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Unexpected Difficulties with Tischa van de Reep · She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ

• 0:02
  Hi listeners. Welcome to the.
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  She speaks live podcast a weekly encouragement where we share our
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  God's stories. I'm your host.
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  Jamie Elizabeth and I am so glad you are spending time with us
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  today to listen. Hi there friend, welcome to this
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  week's episode. I'm really excited to have with
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  me to shut Dave Van reap, she's talking with us about how she
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  just walked out of a extremely difficult season and how she
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  could still see God's goodness. Even in her hardest days to
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  shut. Welcome to the show here.
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  Yay. Thanks for having me.
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  I'm so excited to be here. Jamie, I know.
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  Well, we've been IG friends Instagram friends for a while
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  and I just need you had a powerful story to share with us
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  and I just want the listeners to know that I was reading about
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  you and it said that you grew up born and raised in Trinidad.
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  So when did you come to? The u.s., let's hear a little
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  back story about you. So, yes, I was born Arisen
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  Trinidad. In the Caribbean.
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  And in 2004, I married a Dutchman and moved to Holland.
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  And then in 2009, he was working for an American company and they
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  offered to bring him over here to work in their head office.
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  And so he took their offer. And so we've been living just
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  outside of Houston since 2009 so I'm a born again, Texan.
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  Yes. Well, that's an adventure.
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  All those different places and whether like you were saying
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  before we hit the recording extreme differences in weather.
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  So I did see that. You are my favorite kind of
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  speaker Bible teacher, where you take scripture and you make it
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  just come alive with applicable situations and Just really make
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  it relatable so we can digest it and put it into action.
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  So, real quickly, I wanted to know.
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  Is that a recent calling for you or how did that just come about?
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  Well, um, honestly I grew up very far from the word fall from
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  Jesus. I was raised Catholic, but I had
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  a very skewed gospel growing up, and when I came to Christ, It
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  was 2010, my father-in-law was dying of cancer and I found
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  myself just crying out to the Lord for him.
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  And one day I was just on my knees bowling and just asking
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  God for mercy. And then after that, I picked up
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  the remote and I turned the TV on and there was a pastor on and
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  he was he was already done with history month.
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  So his message wasn't for me that day I guess.
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  But he was saying, if you haven't asked Jesus into your
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  heart, ask him now. Hmm.
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  And so, I did. And he came, I mean, I literally
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  felt something leap inside my body.
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  It was an actual visceral reaction.
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  And my first thought was Jesus is really alive.
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  Yeah. Because I had gone through much
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  of my adulthood just exploring. I was into New Age stuff.
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  I was into Buddha I tried everything and I believed in
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  everything, but I believed in nothing, you know.
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  And when I discovered Jesus, everything changed.
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  And so I signed up for a Bible study to find out.
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  Well, what is this? That I believe it and exactly.
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  And I got voracious for the word and I started asking, question
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  after question, I started to literally piece my life
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  together. Connect in connection to the
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  word and so in Bible study I would ask questions or bring
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  things up when we're talking about the scripture and just
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  related to life. And then I got asked to be a
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  Bible study leader and then it just and that I got asked to
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  teach my own material and things like that.
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  So all I have no books and notebooks have just journals
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  with scripture and life and scripture life and And a lot of
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  prayers. Yeah, and so that's just kind of
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  how it emerge. So it was basically my Pursuit
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  Of God that led me into this. And so, it wasn't that I was
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  trying to be a Bible teacher. It wasn't that I was trying to
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  be a speaker. I was just wanting to know Jesus
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  and I found myself here. Mmm, so cool.
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  What a neat calling? I know.
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  And it's the The stories that I think most of us remember when
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  people are speaking. It's the story behind what, you
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  know, they're talking about. So I just love storytelling and
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  it makes it very rememberable for others.
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  So we are going to talk about you going through a difficult
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  season, and one of the things that you had gone through was a
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  spinal surgery. A few days later, you found out
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  that your son has a mental illness.
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  So talk about getting these, horrible back-to-back news, like
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  I'm thinking of Job in the Bible, where he kept tapping
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  that messenger coming again and again with bad news.
