's immediate.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

But then what?

Dave Quak 6:20

Yeah, and then everyone sort of goes about their life and that person sits lonely. And depending, I mean, you you were you had a lot of action in your early days of being a widow with the kids and everything else. Some

Why Churches Lose Widows

Dave Quak 6:32

some are by themselves. I mean, it's so complicated in so many ways.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

It is. Yes, we need people to be there for us three months, six months, nine months a year. Like that's when it's important. When everything, the casseroles are gone, the people are gone, the services are over. Then that for me was the hardest point. And so we need as a church to be there. Something we do in our church is we do service projects for widows and widowers, like people who need things done. There's a list, we go to their houses. Like, I think that's so important. I have a Widow Goals program for churches. In fact, like I tell people, send your pastor to this page, widowgoals.org, backslash support program, because it has it's a I do a video for the pastors. How do you support your widows? I mean, I'm just saying what God says. God loves widows, He is a defender of widows and a father to the fatherless. But yet, how many churches are stepping in and helping? And sometimes widows get lumped into just singles groups, but it's it's different than divorces. And I do know that divorce is a grief, but it is a different kind of grief. And so it's just I want churches to step up and support. So that's one of my big things I talk about a lot is how are we supporting widows? I mean, just ask your pastor, just start with that. Like, we got to do something, we gotta do better.

Dave Quak 7:42

Yeah. Well, orphans and widows are nearly the only people that are overtly listed as like your your subgroup. Like, you know what I mean? I I don't mean to reduce it to a subgroup, but when it comes to that, you know, you don't see many men's ministries or you know, like yeah. Well, so you you don't love the five stages of grief.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

No, you've done your research. So that's actually let me tell everybody, give them a little education that I learned it after being widowed. So the stages of grief were created by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, and she actually created them for the people dying, not for those grieving. And it's like the game of telephone over time, it changed. Everybody thought I'm grieving, I'm supposed to have these stages, denial, bargaining, all the things, anger. And I remember thinking, what's wrong with me? I haven't gone through these stages. And then I learned the truth that that's it was created for those dying. And I, on top of that, I learned a few years ago,

Grief Stages Myth And Real Waves

SPEAKER_00 8:39

as she was dying, she said, I don't even know if they're correct. I was like, wow. And so instead of stages, it's waves. They're waves, they come out of nowhere. It's a smell, it's a song, it's a thought, and it will hit you. And the best way is to just ride the wave. Like, don't stuff it. What we feel God can heal. That's a big saying I say over and over. Like, we have to let ourselves feel it. And so I want anybody who thinks that they have to go through these stages to know that is not correct. You can look it up yourself that that is not what they were created for. And it just it gave me relief. People tell me it gives them relief to know, oh, there's nothing wrong with me. Cause I'm like, when am I gonna go through anger? When am I gonna go through this? I'm not going through this. And so it's more about the grief just comes out of nowhere, and and we need to feel it definitely.

Dave Quak 9:26

Yeah. Have you had friends come alongside you? Or you know how every now and then God will send an angel in disguise as a human to be a person at the perfect time? Do you have any stories you might be able to share just to even encourage someone else who's walking with a widow, just on a couple of skills that they might be able to put into place if they're in a place where the person's like, can we hang out? Like, what do what do they actually? I know we mentioned the church has a few deficits, and I appreciate that. But what can a friend or a you know, an uncle or a loved one bring?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yeah, this is good. I I don't actually have many stories of people doing it

