A gentle ministry for life’s hardest seasons.
Begin Again Living Ministries exists to walk alongside individuals and families navigating grief, caregiving, serious illness, hospice, spiritual discouragement, and life’s difficult transitions.
We believe beginning again does not always mean starting over. Sometimes it means discovering how to live forward when life has changed.
Through compassionate support, spiritual care, education, practical resources, and meaningful conversation, BALM helps people find hope, understanding, and a way forward — one step at a time.
It started with a gift — and a decision to give back.
The vision for Begin Again Living Ministries began years before the organization itself.
In 1997, Derrick Hall began carrying a vision for a ministry dedicated to helping and supporting people through difficult seasons of life. For years, that vision remained something he hoped one day to bring to life.
Then, in 2005, while performing at a church concert, Derrick and his family were invited to lunch. During that gathering, he was unexpectedly presented with a check for $2,000.
Derrick could have treated the money simply as compensation for his music or used it for something personal. Instead, he remembered the ministry vision he had been carrying since 1997.
That $2,000 became the seed that helped turn the vision into reality.
In February 2006, Derrick filed to establish Begin Again Living Ministries as a nonprofit.
What began as a vision years earlier had now become a ministry.
From meeting needs to walking through life's hardest seasons.
The mission grew, but the heart remained the same.
In its early years, Begin Again Living Ministries used donations to help individuals facing practical hardships — including groceries, utilities, and other immediate needs.
As Derrick’s work in hospice deepened, he continued encountering patients, caregivers, grieving families, and people trying to make sense of lives that had suddenly changed. That experience helped further shape and focus the ministry’s work with serious illness, caregiving, hospice, grief, spiritual care, and difficult life transitions.
And the words Begin Again took on an even deeper meaning.
- Beginning again could mean finding strength while caring for someone you love.
- Beginning again could mean navigating a serious diagnosis.
- Beginning again could mean learning how to be present during hospice.
- Beginning again could mean waking up after the death of someone you love and wondering how life continues.
The ministry’s work became more focused, but its original purpose never disappeared:
Help people find hope and a way forward when life changes.
What Begin Again means.
Beginning again does not mean forgetting what happened.
It does not mean pretending everything is okay.
And it does not mean leaving behind the people or experiences that have shaped your life.
Sometimes beginning again simply means taking the next step — with support, faith, understanding, and hope.
That is the space Begin Again Living Ministries seeks to provide.
Compassion led by faith. Care led by listening.
Compassion First
We meet people where they are. We listen before we speak, honor each person's story, and offer compassionate presence without rushing the journey.
Christ-Centered Hope
Our ministry is rooted in the love of Christ and shaped by grace, prayer, Scripture, compassion, and hope.
Whole-Person Care
We recognize that difficult seasons affect the emotional, spiritual, relational, and practical dimensions of life. Our approach honors the whole person and the whole story.
Practical Support
Compassion should have hands and feet. Whether through education, resources, spiritual care, workshops, grief support, or community outreach, we seek to turn caring into meaningful action.
The same heart. A wider reach.
Today, Begin Again Living Ministries continues that original commitment through compassionate support, grief and caregiver resources, spiritual care, educational programs, workshops, publishing, and professional training.
BALM also serves as the publishing and educational ministry through which Derrick Hall’s books and educational resources are made available, including the From Diagnosis to Goodbye Educational Platform — developed to help individuals, families, caregivers, churches, hospice organizations, and healthcare professionals navigate serious illness, caregiving, hospice, grief, and meaningful conversations with greater compassion and understanding.
Ministry shaped at the bedside.
Derrick Hall brings years of ministry and hospice experience to his work with patients, families, caregivers, grieving individuals, churches, and healthcare communities.
His work is shaped not only by what he teaches, but by what he has witnessed — at bedsides, in conversations with families, through grief, and in the sacred moments when people need someone willing to listen and remain present.
He is the founder of Begin Again Living Ministries and the author and creator of the From Diagnosis to Goodbye Educational Platform.
The heart hasn’t changed.
Begin Again Living Ministries has grown considerably since that first $2,000 gift.
But the heart of the ministry remains the same: helping people when they need somewhere to turn and reminding them that life’s hardest chapter does not have to be the last word.
Walking with you, one step at a time.
However life has changed, you do not have to find your way forward alone.
There is still life ahead. There is still hope. And there is still a place to begin again.
Begin Again Living Ministries is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing faith-based encouragement, grief support, spiritual care resources, and community support.