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When Our Faith Is Tested With Christine Handy · She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ

0:01
Hi there. Welcome back to she speaks life,
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where we share our faith, stories.
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I'm Jamie Elizabeth. And today I'm bringing you
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author and model Christine handy.
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She has an incredible story to share with us about her journey,
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through several medical issues, including breast cancer, that
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forced her to put her modeling career on hold and how that was
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actually a catalyst to get rid of distractions.
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And In Securities and Exchange for a Devotion to God, like,
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never before Christine shares, how she healed and trusted in
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God and through it all gain, new, passions and life.
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She is on the board of a couple nonprofit organizations
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including one called a beauty that supports women through a
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wig Exchange program. Giving them encouragement and
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hope she has a book called Walk Beside Me.
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And as a motivational speaker to bring hope to others, I can't
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wait to share this. Inspirational story with you.
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So, let's dive in to our conversation.
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Hi, Christine, I'm so glad you're here.
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Hi, thank you for having me. Well, I couldn't help but see on
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your website that your favorite vacation is where I came from
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Southern California and you said, it's at the Montage in
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Laguna Beach. And I've been there so many
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times so I love that. You said that.
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We'll have you ever been there when they have a wedding?
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I have not. Oh, that's so beautiful.
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So beautiful. I'm certainly planning on
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getting married again and that is going to be my spot.
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I have already. I've already had many
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conversations with God about it. Like I'm getting married.
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And that's where I'm getting married.
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There you go. Yeah, in the pictures.
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I'm sure we'll be studying. Yeah, I love Going to be a claim
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that they claim that I don't even have a boyfriend, so but
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we've already claimed. Yeah, why not right plan?
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It out? Oh, well, I gotta let the
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listeners know that you are a model and you're a mom of two
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sons. And I just would love for you to
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just start us out with what brought you to modeling and what
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kind of life that was for you or is For you.
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Well, let me also say I do a few other things other than modeling
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and I think it's important for the whole conversation but I did
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start modeling when I was very young.
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And that's kind of been, I would call myself a lifer but I've
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become because I wrote the book a motivational speaker, a mentor
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to many cancer patients. But also to young young
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children, I also speak in prison.
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So I'm a mentor to some prisoners and I also have I do
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have a Social media following. So I do try to teach and lead
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and Inspire on social media, because social media can be so
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toxic for so many of us. And so, I try to be a light on
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that platform, but going back to the modeling I did start when I
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was a child and, you know, really at the dismay of my
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parents, they weren't pushing me into it, you know, often we hear
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how families or parents or push their children into businesses
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like modeling or pageantry and my parents wanted to have
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nothing to do with it. But because of my tenacity and
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some other manipulative skills, I suppose I have, which I guess
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have served me in this world of illness that I had to build a
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house and I was persistent. I really did want to be a model
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at a young age. I was, I was the pretty girl,
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you know, people used to look at me and go.
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Oh, you're so pretty. And so that's what I thought.
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My work was right. I mean, if you're constantly
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told you're so smart, what do you do?
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Do you go do really great things, right?
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Sure. If people constantly tell you
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you're so pretty, what do you do?
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You want to be in front of a camera?
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You want to show off that beauty because you think that's what
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your worth is. And so that's kind of, I mean,
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looking back, right? It's so easy to discern that.
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So, I started modeling and then I grew up in st.
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Louis. And then I moved to Dallas to go
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to SMU which was a bigger platform, bigger modeling
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agencies and so I worked in Dallas.
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And then I was hired by a late to work in Barcelona after I
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graduated from college and then I came back to Dallas and
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married somebody that I loved and had two children and
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continue to model. But it was at my first brush
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with death and my first illness at the age of 35.
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When I walked into the surgeon's office because they had to do a
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colon resection and typically colon resections are done.
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Preferably orthoscopic lie that had nothing to do with what I
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wanted that's just in general that's how they're done.
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And so I said to the doctor, okay?
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Can we make sure it's done? Orthoscopic lie, because here is
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my modeling portfolio and see all these ads for j.c.
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Penney and Dillard's and all these lingerie pictures and all
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these bathing suit shots because that's kind of what I was good
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at. We can't mess up the stomach and
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he was like, okay, okay, now I've influenced Ernst right.
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The surgeon to, you know, be more I guess meticulous about
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not leaving me with scars. And so the, so the next?
