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Maureen Silveyra: Do You Know Jesus · Why I Believe

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome back to Why I Believe.
• 0:03
  I'm your host, Michelle Von Ruden, and today I have Maureen Salveda with me.
• 0:07
  How are you today, Maureen?
• 0:09
  I'm doing well, thank you.
• 0:10
  Thanks for having me here.
• 0:12
  Yes, absolutely.
• 0:13
  Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
• 0:15
  Yep, I am an author, a homeschool mom this year that will probably be changing this next year.
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  Working on building a business and a ministry around speaking and faith speaking and leadership development.
• 0:32
  And I really have a passion for developing people into the gifts and skills that that God's given them.
• 0:40
  that's beautiful.
• 0:41
  And how many kids do you have?
• 0:42
  How many are you homeschooling?
• 0:43
  Okay.
• 0:49
  One in my home school, I got it.
• 0:51
  Awesome.
• 0:52
  Well, yeah.
• 0:53
  So uh you're also an author of a Bible study, right?
• 0:57
  You host the Bible study ah called Managing Your Peace.
• 1:02
  Right, I finished that last year.
• 1:05
  It was a longer project than I anticipated.
• 1:08
  So I'm excited to get that information out there because I really, you know, I've seen that during this time that we're living in, it's really easy to not be at peace in the
• 1:21
  world.
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  And as I was working with a group of youth, I saw in the church, I saw that they were really uncomfortable being around each other.
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  uncomfortable being there and there was so much unrest in their hearts that I was wondering what message needed to be brought to them, uh what was quite, what was wrong
• 1:42
  with that and how we could bring the peace of God into their lives and teach them how to walk in the peace of God.
• 1:49
  So that's where really the inspiration for that Bible study came about.
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  So if you could, I know it's going to be hard, but I'm going to ask you anyway, if you could summarize in like one or two sentences, how do we get that piece and then manage it?
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  What would you say?
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  I would say firstly that it is God gives us peace.
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  Jesus is the Prince of Peace.
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  So it really comes from him.
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  But there is a verse in the Bible that says that Jesus says, ah my peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you, not as the world gives.
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  Do not let your hearts be troubled.
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  Do not be afraid or something close to that.
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  And so the do not let is the part that is we have a
• 2:34
  place in managing our own piece.
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  And so the book looks at what practical biblical ways there are to do that.
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  Oh, I love that.
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  Because I think when someone experiences God's peace, Jesus' peace, it hits different than maybe like having peace amongst your friends, right?
• 2:52
  Like it's a different experience and it feels different.
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  I mean, I can speak from personal experience.
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  You can lose it too, like, you know.
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  And then once you lose it and you realize you lose it, you're like, how do I get this back?
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  So, oh, yes.
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  but I think that's so wonderful.
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  I'm looking forward to that.
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  uh So yeah, you have quite a unique story and I don't want to give too much away, but really you were, you know what?
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  Why don't I just let you tell your story?
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  Why don't you tell your story?
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  well, so this is really the story of my faith becoming real to me.
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  I grew up in the church and I had a pretty decent foundation and understanding of God, but in my head, he was a far off God.
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  And so this experience was really what brought me into being like, oh, God sees me, knows me.
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  personally and is active in my life.
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  And that was a big revelation and totally life-changing for me.
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  So that's the background of it.
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  I was pretty prideful.
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  I was in college, so I just had this idea that nothing could happen to me.
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  You kind of feel like there's no end to your life.
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  It's just like I could, your mortality is not really a consideration at that point.
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  That's where I was and I was thinking, man, I'm pretty strong.
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  I was pretty prideful in that.
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  And I'm like, if anybody ever hurts me or tries to tries to get me, I'm like, I'm strong enough to to defend myself.
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  But really, I wasn't.
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  So I found that out one day as I was walking to the student union.
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  It was a Sunday.
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  I was just going to go study at school uh at the student union at school.
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  And as I was walking,
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  A man walked into the building ahead of me and the building was abandoned for the weekend.
