who we are.
We are a group of counselors, best friends, and prayer partners who found ourselves thrown into ministry together through similar personal passions and professional pursuits. Through the course of our graduate programs, we each began developing specific passions for the truth about God’s heart for women. Before long, it only seemed natural that our passions – sexuality, body image, female friendship, and prayer – should combine to create Avah.
WHAT IS AVAH?
If you look at our mission statement, you’d see that avah is an limited liability company that strives to provide biblically-based educational, interactive seminars and resources on topics relevant to women. But it’s a little more organic than that.
The Hebrew word “avah” means to “greatly desire.” Psalm 45:11 tells us that GOD “avahs” us. Isaiah 26:9 uses the word “avah” when Isaiah tells God that he has longed for Him in the night. These two verses sum up the heart of our ministry. We hope to aid women in embracing the truth that they are greatly desired by the God of the universe, and then to greatly desire Him with the same love He has given them.
How we met.
We gathered together on July 10, 2005 in a small-town Indiana apartment that we had all agreed to rent for our two years attending Grace College graduate school. We came from Ohio, Illinois, and Nebraska, and none of us had any intention of making friends, or of building roots in Indiana. We were there to get a degree and leave. Within weeks, our late study-dates over chips, salsa, and Dr. K soda turned into personal discussions, and eventually, prayers. And we were hooked. We began praying through all of life’s experiences like serious break-ups, marriages, children, moves. As we prayed and as we dreamt, God was aligning our hearts and our circumstances to open doors for a ministry in teaching women about their beauty, about friendship and prayer, and about redemptive sexuality. And even none of us live there now, AVAH was born in Winona Lake, Indiana.
Our vision.
To see women everywhere encounter healing, embrace their God-given beauty, and experience an intimacy with God and others that leads not only to deep personal satisfaction, but to an empowerment to offer their gifts and beauty to a hurting world.
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Laura Kauffman, PLHMP
Laura Kauffman, MA, PLMHP spent several years in Christian counseling practices before trading in her couch and clipboard for a diaper bag and sippy cup. She now enjoys extra time to pursue teaching and writing as she cares for her husband Chris and two young boys in Omaha.
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Hannah Estabrook, LMHC
Hannah Estabrook, MA, LMHC is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with her husband Brian where she is looking for an opportunity to use her previous counseling experience with victims of sexual abuse and sex-trafficking.
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Ashley Smiley, LCPC
Ashley Smiley, MA, LCPC has a Christian-counseling private practice near St.Louis. She and her husband Jonathan love being surrounded by their family, friends, and cornfields.
