Latest / Spiritual Hot Sauce / “The Other Side of Amanda’s Miracle: Teresa Oechsli in the Earring Aisle” Ep#50

Transcript

“The Other Side of Amanda’s Miracle: Teresa Oechsli in the Earring Aisle” Ep#50 · Spiritual Hot Sauce

• 0:00
  Chris Jones: Our last episode with Amanda McKinsey was so moving and powerful.
• 0:04
  Chris Jones: I had to track down Teresa, the woman that Amanda says is the person that made her feel seen by God.
• 0:12
  Chris Jones: It changed everything and brought healing.
• 0:15
  Chris Jones: That Teresa.
• 0:16
  Chris Jones: Today we hear about the other side of the miracle.
• 0:20
  Chris Jones: In a conversation with the founder of Jose's House, Teresa Explorer.
• 0:25
  Chris Jones: Welcome.
• 0:26
  Chris Jones: I'm Chris Jones, and this is Spiritual Hot Sauce.
• 0:33
  Chris Jones: Teresa, welcome to the sauce.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for having me.
• 0:38
  Chris Jones: Before we even get into this, I just want to take a few minutes to thank Teresa.
• 0:42
  Chris Jones: Teresa rushed around trying to make this happen because it was so important to me that we do it so quickly, and I think to her as well.
• 0:49
  Chris Jones: Because Teresa is the other side of Amanda McKinsey's miracle.
• 0:54
  Chris Jones: She's Teresa in the earring aisle.
• 0:56
  Chris Jones: Thank you for coming on to share this side of it.
• 1:00
  Chris Jones: This means a lot.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 1:02
  Chris Jones: Before we get into that, I want to talk about Hosea's house.
• 1:06
  Chris Jones: So if you would just take it away and just tell us about Hosea's house.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, I always say it was a setup.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: You know, God uh brings us to these moments that are life-changing.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was in dentistry for 27 years.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: We were doing a free dental clinic in the west end of Louisville.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_03: We decided that we would go into these churches and just offer basic dental care to anyone that needed help.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: So I was introduced to this lady, and I was reading over her history, and it and it said that she was staying at the center for women and families, a domestic violence situation.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: And my heart just resonated with that because I came from a home of domestic violence.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: It was like God was just bringing everything back full circle.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: Because when I was talking to her before I even read her health history, our spirits just resignated together.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like I was like, I want to be this woman's friend.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: We just connected on that level.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was talking to her.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: She was just sharing her life with me.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: And the Lord just spoke to my spirit and said, be a friend.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: And it wasn't be a mentor, it wasn't being a spiritual advisor.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: It was just be a friend, show up, have coffee, and walk alongside of her.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what we did.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: We started this relationship.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: She was such a phenomenal woman.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_03: You would have never known her situation.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's how much in the spirit she walked.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: She believed God for big, impossible things.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, this is your situation, and yet your faith inspires me.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_03: So we started this relationship.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: I started taking her to Bible studies.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: I was going to Southeast Christian Church at the time, and the women's ministry was exploding there.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: And they would have these big, beautiful events, and I would take her and I would take her to church.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'd pick her up from the shelter and we'd go to church together.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: At Southeast, they they would say, if you have a Bible, take one.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there's on the back of the pews.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: And she would walk out with eight.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: And and she was just so proud.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: And she was like, I'm taking these back.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm going to knock on the doors of every woman and I'm going to make sure they have the word of God.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: She grew my faith by knowing her.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: She grew my faith in that whatever situation we are, we need to be shining bright for Christ because there's hopelessness and darkness in this world.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: And she said, you know, what good is it if we don't offer them true hope?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: So we started this friendship.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: And it was about 11 months into our friendship.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: She shared with me a vision that she had to open a shelter for women.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: And she said, it won't just be any shelter.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: It'd be like a home.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_03: Like we'll we'll take their children, we'll give them stuffed animals, like we will love on them and we will show them the love of Christ.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: We'll teach them who he is and who he says they are.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: And and God will do the work.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: You know, when she's saying that, I thought, we we don't know how to open a women's shelter.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: We I don't, I've never done that.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: I don't, and she said, I just see it, I know it.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so I just kind of bought into the vision.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Yeah, maybe we can do that one day.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: And this is where the scar comes in, I guess, more so than ever.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: But a few weeks later, she was murdered by her boyfriend.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: And that took me on a journey with God because I was like, You told me to be her friend.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: And we started this beautiful friendship, and now she's gone.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like we had a we had a vision, like we had a dream.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: And the Lord was like, I'm going to walk with you through this, and we're gonna bring this to pass.