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  It usually had classes in it, but on the weekends it was just open to be able to walk through to get to the Student Union.
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  So this man walks ahead of me, lets the door slam in my face even though I was right behind him and I thought, I guess he's having a bad day.
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  But I did not realize that no, I was going to be having that bad day.
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  So as
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  you know, he turned into a side room and I figured to study because people did that.
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  And I continued down that hallway to get to my destination.
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  So as I continued down the hallway, I heard footsteps running up behind me and I tried to stay calm because I'm like, maybe somebody's late to the bus, you know, but I probably
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  should have taken that warning in my head and then like, but I didn't.
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  All of sudden.
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  A arm went around my waist and a fist flew into my eye from behind and I realized I was being attacked.
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  This guy who had turned into the room came back to attack me.
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  I didn't really know what to do.
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  I decided to drop to the ground because I, well, at first I screamed and he said, shut up or I'll hurt you.
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  So I believed him.
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  and stopped screaming for help.
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  um Then as he kept hitting me in the head, I dropped to the ground because I figured if he wants my backpack, that was all I had.
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  He can just take it and go.
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  But he continued to punch me.
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  And I realized if I didn't do something, I'll die.
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  So I stood back up and then he just hit me some more.
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  and I had like blood in one eye.
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  had my other eye was now swollen.
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  I couldn't see, didn't know what was, didn't know what to do.
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  Couldn't really see anymore.
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  And he pulled me into the side room and started tying my wrist to a table.
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  Oh, and started, you know, strangling me.
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  And I thought, oh man, this is a bad dream.
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  You know, I, I didn't know what to do.
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  I really thought, well, I'll just wake up from this for a moment.
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  And my mind was a swirl of thoughts.
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  I didn't really know what was real, what to do.
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  And I had no tangible thing to think about.
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  oh But the room was dark.
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  And as I was there, I was on my knees as he was tying my wrist to the table.
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  I saw light coming through the window in that classroom.
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  And it reminded me of God.
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  know, God is light, right?
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  uh
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  It reminded me, I hadn't asked God for help.
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  So I did.
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  just prayed the most basic prayer that anybody can pray pretty much.
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  God help me.
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  God help me.
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  And I said it out loud.
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  And as I did, I suddenly had my first clear thought for this whole, during this whole time.
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  And it was,
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  I really believe the Holy Spirit answering my cry for help.
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  It brought to my mind a radio show I had heard just a few months back that struck me of a woman who was abducted and asked her abductor, do you know Jesus?
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  So I asked this man, I was like, do you know Jesus?
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  And he said, um, yeah.
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  And I thought, well, then why are you doing this to me?
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  Which I asked him and he he said, uh well, uh just wait here.
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  I won't hurt you.
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  I won't hurt you.
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  Just just stay here.
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  And he started picking up his stuff.
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  He went back out into the hallway and ran out the building the same way he came.
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  And he really did leave me and I.
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  Escaped out the other direction.
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  and I had a broken cheekbone and some injuries from it.
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  But uh God was really faithful in rescuing me.
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  so that's pretty much the story.
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  There's a lot behind it.
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  God did a lot through supporting me through his people, that organization I was a part of at that time, Christian Organization.
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  really came around me and gave me lot of encouragement and support during my healing.
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  And I had a best friend also who gave me a lot of emotional support during that time too.
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  And I really believe that that friendship and that my friend was a key to my spiritual healing and my mental healing kind of from that too.
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  So that's the basic story.
• 10:15
  Wow.
• 10:17
  I don't know if I'd call that basic, Maureen.
• 10:19
  uh I just think that, you know, when I read your submission and you were telling me, you know, I asked him to see believe and that got him to stop.
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  I just, how powerful is that?
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  Yeah.
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  Yes.
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  I just, I mean, let that sink in, like just how powerful, like that stopped him in his tracks.
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  And then your follow-up question, well, why are you doing this then?
