Produced and Delivered Web-TV Programming
Breaking The Silence with Dr Gregory Williams
Outcry, Healing, and the Courage to Face What Fear Has Hidden
Guest, JoDee Neil, Owner of Neil Now Legal, Prosecutor, Attorney and Author of "Outcry Witness: A Former Prosecutor's Guide to Healing and Justice After Sexual Violence"
This week's guest is back by popular demand. JoDee Neil is an acclaimed trail attorney and author of the new book: "Outcry Witness." She owns Neil Now Legal, PLLC. She has served as a prosecutor of sexual abuse cases and specializes in Crimes Against Children cases.
Interested in our guest?
Visit their Website at: https://www.jodeeneil.com/
Don't forget to check out her book: "Outcry Witness: A Former Prosecutor's Guide to Healing and Justice After Sexual Violence" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1965766196/
Opening From Houston With Gratitude and Hope
In this episode of Breaking the Silence, host Dr. Gregory Williams welcomes listeners from his home in Houston, Texas, and reflects on the city, the Texas Medical Center, the approaching Fourth of July weekend, and gratitude for military service members and veterans. He then introduces the evening’s guest, JoDee Neil, attorney, author, advocate, and returning guest. The episode centers on trauma, anxiety, disclosure, recovery, workplace harm, and JoDee’s book Outcry, Witness.
A Practical Game Plan for Anxiety and Triggers
Before bringing JoDee into the conversation, Dr. Williams shares a practical ten-step approach for dealing with anxiety when a traumatic trigger appears. He encourages listeners to recognize and name the trigger, breathe slowly, ground themselves through the five senses, challenge fearful thoughts, relax the body, replace fear with truth, take one small action, reduce outside stimulation, practice gratitude, and, for those who believe, turn to God in prayer. He explains that these steps can help move the brain out of panic and into a more rational, grounded state.
JoDee Neil on Becoming Unfrozen
JoDee responds by describing anxiety and trauma response as a kind of frozen state, where a person may feel unable to move, think clearly, or act. She affirms Dr. Williams’ grounding tools and adds that writing can also help people come out of that frozen condition. She speaks candidly about her own past reliance on pills and other numbing methods, explaining that many people try to avoid discomfort rather than face the pain underneath. For JoDee, healing required learning to feel, endure, and move through the truth rather than continually medicating it away.
Disclosure, Truth, and the Possibility of Joy
The conversation turns to disclosure, which JoDee defines as first admitting the truth to oneself and then saying it aloud to someone else. She explains that healing begins when a person recognizes that present pain may be connected to something that happened long ago, and that a joyful life requires facing that reality. Dr. Williams asks whether she once believed she was worthy of happiness, and JoDee says happiness felt distant and almost imaginary until she began accepting the truth and healing from it.
From Courthouse Healing to a Wider Calling
JoDee reflects on her career as a trial attorney, particularly her work with sexual abuse cases and crimes against children. She describes how helping others in court once made her feel whole and purposeful, but after writing Outcry, Witness, she no longer feels the same need to keep healing inside courthouses. Instead, she now sees a broader calling to bring her experience, communication skills, and trauma-informed understanding into businesses, schools, boards, leadership groups, and public speaking settings where she can reach more people at once.
Workplace Trauma, Retaliation, and Better Leadership
A major part of the interview focuses on how JoDee’s legal and survivor experience can help organizations. She discusses workplace sexual harassment, retaliation, human resources failures, and the need for better reporting protocols. JoDee says retaliation often causes additional harm and liability, and she argues that organizations should create clearer, safer processes before matters escalate into legal battles. She also discusses de-escalation, communication, chain of command, listening, smiling, reducing tension, and creating healthier workplace cultures that protect both people and organizations.
Facing Fear and Choosing Life
As the interview closes, JoDee describes her dream of speaking widely, including a future TED Talk, and says she wants people to hear her and decide that life is worth truly living. She encourages listeners who are trapped in despair, addiction, or avoidance to take the first step toward healing, saying that the fear of facing pain is often worse than the act of beginning. Dr. Williams and JoDee also discuss a possible future Houston event connected to their books and nonprofit fundraising. The episode ends with Dr. Williams reminding listeners that both he and JoDee have survived deep pain, that help begins with a first step, and that as long as there is breath, there is hope.
