Here is a little more information about what we have planned for Together Called 2023 in addition to hearing from Skye Jethani and Ross and Staci King throughout the weekend.
Preconference Session Friday Afternoon
Togethering: Empowering Our Family Relationships
We learn who we are and how the world works through our experience of relationships. Hurts experienced in the context of relationships can be healed in the context of relationships. But, what exactly is a healing relationship? Leaning on Empowered to Connect’s connecting practices, in this workshop, we will start to explore how we can better understand “good” parent-child relationships and grow in our own relational practice.
About the facilitators:
Mark and Kelly Raudenbush have been married for 25 years this Fall and have four children, three biological and one adopted as a toddler from China in 2010. Together, they have been committed to caring for caregivers since they cofounded The Sparrow Fund in 2011. With background in ministry and previous experience on Young Life staff, Mark currently serves as The Sparrow Fund’s Director of Operations. Kelly holds a Master’s degree in counseling from Missio Seminary and earned her Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Clinical Certificate from Georgetown. As The Sparrow Fund’s Executive Director and Sparrow Family Services clinician, she has a particular interest in (a) partnering with parents to help children process and understand their histories in healing ways; (b) encouraging, equipping, and empowering parents as they navigate the effects of trauma and build connections with each other and their children, and (c) helping caregivers and teachers in our own neighborhood and across the world best experience the power of relationship and grow it.
Optional Breakout Sessions Saturday Afternoon
Breathing, Movement, + Matching: Supporting Our Family’s Emotional Temperature Through Self-Attunement + Coregulation
We have an opportunity as parents to move our family’s emotional temperature as we learn to better manage our own internal state and practice presence with our children. In this session, Dr. Monica will share about the neurodevelopment of the brain and how that knowledge can help us and our children regulate our emotions more effectively. And, she will guide you to experience a few relaxation and stress reduction techniques yourself in real time that you can share with your children.
About the facilitator:
Dr. Monica Pentony is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating trauma across the lifespan. She is passionate about helping people understand the impact of trauma on the brain and body and teaching them to build new adaptive neurology to support a healthy integrated self. She is a certified eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapist, registered play therapist, safe and sound practitioner, and animal assisted therapist. Dr. Monica practices in Frederick, Maryland where she lives with her husband and four children on a farmette in the Catoctin Mountains. When she isn’t in session or wrangling her children, she enjoys quiet time on her porch swing with a hot cup of coffee, chocolate pretzels, and a good book.
Building and Growing Community Within Your Family
Experiencing the impact themselves of transformational community, Evan and Stacey have been practicing intention to integrate vulnerability and build community within their family. In this session, they will share how they have been doing that, what has worked (and what hasn’t), and help you imagine ways you could do similar things for your family. While the content is an organic expansion and application of Curt Thompson’s messages at Together Called 2022, anyone is welcome to the table and can benefit from the conversation.
About the facilitator:
Evan Snyder currently serves as Pastor of Spiritual Formation at Grace Hill Church in Herndon, VA. He and his wife, Stacey, have three kids: Ezekiel, Micah, and Brinley. They adopted their son Ezekiel from Ethiopia in 2011. Adoption and foster care continues to be a significant area of focus for their family and ministry. Evan serves on the advisory board for Foster the Family D.C. which seeks to support and encourage foster and adoptive families, mobilize and equip the community and church for foster care and adoption, and advocate for vulnerable children. He is also a founding member of The Redwood Collective, an organization whose mission is to create spaces of connection and being known for people who are isolated by the nature of their work.
Finding Hope For Us in the Hard
As biological, adoptive, and former foster parents, Ken and Carolyn know hard. Parenting alone is hard. And then, there’s marriage; that is hard too. Sometimes in the hard, we can lose each other. Ken and Carolyn can’t offer you three steps to a happier, healthier marriage. However, they can give you a glimpse into the raw and real of their 37 years of marriage, share some wisdom and tools they have gathered along the way, and help you find hope and encouragement for your own.
About the facilitators:
Ken and Carolyn Ruch have been working at their marriage for over 37 years and have been finding their way through parenting seven children (three bio, one adopted, three fostered) for over 35. They know what it’s like to wait in police stations, psych wards, and emergency rooms and sit through IEP meetings, court hearings, and counseling sessions. They also know what it is like to celebrate small milestones, cheer at graduations, and dance at weddings. Now, they have the blessing of being grandparents to four. Ken is the former president and CFO of George Didden Greenhouses, Inc. and is now retired and delighted to be mentoring his sons at Wedgewood Gardens in Glen Mills, PA. Carolyn is the steward of The Rise and Shine Movement: Equipping Adults to Protect Kids from Sexual Abuse, and a writer and speaker. Together, they spend their Fridays delighting in their grandchildren as they give their mamas a much-needed break and their Friday nights thanking God for the sounds of silence.
