Today we interview Paula Higuchi.
Q: Paula, please tell us about yourself.
A: I serve as the director and counselor of the Biblical Counseling Center of Maui. I received my B.A. in Biblical Studies from The Master’s University, my M.A. in Biblical Counseling from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and got certified through ACBC in 2015.

I am born and raised in Hawaii, where Maui has been my home for most of my life. I have been a member at Kahului Baptist since I was ten years old. In 2016, our church launched a biblical counseling center where I have been honored to serve as the director and counselor. My hobbies and interests outside of ministry include enjoying the outdoors and different landscapes Maui has
to offer, spending time with my friends, playing tennis, drinking coffee, eating local food, and reading a good book.

Our temptation may be to hide our battle against anxiety from others out of fear of their judgment. But when we share with others what God is doing through it, we can actually bring encouragement to them. And this brings glory to God.

We trust that you will find this series informative and insightful. Many women have asked what opportunities might be open to them upon obtaining either a degree or certification in biblical counseling. As the biblical counseling movement expands, so do the opportunities for women to serve in a variety of ways as biblical counselors. Over the course of this series, you will hear from women who serve vocationally, as volunteers, in their churches, in a parachurch organization, in colleges, and a variety of other areas where they are serving around the globe.

Today we interview Kimberly Cummings, a Pastor’s Wife, and a Certified Biblical Counselor. She is also the co-founder of Women’s Hope Project where she writes and hosts the Women’s Hope Podcast.

Interview with Linda Pringle
This is the latest interview by Ellen Castillo in a series of posts featuring women who are biblical counselors. Each post will feature one or more counselors who have agreed to an interview to tell us about their ministries, their experience and expertise, and the history of their involvement in biblical counseling.

We trust that you will find this series informative and insightful. Many women have asked what opportunities might be open to them upon obtaining either a degree or certification in biblical counseling. As the biblical counseling movement expands, so do the opportunities for women to serve in a variety of ways as biblical counselors. Over the course of this series, you will hear from women who serve vocationally, as volunteers, in their churches, in a parachurch organization, in colleges, and a variety of other areas where they are serving around the globe.

She got the promotion you were hoping to receive. She has the sweet daughter you always wanted, while you struggle to manage two boys. She got the award you were striving to win all year. She found the strong Christian husband you dreamed of while your ring finger remains bare. She has the gorgeous house by the water and beautiful kitchen, and you have to return to your half-renovated house.

Jeroboam was promised ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel. In 1 Kings 11:26-40, we read about how those ten tribes would be given to him after the sin of Solomon.

As we continue reading in 1 Kings 12, we see that he did indeed become king over those 10 tribes. Rehoboam foolishly listened to bad advice, which led the 10 kingdoms to follow Jeroboam. Sadly, we also read about Jeroboam’s own foolishness.

Over the last few years, it seems there are more and more young, single women coming for counseling. This is a good thing! These young ladies want to address the trajectory of their Christian adulthood early on, and they want to make sure they’re on the right track with their lives. I’m always happy to meet a 20-something believer who is seeking to deepen her walk with the Lord, and to live in a way that brings Him glory. But a number of them are coming with a problem that most of us in Christian circles do not expect to see in our young women. That problem is sexual sin.

They’re tearing up the woods behind my house. My family moved into this house over 20 years ago, partly because of the thick, 50-acre woods behind it. It was a beautiful, lush patch of forest in the middle of the city, and we absolutely loved it. Now, they’re building a park there. Actually, there was already a park there, behind our stretch of woods, but it was quite neglected and had become a hangout for drug dealers and other “ne’er do wells”, as my grandmother would have called them. At first, when I heard they were going to expand the park, I was happy to hear that the neglected area would be revitalized, and a new park for families would take its place. At the inception of the project, the city assured the neighbors that there would be a generous stretch of the woods left so that our houses would still back up to the woods, and we would continue to enjoy the privacy to which we’d become accustomed.

Have you considered becoming an ACBC Certified Biblical Counselor? If so, what has held you back from getting started, or what is slowing you down in your process? Today, BC4Women guest blogger Lara d’Entremont, who is nearly to the finish line in her certification process, shares some tips to motivate and encourage you.

