Latest / HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN® / From Streets to the Sanctuary: Special Guest Author: Gerrie Rosecki

Transcript

From Streets to the Sanctuary: Special Guest Author: Gerrie Rosecki · HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN®

• 0:06
  Welcome to Have Faith, Let It Begin. This is Ariel Santana.
• 0:10
  Can you believe I'm seven years old already? I'm old enough now to introduce my dad.
• 0:16
  Ladies and gentlemen, your host, my dad, Angel Santana.
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  Two thousand came and the spark was lit. A testimony raw, it wouldn't quit.
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  His mother's voice said.
• 0:56
  Hello, everyone, and welcome to Have Faith, Let It Begin. I am your host,
• 1:00
  Angel Santana, and this podcast is all about real-life stories, real stories,
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  real people, and real faith, because life doesn't come with a script,
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  but faith gives us a way forward.
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  Whether you're driving to work, sitting in a quiet moment, or just trying to
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  get through the day, I want you to know this, you're not alone.
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  And your story is being written.
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  Today's episode is a reminder that no matter how far life takes you,
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  grace can still reach you.
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  Today, I have the honor of welcoming Jerry, and I'm gonna try and say the last
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  name right. I should have asked her, Rosecki.
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  I know it probably messed it up, but did I get it wrong? You got it perfect.
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  Rosecki, to the show. Jerry is the author of,
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  From the Streets to the Sanctuary, a deeply moving memoir that tells the story
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  of transformation, redemption, and the power of faith.
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  In her book that I have been so eager to share with all of you,
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  but I have finally read it, Jerry shares her journey from a young girl who found
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  comfort in the church to a life pulled into addiction,
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  trauma, and the struggles of the streets.
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  She speaks openly about her battles with
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  alcohol and drug dependency the painful
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  choices she faced and the distance that grew between
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  her and her children but her story doesn't
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  end there through faith resilience and god's grace
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  jerry found her way back back to healing back to purpose back to the sanctuary
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  today here on half faith let it begin she joins us not just as an author but
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  as a testimony of what redemption really sounds and looks like.
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  Jerry, welcome to Have Faith, Let It Begin.
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  Jerry, your story is powerful, and I am really grateful that you're here to share it with us.
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  Thank you, sir. God be the glory.
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  I thank God that I am a living testimony, first and foremost.
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  And I've never, I always, when somebody asks me to do something,
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  especially for the kingdom and share, I always say yes, you know, because God is good.
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  That's all I can say. He's merciful.
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  And thank you for having me. And it's a blessing because we met each other at
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  my job over the phone and we just, it connected and little did I know I'm speaking
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  to an author of an amazing book.
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  So without further ado, let's get right into it. Take us back.
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  If I may, Jerry, take us back for a moment. What was it like before things began to change for you?
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  You mean during the addiction? Yes. Okay.
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  Well, I was all I could, the beginning of my life, I can remember at three years old.
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  I don't remember the day before. You know, I remember the day we came to our
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  foster home, which was in the Hall family's house.
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  I was three years old. I can remember that day distinctly, but I cannot remember
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  the day before. I don't even remember the car ride there with the CPS worker.
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  Because I've learned that God will keep you from trauma.
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  And my life was good. You know, the foster home we went in was the very first
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  foster home and the last one because my sister and I got adopted by the Hall family.
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  They were church-going people. It was Mr.
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  Hall, Thomas Hall, and his wife, Sarah, and they were church-goers,
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  and that's where I learned to serve and just, I learned, I built my relationship
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  with God, and I remember I fell in love with God as a little girl.
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  I love the Lord. I used to love to go to church, Sunday school.
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  You know, the after school stuff, the vacation Bible school.
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  You know, even I remember at seven is when I gave my life to Christ,
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  you know, and my foster mother, let's go back, Miss Sarah, she passed that five years when I was five.
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  But Mr. Hall kept my sister and I. But I remember there was like six or seven
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  other foster kids in the house, but they got taken to other homes because they
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  knew the halls had started the adoption process for my sister and I.
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  So come to find out, CPS will let a single parent adopt.
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  So my sister and I stayed there. It was a big, beautiful craftsman home.
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  You know, we were, he put us in private school, St. Francis in Newburgh.
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  And I mean, my childhood was good. We went down south in the summer.
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  You know, it was just good. I remember a lot. And I do remember things,
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  though, where he did marry this one lady because he kept saying we needed a mother.
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  And I was like, we don't need a mom because we got all our aunts, your sisters.
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  And that's why you have to be careful who you bring around your children.
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  You have to be careful. You really need to know who it is you're inviting into
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  your home, who you start to build a bond with.
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  Because not only was this lady mean and nasty, her children,
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  son and daughter, was the first ones to molest me and sodomize me at eight years old.
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  So this is where my outward bubbliness, this is where I started going into a shell.
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  And part of me still loved and trusted people, but part of me...
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  Was being chipped away, you know, those things I was experiencing.
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  But I can always look back and say I still always had a genuine love for people.
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  The enemy tried to take that because I know now my ministry is people.
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  I don't care if it's elderly, like I'm in the autism field now.
