BRINK OF GREATNESS
35 episodes - English -America Out Loud Network © – Good News and Heroes do exist… Exciting and inspiring stories of people that were finding themselves on the brink of some life decision that transformed their life.
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Episodes
🎧 Inspiring Girls to Excel in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math)
June 18, 2019 13:04 - 58 minutes - 80.8 MBEvery young girl and boy have been asked the question; 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' For boys, it was an athlete, astronaut, doctor, scientist, policeman, or a fire fighter. For girls, a teacher, veterinarian, singer, actress, dancer, or artist would have been a typical answer. The answer kids give to that question is changing, and if Stephanie Hein, Julia Haried or Elizabeth Engele have anything to say about it, those typical stereotype answers will become a thing of the past. ...
🎧 Rob Jones: Survive, Recover, Live
June 11, 2019 14:03 - 58 minutes - 80.5 MBAfghanistan is one of the world's most heavily landmine contaminated countries, and the impact to the civilian population as well as our military soldiers is the leading cause of injuries and death. A report was issued from the United Nations in October 2018 calling on militants in Afghanistan to stop using improvised explosive devices, “The killing and maiming of Afghan civilians by improvised explosive devises, particularly suicide devices, has reached extreme levels in Afghanistan.” Rob J...
🎧 Ria Pieters Turns Family Sadness Into Hope for Future Generations!
June 04, 2019 20:24 - 58 minutes - 80.1 MBIt should have been a happy time, fresh off her retirement, Ria had set off across the country to visit her sister in Johannesburg, South Africa. As they pulled into a friends townhouse, some men had rushed the vehicle in an attempt to carjack⏤in the process they shot and killed Ria's sister. Ria Pieters "For some unexplained reason they spared my life," explains Ria Pieters. "In one moment, I lost my sister, the next I lost my feeling of safety and then I had anxiety attacks. I was a mess...
🎧 Janelle Towne Redefines homeless with furnishings, love and respect!
May 28, 2019 14:02 - 58 minutes - 80.7 MBJanelle had not a clue that when she contacted her friend at a local homeless shelter for her own daughter⏤who needed service hours for school⏤that it would turn into a life changing experience. It broke her heart when she discovered a family living in the shelter with two young girls just weeks before the holiday. She struggled with the idea that these two girls were living in a shelter with their parents at Christmas time. Janelle Towne understood the beauty of Christmas and as the mother...
🎧 Through the Eyes of Jessica Taylor-Bearman “A Girl Behind Dark Glasses”
May 22, 2019 01:47 - 58 minutes - 79.8 MBA high achiever at school, Jessica’s life completely changed at the end of 2005, when she caught a virus that her body just couldn’t get over. She tried to push forward with a ‘stiff upper lip’ but fell into a rapid decline and by May the following year could not get into school anymore. From a darkened world, bound by four walls, Jessica tells the tale of her battle against the M.E Monster. The severest form of a neuro immune disease called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis went to war with her at ...
🎧 Emily Kustka proves 9 yr olds can THINK BIG!
May 14, 2019 12:21 - 58 minutes - 80.4 MBEmily Kustka found joy differently than most nine year olds. She enjoyed going with Grandma Kathy to help feed the homeless. She loved the feeling she got in making people happy! As Emily explains it, "My favorite thing to do was serve lunch to the homeless in Downtown Raleigh with the Bread of Life Ministry." She quickly became frustrated in the way children were viewed and their lack of leadership roles for children volunteers; so in 2010, Emily created and organized her very first annual ...
⏯ Cutting Lawns For Free Turns into a Movement that Empowers Kids
April 30, 2019 14:11 - 57 minutes - 78.5 MB“Once day I saw an elderly man cutting grass and something just hit me. God was talking to me (saying)⏤‘Do something about it.’” It was that one split decision when Rodney Smith Jr. pulled his car to the side of the road to offer Mr. Brown a helping hand to finish cutting his lawn⏤that would change his life forever. Mr. Brown became the inspiration for Rodney to help more people. He set an initial goal to cut forty lawns for free. It was his way of giving back to folks who needed the help,...
