I couldn’t be more grateful for God’s call on my life or his direction of me to Richmont. There aren’t words to express my gratitude to be able to study here and learn with such amazing people. This is a gift from God.

Lisa Haselwander knows how business is done. Her accounting degree has allowed her to work as a regional controller at Life Care Centers, as an assistant controller of a large laboratory company, and as a medical practice manager. “I moved my bottom line by following one specific rule: my staff and I treated our clients the way we wanted our own families treated,” she says. After several successful years in business, Lisa’s world was rocked by several unanticipated events. “I was accustomed to being in control, and I lost that advantage,” she says. As a result, Lisa entered dark period of confusion, anger, and worry. “People wouldn’t have known, though. I looked perfectly normal on the outside,” she remembers. Turning to her church for support, Lisa began participating in the “Walking Worthy Journey” program, which is a 26-week curriculum developed by Elodia Flynn, LCSW, that aims to free participants from the crippling effects of shame and lies that often hold them captive.

What Lisa found, in fact, was a new way to live. The course “empowered and equipped” her to cope more effectively with life events, to parent differently, and even to see God at work when she least felt His presence. She was so moved by Walking Worthy that she trained as a co-facilitator and later, with encouragement from Mrs. Flynn, led a group of her own. “I had always loved mentoring women,” she says. “But this ministry allowed me to actually equip them to live in the truth. Real change only happens when we start to understand how much God loves us. That’s what this group did for me.” As she led the group and mentored more and more women, Lisa discovered within herself a passion for the helping profession. As she considered graduate school, she asked her husband for his thoughts, sharing her concerns over leaving a lucrative career for an uncertain future and the financial effects of that decision on their family. “Spending the rest of your life wondering whether you should’ve gone to school would be much more expensive,” was his supportive response.

Lisa is now excited to be in her second semester of the M.A. program in Marriage and Family Therapy at Richmont. “I love my cohort, I love my professors, I love my classes, and I love this environment,” she says. She is still waiting for a specific plan from God for her future as a counselor; in the meantime, the uncertainty fails to worry her. “A younger woman needs a five- or ten-year plan. All I know is I meet women for coffee.” God shows up on those coffee dates, and Lisa trusts the same dynamic will direct her counseling after she graduates. Until then, she’s using what she learns at Richmont in her ministry to women. She sees her role as a promoter of “awareness,” which she cites as a prerequisite to personal transformation. “Awareness is a treasured gift from God. Without it, there is no change.”

Richmont has proven a source of great awareness in Lisa’s own life. She speaks with gratitude about the self-discovery and God-discovery the program incites. “Yet,” she clarifies, “academic excellence is not compromised here in the name of Christianity. I chose Richmont because I wanted an excellent education, completely grounded in faith.” Now that she’s midway through her first year of graduate school, Lisa says, “I couldn’t be more grateful for God’s call on my life or his direction of me to Richmont. There aren’t words to express my gratitude to be able to study here and learn with such amazing people. This is a gift from God.”