Mighty People Garden

Join Darrell and Eva as we continue the story of Joseph who is brought up to Pharaoh to interpret his dreams. This is the pivotal chapter where the dreams that Joseph had and shared with his family brings Joseph into fulfilling his teenage dream. But first, the cupbearer and Pharaoh's court are unable to interpret the King's dreams about cows and grain. The cupbearer remembers the dreams that Joseph interpreted which were keenly accurate. Joseph provided the interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams from God as 7 years of feast and 7 years of famine. Pharaoh hires Joseph as his second in command to manage all of the resources in Egypt which ultimately, kept Egypt from great calamity. 

From the moral injury healing perspective, Eva shared a graphic from Psychologist Kenneth Logan of George Fox University. The graphic provides a visual aspect to understand the difference between depression and moral injury and the questions that they ask which leads towards healing. Joseph could have become greatly depressed in his situation of slavery and imprisonment, however he chose to ask how to overcome and rise? What Joseph also understood was that this was more importantly how to walk with God and serve others and not doing things for himself. 

 

#veteranmoralinjury #veteranmoralhealing #veteranmoralrecovery #veteranpodcast #veteranvoices

Military Spouse Karly Gadell joins us this week to share her mission and purpose behind starting the Plus One Heroes nonprofit. While Plus One Heroes is a relatively new organization, it has been growing and helping many people facing crisis when they needed it the most.

Mission Statement: 

Plus One Heroes is a 501(c)(3) organization, founded a fellow military spouse, Karly Gadell. Plus One Heroes provides immediate financial assistance to military spouses and families facing crisis, ensuring they receive the support they need, when they need it most. They are dedicated to bridging the gaps in emergency aid, advocating for the spouses and children behind the uniform, and strengthening the military community through swift, compassionate action. One of their newest Plus One initiatives are MilSpouse Survival boxes. The hope is that these boxes will provide some joy during extended TDYs, Rotations and deployments. 

 

Plus One Heroes Highlights: 

In just under a year, Plus One Heroes has secured nearly $85,000 to support military families in moments of real need.

During the government shutdown, our partnership with the Rate Foundation helped us distribute $50,000 in commissary gift cards to more than 500 families across all branches.

For the holidays, we received an additional $10,000 through Rate’s Reindeer Ruck program, supporting Fort Leavenworth families facing especially difficult circumstances and recognizing three outstanding military families for their service and volunteerism.

One of the most meaningful parts of this year has been launching our Plus One Wish Program. Our first wish, “Claire’s Wish,” was for a military child battling terminal brain cancer to return to Hawaii and make one more memory with her family. We raised over $10,000 to make that happen and she’ll be traveling in May. After sharing her story, the Army Golden Knights even stepped in to fulfill her dream of skydiving.

We just wrapped up another campaign for the CW2 Berton and his family. CW2 Berton  is facing a terminal cancer diagnosis. Wr raised $8,500 to help his spouse and their  three young children navigate relocating to DC from Germany in a matter of days for her husband to start treatment at Walter Reed.

We are currently raising funds for a Gold Star child, who lost her Army dad this past February. We are giving this preteen a special room makeover during the month of April, in honor of month of the military child. 

 

#militarychild #veteranvoices #veterans #militaryspouses #veterannonprofits #veteranorgs 

 

Join Darrell and Eva this week as we return to the story of Joseph and his life of slavery. After many attempts by his Master's (Potiphar) wife trying to seduce Joseph and his repeated rejection of her moves, he said his last "No" and fled leaving his coat behind. Joseph knew his work was to run his masters household but that did not include taking advantage of his master's wife. Joseph knew that kind of wicked behavior would dishonor God. Since she didn't get her way, she made a big deal of it to her husband and got Joseph thrown into jail. 

In prison, Joseph made an impression on the prison warden and took over managerial activities. This brought a unique opportunity for Joseph to meet two new prisoners, Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker. Both woke up with dreams and Joseph volunteered to interpret their dreams from God's perspective. Both dreams included a three day delay but the cupbearer was going to make good with the Pharaoh and the baker meet his demise. In reality, that is exactly what happened when they returned to the King's service. 

From a moral injury side of things, there are some similarities to consider about relationships. Why was the master's wife so quick to want to seduce Joseph? Was her husband away? Perhaps he could not perform his husbandly duties or perhaps he has an STD? She clearly was not committed to her relationship with her husband. But in many marriages from the military or veterans communities, do we take our relationships with marriages seriously? Is there some moral injury that what happens TDY stays TDY? or perhaps even during conventions? Who pays the price and can the marriage survive the infidelity? 

Or, perhaps the signs of a toxic person starts showing its colors and you realize who you are dealing with - that the ones that bark the loudest are the most guilty, they always make someone else look bad to make themselves look good, they always tell on themselves. 

Let us remember that in this episode, Joseph is a victim yet he remains strong in his faith to God to keep him moving forward. 

 

This week my guest is Robert Odom., Chapter President and Steward with National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) to discuss the benefits and ways to navigate federal employment for veterans. I had some of my own challenges after leaving the military and becoming a federal employee was a lifeline for me and my family to have income and keep a roof over our heads. As a vocational rehabilitation success story as a catalyst that helped me get a job with the federal government. There are lots of benefits for us such as childcare assistance program (govt pays part of the childcare expenses as a percentage of your income), public transportation assistance, tuition assistance, annual leave based upon time in service, military buyback, and so much more. Robert gives a lot of great information with resume tips and how to compare your military MOS skills to civilian skills via www.opm.gov.

