TLP 527: What’s New with Truth.Love.Family.?

Truth.Love.Parent.

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That's why I believe it's time to head back into the studio to reconnect with you and spread the good news

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God has for every family on the planet. Parenting isn't about us.

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In fact, parenting isn't even about our kids. Parenting is just one way Christian dads and moms are to worship

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God. So welcome to the Truth, Love, Parent podcast, where we train dads and moms to give

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God the preeminence in their parenting. I'm your host, A .M. Brewster, and after 10 months,

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Truth, Love, Family is back. Well, we never actually went anywhere. I did take a hiatus from producing new

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Truth, Love, Parent podcast content because we had so many other things going on. And today I want to tell you what we've been up to, discuss how the ministry is doing, share a special announcement, and kind of let you know what

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I've been thinking over the past 10 months. So let's dive right in. Ever since 2016, the

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Truth, Love, Parent podcast has been growing in content and popularity. We currently have over 500 episodes that deal with so many parenting issues, questions, trials, and victories, and we deal with them all from the perspective of God's word.

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We do this because we humans are incapable of being truly successful at anything outside of God's plan and empowerment.

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So the Bible is absolutely integral to everything about which we talk. Over the past seven years and 26 seasons, we've posted one episode a week, then two episodes a week, and then back to one episode a week when

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I started the Celebration of God podcast. Of course, there were times we accidentally didn't post at all or reposted late because of technical difficulties.

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And there were those times we re -aired extremely important past episodes. But up until last year, we had never taken a multi -month break.

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In fact, at the end of March last year, when I announced that we would be taking this extended hiatus, I really had no idea how long it would be.

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So let me tell you why. When I started this podcast in 2016, I was working at Victory Academy for Boys.

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I worked my full -time job and then produced this podcast as a labor of love, kind of based off of the materials that I was creating for Victory Academy.

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When we moved from Victory at the end of 2019 and decided to make Truth Love Family a nonprofit, we had no idea where God was going to lead us.

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Not only is starting a nonprofit very challenging, resulting in so many of them failing in the first five years or so, but starting a biblically -based nonprofit has even more difficulty ahead of it because it's offering something the majority of the world simply doesn't want.

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And then add on the fact that the world governments decided to shut down the planet for a couple of years back then and things got even more interesting.

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But God was faithful to provide and by His grace alone, Truth Love Family didn't shut its metaphorical doors.

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Of course, there's really only one main thing God used to keep us afloat during these past four years.

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He has been using a core group of financial donors. So for the past four years, we have received between $10 ,000 and $20 ,000 in donations per year.

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And though we're super thankful for each of those dollars, we really have my parents, Ray and Carolyn Brewster to thank that TLP survived.

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When I started the podcast, my housing was provided for by Victory Academy. When we left that ministry to pursue

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Truth Love Family, my housing was not provided for. In fact, for the first year and a half after starting this nonprofit,

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I didn't receive any paycheck at all, especially didn't get a housing bonus. Now since then,

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I've been receiving $500 a month from the ministry because that's all the ministry can afford to give me. But I want to stop here and give a special thank you to the donors that do give specifically to the

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Director's Fund. For the past two years, I've received between $4 ,000 and $5 ,000 additional a year from the

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Director's Fund and each of those gifts are so special to me and my family. So if you're doing the math,

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I personally am on track to make about $10 ,000 this year from Truth Love Family. And for those of you who've ever been in a similar monetary situation before, you understand how stressful that can be.

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Now please note, I am not complaining. I'm simply setting the stage for what I've been doing the past 10 months and how God has been sustaining us.

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And that's where my parents come in. My parents have been such a tremendous blessing to me and my family and by extension to you.

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Without their inviting my family of four to live with them for the past four years and absorbing all of the housing costs themselves, this nonprofit never would have gotten off the ground.

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The Lord has used my parents, our core faithful donors, and various social services to help Truth Love Family weather the past four years.

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And I'm sure you can imagine how many times over the years that I've meditated on the fact that even though we've consistently published new podcast episodes for years and years, our donor base hasn't been growing fast enough to support the ministry and my family's needs.

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There were many times I have considered whether or not I was doing the right thing by not simply getting another job. So I decided to try something a little bit different last year.

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I started door dashing in January. I split my time between delivering food here in Brevard and working on Truth Love Parent.