• 4:59
  Chris Jones: You had no experience of doing any of this stuff, just living it, surviving it, overcoming it.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: That was my experience.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: And that's all he required of me.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: I was, you know, in your episode, you know, throw the stone, it just resonated in my my spirit because that's exactly what God told me.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: Just throw the stone, don't I the the outcome is not yours, it's mine.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_03: But you have to throw the stone and stove.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I did.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: I said, okay, God, I'll do this.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: And but you have to open the doors, you have to make the way because I can't do this.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: I I don't know how to do this.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: So God gave me the vision, and it was five years of just walking through that vision.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: But God put people in my path, He directed me, He led me to the place.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: And five years after God gave me the vision, we opened the first Hosea's house in 2009.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: So the God gave me the vision in 2004.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: I did the mini, and then what I tell people today is you know, people get these visions and they're like, oh, well, I need to buy a house and I need to do it right now.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, you know, there's a process, everything's a process with God.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: He's gonna grow you and he's going to take you on this journey.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: Because during those five years, God was chipping off everything of me that I would lean on so that the only thing I could do was trust him.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: You know, Jeanette, in her faith, she's the lady that passed away.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: Her thing was, it wasn't what if God doesn't show up?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: She always said, Why would he not?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and I'd been a Christian for many years, and meeting this woman in a shelter changed my life.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: It it changed my view of God in a way that I can't explain it other than it was a divine intervention.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: It was a setup from God to go look, we're going deeper.
• 6:59
  Chris Jones: So Jeanette changed how you saw people and God and then yourself.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: But she just she she just had such great faith.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I was amazed by that.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I my faith has always been strong.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: But she walked it out in difficult, hard circumstances that most people would just say, forget it.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know, she challenged what the world said that God is capable of.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so I don't know that I could have really done this had she not modeled that for me.
• 7:34
  Chris Jones: Wow.
• 7:35
  Chris Jones: So God gave her the vision.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:38
  Chris Jones: He used her to give it to you.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: She passed the baton and he wanted me to walk it out.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, five years.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: And when I say I started Hosea's house, it was me and Jesus.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: Like I did not have support.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't have, I didn't know people that had a lot of money.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was like, okay, God, we're gonna do this.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: Then you've got to do it because outside of you, this thing fails.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: So we started on the journey.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: I I bought a house and didn't have any money, didn't have it, I didn't know how I was gonna pay for it.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and in my vision, I thought we were going toward the east end of town, you know, like that's where I figured God would lead me, you know, and I figured it would it would come out of Southeast Christian Church because that's my church.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: And man, there they definitely had the resources to do it.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: That all made sense, and God stripped me of all of that.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_03: He sent me down to Portland in the West End to a church that may have 30 members, an all-black community, each net was black, and sent me there and said, This is where we're gonna do it.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: They didn't have any money, I didn't have any money, but God said this is where I'm gonna do it.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: This is where it's birthed out of.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: That's exact our our house is actually about two blocks from that church.
• 9:04
  Chris Jones: Wow.
• 9:05
  Chris Jones: So God forced you to trust him.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it the this whole ministry was faith.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: So I bought this house.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: This pastor in in town decided to to take a chance on me, and God, you know, I always say faith is a really bad business plan because you can't go into a bank and go, hey, you know what?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_03: God told me to do this house and he's gonna pay for it.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: He he's got this because the world will look at you and go, You're crazy.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes I thought I was.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: So this man took a chance on me, financed the house for me.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: When I got the house, I was just starting to move women in.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: I just was like, okay, God, we're in this.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: I hired a woman with a salary with with no money in the bank.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: The table, I have no money, and I offer her a salary.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_03: I'll never forget.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: I walked out of the house and I said, Okay, God, if this thing fails, they'll say you failed.
