In this episode of the Pay Love Forward Podcast, Dr. Matthew Leavenworth sits down with Penny Ronning, a nationally recognized advocate whose life’s work has helped shape Montana’s response to human trafficking and sexual violence through survivor-centered policy, public safety, and moral leadership.

Rooted in Pay Love Forward’s mission to build compassionate communities for the at-risk and underserved, this conversation moves beyond credentials and into the deeper question Penny returns to again and again: who we are as a moral people. What began with notes and an outline quickly became nearly three hours of honest, grounded dialogue about story, voice, and responsibility.

Together, Penny and Matthew explore how story transforms, how truth can be carried without turning suffering into spectacle, and how a steady, courageous voice can heal the divide that fear and hate keep alive. This episode is not only about what Penny has done, but about the kind of people we are called to be when dignity, courage, and compassion become our measure.

In this episode, I sit down with my dear friend and longtime climbing partner, Alex Saunders. Over the years, Alex and I haveshared ropes and storms, long runouts and longer conversations. We’ve stood together on ledges halfway up the world, and we’ve stood beside each other as best men at our weddings. Our lives have been braided together by miles ofgranite and sandstone and years of trust.

We talk about big walls like The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley and the Northwest Regular on Half Dome, including our climb on Half Dome after the 2014 rockfall, when we became the first team to cross the new blank section with a lasso toss and help piece the route back together.

But the real story isn’t simply about climbing. It’s about what the mountains revealed, and what friendship had to carry.

At Pay Love Forward, we believe that telling the story within the story is a mechanism for healing. This conversation includes descriptions of trauma, addiction, and witnessing death. These were moments that shaped us and who we havebecome. When we tell them truthfully, they help us recognizeone another’s humanity, and they turn isolation into community.

This episode is about a friendship that refuses to let go and about the mountains that keep calling us back.

My name is Dr. Matthew Leavenworth, founder and director of Pay Love Forward.

This episode was recorded live during a Zoom meeting with small group leaders at Harvest Church on December 21, 2025.Over the past six months, pastor Alex Falder and I have been working with the small group leaders on how story shapes community while taking them through our certification in Mentoring, Coaching, and Leadership Development.

For Alex and I, leadership means going first. During the last session, Alex shared his testimony. This is mine. It is a personal account of where I came from and how I got here. I talked about growing up in and around the church, losing my way, my battle with mental health and addiction, and the long stretch ofdarkness that followed. I talked about the things that kept me tethered to my humanity when I might have otherwise drifted away. I talked about my son’s battle with cancer and the traumatic brain injury I suffered at 37. Ultimately, I talked about what finally allowed to surrender my life to Christ.

This testimony was clipped from a longer discussion. Present were the Harvest small group leaders, my parents, and two people I care very deeply about, Coul Hill and Tammy Zemliska.

Thank you for your support. It meant more than you know.

In this episode, I sat down with Russ Cleveland, who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives. And before long, his wife Kate joined us. What unfolded was not a political conversation, but a human one.

Russ and Kate shared how their story began, long before policy or campaigns, when two fourteen-year-olds met on twoboats off the coast of Washington and began a love story that would one day carry them through the unimaginable.

We traced Russ’s own journey: from an injury that ended his military career and a cross-country bike ride for childhood health, to cofounding Rocky Mountain Kids. And now, to returning to his Montana roots with a renewed sense of purpose, carrying forward the lessons forged in both love and loss.

We spoke about their daughter Madison, about her battle with leukemia, and about the devastation of the loss that has now become their purpose for fighting for those who are still fighting silent battles in hospital rooms across our country as our nation turns its back on them.

We talked about the research that saved my son Gentry’s life — research that is now being cut. We talked about how it feels to raise an immunocompromised child in a world where preventable illnesses like the measles and whooping cough are returning, and how families like ours are navigating dangers most people never have to think about.

There is a campaign behind this, and the stakes are incredibly high in a political climate that is becoming more divisive by the day. But beneath all of that, this is a conversation about how our children become our why — even in pain and loss.

This podcast is dedicated to four remarkable children: Cole, Madison, Ally, and my son, Gentry.