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Well, interest interestingly enough, my sister was with me
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when I was signing all the paperwork, at the surgeon's
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office. And there was one little
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question that said, oh, if in need of blood, would you, will
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you sign the right to have blood put into your body?
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And I was like, I looked at my doctor and I said, why would I,
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why would I need to - he said, well, first of all, you have to
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sign that or we cannot do surgery any surgery, really?
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And he said, but don't worry about it, there's no need you'll
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you will not need blood. Well, the next day went in for
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surgery and literally went in the bathroom of the hospital and
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I just said, a few prayers. And I just said, okay, give it
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to God and I went into surgery, feeling kind of peaceful about
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it and I woke up from the surgery, six hours later and I
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had a blood bag at a port in my neck with a blood bag above my
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head. In the recovery room.
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That was my second blood transfusion.
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And I could, I was in such grotesque pain and I had, did
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not know what happened that my teeth were chattering, you know,
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my whole body was shaking anything and so I felt I asked
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the nurse who is sitting next to me.
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I said, why am I in so much pain?
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And why are, why is my body like convulsing?
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And she said, your doctor will be in here soon.
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I said, can you please give me like a nice chip or something?
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And she was like, no. She just she couldn't she
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wouldn't tell me anything. She didn't tell me anything and
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I was just in that room by myself scarce.
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Death and not worried about the scars at that moment obviously,
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but I put my hand out of my abdomen and I could feel the
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stables and the jagged edges and that my stomach was why cut up
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wide open from hip to hip and I had no idea what had happened
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and so the doctor came to my hospital bed that night and he
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just put his head on my bed and just said what he just said.
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I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry and what happened
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was Was he had nicked a vein in one of my bones during surgery?
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Which, you know, it's an accident happens but he and his
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mind kept thinking about those modeling pictures.
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Right? Why is this is her career?
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And by the way let me go back. I we weren't dependent on my
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income. We didn't I didn't have to work
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and so it wasn't like my livelihood and my children were
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going to eat if I wasn't working and so but it was an idol in my
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life, like modeling was definitely an idol in my life.
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And so the doctor, you know he I imagine we never had this
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conversation but I imagine that he was looking at those in his
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Mind's Eye. Looking at those pictures going,
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I really want to open her up. You know, she needs her stomach
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and so like 30 minutes later the blood was pooling and he
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couldn't find the source of it and the anesthesiologist who
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happened to be my next door neighbor said to him.
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In an emergency, he said you better open her immediately or
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she's going to die and so he did.
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He just, I mean, didn't move any.
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He couldn't he at that time. He couldn't move any muscles
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away. He just like wide open.
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Let's get to the source and so I almost bled to death on the
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table. That was the first life-changing
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illness that I had. And after about a year, a good
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year of trying to, you know, one your red blood cells take a long
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time to replenish after you have blood Transfusions and my chill
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had young children at the time and so I was just exhausted a
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lot and it took me about a year to get over that surgery and
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then life kind of went back to normal.
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I wasn't working modeling a lot. I just said, okay, well I'm
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going to take this time because I don't know if I can work.
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I'm not going to go back to doing laundry and bathing suits
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right now. And so I just started to, you
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know, I started to at that point I started to depend on society's
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accolades more. As I wasn't getting Society,
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since I wasn't getting modeling accolades, I wasn't getting
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rewarded by modeling jobs. I was like yearning for
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societies accolades and at no point, did I stop and say to
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myself when my friends were saying to me?
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Would you like to go to a Bible study?
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I was saying to them. No, I've got a yoga class
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because I wanted to like completely get my body back in
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shape. I was on a mission.
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Yeah, I was still that pretty girl, right that way.
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Yeah, my value. Yeah.
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No I can read. Late back in the day my mom
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would be like, hey, do you want to go to this Christian
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Conference with your sister long, your sister.
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And I like now I'd rather go to Vegas, you know?
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I was just like, that doesn't sound like fun.
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It's just so funny to look back on your spiritual growth and
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just be like, or the lack of it. I should say it.
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Just laugh at it. Well, okay, I don't really blame
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you when I don't really blame me because, you know, Society
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pushes into us into Like just turn on the TV.
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You just look at the apps. Like that's what it's pushing us
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to do certain things. And don't get me wrong.
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We have to take responsibility for our actions and we have to
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discern what's right for us or what's not right for us.