• 10:54
  Yeah.
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  It almost feels like the devil had got a hold of him and then you brought him back to life.
• 11:02
  That's an interesting way to look at it.
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  I I always just look at him as my attacker.
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  I know God rescued me and I haven't really sat and thought about what was actually going on inside of him in that time.
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  So that's an interesting.
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  don't suppose you would.
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  mean, you were trying to process everything, you know, the injuries and.
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  You also mentioned that your family wasn't around that night, so you stayed on campus.
• 11:32
  Yes, my huge, biggest instinct was just to go home, quit college and just be where it's safe around people that I love and know.
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  And my parents were out of the country at the time, which actually seems to have been the pattern whenever God's doing something, think they're gone, probably for God's own
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  reasons.
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  You know, I think that they're being gone.
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  made it possible for me to decide to press on and continue on at school, which I did.
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  In fact, like the next day I went back to school, walked down the hallway, saw my blood still in the hallway.
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  And I ended up having a class in that room too, which was interesting.
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  So I had to conquer the fear.
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  And I think that was really healing too, because if I hadn't faced that, I don't think that
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  I would have had the ability to move forward in some of those areas.
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  I can't imagine having been attacked and then having to go back to that same area, seeing results of the attack still there and not turning around.
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  I think that truly is um strength, internal strength and help with God helping you be there.
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  I miss.
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  Did you have any PTSD when you had to go back and sit in that classroom?
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  know, because I mean, if you're taking a class in there, it's not like you're there once.
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  You're there multiple times a week.
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  I don't think that I would say I had PTSD.
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  I definitely took it in.
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  I think I had healed enough by the time I ended up having that class because it was maybe the next semester or something like that.
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  And so though I looked at it, I kind of looked at it as a third person might look at, this is where this happened, you know.
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  interesting.
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  So, yeah.
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  That's probably very helpful for you though.
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  Yeah.
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  Did you ever have to see your attacker again?
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  Did that ever come up?
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  Did you ever see him in person or?
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  in court.
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  they did catch him and he went, I had to go in to testify about, about that.
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  So yes, I did see him again then.
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  And since then I have not.
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  Yeah, are you okay talking about that testifying against them?
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  Because I know a lot of people when they're attacked, uh either in this way or even sexually assaulted, it's that whole going in to testify and reliving that trauma again.
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  That wasn't, they didn't ask me too many questions, so I did not have to really retell the story.
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  I had already done that quite a bit for the police and for just giving testimony of what God's done.
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  I don't believe that they had me retell that though.
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  And it was traumatic, but it was traumatic because of an entirely different.
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  happening and that had nothing to do with this guy.
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  So, but anyway, that's a different story that I'm not going to go into.
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  Okay, okay.
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  Wow, yeah.
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  Okay.
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  So what kind of, I know you said that you had a Bible verse that kind of really got you through this period in your life.
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  I mean, obviously you give credit to your friends and to your Christian community, but what Bible verse were you really trying to live out in those moments?
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  Well, the one when I read it, I just, was like, this verse is for me in this situation.
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  This is who God was.
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  It says, deliver me in your right.
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  Oh, I'll tell you where it is.
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  How about that?
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  Psalm 71, two through verse three.
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  Deliver me in your righteousness and cause me to escape.
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  Incline your ear to me and save me.
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  Be my strong refuge to which I may resort continually.
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  You have given the commandment to save me for you are my rock and my fortress." So that's who he was to me.
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  I really wanted to live my life for the Lord after the attack because I realized, wow, our life is very short.
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  It can be very short.
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  It could be long.
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  We just don't know.
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  And I don't want to live without kingdom, you know, without God's kingdom in view.
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  I want to know him personally, I want to live for him, and I wanted to get all that straight, and that's really what happened in that moment.
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  And so I would say, though it was really an awful event to live through, I wouldn't take it back in my life because it was the beginning of my faith walk into much deeper places
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  with the Lord.