Outcry, Healing, and the Courage to Face What Fear Has Hidden
Guest, JoDee Neil, Owner of Neil Now Legal, Prosecutor, Attorney and Author of "Outcry Witness: A Former Prosecutor's Guide to Healing and Justice After Sexual Violence"
This week's guest is back by popular demand. JoDee Neil is an acclaimed trail attorney and author of the new book: "Outcry Witness." She owns Neil Now Legal, PLLC. She has served as a prosecutor of sexual abuse cases and specializes in Crimes Against Children cases.
Interested in our guest?
Visit their Website at: https://www.jodeeneil.com/
Don't forget to check out her book: "Outcry Witness: A Former Prosecutor's Guide to Healing and Justice After Sexual Violence" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1965766196/
Opening From Houston With Gratitude and Hope
In this episode of Breaking the Silence, host Dr. Gregory Williams welcomes listeners from his home in Houston, Texas, and reflects on the city, the Texas Medical Center, the approaching Fourth of July weekend, and gratitude for military service members and veterans. He then introduces the evening’s guest, JoDee Neil, attorney, author, advocate, and returning guest. The episode centers on trauma, anxiety, disclosure, recovery, workplace harm, and JoDee’s book Outcry, Witness.
A Practical Game Plan for Anxiety and Triggers
Before bringing JoDee into the conversation, Dr. Williams shares a practical ten-step approach for dealing with anxiety when a traumatic trigger appears. He encourages listeners to recognize and name the trigger, breathe slowly, ground themselves through the five senses, challenge fearful thoughts, relax the body, replace fear with truth, take one small action, reduce outside stimulation, practice gratitude, and, for those who believe, turn to God in prayer. He explains that these steps can help move the brain out of panic and into a more rational, grounded state.
JoDee Neil on Becoming Unfrozen
JoDee responds by describing anxiety and trauma response as a kind of frozen state, where a person may feel unable to move, think clearly, or act. She affirms Dr. Williams’ grounding tools and adds that writing can also help people come out of that frozen condition. She speaks candidly about her own past reliance on pills and other numbing methods, explaining that many people try to avoid discomfort rather than face the pain underneath. For JoDee, healing required learning to feel, endure, and move through the truth rather than continually medicating it away.
Disclosure, Truth, and the Possibility of Joy
The conversation turns to disclosure, which JoDee defines as first admitting the truth to oneself and then saying it aloud to someone else. She explains that healing begins when a person recognizes that present pain may be connected to something that happened long ago, and that a joyful life requires facing that reality. Dr. Williams asks whether she once believed she was worthy of happiness, and JoDee says happiness felt distant and almost imaginary until she began accepting the truth and healing from it.
From Courthouse Healing to a Wider Calling
JoDee reflects on her career as a trial attorney, particularly her work with sexual abuse cases and crimes against children. She describes how helping others in court once made her feel whole and purposeful, but after writing Outcry, Witness, she no longer feels the same need to keep healing inside courthouses. Instead, she now sees a broader calling to bring her experience, communication skills, and trauma-informed understanding into businesses, schools, boards, leadership groups, and public speaking settings where she can reach more people at once.
Workplace Trauma, Retaliation, and Better Leadership
A major part of the interview focuses on how JoDee’s legal and survivor experience can help organizations. She discusses workplace sexual harassment, retaliation, human resources failures, and the need for better reporting protocols. JoDee says retaliation often causes additional harm and liability, and she argues that organizations should create clearer, safer processes before matters escalate into legal battles. She also discusses de-escalation, communication, chain of command, listening, smiling, reducing tension, and creating healthier workplace cultures that protect both people and organizations.
Facing Fear and Choosing Life
As the interview closes, JoDee describes her dream of speaking widely, including a future TED Talk, and says she wants people to hear her and decide that life is worth truly living. She encourages listeners who are trapped in despair, addiction, or avoidance to take the first step toward healing, saying that the fear of facing pain is often worse than the act of beginning. Dr. Williams and JoDee also discuss a possible future Houston event connected to their books and nonprofit fundraising. The episode ends with Dr. Williams reminding listeners that both he and JoDee have survived deep pain, that help begins with a first step, and that as long as there is breath, there is hope.
