Val Halloway, 4-time former caregiver, is the creator and host of Caregiver Tea Time. In Val's experience spiritual thoughts and events are never far from a caregiver's mind, but are rarely discussed in everyday conversation. In this episode, Val introduces Season Three, Called Let's get Spiritual, and shares about her faith journey so that listeners will learn what motivates her and how she came to create Caregiver Tea Time.
01:34 Val introduces Season 3. In this season she will share about her spiritual journey, spiritual mentors she’s had along the way, and about her spiritual growth by attending spiritual retreats. In the final episode of this season, she will share her personal, spiritual experiences with loved ones who have passed that bring her joy and hope.
Val has always had a strong intuition about God and was raised in a Christian home. As a child she loved exploring the large King James family Bible. Her childhood was calm and loving and her faith was never challenged.
04:37 As an adult, her faith was tested and deepened when young family members developed cancer. Bible study in community was key for her faith journey as well as buying a Bible that became her personal reference for learning about and understanding God.
During this time, the Caring Bridge website https://www.caringbridge.org/ provided a connection to friends and family. She could feel the love from a distance, and this provided inspiration for the line in the Caregiver podcast theme song that says, “Friends and family are sending love to me, much more love than you or I could ever see.”
08:37. Seeds for this podcast were planted long ago when Val heard a message on a radio program about people sharing their stories and how important our stories are for providing support to one another. When the idea for a podcast came up as a way for her to share her story, she was reluctant because she had fears about being misunderstood and appearing foolish.
As she was contemplating whether to do a podcast, a Bible story from her daily devotional highlighted how Jesus’ disciples were worried about appearing foolish when Jesus suggested to them that they drop their fishing nets in a place where they had been fishing all day and knew there were no fish. But they did it anyway and their nets came up bursting with fish.
Val’s takeaway from the Bible story is that sometimes the thing we are avoiding is the thing we need to do most. She knows from experience the support and encouragement caregivers need to take care of themselves so they can take care of others and that is the reason or her creating this podcast, “Caregiver Tea Time”.
11:15 Things came together quickly after that. She met new friends who had the technology and skill to help her record a professional podcast.
12:36 Val summarizes that Jesus’ teachings are what makes sense to her, and she shares her gratitude for the gift of her intuition that tells her she is not facing her life challenges alone. She encourages others to be curious about the love from God that is available to all and ends the podcast with a prayer.
Hello! and welcome back to caregiver tea time!
After sharing about emotions in season 1 and ways to take care of your body in season 2, it's season three, and time to get spiritual.
I will share with you four new episodes.
The first is about my spiritual journey and background and how I got here. The second is about spiritual mentors I've had along the way. The third will be about spiritual retreats I've taken and my spiritual growth by attending them. And in the final episode of this season, I will share some personal, spiritual experiences I've had with my loved ones that bring me joy and hope that my belief in something more than my eyes can see is confirmed. And I'm excited to share them with you.
I will start with my spiritual journey because if you're listening to my podcast, I think it is very important for you to know what's behind it.
That will explain why I would do this, and how I found the strength to do it. So please listen on and you'll find out.
It was easier to share my spiritual journey years ago when I didn't have so much to say. Now that I'm in my sixties, I confess everything is starting to jumble together. And this is so true as I'm writing this podcast and wondering what to say. I've been praying about it, so let's see what words come out.
My spiritual journey had a wonderful start. I believe it started when I was developing in my mother's womb. I was born with a strong intuition that just knew God is there. I did not need it explained to me, I just knew.
I cannot think of a time when I questioned it, and with this knowing I eagerly sought out to learn more. My parents attended Presbyterian and Methodist churches growing up, so I was raised in a Midwestern Protestant Christian household.
My parents never talked about their faith. They just lived it. They sent us kids to Vacation Bible School and Sunday School, where we learned the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. My parents were involved and helped us practice until we knew them by heart.
We had a big King James Bible on a bookshelf, and it must have weighed at least 10 pounds. It was black leather bound with gold leaf and gold on the edges of the pages, and when I was a little girl, I loved to turn those thin, crispy pages and look through the pictures and the maps, and the calligraphy. It was so beautiful and I thought it was very holy.
And then, when I was a young adult, I had a small Bible, and I remember trying to read it, but I would just fall asleep. Granted, it was usually late at night on those days, so that's not surprising, but my heart was in the right place and I was seeking to know more.
I've always enjoyed listening to others tell their story about their own spiritual journey. Especially exciting to me is when someone starts out as not believing in God and they intellectually try to disprove God's existence, and somehow their life experience opens their heart to an understanding of God, the world, the power of the Holy Spirit, and how Jesus and his teachings bring everything together with love.
In college, I met people who were evangelical about their faith, and I was impressed. But I felt shy about sharing my own beliefs, And that worried me. I mean, why wouldn't I be willing to share? I look back now and I wonder that it was not so much a lack of faith or fear, but just a lack of experience.
By the grace of God, I had a calm and loving childhood and adolescent years, and I had no reason to doubt God's existence. But I also didn't have moments of revelation.
Gradually, throughout my adult life, events happened that tested and deepened my faith. When family members developed cancer, my faith journey was raised to a new level. Friends and family were praying for us, and I started attending weekly Bible study with my dear friend Jolene. The community support we received felt God sent.
