Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / September 12, 2023 | Expresso - Norma Burton & Lynne Hargraves

Transcript

September 12, 2023 | Expresso - Norma Burton & Lynne Hargraves · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Ladies, you are in for a treat this evening.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: We've got the mother-daughter duo over here.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: But before I am I know I'm so excited, before I invite them up, would you bow your heads with me and let's open up this evening in prayer?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Father God, we just bow our hearts and our minds before you and pray that your spirit will rest in this place, that you will open our hearts and eyes to what you have for us this evening, Lord.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: We thank you for all the women who share their stories with us in hopes that it will be an encouragement to someone here and online, Lord, for those who listen.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: And we just we just thank you for the privilege of being able to be in a place like Topeka Bible Church where we can proclaim your goodness and share with others, Lord, what you have done in our lives.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so we just ask you to be with us tonight.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Bless the time that we have here, Lord, and it's our desire to see you lifted up and glorified.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I will tell you, these two ladies have been sitting right in front of me in the Mulvane building for I want to say as long as I've been here, but I'm sure that, which I started in 2011, in case you're like, oh, she's probably been here 40 years.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: But but these two ladies have been at Topeka Bible Church for a really long time.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Norma has lived in Topeka for 66 years, and Lynn has lived in Topeka since the day she was born, which is no, I'm just kidding, 60.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: So she she is absolutely stunning.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: But I have to tell you guys that um, you know, you when you think about where you sit in church and the people around you, you know, because we are creatures of habit, we can immediately picture who sits near us um on a regular basis.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I will forever have the fondest of memories because I have watched these two.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: I have particularly watched Lynn care for her, and we've already acknowledged that we're probably gonna cry all night long, so let's just get that out of the way.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: We're not even fighting it anymore, we're just just gonna happen.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: But I have watched Lynn love on her mother since I started attending TBC.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um well, and and certainly since uh Norma's husband passed away, and she'll share a little bit of that with you here in a minute, but just absolutely warms my heart to see um the care and the tenderness and the affection and the silliness and the laughter and the worship and all of the things that they do just so well together.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: It has blessed me.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: It has blessed so many of us who have the privilege of sitting near them.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: So um naturally when I was working on um just praying about who might come and share their testimony uh here at here at Espresso, I thought of the two of them and they had to do it together.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it just didn't make any sense to, hey Lynn, you want to do it in September?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, Norma, how about January for you or whatever?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because both of these women want to talk to you about who Jesus is for them and what he's done in their lives.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so we are gonna have a treat tonight.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: They're both gonna come up here and we're gonna just go a little different tonight, all right?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: So if you would give them a round of applause as they make their way up here.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: And they're not nervous so at all.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: They were practically begging me for a microphone and an opportunity to stand in front of a room full of people and talk.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: Can I go sit with those people?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, you cannot go sit with those people over there.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna we're gonna see how this works.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Norma, I'm gonna hand you this microphone, and this is yours unless I take it away from you.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and Lynn, I'm gonna hand you this.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna hand you this one and let you start us off if you would.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, here you go.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, I want to thank you all for being here tonight.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I am surprised that I see some familiar faces I haven't seen for a while.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for coming.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And let me put my glasses on.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: But put your glasses on first, don't hit yourself with this.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when Connie several weeks ago approached me and was wanting to know if it would be something my mom and I would be interested in doing is attending the women's espresso and giving our testimony.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: My first answer was sure, yeah, okay, yeah.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and then uh I said, Well, we'll have to talk about it and think about it.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: And we decided, yeah, we'll do it.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: But then I was thinking, oh my gosh, what did I do?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: That means I'm gonna have to get up in front of people and actually speak.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: So please bear with me because this is not something I'm very good at.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I was born and raised here in Topeka, Kansas, 60 years ago.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I was truly, truly blessed to be raised in a wonderful Christian home.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that sounds cliche, but my life growing up was awesome.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: It it truly was.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: I had the best parents uh God would ever bless anybody with.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, our family has always been tight.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's a family of my mom and dad, and I have two older sisters.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the baby of the family, and we've been very, very close.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: We did everything together growing up.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh even though my dad didn't have any sons, he would try to maybe put a little bit of boy in us as far as he was into cars and motorcycles, and he would take us on the back of his motorcycle, and and we we didn't think anything of it.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Basketball, goal in our driveway, go-kart, but we we had tons of fun growing up.