Welcome to this week's bonus interview on the Prayers of Rest podcast.

I'm Kendra Stanton, your co-host, and we're kicking off this season's tricky relationships

with a conversation that Asherita has with her local church pastor, Mike Costelli, to talk about praying through church hurt

and spiritual abuse. It's a heavy conversation, but filled with hope. And if you ever experienced

hurt in your local church, you'll want to keep listening. But before we dive in, I wanted to let you know

that we're just five weeks away from the official

release of Asherita's new devotional. It's called Prayers of Rest Daily Prompts to Slow

Down and hear God's voice. And it's available wherever books are sold. But as a listener on the

podcast, you can get it for 40% off when you order on moodypublishers.com and enter the code

Prayers of Rest 40. That's 40 at checkout. And make sure you hold on to that receipt number

because we're offering you a free audiobook as our thank you for pre-ordering the devotional.

You'll find all the information about pre-ordering

and claiming your bonus when you go to prayersofrest.com. Asherita's guest this week is Pastor Mike

Kestelli, lead pastor of the chapel in Green and former research engineer at NASA. The beginning

of the recording experienced some technical difficulties, so we lost some audio where Pastor Mike shared the details of the situation.

But to summarize, last summer, the church Asherita and her family attended experienced a significant crisis caused by fear-based leadership and a toxic staff environment. When Pastor Mike confronted leadership over these unbiblical practices,

he was unfairly terminated, then rehired, and placed on a leave of absence

while an independent firm investigated the allegations, which were eventually substantiated.

While Pastor Mike was restored to his position and publicly thanked for his careful

shepherding of his congregation, this experience did not leave him unscathed.

We pick up the conversation with Asherita asking Pastor Mike how he encountered God

in the midst of his loneliness last summer.

...