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  So, take us back to that time where you first found out that
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  you had to have this spinal injury, just this random
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  Something that was unexpected and then having the other set of
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  news about your son. Yes.
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  So I actually have a weird spinal condition where my spine
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  is aging rapidly and so when I was 27 they said my spine was 85
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  years old. Oh and so in 2017, it happened
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  slowly. Overtime and I had been seeing a
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  neurosurgeon for a long time where it got to the point where
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  I needed surgery to fuse 3 of my vertebrae, remove a couple
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  desks. And so I did that back in 2017
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  and he said, well, there is the possibility that they'll be more
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  vertebrae in your neck. That will probably need the same
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  surgery later on On and everything was fine.
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  I've been doing fine after that surgery.
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  And then on Halloween. Last year, I was walking around
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  the neighborhood with my husband and I was telling him something
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  doesn't feel right? I think I need to go find
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  another neurosurgeon because our insurance change, so I decided I
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  needed a new surgeon and I'd so I wasn't even seeing anybody
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  because I had been fine for years.
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  Yeah. And two days after that, I was
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  driving my son to class and this horrific debilitating pain, took
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  over me to where I could barely Drive.
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  I had to call my husband to come home and from then on, I was
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  bedridden for pretty much the whole month.
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  I could move, but it was just excruciating to move.
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  I was on On painkillers muscle relaxants steroids, everything
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  to just kind of try to keep it under control.
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  But I could not move, I could not function and I was rapidly.
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  Losing the use of my left arm, as well as my nerves were being
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  impinged, more and more. And so, in November 30th, I had
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  to have surgery to remove another disc and fuse, two more
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  virtue. Ray.
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  And so that happened. And it was funny because when
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  the first time it was coming on slowly.
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  So we knew that we'd get to that point.
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  This time, it was all just so quickly that I couldn't even
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  wrap my mind around it properly. Make plans do anything.
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  But all that time, while I was lying in bed, God was
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  downloading things into me. When I would read scripture, he
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  would tell me what he wanted me to.
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  If from it was it was just such a beautiful time.
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  Even though I was in constant pain, I had such beautiful
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  conversations with God and then three days after my surgery.
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  My son was diagnosed with a series of mental illnesses,
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  actually, and some of them quite serious.
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  And so I was heavily medicated. So I couldn't even wrap my mind
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  around. Around it.
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  So it took me weeks and it was like this build up, build up,
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  build up of what happened and what was happening to hit me
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  over and over. And I ended up going through
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  this severe grief for my son because it was suddenly like I
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  came out of the fog, and it was like, what what's happening?
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  What's happening right now, that's been really Just a
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  season, but you mentioned job and job 2:10 says, shall we
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  accept good from God and not trouble?
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  And that's the funny thing. We think that I'm a Believer
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  now, I have Jesus. So my testimony is written and
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  that my testimony ends what I say yes to Jesus.
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  But he continues to write our testimony and he continues to
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  walk with us through these challenges.
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  The challenges still come. It's just Where we going to look
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  right? I'll be going to look to him.
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  Or are we going to look to something else?
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  Are we going to pick up the phone and and complain about it?
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  Our friends, or are we going to turn to some other source of
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  empty Comfort or I'm going to turn to God in it so good.
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  I know it's all about our response, right?
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  How are we going to respond to these things?
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  And after you talk Being about being bedridden is reminding me
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  of the time that we were praying about moving from Southern
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  California, to Austin. And we had run into a horrible
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  financial hardship. We had the economy collapse back
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  in 2007-2008 times. Yes, and wow!
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  We were just wiped out. Didn't know what we're doing.
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  I had three young kids at the time and we went to Texas.
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  For the first time to visit and my husband had a friend there.
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  Well, I came down with horrible. Bronchial cough.
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  Like my lungs, just felt so heavy.
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  Like an elephant was sitting on it, right, and I knew that was
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  probably bronchitis, but then by the time I got home, the doctor
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  was like, you've got full-blown pneumonia.
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  You need to be on bed rest, and I think all of us moms can Think
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  how awful that would be if you had three little that the time
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  and you're telling the mom, you have to be on bed rest.