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  I was a drug and alcohol counselor.
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  Everything I did was always human services, you know, and And even now to this
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  day, I'll see somebody and I'll just have like, I'll feel they need something. I don't care.
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  I'll go to the store, buy them something. I cook food, take it in the street.
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  But, you know, I just love God because when the enemy think that he got you
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  and he'll take that, God will shield and keep you from that.
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  And I thank God through it all. He didn't allow me to become bitter and don't want to serve.
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  I want to serve God even more now because of my experience, strength and hope.
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  You know what I'm saying? I do.
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  Was there a moment where, you know, because I don't want to,
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  I want everybody to read this book, right?
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  But was there a moment, even if we fast forward a little bit,
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  we'll go back and forth, of course. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. Was there a moment?
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  No, no, no, you're doing great. This is great. I'm just, I'm thinking you got
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  me, you know, it's funny because I got to hear your voice.
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  So as I'm reading the book, now I'm going to read it again because I can add
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  your voice to it, you know?
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  But was there a moment, would you say, where you said, I can't keep doing or keep going like this?
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  Yes. I remember...
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  Like when I was 13 to 14, when I just started smoking marijuana and drinking,
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  like on the weekends with my friends.
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  And I knew that wasn't me, but I'm like, oh, just a little, you know.
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  But then when I got addicted to cocaine and crack, I knew that was not me.
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  And then when I turned to a prostitute out there on the streets,
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  walking down there at 3, 4 o'clock in the morning in the city of Newburgh and
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  on my knees and my back saying yes when I wanted to say no.
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  I knew that was not it for me.
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  I always had that hope. And I would see some of the young ladies that was out
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  there with me, as we called it, on the host row, just didn't care, just hopelessness.
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  And I always was bubbly. And they would just tell me, get away from me,
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  get away from me, get away from me.
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  But I just like I would laugh even when we were like feeding it for a crack
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  or whatever. I always had this, my light was shining as I look back now.
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  You know what I'm saying?
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  But I knew that wasn't it for me. I knew it wasn't it for me.
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  They were like, oh, I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to commit suicide.
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  I was like, no, deep down. And then I would walk past churches two, three in the morning.
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  I would hold on to the gates and just pray, saying, God, I know this ain't it for me.
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  Lord, whatever you're going to do, Lord, whatever you do, don't take your grace
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  and mercy from me. God, just keep me, Lord Jesus.
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  And then one of the men that were one of my good customers.
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  God touched his heart and he took me from a, you know, from homelessness to a home overnight.
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  I don't know what the old school mothers be talking like overnight turnaround.
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  And yeah, God bless me. I'm telling you, I just, I knew that wasn't it for me.
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  I knew down deep, deep in my Noah, like they say, you know, when you know what,
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  you know, cause I had that hope.
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  I had my faith. It was my faith that kept me.
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  You know? It's so interesting. It's so interesting. You brought that up because
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  one of the things I was going to say, which you already touched based on was
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  I was going to say, what did you feel like emotionally?
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  And you just expressed that. And then I was going to say next,
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  I was going to say in the middle of all that, where was God for you?
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  So I'm going to give you a two-part question. I'll let you answer that anyway,
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  even though you kind of touched base on it.
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  But in the middle of all that you're going through, where was God for you?
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  And did you feel distant from him looking back now?
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  Could you see him in moments that you couldn't back then?
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  Yeah, because I know he never left me. I left him.
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  But I could see where his hand was always on me because there was times I got in cars,
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  in drug bid dens where things happened, shootouts, police kicking down doors,
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  and I either just left or was getting ready to go, didn't get caught in it.
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  And I was, pardon me, oh, thank you, God, for bringing this up. Pardon me.
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  When I was really getting high at my lowest, I was angry with God.
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  One day it hit me, I said, I'm angry with you.
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  You allowed my father to die and things and things, you know,
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  and I was angry, but I knew deep down that was just an emotion.
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  Because I always felt his presence. You know what I'm saying?
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  Because I'm telling you, I have been in some things. I shouldn't even be here.
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  I have slept with some men. I should have AIDS and stuff, and I don't. You know, I was, yeah.
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  Yeah, he has always been there, even though I felt so distant from him.
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  Because if I look back at my darkest life, it's like you're down this deep hole,
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  and the light is way there. and it's like you move, like you're running and
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  you just can't get to the light, but you see it, but you can't.
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  But yeah, I remember those times. Yeah.
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  And I appreciate you sharing that. I know it can get, you know,
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  it's always hard to go back.
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  Right. But now that you're on the other side of that journey,
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  what did coming back to faith actually look like for you and what changed first
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  your mindset, your environment, your relationships?
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  What would you say to someone listening who feels too far gone about how they
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  can relate to this book, because let's, let's, let's be honest,
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  you know, in this book, there's a lot of things that maybe someone will say,
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  well, I don't, I've never lived that life.
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  However, the reality is, is that you were far from him, meaning God, but what got you back?
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  And you know, what was the thing that put you back with your faith?
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  And how did that look for you?
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  Yeah. Okay. When there was another young lady out there, we would sit,
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  when the money was slow, whatever, we would sit there and sing church songs together.
