Coaching Catholic Coaches with Dawn Heiydt
“Call to me and I will answer you.”
– Jeremiah 33:3
Some stories stop you in your tracks—stories so raw, so filled with both pain and grace, that you can feel the Holy Spirit move through every word.
This week, I interviewed one of my clients, Dawn — a Catholic life coach and fasting coach whose journey will take your breath away. Dawn has endured what no mother should ever have to face: the loss of three of her children.
Through all of it, Dawn never turned away from God. She never blamed Him. She never stopped believing that His plan, though hidden in mystery, was still good.
“I’ve never been mad at God,” she said. “I believe in His timing, even when it doesn’t align with mine.”
When Faith Is All You Have Left
Listening to Dawn talk about her faith through such immense suffering was like standing on holy ground. She spoke of Job, her favorite book of the Bible, and how it gave her a model for grief — honest, unfiltered, yet anchored in trust.
“God gave us the Book of Job so we’d know how to suffer,” she said. “Even Job’s friends couldn’t understand his pain. But God never left him. That’s His promise.”
Dawn found comfort in knowing she was never alone — that even in her darkest nights, Mary was at her side, a mother who also watched her innocent Son die. “I prayed that Mary would be the mother to my children that I couldn’t always be,” she said. “She knows what it is to stand at the foot of the cross.”
The Healing Power of Coaching, Fasting, and Community
When Dawn joined Delay and Pray®, she was searching for spiritual renewal in the middle of her healing journey. Coaching, she discovered, wasn’t just about food or discipline — it was about learning to be poured into again.
She had already been helping others as a life coach and fasting coach, but through the Delay and Pray® program, she began to experience her own transformation. She learned to see fasting as not just a physical practice, but a sacred invitation to unite her suffering with Christ.
“I needed life coaching with Jesus,” Dawn said. “I needed someone to help me see my thoughts in the light of faith — to remember that God still had a purpose for me.”
Finding Resurrection After the Cross
Dawn and her husband made a decision that changed everything: they chose to be kind to one another through the pain.
They were both carrying their own suffering — his cancer diagnosis, her nervous breakdown, their shared grief. But together they made a simple pact: “We’re going to be nice to each other.” And with that, grace began to heal what loss had tried to destroy.
As Dawn put it, “I’ve been blessed with the redemption of love.”
Through her story, I was reminded of something we talk about often in Delay and Pray® — that we can’t stay stuck in Good Friday. God calls us to move through Holy Saturday and into the Resurrection. We were made for both sorrow and joy, fasting and feasting, the cross and the empty tomb.
Clinging to God’s Promise
When I asked Dawn what scripture she turns to most, she said:
“Jeremiah 33:3 — ‘Call to me, and I will answer you.’
That’s my 911 verse. When I’m stuck, when I can’t pray, I just call to Him. And He answers.”
Dawn’s story is a testimony that no matter what’s been taken from you, God is faithful to restore what the enemy has stolen. He never wastes our pain — He redeems it.
A Holy Invitation
If you’ve been walking through your own season of loss or loneliness — if you’ve wondered whether God still sees you — let Dawn’s story remind you that He does. He’s right there in your ashes, whispering resurrection over your life.
And if you need a place to be poured into again, to be coached in both body and soul, I invite you to join us in the next Delay and Pray® Group Coaching Experience. It’s a space where Catholic women come together to fast, pray, and be transformed — in community, with Christ at the center.
Because healing happens when we let God do the impossible in us.
Help Beth reach her goal of bringing 1 Million Catholics back to the Church
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