blog writers
Visionary & Curator
Tammy has discovered writing is the rawest, scariest, frustratingly glorious, rewarding, and essential way to process life. She’s a renaissance woman who’s scattered pigeons at Notre Dame, swam the coral reefs of Okinawa, scaled fortresses in Nuremburg, viewed the Eiffel Tower safely from the ground, and occasionally drives an old John Deere tractor in tim-buck-two. She’s a fighter for others to see their redemptive purpose, beauty, worth, and connection to a supernatural God. She’s the Founder and Curator for Outside The City Gates where she’s also a Co-Conspirator with a team of other writers. Her faith journey is found on her personal blog, or connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Writing Team
Amy Breitmann’s name means “Beloved” and she’s on a quest to believe it. Her boots carry Midwest soil but now she kicks it up in the south where she weaves marriage, ministry and motherhood together. As a cancer survivor, she was the Co-Founder of The Lydia Project, a ministry which holds hands with other women facing cancer. She now serves as the Vice President of Vi Bella Jewerly, empowering artisans and communities in Haiti, Mexico, and the U.S. She is also is a lost-sock finder, a keeper of secrets for the best cheesecake recipe, and gets grace in the ordinary. The words that tumble out on her blog Beloved in Blue Jeans are balm that the Spirit speaks to quiet her soul. Find her on her blog by clicking here, or on Facebook or Twitter.
David Rupert on any given weekend can be found wandering the Rockies, fly-rod in hand, and trying to figure it out. He may be a communications professional and writer for a government organization by day, but by night, he’s taking seriously the call to encourage the Body. Spurring another to share their gifts, is a passion of his. He especially points to Christ’s words on his blog called Red Letter Believers and continues to reach others through his many publications in magazine articles. While he has his hands full, he is also the community editor at The High Calling, and adding to the list, his new book set to release in June 2014 is called Disconnected: How to Turn Around Every Broken Relationship. While yet another book, Make a Difference: Growth in Leadership, and many more writings by him can be found here as he continues to seek out more ways to encourage others.
Lisha Epperson is a hopeful romantic, lover of Jesus and most things antique. A happy wife and now mother of 5, she shares a warrior song about her 14 year walk through infertility and the semi-sweet miracle of adoption. Lisha works out a life of faith with fear, trembling, and a fair measure of grace in New York City. Follow her blog at http://www.lishaepperson.com, and here for Facebook and Twitter.
Laurie Wallin strives every day to live out her message to people: that no matter the challenge, in Jesus they can find joy and confidence. She is mom to four girls, two of them foster/adopted with medical, developmental and mental health special needs. Laurie is also a speaker, Certified Life Coach and, in an unexpected twist of God’s design, the Director of Growth and Impact Ministries at Carmel Mountain Church in San Diego. Her books, Why Your Weirdness Is Wonderful and Get Your Joy Back, help readers find their way back to joy in their own inner landscape, and in families like hers with special needs children. You can find Laurie at her website (LaurieWallin.com) and on Facebook (Living Power Life Coaching) and Twitter (@mylivingpower). Laurie, her husband and their four daughters make their home in San Diego, California.
Regular Contributors in 2014
Beth Stiff is Simply Beth, or in the least that’s her blog name: Simply Beth. A wife to her Army Reserve husband and a mom of two boys, with her oldest son serving in the Navy, and a mother-in-law too. She a Jesus lover, a family gal who loves her friends, and reading with a hot cup of coffee. Her life is changed, even after 20 years of marriage with a love that grows stronger. But the bottom line, is in the heart. Beth loves the heart things and to speak about the Love that changed her and keeps changing her. She’s the backbone at Outside the City Gate with her superpowers as the Admin Guru. But you can also find her here, blogging, Twittering, Facebooking, and posting pictures to the Pinterest world.
Diane Bailey believes God has equipped each of us for the life we are living. But sometimes it takes friends to help us sift through that arsenal of tools. She is always curious about what motivates a person to make the choices they do, more than the choice itself – then walks with them in finding answers. Diane believes that God never leaves us, so she continually looks for Christ in our everyday life, knowing that he is there in the smallest details. She is the author of String of Pearls and has been on various radio and Tv telling of God’s love for those who have been wounded. Diane makes her home with her husband in the Deep South. She is the mother of two, stepmother of two and grandmother of three. Diane contributes her talents in words as part of the writing team. You can find her on her blog, facebook and twitter.
Kelli Woodford has always had a quirky penchant for collecting quotes. The words she feels at home in most, though, are from Mr. Mark Twain himself, “One must travel to learn.” While she hasn’t hung her hat in every one of the fifty states or abroad, she has been known to travel compulsively in the world of ideas. Kelli considers curiosity a serious expedition and is rarely satisfied with anything remotely status quo. She collects friendships with people as different as they can be and feels all the richer for it, but never experiences “home” so much as when she is with her best friend – who also happens to be her husband. They make their abode in Love, but also in the Midwest with their seven blue-eyed children. Kelli engages us with her writing as part of the writer’s team. You can follow Kelli on her personal blog, or on facebook and twitter.
Duane Scott has been known to be jarred awake by a crashing of smattered M&M’s to the floor even as two angelic dogs innocently stood among the crime scene. But for the most part, Duane likes the silence and quiet of Iowa fields where he is married to his favorite Southern Gal. He also tends to the common farmer as an R.N.. A storyteller at heart, he likes to weave words with threads of this and that and believes we discover the answers by living the questions. Coffee is a critical nutrient in his opinion and anyone who drinks it, is already a friend. He quietly shares on his blog Scribing The Journey.
Nacole Simmons is a non-conformist, fashion-loving southern mom of four girls, wife to one good, steady, car-building man. Rebellious by nature, she calls herself a Jesus-follower, grace-seeker, and introvert, who adores spending weekends reading books in the hammock. She’s honest to a fault, and speaks straight to the elephant in the room because she doesn’t do small talk well. A lover of the hurting, the shunned, and the unchurched, she’s convinced Jesus was serious when he said he came for the sick. Stuffing the sacred just doesn’t cut it, so her words often edge toward the radical, the raw, and the real. This is holy ground, and you are invited in. Kick your shoes off, let’s conversate over hot tea {or coke or wine or whichever adult beverage you prefer}. She’s hangs out on Facebook, her blog Six in the Hickory Sticks, and Twitter.
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On the Facebook Team 
Paula Gamble is in the day-to-day of embracing who she is as a Beloved Daughter, fully Loved and Accepted just as she is – not based on her performance, but on what Jesus did for her, as Abba’s Delight. She’s a stay at home wife and mom to four amazing little ones, learning to accept her brokenness even as God is making her whole. She also shares on her blog created for Love and also her personal Facebook page.
outside the city gate 
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