🎧 Until Every Child has a Family, Caroline Boudreaux Wants to Create Miracles For Them
April 23, 2019 12:57 - 58 minutes - 80.4 MBCaroline was not the first person to find herself in a good job with all the security, money and niceties that a good corporate job provides. She was also not the first person feeling unfulfilled in that role; a burning sense that something was missing in her life. The difference is⏤Caroline Boudreaux acted on that feeling. She decided that 'money would not be the main ingredient that would make her world go round'. "I always thought if I made more and more money that I’d be happier, but it...
🎧 Greg Nance takes on 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days to inspire students to DREAM BIG
April 16, 2019 21:10 - 58 minutes - 79.8 MBAddiction comes in all forms. Psychology Today, defines it as a condition in which a person engages in the use of a substance or in a behavior for which the rewarding effects provide a compelling incentive to repeatedly pursue the behavior despite detrimental consequences. Greg Nance found himself is such a place for seven long years. As he explains, there were weekends where he would engage with thirty to forty drinks. He became the life of the party⏤except it was no party! In Greg's words...
🎧 A Remarkable Story of Determination; A Challenged Life to a Crowning Achievement, Cordelia Cranshaw is Miss DC
April 10, 2019 02:56 - 56 minutes - 77.6 MB"Growing up, I was always told that I would end up pregnant, that I would never be anything, that I would end up in jail, that I would be homeless", explains Cordelia Cranshaw. "I really felt like I didn't have much confidence. My mother — after her being incarcerated, in and out of my life, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. My dad being an alcoholic," she said. One of 18 children, Cranshaw lived her childhood years in foster care, and at 14 she tried to take her own life. Throughout thos...
🎧 Hannah Elisabeth Dougherty Gives Life’s Umbilical Cord to Disadvantaged Youth
April 02, 2019 10:52 - 56 minutes - 77.1 MBThis story starts at a doorstep back in 1991 in the country of Romania. Baby Hannah was left hours after birth, umbilical cord still attached to her tiny body. When Hannah was discovered, she was still bleeding, but alive⏤as the homeowners called the authorities with the news. Hannah Elisabeth Dougherty Alone, lost with an uncertain future... Hannah would say, "the despair and loneliness would surface throughout my middle school years when I began to understand my adoption and experience th...
🎧 A Heartbeat From Death, Mike Papale Discovers His Dream
March 26, 2019 15:49 - 58 minutes - 80.5 MBSeconds can make the difference between life and death. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can change the outcome as well. Having trained personnel with the proper equipment for treatment close by is often the deciding factor. At just 17 years old, Mike Papale was in a life and death situation. At one point his brother John heard that he had died. It was that serious, and if it wasn't for Bob hearing the call next door, chances are Mike would not be here today. There was no AED on si...
🎧 A Farming Accident Turned Tragic, Suicide & Setbacks, Dick Beardsley Runs Life’s Marathon
March 19, 2019 20:35 - 57 minutes - 79.6 MB"When I stood on the starting line at the Boston Marathon two runners down from Alberto Salazar (then the world record holder) and Bill Rodgers (four-time winner at the Boston Marathon), I wondered, 'Dick, what in the heck are you doing on the same line with these guys?'" It was at that moment that an inner voice spoke to Dick Beardsley with a reassuring message. "Dick, you deserve to be here, you've done the work." If the name Dick Beardsley seems somewhat familiar to you, then you might b...
🎧 Broken families, illness, poverty; over 143 million orphans worldwide, Greg Buzek has a plan!
March 13, 2019 12:39 - 57 minutes - 79 MBSeventeen years ago, Greg Buzek was working as a Product Development Manager making anti-theft devices. They were the type of devices designed to deactivate if merchandise left a store without being purchased. Greg made a very good living at this, but found himself completely unfulfilled inside. Something wasn't quite right in his life. It was at a casual lunch one day with the Pastor from his church, when the first seeds would be planted. Pastor Kelly Lyons worked with small groups and miss...
