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Our Charis Family
Corinne Henderson
Hello!
My name is Corinne Henderson. I think I’m probably one of Charis’
newest students, and I’m very excited to be able to learn with
Charis! I am studying to become a doula and childbirth educator and
am looking forward to serving women and sharing God’s love and peace
with them.
I am a homeschooled graduate and the oldest of six children. Our
family lives in Tennessee on 86 acres of land where we garden, raise
goats, homeschool, make music, practice hospitality, and do lots of
other fun things. My father is a professor at Tennessee
Technological University in Cookeville where he teaches Civil
Engineering; my mother is a stay-at-home mom who is homeschooling my
five younger siblings and helping younger moms know how to raise and
teach their children.
During the first year after I graduated from high school, I
continued to study math and English, taught my sister 3rd-grade
math, helped my mom at home, took piano lessons and taught piano
lessons, and sewed many of my own clothes. My dream is to one day be
a wife and mother, and staying at home to help with homemaking is a
good way to practice.
After that first year, my parents and I began to think that it would
be wise for me to narrow down my interests to three or four and
focus my time on educating myself in those areas. After thinking and
praying about it over several months, and discussing different
interests and options, I decided to look into becoming a doula or
midwife, while I also pursued further knowledge and skill in music
and, hopefully in the future, writing and graphic arts.
After deciding in favor of becoming a doula and looking online for
programs which would allow me to learn at home, I narrowed the
programs down to two, one of them Charis. The other program
claimed that their certification is widely recognized and respected.
On the other hand, Charis is a Christian organization, and it was
easier for me to understand what I read about Charis’ education than
to understand what I read in the others. This made me lean toward Charis. I also wanted to compare the programs’ education, so I
contacted both to try to better understand their educational
processes. That gave me a better comparison. When I contacted Charis,
I was so
excited when I got off the phone with Kristin. She answered my
questions well and continued to work with me as I came up with more
questions and wanted references to talk to as well. She also assured
me that Charis’ certification was top-quality and could be respected
and that its education was excellent. When I contacted the
references she gave me, they confirmed the quality of Charis’
education and made me hope even more to be able to become a doula
through Charis.
All this time, I was praying for wisdom and talking with my parents.
My parents encouraged me to take my time and research these programs
as thoroughly as I could so that I would be able to make the best
decision. Every time I got off the phone, I would tell my mom or my
dad or both about my conversation and the answers I received for my
questions. After I talked to the Charis references and to Kristin a
couple more times, we all decided that I would go ahead and
become a doula through Charis. I was excited! Now, I have received
my binder and, when you read this, will have had my first coaching
appointment with my Charis coach, Kristin Schuchmann herself (which
I am looking forward to)!
One important thing I learned through this whole process is that
trusting God to lead me does not necessarily mean that He will show
me where He’s taking me, but I can be sure that He will take me to
the right place at the right time. Many times in my search to figure
out what God wanted me to do and how He wanted me to spend my time,
I became frustrated and discouraged because I couldn’t figure it
out. I asked Him to show me where to go and what to do, but I
couldn’t hear Him say one way or the other. After a while (it seemed
a long while!), I realized that He doesn’t have to show me exactly
where I’m going to end up. If I follow where He leads me, I’ll
arrive at where I need to be, even if I don’t know where that is or
what it will look like. It’s the same for us as it was for Abraham
when God called him to go to a land that God would show him. “And he
went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8, ESV). In
other words, we don’t need to see the end of the road if we’re
willing to follow God on whatever stretch of road we’re on right
now. In fact, it builds our faith when we do this, because we’re
“walk[ing] by faith, and not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Our
Friends ~ Our Family
We'd love to feature you in newsletters to come!
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Charis Cuisine
Grammy Ethel’s
Delicious Cranberry Relish
(submitted by Ethel Sinkewitz)
Ingredients:
12 oz fresh cranberries (not dried)
1 orange, peeled and seeds removed
1 apple, cored
8 -
10 oz. of dates, stems and pits removed
2/3 C raw walnuts
Juice of 1 orange
Directions:
Place all ingredients except orange juice in a food processor and
process until coarsely chopped. Place in a beautiful bowl and mix in
the orange juice.
Health Benefits of Cranberries
Nutrition, Nutrition and more Nutrition
Though cranberries
are tiny, they are potent. Packed with nutrition, they are high in
vitamin C and in fiber. But cranberries, like their relative the
blueberry, also contain antioxidants in abundance which has
antibacterial effects on the body.
In documents that have survived since the 17th century we have
learned that cranberries were used then, not for their nutrition,
but for an assortment of medicinal purposes: stomach ailments, liver
problems, and blood disorders. Cranberries traveled to sea as a
protection against scurvy. Though vitamin content as part of our
daily nutrition was not known at the time, it was the high vitamin C
content in cranberries that was valuable.
According to the USDA's largest study, measuring both the
concentration and the antioxidant capacity per serving size,
cranberries, blueberries and black berries shine as the brightest
stars.
Cranberries are tart to our tongues, but they are even tarter when
confronting free radicals which goes beyond the nutrition of
vitamins. What are free radicals? They are atoms that scour our
bodies' cells, harming them so that the immune system is too
weakened to resist disease. Plant foods provide anti-oxidants which
fight free radicals. Cranberries are among the highest of the
antioxidant plants. Drink cranberry juice, eat fresh cranberries in
season and dried cranberries out of season. Pack in the nutrition.
Proanthocyanidins, also called tannins, prevent bacteria (including
Escherichia coli) from adhering to the urinary tract. We have long
used cranberries as a cure for urinary tract infections. This also
protects the cranberry itself and may have evolved to prevent it in
the damp climate in which it lives.
The major flavonoids in freshly squeezed cranberry juice are
quercetin and myricetin.
Quercetin is found to be the most active of the flavonoids in
studies. Quercetin has anti-inflammatory activity because it
inhibits some of the process of inflammation at the onset.
Myricetin is a flavonoid (pigment) and is considered an antioxidant.
Fighting free radicals, it is thought to have anti-cancer
properties, including the ability to lower the chances of prostate
cancer. Myricetin may also lower cholesterol levels.
Oxalates. Cranberries' are high in oxalates, which can rob the body
of calcium and can be a cause of kidney stones.
Terpenes create the spicy scent and combined with other phenolic
compounds give it its tart, astringent taste.
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