LaGrave Live
LIVE Evening Worship Service - Powers, Principalities, and the Promises of God
About The Service:
Pastor Jonker will preach on Ephesians 6:10-20.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/upload...
About Us:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Givi...
The June special offering is for Pine Rest Patient Assistance Fund: Part of Pine Rest Foundation Fund offering financial assistance for individuals, families and children who need care.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
Stand Firm in the Armor: Faith, Children, and the Promise That Christ Already Reigns
Worship Rooted in God’s Sovereign Grace
This LaGrave Live church service from LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church opens with a call to worship from Psalm 145, praising God’s greatness and the way one generation commends His works to another. Reverend Peter Jonker then frames the evening around the book of Ephesians, beginning with readings from the opening chapter. He highlights three major proclamations: that believers are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that God’s plan is to unite all things in heaven and earth under Christ, and that Christ already possesses power above every rule, authority, power, and dominion.
Prayer for Children, the Vulnerable, and the Congregation
The service includes a congregational reading from Our World Belongs to God, followed by an evening prayer centered especially on children and young people. Reverend Jonker thanks God for the gift of life and prays for children living in poverty, hunger, war, conflict, neglect, and abuse. He also prays for the church’s own children’s ministries, including Kids Hope and youth ministry leadership, asking that LaGrave’s children feel known, loved, and formed within God’s love. The prayer also lifts up members of the congregation who are sick, in hospice, grieving, or otherwise in need of comfort.
The Armor of God and the Reality of Spiritual Struggle
The sermon is based on Ephesians 6:10–20, where Paul tells believers to be strong in the Lord, put on the full armor of God, and stand against the devil’s schemes. Reverend Jonker describes Paul’s picture of spiritual warfare as vivid and serious: on one side are the powers of darkness, spiritual forces of evil, and flaming arrows; on the other side are ordinary believers wearing the armor of God. He emphasizes that this struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, and spiritual forces that work against God’s people.
Passing Faith to the Next Generation
To bring the passage into ordinary life, Reverend Jonker focuses on the struggle to pass Christian faith to the next generation. He cites demographic concerns about the growing number of religiously unaffiliated people, often called “nones,” noting the rise from small percentages in previous decades to much larger numbers today, especially among younger generations. He mentions research from Ryan Burge and describes the concern many churches feel as they wonder how to help children, grandchildren, and young adults remain connected to faith, worship, Scripture, and the Christian community.
Principalities, Powers, and the Culture That Shapes Young People
Reverend Jonker explains that the spiritual battle is not primarily against individual neighbors, critics, or young people who reject religion. Instead, he says the battle is against deeper powers and systems that shape culture. Drawing on Christian Smith’s Lost in Transition, he names several forces affecting younger generations: moral relativism, rampant consumerism, intoxication or escapist experience, sexual confusion, and radical individualism. He describes these not merely as isolated choices, but as cultural forces that sweep people along and make it harder for young people to receive and live within the Christian faith.
Warning Without Fear
Although Reverend Jonker takes the struggle seriously, he warns against panic. He places Ephesians 6 in the larger context of Ephesians, where Paul confidently proclaims that believers are chosen by God, that Christ reigns above every power, and that God’s plan to bring all things under Christ cannot be stopped. He cites C.S. Lewis’s warning that people can give the devil either too little credit or too much credit. For Jonker, the church must be vigilant without becoming fearful, protective without becoming overly sheltered, and confident that children ultimately belong to the Lord.
Standing Through Prayer, Truth, Love, and Presence
The sermon closes by returning to the armor of God as a practical pattern for faithful living. Reverend Jonker describes the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and sword of the Spirit as ordinary but powerful practices: teaching the faith, telling the truth, doing justice, bringing peace, praying, worshiping, and staying present with the next generation. He recalls research from the Fuller Youth Institute suggesting that one of the strongest predictors of faith continuing in a child’s life is having several caring adults in the congregation who know, love, and pray for that child. The message ends with encouragement: keep praying, keep loving, put on the armor, and stand.