• 10:04
  Chris Jones: All I can do is throw the rock.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: I threw the rock.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_03: And that was my commitment to God.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: I said, I'll do this as long as you take care of everything.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: The the day that I cannot pay one bill, I'll close this because I know your hand's been remote.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: Twenty-one years later, my young house with two apartments and vehicles, a brand new vehicle, debt-free.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: We never took a credit card.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: We never took a loan.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: Two major renovations of$250,000.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_03: And you know what?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: God's people showed up.
• 10:38
  Chris Jones: Wow.
• 10:39
  Chris Jones: Wow.
• 10:40
  Chris Jones: And what does Hosea's house do?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: So Hosea's house is a home I always say it's a sanctuary for the broken.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's for women in crisis.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't have to be just domestic violence.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: It can just be crisis, homelessness, you know, maybe struggling with mental issues, you know, out of recovery and need to rebuild your life.
• 11:02
  Chris Jones: How many women can be at the facility at once?
• 11:05
  Chris Jones: What's the capacity?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: So we have the residential home and it has five bedrooms, but they're large, but we take children as well.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: So that was the thing that was big on Jeanette's heart, too, is let's if if God will heal the mother, he will heal the children.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: So we're unique in the aspect that we take children.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_03: So depending on what our families look like, we'll be depending on how many women we take.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_03: Now we're a discipleship program.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: We are not an emergency shelter.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_03: What I say by a discipleship program is we want to work with a woman that has the heart and the desire to move forward, to know who God is and what he can do for her life when we live a surrendered life.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: You don't have to know him to come to Hosea's house.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: You just have to be open.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: If they come in, they can stay in the house up to two years.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: And then move into the graduate house from there.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a long-term discipleship program because we know that change takes time.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: You know, most of the women that we serve have little to no family.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_03: So we become that family for them, which is exactly what happened when my world collided with Amanda McKenzie.
• 12:20
  Chris Jones: Well, Amanda cites her interaction with you as when she was seen by God, which is what changed everything.
• 12:27
  Chris Jones: So I am ready to hear this.
• 12:30
  Chris Jones: Tell me your side of what happened.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: So I'd never go into the store, but I just happened to that day.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: I was actually doing a news interview for Hosea's house, and I had my t-shirt on, which I don't normally wear t-shirts.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: So it was just it, all the circumstances were there for God to make another setup.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm standing there in at the jewelry counter and I hear this lady say, Oh, Hosea's house.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: We just heard about you.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: So the day before, I had a friend reach out to me, Lynn Reese, who she referenced, reach out to me and say, Hey, I gave this lady an application and I really want her to call you.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: And she gave me her name.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so I had been praying that morning for Amanda.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so then she introduces herself that she's Amanda and that she's been waiting to talk to a lady named Teresa.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: And it was just like, Well, I am Teresa, you know, I've been praying for you.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: And it was just a God moment because I knew that she was going to be at Jose's house.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: I knew that that was God's plan.
• 13:32
  Chris Jones: You felt that.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I I say, of all the residents we've ever had, Amanda was the one that clung to me and my family.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we had great relationships with the ladies, and they all love me, and their kids call me Nina, you know.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: But there was just something unique about Amanda and our relationship.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: It was like it was totally ordained by God because I think for her, I was that model of a mother that she always craved her entire life.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: And she wanted that for herself.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I became that for her.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: We embraced her.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_03: She calls my husband F.
• 14:17
  Chris Jones: Well, when she shared your contact with me, and I think I had told you this when I received it on the phone, it had your name, and then it had aka mom.
• 14:26
  Chris Jones: And I was like, wow, that speaks volumes of this relationship and the impact you've had on her life.
• 14:32
  Chris Jones: This is what she cites as changing everything.
• 14:35
  Chris Jones: It it was the moment where she felt seen by God.
• 14:38
  Chris Jones: It changed the course, the path, it brought healing.
• 14:42
  Chris Jones: Such a powerful moment.
