We survived purity culture.
We were Ladies in Waiting who Kissed Dating Goodbye while we hoped someone was writing our love stories.
That was us in the 90s. Our 20s were about first dates and first kisses, first heartbreaks and marriage. Online dating became swiping through apps, and now in our 30s like many of you, we discovered that Purity Culture and its proponents had no idea what they were promising us. Life did not turn out they way we thought it would, and we want to talk about it.
With you.
We don’t have the answers. But we are asking questions. Our podcast is a tool for you to use with your people, exactly where you are.
If Purity Culture is a house burning down, we don’t need to warm our hands around the fire. We can pick up the pieces to rebuild. We can work together and decide, Where Do We Go From Here?
Co-Host Jessica Van Der Wyngaard is a filmmaker based in Melbourne, Australia. Most recently she directed and produced I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye in Vancouver, Canada. Jess has a Master of Arts in Theology from Regent College in Vancouver and a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Television from Deakin University. She looks forward to creating more documentaries through her Australia-based production company, DOCSology. Jessica is on maternity leave until the end of 2022.
Co-Host Devi Abraham is a writer, thinker and podcaster. Her writing has been featured in Religion News Service, Sojourners, and ABC Everyday, and she also teaches writing workshops in Melbourne. Devi has a Bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and History and loves reading, cooking, and gardening. You can find her in the evenings watching clips of Stephen Colbert on YouTube and eating dark chocolate. She and her husband live in Melbourne, Australia with their two sons.
C0-Host Kelly Wolfe is a 34-year-old woman who is thrilled to be single, the proud aunt of two nephews & a niece, and a dog mom to a French Bulldog named Frankie. She is a creative, a question-asker, an Enneagram 8w9, and a lover of all the animals. A lifelong church girl, Kelly spent 30+ years in conservative evangelicalism, but is now a member of the Episcopal Church. She was confirmed in 2020. Kelly has researched, developed, written, and taught multiple series in adult spiritual formation at her church, as well as on her blog, Let It Matter, and has contributed to the Advent devotional series for Now She Rises. She has been a guest on multiple podcasts and featured in other media discussing the topics of singleness, sexual ethics, the Bible, and relationships. Kelly joined the WDWGFH team in July 2022.