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JOHN TRENT, Ph.D., is the President of StrongFamilies.com, a ministry committed to building strong relationships in these stressful times. Dr. Trent's main focus includes writing and speaking at retreats, conferences, business settings, churches, and seminars across the country. In addition to building family teams, Dr. Trent regularly speaks to corporate America on team building, recruiting and retaining outstanding employees. He has authored and co-authored more than a dozen books for both adults and children, including Love For All Seasons, The Language of Love, and The Blessing. In addition to writing books, Dr. Trent has written numerous articles for both professional and popular publications. He and his wife, Cynthia, live in Scottsdale, Arizona and have two adult daughters.
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CURT HAMNER is a pastor and cofounder along with his wife, Rhonda of Between Two Trees (betweentwotrees.org), a marriage ministry designed to resource couples and communities with tools to pursue God's design for marriage. Curt is also the founder of Bed and Breakfast with Purpose Retreats, and is a mentor with The Master's Program (a three-year marketplace leadership coaching ministry). Together Curt and Rhonda speak throughout the US and around the world helping couples enrich their marriages. They host DreamMaster Retreats for second half couples working together on vision and strategic plans for the years after career and family. Curt is a graduate of Dallas Seminary and served with Chuck Swindoll at the church they pastored in Fullerton, CA. The Hamners have three adult children and five grandchildren. They live in the mountains of southern California.
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LINDA BARRICK is a wife, mother, author, Bible teacher, and founder of Hope Out Loud Ministries. Her daily radio feature, Hope Out Loud, is heard on 733 stations in the US, Canada, and overseas. A graduate of Liberty University, Linda is a dynamic speaker who has conducted a weekly Bible study for 500 women at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA, for the past ten years. Linda and her daughter Jen Barrick, travel across the country sharing their miraculous story of faith, hope and forgiveness. Jen suffered a traumatic brain injury over a decade ago when her family's van was struck head-on by a drunk driver going 80 miles per hour. Though Jen still suffers from vision impairment and memory loss, she knows there is no limit to what God can accomplish through her life. Connect with Linda and Jen at hopeoutloud.com.
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CANDY MCVICAR is an author, educator, speaker, and devoted advocate for parents who experience the loss of a baby or child. After the stillbirth of her daughter Grace in 2001, she committed to enhance the care bereaved families receive while in the hospital, to facilitate healing holistically, and to optimize outcomes for subsequent pregnancies. Candy is the founder of the Missing GRACE Foundation, a national nonprofit that provides support, resources, and education for families and professional care providers when there is loss of a baby, infertility, or adoption challenges. Find out more about Candy at www.candymcvicar.com.
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KORI DE LEON is the founder of Adoring Christ Ministries, a teaching ministry devoted to reaching women through the local church, online resources, books, and speaking engagements. She graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological seminary with a master of arts in theology. Kori lives in Houston with her husband Bobby and daughter Jade. To find out more about her testimony and ministry, please visit www.adoringchrist.org.
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ALICIA LLEWELLYN is co-founder of Quite Uncommon, a technology firm that helps organizations build, test, and launch new and innovative ideas. She is also a strategist and collaboration leader at NASA, currently directing the 1958 Coworking Space at the Johnson Space Center. She has more than two decades of cross-sector experience in growing effective teams and building engaged communities with resiliency and foresight--including for some of the largest hackathons in the world. Ali has served as a teacher, a team trainer, a youth pastor, and the Director of Ministries at Antioch Community Church in Houston, TX. This background in education, communication, and theology provides the clarity and articulation necessary to help organizations and communities take their mission to the next level.
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MIKE AND KRISTIN BERRY have been married for more than twenty years and are the parents of eight adopted children. In 2015 they launched the blog website Confessions of an Adoptive Parent. Their mission is simple - to offer hope to adoptive, foster, and special needs parents who feel weary, overwhelmed and frustrated, and to let them know they're not alone. They recently co-wrote the book, The Adoptive Parent Toolbox and travel extensively speaking at churches, camps, and conferences.
