REACHING OUT




Will You Stand and Speak
for Those Who Cannot?

"I want to use my gifts to tell the truth, and to tell it as beautifully as I can." ~Andrew Peterson


Reaching Out Through Video…

Choose to Live: The Day Suicide Didn’t Win
(Recklessly Alive ~ Sam Eaton)



If You’re Thinking About Suicide, Watch This
(Recklessly Alive ~ Sam Eaton)



Please Stay
(Bittersweet ~ Beth Saadati with Jenna Saadati)



We Need to Talk About This
(Recklessly Alive ~ Sam Eaton)





Reaching Out Through Writing…

“It’s the story I wish I’d never been given to share,
the story I wish I had no reason to write.”
~Beth Saadati


"Surviving a Child's Suicide"
published by Focus on the Family
 



from Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Forgiveness




from Chicken Soup for the Soul: Hope and Miracles



from Chicken Soup for the Soul: Time to Thrive



About Writing the Blog and Working on the Novel

It’s a lonely place, a relearning of world in the aftermath of loss. It’s knowing words forever fail to harness the life of one once so wondrously alive. It’s a high-cost hurting in head, a tearing of heart, a doubting of how many times I can reenter memory and relive pain before I no longer feel or it becomes more than I can bear.

It’s continual scar, the peeling off of scab and reopening of wound to let blood bleed onto page, then a not-quite healing before doing it again. It’s tear-stained face and the question that taunts: “Is this worth it?” It’s wondering whether story will speak to any soul other than my own. It’s trying to make sense of mess and find meaning in madness beneath the heart-scream that says surely something beautiful will still be birthed from death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the 2015 Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, BelieversTrust (now Son Studios) presented Beth with the Beyond the Steeple Award, given for the work deemed to hold the greatest potential to impact a mainstream audience, for her YA novel. The novel incorporates Jenna’s writings and is based on Jenna’s true story.

Rebecca Seitz, president and CEO of BelieversTrust, wrote this about the novel:

“Right away, Beth’s writing stilled me. It is stark. Naked. Unadorned. But moving. After hours of reading through entries, her words caught my mind and did not let go. When I went back to read her cover letter and synopsis, I learned that her story of bullying is birthed from a mother’s heart that has survived her daughter’s death, and it is informed by decades of service as a high school teacher. This writer may, literally, save lives through story.”



Reaching Out Through Speaking…

photo credit: Mary Denman

Sharing the Story with Focus on the Family
 

Sharing the Story on Building Strong Homes:
 
Sharing the Story on More to Be Said:
A Combined Interview with Beth Saadati & Sam Eaton

Sharing the Story on Speak Up:


Sharing the Story on Nite Line
(starts at 3:53)

4 comments:

  1. Praying that the Lord will touch others through your story. Carol

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    1. Thanks so much, Carol. That's my hope, too, and the reason I write. The support and intercession of many is causing this to begin to come true.

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  2. I was struck immediately by the candor in your writings and just marathoned each entry. I can only imagine how difficult the process is of reopening wounds to show others how they heal; but I pray God blesses you with courage and strength as you continue this journey. "Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence." Ps 42:5b, NASB

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Dawn, for marathoning. (I love the way you said that.) I'm touched that you would.

      Wording the story does come at a cost. But it's worth it. The verse is perfect. His hope and presence are what I long for. That's what carries me through.

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