And this is when I started reading the Bible with new interest. I needed to better understand our world and tragedies within it and what God said about it. I needed strength beyond my own.
I went to a bookstore and bought a New International Version or NIV translation of the Bible that was recommended by my Pastor Mario.
I chose the reference edition that used red letters for the words attributed to
Jesus. I decided this would be my working Bible. I wrote notes in the margins,
with dates and places where I read passages, and what messages came to me through
those words.
Interestingly, I left this Bible in various places, but somehow it's always made its
way back to me. I wonder if during those times someone else needed it more than I
did.
Well, immediately studying the Bible in prayer helped me on my journey. I set aside
time in the morning to read and journal. Sometimes I used a study booklet or a
devotional book with recommended passages and comments, and sometimes I just started
reading, and if nothing made sense to me, I'd move on to another passage.
Sometimes the hard part would be to stop reading and just be still and contemplate
what I had just read. I just love the cross -reference part of my NIV Bible.
It's located in the center column of each page, and If I find a passage interesting
and there's a little italic letter next to it, then that means there's a link to
where that word or phrase is referenced somewhere else in the Bible. Sometimes when
I go on to that second passage and read the words in a different context, the
message makes more sense to me. Following these cross -references has led me to some
amazing stories that build one upon the other. It has also led me to experiences
where passages spoke directly to my heart. Just spending time with the Bible in this
way has been an adventure for me and raised my knowledge of the challenges of
humankind and how I fit into it all. By attending Bible study at my church and at
other times in a larger community fellowship, I met and studied and discussed the
Bible with others, which is an important key on any spiritual journey. Faith grows
in community, and I know my faith grew and deepened the most during these times.
In community, we have the opportunity to live out our faith with the support of
others.
Another way my faith has been strengthened is the Caringbridge website. I would write
and send out an update and the website would let me know that there were a lot of
people out there thinking about us and praying for us. These were people I couldn't
see, but I knew they had read my updates and were following along our journey. And
this was the inspiration for one of the lines in my song, Nothing but the good
things.
"Friends and family are sending love to me. Much more love than you or I will ever
see!"
So how did my faith journey bring me here to create caregiver tea time? Well,
years ago, before YouTube and podcasts. There was a message I heard on the radio.
It was that we need to share our stories to support one another. And now that I
think about it, this message really blew up exponentially. Now we have social media
where anyone can share their story anytime and they do. Eventually,
that nudge reached me. But I didn't really want to do it. I was afraid of being
misunderstood and seen as foolish. My old fears from college days about sharing my
story with people I didn't know came up. However, recently I've been hearing this
message. Sometimes the things we are avoiding are the things we need to do most.
And I was pushing against doing a podcast. So, I brought back my time alone with
God to discern what to do next. One day, my devotional suggested I read the story
about when Jesus' disciples had been fishing all night but hadn't caught anything.
In the morning, Jesus stood on the shore and told them to throw out their net over
the right side of the boat, and they will find some.
My devotional suggested they probably wondered why he said to cast their net if
there weren't any fish there, and they didn't want to look foolish by continuing to
bring up empty nets. Well that was me sitting around worrying about looking foolish.
In the Bible story, once they threw their net over the side, they were unable to
haul the net in because of the large number of fish. On that day,
the Bible story spoke to me. This thing that I was avoiding was the thing I needed
to do most. And so now I have the faith and the strength to try.
I had taken time to contemplate my life experiences and I really was ready to
share. And I believe living out my faith means to think not only of myself and my
own needs, but of what I can do for the greater good and the good for others. And
I know from experience, caregivers need support and encouragement and sometimes
direction to take care of themselves so they can care for others. And that's my
idea of a podcast called "Caregiver Tea Time."
After that, things started to happen very quickly. Life introduced me to Nancy at a
live jazz venue. Nancy introduced me to Bianca, who has a recording studio.
And Bianca's studio has a sound engineer who is also an accomplished and talented
musician. One of Bianca's gifts is to make things happen and she agreed to be my
producer and she's kept me going forward when I've wanted to quit. And here we are.
I guess this summarizes my spiritual journey. I was just born with faith and a
strong intuition.
Through many knowing and loving people in my life, I was led to study the Bible
and spend time along with God and in fellowship with others to contemplate and pray
about the experiences life brought my way.
I believe what Jesus taught in two short years of his life makes sense, and it
speaks to my heart. I'm grateful, so grateful that God has not left me to face
this life alone and without guidance. My spiritual journey continues on in miraculous
ways, and I will tell you about some of those experiences in the next episodes of
caregiver tea time.
My special message for today is to encourage you to close your eyes and just be
curious about the love that is out there. Open your heart and welcome that love in.
Instead of a cheer, today I'll end with a prayer.
- Thank you, Lord, for this most amazing gift of life and freedom. Help us to know
you and your love when we can't see you and broaden our perspective and vision so
that we can see you more. Amen.
♪ Nothing but the good things ♪ ♪ Nothing but the
good things ♪ ♪ In this world ♪ ♪ Living in Living in my heart
Nothing but the good things
Nothing but the good things In this world Living in my heart
Living in my heart
♪ In my heart ♪
- "Caregiver Tea Time" was recorded at the Koop Studio, Irvington, New York,
engineered by Sammy Wags and produced by Bianca Groves.