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  And we would always say, oh, I'll be like, one day I'm going to be out of here.
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  I'm going to have a house or whatever.
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  So when God sent me, my husband, I call him Boaz, because Boaz comes to the store.
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  My family always wanted me around, but I was so just shamed,
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  just, you know what I'm saying, guilt and shame.
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  I never wanted to come around. My family And they was like, we're praying for you.
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  And stuff, you know what I'm saying? But when I, I remember a couple of times
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  I went to the hospital saying, oh, I'm suicidal and we'll go on the mental wards,
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  but I would be always praying.
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  But when I got, when my husband got me out the streets and into a home,
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  I was like, God, I don't want to go back out there.
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  Lord, I know you're real. And I tried, you know, I started going to church once
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  a month or whatever, but I always prayed, I always believed.
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  My husband come from a Catholic background. I'm from a Baptist background.
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  And you know what I'm saying? We didn't go to church a lot.
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  He didn't go to church with me for a while, but I would go once in a while with my aunt and stuff.
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  And yes, I would relapse every three or four months or whatever,
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  but my faith started getting stronger and stronger and stronger because I knew
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  who he was because God was always real to me, you know?
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  And that's when I was like, you know what? He didn't bring you this far,
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  Jerry, for you to go back, you know?
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  Because mind you, my husband and I, we weren't married yet.
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  We didn't get married till like eight years after we moved in the house.
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  But then when I started going to church and I had Joe Jr.
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  And getting in my faith, I told him, even though the house was nice and all,
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  I told him one day, I said, listen, we've been together eight, nine years living here.
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  I can't keep living like this. I said, either you're going to marry me or I'm going to have to move.
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  He said, oh, you got the world in your hands and don't even know it.
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  I said, that means nothing because I'm not honoring God living here I'm married.
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  I guess he was looking at me like, you know, how dare she honored this.
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  I have to remind him, it wasn't you. It was your resources, but it was God that did it.
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  You know, and that's when he said, I'll marry you. You know,
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  and we got engaged, we got married, and he started coming to church, my son and I.
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  And he comes to church every Sunday with me now. And, you know. Amen. Yeah.
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  That's a blessing. Yeah. Well, you know, let me, here's what we're going to do.
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  You know, as I tell the Faith Let It Begin family, having Jerry on here is not an accident.
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  Okay this is what God does he puts people in the right place at the right time,
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  Have Faith Let It Begin is going to purchase a book and we're going to give
• 15:02
  out some books so we're going to purchase some books and if you would like to get a book.
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  And please all you have to do is write to me angel at havefaithletitbegin.com
• 15:13
  and let me know what you got out of today's episode then I'm going to forward
• 15:18
  this over to Jerry I'm going to purchase some books I'll have her sign them,
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  And we'll get them out to you because I want to give those out and I would like
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  to help you as well on your journey.
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  We'd like to just put a side note as we close out today's episode.
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  Number one, we want to get you back on here again.
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  I know that you have more to say and I want to get people- My second book is coming.
• 15:39
  That's exactly what I was going to say. I was going to say, we're going to pitch
• 15:42
  that second book that's coming out.
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  But I would like to say this, your husband, Joseph, was just hospitalized and
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  we are going to definitely put him in prayer. So all my half faith,
• 15:53
  let it begin prayer warriors.
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  Let's put Joseph as well as Jerry on your prayer requests and lists.
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  Let me close out this show this way.
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  You know, listening to Jerry's story, one thing stands out to me.
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  No matter how far life takes us, no matter how broken things may feel, God never lets go.
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  Sometimes we walk away. Sometimes we get lost. Sometimes we make choices we wish we could undo.
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  Grace, but grace doesn't run out.
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  So as we pray together, we say, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the moment.
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  We thank you for Jerry's story. We thank you for her honesty,
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  her courage, and her willingness to share what you've done in her life.
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  Lord, for anyone listening right now who feels lost, who feels too far gone,
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  remind them that they are not beyond your reach.
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  Meet them right where they are. Restore them.
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  Restore what's been broken. And lead them back home one step at a time.
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  We trust in you, Lord. In Jesus' name that we say, amen.
• 17:02
  Amen. Jerry, you are a pleasure to be on. What is the next title of your book?
• 17:07
  Just Jerry. And I'm going to tell you why that, because it's weird.
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  I said, God, what's the next book? He said, Just Jerry.
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  I said, God, why Just Jerry? He said, I want you to talk about when you first came to your church.
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  And my pastor said, oh, you're Minister Jerry. And I said, no, just Jerry.
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  So God want me to talk about the title, how some people are too busy looking
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  for a title when he can use you just as you are.
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  God bless you. Well, you're an honor. It's an honor to have you on my show, on our show.
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  We want to thank you for being here. I want to thank you for joining us today
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  on the Half Faith Let It Begin podcast. If this episode spoke to you,
• 17:45
  share it with someone who might need to hear this message.
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  Remember, your past does not define you. Your faith does.
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  Until next time, God bless you. God be with you. And never forget to have faith and let it begin.
• 18:00
  Thank you, Jerry. God bless you. Amen. Bless you. Bless you. Amen.