Judy Howard Peterson
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Judy Howard Peterson |
Judy is campus pastor at North Park University and a well known conference speaker who travels around the country encouraging people that life is a journey worth traveling. In 1999 Judy walked across the United States as part of her internship for her MDiv program but has since been on another kind of journey. During the past five years Judy and her husband Jeff have conceived and grieved the loss of nine babies. Along the way they have learned valuable lessons about how to keep on walking this journey of faith.
www.soultosole.cc
Keynote Address, A2, A3
Session Descriptions:
Keynote Address
Perfect and Beautiful: Finding perfect and beautiful things in the most difficult labors of life.
A2
Death of an Equation: Christian teaching and preaching is full of quick equations and verses quoted out of context. In the midst of loss, which one of us hasn’t been told that "God works all things for good.", "God has a plan" and that "God needed another angel in heaven." In my opinion none of these bumper sticker versions of faith are very helpful statements in the midst of pain. As a Christian Pastor and as a woman who has experienced the loss of nine pregnancies I have wrestled with the God who loves us and yet who seems to allow a significant amount of pain and injustice in this world. I invite you to join me in a candid discussion of what a relationship with God looks like when the simple Christian equations are no longer enough to carry you through.
A3
The Great Divide: Choosing Life After Recurring Loss: At the Continental Divide the waters determine which way they will flow. Several years ago after our second second-trimester loss I sat at the Continental Divide and made a decision about which direction my grief would flow. I chose to have my grief flow in directions that would bring life out of loss. Today, after nine miscarriages and with no children in sight I continue to choose life after loss. Living this kind of life has required many deliberate decisions. I have had to learn how to live alongside my grief rather than denying it or letting it define me. Come and join me as we learn to be honest about the work required to live well in the midst of repetitive loss.