You wanted your child to have this amazing life. You planned and dreamed, scrimped and saved, and made sacrifices daily to give it to him. As he grew, you exhorted, rebuked, and instructed him in righteousness the best you knew how; never perfectly, but always with a heart that wanted him to love the Lord, love others, and walk in obedience.

Before my feet hit the cold morning floorboards, I was already discouraged. There was a part of me that didn’t want to get out of bed, knowing that the day was already set for failure. The night before I had cried myself to sleep, considering all the ways I had given way to anxiety. ­

It began with a biblical self-counseling assignment. I was working towards my BA in Biblical Counseling online, and I had loved every moment of it until now. Our professor assigned a self-counseling project in which we had to choose an issue in our lives to work on like road rage, fingernail chewing, procrastination, specific fears, etc. I have struggled with anxiety the majority of my life, and this assignment gave me a new hope that had long ago burnt out—that I could be free from my struggle.

I once heard this testimony from a counselee who came to see me because of depression:

“My mother suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness for most of my childhood. She would be in bed for months at a time, and then I would come home from school one day and she would be gone, in the hospital. After a few weeks, she would come back home, usually drugged or just flat. She’d be ok for a while, but then the depression would come back, and it would start all over. Finally, when I was in high school, she got the diagnosis: Major Depressive Disorder.[i][ii] She was put on medications, and pretty much stayed stable until the end of her life, when the drugs finally destroyed her kidneys and she passed away. I am terrified that this is my future. My doctor thinks I have it, too.”

People come to biblical counselors for help for all different sorts of reasons. Some people have been comforted in times of difficulty by a substance to such an extent that they can no longer live without that substance. The relief of emotional pain may have come from food, alcohol, or even isolation from others. Others have been deeply hurt in life and come for help because their hurt has turned to anger and bitterness.

Recently, we celebrated “Sanctity of Life Sunday” at my church, as did thousands of you around our nation and world. We were reminded of the tragedy of abortion, both the loss of the child, and the impact it will have on the mother for the rest of her life. We talked about how God is the creator and sustainer of life, and that every child, from the moment of conception, is an image bearer of God.

I am reaching out to you to make sure you were invited to this year’s conference. As we have done in the past, we will have a different theme this year than previous conferences. Our conference is in a new location this year! This March 2-3, 2018 the annual B3 (Bearing One Another’s Burdens Biblically) Conference will be held at Faith Community Church in Kansas City, Missouri.

My husband and I are privileged to hold a small group of fellow church members at our home. Currently, we are going through Jerry Bridges book, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate.  In our most recent meeting, we were discussing the chapter on anxiety and frustration. One of Bridges points is that accepting God’s providential will is one of the keys to overcoming these two very common problems we all face. He recommends the writings of John Newton and quotes from a letter Newton wrote to a friend.

In a previous article, I offered some suggestions and tips for those of you who suffer from PMS, or Pre Menstrual Syndrome. This is a problem that can really cause a struggle for a few days each month, and I hope you got some encouragement there. Many of us, however, are past the years of that monthly battle and have entered the season of Menopause.

45th Anniversary of Roe V. Wade
We are reminded today of the anniversary of the tragic Roe decision that made abortion “safe and legal” in America. Sunday, in evangelical churches across our nation we celebrated Sanctity of Life Sunday. Some churches showed a short video, others had a guest speaker who spoke on the evils of abortion, and sadly, some of those speakers added to the crushing weight of fear, guilt, shame and regret that you live with every day.

We all have expectations of what our lives should look like, what we will or will not accomplish in life, what kinds of relationships we will or will not have, even how our lives should appear to others around us – our family, friends, and coworkers. We all have these expectations of ourselves, others, and even of God.

“I don’t know what happens! One day, I’m happy and everything’s fine. The next day, even though nothing has changed and there are no new problems, I’m miserable, mean, can’t stop crying, and all my problems seem completely insurmountable! It’s like I’m Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!” These aren’t the words of any particular person, but they sum up well the lament of those who suffer from PMS[i][ii]. This monthly cycle of everything that was fine yesterday being devastating today is a very common theme in counseling, and I suspect in all of womanhood. So, what’s the deal with PMS? Did God just decide to play a cruel trick on women? Was he mad at Eve for eating the fruit, and decided to take it out on all of her daughters forever?