• 14:44
  Chris Jones: But when you connected with Amanda right there at the jewelry counter, did you feel God in some amazing way, or was it you just living life and trying to do what you know to do?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: I knew it was from God.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: I knew God had orchestrated that.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: It was so out of the ordinary.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know, when Amanda came to us, she was five months pregnant with her son Jackson.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: This was after the death of Liam.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: She had already gone back and made more mistakes.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I think she needed to know that, hey, you're important to God.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I see it.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: And she needed to see that.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_03: I needed that for myself.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: So when she came to us though, she was she was not easy.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: She, you know, everybody sees the Amanda today, but man, there was a lot of work.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: There was a lot of love.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: There was a lot of hard conversations.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: Anyone that knows me always tell the women, I am not the soft, cuddly kitten.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: I am, I'm going to call you out.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to, because you know what?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not leaving you here.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not allowing that behavior.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not allowing you to do that just because it's something you've always done.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_03: You know, for years, Amanda and I would sometimes have hard, hard conversations.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: And she'd be mad at me and uh when I'd talk to her about her behavior, how she would talk to people.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, she just, you know, it was how she what she knew.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, no, that's not acceptable.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: And she wouldn't talk to me for a day or two, and then she'd always, okay, you were right.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: So this was years.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: When I say it takes time, it was years for Amanda to break off that, you know, generational curses and the and and the wounds and and really allow God to do that deep work and heal her.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: But once he freed her of that, once she became free, it was on.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_03: And and that's why I was like, there's so much more beautiful picture to Amanda's life.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: God has done so much in her.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'll never forget the day that she was gonna, you know, we we put them in her and celebrate recovery.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: And they wanted her to do this one-on-one program, you know, with a couple of ladies, and it was gonna take about seven months to complete it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: And she was like, I've never completed anything in my life.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: You think I'm gonna be able to complete seven months?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, you've got to start somewhere.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: She finished it.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: She got her a little, you know, little certificate, and we took a picture and she she was happy.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: But what Amanda didn't know, she had to complete that seven-month course in order to complete her four-year degree.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: She'd never finished the four-year degree had she not done the seven months of commitment showing up, even when you didn't feel like it.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: And so then she came to me and she said, I think I want to go to college.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Okay, let's let's go look at colleges.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_03: So we go to Sullivan University because she wants to do interior design.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I'll never forget, she came out and she had this like it was like$87,000, you know, the whole.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, Amanda, do you know how much it's gonna take to make$87,000?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: And not only, you know, where are you gonna get the money?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_03: Like, so she flipped my faith on me and said, God wants me here, he'll make a way.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, You're absolutely right.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: So a couple of weeks go by and we don't really talk much about it after that.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know, she's a little bit, but she, you know, we both have our God's gotta do this kind of thing.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: I had a donor to call me one morning and he said, I was driving to the farm and the Lord spoke to me.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: The Lord told me I need to pay for that girl's college.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Okay.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, it's the only way she's gonna break the curses of her family.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: So I hung up and I called him back.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: I said, now wait a minute, do you understand that this is$87,000?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: He says, Yes.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: I said, okay.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: Also, during that time, Southeast, we were one of their partners, came to me and said, Hey, we have this program now where you can go to Sullivan University.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: Almost everything's paid for if you have anybody that would be a candidate for this program.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: And through that, through that grant with Southeast and through the beautiful gift of of the donor, Amanda was able to not only go to school and have her school paid for, but she was also able to live and have income coming in to be able to focus on her school.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: That's just one of the miracles.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there's so many miracles in her life, but that's one of them that just, you know, she's the only one of her family at the time that graduated college.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: And she said, you know, the fact that a stranger thought my son and I were worth$87,000 let me know that I was seen by God.
• 19:52
  Chris Jones: That's powerful.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 19:55
  Chris Jones: I think so many people feel like they want their life to change, but they don't want to change.
• 20:01
  Chris Jones: They want the good stuff to come to them rather than realizing you've got to get out of the thorns and get on a different path.
• 20:08
  Chris Jones: As you said, you had to have some hard conversations with her that even though God's involved in this growth, you are still coming out of the thorns and you are still having to push through.
• 20:19
  Chris Jones: And there's going to be challenges there, and sometimes it's difficult.