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But I wasn't doing anything wrong by working.
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I wasn't doing anything wrong by being a model, right?
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Wasn't doing anything wrong by going to yoga but those things I
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did were my Idols, those were false Idols, right?
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It's because the ocean of your heart.
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Exactly. Those are the things I was
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meditating on robbery day. Yes.
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Yep. So there is the death, there's a
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difference and, you know, I didn't really have a balance
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because I was. So, I was in a marriage and I
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was in relation relationally in a very transactional world like
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in the modeling industry, it's like you do this for me and I'll
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do this for you. And so that's how I thought life
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worked. So relationally with friends, I
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thought, well, if I'm not pretty T-they won't love me.
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If I'm not pretty, they won't want me in their group if I'm
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not a certain way, then my husband won't think I'm worthy.
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And that was in my head, right? Those were the thoughts that I
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was telling myself? Yeah, those weren't those
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weren't phrases. That they were sharing with me,
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right, right? But self-talk is critical to our
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self-esteem and to our decision making and so fast forward a
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couple years for five years. I had a torn ligament my right
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wrist And I went to see a couple surgeons because it was torn all
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the way through. So I needed surgery again from,
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I was a boy mom, and so, we were carrying large equipment for
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sports and I was doing a lot of yoga and handstands and
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backflips and all this sort of stuff, but I loved to do and I
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was a self-proclaimed athlete. Like I considered myself an
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athlete although it wasn't professional athlete, but I love
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to work out, I love to walk. I love to do.
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I love to exercise and I tore a ligament, my wrist.
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I didn't have an accident. It wasn't anything that happened
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right away, but it was kind of a degenerative thing.
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And so I went to meet with three surgeons and I picked the
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Stanford grad because he had the right pedigree and I did had
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surgery and he repaired the wrist and six weeks after the
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surgery, they took the cast off and about three days.
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After the cast came off my arm ballooned, my right arm looked
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like like that. Like my thigh bone literally, it
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was so swollen in the pain. Again my body was kind of like
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going. After that chattering my body
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was in so much pain and discomfort.
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And I called him on a Sunday that was the morning.
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I woke up with this pain and I was embarrassed to call him.
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I felt a great deal of shame because I was taught as a woman
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that Authority. I was in a way to respect
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authority more than myself. And I wasn't supposed to put men
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or people out of authority, right?
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People in positions of authority, I wasn't supposed to
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put them out so to call them on a Sunday was really.
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I felt It very much shame which is a Lie from Satan right?
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And and that's a that's a lesson that's a teaching that I think
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is out of out of place. It's out of you know, that
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doesn't people don't teach that anymore.
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I hope but so I call them on a Sunday and he said that I over I
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used my arm. Well I didn't go to Stanford, I
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don't have a medical degree. So I was like, okay, over ice my
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arm, I took the ice off and Unbeknownst to me, this is kind
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of was a pattern. He started to bully me.
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And it took several months of him.
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Bullying me like, outrageous, bullying, for me to finally, go
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see a second opinion. But by the time I saw a second
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doctor, this doctor had told me to go to physical therapy and I
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was going to physical therapy almost every day and every
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single day I was going to physical therapy.
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I was breaking every bone in my wrist because I had an
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undiagnosed infection in my arm from surgery.
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That he knew about. But misdiagnose it, in the
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beginning, undiagnosed it in the end.
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And so, by the time I finally saw, a second opinion, my arm
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was totally destroyed. And going back to the
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self-esteem and the thoughts about self awareness and self.
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Love those weren't happening in my life and so it was happening
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was here, is this man who is an authority, he's he knows more
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than me. That's what I'm telling myself.
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He knows more than me. And then I had other people in
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my life reinforcing that, they would say, oh, he's the best
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doctor in Dallas, of course, he's, he knows what he's doing,
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okay? And I even had other voices in
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my life saying, you're a hypochondriac, you are in the
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doctor all the time. So I was like, gosh.
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Ash. I mean, I've over iced it.
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I've moved it too much. I'm a hypochondriac.
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I'm not respecting Authority. I'm causing all of this, right?
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Because I didn't have the self-esteem that said, whoa,
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whoa. Whoa, whoa.
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I'm worthy of having answers here.
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I'm worthy. I'm not being in this pain and
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so I put a kept making decisions based on a terrible self-esteem.
