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Transcript

MIchael & Jana McMillian · Brewing Better Marriages

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: I guess I've been looking for you.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_03: I guess I've been looking for you.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_05: Welcome to Brewing Better Marriages from T South Dakota with Philip and Debbie Sanders.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_05: If these podcasts have been a help to you, pass it on to others.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_05: Let us know with an email, and also include any questions you might have on the subjects that we cover.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_05: The last three we have been talking with Sean and Retha McDaniel.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_05: They're the ones that's been working with us here.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_05: I hope you've enjoyed that.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_05: I thought it was very good learning about other people's life.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_05: Do you like that, Deb?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's interesting to hear what others, you know, what they're doing for the Lord and how God brings it all about and the miracles he works.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_05: Well, we've got some special guests with us today, Brother Michael and Sister Janna McMillan.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_05: They're friends from way back, years gone back.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_05: And uh they were coming through and just want to spend the night and have some good um just some good fellowship.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_05: So we decided what we'd do is just put them to work on these podcasts, and we're gonna give you a view into their life, uh, walk up to where they have been uh how they met, uh their marriage, uh their ministry, what they're doing now, things of that nature.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_05: So, Mike, good to have you, buddy.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you, sir.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's good to be here.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_05: Good.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_05: Did you ever dream you'd be in T, South Dakota?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Never.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Never heard of the place.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you have now.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_05: And uh we've just been sitting around for about the last hour or a little more discussing how that God is working in our lives, ours here in T and theirs, how that God's led them and given them uh just a full life.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_05: And I believe he said, didn't you say your anniversary Sunday?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is, yes, 35 years on Sunday.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_05: Well, does it seem like it's been 35 years?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_05: No, sir.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_05: Janna?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: One of those no comments.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Do we plead the fifth?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's been good.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_05: Good.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_05: We also have Michael uh with us, their son.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_05: He won't be on the podcast, at least this point, but uh, we're glad he's here.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_05: And we welcome you.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_05: We want you to just get in here and listen to what God's doing in their life.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_05: And uh, we've already introduced them.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_05: Mike, uh just kind of give me an overview of where you come from, what you're doing, how you're doing, all that sort of stuff.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um I came from a little little town and uh the Lord called us to uh his work.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um he he actually called me to Africa when I was ten years old.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so for the last uh five years we've been full-time ministry in Tanzania, Africa.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we're home on furlough right now, and uh things are just going well.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: We head back to Africa in uh uh October, the first of October.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_05: Now you come from California, correct?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_05: Is there much difference in California and Tanzania?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to explain, but yeah, there's quite a bit of difference.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Was you raised in church?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was all my life, yes.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: All your life.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: My mother and father were raised uh under the pastor uh and saved under their ministry.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, praise God.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_05: Now, if I remember your dad right, he was he Sunday school superintendent?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, Sunday school superintendent.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh bus driver, men's ministry leader, roll ranger leader, just uh he's just whatever the the Lord had for him to do and the pastor asked him to do, he was willing.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_05: So you were integrally involved uh in the ministry without being in the ministry.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_05: All my life, yes.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_05: And I enjoyed it though.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_05: And if I remember you and your family, all of you were just always committed to working for God and doing things for God.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_05: Janet, what about you?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_05: I was pastor's kid.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_05: Oh boy, folks, hold on.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_05: Here we go, another PK.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_05: And um how well you was if you were a pastor's kid, then you were always involved in the ministry also.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, every part of it.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_05: Namely, do you have any specifics?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I worked in the Christian school for 25 years and taught Sunday school classing in the choir, youth ministry.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Most everything.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_05: Mike, uh what is your recollection of when you got saved, when you gave your life to God?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna have to say it was uh my senior year uh in high school when I I mean I was always around as we just talked about, and I always felt like, you know, I love the Lord, but uh I I remember specifically a senior in high school when I remember I and I remember just giving it all to him and saying, Hey, Lord, this is what this is what I want now, you know.