Help Needed: The Growing Ministry of Bring Your Brokenness Eating Disorder Recovery

Bring Your Brokenness - Background

Note: Feel free to scroll to the end if you just want to know how to help and the background and ministry expansion details aren't important to you. I totally get it.So many of you have reached out to say you’re excited about how the Lord is using Bring Your Brokenness to help others and have asked if there are ways you can help. This post is about some easy ways that you can do just that (and it doesn’t involve financial giving).Early last December, God very clearly closed the door on the possibility of returning to full time ministry at the church where I've served for nearly the last ten years. In the fall of 2017, during the months of uncertainty, the Lord planted a desire in my heart to begin sharing my story for the purpose of helping others with similar struggles, and Bring Your Brokenness was conceptualized.While in treatment, writing was a significant part of identifying my thoughts and feelings. Bring Your Brokenness began in the form of a blog, and it's been so therapeutic to me to continue writing while continuing to recover at home. Sharing my story has been an important part of my recovery journey. To say that Bring Your Brokenness has been helpful to me is an understatement.As if that wasn't enough, I've been blown away, time and time again, by the way God has taken my words of pain and brokenness and somehow used them to inspire hope in others. Even those who don't struggle with an eating disorder have expressed ways in which God's used my story to help them. It's quite humbling and a constant reminder of God's sovereignty and omnipotence.Even though my heart longed to return to work at the church I love so dearly, God knew I needed those months to begin blogging. Had I returned to work later that fall, I would not have been able to continue writing.

Bring Your Brokenness - Current Ministry

So I've continued to write, and the Lord has been sending more and more people - quite literally from all over the world - across my path and allows me the privilege of walking alongside them in their recovery journeys.I absolutely love it - all of it. I love writing. I love connecting with others with similar struggles. I love helping them research treatment options. I love encouraging. I love sharing the hope we have in Jesus. I love listening. I love spreading eating disorder awareness and challenging stigmas. I love learning new skillsets.Most recently, God has provided an opportunity to form eating disorder support/recovery groups. We have a group that meets locally in Jacksonville and a group that meets online at a different time for those who don't live in our area. We've not even met a handful of times yet, but already God is growing this outreach.I know it sounds crazy, but writing; encouraging; connecting; responding to those who need help (text, social media, email, FaceTime, phone call, etc.); regular emails; website upkeep; support group communication, preparation, and facilitating; and more literally occupy most hours of my days. That's not a complaint. Again - I LOVE IT! It's what I want and choose to do. I believe with all my heart it's what the Lord wants me to be doing right now.

Bring Your Brokenness - My Prayer

The Lord has been working in my heart for several months now to begin sharing my story in person, whether that be in churches or schools or other venues. I am blessed and excited to share that I have my first opportunity to do that at a women's event this July at a church here in Jacksonville.I'd love to eventually be invited to other churches, locally and out of state, to share my story in word and song. I know God will provide those opportunities as He sees fit, in His time.I have an amazing, supportive husband who encourages me every day to keep at it. He tells me all the time that returning to work would mean most all of Bring Your Brokenness would have to go away, and He's right. I would never be able to work full time, be a wife and mom, manage our home, and commit the amount of time needed to Bring Your Brokenness. The amount of time it takes to manage it is pretty much equivalent to a full time job.And it's what I want to do. With all my heart.While my prayers regarding employment before were that God would somehow allow me to go back to work at my church, or provide a job at another school, or allow me to return to education administration in order to fill the need for a second income, they now are pleadings that God will somehow allow what I'm doing to be full time ministry that would also provide for our family's financial needs.But right now, it doesn't.Again, my loving husband encourages me daily to trust God to provide our needs. And I absolutely do. He's NEVER failed us. So I gladly and joyfully continue all the things that go into the ministry of Bring Your Brokenness, and we are trusting God with the future, including the possibility of having to set this aside and return to the workplace if that is is His will. My heart's desire is for this to be full time ministry, but only God knows what's best.One minor "complication" is that the ministry itself acquires expenses. The costs for website upkeep, annual fees, printed materials, occasional marketing, and various other expenses continue to increase as the ministry expands. It's just how it goes. Even though these costs are not significant, they do add up and are an additional expense for which we do not have income to offset.Although some do use this as a means towards providing income, I am adamantly against allowing it to be accomplished by establishing fees for support. I simply can't image even entertaining the thought. "Yes, I can see that your struggle is real and your pain is deep. I hear that you are looking for support. For x amount, I would be willing to stand with you and encourage you." No. It makes no sense and is not going to happen.But there are other ways that Bring Your Brokenness could possibly begin to earn income (various forms of advertising, sponsors, etc.), and I'm willing to explore them. The issue I keep running into is that I need what's called a growing platform for all of them.Currently, my platform is so small that it's not even measurable according to the diagnostic criteria. And building a platform definitely does NOT fall within my list of strengths. Several have given me great tips and poured their wisdom into me, and it has helped greatly! My platform has grown 60 percent as a result of putting into practice what they've taught me. I'm so grateful!!!But I still have a long way to go.There are some new opportunities on the horizon that would significantly expand the ministry of Bring Your Brokenness and could potentially lead towards full time ministry for me – which would be an absolute dream. I want to write a book (yikes, I know!), finish my Biblical counseling certification, and eventually serve as a national ambassador and on advisory boards for eating disorders and eating disorder treatment centers. But again - that platform is one of the major factors of the stakeholders' consideration.So, I'm humbly asking for your help. Here are some things you could do that would help me continue building that platform. I'm learning as I go that these are things I should have "suggested" little by little as I've posted over the past months, but since I haven't done so, please pardon the "mass" request.

If you've not already done so, please consider doing as many of the following as you are able and feel led:

• "Like" my Facebook Business Page, Bring Your Brokenness Eating Disorder Recovery.
• Share my Facebook business page and invite your friends to "like" it.
• Like, comment, and share the new blog posts that I post on Facebook as you see them.
• Follow me on Instagram - bringyourbrokenness_amie_s
• Follow me on Twitter - @amieshieldsBYB
• Follow all my boards on Pinterest and repin my pins when you can - Amie Shields of Bring Your Brokenness (amienshields)
• Complete the form below to "subscribe" to my blog (this means you'll receive a notification when I publish a new blog post, and your email is private - only accessible to me - and will never be shared or sold. Name is optional. Stakeholders only see the total number of subscribers without attached names or emails.

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• If God has used Bring Your Brokenness to encourage you and you feel that it would be helpful to others in the future, please leave a short testimony in the space below that you would allow me to use on my website and promotional materials. Name is optional. Feel free to also use the space to also share any suggestions you have.

[wpforms id="1411"]I know full well that God doesn't need a platform or anything else to accomplish what He wills. But I also don't believe He'd want me to sit idly and do nothing. So I'm continuing to walk through doors as He opens them, or cracks them, and asking for help when I need it. He'll do the rest, if and when the timing is right.If you're still reading, I'm beyond grateful. You're probably one of the ones who's asked if there was some way you could help, and I'm humbled and thankful that you would believe in and support me.If you have any other thoughts or ideas, please feel free to comment below or message me. I greatly value your input and opinions.With love and sincere appreciation,AmiePS: If this is your first visit to Bring Your Brokenness, I'm so glad you found us! You can learn more about eating disorders here if interested. Thanks for stopping by!