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  And since then, I mean, I've seen God do so many miraculous things in my life that
• 16:45
  They're fun stories because it's always God showing off his love for us or meeting our needs.
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  So it's been an exciting adventure in faith after I that decision.
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  Yeah, so I'd love to hear one of the fun stories.
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  Oh, they're long.
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  I don't know, do you?
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  I, yeah, let's talk about it.
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  Let's, cause I think it's so good that we can experience trauma and then we can, you know, give everything to God.
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  And then how does he react and how does he live on our lives from that moment?
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  Because, you know, when we were talking earlier, Marina said, when people experience something traumatic, they either go one way or the other.
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  Typically, you don't see people just kind of toe the line anymore.
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  They're either all in or they're not in.
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  and you went all in, and how has that changed your life and how has that impacted you moving forward with all these fun things that are happening?
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  It's just, it's a beautiful thing to walk with the Lord.
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  And it's so, I would really say it's an adventure if you're like taking steps into the things God is saying, hey, let's do this together.
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  So I'll tell one story that was really impacting to me.
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  I was working on a reservation.
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  for a couple of years and in ministry, it was a really challenging place to work at because I didn't have a lot of close friends during that time.
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  And one of my friends from back home called and said, hey, check out these ministry things that are happening or things God's doing or different verses.
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  So I made this little sheet of paper with all these verses and notes and I was like, that's awesome.
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  And then I was about to go into work and well, actually that friend hardly ever calls.
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  So that was just kind of out of the blue.
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  So I go into my workplace, which was a coffee shop and that the church that I worked at owned and saw that my pastor was sitting there with some people that I had never seen
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  before.
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  And as I walked by to serve them,
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  I noticed they had a little sheet of paper and on that sheet of paper were almost exactly the same things I had written down for my friend.
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  And I was like, oh, I'm taking note.
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  I'm like, God's up to something.
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  I'm not sure what that's about.
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  But I took notice and as I heard them talking, I just really wished to be a part of that conversation because it was full of life and full of the Lord.
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  oh And yeah, I was just in a place where there wasn't a lot of a lot of friendship and refreshment.
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  in the Lord happening.
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  So I went back to work and I talked to God.
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  I was like, God, could you please let me talk to with those people?
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  But they ended up leaving.
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  They said goodbye.
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  They left.
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  And I was like, oh, And outside, was the middle of May.
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  And all of a sudden, it had started blizzarding that morning after after I'd gotten to work.
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  So there's this like snow coming down and my
• 20:04
  boss decided, hey, we're just going to close up shop today because nobody's going to be in in a blizzard.
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  So we had a lot of leftover food and I was like, oh, I'll bring that down.
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  I was going to walk the three miles to the next town where people typically were sitting on the street homeless.
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  And I figured I'll get the food to a good place.
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  So I just set out walking this three miles and and all of sudden I realized, you know, my
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  I am soaked up to my knees in wet, yucky snow.
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  was like, Lord, I'm only halfway there and I still have to go all the way back.
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  Should I keep going or what?
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  And I felt this in my spirit that he said, no, I'm sending somebody to get you, you know, keep going.
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  So I was like, oh, okay.
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  And I kind of was like, did I really hear God?
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  But that thought hadn't come through my head, like as far as like that wasn't something I was thinking about.
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  So I was like, well, we'll see.
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  And one car passes and I was like, well, Lord, they said, hey, you want to ride?
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  And I was like, if that's my ride, I think I'll pass Lord.
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  I'm sorry if I missed it.
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  It looked a little sketchy.
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  then, then this truck comes by and pulls alongside and they said, hey, do you need a ride?
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  I look and it's those people that I had really, I'd asked God, can I talk to you?
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  And I,
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  was like, sure.
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  I went over and I said, hey, I was like, God told me you'd come.
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  Oh, I did say to God on the way there, was like, can the people picking me up be those people that I met at the coffee shop?
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  Anyway, so it was.
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  And that was so cool to me.
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  And I said, oh, the Lord told me you were coming.
