I’m so excited to tell you Suzette’s amazing name and birth story today. She is our precious sixth child, and we are thrilled that she had a safe delivery and is now here with us!
Category Archives: Faith
Samaritan Ministries Review 2023: Our 10 Year Experience
2023 marks TEN YEARS of being Samaritan Ministries members for our family. And we have definitely had some experience with health care sharing since we’ve joined! Lots of variety of injuries, birth stories (several home births), and other recoveries and testing. I can’t wait to share our very honest and detailed Samaritan Ministries review with you. 🙂
For those of you hearing about healthcare sharing for the first time, it is an alternative to health insurance that satisfies insurance requirements and functions similarly to insurance without being (or costing as much) as insurance.
In this post I talk about what it means to “share” with other members each month, what it is like to submit a medical need, the various needs we have experienced, and using alternative medicine doctors as your primary provider. We also had several emergency hospital stays that we paid with 50% discounts. It’s all in this post. 🙂
(Originally published in 2015. Revised 2018, 2022)
That Time God Spoke to My Husband in the Chemo Room
I really didn’t know what else to name this post. It is simply what it is. That time God spoke to my husband in the chemo room.
To any of you visiting here for the first time and also to you all that have been hanging around with me for a while, you need to know that I haven’t written about this in the seven years since I started my blog. I have very rarely ever talked about it publicly even though this experience is what cemented our decision to pursue non-toxic therapies for my cancer in 2008.
I was concerned that by sharing it, our story would be dismissed as ridiculous, too religious, or just plain weird.
So I just left it out of the conversation.
But then a few years ago at the 2013 HealingStrong conference, something AMAZING happened and I changed my mind. Spine tingling amazing. And I started talking about it. I am so excited to share it with you today.
One Year Update on My Experience with Samaritan Ministries (Non-Obamacare Healthcare Coverage/ Sharing)
Update: 12/2018: Our 5 Year experience with Samaritan Ministries can be found HERE. This post is extremely thorough with detailed needs and sharing experience.
Update 4/1/15: You can read about our most recent homebirth experience with Samaritan Ministries HERE.
Last year I wrote a post about Christian healthcare sharing ministries and had no idea that it would become my most popular post on Green Drink Diaries. Apparently more people are looking for alternatives to the federally mandated “Obamacare” than I originally thought!
Today I’m going to go back over some basics of Samaritan Ministries, the Christian healthcare sharing ministry we decided was best for us and also tell about our experience. Americans have only until February 15th, 2015 to make their decisions regarding federally-supplemented health insurance for 2015, so it’s perfect timing for research into other options as well.
For my full run-down on how Christian healthcare share ministries works a a whole concept, click HERE.
For my side-by-side comparison of the largest and most popular 3 Christian healthcare share ministries (Medi-Share, Christian Healthcare Ministries, and Samaritan Ministries) click HERE.
OK, now onto my review of Samaritan Ministries after one year of membership….
Alternatives to Insurance: Comparing Samaritan Ministries, Medi-Share, and Christian Healthcare Ministries
For more information comparing Christian healthcare share ministries work and WHY they are better than traditional insurance, make sure to see yesterday’s post. I think that all three of the major Christian healthcare share ministries each have different strengths that will satisfy the needs of their individual members which is what I’m going to attempt to make simpler for you today.
How Do Health Share Plans Work?
This is a question I get a ton: “Exactly how do health share plans work?” In this post I am breaking it all down and what I learned when I began my research 5 years ago. In the next post I compared the big three: Samaritan Ministries, Medi-Share, and Christian Healthcare Ministries. For now, read on to learn more about what it’s like to choose an alternative to traditional health insurance and why I began exploring this option for my family.
Healing Strong on Natural News Radio!
Some exciting news on the Healing Strong front! Founder and Coordinator, Suzy Griswold will be joining Joni Cox, host of Homegrown Health on Natural News Radio TODAY, July 10th at 5pm EST. She will follow the very popular Robert Scott Bell show which airs weekdays from 3-5pm EST.
For all the “crunchy” parents out there, Homegrown Health is a weekly radio show that discusses topics dealing with everything home, family and natural living such as homebirth, breastfeeding, vaccine education, homeschooling, homesteading, home gardens, and many other “Home” related topics.
UPDATE: the show is now archived. You can listen to it HERE! Make sure to look for the July 10th show!
A DIFFERENT Kind of Cancer Charity
Several times each year I am approached by a friend or family member with sweet intentions to raise money for a popular cancer charity. Whether they are running for the cure, relaying for life, or marathoning for lymphoma research, all of these charities have one thing in common:
THEY IGNORE NON-TOXIC, HOLISTIC CANCER THERAPIES.
I happen to have an affinity for alternative, nutrition-based approaches to cancer, seeing that I am alive today and thriving because of them.
Each and every single day I am SO GRATEFUL to look at my two daughters and know that following a natural route to healing enabled me to have them. My husband and my decision was prayerful and well-researched for my particular case, but as the past 5 years have gone by I have met many other cancer survivors who have also chosen non-toxic therapies and are thriving.
Recently, along with several of these survivors, we have helped found Healing Strong. Our first endeavor will be the Healing Strong: Conference and Retreat in September of this year in Atlanta. This faith-based event will share information about non-toxic healing methods with others and provide support, so that they too can make prayerful and purposeful decisions in their cancer care. We also stress the importance of proper nutrition in nourishing the body, no matter what treatment plan you choose.
The reality is- there are BILLIONS of dollars donated to large, corporate-like cancer charities that primarily fund pharmaceutical research and turn a blind eye to the truth about non-toxic healing.
Healing Strong is 100% volunteer-run (primarily from our living rooms and home offices!) and WE NEED YOUR HELP. We can’t get the word out about natural, nutrition-based cancer therapies if we sit back and just hope something changes.
Healing Strong Conference and Retreat: Atlanta September 13-15, 2013
This past Fall I received an email from Suzy Griswold, a holistic thyroid cancer survivor also living here in Atlanta. I was so excited to meet someone in-person with the same background/experience in cancer treatment I had! We met up over green tea in December when she shared with me her God-given desire to create a cancer retreat that would support/educate people about non-toxic therapies with all glory given to God.
I couldn’t have been more on board or excited at the prospect of bringing people together to learn about cancer therapies that would RESTORE and HEAL the body, all while praising the one who HEALS us!
My Interview with Dr. Judy Seeger
Late last year I received a kind email from Dr. Judy Seeger who is a certified naturopath and founder of CancerCleanseCamp.com. She asked me if I would be willing to do a short radio interview, and since I had heard her interviews with other holistic survivors before, I gladly accepted.
In the interview I discuss the various methods of treatment I used to heal from my Stage II NLP Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, the importance of my faith, and also my life post-cancer. You can listen to the interview HERE.
Dr. Seeger would definitely be a terrific option for many of you to work with if you have been diagnosed with cancer and are looking for an alternative, non-toxic route for treatment. I especially appreciate her strong belief in the emotional- spiritual connection within the healing process that can tend to be over-shadowed by nutrition-only approaches. Thank you so much for your expertise and boldness, Dr. Seeger!