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: We were also raised in a church, and that is when my mom and dad led me to the Lord when I was between five and six years old.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: I accepted Christ as my savior at that time.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: We attended one church, but there was things that happened in that church and it dissolved.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we started attending another church, and uh it was pretty strict.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was how we were raised, also.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I think a lot of that was due to the church environment we were raised in.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: When I'm talking strict, I'm talking no movies, no contemporary music, no dancing.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was yes, so at the time when I was growing up, it it really didn't seem all that bad until I started getting older into my teenage years.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then all my friends were going to movies, asking me to go to movies.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Why can't you go to movies?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And as a teen, I guess you kind of get embarrassed about that a little bit.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I I did miss out on some of that stuff growing up, but that's okay because I still had my family.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we we always knew that God was first in our family, no matter what.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that was one of the main goals to keep our family together as a Christ-loving family.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So as I was approaching my teen years, um I started rebelling a little bit, and not not too bad.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: I I still was doing okay, but it was once I moved out of and moved in with my best friend when I was 18 years old, then I really started rebelling and became a partier drinking and getting involved in some stuff that I'm not really proud of.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I just kind of lost my way.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: And uh my sister and I ended up moving in together a couple years after that, and we decided we would try to start going back to church, and so we started shopping around at churches because the church that I was raised in, I I neither one of us were happy in that it just wasn't fulfilling for us.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: So we shopped around for different churches here in Topeka, and we stopped at Topeka Bible Church, and this was in the early 1980s, and this was our last stop.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we started attending church occasionally.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't a regular churchgoer, I still had that rebellion in my system that I felt I needed to get out for whatever reason.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And during that time I ended up meeting somebody and getting married.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: I got married in 1986, and we didn't have the best marriage, it it was okay.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I ended up marrying an ungodly man, so that should have told me something right there, but uh we tried to have children, we couldn't, we went through fertility treatments for a few years, and to no avail, it didn't work, and I I can now look back and say, Thank you, Lord, for that, because he's he still had a plan for me, he wasn't done with me yet, and sadly that marriage ended in divorce, and in 1999 I got a divorce, and it was a very tough time for me, even though the marriage was not the greatest.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: I I was in it for the long haul no matter what, and it just I was devastated, I felt like a failure.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'd never been out on all by myself before.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: I was alone, and uh yeah, it was a very, very tough time.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: I was still going to church occasionally, not on a regular basis, but luckily I had my parents there to help me through that.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: I had my sisters to help me through it, and it just at that time, uh yeah, I pretty much was done with marriage.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't ever looking to get married again.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: That was it for me.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Until until I was at work, I at the time I worked at Super Chief Credit Union in Oakland, and uh a co-worker that worked at the branch on 25th and Bell, she would buzz me over the phone and say, Lynn, I have somebody for you.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, No, I I don't, I yeah, I I'm just got divorced, I'm not ready for this, okay, you know, and then a few weeks would go by.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Lynn, I talked to Frank, and he's he just really needs a good woman.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was like, yeah, I'm just not ready for this at all.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: But thank you for thinking of me.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: And uh just one day I came back from work and had a uh basket with flowers on it, and and uh came back from lunch and it was sitting on my desk, and I was like, oh my gosh, who is this from?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it was from this guy that she was telling me about, and she was telling him about me.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: So from that point we started dating off and on, and for whatever reason, I I just I don't know, I felt something different with him.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: He he would uh just come into my life or call me up at times when I was having a hard time.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Needless to say, we are now married, and we will be celebrating our 23rd wedding anniversary this Saturday.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I did not have children, but my husband did.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: My husband has a beautiful daughter, her name is Jana.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: At the time we got married, she was 20 years old, and uh so I I do have a daughter, and now with Jana and her husband Jimmy, now I have three beautiful granddaughters also.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: So God blessed me, he he he took care of me.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: He knew all along that my previous marriage uh that's not that wasn't in his plan, but I I'm I just think the world of these girls, they're they're so precious to me.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: So life is good, okay.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Then we get to 2016, and you'll see a picture there of my father and myself at the father-daughter dance here at Topeka Bible in 2016.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he had such a great time that he said, next year, it won't just be me and you, he said, I'm bringing your other two sisters here, and it's gonna be all three of us girls and me for daughters and father dance.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Shortly after this picture was taken, my dad started getting ill and uh really fast, and we we didn't know really what was wrong with him.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: My dad suffered from major depression for many, many years.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was something our family um had to experience with him over the years.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: He he was on a medication that helped him for decades, but unfortunately, the medication he was on pretty much destroyed his kidneys.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: So they had to take him off of his medication.