Counting the Cost
Conference 2026

Kelly holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Winthrop University. Through years of hands-on ministry, Kelly recognized a significant pattern among those she served — many were survivors of organized abuse and trafficking, often presenting with dissociative identity disorder and complex trauma histories. This exposure led her to pursue advanced training and specialized education with experienced professionals in the field.

In response to critical gaps in survivor care, Kelly founded Warrior Bride Ministries to provide safe, informed, and comprehensive support for survivors who often fall outside the scope of traditional services. Under her leadership, the ministry provides donation-based services, education, and hands-on care, while also equipping churches, ministries, and safe houses to respond effectively.

Kelly advances this mission through strategic ministry partnerships, hosting the annual Counting the Cost Conference, and delivering specialized trainings. Her heart's cry is rooted in Isaiah 61 — to see believers equipped to bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom to the captives, and walk with survivors toward lasting restoration.

Roly And Amanda Buys “The LORD has blessed Amanda Buys with revelation and insight to achieve this lifestyle of victory in Messiah through practical experience, coming face to face with the reasons for failure of victorious living, and through extensive and intensive research, the result of which is the Journey2Freedom and Journey2Wholeness series’, as well as our advanced training courses. She has just completed a very intensive course to train up counsellors in prayer counselling called ACTS – Advanced Counselling Training School.“

Amanda’s story … I was born in Port Shepstone, Natal, into a family of five children, of which I was the fourth. Growing up in a dysfunctional and alcoholic home was not easy, but the LORD has used that childhood pain in my own life to bring healing and understanding to others … as well as restoration. All things work for the good! After completing high school, I studied a B.Sc. degree at the University of Pretoria. I then worked full time as a teacher at a high school for the next three years. During that time, I met and married Roly, and by GOD’s Grace we are on our way of been married for more than forty years!

Amanda also has a heart to restore South Africa’s First Peoples, the Foundation Nation, also known as the Khoi. We give ABBA FATHER all the Glory for the Godly network He has formed and the precious friendships that have followed based upon the completed work of His Son, Y’shua (Jesus) our Messiah!

She has spent more than 30 years looking for techniques that work to bring healing to spirit, soul and body Dr. Robin is passionate about educating people in holistic wellness, understanding ourselves from a quantum energy perspective, learning how to live a life of thriving and fulfilling our destiny. Daily, she helps people release blocks to having all they desire, ultimately to living a life of peace and joy.

Dr. Robin is the author of Living Like a Son: Releasing Blocks to Truly Knowing a Loving Father God: Thrive: Applying Biblical and Quantum Energy Principles to live a transformed life; A believer’s Guide to the Law of Attraction; 30 days to peace and joy, and Journey through the storm, overcoming the pain of your husband’s sex/porn addiction. She also has specialized experience in sex addiction, SRA/DID, and eating disorders. Dr. Robin has had a thriving private practice for the past 13 years in, TX and virtually all over the world. She is the mom of four amazing girls and 3 grandsons. She travels to speak, do retreats and live trainings and believes in empowering healers to be more effective with this modality. She loves collaborating with other like-minded healers and believes in the synergy of different giftings and anointings.

Dr. Robin also has a non-profit ministry called, Thrive Holistic Healing Ministries. This 508C1A helps fund therapy for survivors of trafficking and Ritual Abuse, train practitioners in her modality who work with this traumatized population and support orphans in third world countries who are vulnerable to being trafficked.

Vicki Joy was born with a craniofacial deformity called Hypertelorism and as a result had dozens of reconstructive surgeries on her face from 10-days old until she was 15. The surgical procedures, bone and skin grafts, scarring, and as a result, the bullying from peers created a vicious circle of PTSD, trauma, anxiety, and depression that also brought on a 4-decade-long struggle with sleep paralysis, nightmares, and astral abductions. Vicki Joy currently writes for Real Dark News.com and L.A. Marzulli’s Politics, Prophecy, and the Supernatural magazine, as well as writing books and articles on apologetics, poetry, and fringe topics. Vicki Joy’s latest book, “They Only Come Out at Night: Exposing the Dark Weapon of Sleep Paralysis” is available now on lamarzulli.net

Dr. William J. Hurst, B.Th., M.Th. D.Ths. Ph.D., D-C.P.C., D.P.C.(H), D.D.(H)

In 1981 he established and operated Kingdom Seed Ministry, a religious organization for the establishing of churches and other ministries. He operated it for twenty years, until he released its leadership to others in 2001. He has traveled overseas to Asia, Africa, India and Central America and has a specific ministry to people in leadership.

From 1990 - 2002, Dr. Hurst taught at Canada Christian College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he was the Dean of Leadership. He holds doctorate in Theology from Canada Christian College and received his Ph. D, in Christian Education, from Shalom Bible College and Seminary in Des Moines, Iowa. He is also a psychotherapist holding his Diplomate of Certified Pastoral Counseling certificate. He was honored by his peers in 2006 with an honorary Doctor of Pastoral Counseling from Canadian Seminary. In 2011 He was honored again by his peers with a Doctor of Divinity from The Canadian Christian Clinical Counsellors Association, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. For several of its formative years, he was the Head of the Theological Studies for Zion College which is the correspondence degree program for Zion Ministerial Institute in Waverly, New York, USA.

