Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 11, 2023 | Expresso - Yoanna Palmer

Transcript

April 11, 2023 | Expresso - Yoanna Palmer · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I am from Bulgaria.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: I lived there for uh over 20 years, 21 to be exact.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I have uh lived in many places.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to start with one thing, and that's Joshua 1 9.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God will be wherever you go, and he has been with me really in a lot of places.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was raised as a Christian, I lived in three countries, and I've been in five states and many cities.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I have to go and check my credit course credit uh score, they are asking all those questions like where you lived.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know my addresses anymore.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's there have been so many.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm married, I have two boys, and I'll get more to that later.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you how I got to America.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was 18 years old and I was working for my aunt.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: She had a her son had many stores in Bulgaria, and I was working in uh the headquarters.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: My brother was working for her son too, but he was in Germany.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I worked for her, but she was very abusive.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: She was yelling and screaming, and she would even hit me in front of customers.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll I'm I was I'm not a little child anymore.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was 18.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was not a good thing.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember at night, like I'll have nightmares.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I had I had many, many nightmares of her.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like she would talk to me like her mouth will foam.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: It it was not a good thing.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And one day I was at work and I said, That's it, I have enough.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I told her, I'm done, I'm quitting, I'm leaving.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I went home.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: My phone started ringing.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: My mom called me.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Say, hey, you've got to go to work.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: They need you.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be there.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have other help because I was trustworthy and I was family, so I had to be there.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then my uncle, my cousin calls from Germany.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Please come back.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, she's gonna be different, she's gonna try.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then my mom called me again and said, just go, you know, you don't want to mess up your brother's job, too, because he's working for them.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, I'm gonna go.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I went back.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: But at that time I was like, I've gotta do something, I've gotta, I've gotta get out of here.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I'm gonna study, I'm gonna apply in university, and I'm just gonna get out of here.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was my plan.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what I did is I bought a book and I was like, that's it, I'm studying.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I did study.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't tell her though that I'm gonna go to college.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was not even accepted yet.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: I applied and they told me when should I go for the exam.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: You have to take an exam before you get in.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a Saturday.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I told my co-workers, my parents knew, but that was a secret.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was not telling her because there will be a big problem.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know that she was she was going to talk a lot.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't in the morning of Saturday.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: We prayed with my parents, and I took the bus and I went to the capital.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I applied in the university as farthest as possible from my hometown.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I did go, I did a test, and I got accepted.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: I remember how much like a big burden came out.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is like 20 years later, and I'm still remembering what she did, but with a different heart.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because I went through bad things, but God worked them for good.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: He really did.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because and the verse of Romans 8 28 all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I did trust him.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that he's gonna get me out of there.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to do a change too.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was God helped me, but I had to do some work too.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: I could have just been comfortable and stayed there.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to New Bulgarian University, and later on I landed in America.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'll retract back about my Christianity, how it's all started.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a Christian family.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: My grandmother, this woman, she sets the standard really high.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm from Sevlyvo, and there was a there is still a village four and a half miles away from the town.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And my grandmother and her husband and her three little kids, they used to walk to there.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have a car, so they would walk four and a half miles and four and a half miles back.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Every Sunday.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: My mom was little, like she she remembers going there.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I was when I was preparing for the speech, I was asking her, like, why don't you guys like use bicycles?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't have a car, but use something else.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, like, it's a hill.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like going up the hill and going down when you're little, it didn't work for them.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And now I use the weather app to see how I'm gonna might how I'm gonna dress my children for church.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's a totally different story from what she went through.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: But this woman, she started a church in my town.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: She, because she will tell everybody about God.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like she lived in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there were a lot of Muslims in Bulgaria because of the Ottoman Empire.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Turkey overtook us, and we were slaves for 500 years.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was a lot of uh Turkish people who stayed in Bulgaria, didn't go back to Turkey.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we're together on her street.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there are like three or four Bulgarian households, but she will tell everybody the Muslims, everybody.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how the church started because of this little woman.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: She's she was a little woman that told everyone about God.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: At that time, it was communist time in Bulgaria.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I remember it clearly.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: We have gathered in church, like they have the church was in my grandma's house, which we couldn't rent a place.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: God was forbidden, there was no God allowed.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: You could not have uh hymns in your house, you cannot have Bibles in your home.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: That that's a problem.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like my brothers, they could never get grades A because my parents were not in the Communist Party, because they believed in God.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And one Sunday, one Sunday we were gathering together, and we hear there was a person always in the front of the house, watching out for police if they come.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm from a small town, so I kind of know who's who's the policeman.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the person comes inside and said, hide all your Bibles, hide all your hymns.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So everything is hidden.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: We just get some cups and we put them on the tables and we pretend we're having a birthday celebration because during communist time you cannot gather in a big gatherings together because you know you might be thinking you're overthrowing the government or some conspiracy going.