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: So when he started getting sick, we didn't know if it was due to a physical ailment or his mental illness.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And at the time it was just my mother and myself because my two sisters, uh, one lives in Texas and one lives outside of Wichita.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just us trying to help my dad, and it progressed pretty quickly.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: What whatever was wrong with him.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: We took him to several different hospitals.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: We knew he was going through a depression at the same time on top of physical ailments, but trying to find help for mentally ill people who are suffering depression is horrendous.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's horrible.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the phone calls that I would make just begging people to help out was just unbelievable.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we did the best we could.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: We put him in a few places that we probably shouldn't have put him in because we were just grasping at straws at the time, just trying to find somebody to help.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: And little by little, month by month, his his illness got worse, and he had decided to stop eating, and uh he was bedridden, and my mom did not want to leave him in care of anybody else except for her, and so we brought him home.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was at the beginning of 2017, and we're gonna take care of him.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: So my mom and I did the best we could.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: I work a full-time job, and I would do the best I could on my lunch hour.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I'd come over, we'd have to get up early in the morning, take him to certain appointments, and and it it was a handful.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: And luckily, I had a sister that came up from Texas, and she was here the last six to eight weeks of my dad's life.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: My dad passed away on April 27th, 2017, and that was one of the darkest, hardest times I've ever had to deal with up to this date, because being in such a close-knit family and we just love each other all to pieces, not saying we have never argued, because we have, but we don't stay mad when we work it out.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: But dealing with the passing of my father was just tremendous.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I we had heard about grief share here at the church, and mom and I talked about it and thought I think we need to do this because at that time I think after do helping with the caretaking and everything, and and losing one of the greatest men that I've ever known in my life, um, I I needed help.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: I needed help.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I recommend grief share 100% to anybody because it helped my mom and I so so much deal with it because I I truly thought I was losing my mind.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: I really did with the grief that I just couldn't handle anymore.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: So going through Grief Share helped tremendously.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: I myself, I don't suffer from depression, but I suffer from anxiety really bad.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I have most of my life, and I never knew about it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: I used to get sick as a child and miss a lot of kindergarten and stuff, and now we look back and know why, because I would worry and get myself so uptight that I would have like anxiety attacks and my mom would keep me home from school, but um there are a few things that I am definitely gonna have to read here, if you'll just bear with me.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: I going through all of this has changed my life tremendously.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Going through a divorce, going through the grief of losing my dad, unbearable pain that I never thought I'd I'd deal with.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: It brought me back to Christ.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: I rediscovered Christ for so many years.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'd been just kind of going with the flow because I was raised in church.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: I I I knew how it worked and everything, but I never felt it like I did.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: And it's due to my mom, because I started coming back to church immediately because she after my dad passed away, she wanted to start to back to church like pretty much the couple days after he passed away.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because she'd been staying at home caring for him.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: So in the beginning, it I was going to church mainly for her.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't going for me.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: I was going for her because her and my dad would be just like another couple that usually sits in front of us and holds hands.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: That was my mom and dad too.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: They were like peas and carrots, did everything together, and I did not want her to be alone.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: But in the process, my life was changed.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: It I wasn't going anymore for my mom.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: I was going for myself because I felt an awakening that I never had before.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, I just I just wanted to share a couple verses, if I may, because I have a new role in my life now, and it's called Caregiver.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: I have a mother now, and I'm the Only relative living here in town.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: But I wouldn't have it any other way.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because she is truly one of my best friends.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: I also have to mention that my husband is older than me.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: He's 12 years older than me.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Which right now doesn't sound like a lot.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: But we always tease people and say, yeah, when I was in when I was in first grade, he was in Vietnam.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that can tell you the difference.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: So due to him being in Vietnam, he was he is a Marine.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: You never say was a Marine.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: He is a Marine and he fought in Vietnam.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: He does suffer from PTSD.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: So there are some issues that I have to deal with there.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I take the rule on asking the Lord for as much grace as possible.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because God did give him a good woman.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Whether he believes it or not, I don't know.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I just wanted to share a couple verses with you.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: As my hands are kind of shaking here.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: So the first verse is Philippians 2, 3 through 4.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let each of you look not only to his interests, but also to the interest of others.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how I feel about being a caregiver.