Dr. Hurst has developed over 60 courses and curriculum at the college level, covering subjects relating to the needs, function, and development of integrity of character in leadership. Several of these courses are in use in other colleges. The material for these courses is drawn from research into the lives of Biblical leaders, following the processes they went through on their way to becoming leaders of stature. He has also drawn from the wealth of personal experience in relating to and counseling leaders through crisis situations, over the years.

Because of his involvement with Canada Christian College, as the Dean of Leadership there, he has done extensive counseling to leaders in both personal and congregational matters. Out of that counseling experience he has developed several counseling courses from unique Biblical perspectives. These delineate the makeup of man, helping the student understand the reasons people function the way they do.

Through the years of working with congregations and leaders, Dr. Hurst has learned much about the care and restoration of leaders. Dr. Hurst’s vision is to build in people’s lives, encouraging them in what they perceive is God’s call and purpose for their life. He has ministered to many whom the church at large has rejected, and seen lives changed and restored through counsel and ministry.

By seeing in men and women God’s purpose for the individual, he calls forth the precious from the vile, by focusing on the positive in their lives, and their potential. (Jeremiah 15:19), He has been allowed to be a repair breaches or separations in relationships in both the family and church relationships, by taking this approach (Isaiah 58:12)

Although currently living in the United States, as a Canadian, he still has some involvement in the lives of some of his former students. He serves as Senior Overseeing Ministry for His Banqueting Table, a fellowship with a Bible school, which is based in Toronto, Ontario, and functions in the capacity of an overseer to a number of congregations and ministries throughout Canada and internationally.

He pastored in Watertown, NY for three and a half years before the man he was training assumed that position. He continues to relate to that assembly.

In September of 2007 he was installed as president of The Institute for Strategic Christian Leadership. He is currently restructuring both the administration, and the education arms of the Institute. Since taking office he has helped one church structure their training program so that ISCL can lawfully grant degrees to the students that apply.

Because the College organization is sound, he is endeavoring to create an atmosphere and organization, where those who are wounded in spirit and soul can be restored, as well as trained to reintegrate, after their healing, into community life and ministry. In progressing toward these goals he is selecting a mobile staff, preparing programs in a multitude of areas including restoration and counseling, along with ministry and theological courses. Also included in the restructuring the administration are aspects of consulting for the setting up in local assemblies the ability to train their own leaders with quality and according to their vision. This consulting include the ability to train the local leaders to fully develop a school including curriculum, grading structure, administrative counsel depending on the vision and purpose of the local church for a school. Every avenue of education can be covered from home schooling through to full degree granting schools.

Dr Hurst has taught school at the elementary level as well as overseen groups of home school programs, and written courses for all levels.

Dr Hurst now travels throughout the Body of Christ, setting up training programs that will instill the unique vision of that local church in the leadership, so that the spiritual DNA of the assembly can cause them to produce in the light of that vision. He also ministers in seminars, class courses in modular form, and regular services.

The main office for ISCL remains in GA.

Dr. Hurst can be reached at the address below for meetings, seminars, teaching modules and information.

Currently Dr. Hurst and his wife Eleanore are associates with Dr. Edward Bez at Christ The Messiah Church in Jacksonville, Fl., as well as on traveling in ministry.

The Institute for Strategic Christian Leadership c/o Dr. Wm. J. Hurst, 3209 Mountain Ash Rd. S. Jacksonville, FL. 32223

Today, she stands as a passionate abolitionist, fearlessly exposing the hidden realities of global sex trafficking and mind control.

Holding a bachelor's degree in psychology, graduate studies in Human Relations, and a Theology degree with ordination, Hope combines academic insight with spiritual depth. As an author, public speaker, and founder of HBG International, she is dedicated to educating and empowering others to pursue justice and freedom for the oppressed.

Hope is often featured on popular podcasts such as The Confessionals and Discovering Truth, with Dan Duval, where she offers practical guidance on recognizing and responding to modern-day slavery. She also sheds light on systemic manipulation and control, helping others discern truth and find liberation.

Her message has transformed lives and brought hope to countless survivors and advocates worldwide. Hope currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband. Her powerful book, To Tell the Truth, is available on Amazon.

Diane has continued to further develop this ministry following the homegoing of her husband in 2010. Tom and Diane conducted training seminars on four continents of the globe, and their broad range of educational materials have reached into over 50 countries. Diane has authored several books, continues to write cutting edge ministry materials, and teaches a Survivors’ School of Healing and the RCM DID Training Program for counselors and therapists.

Diane has a real teaching gift and heart for trauma survivors that comes out of her own personal experience of major childhood trauma. After being diagnosed with DID/RA in the late 1980s, Diane spent many frustrating and unsuccessful years seeking healing for herself from seemingly qualified professionals. Finally, she and Tom set out on a mission to seek for themselves healing principles that really worked. The critical pieces that they learned in this pursuit led to Diane’s achievement of complete wholeness from her dissociation in 2011. Diane now passionately teaches these principles to others.

Tom and Diane Hawkins are perhaps most known for the Primary Identity Approach that they developed for resolving Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), which can result from severe, early childhood trauma. By identifying and focusing healing on the primary identities, this approach seems to bring much more efficient healing than the more pain-staking, traditional methodology focusing on each alter-identity. Through her gift of discernment, God has taught Diane many spiritual insights, which she has written into specific renunciations that have become effective tools in releasing ritual abuse survivors from their complex bondages.