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Which continue to hurt me. Mmm.
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Yeah, right. Yeah, for sure.
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Yep. But insecurity give That lack of
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confidence to stand up for yourself and go.
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Okay. I'm getting this checked out,
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there's something really wrong. Yeah, so were you modeling
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during this time? Did it interrupt your work?
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Yeah. It definitely interrupted it
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because I had cast on for almost a year so I had different casts
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on and I couldn't use my right arm and so I finally found a
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second opinion and another doctor and I ended up flying up
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to New York See because there's a hospital up there.
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Will that is the best Orthopedic Hospital in the country and they
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took the botched job. What I mean by that is a lot of
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times when you have a doctor that destroys part of your body
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or something inside of you, a lot of doctors don't want to
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touch it for liability but I found a really incredible
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doctor, New York and he said, come up to New York, I'll see
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you. I saw him and he fused my arm,
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he took all those broken bones out, he took all the infection
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out and he replaced it with cadaver bones a cadaver key.
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Sentence. So he basically rebuilt my wrist
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but fused it meaning I don't have a functional wrist and so
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I'm flying back to Dallas after my surgery and I'm like, wow, I
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was this like beautiful model and now six years you know, six
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years into this stuff. I'm have this massive scar on my
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abdomen and have a fused arm and I was just preppin
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self-proclaimed athlete, I can't work out.
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I can't use my right arm. I have no idea how to take care
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of my children. Children, how am I going to feed
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them? How am I going to cook?
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How am I going to drive? And I go back to New York, six
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weeks later for my post armed Fusion appointment and I'm in
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the hotel in New York City and four months.
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I wasn't able to use my right arm and the shower.
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So I'd have my right arm outside of the shower and I pour liquid
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soap over my shoulder and just let that wash down my body.
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And in this hotel, I called down to the front desk and I said,
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you guys have any liquid soap and they were like laughing at
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me. And so I took this bar of soap
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with this massive cast outside of the shower.
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And I was like, I'm going to try to get clean because I feel
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dirty. I just got off that.
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Yeah, airplane and I'm washing my body and I feel a lump in my
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left breast and I'm like, there's no way now I have no
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family, history of breast cancer, I have no reason to
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think that this is a breast cancer lung, but I kind of in
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the back of my mind was like, at this point.
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Life was a mess and I thought if anything else is going to happen
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to me, that's kind of the story of my life at this stage.
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And so, five days later, I was diagnosed with an aggressive
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form of breast cancer. Wow.
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So the way I'm kind of grasping like, how you were as a
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Christian, you would it be suffice to say, did you
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compartmentalize God? Like yeah.
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God was Okay, to enter this part of my life but not this part of
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my life. Yeah, I mean, God was always
18:34
present in my life but when it was the ambient, right?
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Yeah. Are you know, when it was like
18:40
an event so there was an advanced that raise money for a
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certain charity or for certain church or something that I
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believed in and my friends were going.
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I was all in. Yeah, but personally get time
18:52
with God was very limited and I didn't he wasn't first.
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You know, my own might was first Husband was first.
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My modeling was above me. My children were above me and
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the order was out of order. It was chaos, right?
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Because when things are out of order, would God is not up here.
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Your life is chaos, right? So when you get the news of the
19:15
breast cancer was that just like you're hitting rock bottom to
19:23
go. Okay.
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Lord, like have your way. I'm done trying to do it my way.
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No. No, my rock-bottom was please
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take me like I want to die. I could not wait to die.
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Yeah, I was like, I'm done. I have no value in this world.
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I've used all the resources with my children with my friends.
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They've taken me to physical therapy for a year.
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I've now had two or three surgeries, on my arm, I've used
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friends to come to New York City with me to travel with me and I
19:52
thought nobody's going to show up for me.
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I cannot offer them anything. I'm not beautiful anymore.
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I'm about to lose my hair. I'm about to go through 28
20:00
rounds of chemo and I've got no spirit inside of me and and
20:05
nobody's going to show up for me because I have no value.
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So I just couldn't wait to die. Wow.
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Okay. So take us through.
20:12
How did you get out of that? I mean, that's why de grace of
20:16
God. Are, you know, feeling that
20:19
hopelessness? I can't imagine.
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But despair was yeah. Despair was unimaginable.
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Yeah. So one of my son's was in
20:27
boarding school at the time. And he was going to come home
20:30
that first weekend after my diagnosis.