🎧 Jake Clark’s Mission of Miracles Starts by Saving One Warrior at a Time
March 05, 2019 21:55 - 58 minutes - 80.3 MBJake Clark enlisted in the Army at 17 years old; he served five years and then went onto become a Los Angeles Police Officer and FBI Agent. He reenlisted after Sept 11th, and then spent another four years in the military, deployed with the California National Guard for two tours in Kosovo. First we need to understand the severity of the problem. Jake calls it a 'suicide epidemic'. It is a certifiable crisis, no doubt. The most recent VA study shows that 20 warriors are lost each day. Since 1...
🎧 A Local Answer to a National Homeless Problem, Meet Toby Owen, CEO Presbyterian Night Shelter
February 26, 2019 06:08 - 57 minutes - 78.9 MBHomelessness is a worldwide problem, a national disaster, and a drain on local communities. Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. There are many origins of this famous quote - Chinese, Native American, Italian, Indian, or Biblical, Lao-Tzu, Maimonides, or Mao Zedong. Where ever it originated may be unclear... but what is clear, is the power behind those words. Homelessness continues to be a topic of great interest across the nat...
🎧 Lisa Kirk Turns Her Struggles Into Mentoring Homeless
February 19, 2019 02:25 - 58 minutes - 80.3 MB"Finally, I met a guy who wanted to get to know me as a friend. He wasn't hitting on me, he didn't need money, he was completely self-sufficient. He saw something in me. I'd never had anyone mirror back a positive image of me, ever. I’d always looked at other people, regardless of their position in life, and I assumed they looked down on me. That they could see that I was garbage," explains Lisa Kirk. What happens when you have no self-esteem and it seems the cards of life are stacked agains...
🎧 Ansley Sara Flynn – A story that will give you hope and love in your heart!
February 11, 2019 22:03 - 58 minutes - 80.9 MBKathy & Roger Flynn were so excited at the birth of their first child, their beautiful daughter Ansley Sara Flynn. "Shortly after this joyous occasion we were suddenly approached by our pediatrician stating, “I hear a heart murmur, but feel like it is innocent however, as a precautionary measure we have arranged a pediatric cardiologist for an evaluation”. Within a few hours the cardiologist came into our room and said, “I have no other way to say this, but your daughter has severe congenita...
🎧 “This was Personal” Craig Sawyer Turns the Table on Child Trafficking and Exploitation
February 05, 2019 01:20 - 58 minutes - 80.9 MBLife can change in the blink of a moment, and when you least expect it. Sometimes it is an ordinary everyday event that goes bad. Fact is, many of these encounters happen within a few miles of your home even. It was May of 2017, when Aspen made a typical stop at a Subway sandwich shop, just miles from her home in Tucson, Arizona. She was abducted at knifepoint from a man with a criminal past; she was brutally and sexually assaulted throughout the course of many hours. It was the phone call...
🎧 “I don’t think we should have homeless vets,” explains Lt. Col. Deborah Snyder
January 29, 2019 04:35 - 57 minutes - 79.6 MB“I used to walk to work every day in Crystal City,” Snyder says of the area in Northern Virginia near the Pentagon. Each day, she encountered veterans like Clarke, whose situation astounded her. “I couldn’t believe it. He was homeless, right here in my area.” That is where the story begins. Lieutenant Colonel Deborah Snyder served for 22 years, US Army, UH-1 Huey Test Pilot, UH-60 Blackhawk Pilot. Her passion to serve was at the center of her military career; so much that, in retirement she ...