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  It's like that's gonna be a little impossible.
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  So, and you know, you got to have the whole takes a village
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  to come together and take care of all your everyday needs with
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  the kids and the house and everything else.
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  So I managed to be on Three-week bad arrest, but it was the most
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  beautiful time. Like you were saying, even
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  though I was Ill, you have a choice where they just sit there
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  and zone out and watch TV. Or are you gonna dive in and get
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  closer to God, right? And so, after you were saying
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  that I can reflect now on what I was doing with going into
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  scripture because I was really rough.
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  Sling with God, whether or not we were to move because I mean
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  Southern California. I'm a beach girl.
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  That's all I've known. And all my family is there.
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  So I'm like, what? Lord, like, and I felt little
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  this tug to move to Austin and so it's just plenty of prayer
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  and just seeking him to make sure that this was the move that
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  you wanted us to do. And I remember my sister-in-law
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  giving me a book Called Jesus of the Suburbia.
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  I think it's called and it's talking about how are you going
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  to be this? Cul-de-sac, Christian, like just
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  the suburbian Christian? Or are you going to get out
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  there and really obey and do those scary things that God is
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  speaking into you to go do and so it just changed my life.
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  It wrecked my life, this book and I was like, God, out of this
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  life. Three week, you know, Como most
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  and I told my husband I'm like I think the Lord is telling us to
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  move to Austin. So that's how we got the ball
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  rolling. But it wasn't until it's
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  literally. It was like be still and know
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  that I am. God that I had to like shut all
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  distractions and everything out and just be in bed to to seek
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  him. And I see how he did that
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  intentional and it was on purpose so that he can speak to
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  me. So I He reminds me.
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  Yeah, you know it's like when we have little kids and sometimes
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  we have to just hold them by their shoulder.
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  Yes. And and who will them still so
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  that we can get our message across to them.
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  I got allows for us to go through these seasons of
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  Stillness so that we can come into communion with him and we
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  can resist it and complain and feel, sorry for ourselves and
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  wallow. Whoa, or we could just surround
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  and submit and say, okay, God, how are you going to be
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  glorified in this or even to say I'm hurting Lord?
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  And I can't see my way out of this and just explain that.
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  I mean, because when you look through, you know, Joseph was
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  imprisoned and Jeremiah was in the cistern, and Elijah was in
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  the cave. And then there's so many times
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  throughout That God's people were stuck, right?
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  And sometimes it feels like we're stuck but he is moving on
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  our behalf. He is setting things up, he's
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  making those plans. I mean when it came to my son,
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  I've been involved in Ministry for many years now and my
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  testimony, I have been through sexual abuse rape divorce, a
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  boy. Ocean binge drinking alcohol
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  abuse, you know, I've gone through everything, homelessness
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  even and so there are there are so many things that I can speak
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  into when I come across women. I have done Ministry in Africa
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  with the poorest of the poorest women who are coming to church
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  with new shoes on their feet. I have done Ministry down in
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  Houston with Homeless women with AIDS.
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  I have done Ministry with Rich Suburban, Housewives who have
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  just pain in their marriages and paying with their kids and the
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  one thing that I couldn't speak into as mental illness, that was
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  the one thing that I had never experienced had never known
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  close-up, and I just couldn't relate to.
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  And I found myself praying, God. Please show me what to say to
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  this woman. Please show me how to help them,
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  because it's the one thing that I can't connect to, and now,
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  boom, overnight. I became a mental health, mom,
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  wow. Yes, it's hard.
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  And yes, I'm praying for my son's healing every day, but at
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  the same time, I'm thanking God because he has a bigger plan,
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  and it's not about us. And What we're going through and
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  so if he requires us to be, still just surrender to that
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  just submit to that and just be still and because you know, yes,
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  there's that verse be still and know that I am God.
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  But That's that's only half the verse.
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  The verse goes on to say, I will be exalted in the nation's.
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  I will be exalted over all the Earth and so it's about him.
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  He will be exalted no matter what so we could fight it and
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  he'll still be exalted, or we can surrender and submit to his
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  plan because he'll be exalted. Yeah.