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: And Connor's message on Sunday kind of struck a note with me also from 2 Corinthians because it talked about going through ordeals and stuff yourself.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: But then you can turn around and help other people deal with those same issues.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: And last but not least, until I hand the mic over to my mother and I'm done.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so am I because she did such a good job.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Nice to see you all.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: So nice try.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because I do have anxiety issues.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: I I deal with it a lot.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: I lay in bed at night a lot, and my mind just swirls, swirls, especially coming, knowing, preparing for this night tonight.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: I rehearsed my speech so many times, and what I'm talking about tonight was nothing like what I was rehearsing every night till one o'clock in the morning.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I I I have learned to turn to the Bible, God's word, to help me deal with a lot of things, not just all the happy stuff, and not because I know I am secure in my salvation.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I but with my anxiety.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: So there are certain verses I read on a daily basis to help me through my anxiety issues.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: And the first one is Matthew 6, 34.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things, sufficient for the day as its own trouble.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: And the last one is Philippians 4, 6 and 7.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, I forgot about our little slides here.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: So one more little thing, side note, is after my dad passed away, um my sisters come up and we do girls' trip.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: So we've been to Gatlinburg, we were supposed to go on a cruise, but then COVID hit.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we had to postpone that.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we were in Galveston, and for my 60th birthday this past June, we did go on a cruise.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that picture there is all of us going a cruise.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was my first cruise I was ever on, and it'll be my last one.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: She's got a microphone.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you might want to hang on to this because she may ask you questions.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta bring that microphone to the cruise.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think I'm done.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'll never I didn't realize my daughter had it in her.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: She's quite it from her.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: She's been shying away from all this kind of stuff.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: But uh anyway, I do thank you all.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I see some friends that I've known for quite some time, and some I don't know you, and of course I got these glasses on, now I see you all better.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here, and I want to thank Connie too, even though, bless her heart, she's got the wrong person here.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, no, no.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: I just want you all, if you're not taking notes, you can write this down that they both thanked me.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: So that's all.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's all.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's not as scary as it looks.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: And Lynn did tell me a couple of times that she just knew God had given her peace about sharing tonight when she was so nervous about doing it.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: So it is possible if anxiety is the wall that you hit when you think about sharing your testimony.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: Just encourage you to trust God and you know, because maybe we all have a story to tell, and I'm certainly not judging, but I do want to encourage you to maybe consider letting God help you through that with some of the scriptures that Lynn uses, or maybe you've got some of your own, but but he did give her peace, and she kept telling me because it was such a such a cool um source of strength for her.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: So so yeah.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: She's a you're overwhelmed.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, mine is I don't know.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, she can't we joke.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, she's my sidekick.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: She's at my caretaker.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: We j we joke around a lot.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm a little bit older than she is, but uh I'm gonna start from the beginning, uh where the beginning came into my life, and it was uh 87 years ago.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Do I have to hold this?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's recording, so they won't be able to read it.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was born in 1936, uh July.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: 1936 was a very hot year, a very hot month, a very hot day on the 26th of July.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we've been having that this year, but anyway, I was born uh on a farm, and those days you didn't have electricity or anything, and I know my mother.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: In Nebraska.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: In Nebraska.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I forgot my good old Nebraska.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm sort of ashamed of them right now.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I forgot.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: She's a big Nebraska fan.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: I am a big Pasker fan.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I was born on a farm in Nebraska, and uh it was my mother told me it was 117 degrees at that time, and so bless her heart, instead of having me in bed, I ended up on the floor because she they put a pallet on the floor, and I uh was born on the floor of a farm in around Milligan, Nebraska.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh my parents, my my dad came from a large family.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: He had uh 15 siblings, he had uh 15 brothers and sisters.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: I guess he had eight brothers, and well, he was included in that eight, and uh seven sisters, and uh they came from Czechoslovakia.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh his dad, I just saw not too long ago, I've read where he came into, he was born in Czechoslovakia, and uh he was uh him and his family were uh living in uh Red Oak, Iowa, and then I guess they didn't like Iowa, so they moved to Nebraska.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where my my dad was born in in uh Milaron, Milligan, Nebraska.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh then his uh grandma was also born in Czechoslovakia.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm full-blooded Czech.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, well that's what they say, but I found out that there's a little bit of other little bit.