🎧 How Life’s Worst Helped Me Achieve My Best, Shay Eskew says “Embrace the Suck”
January 21, 2019 17:56 - 58 minutes - 80.5 MB“I was going to redefine what was possible, I was no longer going to be defined as the burn kid,” Shay Eskew explained. The story begins on October 4, 1982 when Shay was just eight years old, and his friend Jeff, was 7. Shay's mom had asked him to go across the street to warn their neighbor that they had an aggressive yellow jackets nest in the yard. The previous day, it had swarmed his entire bicycle. He walked across the street and knocked on the door. Their dad wasn’t home, but the fifte...
🎧 A Higher Calling; Gretchen Smith and the Code of Vets
January 14, 2019 17:57 - 59 minutes - 81.1 MBHow do you unsee what you've seen? Impossible really. The lasting impact of war on our veterans has a traumatic affect on every aspect of their lives; for the duration of their lives. Consider that our veterans are waiting months and even years for basic health care. The VA Appeals process takes minimum 2-5 years; in the mean time many of these veterans die while waiting. Veterans are living paycheck to paycheck. Many are disabled, have PTSD, and suicidal tendencies. The suicide rate among o...
🎧 A Life Mission to End Ocean Pollution, Meet Chloe & James
January 08, 2019 04:38 - 58 minutes - 79.9 MBShe is full of energy, sharp, organized; she manages the teams, writes the grants, plans the cleanup, does the research. He is a bit quiet, unless he has something to say... has a steady hand, tactical in nature. He runs and maintains the equipment, he is the Vessel Captain. Meet Chloe and James. Together they make one incredible team. A highly spirited couple on a mission of a lifetime. They each recognize the plight of our oceans in their current state, and they're not happy with what th...
🎧 One Bed at a Time, Luke Mickelson Wants Kids off the Floor, Top 10 CNN Heroes
December 17, 2018 20:12 - 58 minutes - 80.5 MB“If you want true joy, you’ve got to stop looking at yourself,” says Luke Mickelson. Mickelson knew something was missing in his life. It was time to get off the sofa and figure it out. Back in 2012, it came to the attention of Mickelson through his Church, that some kids in the community were sleeping on the floor. He felt compelled to help the family out. Instead of buying a bed for the kids, he decided to take on the project of making the bed. So Mickelson and his own family, and church ...
🎧 Two Time Cancer Survivor Sean Swarner Redefines Impossible
December 11, 2018 04:05 - 79.7 MBAt the time, it seemed a pretty lofty goal; to climb out of the hospital bed and crawl eight feet to the bathroom. A simple task by most standards, but not when you have life-ending cancer. Compare that moment to being just eight feet from the summit of Mount Everest. In contrast, the eight feet to the bathroom was probably more difficult when your body is not up to the task. It's all relative now, isn't it? At just thirteen years old, Sean Swarner was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin's Lym...
🎧 Jacque Hawk is Taking on the System to Combat Homelessness
December 04, 2018 03:37 - 80.4 MBThere are far too many cities and towns struggling with homelessness, with no easy answers on how to fix the problem. It is a growing crisis largely being ignored by local municipalities and government as a whole. As an example, in the state of Georgia, the Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that well over 10,000 people find themselves in a homeless situation. Jacque Hawk Jacque Hawk, and his son Erin, decided it was time to do something about the growing homeless situatio...
🎧 Domestic Violence Turned Her Life Purpose into Wings of Courage, Meet Shayna Qualls
November 27, 2018 06:16 - 78.8 MB"What if this woman who was beaten by her boyfriend and put in ICU for 3 days was your mother? Well guess what? She is my mother,her name is Cathy. I watched my mother get beat on and belittled my whole childhood. Every man I saw her with after she and my father divorced when I was 3, abused her. It finally stopped when she committed suicide because her husband made her feel like she wasn't worth enough to live in this world." Just three weeks before her high school graduation, Shayna Qualls...
🎧 Two Paths of Life and Death, Leslee Schneider & Brittany Griffith Form Life Mission
November 20, 2018 07:03 - 79.6 MBThe birth of a child is one of life's greatest experiences; the emotional and lasting impact has consequences that will last a lifetime and beyond. When that birth becomes compromised with a life-threatening birth defect, your world is immediately forced into a tailspin of unimaginable emotions. This is a story of two lives on two different paths that would come together with a shared goal and vision of helping countless families not just survive, but thrive in some of the most challenging ...
