Mark Sowersby – Forgiving the Nightmare

This week’s episode of my podcast, Bleeding Daylight, is confronting. It’s the story of a young boy’s nightmare of abuse but thankfully it doesn’t end there.

Forgiving the Nightmare is Mark Sowersby’s journey to forgive those who allowed the abuse to take place, and even the predator who stole his childhood.

His message is clear, no matter the shape of your nightmare, there can be forgiveness, and even joy.

Reverend Mark Sowersby has been married to his wonderful wife Jennifer for 17 years and is the father of four children. Mark has been an ordained minister with Assembly of God for over 25 years and is currently the Pastor of Christian Assembly of Schuyler in beautiful upstate New York. Pastor Mark holds a BA in theology from Zion Bible College/Northpoint Bible College.

In 2019 Pastor Mark went through a time of great healing. He began speaking about the experiences of his past and God’s grace and the transformational work of forgiveness in his life. He now speaks about his story through his ministry, Forgiving The Nightmare.

When he isn’t serving his congregation and his community through ministry, teaching, and support, you can find him on all the trails and lakes in Upstate New York, spending time with his family.

Can I encourage you to listen to Mark’s story on Bleeding Daylight, wherever you find podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Amazon and many, many more, or use the audio player below.

Please also consider leaving a rating and review for Bleeding Daylight wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps others discover episodes that are helpful for them.



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Terry Nightingale – Looking Back to Move Forward

How can we be free of a damaged past and walk into a fruitful future? How do we use what has happened to move forward?

Terry Nightingale is a pastor and author. His new book focuses on how we deal with past failings, disappointments, and broken dreams.

Terry is this week’s guest on my podcast, Bleeding Daylight which you can find wherever you listen to podcasts.

In a world that either demonizes past failings or tries to sweep them under the rug, Looking Back to Move Forward takes the more biblical approach of examining and learning from our mistakes to move forwards into a more fruitful future.

You can hear our conversation using the audio player below.



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Essentials

Our microwave oven has stopped working. What shall we do?

We use the microwave every day. It’s part of the way we live, yet I’m very aware that microwave ovens weren’t really a thing in Australia until the eighties. By the mid-eighties, Dire Straits and Sting were singing about installing them, and now most homes have one. They’ve become part of our ‘I need it now!!” lifestyle.

Today, Australians woke up to find that a massive range of pages had been wiped by Facebook.

Facebook banned Australian users from accessing news in their feeds this morning, as the government pursues laws that would force it to pay publishers for journalism that appears in people’s feeds.

Facebook’s justification for including non-news pages was that the proposed law has a broad definition of news.

“As the law does not provide clear guidance on the definition of news content, we have taken a broad definition in order to respect the law as drafted,” a statement from the company read.ABC News

Even my blog’s Facebook page is looking pretty empty with all my posts removed and I can’t share links to any of the posts here at RodneyOlsen.net on Facebook.

What shall we do?

Until February 2004, Facebook didn’t even exist and yet today we’re all wondering what’s going to happen without some of the posts and pages we’re used to seeing.

We’ll replace our microwave and once they’ve made their point, I believe that Facebook will restore their services (though I could possibly be wrong on that).

What is really essential? So much of what we take for granted these days didn’t exist even a few decades ago and yet people were able to live quite fulfilling lives.

Don’t get me wrong, I want a microwave, a full Facebook feed, electricity, double brick and tile homes, cars, running water and so many more of the advancements we’ve seen over decades and centuries. I think it was grossly irresponsible of Facebook to wipe out websites indiscriminately, including emergency services in some cases.

We have chosen to elevate so many things as ‘essential’ when they’re not really essential at all. I’ve stood with families in some nations that would consider most of what we call essential as absolute luxuries. Again, I’m not saying we should live without modern advancements, but we need to decide what’s really essential. These days we even call some oils essential. They’re not.

What is really essential for you? Let’s enjoy all the extras but ensure that we’re focusing on the essentials.



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Shonah Marie – Steady in the Storm

Shonah Marie had a fairly sheltered upbringing, and would now admit that she was quite removed from what she would call real-world issues. However, it wasn’t too long before some very real issues invaded her life.

Shonah is my guest on my podcast, Bleeding Daylight, this week.

I don’t know how people get through tough things like that without community and without Jesus. I just don’t have an answer outside of those two things. – Shonah Marie

It was the tough times that helped her to become the person that she is today but the lessons she learned during those times haven’t been easy.

I could feel God’s heart breaking for what was going on. I could feel his sorrow for what we were going through and learning to sit with Jesus in that empathy was probably the greatest gift. – Shonah Marie

As part of our conversation, we opened a window into her life, discussing her early years living in a very protected environment before finding herself facing struggles she had no idea how to navigate.

I feel like I remained in that childlikeness for quite a long time, which I feel benefited me in some areas in the long run, but also left me somewhat naive and innocent towards how to handle navigating real-world circumstances. I kind of call it the bubble. – Shonah Marie

You can hear Shonah’s story by listening to Bleeding Daylight, wherever you find podcasts, or by clicking play on the audio player below.

She has also written a book that describes her life so far titled Steady in the Storm.



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Ryan Roy – Be the Dad You Wish You Had

I released what I consider to be a very important episode of my podcast, Bleeding Daylight, this week. As well as sharing his personal story, my guest has some extremely valuable encouragement and guidance for parents, especially dads. I am convinced that this episode will be of great benefit to many families.

The struggles we face, the hurts we experience, will generally push us one of two ways. They can continue to harm and destroy us long after the events that initially caused us damage, or they can be the driver for transformation. Of course, even when we take the road of transformation, there’s no guarantee that it will be easy or painless. Ryan Roy has not only seen transformation in his own life, he’s actively empowering others towards transformation.

What you desire, and what I desire, and what every little girl and every little boy and what every adult on this planet desires is to be loved, through actions and through words. – Ryan Roy

You can hear Bleeding Daylight wherever you listen to podcasts or check out this week’s episode by clicking play on the audio player below.



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