• 31:03
  unknown: Mostly black.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Mostly Czech.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, uh she was uh born in Czechoslovakia also, and she went both of them were in school, they went to school there in Nebraska, and somehow they met their, I guess, childhood sweethearts, and they were both from Czechoslovakia, so they got to speak Czech too, you know.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: And of course they got married, and my grandma passed away.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, she bless her heart, she had 16 children, and I understand, and they were married 22 years when all this happened, because she passed away when she was in her 50s, and I think I probably would too if I had 15 kids, you know.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, my dad was the youngest in the family, and then on my mom's side, uh, her parents were born in uh uh the USA, but her grandparents were born in Czechoslovakia also, and so my mother comes from uh two she has two sisters, and my mother was the oldest, and uh my grandpa, her dad, uh I believe grandma and grandpa had to get married, and in that marriage there was my mother.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: And in those days, you know, if you got somebody pregnant, you had to marry them, like them or like it or not.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: And my mother, when she was born, my grandpa was not a very nice dad.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: He was very evil to her.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: She was not able to sit at the table and eat with them.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh not only that, but he tried to kill her and drowned her in a cow tank a few times, and and uh he was not a nice guy.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And um but anyway, um as time has gone on.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: My parents met each other and they got married.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: My mom was 17.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: She left home when she was 16 because she couldn't handle her dad anymore because he was so abusive to her.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so she lived with her uncle and aunt, and my dad and her, they they met up.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: They were at a of I guess a carnival, and they got married.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: She was 17 and he was 24.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't born for three years.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: She wanted to get pregnant, she wanted to have me real quick, but I I've sort of waited around for three years.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh they still lived on a farm.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: I had been raised on a farm till I went to high school, but uh I also ended up with uh two brothers younger than me.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I never heard the word Jesus or God or church.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: The only time I ever heard those words is when it it's in my dad mostly would use it in check, uh using it in the Lord's name in vain, and cursing.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: That was the only time I heard those words Jesus or God.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: I never told the truth, I didn't even know who Jesus was.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: I or God because we were not taught that.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so most of my growing up years was without knowing who God was.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we had a good family pretty much at the time.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there was a time in my life that uh my grandpa, my mother's dad was uh very I have to say evil guy.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um he liked me real well and uh he took advantage of me sexually three times that I remember and uh he always thought there was nothing wrong with that, that it was our secret, that nobody needs to know about it, that it was an okay thing to have you know grandma I mean grandpa do these things and and um in those days I didn't think too much about it.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was sort of different, you know, for grandpa to do something like that, but uh I never took it as uh anything really bad because he said, you know, said just don't tell anybody and I did for years and years and years and years it stayed with me.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh as far as I know uh he did not do that to anybody else, my cousins or anybody else, and my mother's sisters, you know, daughters or anything.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was the only one that he ever did that as I don't know.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, life went on.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I kept going to school and uh and then when it was time to go to high school, I went uh stayed with my aunt in Milligan, a small town, and I stayed with my aunt during the school years.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I went ahead and uh lived across the street from a girl that was going to school also, and she became a real good friend of mine, and but she started going to church and she asked me if I wanted to go to church.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Milligan had only two churches, a Catholic and a Methodist.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh she went up to the Methodist church, so we did go to church there and uh I pretty much knew who God was then, and that was probably f uh ninth grade.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was in the ninth grade when I finally found out who God and Jesus was and we went to Sunday school off and on.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then in sophomore year my parents decided to move to Lincoln, Nebraska.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there I had to go to a big school after going to a small school, then to I had to uh had to go to a large school and I I've met some friends and they went to a church uh called East Lincoln Christian Church.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I started going there for quite a bit because my friends were going.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a time then they I guess uh decided to one of them decided to get baptized, so I thought, well, I guess I'll go get baptized too.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I went ahead and got baptized for what reason, I don't know.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because my friend was getting baptized, and so that's the way it was.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: But believe it or not, that's where my husband and I got married at that church year school after that.