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Come and sit with us as we share our stories.
Rachel T. Joyce
Although I trusted Jesus as a little, seven-year-old girl, and grew up hearing about God's love, living in the good of His love was something I didn't know how to do. Cognitively, I knew He loved me, but somehow I still felt unlovable and much of my Christian service was done out of an earnest desire to please God coupled with a nagging sense of never measuring up. Grace was a word in my vocabulary, but not in my heart.
To help me learn how to live out of the abundance of His love and grace, God gave me the gift of chronic pain. It has not been easy and I won't pretend that there aren't days I wish He would take it away, but He has drawn me close to His heart and filled me with the strength to go on, even when I think I can't.
God has blessed me with a godly, supportive husband, Bryan, a full-time
evangelist and we take great joy in serving God together. We're thankful for our children: Benjamin and his wife Daniela, James and his wife Janneylee, Theanna, and Abigayle. We also have a sweet pooch who looks like a little white fluff ball but has a huge heart and a mind of his own. God has used each of my family to teach me more about His tender love and how to live in the good of it daily.
I'm thankful to be a hope*writer and spend most of my days either writing, editing, or doing admin work for the Living Loved Today and Woman to Woman ministries.
Lisa Peat
Lisa Peat is a writer and advisor at Living Loved Today. Together, she and Rachel lead and speak at LLT’s Woman to Woman ministry. Throughout 20+ years of Bible study, Lisa is still learning about God’s amazing love and grace.
Lisa is grateful to have been raised by loving, Christian grandparents who took her to hear the good news regularly and taught her about her need for Jesus. At the age of 5, she told her grandmother she was saved, but knew she hadn’t trusted Jesus. The Heavenly Father kept working in her heart and when she was 13, she cried out to God to save her and placed her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not having experienced a father’s love, Lisa wrestled with doubts at times. Would God ever say she was not His? How could He truly love her? Did she believe right? She is so thankful for her Heavenly Father who spoke peace to her through His Word, assuring her that because of Christ she was His forever (Romans 5:9).
From the time she was a little girl, Lisa always wanted to be a nurse. She graduated from the RNA program in Orillia in 1987 and retired from her nursing job at a pediatric office in 2015.
Throughout 35 years of marriage to her husband Rob, his unconditional love has been a tangible expression of God’s love and has helped her learn more of her Heavenly Father’s heart.
They are both so thankful for their son Kevin and his wife, Hope, their daughter Meaghan and her husband, Jordan, and their 3 sweet grandchildren, Remington, Callahan, and Walker.
Through Lisa’s trials of suffering with depression after her grandmother passed away and with having cancer, God continued to draw her closer to Him. He taught her more about herself and more about His amazing love. She learned that she didn't need to hold back her feelings. She could bring everything to Him — her fears, her past, and her future — and let Him work in her life.
He is a gracious, Heavenly Father who has redeemed Lisa’s past and she knows that she can rest securely in His love and faithfulness.
Sharon Snooks
Sharon Snooks is a writer, advisor, and editor for Living Loved Today. As a content editor, she works to ensure that our articles nourish our readers’ mental and emotional health. Through her writing, she shares how truths from the Bible demonstrate God’s care for our minds, bodies, and souls and how He has made provision for the healing of each of these.
Caring for others has been a part of her life since she was young when she dressed up as a nurse and took care of her little dolls. Soon, she was reading counseling books and (in her teen years) helping friends in crises. Her post-secondary education was in the Social Services field and after raising her children, she provided pro bono counseling while continuing to receive additional professional training. In 2016, she began her own private practice, New Song Counselling.
Growing up in a Christian home hearing about a God who loved her impacted her life in such a profound, hope-filled way. She learned that He provided a way of salvation and eternal life through His Son’s sacrifice on the cross. She was almost 10 when she took this truth personally and accepted Christ as her Saviour. She has appreciated living in this
freedom of unconditional love, acceptance, and grace for over 40 years sharing with others the freedom that God intended us to live in. We are fearfully and wonderfully made and we have been bought with a price. We are of immeasurable value to Him!She has been married to her husband Chris for over 30 years and they have four adult children and two daughters-in-law who are like daughters. She is so grateful for them. She has also been incredibly blessed with four precious grandsons and a darling granddaughter.
