We are a husband-and-wife team who are both storytellers, creatives, and analytical. For years, we have sensed that one day God would use our combined skills for God's kingdom in the world. This website and podcast are the realization of that, or at least the beginning of our professional partnership anyway. We live in Ohio and have three children, 13 year-old girl/boy twins and an 11 year-old boy, who keep us very busy. We can’t imagine life without them! We come from Protestant/Evangelical backgrounds and are currently worshiping as part of the Anglican Church of North America.

Kristy picking blueberries

Hi! I’m Kristy Lahoda. I am both a head and heart person. I have a Ph.D. in chemistry and am a graduate of the Renovaré Institute for Spiritual Formation (2018-2021). I'm also a deep feeler.

I work as a contract scientific technical editor for a chemistry journal publisher. This allows me to be available to our children as needed, while also having time to write fiction, read, and record podcasts. I'm currently attempting to get my first novel published, which is actually the second one I've written. My first is a Christian forensic mystery novel that still needs rewriting. I have an agent interested in that one, but something happened in my life that set me on the course of working on a Christian supernatural women's fiction trilogy (i.e., magic realism). To learn more, check out my bio page.

I love to study Christian spiritual formation, practice spiritual disciplines, read both fiction and nonfiction, talk about what I read, and share what I learn. The Holy Spirit has been leading me in recent years to keep my eyes open for the Kingdom of God, which Jesus brought near during his incarnated time on Earth. As such, I always read with spiritual eyes, even when I’m not reading Christian fiction and nonfiction. The sacred is all around us. We wade in sacred waters and tread on sacred ground wherever God is present.

Other things I love to do include exploring with Rob, watercolor, watching college basketball (especially the beloved Jayhawks—I’m a Kansas girl), swimming (I was a D1 collegiate swimmer for TCU back in the day), running, cycling, triathlon, hiking, reading novels to our children, and talking to them for “hours” after praying with them at bedtime.

I'm Rob and I'm a front-end web developer with a background in multimedia production and live event production. My primary role here is to support Kristy to fulfill her creative goals through editing and producing the podcast, building and maintaining this website, and administering our various outlets and other platforms necessary for creating a rich and fulfilling experience for our users.

I have degrees in photojournalism, video production, and interactive media with work experience as a video producer, live event producer, video engineer, marketing media producer, and web developer.

Outside of web development, I love traveling, woodworking, tinkering with electronics, photography, and cycling. I enjoy going on adventures with Kristy and our kids, going for family bike rides, and reading books together.

Rob taking a photo of some bison
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A podcast by Becoming All Flame

Fiction That Forms Us

Stories that Inspire Us and
Practices that Help Us Change
Latest Episode:

Sensible Shoes, Part 2 - The Spiritual Disciplines of Lament and Confession within the Ignatian Examen

Episode 8 Length: 30 min Guest: Sharon Garlough Brown

Welcome to the Season 2 season finale of Fiction that Forms us!

How do we become more receptive and responsive to the work of the Spirit within our lives? In her first novel, Sensible Shoes, from the series of the same name, Sharon Garlough Brown takes her characters on a journey of practicing various spiritual disciplines. In this episode, I talk to author Sharon Garlough Brown about the spiritual disciplines of lament and confession within the Ignatian Examen. The spiritual practice is one of attentiveness that enables our receptivity by reviewing our day with God in two movements: consolation—where we noticed and responded to God today—and desolation—where we were unaware of, ignored, or rejected God during our day.

Recent Articles

The Story of Our Life Speaks

Klyne Snodgrass begins his book Who God Says You Are: A Christian Understanding of Identity with this provocative statement: “There is only one question: Who are you? Everything else in life flows from that one question.” It’s true that who we are determines what we think about, how we feel in response to things, how we act, and even our belief about God’s identity. A. W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Practicing Welcoming Prayer

Kristy Lahoda

I've had ample opportunity to practice Welcoming Prayer. A few months ago, I sinned against a friend, unintentionally hurting her. As sin often does, it propagated. Losing her friendship wasn’t the worst of it. Unfortunately, the ripples spread to our children.

On Welcoming Prayer

Kristy Lahoda

I’ll be honest. When I first learned about welcoming prayer, it sounded like a New Age philosophy to me. I imagine my initial resistance was similar to those who think that spiritual disciplines and spiritual formation aren’t Christian but rather some sort of Eastern philosophy.

More Articles