• 20:23
  Chris Jones: But you have to keep showing up and trust that it's getting you to a better place ultimately.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I can remember one time early on, she maybe been there a year with us, and I was going on vacation.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: And her and the house administrator at the time, they bucked heads because, you know, she was my my house administrator was old school.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, she, you know, you're gonna do the hard work.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_03: And Amanda just, oh, she was, you know, ma'am, Amanda thought she knew every, you know, because she was street smart.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was leaving to go out of town and I was like, do not exit this program while I'm gone.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: Do not.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_03: She called me on vacation.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: She's like, I'm leaving.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: I'm leaving.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not doing this anymore.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: I'm leaving.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: I can't tell you how many times Amanda McKenzie told me I'm leaving.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_03: Because change is hard.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: God was chipping away at her.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: He was chipping that hardness off of her.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_03: He was chipping that I don't need anybody attitude.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a grown woman.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, yet you're here.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so let's talk about that.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_03: She didn't leave, you know, and she'll tell the girl, she'll tell the ladies at the house, hey, look, I I wanted to leave.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: I can't tell you how many times I, you know, actually, my house administrator actually put her out of the van one day.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: She's pregnant, put her out of the van.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't know, I had to go pick her up.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, oh, she was mad.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, just look at, you know, look at yourself.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like, look at who you are.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and then she later on ran into my old house administrator and said, Man, you you grew me.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you Grew me in a way that I could not have learned that lesson.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: You taught me how to dig in, and you know, it used to make Amanda so mad because she'd make her take the bus and she'd drive past her going to the store or something.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean it's like she could have taken me to the store.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: But you know what?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: She tells those ladies at Hosea's house, she said, you know, I needed that.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: I needed to take that bus.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: I needed to learn, you know, to be independent and not be dependent on someone to do that for me.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: She said, we learned how to use that bus system and we could go anywhere we wanted to.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: We were not bound.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: And that's so it's just that hard stuff, but God in his mercy and his grace, and and so she was able to buy a home in the neighborhood through one of our community partners.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_03: She's got her job and she's working her degree now.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, Amanda's life, I I want to say, hey, it looks like, oh, everything's perfect now.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's not.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: Amanda still has her own struggles, like we all do.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: But what she has is grit.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: She has faith.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: She knows that God shows up in the midnight hour.
• 23:09
  Chris Jones: She's learned to trust God.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: She was at the hospital one day and uh they had um messed up a test for her.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: And and it it it was not looking good for Amanda.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: So she goes outside, she's mad because she's pregnant.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: She's mad.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I told her, I said, you walk the line with this pregnancy, like they're going to be looking at you.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: I want you to know you you've got a record, and that you're under a microscope.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_03: So don't let anything go by.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_03: Nothing.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: So she said, I walked outside that hospital and she said, I said, in the name of Jesus, I do not receive this.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: In the name of Jesus.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_03: And a mailman walked past.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, Amen, sister.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_03: She said, She said, Teresa, at that moment, I borrowed your faith.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: She said, I borrowed your faith.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't have my faith at that time, but I borrowed yours that day.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: It all worked out.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, that's you know what God requires of us.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: That's what he requires.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: He doesn't require our perfection.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: He doesn't require us to be a hundred percent, like you said, that's his part.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's his part to change the lives of the women that we we help.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: Does everyone walk out of our program a hundred percent?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: You know, do they walk out 25, 50, 90?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: I think we've seen that.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we take small numbers.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_03: We we're not about large numbers.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, Jesus worked with 12 disciples.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we're about, hey, can we send these five women out?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: Can we teach them to be good neighbors?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_03: Can we teach them to love their community?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_03: Can we teach them to to reach out to their neighbor and be a friend?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: And that's exactly what Amanda has done.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if she's even shared that, but she serves Thanksgiving meals to over a hundred people in the Portland community every year.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: One year, maybe two years ago, she had a package delivered to her home for her son for Christmas.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_03: And it was stolen off of her porch.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so she had a video.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: And so anyway, they the cops were called, and so she said, if you'll just have them give me the package back, you know, that's all I want is my package back.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, it was this homeless person in the community.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: So the cop goes and gets the package and they bring it back.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Amanda, during the Thanksgiving meal, she'll take a large amount of food and takes it to the areas where there's homeless people.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: And wouldn't you know it was that man?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_04: The man that stole her child's package.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_04: She said, I handed him that meal.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_04: And she said, I told him I forgive you.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_04: I know that you took my son's package, but I want you to know that I forgive you.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's what God has done in Amanda's life.
• 26:07
  Chris Jones: I know one thing about Amanda, and that is she doesn't tell those things about herself.
