Finding Hope

Hi there. Just want to introduce myself. I’ve had periods in life during which I lost hope, where I didn’t know where to find it, or couldn’t reach out to receive it. I needed to find hope. Perhaps you’re in one of those places. I pray some of what I share will bring a ray of truth and hope to your situation.

After college graduation I moved to Los Angeles, where I worked with an inner-city ministry teaching children, teens and adults about Jesus. Living with the fear of threats on our lives led me to search out why I had hope. But watching God at work in others, experiencing His faithfulness to me and to my fellow missionaries, digging into the Bible reminded me of the source of my hope.

When people asked “Why are you, a middle-class suburban girl, in a ghetto?” the Lord asked me, “If not you, who?”

After ten years in the ghetto, I returned to my home area, where I was hired into the corporate world, eventually became a Human Resources Director and Manager, and met my first husband, Jerry Nicolet. We enjoyed twenty and a half years together before he contracted a terminal illness and passed away.

Becoming widowed at a young age caused me to lose hope for a while. But it also allowed me to experience God’s faithfulness during the hardest time of my life. Through tears and grief, I experienced in new ways the truth of Lamentations 3:22-24: “Great is your faithfulness. Your mercies are new every morning.”

After Jerry’s death, my healing included writing about grief and recovery.

I’ve loved books since childhood, when I read under the covers with a flashlight until my father saw the light and made me turn it off and go to sleep.

I took writing courses, attended writers’ conferences, published several articles, and began work on a novel inspired by my father’s family’s escape from Ukraine in 1929.

Two years after Jerry’s death, I signed up as a trainee for a Widow/Widowers’ Grief Recovery group. There I met a handsome widower, Don Loewen, whose kindness, generosity and pursuing love led to our marriage. A second chance for us both, by God’s grace. Don is my best supporter, a wonderful listener, and helps me catch errors in my writing, as do my wonderful writers’ critique group members.

I am grateful to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for the hope He provides when life goes haywire; and for His faithfulness to me throughout my life.

So where do we find hope?

For me, hope requires placing my confidence in the promises of God as I watch Him work around me in small and large things…from finding a parking spot in a crowded lot, to marrying my wonderful second husband, to seeing our neighbor commit her life to Christ shortly before she died.

Everyone has a story.

While my first husband and I waited for a transplant in Florida, I learned everyone has a story. One needs only to take time to listen. We shared laughter and tears with the third longest-running rodeo clown in the United States as he asked where we found hope.

In sterile hospital rooms, I listened to the young woman whose fiancée fought his last battle with cancer.

Became close with the nurse whose husband died.

Connected with the father of a vital 21-year-old who, through a tragic accident, was now a quadriplegic.

Became long-term friends with the wonderful family whose husband and father passed.

And with each, I shared my hope in Christ, which several of them also experienced.

I “get” grief and hopelessness because I’ve been through them.

God tells us to “cast our cares on Him, for he cares for us.” And he’s given us each other to help share those loads.

Many of us go through times of discouragement, depression, or confusion. Don’t go it alone. I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work!

Reach out to someone who will listen, love you right where you are, and help you find your way back to hope as you allow God to heal your broken places.

You’re not alone.

Together, let’s discuss those probing questions about how we can become more aware of the God moments in our lives.

Let’s work through the pain of loss, illness, fear, anxiety.

And yes, let’s give ourselves permission to escape through tales of authentic struggles and resolution, ending in hope.

I’d love to know you. Feel free to respond here, or to my blogpost page on CarolLoewen.com.

Connecting doesn’t take a lot of effort, time or money. A dip in here, a toe in the water there…a link that says I care about you and the struggles you face. Because I face them too.

And me?

I’m Carol Loewen, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, mentor, avid reader, stepmom, and step-grandma. I’m also insecure and non-athletic.

I live in the Silicon Valley. The pace is fast, rejection, pressure and stimulation are high, and “work-life balance” is an unfamiliar phrase.

When I’m not writing, my husband and I love travel, walking the beach, reading, hanging out with family and friends, enjoying our dog, Paige, and hosting game nights.

I mentor several women, and enjoy one-on-ones with friends over a latte, lunch or Diet Coke.

Writing and Speaking

I’d love to speak to your Bible study or book group about working in the ghetto, losing a spouse and remarriage, or my ancestry in Ukraine and our family’s flight to freedom in 1929.

• I received the second place Goldie Award for fiction writing at the 2022 West Coast Christian Writers’ Conference.
• Published articles in Today’s Christian Woman and Kyria magazines, blogged for Twin Lakes Church women’s ministry, and about hope and encouragement for eight years.
• Spoke to small groups and to churches about my ten years in the ghetto, where I taught children and teens about Jesus; and about the faithfulness of God through the illness and death of my first husband and then leading me into a second marriage.

To invite me to your book club, to speak, or simply be in touch, please email me with preferred dates, topic of interest, name and size of group, and your contact information.