Your struggle was valiant, and your story will not be forgotten, even for those who are not with us now. We will carry you with us always.

I am personally asking you to share this episode. Russ and Kate’s story carries something we cannot afford to lose. We must return humanity and compassion to politics, and that happens when we lift up the human story before we debate the political one.

🎧 Available onSpotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube
🌐 www.payloveforward.net
🌐 www.resilientstories.com

In this episode of the Pay Love Forward Podcast, I sit down with my father, Dr. Paul Leavenworth, founder of the Center for Mentoring, Coaching, and Leadership Development. His work represents the culmination of a lifetime devoted to leadership, transformation, and the building of compassionate communities.

Together, we trace the story of how the Center was born and explore what it means to lead in a way that multiplies love. We talk about transformation, the death and rebirth that shape every life of purpose, and the moment when two rivers that once ran separately finally converge.

Fresh off trainings with School District Two and Harvest Church, we are bringing compassionate listening to the Billings community, helping leaders, mentors, and neighbors rediscover the healing power of presence. In a world that feels sick, fractured, and forgetful of how to listen, this practice may be one of the few remaining pathways to connection and renewal.

After walking separate paths of loss and growth, my father and I now share a stage, standing side by side in a work that has reshaped us both. It is a story of faith, transformation, and the return to something true.

The world needs better stories. This is one of them.

🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
🌐 www.payloveforward.net🌐 www.resilientstories.com

In this episode of the Pay Love Forward Podcast, I sit down with my mother, Leslie Leavenworth, an award-winning watercolor artist whose work captures both the beauty of the world around her and the sacred interior landscape within.

Our conversation traces the arc of her creative journey, from the docks of the James River where she first painted beside her father, to the long season of quiet sacrifice while raising her family, and finally to her return to painting as vocation and spiritual practice. We talk about art, family, and faith, the three threads that have always been woven through her life and her work.

It is, at heart, a conversation about joy: where it hides, how it waits, and how it comes alive again through color, love, and perseverance.

At Pay Love Forward, we believe the world needs better stories. This is one of them.

To see Leslie's work, visit her webpage at Leslie Leavenworth Fine Art

🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
🌐 www.payloveforward.net

🌐 https://resilientstories.com/

In this episode, Dr. Matthew Leavenworth sits down with Dr. Bob Wilmouth, physician, educator, and president of Rocky Mountain College. His journey from heart surgery to higher education reveals what leadership looks like when it is rooted in love, humility, and service to others.

Dr. Wilmouth often says that leadership is more difficult than heart surgery and that ninety percent of life is showing up. Across decades of service, he has done exactly that—with faith, presence, and a deep commitment to prepare the ground for those who will come after.

The conversation traces the arc of his life, exploring medicine and mentorship, leadership and legacy, and the quiet strength that defines a life lived in service to something larger than itself. It is a reminder that we are all in this together, and that leadership, at its best, is an act of service.

Welcome to the Pay Love Forward Podcast.
My name is Dr. Matthew Leavenworth, founder and director of Pay Love Forward. This series focuses on telling stories of our unsung heroes unfolding in the great state of Montana.
At Pay Love Forward, our mission is to build compassionate communities for the at-risk and underserved through mentorship. This podcast is one way we live out that mission.

In this episode — Part Two of “Loving from the Sidelines” — we turn from Mitch Bohn’s vision for inclusion to the life story that forged it. Mitch, advocate, storyteller, and founder of Access Billings, shares what it was like growing up with spina bifida, the mentors who shaped his confidence, and the people who carried him through more than thirty surgeries.

We also talk about his why — what kept him resilient through pain, adversity, and doubt — and how his love for people and purpose became the foundation for everything he’s built.
Our conversation also touched something deeply personal for me — our shared experience of spending long seasons in the hospital: Mitch through his surgeries, and me walking beside my son through leukemia. Together we reflected on the medical professionals who served us with tireless compassion, and how those moments of care became turning points in both our lives.

This is a conversation about perseverance, identity, and the quiet grace that comes from loving life — and others — despite hardship.
It’s my deepest honor to share Mitch’s story. The world needs better stories — and Loving from the Sidelines is one of them.