• 26:13
  Chris Jones: Right.
• 26:13
  Chris Jones: It's just her nature now.
• 26:15
  Chris Jones: It's just who she has become.
• 26:16
  Chris Jones: Yeah, she's very humble in that.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I just feel like that's our life.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_03: That that's my life, honestly.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think about it.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_03: I don't, it's my it's who I am.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's my DNA.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_03: And when someone says, What's success at Hosea's house?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: I would say that's success, that she has grown her faith in such a way that it's contagious.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: And that it's something to give away rather than to keep for herself.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_03: And so there's many more out there that are doing the same thing because they have walked alongside of us and we we teach them, hey, God shows up.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: He may not show up at the time that you think he's going to show up.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_03: I can, I mean, Hosea's house is a testimony to that.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: And he may not show up in the way that you think he's going to, but he will always show up and he will always meet your needs.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm grateful that that she has taken that.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_03: And she sent me a text the other day and was like, you know, I'm the mother that I am today because of you.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_03: You modeled that for me.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I replied back and said, Well, my mother-in-law modeled that for me.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_03: She took me as an 18-year-old little girl who's broken mess and taught me how to be a mom and taught me how to love my husband and manage money and be a good steward.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: I said, So I'm giving that back because my mother-in-law invested in me.
• 27:45
  Chris Jones: Our first call is always our family.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 27:49
  Chris Jones: This has been an amazing story, and you've given some incredible insight.
• 27:53
  Chris Jones: Tell tell us about what you're doing now, because I know you're involved in yet a different ministry.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: I am the executive director of Empower Approach.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's interesting, it's a full circle again of how God brought me back here.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_03: But in 2004, you know, I was in dentistry most of my life too.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: So not only doing Hosea's house, but I worked full-time for years doing the ministry.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: So some people just want to start their ministry and be paid.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that wasn't me.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_03: I had to work.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_03: But I went on a dental mission trip back in 2004, and we go and train local pastors, lay church leaders in areas where there's no help.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_03: There's, there's, you know, we we like to go in closed areas where there's no gospel, there's unreached people groups.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_03: And we train these pastors how to do dentistry.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: We train them how to numb people up and how to extract teeth and help their own people.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: We teach them dental hygiene.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_03: And then they can go and reach their people.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: I did that in 2004, and for many years I've done missions, international missions.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_03: So now I'm the executive director of Empower Approach, the same ministry, the same doctor that I went with.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_03: We're we're partners in this and and still leading the ministry today and doing international missions.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_03: And God is opening doors in in areas where the gospel cannot be preached, but we can go in and teach dentistry and they can people and meet them where they're at and meet a physical need and talk about the spiritual need for Christ.
• 29:29
  Chris Jones: So there's a lot of different ways you can love on people.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: So wherever, you know, God plants you, they are my neighbor, then then go there.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_03: Go, you know.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: Henry Blackaby and in experiencing God said, find out where God is working and join them.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: Don't recreate something, just go join them and and be a part of what they're doing.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, I'm I'm just honored that God allowed me back into international missions as well, because it's very much on my heart.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, you can't limit God what He will do.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know, through that, you know, doing the outreach, I won't say the country we were in because there's a lot of persecution there, but we were in that country.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: One of the pastors that we were going to work with had been murdered like six weeks before we got there.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_03: Oh I'd read about him in the voice of the martyrs right before I went.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_03: So we're going and we're doing this dental training.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_03: We take Steve Saint and and Min Kai with us, which I don't know if you know them, but there uh Steve Saint's father was murdered in Ecuador in 1956, I think, with Jim Elliott, and all those missionaries were murdered by the Widani Indians.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we took that Wai Dani Indian that killed them and Steve Saint, Nate Saint's son, because there was a redemption story there with us, because Minkai does dentistry too, which is crazy.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so we took them with us and they were telling their story of forgiveness and how Minkai had killed his father, but he became his father.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_03: And it was just amazing to see God.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_03: And so this man stands up during this and he says, Hey, I I want to be baptized.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_03: I I'm getting ready to go to Saudi Arabia for work, and I want to be baptized.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_03: I've never I've given my life to Christ.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: And so we go out in this rice field in this ravine, and and so Menkay Menkai and Steve baptized this man and his wife.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_04: And during that baptism, I felt seen by God.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_04: You cannot limit what God will do in your life when we surrender and say yes to him.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: The places, the people I've met, what God has done in my life are miracles.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: And so I just I share that with others.
