Welcome to the Strong Women podcast, where each week we explore a deeper understanding of the humanity, value, intellect, and creativity of women.

I'm Sarah Stone Street.

And I'm Erin Kunkel.

Glad you're here.

Last week, we stopped our reflection time talking about dancing with Max, which is Emily's book.

And we talked a lot about her relationship with her dad and then her dad's relationship with Max and all of that.

And so if you haven't had a chance to listen to that, go back and listen to that.

But we're going to spend our

time today talking about Max and Emily's relationship and then just kind of processing through,

what can we take away from that practically? I wanted to start with just saying how influential

this book was for me. I led the children's ministry at our church

for a number of years. And right as I took over, there was a little boy, and I'll call him Jack.

That's not his real name, but Jack is autistic. we're a small church and he was in our children's

ministry as a young kid, probably five or six when I started. And I didn't know what to do,

but I had read Emily's book already, which was divine because it really helped me have eyes to see a little bit better,

even though I had no idea how to handle it, because he would get very distressed at church and

throw things, or he would start screaming. And I was like, I don't know what to do, but I know

that I want to figure it out.

So I actually called Emily, and she walked me through some things that were very helpful,

and she also connected me to some other people who were children's ministers who had done some creative things.

Well, our church is small, like I mentioned, and so we couldn't start a whole program.

So that was one of the tricky things I was trying to figure out. And his mom was also a single mom.

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