It's Okay to Just Be Forgiven — with Mike Helwig
Operation Coffee Podcast · Episode 5 · Mike Helwig
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▶ Listen on Spotify → ▶ Watch on YouTube →Mike Helwig was a pastor for twenty years. He served a small parish in Grand Island, Nebraska, then spent fifteen years at Crown of Life in Hubertus. After that he taught high schoolers at Lakeside Lutheran through the pandemic. Somewhere along the way he got an itch he couldn't shake. He wanted to understand the mental health side of the people he was caring for. So he went back to school and became a counselor.
That is how we met. I was one of his clients, in six or seven sessions a church program paid for, and I came in very leery of counselors. What got me was that he actually cared.
Earlier this year Mike launched Camp Courage and wrote Camp Courage: A Field Manual. It is built on four "cabins": your faith, your mental and emotional health, your body, and the people in your life. We walk through all four. We talk about reading your Bible on paper, why a hobby should be a little hard, why filling the bird feeder feels so good, and his sister's line that stuck with him: "Everything's therapy."
One day in a session, when we were both beating ourselves up, Mike asked me something I still think about: "Sam, have you ever just thought about the reality that it's okay to be forgiven?"
We also get into the 2 a.m. phone call. Pastors, police officers, nurses and small business owners all feel like they have to be everything for everybody. Mike's answer, which his own therapist gave him, is that some things can wait till Tuesday.
If you are a pastor, a first responder, or anyone who feels like they have to hold it all together, this one is for you.
Recorded in the roasting room at Operation Coffee in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. 94 minutes.
The four cabins of Camp Courage
Cabin 1: Spiritual. How are you and Jesus doing, and how do you want to build that?
Cabin 2: Mental and emotional. Proven tools, knowing what you value, and finding a new thing to do with your hands.
Cabin 3: Physical. Eat, sleep, move.
Cabin 4: Your people. Friends you can say anything to, and the courage to set boundaries with people who aren't good for you.
Get Camp Courage: A Field Manual by Michael Helwig
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