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  And this guy said, oh, yeah, well, God told me to come after you.
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  He and his friends were shopping and he left his friends in the shopping center, in the store, to come and be obedient to hear the Lord to find me.
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  And he looked at the coffee shop and I wasn't there.
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  And he was like, I don't know where to go Lord, where should I go?
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  So he drove down this road and found me.
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  So that was pretty cool.
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  So.
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  After that, he and the other person that was with him, and I don't remember who it was anymore, one of his team, they came by and just brought me back home, talked to me,
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  ministered to me a lot, and just gave me encouragement that I really needed at that time.
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  So through these listening friends of the Lord, you find refreshment.
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  You hear God's, love yous through these.
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  that the Lord listens and that we listen.
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  You sometimes we are that person to somebody else.
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  So anyway, that is another story.
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  Yeah, no, I think that's so fun.
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  But okay, the first thing that came to my mind is, you're closing because there's a blizzard.
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  What made you decide to walk three miles one way in a blizzard?
• 23:12
  oh Well, I mean, I just like doing things that are crazy.
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  I don't know.
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  I'm not stopped by what I see sometimes.
• 23:22
  Oh man, I mean obviously you were supposed to go and do this, but I just, I mean, most people's first thought is like, hmm, maybe it would be faster.
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  Can you get, let's, can we do this together with your car?
• 23:32
  And...
• 23:33
  eh
• 23:34
  yeah, no, that doesn't work like that.
• 23:36
  I don't know.
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  mean, I had a car too, so it wasn't like I was without a car.
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  I just was like, I'm just going to walk.
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  I figured I'd have more time to pray that way.
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  So inside the mind of me, there you go.
• 23:54
  I love it, but it ended up being a beautiful story, right?
• 23:56
  Like, and everything worked out the way it was supposed to.
• 23:58
  So I think it's beautiful.
• 23:59
  just, I had to ask the question.
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  And the fact that you had a car just makes it more hilarious.
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  uh
• 24:09
  would have taken my car, I wouldn't have had that God moment, you know.
• 24:13
  So sometimes going, doing things the slower way or the harder way can bear fruit.
• 24:19
  What, you know, I tell people all the time, get comfortable being uncomfortable and it sounds like you are living that.
• 24:24
  I like that.
• 24:25
  Yeah, I'm not comfortable.
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  I am not comfortable when I'm comfortable.
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  So but I have been living in the season of comfort for a while since getting married.
• 24:34
  I'm trying to get us I'm trying to get our household out of the comfort zone.
• 24:39
  that's great.
• 24:40
  Oh, you've been such a pleasure to talk to today.
• 24:43
  Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your stories with us.
• 24:46
  uh I really appreciate it.
• 24:47
  I hope it helps somebody if they're ever in that moment, they hear that and they remember to say, do you know Jesus?
• 24:53
  Right.
• 24:54
  And I mean, obviously I pray nobody's ever in that moment, but we know that's just not realistic.
• 24:58
  Right.
• 24:58
  ah So tell me as we lean today, what is the Bible verse you're walking through life in right now?
• 25:06
  Oh, well, my life Bible verse is, it is actually a couple of verses, Matthew 31 through 33.
• 25:18
  Therefore, don't worry, seeing what shall we eat, what shall we drink or what shall we wear?
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  For after all these things, the Gentiles seek.
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  For your heavenly father knows that you need all these things.
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  But seek first God's kingdom.
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  and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
• 25:42
  I love the idea of just seeking after his kingdom.
• 25:47
  Hmm.
• 25:48
  Yeah.
• 25:49
  and he premises to take care of us.
• 25:52
  He has.
• 25:54
  In his own way sometimes that we don't understand, but he does.
• 25:59
  Well, thank you so much for being here today.
• 26:01
  I truly appreciate you spending your morning with me and I hope you have a blessed day.
• 26:05
  Thank you so much.
• 26:06
  It was so good talking with you.
• 26:08
  Blessings.