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not just what mom and dad are maybe wanting me to do or forcing me to do, but I'm I'm I'm selling out all to you today.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_05: Praise God.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_05: Well, it's a wonderful time, and oh yes, man, just to know, I mean, it's not without its tests and trials and failures and successes, but man, to just know.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_05: Recently I listened to a song that said Um the devil doesn't know how to deal with someone who has given all.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_05: Because he has nothing to hold over their head.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_05: Nothing, that's right.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_05: So Janet, what about you?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: When do you recollect that you really um I distinctly remember uh when I was about fifteen in in a tent meeting, a tent revival we were having there in and at home, and I distinctly remember making that decision that this is my choice to serve God wholly.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_05: And how old were you?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: About fifteen.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm sure I'd ask the Lord into my heart plenty of times before, you know, when you're in children's church and all the things.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: But to really just say understand, I'm I got filled with the Holy Spirit when I was twelve.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: I I remember that.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: But after that time at 15, then it became personal.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_05: You know, a personal time of reading the Bible and having the time to pray and you know, I remember um uh evangelists would come by and preach for my father, and I'd see him a little later, and this is the conversation that would take place.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_05: Don't know that it really happened, but this is the way I look at it.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_05: Being a PK myself, preacher's kid, um, they'd been preaching dad revivals, and there was multiple evangelists, and one said, Man, we had a phenomenal move of God there at Brother Sanders.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, really?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Philip got in.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_05: Manny got in that altar, and he really prayed through.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_05: And the other guy said, Really?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_05: That was my revival too.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_05: And then the third one would say, Yeah.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah, you guys think you had it?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_05: I had him too.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_05: So you know how it is.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_05: Being raised in a preacher's home, you're constantly driven to the altar sometimes, and sometimes drawn to the altar.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_05: But I'm just whichever way it comes, I'm just glad it happened.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_05: Aren't you?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_05: Amen.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_05: Well, what uh you're in Tanzania now.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_05: Let's talk a little bit about you two coming together.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_05: Okay?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_05: Let's uh how how and and I guess I'll go to you first, uh Mike, and and uh how did you guys I'm sure you went to church together.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: We did.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: We we were kind of talking about it a little bit earlier today, and was like, when when did we meet?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we we're like, you know, we've probably been at each other's birthday parties since we were entire lives.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Our entire life, yeah.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just we were just our lives have always been intertwined.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, my my parents were saved under her mom and dad's ministry, so we've just always been there, you know.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_05: Did you ever think in your mind or say in your mind, Oh, here comes that Mike McMillan again?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, that's a good thing.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I was I don't know, it's probably my junior year or so.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I just earlier than that.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was earlier than that.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, she says earlier than that.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: When I just realized that, hey, she's not just a little girl anymore.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's you know, she's she's kind of my peer, you know, because I I don't know.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was I was thinking about I always kind of was looking at girls that were my age, you know.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Janna's only a couple years younger than me, so it was just like she was a she was a little girl, but really she's younger, yeah.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: She's younger.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I know she doesn't act like it all the time.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: But then I realized and we start talking and we just hit it off, and uh it's it's been happy life ever since.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_05: Well, happy wife.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, happy life.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, okay.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, there's been some rough times.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_05: I Jana, how about you?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_05: How about you you first remember does there anything that comes to your mind?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I I remember.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um I actually was only about 12 or 13 the first time that he had a conversation with me.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like a not just like a little kid, you know, running past.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um it was at church camp and uh we ended up on the same team at a scavenger hunt.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: They had a massive scavenger hunt.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, this is getting really good, folks.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: And when it was over, um they had used his shoelaces from his tennis shoes because they needed um they could one of the things is a red shoelace.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I forgot all about this.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I he was lacing up his shoes and we and he started talking with me there.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: And that kind of started it.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then there was a few notes passed here and there at school.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: A few notes passed at school.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, don't tell the supervisors.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_05: Uh how did you sense, and of course I know, how old were you when you married Jana?