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And in the meantime, my friends knew like, it was Wildflower
20:36
like wildfire, like, why I was calling people.
20:38
My husband was calling people, and they all came over and they
20:40
were like, okay, we will never forsake.
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You God will never forsake you and I was like, yeah, right.
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Like I did not believe them. I thought you guys are going to
20:50
head out of here. I mean, the minute, I lose my
20:53
hair, you're out the door and I just, that's what I believed.
20:57
And so, My son was supposed to come home from boarding school,
21:01
that first weekend. And in the meantime, my friend
21:03
starts showing up every day, like they were living by their
21:05
word and even I had even had one friend.
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He said to me, no, you're my Bible study, I'm not even going
21:11
to bible study this whole semester because you're my Bible
21:14
study, every Wednesday that a supposed to be in Bible study
21:16
I'm coming here instead. And and so my son got in trouble
21:21
in boarding school. So he wasn't able to come home
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and then he was supposed to come on the next weekend.
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Now, I'm still in this despair. I'm still in this like Victim
21:29
mentality of. I'm just going to die.
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I'm not going to do treatment. I'm not going to fight for my
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life and it was very vocal about it and it's because that's how I
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felt like I wasn't looking for attention.
21:39
I just was like guys. Like I know that my life is
21:43
over, like it's done. I'm I've had too many too many
21:46
tragedies I and I'm in pain like I'm in physical pain in my arm,
21:49
it was terrible and so and when you're in pain, you can't you
21:54
it's hard to make really really rational and important decisions
21:59
When you're in really distressful pain.
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And so, and so, again, my friends kept showing up and they
22:05
kept saying to me, no, we are the hands and the feet of the
22:07
lord, we will not leave your side and I just didn't believe
22:11
them. And so my son, got he got in
22:14
trouble, three weekends. In a row, was not able to come
22:16
home and by the time he was able to come home, which is about a
22:19
month, my friends had taught me and I finally believe them
22:22
because they showed up 30 days in a row.
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They finally, I finally believed that they would show up for me
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that they weren't going to Uh, shake me.
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And in the meantime, there were coming over and one of my
22:32
friends because this I was diagnosed with breast cancer,
22:35
October 1st. And so that's like Halloween,
22:38
right? So I have ghosts and goblins in
22:40
my house and my boys like all this like, you know, skeletons
22:45
and all this, like creepy stuff. And so, my friends came in my
22:48
house and they said, oh we're taking all of the stuff that
22:51
doesn't represent life away and we're going to replace it.
22:54
Like one of my friends took me out for the day and the other
22:57
friend came in and replaced. Just everything that did not
23:00
represent life and she brought plans and even my dog will had
23:04
skulls skulls and crossbones on it.
23:06
They took it out, they got me a new dongle, and by the time I
23:09
get home, everything around me was representing life.
23:12
And they said to me, you have to meditate on life.
23:14
You cannot meditate on what death and even what you look
23:17
around, and see is critical. And so even if you don't think
23:21
these things matter, these skulls and crossbones and
23:24
Graves, you know, for Halloween, they do matter.
23:27
And so they took all of that out and my son came home.
23:30
And by the time he came home, I was like, you know what, my life
23:33
might have some meaning. I'm going to figure it out.
23:37
I'm going to spend the time these next, 15 months and
23:40
chemotherapy when there's going to be a lot of alone time and
23:43
all this other time with my friends and figure out, what
23:45
this whole God thing is about, like really about Right.
23:49
And so literally like even on the darkest days when I did not
23:53
know, if I would wake up the next day because I was so sick.
23:56
I had, you know, I was already depleted when I went into
23:59
chemotherapy because I did a year of an infection in my arm
24:01
that was undiagnosed and so I my body was sick like I was so
24:06
sickly. I was like 90 some odd pounds
24:08
and I just was there many days where I got so sick from chemo
24:12
therapy and my white blood count was so low that I wasn't sure.
24:15
I was going to wake up the next day and on those days where I
24:18
was violently ill and laying on the floor, in the bathroom and
24:21
by myself and crying out to God. I just I stopped meditating on
24:28
what other people could do for me or what I could do for them.
24:31
And I stopped meditating on the outcome.
24:35
Because all I knew was today, God's God's strength and God's
24:38
courage was for today and God's Hope was for tomorrow.