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RON L. DEAL is one of the most widely read and viewed experts on blended families in the country. He is founder of Smart Stepfamilies™, Director of FamilyLife Blended® for Family Life®, the author of numerous videos and books on stepfamily living including the bestselling The Smart Stepfamily, and is consulting editor for the Smart Stepfamily Series of books. Ron is a licensed marriage and family therapist, popular speaker, and host of the podcast FamilyLife Blended. He and his wife, Nan, have three sons and live in Little Rock, Arkansas. Find events and resources at RonDeal.org.
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JIMMY DODD (B.A. Wheaton College; M.Div., Gordon-Conwell Seminary) is the founder and CEO of PastorServe. This organization works across denominational lines to strengthen the church by serving pastors. He is the author of Survive or Thrive, 6 Relationships Every Pastor Needs, and Pastors Are People Too, co-authored with Larry Magnuson. Jimmy and his wife Sally have five children and three grandchildren. He enjoys reading, taking walks with his wife Sally and dog Finn, and cheering on his beloved Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, KS.
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RENAUT VAN DER RIET loves to go zip-lining with his eight kids through the adventure course they built together. He walks quickly. He talks with his hands and arms. And if you find him at home, you're likely to see him tilling soil because Brooke, his wife of 25 years, loves gardening. In 2002, Renault founded Mosaic Church in Winter Garden, FL. It has become a nationwide pacemaker for fostering and adoption and a model for trauma care. He is also the founder of Axum Coffee Company, named after the Ethiopian city from which he and Brooke adopted four of their children. Renault is developing The ReStory, a project aimed at providing Gospel clarity to followers of Christ and inviting them to consider how their lives might be different if they dared to believe Galatians 5:1: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free."
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DAN PATERSON is a Christian thinker and the founder of Questioning Christianity, a ministry connecting the Christian story to life's deepest questions. With a personal background of wrestling through the problem of evil, he has earned several university qualifications in Theology and Apologetics in Australia and Oxford, fueled by a passion to help others process their doubts and discover the relevance and reasonableness of faith in Jesus. Speaking regularly to audiences around Australia and beyond, Dan is based in Brisbane, where together with his wife, Erin, their favorite job is raising three boys.
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MOISHE and CEIL ROSEN were a Jewish couple who came to know Jesus as their Messiah. Moishe was the founder and director of Jews for Jesus and Ceil is a free-lance writer. Together, Moishe and Ceil co-authored a number of books, including Y’shua: The Jewish Way to Say Jesus, Christ in the Passover, and Witnessing to Jews. They resided in San Francisco, California until Moishe's passing.
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RAMON PRESSON, PhD, a licensed marriage & family therapist, has been in practice for 30 years and is the founder of LifeChange Counseling and Marriage Center of Franklin www.LifeChangeCS.org. He is a newspaper columnist; and with a dozen books in print he is the most published practicing therapist in Tennessee. He is a charter member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. From 1989 to 2004 Presson served as an assistant pastor in large churches in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee. Ramon has had the unique privilege to serve on staff with and later co-author several books with Dr. Gary Chapman. He is currently co-authoring the teen edition of When Will My Life Not Suck? Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned with his 17-year-old son, Cameron. Ramon and his wife, Dorne, have been married for 28 years, have two sons, and live outside Nashville. He can be reached at ramonpresson@gmail.com.
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C. DONALD COLE served as a host and commentator on Moody Radio’s Open Line for 26 years before retiring in 2008. He previously served on the faculty at Emmaus Bible College and as a missionary in Angola with his wife, Naomi. Pastor Cole is the author of a number of books, including How to Know You’re Saved and All You Need to Believe: The Apostle’s Creed. Pastor and Mrs. Cole live in Carol Stream, Illinois.
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DAN DEHAAN (1943-1982) was the director and founder of Training Church Leaders, Inc., a division of Ambassadors For Christ, Inc. The author of The God You Can Know, Intercepted By Christ: Biography of Steve Bartkowski, and Principles of Spiritual Growth and Leadership, Dan also served as a conference speaker, and minister of the Word before his accidental death in February, 1982.
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