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, uh during all that time, I went to school and got graduated from Lincoln High, got a job at Elgin Watch Factory.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: They used to have the watch factory there, Elgin, and my mother worked there.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: I worked there for about a year and then they closed it down.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: I guess nobody was buying Elgin watches anymore, so they closed it down.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: I always wanted to be a nurse, so I thought, okay, that was no good working in an Elgin watch factory, so I'm gonna try and see if I can get a uh go to school and become a nurse.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I flunked the test, so that I really felt bad about that.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: That was something in my life that I sort of wanted to be as a nurse.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I went back to St.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: Elizabeth's Hospital and they had these here, what they call uh nurses' aides.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, honey.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: You see, I'm not nervous.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I ended up getting a job as a nurse's aide, and that I was thrilled to death.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: I loved that job.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: But God had that in there was a purpose in me getting that job, though too, as a life here, I what I tell you.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: I became friends with a lot of the nurses there, and uh um uh also uh what they call a ward clerk, and she and I became friends, and uh her husband was in the Air Force there in Lincoln, stationed in Lincoln Air Force Base, and she wanted to know if I would like to have a blind date with uh her husband's friend.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, yeah, I probably could, you know, I was okay, I wasn't going with anybody, so why not, you know.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up, we double dated, and his name was Bill Burton.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Naturally, I had to know what his name was, and we had a few dates, and uh so uh things looked like they were getting sort of serious, but he also had a problem, he had a drinking problem.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: And as you know, he also had a depression, but that was not known at that time, but I don't know if that was tied in with his problem.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: He he drank quite a bit, and you know how it is when you're in the military and you get a bunch of guys getting together and they drink a lot and everything.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: But he ended up in the hospital in uh Wichita Falls, Texas.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he was there for quite a while and they did treatments on him.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, I can still remember him saying that he was crying out because he went to church in Topeka, uh C.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: E.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: Foster's church, and his parents went there regularly.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: But he said he heard the word of God, but he never accepted Jesus as his savior.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: All those years that he was growing up, going to Sunday school there, and he never received the Lord as his savior.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: But when he was in the hospital there in Wichita Falls, he was in such terrible shape.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I cried out to the Lord and that he received Jesus Christ as his savior because at that time he needed help so much and only God could help him.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so he asked Jesus to come into his life.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that was it.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: But then he came back to Lincoln and we became engaged, and uh then also he got out of the service and uh he ended up buying a nice little house in Topeka.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that meant when we got married, I didn't have a choice.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna have to move to Topeka because he had already bought a house.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I didn't I couldn't get out of that.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so we ended up getting married in the East Lincoln Christian Church uh where I got baptized.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: But Bill never did bring out his salvation to me.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: We never talked about uh my, you know, where I was gonna serve uh be have eternity in my life or whatever.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: We never did talk about it.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: But uh God had a plan.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: He knew exactly when to this was all gonna happen.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, we got married in Lincoln, Nebraska, in November 2nd, 1957, and we moved to Topeka, naturally, in our nice little home.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: In 1966, the tornado took that little home.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: But but thank the Lord we were not living there at the time because we had moved about three times at that time.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, the house was gone.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: But uh anyway, I had Denise, my oldest daughter, there in 1958, and it had only two bedrooms, and I was planning on uh naturally having more children than just one.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: And God gave me another child, but after we moved to another home, and Kim was born, my little redhead was born uh in 1960, and uh then I don't know why, but we decided because it was too it was an older home and we were young, we wanted to move again, and so we ended up in in Southern Hills uh on Truman Avenue.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if some of you ever lived in Southern Hills, and um but anyway, it was a nice home.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was just what I wanted, just one, except I didn't have a dishwasher.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: I always wanted my last home was gonna have a dishwasher.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: And but anyway, this one, but this lady they took very nice care of it and had three bedrooms and a basement, just perfectly what God wanted us.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because guess what?