What To Say And What Not

SPEAKER_00 10:02

the correct way, but I can tell you the correct way. Okay, so I have an entire chapter in my book about what to say and not to say. We've been through a lot of these. I some are from me, some are from other people's experiences, but instead of saying, let me know if you need anything, don't ever say that. The grieving person has no clue. Say, this is what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to bring you dinner. Is that okay? I'm going to pick up your kids. Is that okay? Like things like that. Be very specific. Don't ever say at least. At least you're young, you'll get married. At least you had this many. Anytime you say at least, it diminishes the grievers' feelings. So never say at least. Don't try to say that you understand. I understand how you feel. Anything that comes after that is not gonna work. I even learned as a widow, I can't say that to other widows. I have to say, I understand what it's like to be a widow, but I don't understand your situation. We're all different. And so anybody who says, I understand how you feel, anything that comes after that doesn't work. So instead say, I have no idea how you feel, but I'm here to listen and just be quiet. We need someone, as one of my podcast guests said, he's like, we just need someone to sit in the mud with us. That's it. Like they come in the mud, they sit in the dirty and the ugly and they just sit there. That's what we need. We don't need someone to try to fix it. And then people say all these dumb things. I understand how you feel. I'm divorced. I mean, like I I've heard lots of things. And I, you just I say, listen to their hearts, not their words. At least they're trying to say something. Because to me, one of the worst things was people who would just not acknowledge it. I ran into uh, I would say like an acquaintance at a store about a month after Luke died, and she was talking about everything else. And I said, I don't know if you know, but Luke died. And she was like, How I know I'm so sorry. It's like just acknowledge it. I want people to acknowledge it, acknowledge my pain. And for me, what was really bad was the one-year anniversary. Nobody remembered. This is what I tell people. If you want to know how to support a widow or widow, anyone who's lost someone, put it in your calendar, the date. I do this when I learn this about people. In fact, I have a program. So with all my widows and widowers, they get an email from me on that day. But write it in your calendar. These are the three days I tell people the anniversary of the death, their wedding anniversary. That's a big one. That's a lot of grief. And then their birthday. Like they're all really hard days, but I'd say the the anniversary of their death, most people don't know. They might remember the time of year, but they don't remember the date because it's not like a holiday or something they would remember. Their wedding anniversary, no. So ask your people what are the dates? Put it in your Google calendar, however, you remember things for a reminder and reach out to them. I have a friend. She still does this. We're coming up on six years. She still brings me flowers on my would-be anniversary. Uh, she'll bring flowers on other days. She still remembers, and that means so much to me because even, you know, six years down the road, barely anyone's gonna remember, you know, which also makes it hard. And so make sure you're always reaching out to people on those hard days. Even a text is better than nothing. Like, hey, thinking of you today, I know this might be a hard day. Anything. Like, we just want to be seen and heard and know that our person is not just forgotten because it can feel like that. You know, I'm and this is a whole other story, but I'm remarried, I've been remarried for three years. That doesn't mean I don't still grieve Luke, my first husband. Like, so my husband's now, his name is Joel, and it's like this people say, Well, I don't know how you can love someone else. And I said, it's like, do you have more than one kid? Like you love one, and you think, I can never love another one. And then you have two and your heart expands, and that's how it is. I still love Luke and I love Joel. And it's possible to love both. And it doesn't mean that your your grief is gone. I think that's maybe something that bothers me right now, where I'm at, is that people think you you don't have grief. I still do, but honestly, for me, it's mostly for

Remember The Hard Dates

SPEAKER_00 13:45

my kids, like the big milestones that I wish their dad was there for. That's the crazy thing.

Dave Quak 13:51

They would have gone through their 18th and graduation and all of those things.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

My last one is right now. Yeah, my son just turned 18 and he's about to have his graduation. The other two, we went through all of those things without Luke. And those have been really, really hard moments. And I know it'll be hard, my one coming up next month, to go through that. But, you know, it's just that's where my heart breaks is for my kids. And Joel is great, he's never gonna try to be their dad. He never has. He's always said to them, I'm just another support person in your life. I'm never gonna try to replace your dad. You know, I'm just here to help you. So yeah, there's still grief, even if you're married again, that doesn't solve it. Like, I've I've seen some widows who get married quickly thinking that will solve their grief. I'm like, no, you're still gonna have that, you know.

Dave Quak 14:35

Well, there's so much happening there. I mean, on a side note, we could do the at least stories for about 15 or 20 hours together. I I because I have bipolar, I always get people say, uh, so I when I first disclosed it to the church and everything, this guy in all the best intentions came up and goes, Well, at least you're a good preacher still. And I'm like, I know, man.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Don't say at least, never say at least. Yes, that's like it doesn't matter what situation like if you're saying at least to someone about their situation, it's not helpful.