#vagoldengames. #veteranpodcast #veteran #vocrehab. #veteranemployment #veteranbenefits #peoplegarden

This week we covered the interesting and yet personal story of Judah and Tamar. Judah's wicked sons Er and Onan both were consecutively married to Tamar however, they were both put to death (for unknown reasons). As was the custom, Judah was to promise his youngest son Shelah but Judah, fearing death of his son, kept him from Tamar. Judah's wife passed away and when word reached Tamar that he was on his way to town, she took off her widow flock and dressed as a prostitute and positioned herself where Judah could find her.

Tamar shrewdly negotiated with Judah with his offer of a goat, and she got him to offer his seal, cord, and staff. He bedded her (without revealing her face). Three months later, it was discovered that Tamar was pregnant with Judah's seed (twins) and Judah's first response was to burn her to death. 

Tamar sent word to Judah of his possessions she held - the seal, cord, and staff. It was then that he recanted because he recognized his own evidence. By attempting to convict her as judge and jury, he knew that he was actually hiding his own sin - taking her - one who was not his wife. Thus he then further recognized that she was the righteous one. He put his fear of his sons death before family obligations. 

By the way, Tamar is important because she is in Jesus' ancestry. 

The moral injury discussion this week revolves around the double standard of these types of events even in the Military Sexual Trauma (MST) world of things that we know happens both in service and beyond. That the "response" was to vilify the woman but yet nothing happen to the man. These are things that have not evolved or changed over time. But if we do not discuss these sensitive topics then how do we evolve? How do we learn the discernment (as did Tamar) that she knew she needed to be shrewd and look out for herself or else perish. We are righteous when we search and conduct ourselves in a manner that pleases God. 

Much as our military service requires family obligations, it is tough when we recognize that we have served over self, over family obligations. We are revivalists and our goal is to help veterans find that same righteousness we had as warriors and bridge that back over to our civilian lives. That we have been doing the right things for the right reasons now we need to adjust the mirror, if you will, that the things we do are for God and with the right intention. 

This week I dove into several topics that while may at first sound like they have nothing to do with each other, they actually do. Remember how good we got in the military about adapting and overcoming? My new work commute has been just that. My figuring out how to adapt and overcome while also not getting frustrated and burned out. While my head was saying that I had the weekend to go hiking and camping out on the trail, my word for the year is intention and intentional I must be.

So, I skipped the trail and went golfing instead. But before talking about golfing, I dove into my story on why education has been the foundation of keeping me and my family housed and moving forward despite my physical, financial, and family challenges over the years. It is my education that has been the one "thing" that has kept me from staying "in my head" and kept my idle mind out of trouble. Though in many aspects, my education has been my "boyfriend" that has kept me occupied and not wondering about in life, flailing like a fish out of water. As for my golf game today, first two holes today were great! The second two holes....well...not so much....

But, I remembered to get back out of my head and focus on using my tools. Focus on my breathing, focus on where I was aiming, focus on the game I was playing not the frustration of not hitting where I wasn't intending. Because after all, as veterans we know how to get in our heads great! It's the getting out of our heads that stumps us. Just remember, there is always another hole to play and I already have my game set for Monday so I can get my official handicap to play in the VA Golden Games this summer.

I also mentioned a great summer class that is offering scholarships for veterans. www.commongroundonthehill.org. Please make sure email maria@commongroundonthhill.org to see if you qualify for a scholarship. Join me and Jose as we teach the Women Veterans class called Where's My Mic! We're gonna have a lot of fun and we hope you join us! #veterans #veteranfun #veteranmusic #veteranpodcast #veteranhealing #veteranmoralinjury #peoplegarden

This week on The Revivalists we begin the story of Joseph. A young naive 17-year old Joseph told his brothers and his father, Israel (Jacob), a dream he had. This dream sounded just too wild and cray cray for their comfort. For his brothers, it was the last line. Brothers went out to tend the sheep in another area. Joseph is then sent on an errand for his father to convey a message to his brothers. Seeing the opportunity, the brothers plotted Joseph's demise before he walked up to them with the message. Though Reuben tried to intervene to save Joseph and have him thrown into a cistern without water. The brothers plotted to then pluck him out of the cistern and sell Joseph as a slave to a band of "ites" traveling through. Brothers make up this wild story about how Joseph was torn to pieces all while handing the animal blood stained but untorn robe to their father. 

Now we have a serious case of moral injury.

Not just for Joseph who has been sold but for his father too.  His father goes into serious mourning for losing his favorite son. Rachel's son. 

Think of the moral injury...becoming essential a prisoner of strangers, sold by your own brothers for nothing else but having a dream and telling them about it. 

The moral injury of family and loyalty of that family, gone in a moment. 

The moral injury of being physical injured. Of losing your father and everything that you knew to be true about life. Gone. 

Innocence of life. Gone. 

There's more to the story on Joseph...let's see where his faith takes him in his journey. 

This week Jacob returns to Bethel under the directions of God. He finally sees that the direction of life he is to lead is to do what God says. In return, God renames Jacob as Israel. He gives further direction to get rid of their foreign gods. During birth, Rachel starts encountering some birthing issues, she gives birth to a son (Ben-Oni/Benjamin) and then she passes. Reuben dishonor his father Jacob when he decides to sleep with Jacob concubine Bilhah. Then Isaac passes at age 180 years old with both of his sons there - Esau and Jacob. Chapter 36 primarily focuses on the genealogy of both Jacob and Esau's lineages.  

The moral injury impact from these readings is that unless you turn to God (not foreign gods), then there is a price to pay. It is a choice to follow God and receive his mercy and grace. What happens when you are TDY doesn't stay TDY. There are consequences for our actions and being our own god does not benefit us.