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  So I know and it's just amazing, you know, through the suffering
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  and through that, that pain There's something so beautiful
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  that comes out of that. And it's all for helping others
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  because that's what Jesus was all about, you know, serving
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  others. And by what you have gone
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  through. Then you're able to serve the
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  women or serve men, where you're telling them.
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  This is what I went through and this is how I got through and
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  you're not alone and how much more you know that you can help.
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  Buddy, if you've gone through that same thing that they have.
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  So so encouraging. So I know you're all about
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  relatable little bite-sized things that we can like digest.
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  So what are some things like if you're going through you've had
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  experience with grief talking about that and history that
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  you've gone through homelessness and abortion and all that that
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  had to have been. So, So painful to heal from.
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  Can you just give us some life applications of, you know, if
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  you're in a season of grief, you know whether it's something
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  you've done on your own or just out of your control, something
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  happened in your life, what are some things that we can take
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  action in if we are in the middle of something painful?
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  Well, you know, we have Elliot this culture we have this
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  tendency to want to avoid pain and we don't want to press into
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  that pain and right through it and sometimes we need to hunker
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  down and cling the thing is is that there couldn't have been a
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  resurrection without a crucifixion.
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  If Jesus did not go through that torture and torment of the
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  crucifixion, even if he hadn't died, he couldn't have been
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  raised and it's the same for us. We can't live a resurrected life
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  if we don't go through the suffering, if we don't die to
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  self, if we don't have those things to grieve with my son, I
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  called a friend to talk to her about it.
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  I was kind of in this. Really bad.
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  Wallowing stage, you know, eating badly feeling, sorry for
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  myself and telling anybody who would listen about how my heart
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  was breaking for my son. And I called a friend and I told
• 21:20
  her about it and she said, you know, Day After Tomorrow there's
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  a mental health conference at my church.
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  And if I hadn't called her right then I wouldn't have known about
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  the conference, my son and I went together and And there was
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  so much hope in that conference, and I am seeing Ministry
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  leaders, stand up on that stage and speak, who at my son's age?
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  My son's a teenager, they were in rehab these.
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  These people were at the depths of paying from mental illness
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  and addiction. And they're now helping people
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  and changing life. Herbs and so I suddenly just had
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  so much hope and I trust that it what God would do.
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  And I saw as well, if when we remember the things that we've
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  gone through and we know, oh God, carried me out of that,
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  he'll carry me out of this. It's the same reason.
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  Why Israel so many times tells the Exodus story over and over
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  and over again. All throughout scripture, even
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  it. To the New Testament, you'll see
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  them tell that whole story again of The Exodus.
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  And it's because they need to remember what God has done.
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  And we need to remember what God has done in our lives to know
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  that he will do it again. All those things that you talked
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  about that, I went through the homelessness and I'm rape and
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  divorce and all those things too, to see how God has taken me
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  out of everything. It's just like Genesis 50:20.
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  You know what man meant for evil, God will use for good and
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  he, he has. And so I know that with this, he
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  will use it to. So now, I am hopeful, I'm
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  excited to see what he's going to do, how he's going to use it,
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  who is going to help through this, through my son's story
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  through my story as his mom. And and so I am living Erected
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  in that. So I'm no longer grieving I have
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  that Resurrection. I have my son back because he's
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  not lost in my mind anymore and so that's, that's what we need
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  to remember. Mmm.
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  Yeah, that's so good. I know I keep a journal or so I
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  like the journal and remember, you know, write it down.
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  Remember the things that God has done and, you know, I believe in
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  the Bible that when they stop talking about The remembrance of
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  the Lord, that's when they became a stray.
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  And oh, yes, yeah. So it's so easy for us to do
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  that as well. If we tend to forget and it's
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  usually one more looking so self in work, you know, self focus
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  inward right? Yeah.
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  Right up to him, focus on him, look outward.
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  Who could we help? Like what is the Lord teaching
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  me through this? So instead of going, oh my gosh,
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  I can't believe I'm going through this, which yellow?
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  We've all done. We all do that.
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  Yes, we go to that place first and then we're like okay God you
• 24:48
  know what are you trying to teach me?