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: I was 19.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_05: And you were 21.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_05: How did you sense that this was God's will?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_05: You notice how quiet that got there.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, when I started, you know, when you start liking boys or whatever, I don't know.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um my mom and dad, there was a lot of boys in our church.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: Our church, you know, was growing.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so my mom and dad would often after services when we were home, they would say, You should pay attention who's who's in the altar, who's putting the Lord first in your in their life, who's letting the Lord minister to them, and who's the one that sits back till the end of the revival before they move, or who's always in a bad mood and having to pray through at chapel, and just kind of you take stock of their spiritual life.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's the way mom and dad, you know, trained us.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: Good advice, yes.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so I will say Michael's heart was always toward the Lord, and that was the thing that always was in my mind that I knew he was going to serve the Lord.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't gonna be a fight, their family served the Lord.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe was that the way it was with me?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_05: You looked at me as I hit the altars and I didn't sit in the back of the church, and Professor's son, yeah.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Had real clout with him.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_05: Mike, how about you?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: You got anything to say at all that um I I no, not really.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I I always noticed that she did love the Lord and she was in and and and too, some of it was probably because she was in the pastor's home and it might have been forced some, but you know, I noticed that, you know, as she was in high school and stuff like that, that um she was one of the first down there in the altar.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: She was praying with people and and and and seeking God.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: So um I knew I always wanted a a wife like that, you know, um uh or a girlfriend even.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted somebody who was sensitive to the Lord because what when I when I did get saved, you know, I I I knew that's just what I wanted.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I wanted that for my life, and I wanted for I I always I I I liked my mom and dad's home, um, how we were raised and how my mom and dad and I wanted that for us too.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: So and I saw others in the church that um had lives like that.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I I I I looked around, I could see some that, you know, maybe one spouse wasn't just serving God like they should, or you know, we we might say 100% in, you know, and it seemed like there was always a a a battle or a a tug of war, you know.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I just said, you know, I I wanted to have a good home.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to have a ha a happy home, uh a home that everybody that we loved each other, the children loved coming back home whenever they were when they had married, you know.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so I knew I needed a wife that was going to be uh a God-fearing woman.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_05: And so you started to say submissive there.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_05: No, no, no.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_05: I couldn't I couldn't resist that.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, Deb, you have your hand up.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: If I may interrupt.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: I was just thinking both of them uh expressed how important it is as parents to lead and guide our children in the and give them direction.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: We just don't leave them out there to um flounder for themselves to to find the will of God for their life.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: If we don't if we're not giving them the example of ours first and then instilling in them principles to guide them in the right direction, then they're not gonna make wise choices because at those young ages, they're not thinking too clearly.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_05: That kind of reminds me of our marriage conference and how we talk about training up.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_05: It's like a tree.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_05: You don't just go out and put it in the ground and walk off and forget it.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_05: You have to train that because of the winds and the adversities that come.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_05: And sometimes even our children feel like we went a little too far.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_05: But you know what?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_05: When we do let them go, at least they'll come back straight.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_05: And um that's that's you know, train them up in the way they should go.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_05: And we have a living example right here in front of us of uh Michael and Janna McMillan.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_05: And this has been our first episode uh with them, and it's kind of been an introduction to their their life, and my goodness, please download this and listen to it over and over again, because there are some great principles that have been uh stated as well as applied in their life that will help you, even with your children and rearing your children.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_05: So uh we want to say thank you for joining us today.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_05: We appreciate that.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Mike.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Jana, Michael, I'm sorry, and Jana.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you very much.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_05: And uh we'll we'll catch you with another episode or two and talk about the latter end or even the middle end of your life.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_05: Um and so again, this is Philip and Debbie Sanders in T South Dakota.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_05: And uh email us sometime or talk to us a little bit about what you've gleaned from what we've said.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: You can email at sandersministries at gmail.com with any questions or comments you might have.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_05: Or go on our website, which is sanders-ministries.org.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_05: That is sanders-ministries.org.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_05: Our podcasts are there.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um we even we even have a blog on there and also a contribution form that you can do.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_05: So thank you again for joining with us, and we hope it's been a blessing for you.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: She's a look for you.