Dave Quak 15:06

That's really helpful to know, Michelle. That is really helpful. That's just a skill we can grab. Like, yeah, hold that in your hand, never say that.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

And then here's another there's so many things. There's grief myths. I'll just tell you one of the biggest grief myths. It's time

Remarriage And Ongoing Grief

SPEAKER_00 15:22

heals all wounds. And just give it some time. So it's not actually time, it's what you do with the time. So let's say I went to my car and I had a flat tire and I was like, oh, time will heal it. I'll come back in a year. Come back, it's in the same place because I didn't do the work. I didn't put the air on it and fill it up and all those things. It's the same with our grief because I didn't understand this in the beginning. Like, why are people in this really bad place five years from now? It's because they didn't do the work. And so, what I mean by the work is like for me, I dove into everything I could find, every grief book, grief retreats, grief groups, you know, like literally everything. I tell people you need to act like healing is your job. Because it is, because you can't be good at anything until you're you're doing your healing. And that is not stuffing the stuffing it. The thing about grief is can't go around it, can't go under it, can't go over it, gotta go through it. There is no other way. There's no shortcut in grief. So we all have to go through it to get to the other side. And so I always encourage people to feel their grief, but there's just so many, like so much miseducation about grief. So that's one of my passions, too, is educating people about grief and how to support those in grief and all of that.

Dave Quak 16:26

I I love watching you light up because you're about 250 episodes into the podcast. So you've definitely had this chat a million times.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yes.

Dave Quak 16:33

And you're still so passionate about it, like you can see that you're not gonna change trajectory, like this is your lane, you're gonna keep blessing people with this. I think that's huge. When you're actually in the thick of it, you know, close to 2000. How how did you go in your relationship

Time Does Not Heal By Itself

Dave Quak 16:50

with God? Was there any kind of like angst or frustration with him? Or what was that like?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Yeah, so I actually just God brought this to my mind the other day when Luke was sick. You know, he was sick a long time, 17 years off and off on different things, but three years that last about. And I remember being in the car and screaming out at God. And I said, You've got the wrong girl. You've got the I can't do this. And that's actually gonna be the title of my next book, You've got the wrong girl. So it's my mind, I was like, that's it, because everyone can relate to that. You got the wrong person, you know. Yeah, but there were frustrations. There was more like, God, I can't do this. I am not equipped to do this. But I became closer to God than ever, ever, ever after Luke died because I saw him in the place of my husband. Like, I always had my husband to bounce ideas off, and I was like, Okay, God, this is what I got. Like, you gotta be the person. So many times I would go on walks, leave my phone at home, and just pretend God's standing. He is, he's right there. Imagine him walking with me and talk to him and cry and like I can't do this. But he always has provided financially, emotionally, spiritually, like the people in my life to help me to get to where I am today. And there's no peace like the piece that passes all understanding, and there's no way to explain to people how I got through, except for that, because I would be balling on the floor crying, and then it'd be like this piece that would cover me, you know. But I had to go through it. There was no shortcut. Like I had a lot of what we call anticipatory grief when you know someone's dying. So I was grieving before he died, and