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: That was not allowed.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when I'm talking about this, I want to I'm just remembering something.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think I told Connie, my dad, we had a house, a little house, like a cottage, like in the suburbs of my town.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he built uh he built it and there was a bench in the front.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was all cement, all cement, but on top there were wooden planks where you sit on them.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if you unscrew those wooden planks inside, there was a in the cement that was hollow.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: You could hide stuff.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of him hiding, I don't know, passports, money, documents, you know, titles, there was Bibles and hymns.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew since little, if one day, you know, they're arrested and they're not there no more, I know where the place is where they kept the Bible.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: So the church could continue.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that's that was my upbringing.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: But then that's me too.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: My I was in America and my dad passed away.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And my ground shook a lot.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was not expecting it.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: He he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, but he passed away from a blood clot in his lungs.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And one day I was at work and I'm looking like many, many miss calls from Bulgaria, and my cousin left me a voicemail message saying that my dad passed away.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, what?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was a hurtful time.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: It it was lonely.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was here, they're there.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what happened to me.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: My friends who were not Christian, I hung out with them more and I didn't make the smartest decisions at that time.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: I always trusted God, I always believed in God.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: I prayed every day, but every time I went to church, I couldn't do it.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was so hard for me.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was hurt.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: I I didn't know why God took my dad.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was in my 20s.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: One time I was at the bank, and I remember there was a guy in front of me, maybe in his 70s, and he was talking to the teller, and she asked him, How is your mom?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm imagining, like, she's probably in her 90s, and I'm over here in 20s, and I'm I lost my dad, my rock.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: That was a not a good time for me.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: But something good came after that.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like in my life always something good comes after from the bad things, you know, like how the Bible said.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I I mean I didn't take the good decisions, I'm not counting and the good things happen because of the decisions I made.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm I believe it's because of my dad's prayers for me and for my husband one day.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that they were sent, you know, like those prayers that you send, you you pray and they they're for you.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I met Mike, an amazing guy.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: He was not Christian.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: We I took him to the church that they used to go, and he said, Oh, that's too much Holy Spirit for me.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was too much Holy Spirit for me.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, let's go somewhere else.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we looked online, we searched for churches where there's less Holy Spirit.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we found one church and was closer to his house, and we decided we're gonna go that Sunday.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, let's pray.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: We prayed.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: He comes from a family, they didn't have a relationship, they probably believed in God, but he they didn't have a relationship with God one-on-one, you know.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So Sunday comes, we go to church, and guess what the pastor preached?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's when he decided that's the church for me.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Couple months later, he decided that he's gonna get baptized and he's gonna totally give himself to God.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he did, and I'm almost running out of time.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we wanted to have a family.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: I had a miscarriage, I was sad at that time again.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like you lose a child, it's it's hard, but God do trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your understanding.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I still didn't know, I still don't know why it happened, but I know God brought me blessings, and the devil, of course, tried to steal that blessing.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's bring Matthias.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: The little worm of doubt was trying to get in me.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, what if it happens again, you know?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I trust in God, and God gave me Matthias, and his name means gift from God, and he's my gift from God.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Then Liam, Liam happened during COVID.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: We came in, we came in Kansas, we don't know anybody in COVID.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Is here, everything's shutting down, and he is my strong warrior.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, that's what his name means.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we went to the hospital.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking there's gonna be no room for us because in the previous one, I had to wait like eight, nine hours to be accepted.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, but with him, we had a wonderful experience, and there was something else I wanted to read, I didn't put it in the slide.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, one of my kids is born in Virginia, the other one is in Kansas.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I got married in, you know, like from all over the military.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Please submit your top three duty stations.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, let's go to San Diego, Hawaii, Pensacola.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: The military.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, perfect, you're going to Kansas.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happened.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where that's where Liam came.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I would like to end with this.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And one more slide I have to that, but I want to tell you about my neighbor.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Not every day I'm having struggles.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having good times, but I'm having struggles.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I have learned to not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're always gonna have people in our lives who try to hurt us.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just be nice to them because there's that joy in your heart.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: When you give to evil, that that joy is stolen, you know?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's not there.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: But when you keep him here and you know God's gonna take care of it, and he does, it's good.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: I greet my neighbor.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: He calls the police on us and I greet him, and I smile.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, so he called the police on us for car parks and our cul-de-sac.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Tell about God wherever you go.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Have a friend of mine.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I told her when we were when I was backsliding, she knew about God.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Before that, she knew about God.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: I planted the seed.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And in the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 3, 6 to 9 says, I planted the seed.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't put the whole thing there, but I planted the seed.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe I planted that seed in the church that she met in Georgia, the people from the church that met her, they watered it, and now God has grown her.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: She has two kids, they go to church with her too.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And she just sent me a picture like last week or two weeks ago that they were baptized too.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, just really tell about God.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Tell about God.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: God works.