LIVE Evening Worship Service - Powers, Principalities, and the Promises of God
About The Service:
Pastor Jonker will preach on Ephesians 6:10-20.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/upload...
About Us:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Givi...
The June special offering is for Pine Rest Patient Assistance Fund: Part of Pine Rest Foundation Fund offering financial assistance for individuals, families and children who need care.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
Stand Firm in the Armor: Faith, Children, and the Promise That Christ Already Reigns
Worship Rooted in God’s Sovereign Grace
This LaGrave Live church service from LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church opens with a call to worship from Psalm 145, praising God’s greatness and the way one generation commends His works to another. Reverend Peter Jonker then frames the evening around the book of Ephesians, beginning with readings from the opening chapter. He highlights three major proclamations: that believers are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that God’s plan is to unite all things in heaven and earth under Christ, and that Christ already possesses power above every rule, authority, power, and dominion.
Prayer for Children, the Vulnerable, and the Congregation
The service includes a congregational reading from Our World Belongs to God, followed by an evening prayer centered especially on children and young people. Reverend Jonker thanks God for the gift of life and prays for children living in poverty, hunger, war, conflict, neglect, and abuse. He also prays for the church’s own children’s ministries, including Kids Hope and youth ministry leadership, asking that LaGrave’s children feel known, loved, and formed within God’s love. The prayer also lifts up members of the congregation who are sick, in hospice, grieving, or otherwise in need of comfort.
The Armor of God and the Reality of Spiritual Struggle
The sermon is based on Ephesians 6:10–20, where Paul tells believers to be strong in the Lord, put on the full armor of God, and stand against the devil’s schemes. Reverend Jonker describes Paul’s picture of spiritual warfare as vivid and serious: on one side are the powers of darkness, spiritual forces of evil, and flaming arrows; on the other side are ordinary believers wearing the armor of God. He emphasizes that this struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, and spiritual forces that work against God’s people.
Passing Faith to the Next Generation
To bring the passage into ordinary life, Reverend Jonker focuses on the struggle to pass Christian faith to the next generation. He cites demographic concerns about the growing number of religiously unaffiliated people, often called “nones,” noting the rise from small percentages in previous decades to much larger numbers today, especially among younger generations. He mentions research from Ryan Burge and describes the concern many churches feel as they wonder how to help children, grandchildren, and young adults remain connected to faith, worship, Scripture, and the Christian community.
Principalities, Powers, and the Culture That Shapes Young People
Reverend Jonker explains that the spiritual battle is not primarily against individual neighbors, critics, or young people who reject religion. Instead, he says the battle is against deeper powers and systems that shape culture. Drawing on Christian Smith’s Lost in Transition, he names several forces affecting younger generations: moral relativism, rampant consumerism, intoxication or escapist experience, sexual confusion, and radical individualism. He describes these not merely as isolated choices, but as cultural forces that sweep people along and make it harder for young people to receive and live within the Christian faith.
Warning Without Fear
Although Reverend Jonker takes the struggle seriously, he warns against panic. He places Ephesians 6 in the larger context of Ephesians, where Paul confidently proclaims that believers are chosen by God, that Christ reigns above every power, and that God’s plan to bring all things under Christ cannot be stopped. He cites C.S. Lewis’s warning that people can give the devil either too little credit or too much credit. For Jonker, the church must be vigilant without becoming fearful, protective without becoming overly sheltered, and confident that children ultimately belong to the Lord.
Standing Through Prayer, Truth, Love, and Presence
The sermon closes by returning to the armor of God as a practical pattern for faithful living. Reverend Jonker describes the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and sword of the Spirit as ordinary but powerful practices: teaching the faith, telling the truth, doing justice, bringing peace, praying, worshiping, and staying present with the next generation. He recalls research from the Fuller Youth Institute suggesting that one of the strongest predictors of faith continuing in a child’s life is having several caring adults in the congregation who know, love, and pray for that child. The message ends with encouragement: keep praying, keep loving, put on the armor, and stand.