Faith, Anger, And Letting Kids Feel

SPEAKER_00 18:24

then I had grieving after he died and trying to raise three teenagers, and one of them totally like rebelled and was it was a horrible situation and had to learn how to deal with that. He got it's kicked out of school, like there were so many things, and then that brings up more grief. I'm like, my husband's not here to help. Like, yeah, you know, and I still am going through some of that with some of my kids' stuff. Is like, man, like they all have gone through it. They've said, now that I'm an adult, I wish a daddy was here to talk to, like about adult decisions. I'm like, yeah, I hear you. You know, but it's like it's being open with God and not afraid to feel like the people that stuff it, they're the people who are in the same place 10 years later, 20 years later, because they didn't feel it. Like you have to, you have to let your kids feel it. Like we so often want to just comfort people when they cry, but that's actually not good for them. We need to let them cry and then comfort them. Like, I remember even a few years ago doing this with my daughter when she was going through a grief moment, and I explained to her, I'm not hugging you because you need to feel it. This is the only way you're gonna get through it. And so I think just educating the public, like, don't automatically go to comforting somebody, like let them feel it. You can explain to them, like, this is why I'm not hugging you yet. Like, I need you to feel this because I love you and I want you to get through it, and not automatically thinking I just need to fix them. It's because the other person is uncomfortable, but they don't like the crying, yeah, and so they're trying to fix it, you know. And then the it kind of reminds me of the other part of like when people don't say anything, you know, to someone who's just lost someone, they're only thinking about themselves, they don't want to be uncomfortable. We want you to say something like from everybody I've talked to, we'd rather you say something than nothing at all. Because nothing at all feels like you don't care. Yeah, like this is the biggest thing that's ever happened to me in my entire life, and you are not acknowledging it. I remember the first time I went to like a big event, so it was COVID, so there wasn't there weren't very many, but a few months after I was at this big party that my brother was having, and everyone was ignoring it or ignoring me. But one lady though she's more like an acquaintance just said, I'm really sorry about Luke. And it meant so much to me that she acknowledged it instead of ignoring. And I was like, Thank you so much. Like that means a lot that you said something, you know, because our whole world has been turned upside down, but people don't want to say anything. So I encourage if you know someone that's widowed or any kind of loss, please say something to them. Like it's so much better than ignoring it.

Dave Quak 20:48

Yeah, that's excellent. I forget which psalm it is, but it starts with the words out of the depths, and it just is this psalm of lament. And the psalmist is just saying, from the depths, out of the depths, out of the gut of my pain, and then he goes and declares firstly how frustrated he is with the situation before even getting to any brave. And so I think I I think you're absolutely right. We're tiptoe, tread on eggshell type people who don't want to just you know get in. And I think you're right on twofold where you know you want people to say something absolutely, but even if that person's got nothing to say, when Job's friends came to comfort him and just sat in the dirt with him for a week and didn't know what to say, there was an element of at least we're here. You know, like you're in the dirt, we're in the dirt, you know. But they did something as well.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Exactly.

Dave Quak 21:38

But then they tried to solve it with a few probably at least scenarios, you know. Oh, humans are so awesome and so dumb at the same time, Michelle. Like we really are, and I'm a human, so I'm pointing that same finger at myself. But there are so many things that we do that are crazy, you know. What's it like now? I don't know, like, did you ever Forget okay, so I've had a friend who lost somebody, and when they lost that person, they kept everything in the room the same, almost like a shrine. I've noticed that that sometimes happens with people where they think that that's honoring the person, but it kind of backfires. Do you know what that's all about?

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Oh, yeah, that's called enshrinement. Yes. When somebody passes away, you put them on a pedestal. There's two things. You like only remember the good, and then you're like creating this. I felt like a few months after Luke died that I did that. I had this literal like shrine. And when I I moved a little bit later, I was like, I'm done with this. Like, I don't need to do this, and I don't need to remember only the good. And this is where a lot of people get stuck in their grief. I have a chapter about this because it says, give yourself permission to remember things as they were, even the hard parts. We want to we typically, when someone dies, like just remember the good, but but there's so much unresolved grief a lot of times, so many things we didn't conversations we didn't finish