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And to be honest, it was doubly unfulfilling because I wasn't making enough door dashing to make a dent in the monetary situation, and every hour

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I spent doing it was another hour I wasn't counseling or creating content for you and your family. But then

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March came. As I looked at the various speaking opportunities I had last year, I needed to stop door dashing so I could prepare for all those conferences.

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In addition to being on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio every month, as well as Theology Throwdown and Apologetics Live from Striving for Eternity Ministries, I was blessed to speak about A Family United in God at Grace Christian School in Bennington, Vermont, and Berean Reformed Baptist Church in Osceola, Indiana.

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And then I spoke at Bible Baptist Church in Howell, Michigan about the Biblical Parenting Essentials. I also did a workshop at the

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Association of Certified Biblical Counselors annual conference near Los Angeles in California. In addition to that,

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I also presented the ministry at various churches across Indiana and Michigan. And I had the joy of also doing a 12 -week seminar for Eyes on You Ministry where we discussed how

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God would have us suffer well in our afflictions. So with all of that travel, I knew it would be hard to put out new episodes every week.

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But there were two other significant projects we were working on, the first of which was putting the finishing touches on my book.

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I know, some of you have been waiting for that for a long time, so I dug in and made it happen. At this point, the manuscript has been submitted in its entirety to the editor and we're eagerly anticipating having the book published here very soon.

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Stay tuned for more information about that as I get updated timelines from them. But the other project

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I was working on over the summer was the Evermind app. The Evermind app is a place to find all of our online courses and a growing library of resources from Truth Love Family, Faith Tree Biblical Counseling and Discipleship, and the year -long

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Celebration of God. Alright, so October finally came. I was done traveling, I finished my short writing retreat to knock out the last chapter, and I considered the possibility of starting the podcast back up.

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Yet, despite all of these amazing ministerial opportunities from the year, the financial stresses on me and my family continued compounding as we fought to keep our heads above water.

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The final straw was a significant medical bill for my daughter, and I knew something just had to change.

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For that reason, with the exception of my weekly biblical counseling sessions, I stopped all work for Truth Love Family and dedicated two months to paint an apartment building.

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That's right, from the end of October through December, I painted the exterior of an apartment building.

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So, that's what I've been doing for the past ten months, the last two months in particular. And during the summer,

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I was counseling, speaking, writing, creating an app, and I've been doing various side hustles. So then came

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January of this year, and I was once again faced with a similar decision as I have multiple times over the past four years.

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Do I throw myself back into Truth Love Family full -time? Do I stop the ministry and get another job, or do

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I continue pursuing some hybrid of the two? And in my heart of hearts, I want nothing more than to minister full -time.

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I yearn deeply to pour God's truth into the minds of people everywhere that God may allow me to contact.

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And so, I keep coming back to trying to get Evermind Ministries to the place where it can sustain itself and my family.

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That's why I believe it's time to head back into the studio to reconnect with you, to spread the good news God has for every family on the planet, and,

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Lord willing, meet some new donors who will partner with us as we do it. The more people who connect with us, the more who have the potential of being spiritually strengthened because of it, and the more who may be willing to donate monthly to keep the ministry running.

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Now, if God doesn't want Evermind Ministries to flourish like that, it won't, and I'll pursue employment and ministries somewhere else.

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But I believe we're at a pivotal place. I'm being asked to speak more places, I have increased availability in my counseling schedule,

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Lord willing, the book will be published early this year, and the Evermind app is live and we're adding more and more content to it.

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So if you want to see Truth Love Family and our podcast, Truth Love Parent, grow, please subscribe to this podcast, consume it regularly, share it with your pastors and friends in person and on social media, and if you are in charge of a ministry, you can invite me to speak.

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You can request biblical counseling as well, and you should really download the app and start consuming that content.

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There are links in the description of today's episode that will help you seamlessly do that. You can plan now to buy the book when it's available as well, and you can start giving.

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Even if it's just $5 a month, every gift will be an important part of our being able to build a sustainable ministry that will continue to impact the world for God.

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So thank you for joining me today for this quick update. The plan for next week's episode is to call it, if you want to see change in your family, you absolutely must...

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I hope to share with you biblical truths that I've experienced in my own life and also walked through with others as they learn these truths for themselves.

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In the meantime, check out evermindministries .com, sign up on the app, get to know who we are, what we're doing, and how you can be involved.

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And I'll see you next week. Truth Love Parent is part of the Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you worship

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God through your parenting. So join us next time as we study God's Word to learn how to parent our children for life and godliness.

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And remember that TLP is a listener -supported ministry. You can visit truthloveparent .com forward slash donate to learn more.