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Across the street, uh neighbors moved in, and uh she and her uh her husband worked with my husband at Santa Fe Shops, and she They had five children, a Christian family, and just how God wanted us to have as a nice uh neighbors for uh Christians.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, then in 1963, this one was born.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: This one was born, and we lived there in Southern Hills, which I'm so thankful for because not only that, but she was born, but then we had some nice neighbors, found out that they were Christians, and she was she became a very good friend, and she was responsible for my salvation here today.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: But but anyway, she would have coffee with me.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: We would chit back and forth, and she talked a lot about God.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: She talked a lot about Jesus and she talked a lot about Scripture.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: I sure heard a lot, but you know what?
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: There was something about her in her life that I really was touched.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: And now I know why.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: I really knew who Jesus was after all these years, all these years, not really knowing who Jesus and God were, I was really learning a lot.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: Even though at that time I was not uh saved, I did not accept Jesus at that time, but it's getting close to that time.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be so thankful.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, uh Joanne was her name, dear, dear friend, and she's in with the Lord now.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: Her and her husband both went to be with the Lord, but she had a part in my salvation.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, um this in 1964, Lynn was about a oh, you were about to put a about a year and a half old, I believe, at that time.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: I can remember Bill, first time I've and how the Lord worked in my life and his even, because we went to bed one night and he we just laid and talked about a lot about the Bible, a lot about God, a lot about Jesus.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that night, that's when I received Jesus as my savior, because he asked me if I was ready to accept Jesus as my savior, and I said, Yes, I really was ready for that because after all these years, what I went through growing up, not knowing who God or Jesus was, and then the abuse that I went through and all that, and even with all this that was going on in my life, I I still needed the Lord in my life, and I was so thankful, and I said, Thank you, Jesus.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then we went to uh Highland Christ Baptist Church, and I have my husband taught uh Sunday school, the young people, and I taught low five and six-year-olds Sunday school.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was we were so into Lord's work.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: When I received the Lord, and he also was really working for the Lord, and uh we were baptized there, and uh then we have a student of Bill's right there, Beverly Perkins.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: Marilyn, her sister Marilyn, and Beverly were taught Sunday school by my husband, and of course I taught the little five and six-year-olds, but we were we were really working for the Lord many, many years.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, we went on to Faith Baptist Church and had a lot of friends there, and we did a lot of uh with the young people and bus ministry.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Bill would drive the bus, and I was the navigator.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we would get in all these young people and you know to uh for Sunday school.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but we taught young people in the evenings, and then after that, and as Lynn made a comment, we decided we were not not too many p people were happy where we were at.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: We were not getting fed uh spiritually, where we were going to church, and so we were like with like Lynn and we went to Topeka Bible, and so we've been here since 1980, I think about 85, 1985, I think, when we went uh started coming to Topeka Bible.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a blessing, and Bill loved Jim.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: He every time he would Bill would have to go talk to Jim.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, as you know, and I won't go into detail because Lynn already filled you in about Bill, uh he was a wonderful husband and a wonderful father.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I miss him.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: But he he loved to pick a Bible, and I uh he would always go up to Jim and and thank Jim for the wonderful messages that he always preached.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but of course the Lord took him home in 2017, and I I knew I had to get back to church, and the day after Bill's memorial, which was on a on a Saturday, May 6th, was his memorial.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: On Sunday, May 7th, I came to church and I've been coming ever since.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thanked the Lord for my daughters and for all you.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: You've been awful dear friends of mine.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: So many of you have been, and I love it here in this year.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Connie.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_02: So well, I'm not gonna let you go yet, because you have um one little part of your story that um that I would like for you to share, that you shared with me uh at Tortilla Jack's, and that was uh that you had carried that secret uh between you and your grandfather for decades.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, okay, yes.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can see how nervous I really am.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, the secret that I was supposed to keep for what my grandpa told me to keep.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was 76 years old when I finally told my family, my husband and my family.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: But in the meantime, when all this was going on, I even told my brothers, well, my brother, because my youngest brother passed away about seven, eight years ago with uh pancreatic cancer, so I wasn't able to tell him, but I was telling my brother about a year ago about what happened that grandpa abused me sexually.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, you know what?