Enshrinement And Rebuilding Identity

SPEAKER_00 22:55

that I learned we actually have to release that. And I started teaching a program where you write a letter to that person, like, I forgive you for this, I apologize for this. Hear things I never said, and you're able to release that. I had already done two years of grief work before I went through that program, and I found I still had a lot, a lot more work to do, you know. And so it's important to be able to work through that and not just remember. The first time I said something negative to my counselor, she said, they are facts, they happened, you can talk about it. Because I, you know, there's that weird saying, like, don't speak ill of the dead, you know. Like that's that's where this comes from, this thought that I can't remember it the way that it was. And most of us, we all had hard things in our relationships. And so it's okay to remember those and not just make an enshrine like enshrinement and like this is the I just remember this, and everything was so amazing. It probably wasn't all amazing, you know, and and we don't want to make our person like an idol either, where that's all you're thinking about, all you're looking at, where it becomes your identity. I've seen too many widows where like it becomes their identity that they're widowed, and like that this is my thing, that everyone needs to feel sorry for me, or you know, whatever it is. That it's like I'd like to work with people and say, like, no, who am I in Christ? Because all of our titles can fade away. We're not a wife anymore or husband anymore, like we lost all these titles, but who are you inside? Who does God say that you are? And like really focusing on that instead of like these titles that can all be stripped away because it does feel very weird to go. I was married for 17 years, to go married to single because you have to check boxes on things and it's horrible. And it's just this loss of identity, you know. And so finding our identity in Christ, because that can never be taken away.

Dave Quak 24:37

Love it. Michelle, let's rip through some ways that people from Australia can be blessed by you. So, firstly, we've got the Widowed Too Soon podcast. Yes, and then you're also launching a new podcast soon.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yes, it's out of the fog and into the light. Sorry, forgot to out of the fog and into the life, rebuilding your life when everything changes. And that's for anyone going through any hard thing. And I'm interviewing people who've been through tough times and focusing on what are the tools they used in order to move forward. If you know anyone widowed in your life, we actually do have a group in Australia. Just remember that. Widowgoals.org

Resources And Where To Connect

SPEAKER_00 25:13

has, if you go to groups, it has them all listed. And she just needs to give me her link to put on there, but there will be one in Australia. Don't remember what city. Um that's awesome. So we have that.

Dave Quak 25:24

Yeah, and because widowed goals is both your book and it's also your resource platform as well.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Yeah, it's my nonprofit. It's yeah, it's many things. And now I have an online community called Widdowles Community as well. Instagram, it's widow goals, TikTok, it's widow goals, like basically widow goals on all the platforms. You'll be able to find what we're doing. But I I highly check uh recommend checking out widows.org because it has that program for the church we're talking about. It has all the books, it has the groups, it has the retreat information, it has all of that stuff listed. And so you can find that out there.

Dave Quak 25:55

That is so cool. What we'll do is put all the links to that into the show notes as well so people can come and find you. Sadly, 30 minutes goes way too quick. I know. Hey, you know you're a podcaster, you know that a 30-minute chat takes about five minutes. But is there anything lastly you'd like to let us know before I ask you to pray for our community?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Just to, if you're going through something hard, feel it. Don't stuff it down. Like what we feel God can heal. So there's a little story behind that. When I went to grief counseling, the the counselor would say, What we feel we can heal. I actually said that for like two years, and then I felt God saying, No, no, no, I heal it. So what we feel God can heal. If we don't, like, we have free will, God can't force us to heal, you know. So we have to go through it, we have to feel it and let God heal it. So I really encourage anyone who's going through anything hard to feel it so that God can heal it.

Dave Quak 26:46

I love that. Michelle Beta Eversol. It has been a blessing having you. It really has. I when I found you, I'm like, I really need to interview this lady, and it did not disappoint because you are so passionate about this, and I just love that it's got the equipping side, so we're saying things, but also giving people tools in their hands. So thank you on behalf of Sunburn Souls. If you could pray for us, we'll wind it up.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

All right. God, I just thank you so much for this time. First of all, thank you for technology, for connecting us, and I thank you for all the listeners. I just pray that they got some things out of this that either they're they can help somebody who's going through a hard time or it can help them themselves, God. I just pray that every one of them knows how much you love them and care about them and you want to heal their hearts. And I just pray that they give them some permission to feel so that you can heal them. Thank you for all that you've done for us, and I just thank you for the blessing of being here today. And I just pray over every listener that you bring some joy into their lives today. Just bring them something that brings them joy, and I just thank you for all you've done. Amen.

Dave Quak 27:48

Amen.