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  But yeah, so cool. Well I mean yeah no I was just
• 24:55
  gonna say really quickly like even in the in the Bible they're
• 25:00
  woman who couldn't have kids and then God granted them a child.
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  But it was never that okay, you're granted a child so that
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  you can have your child because you've always wanted a child
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  their children were going to be. It was Isaac.
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  It was Samson. It was John the Baptist.
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  It was Samuel. The prophet they were people who
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  were going to be Servants of God and going to do things for his
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  people. And so, yes, even when he does
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  give us Us what we need. It's not necessarily for us.
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  It's it's for his kingdom. Yeah.
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  Yeah. So good.
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  And it takes a while to grasp that.
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  Yes. Buzz.
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  And that'll be surrender. Yeah, yes.
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  For sure. For sure.
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  But trust him. Yes.
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  And I think, you know, trusting that's Goes along with that
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  surrender, right? Because you can't really trust
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  unless you let go and so that is a hard thing to do but when we
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  do we get through and can see and overcome and see that other
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  sides. So well, so good and
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  encouraging. So I know that you are the
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  founder of the wild communicators and you just want
• 26:35
  to talk Briefly on that and and then we'll finish up with a
• 26:39
  little take away. So the well communicate says,
• 26:42
  we're a collective a diverse Collective of Christian
• 26:47
  communicators, all women from all over the us and we talked on
• 26:54
  a variety of subjects, where podcasters were authors speakers
• 27:00
  teachers worship leaders. And so we have a website.
• 27:05
  The well communicates Dot-com. And so we are available to be
• 27:09
  booked for any event that you might have any kind of teaching
• 27:15
  that you might have. We also have a number of online
• 27:19
  resources available, in terms of coaching sessions, kind of
• 27:26
  Academy courses Bible studies, all sorts of things.
• 27:30
  So yeah, check us out because it's 29 women from all over.
• 27:36
  Over the us all different walks of life.
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  And so I really am excited about what we're going to do this
• 27:42
  year. I had to take a few months off
• 27:44
  needless to say with everything going on, but I'm really excited
• 27:49
  to start planning some, some things for us to do together.
• 27:54
  Yeah. I think it's really cool.
• 27:56
  It's like a One-Stop shop, you know, if you're just a woman's
• 28:00
  Ministry, leader or director, and you're just looking to find
• 28:04
  somebody to speak, A certain subject you make it really easy
• 28:08
  just to type it in and and look for that person for your area.
• 28:12
  So really good name. Also, if you could just finish
• 28:17
  us off with just speaking life of a takeaway that the listeners
• 28:23
  can kind of marinate on. Once they're done hearing this
• 28:26
  message. Yeah, I'll just go back to, to
• 28:31
  job to 10, shall be accept good from God, and not trouble.
• 28:35
  Just remember. He's still writing your
• 28:37
  testimony. And so if you could just hold on
• 28:44
  to him and keep your eyes on him through the hard times, through
• 28:49
  the Wilderness period, Then he will see you through and it'll
• 28:54
  be really excited when you're on the other side.
• 28:58
  Looking back, what you've overcome with him?
• 29:02
  Yeah, I know. It's it's hard in the meantime,
• 29:05
  but if we can see his goodness put on the spiritual lens.
• 29:11
  Yes. See what he sees that always
• 29:15
  helps us. And in order to do that, we got
• 29:17
  to dive into his word and being prayerful dialogue with him.
• 29:22
  So, so cool. Well, thank you is his shot for
• 29:26
  coming on here and sharing your story with us.
• 29:30
  I appreciate you. Thank you so much.
• 29:32
  Jamie it was so much fun. It really was.
• 29:36
  Thank you. Thank you so much for listening
• 29:41
  today. I trust that God has encouraged
• 29:45
  you through this message for more information on this
• 29:48
  ministry and to access free downloads.
• 29:52
  Please visit my website at Jamie Elizabeth.com and sign up.
• 29:58
  You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook at Jamie
• 30:03
  Elizabeth she speaks life, that's ja.
• 30:08
  Why mea Elizabeth, she speaks life.
• 30:13
  Until next time, my friends. I pray God reveals himself
• 30:17
  through your own life story.