• 31:52
  Chris Jones: When you show up to throw the rock, it's amazing the miracles you get to witness.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_03: I'm thankful that I said yes to God.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_03: I think about how many how many times, how many opportunities, how many beautiful things that God has given me I would have missed had I stayed in my comfort zone.
• 32:14
  Chris Jones: Stayed where it's easy.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_03: You know, where oh well it didn't work.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_03: You know, just like when, you know, you know, throwing the rocks and oh well, you know, it didn't work.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_03: You quit when it gets hard, when people betray you, when your name's being drug against the mud and people tell me, I'm like, look, trust me, they came for me.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, if I can encourage anyone today, you know, just trust God.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: Why will he not show up?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_03: If we would change our verbiage to go, what if God doesn't show up?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_03: Why would he not show up?
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: You know, allow him uh to do a great work by yes.
• 33:01
  Chris Jones: Who knows how many people God has used you to make other people feel seen by him.
• 33:08
  Chris Jones: Thank you so much for giving the extra effort to come on here so we could pair your show, your episode, with hers, so people can hear the other side and how we change other people's lives by simply saying yes.
• 33:25
  Chris Jones: Thank you for what you've done and what you do.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_04: You're welcome.
• 33:30
  Chris Jones: If people would like to get in touch with you or have some questions, need some information, would it be okay if they reach out to you?
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_03: You can reach me at Hosea's house.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's H-O-S-E-A-S house, H-O-U-S-E-I-N-C at gmail.com.
• 33:47
  Chris Jones: Teresa, thank you so much for giving this time.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: My pleasure.
• 33:51
  Chris Jones: Have a great day and keep throwing the rock.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: I sure will.
• 33:55
  Chris Jones: You too.
• 33:55
  Chris Jones: Before I go, I want to share something with you, the listener.
• 33:59
  Chris Jones: That Teresa went from the broken to the healed to sharing the healing.
• 34:04
  Chris Jones: And one of those people she shared that with was Amanda, who went from the broken to the healed to sharing the healing.
• 34:12
  Chris Jones: It's like we talk about with the three zones.
• 34:15
  Chris Jones: It's the negative zone to the neutral zone to the positive zone.
• 34:19
  Chris Jones: You don't get to witness these kind of miracles, making your goal compliance, the neutral zone, just going to church and trying not to sin.
• 34:29
  Chris Jones: Results like these come from giving God the opportunity, showing up and throwing the rock.
• 34:36
  Chris Jones: Amanda shared something on her episode, what brought all this about, that I didn't have the time to share on that episode, but I want to share it now because I think it's a very fitting ending to all of this of what you've heard from the other side of the miracle from Teresa's perspective.
• 34:54
  Chris Jones: This is Amanda McKinsey.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: We just need to show up, and that's what I do.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's just second nature.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: I just show up, and God uses me how he needs to.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm obedient to that because I know that it can change lives.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: It changed mine.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: People showed up for me, and it's just what I do now.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: I seen a lady, she was laying on the side of the street.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: She had hardly any clothes on, and you could tell she was struggling with a mental health crisis.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I pulled over and I said, Guys, hang tight.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I got out and I sat next to her and I started praying with her.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, You know, what can I do for you?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: How can I help you?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: I can't leave you here on this corner with no clothes on.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I took her to my church.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: It has a restaurant in the front of it, the table, and they offer grace and assistance through housing.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_02: And they connect them with David Smiley and Center to David.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, David, she needs help.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: And David does what David does, and he steps in, you know, and we do the best we can.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: But you you see people that are unseen.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: I see people that are unseen.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I do, Chris.
• 35:51
  Chris Jones: God's love isn't a human emotion, it's action that causes others to feel seen by God, and it brings healing, it changes lives.
• 36:03
  Chris Jones: Though Jeanette was tragically struck down, the rock she threw was carried by the grace of God and found its mark.
• 36:11
  Chris Jones: One person that believes that God will show up can change the lives of many.
• 36:18
  Chris Jones: To quote Jeanette, why wouldn't he?