🎧 Human Trafficking Almost Killed Her, Norma Bastidas Fights Back
November 12, 2018 22:10 - 80.7 MB"I cannot be called brave and courageous until I do the hardest thing, which is to acknowledge publicly that I am a survivor of sexual human trafficking." And with that, Norma Bastidas changed everything. Growing up in the community of Sinaloa, Mexico; violence, sexual abuse and human trafficking are a way of life, as the cartels run the streets. On any given day, young girls and boys are picked up by the cartels and violated - in a way that no child should ever experience. Norma was sexu...
🎧 Death, Isolation, Despair… Lisa Williams Discovers A Reason To Live
November 06, 2018 04:50 - 79.8 MBWhen things go bad, it is often difficult to know you've reached the lowest point of the plummet. Sometimes you have to brace yourself for what comes next... Lisa Williams Lisa Williams was at the lowest point of her life - so she thought. She was in the hospital surrounded by family as they disconnected the defibrillator from her dad. The silence in the room quickly filled with sobs of tears. It was at that moment Lisa heard a voice yell out “Stop Crying he will hear you Lisa." Shocked at...
🎧 A Life Changing Accident Changes Everything; Jim McCay & The Power of Positive Thinking
October 30, 2018 05:14 - 79.8 MB“We’ve been fighting this battle to get ahead of this infection to stop the spread, we hate to tell you, the outcome is not good,” explained the doctors. Jim McCay The news was anything but good. This was not the December holiday surprise Jim McCay was expecting. How could a small misstep one evening, at the end of a beautiful day out boating with friends turn into this...? “If we don’t eliminate the infection, you will not be alive in 3 months,” “My brain just turned off, and my wife sai...
🎧 An Abusive Childhood Turned Victim Advocate, Meet Greg Williams, PhD
October 23, 2018 03:18 - 81.2 MBA life of trauma and tragedy transformed into a warrior against sexual abuse and violence; a beacon for truth, hope and knowledge. Dr. Gregory Williams is a most unusual man. Most anyone would run and hide from the sheer embarrassment of a tortured childhood - from the hands of a father completely out-of-control. He remembers seeing the front cover of the famous Sears catalog at just four years old as a pivotal moment in time. This was the first remembrance of being sexually abused by his da...
🎧 Timothy Payne “Losing My Legs Changed My Life Forever”
October 16, 2018 02:09 - 77.1 MBHe was on a mission in one of the most hostile areas on the planet, in Southern Afghanistan; a place also known as "The Devils Playground". He knew something wasn't quite right. He blamed himself for the death of the enemy. He questioned his decisions of leadership that placed him in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Timothy Payne was about to go through a 'life transformation' that was both dramatic and purposeful at the same time. In a flash, an instant; a moment in time he will never for...
🎧 Operation Coming Home. The Mission Never Ends with Andy Ladner
October 09, 2018 01:14 - 80 MBAndy had just finished volunteering with a group of guys to build a home for the show, ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition. He had been working with groups like Habitat for Humanity and Extreme Makeover when he asked himself the question: "Why aren't we doing this for our own military families?" He and his buddies decided to try and build one house to see how it would go. The outpouring of support from the community was an unbelievable moment for them. The feeling you get from doing somethi...
🎧 John Evans: From Addict to Mentor, “A Letter to Santa Changed My Life”
October 01, 2018 02:00 - 80 MBIn many ways, John's life was all mapped out; at least in his mind it was. An excellent student; good grades, athlete, good attitude, even perfect attendance in school. The kids in school were always trying to get John high by offering him drugs. He managed to stay clear of drugs despite the peer pressure that permeated the air at junior high school. Yet, the drugs were all around him. In fact, this part of Ohio has a bit of a reputation for addiction, drug dealing and the kinds of crime th...