In her professional trauma training, she has learned how God designed our bodies to not only heal from physical trauma but also emotional trauma. This has caused her to be in greater awe of God’s design of the human body and it has equipped her to help our writers as they seek to meet the needs of our readers. What a tender and compassionate Creator who provides and cares for all of us!
Michelle Snippe
“I wonder if I’m good enough.”
It’s the first conscious thought I ever recall having regarding eternity.
Raised by moral, loving parents, I was taught I had to be “good enough” to be with God in heaven. But on the brink of turning twelve years old, I heard the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ. My sin became a burden to me personally and, after some stubborn rejection and many months of no peace, I finally laid that burden down at the foot of the cross.
I wish I could tell you I fell in love with God and His Word right then and there, but that wouldn’t be the truth. My teen years were a tricky navigation of doing what it took to fit in, good or bad, ending in a wearisome trap of constantly trying to measure
up. It left me asking over again, in a different context, "Am I good enough?" I had been saved by God’s grace, but I hadn’t found the freedom to live in that grace.
I couldn’t tell you the exact moment I finally understood what it meant to live this way. But somewhere in my early twenties, I got to digging into God’s Word. This is where my true freedom was found. I haven’t stopped mining the treasures of its pages ever since, and every day He opens my eyes a little bit more to His marvelous love and grace.
I’m blessed to be married to my husband, Bert, a full-time evangelist and so full of passion for the gospel. Together we have served the Lord, in His strength, for nearly 23 years. We have three young adult children, Megan, Owen, and Brandon who bring us much joy! Far from flawless, but resting in He who is, we, side by side, seek to daily dwell in all that His love and grace afford.
Dorothy Stewart
God is good and I am blessed. The peace and joy I experience daily come from His gracious, nail pierced hands. My life has not always been so tranquil. God has taken me through many years of spiritual growth to enjoy His continual presence in my heart and mind. I am indeed thankful for learning from the Holy Spirit on a daily basis as God refines me for His glory. It is a humbling process, but necessary for growth.
On September 1, 1931, I was born in Bellville, Ontario to Christian parents who loved God and taught me the good news of the gospel. Aware of my sin and realizing my need of the Saviour, I became serious about salvation at the age of sixteen. There was an empty place in my heart that only Christ could fill. When I had come to the end of my own resources, I prayed for God's forgiveness of my sins. At that moment, Acts 16:31 flashed through my mind, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved.” At that moment, I knew I was redeemed, saved for all eternity. What joy flooded my anxious soul, what relief from sin! What a life-changing experience!
Since that memorable day, I have learned to love my Lord through the endless challenges of normal life. I married Don Stewart on December 1, 1951. We were blessed with six children: Joan, Jeff, Bradley, Susan, Andrew, and Robert. When Brad was six months old, he developed influenza meningitis and suffered brain damage. We had an active, busy household that revolved around our assembly on Eglinton Ave. Our children all came to know the Lord while they were young. For that, I thank my Lord every day.
My role during the 70s to 90s was organizing the kitchen and food preparation for events, showers, weddings, and funerals. We had a tract band, young people’s meetings, ladies’ coffee hour, special meetings, and picnics. For twenty years, I did features and devotionals each winter in many southern Ontario assemblies where I was blessed to know many godly women. My husband died in 2013 and I moved to Bethany Manor in 2015. I enjoy my home here and being useful in Bethany Lodge as a volunteer. My best role in life now is to pray for family (including my seventeen grandchildren), friends, and God’s work among His people. It has not always been an easy life, but through it all—financial reverses, health issues, and difficulties—the Lord has been my strength, my rock, my peace, and my joy. I would not have changed my journey with Him in the least. The older I get, the more I value the lessons learned in adversity. My Lord gave His precious life for me; God is good and I am blessed.
Angela Watson
Born in a small town in Nova Scotia, I grew up in a Christian home where the Bible was read daily, and at the age of 13, I accepted that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. It was through the words that Paul and Silas spoke to the Philippian jailer in Acts 16:31 “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved,” that I realized that Jesus died for me and was my Savior.