24:41
So the courage I had was for today, I wasn't going to worry
24:45
about tomorrow whether I woke up or not I was now planted, I was
24:50
God's child and whatever wherever he took me.
24:53
I was all in. It was like that major shift
24:56
that major paradigm shift, and thank God, but I was also
25:02
feeding my soul on Hillsong, You know the song motions.
25:06
I was feeding my soul on everywhere.
25:08
I looked there was scriptures like one of my friends came in
25:12
and took 250 sticky notes that has scriptures on it, she put
25:15
them everywhere, she put them all over my house.
25:18
So what I was they were feeding me the scriptures, right?
25:21
And they were feeding me how to live as a child of God.
25:25
I was listening to podcast that were life-giving.
25:28
I wasn't watching Bravo entertainment TV anymore.
25:30
I wasn't watching a news that stuff was gone out of my life.
25:34
Like, comparing my life to others, you know, people or two
25:37
looking at celebrities as they were, some sort of models to the
25:40
world was gone. I wasn't meditating on any of
25:44
that and I wasn't, I wasn't fixated on materialism anymore.
25:48
Like my bags that I coveted, they weren't keeping me cozy at
25:52
night, they weren't helping me. And so when I got rid of those
25:56
thoughts and when I took, I really took my thoughts captive.
25:59
And anytime I would say to myself, you're not worthy.
26:02
You're disgusting. You have a few star Mew.
26:04
Now disabled, who would care about you?
26:06
Who would ever love you? You know, your breasts are now
26:09
gone, who would love you? When I start started to say
26:12
that, I would stop it immediately and say that is a
26:14
Lie from Satan, and that's unacceptable, and I would
26:19
replace those phrases with different phrases.
26:21
God is let go and let God, I'm a Child of God, I am worthy.
26:25
I am beautifully and wonderfully made in His image.
26:28
And I didn't necessarily believe those thoughts in the beginning.
26:32
But man, if you keep stopping those, Negative thoughts and you
26:35
keep replacing it with life-giving thoughts.
26:36
You will start to have a solid self-esteem, and I rebuilt my
26:41
life on faith, and that was concrete like the life that I
26:45
lived with materialism and this transactional life, and based on
26:49
external beauty, that was sand and I was sinking fast.
26:54
So that life was over for me. It takes Sometimes some things
26:58
to happen in our life, to realize that those worldly
27:02
things will just fade away. Yeah, and what a great group of
27:07
friends you had, and how your community really saved your
27:11
life. I mean, this is just such a
27:13
great example for us to know, like, friends and Community like
27:19
it's important. It's essential to wrap ourselves
27:23
around other people and to encourage us and build us up.
27:27
You just might be saving somebody from where they're at,
27:30
I have to share to that. Our fight is just, it's not a
27:36
fight for nothing. There is Victory.
27:39
There is a reward on the other side of it and I can't help to
27:44
see what you're doing now. With everything that you're
27:49
involved in. You are a board member of e.t.
27:54
UT where you support and help other women get wigs, who cannot
28:02
afford it when they lose. their hair through chemotherapy and
28:07
your, you know, an advocate educator humanitarian, you do so
28:13
much for others and building other people's self-esteem up
28:19
because you've been there and you know when we been there then
28:25
we know how to spread hope and encouragement and be selfless
28:32
you know in the World when we just go through those difficult
28:39
dark times, you know, we do have an obligation.
28:42
I do believe as women to cheer each other on, and when I see
28:46
women being catty and tearing each other apart, or being in a
28:49
world where they think there's competition amongst each other,
28:52
it makes me really sad. And so I kind of shout from the
28:55
rooftops and any platform that I'm capable of being on and just
28:59
say it's not about the competition, it's about the
29:02
cheerleading each other on. And Until you realize that
29:05
you're never going to get what you need, the substance comes
29:09
from keeping each other on the right track, right?
29:14
And again, it's not self-serving, it's actually it
29:17
can often be, you know, it takes a lot of time and takes a lot of
29:21
effort to do these sorts of things but the reward is seeing
29:25
other people's lives changed and look what my friends didn't
29:28
learn it, right? They gave up a resources.
29:30
They gave up their time. They gave up their own families
29:32
to keep mine and Said to me along the way they said, at some
29:35
point we're going to let you fly right.
