Our Mission.

“Helping grieving families find hope and healing in the midst of loss through death.”

 

Our Vision.

Our vision is to provide a safe place for peer-to-peer grief support for children, teens and adults in the NorthWest Indiana area. We strive to equip everyone with the tools and resources they need to acknowledge, adapt and heal after a death related loss in a healthy way. 

We also strive to bring awareness and resources to the community on the impact of grief. We hope to normalize conversations surrounding death related grief to help strengthen and support our community.

our values

  • Peer Support

    We believe in the power of peer-to-peer grief support and provide an environment for it to happen. Although each person grieves differently, there is power in gathering with others experiencing loss. We provide age appropriate opportunities for kids, teens and adults.

  • EDUCATION

    Grief is a taboo topic in our society. We strive to help normalize conversations around grief and grief support. So often, people feel as though they grieve alone. We desire to change this reality for so many.

  • FAMILY

    Even in the face of loss, family is important to us. At each of our peer support meetings, we provide a meal so that families can sit down and share in all the benefits a family meal holds.

  • COMMUNITY

    Nobody should walk the road of grief alone. We value our community coming alongside those grieving by providing meals for Golden Hope, supporting events and helping us to increase awareness and conversation surrounding death related grief support.

  • Faith

    While our groups are not specifically faith based, we believe that our Hope is found in Christ alone.

Our Story

Gold Family 2014 (Nolan pictured far right)

A note from Ashley Krygsheld…

On September 19, 2016 the Gold family lost their 19 year old son, Nolan, to suicide after a battle with depression and anxiety.  Friends and family have been left to continue on in life without their son, brother, grandson, nephew, and friend leaving a huge hole in their hearts. They will tell you that despite his pain he had a ‘heart of gold’.  Nolan was a caring, compassionate, genuine, and supportive friend.  His most noble quality, however, was his ability to listen.  To care. 

Through this unimaginable loss God planted the seed for Golden Hope Ministries. It wasn’t until soon after Nolan’s passing that Lisa (Nolan’s mom) became a very close friend of mine.  Fast forward 5 ½ years, friends have become like family. It has been a humbling experience being allowed to walk alongside the Gold family and be present in their grief.  As all families walking this road know, it can be incredibly isolating- even when there are strong support systems in place.

A few years ago, I felt God calling me to do more. I began volunteering at the Phoenix Center, located in Valparaiso, IN, as a facilitator for their peer to peer grief support groups for children.  It was during these years that God had been preparing my heart and opening my eyes to a great need here in Lake County- a safe place for children, teens and families to share their grief and death experiences while receiving support from other grieving individuals. In 2021, the idea for a family-oriented peer grief support group in Lake County found its roots. As a leap of faith I began sharing my heart for an organization that would serve these grieving families.  God started placing people in my path that shared this same passion and experience and we began working together towards this new organization.  Alex Monsma and I are excited and humbled to be Co-Directors for what is now Golden Hope Ministries. 

 I may never have had the chance to meet Nolan, but God continues to use his life and his family’s story to impact my heart.  As Nolan’s family and friends have shared, his greatest qualities were the ability to support, to listen, and to care.   It is my prayer that we may continue to honor Nolan’s life and the Gold family as we serve grieving families here in NWI by showing God’s love and supporting, caring and listening to one another in our grief journeys.

 

A note from Alex Monsma…

In 2014, I decided to help a friend plan a fundraiser for a ministry in West Michigan called Starlight Ministries. The fundraiser never took off and I ended up giving time instead. I volunteered working with high schoolers in peer-to-peer grief support for 4 years. God used my time volunteering at Starlight Ministries to equip me for the opportunity to walk alongside the bereaved.

In January of 2016, I accepted a job at a church in Allendale, Michigan as the Director of Children and Youth Ministries. In my 5 years serving at that church, we experienced many sudden deaths, not only within the church, but in my circle of connection as well. God had clearly paved the way for me to be where I was needed and had equipped me with tools to lead in times of deep grief and hurt.

 One of the most beneficial parts of being involved with Starlight Ministries was knowing with full certainty that when a family experienced a loss, I could direct them to Starlight Ministries to find the support, encouragement and hope that they needed. I knew they would be surrounded with people who knew and understood the deep sense of loss and pain that they felt. 

In 2021, I was called to a church in Crown Point, Indiana. As I joined this community, I realized that ministry to those who were grieving was just as much of a need here. With few options for peer-to-peer grief support directed toward families within the Northwest Indiana area, I began to have conversations with those around me about what it would look like to create a grief support group here. Through God’s clear working, I was connected to Ashley Krygsheld, who was also working to create the same kind of space in our area.

After a few meetings, Golden Hope began to take shape. It’s abundantly clear to me that throughout the years, God has been using each step along the way to prepare me for this season of walking alongside the bereaved. My prayer for Golden Hope is that families will find the support, hope and healing that they need most in their time of loss AND that our community can be equipped to walk alongside those who are grieving and point them to Golden Hope.  

  • Ashley Krygsheld

    Co-Director

  • Alex Monsma

    Co-Director