After having taught Sunday School for almost 25 years, I have recently started an online girls club with a group of girls ages 7-11. I am also privileged to be part of a Ladies’ Bible Study group, which has been a great source of encouragement.
I currently live in Toronto with my husband of 21 years and our 3 children. We have two teen boys and a daughter in elementary. I love to cook and to read and, after running for several years, have recently started biking.
As a stay-at-home mom, I volunteer for school events and am part of the PR committee at a long-term care home. In 2020, I joined the team at Living Loved and am able to use my previous education and experience to serve as a coordinator and writer.
Theanna Joyce
Theanna Joyce has recently joined the Living Loved Today team and is thankful for her role as a writer because she loves to write and share her discoveries of God and His goodness with other Christian women.
This is one of her favorite things — unearthing truth in God’s Word. He is so much more than she can fathom, and with all of eternity before her, she knows she can forever learn more.
Theanna grew up in a Christian family and trusted God as a young girl of 10 when she stopped trying so hard to believe and simply rested in the work of Christ. Since that day, her relationship with God has grown — through fear and doubt as well as in joy and faith.
Right now, she is pursuing a Master of Divinity at Moody Theological Seminary in Chicago and God has been very faithful to her. She seeks to learn more of His truth
from the Word and strengthen her own relationship with Him so that she is equipped to carry out His purpose for her faithfully.
Her goal in studying there is to be like Mary, who sat in the position of a disciple at the feet of Jesus and listened while He taught. His words about Mary affirmed that she chose what was good and that it would not be taken away from her (Luke 10:42).
When Theanna is not in class or at the library, she enjoys walking and biking along the lakefront trail. Her cat, Lucy, and her sister’s cat, Bella, keep her company at home (aka they wake her up horrendously early every day of the week, including Saturday).
She loves reading and more reading…and she probably wouldn’t notice her house falling down around her if she was in the middle of a good book. Her 3 siblings can attest to this, because growing up, they never hesitated to snatch the current book out of her hand and hide it from her.
God has been very gracious to her and she looks forward to seeing how He will use her and her words to be a blessing to others.
Heather Marshall
Heather Marshall is a monthly writer for Living Loved Today and a speaker for Woman to Woman. In addition, she’s an occupational therapist who has also had specialized training to be able to instruct others about stretching, breathwork, and Biblical meditation: all very important practices for connecting to our body, soul and spirit. She particularly enjoys writing about the integration of all aspects of our being as we move towards wholeness and closeness with God.
One of her first childhood memories is of coming face-to-face with the love of God and feeling so overwhelmed and blessed by His love that she had to accept it.
She vividly remembers being a little girl and quietly singing to herself the song “Jesus Loves Me.” In her childlike way, she stopped momentarily and thought, “Wow, Jesus loves ME!” She had learned in Sunday School that Jesus wanted to come and live in her heart and so that is what she asked Him to do right at that very moment.
As she grew and developed, her caring and faithful Christian parents poured the gospel into her. She came to understand more deeply the great love that Jesus had for her when He took her sins in His own body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24).
She is so thankful to have been raised in a home where God was honored. She was particularly close with her godly grandmother who left a huge impression on her life.
In recent years, she has been blessed to share her life with her loving husband, Curtis, and their three sons, Ethan, Jaxon, and Zachary.
When Ethan was nine months old, they were shocked to learn that she was having twins. The Lord was gracious and provided them with the strength and help they needed! She truly learned the truth of Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything, through Christ who gives me strength.” The Lord has used being a boy-mom to teach her many things, especially enjoying a good adventure and laughing!
From a young age, the Lord gave her an interest in helping others and led her to her career as an occupational therapist in the area of stroke rehab. She has a true passion for seeing those that she works with meet their goals and reclaim their lives after a severe illness and injury.
The Lord has also done a work in her own heart as it relates to wholeness in body, soul, and spirit. In His tender and gracious way, He revealed errors in her thinking regarding body image, and He lifted the cloud of guilt and shame she had been living under.
She is now passionate about helping other women see themselves the way God sees them and live in the truth that they are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
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