29:38
And when you fly, it will be your responsibility to share
29:41
this story. And I take that very seriously.
29:45
And by the way, it's a privilege, like if we can be
29:48
vulnerable enough to say this is how I did it wrong and this is
29:52
how I do it now. Take what you want, right?
29:55
If you want the up, that wife the life before, go for if you
29:58
want this life cohort, but if I'm vulnerable up and say, this
30:02
is how I did it wrong. Maybe, Buddy will do it
30:04
differently, and they won't have to go every through everything
30:06
that I went through, then it's worth it.
30:08
Mmm, so true. Okay, let's talk about your
30:11
book. Called walk beside me.
30:14
It's a novel. So you took maybe a fictional
30:18
character but added your story explain what you did there.
30:22
Yeah. So it's a fictional depiction of
30:23
my life and it's called walk beside me and I changed like I
30:27
have two sons but I put in the book, I have a son of Anna
30:30
daughter and I changed the city's and, you know, the People
30:34
that I leaned on during that time, they were all like you can
30:39
use my name. It's all fine.
30:40
But I just wanted to kind of cover everybody from, you know,
30:43
just a standpoint of an amenity, you know, just everybody's name
30:47
didn't need to be out there. And so we did change the names
30:50
and my name in the book is Willow, but that's always been
30:53
my nickname. So I kind of like having that
30:54
name and my book is actually being made into a film called
30:58
Willow the feature film. Yeah.
31:00
We saw that. I was like, wow, that's cool.
31:04
Yeah, it is cool. I mean, I think that it's
31:06
important to have, I think it's important for a film to show
31:11
what kind of community women can create and how Empower
31:14
life-giving that can be, especially right now on the
31:19
after-effects of covid. We're now seeing how lonely
31:24
people can get when they're isolated.
31:26
And so I think it's important to see that the way that people can
31:30
live by, you know, caring each other.
31:33
And ya know I'm excited about the film, but I am I book was
31:36
published like six years ago and people in fact, somebody posted
31:39
on their social media today and I just love that people see, you
31:43
know, the growth and God, and also the growth and friendships
31:46
and just in the growth and self esteem because without a self
31:48
esteem, we will not make good decisions.
31:51
Yeah, and the way we get that is through God's word and what he
31:55
says, who we are. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
32:00
I love that. All right.
32:01
You want to give us a takeaway here?
32:03
About the listener can ponder on when I feel down and I feel kind
32:09
of broken. I literally my first thought is
32:11
let go and let God and that just that phrase can carry you to the
32:18
next moment, right? And sometimes it's moment to
32:21
moment and sometimes I have to get on my knees and I have to
32:24
just be in, you know, prayer with God.
32:26
Just saying, okay, I don't understand this.
32:28
I'm not able to do this in My Own Strength.
32:30
Please do this for me, but if we just remember that At let go and
32:34
let God that really can help you throughout your days.
32:37
I love that. Okay.
32:39
Where can people reach you and connect with you and get
32:45
involved in what you're doing? So I'm on most social media
32:49
platforms. I don't really do Tick-Tock, but
32:51
Pinterest, Instagram. Facebook!
32:54
I'm all Christine handy. One and my website is Christine
32:58
handy.com and then my book is walk beside me and that's sold.
33:02
Most places, you know, I I usually feed people to Amazon,
33:05
just because it's easy, but it said, Barnes and Noble and
33:08
Target, Books-A-Million. It's at most retailer book.
33:13
Retailers, cool, okay. And do you have a release date
33:17
for the film? Or is it still in the beginning
33:19
stages in the works? What's actually been in the
33:23
works since 2018 but we had to pull it back during the covid
33:27
which to set us back a couple years but it's it's being rain
33:32
gauge right now. So it's been very exciting.
33:35
Well, I know it's going to be tremendously blessed by God.
33:41
Thank you so much for listening today and I trust that God has
33:45
encouraged you through this story.
33:47
Did you know this podcast is on YouTube, hop on there and
33:51
subscribe and you can see a live recording of each episode and
33:56
for more information on this ministry and to access free
34:00
downloads, please visit my website at Jamie Elizabeth.com
34:04
that's ja, yme Elizabeth.com and let's connect Beyond this
34:10
podcast by Going to my Instagram handle, Jamie Elizabeth, she
34:14
speaks life or Facebook until next time my friend.
34:18
I hope God reveals himself through your own life story.