The origin of the blog.

My name is Laura Pedersen. I have over 30 years of experience in Human Resources, Coaching, Culture Transformation, and Leadership Training and Development.

In 2011 after losing my dad and sister, I found myself being called to continue the spirit-lead discipleship of my sister, Sara Frankl. Sara lived with chronic pain as a result of an autoimmune disease called ankylosing spondylitis and was eventually confined to her home before dying at the age of 38 years old. If anyone had reason to focus on the unfairness of life, it was Sara. Yet she accomplished something few can...she chose joy.

After 3 1/2 years of walking a path through the publishing industry, my family and I were blessed by the release of Sara's book, co-authored by Mary Carver, Choose Joy: Finding Hope and Purpose When Life Hurts. The book is based on Sara's writings about her journey to discovering joy in the midst of life's tragedies.

My journey and purpose now is to continue Sara's spirit-lead discipleship of Choose Joy. Sara touched literally thousands of people's lives across the globe, through her online presence (www.gitzengirl.blogspot.com).

My belief is that this ministry does not have to end even though Sara is not physically present with us.

Sara always said that the most important word in Choose Joy is not the word joy, but rather choose. We may not be able to control what happens to us, but we can choose how we respond.

I am co-founder of Choose Ministry. Our vision is to encourage and equip women to make Godly choices that will transform their lives. We do this through weekly choose chats, social media presence, choose chat podcast, weekly blogs and women's conferences.

I pray that you will find inspiration and encouragement as you follow my adventure to joy!

Let me know what you'd like or need!

With much love and joy,

Laura

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