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: The funniest thing is, he said, I can remember, and we used to go outdoors and play, you know, out in the farmyard, you know, you have a barn and everything.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, he said, I can remember uh, you know, my brother Warren and him and I, we'd go, and Grandpa was outside too, and of course he wanted to go to the barn.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so my brothers and I, we followed Grandpa to the barn, and uh he uh decided he wanted to take me by himself up on the loft and my brothers to stay on the ground.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I faintly remember when you when you're growing up, Tony, you're about eight, nine, ten years old, somewhere in there.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember all when this was going on, except I know those years sort of flash in my mind.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I had to be in about those ages somewhere.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, he wanted me to go up in the attic with him in a loft.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he he scolded my brothers, told him to stay down.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I know my brother told me, he said, I wondered what things and I don't know my brother how old he would have been.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: He was two years younger than me.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know uh how old, but I ended up following Grandpa up in the loft.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, but my brother thought that things were that was sort of sort of strange that grandpa would take me and you know leave them down there.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: But he told me that.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I thought it seemed sort of funny that that was going on.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: And of all people, now he knows why why.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's I I I finally not too long ago, I had to ask God to forgive me for hating my grandpa.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: I for I hated my grandpa for so many years, and I would put on an act wherever, whatever.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: We had gate reunions together, and I made sure that, you know, I did not want people to know that why you weren't nice to grandpa, you know.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I I sort of hid all that.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_00: I I hid that for so many, so many years.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody, not even my husband, knew that I was sexually abused.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: And my husband, uh, he was really shocked to know that, and because grandpa, he thought the world of Bill.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: He thought Bill was really Bill was an easy guy to like.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I appreciate you sharing.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I told that to Connie the other day, and she said that you have to tell that because somebody did know, and God knew.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: God knew all these things that was happening in my life, and like I told Connie the day before I, even before I was born, God already knew all my life what it was going to be like.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, praise the Lord.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: He has come brought me through so much, uh, especially losing my husband, my love of my life, which that really devastated me, but I'm here and I have all you, and I have Jesus, and I have God in my life, and that's what counts.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you all for coming.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Conn.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that that she shared that part because when we were visiting together, um, you know, the first time that I had the opportunity to hear their stories, that was such a pivotal moment, you know, not that she needed the validation because she was very aware of what happened, but to know that her brother actually saw and knew in his heart, even if he didn't know fully um he knew, and to be able to say that to her decades later was was just a a real um healing moment from the Lord, really, um, and and continued to strengthen the bond not only between her and her brother, but with her family as she continued to share.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_02: To yep, they all know now.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_02: They her grandchildren, she said, also no, everyone knows what she went through, and and by contrast, then they know how strong your faith is in the Lord and your love for him, and uh so just so encouraging.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you, ladies, both, so much.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_02: Give them another round, if you would.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_02: So, um, yeah, we're gonna meet here uh second Tuesday next month, and we've got Kim Coker and Karina Soto that are gonna share their stories.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to invite you guys to come and uh hang out with us again next month.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_02: If you would, um, I'm gonna close this real quick in prayer and then feel free to hang out and enjoy some more refreshments and maybe uh chat with these two fine women here.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_02: So, Father God, thank you for Lynn.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for Norma, and thank you that you did know our stories before we were born, and you have every intention, Lord, of being glorified in it as we um surrender ourselves to you and as we allow you to work in our lives the good, Father, that you uh by your spirit and through your son Jesus bring to our lives, even in the suffering.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like Connor shared in the message, Lord, we we all suffer at different times and in different amounts to different degrees, and and yet it is your desire to comfort us even in the midst of it.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't mean that it won't hurt, but it certainly means that we can have a strength and a peace and an assurance that you are with us in the middle of it.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_02: So um I just pray for everyone here who might be going through a difficult time tonight that they would be encouraged by that message and by the testimonies that they heard this evening.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because Lord, we just we need you.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_02: We need you desperately, and we know that being tethered to you is our only hope.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_02: So just continue to draw us in and open our eyes to who you are.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.