48: Sending & Receiving Kids Between Homes

Billy and Yolanda Jackson

Authors, Speakers and Marriage Strategist Billy & Yolanda Jackson are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to “real life” marriage and family situations.  They launched Live in Peace Ministries in 2016, and together they host seminars, workshops, conferences and retreats to equip and encourage married people on their journey.  Their mission is to help married couples build a legacy of love through stronger marriages.  They believe that changing the world is possible one couple at a time through the transformational power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Billy and Yolanda have been married for 13 years and have a blended family of 4 beautiful children and 4 adorable grandchildren. 

David and Claudia Arp

“Real, down-to-earth, practical, fun, encouraging” are words that describe Claudia Arp and David Arp, MSW. This husband-wife team speaks each year to thousands of people in a variety of settings across the United States and in Europe. Dave and Claudia are masters at communicating in an encouraging, non-threatening way that energizes and inspires others to make needed changes. Their transparency and rich life experiences combined with a lively, give-and-take style and a fun, practical approach to relationship issues, endears them to their audience and makes them sought-after speakers.

The Arps are founders of Marriage Alive International, Inc. MAI was founded in 1983, as a non-profit, 501(c)(3) marriage and family educational organization, is dedicated to providing resources and training to help congregations and community groups build better marriages and families. Today Marriage Alive resources are trusted and widely utilized across the United States and internationally.

Their teach-right-out-of-the-box marriage education program, 10 Great Dates, received the Smart Marriages 2005 Impact Award as the most used marriage education program. This innovative marriage education program disguised as 10 great dates is used by churches, community marriage initiatives and other groups around the country and internationally as a low- key, fun, male-friendly, yet skilled-based program that appeals to the masses and to couples in any setting. It is also used by the US military to help troops strengthen their marriage before deployment and to reconnect with their spouse when they return.

David and Claudia Arp are also known for their pioneering work with empty nesters and for their Second Half of Marriage program and books. Partnering with PREP (University of Denver) they co-authored the book, Fighting for Your Empty Nest Marriage, with Scott Stanley, Howard Markman and Susan Blumberg. They have appeared as empty nest experts on national media such as NBC Today, PBS, CBS This Morning, and Focus on the Family and their work has been featured in national print media such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Ladies Home Journal.

Married for over forty years, David and Claudia Arp bring a wealth of experience and real credibility to their work in marriage education. David graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a BS Degree in Management and later earned a Masters of Science in Social Work degree from the University of Tennessee. Claudia is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a BS degree in Home Economics Education.

Gayla Grace

Gayla Grace serves on staff with FamilyLife Blended, a division of FamilyLife, is the founder of Stepparenting with Grace, and co-founder of Sisterhood of Stepmoms.

She is a writer, speaker, and coach on stepfamily life and is passionate about equipping blended families. She holds a master’s degree in Psychology and Counseling and is the author of Stepparenting With Grace: A Devotional for Blended Families and co-author of Quiet Moments for the Stepmom Soul and Unwrapping the Gift of Stepfamily Peace.

Gayla and her husband, Randy, have been married since 1995 in a “his, hers, and ours” family. She is the mom to three and stepmom to two young adults. Gayla and Randy are recent empty nesters and live in Conway, AR.

Twitter: @GaylaGrace
Instagram: @FamilyLifeBlended
Facebook: @FamilyLifeBlended
Website: www.familylife.com/blended

Gayla Grace serves on staff with FamilyLife Blended, a division of FamilyLife, and is passionate about equipping blended families as a writer and a speaker. She is author of Stepparenting with Grace: A Devotional for Blended Families and co-author of Quiet Moments for the Stepmom Soul. Gayla holds a master’s degree in Psychology and Counseling. She and her husband, Randy, have been married since 1995 in a “his, hers, and ours” family. She is the mom to three and stepmom to two young adults.

Joel Hawbaker

Joel is a blended family coach, an award-winning teacher, author, speaker, and frequent podcast guest who loves helping blended/stepfamilies overcome obstacles and grow by teaching them the 10 Commandments of Blended Family Life. These are universal principles that families can apply immediately to begin seeing positive changes.

Joel is a divorced and remarried father of two. He currently lives in Alabama with his wife, his two daughters, and their two rescue dogs Bruiser and Butterscotch.

His first book, Inverted Leadership: Lead Others Better By Forgetting About Yourself was a #1 best-seller on Amazon. He is currently at work on a book about blended families.