Breaking Free, Finding Purpose: Dawn Gibler's Story

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Welcome friends! Thank you to tuning in to the Her God Story podcast where you

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will always hear a good story to encourage and inspire you in your walk

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with the Lord. I am glad you tuned in. I'm your host, Jodie Chiricosta, ministry

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leader at Somebody Cares America, an international author and traveler on this

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journey with Jesus. You know, God cares so deeply about the overlooked and

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hurting among us and he has a special place in his heart for widows and

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orphans over and over again in scripture. He directs us to care for orphans

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and widows which is why Somebody Cares created the Widow and Orphan Fund. As a

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company of women we can do so much together to take care of the special

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needs of those he's put in the care of our ministry partners around the world.

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Last year we built an indoor shower house and bathroom for a children's home in

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Kenya and together we've been helping three widows living in rural villages

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in Africa whose husbands died in tragic circumstances leaving them and their

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children destitute. But now they know they're not abandoned and that God has

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heard their cries and answered that cry with tangible help. Please pray about

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joining our number with a gift at hergodstory.org and click on Help Now.

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We even accept cryptocurrency. Throughout the Bible we read stories of how God

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rescued people from oppression and danger. He even rescued those who did not

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yet know him like Ruth the Moabite who he led to Bethlehem to experience his

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love and faithfulness and the Samaritan woman at the well who Jesus set free from

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guilt and shame and he's still doing the same thing today rescuing people who

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are trapped in darkness and bringing them into his family. The Psalmist declares

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in chapter 35 verse 10, who is like you Lord you rescue the poor from those too

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strong for them the poor and needy from those who robbed them. My guest Don

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Givler has experienced the rescue of the Lord in her life and now she has

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devoted her life to allowing the Lord to rescue others through her. A wife and

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mother of five sons two daughter-in-laws and a golden doodle. Don was a middle

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school English teacher for several years before the Lord called her to help

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rescue women from sex trafficking. Now on staff of a ministry that intervenes in

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sex trafficking cases Don personally sees the powerful hand of God rescuing

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daughters and sons from the darkness of the sex trade. Welcome Don. Thank you.

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It's great to be here. Don your early years were quite tumultuous leaving you

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with trauma you did not even realize you had until many years later. Tell us a

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little about your life as a child. Yeah so it's kind of funny because I didn't

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know that my life was tumultuous until I was older but I was not raised in a

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Christian home. I had parents who said that they believed in God but you didn't

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see any evidence of that in their life and when I was four years old I remember

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waking up one morning and walked out of my bedroom like I always did and I saw

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my mother chopping down the apple tree that was in our front yard and that was

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my father's favorite tree and so even at that young age I knew something was

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wrong and I went out and asked her what was happening and she told me to go

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back in well after the tree was down my mother took me to the neighbor's house

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and told me that she was just gonna leave me there for a little while because

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she was gonna go to the store and she actually took me there and then did not

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come back for many many years. Basically my dad raised me with the help of his

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parents they moved in and now my grandparents were believers but they

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had already raised six children and other grandchildren so they were tired but

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you know I was raised by my dad until I was 14 years old and my dad was an

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alcoholic and my dad was abusive. I just thought as a kid though I that was my

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normal that was my reality so to speak and other kids you know in my

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neighborhood while no one else was divorced they all had parents who acted

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a lot like my dad so I wasn't completely out of place in my neighborhood in total

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between my two parents because my mom did end up coming back into my life like

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many years later I'll never forget that day Jodi she just showed up at the door

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I was laying in my bed I heard the knock on the door and I I believe it was the

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Holy Spirit who just told me it's your mom because I hadn't heard from my mom

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in years and I just had this like sinking, sickening feeling in my stomach but

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yet paired with great excitement because my mom you know had come back and sure

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enough my grandma came into my room and said your mom's at the door and my

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grandma didn't let her in the house she made her stay outside and and she said

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it's your choice do you want to see her or do not and so I said yes and I walked

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down the hallway that seemed like it was 10 miles long to get to the front door

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and my mom was standing there with a Mary Poppins record and a green sweater

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and she greeted me like she had literally just gotten back from the store and I

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didn't know what to do with that and so from that point on my mom was in and out

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of my life it was the kind of thing well I'm gonna come and see you I'm gonna see

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you on the weekends and she'd arrange a weekend for my brother and I to go visit

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with her and stay at her place and she just wouldn't show up and my grandma I

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didn't remember a lot of this because I don't after my mom left I really don't

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have many childhood memories that I can remember I have memories of like my

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friends and I playing outside but as far as my family is concerned I can't

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remember anything but my grandmother would tell me that I would just sit

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outside our front door with my little bag packed waiting because my mom was

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supposed to show up and I would even turn down sleepovers with some close

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friends of ours who I had been friends with since we were babies and I would you

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know say no I don't want to go because I'm supposed to go with my mom and my

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mom never came so it was abandonment followed by more abandonment that just

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kept continuing throughout the course of my childhood but in total my parents had

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nine marriages and I have had so many stepbrothers and sisters and half

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siblings it's just you know kind of crazy but when I was 10 years old my dad

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married a woman who was very verbally abusive she was very young she was

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actually closer to my brother's age who he's four years older than me than my

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father's age so when I when I look back now that I'm a mom and a grandmother when

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I look back I understand she really was just in over her head she took in two

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very traumatized children and she didn't know how to do it and didn't get a whole

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lot of help from my dad not only was she verbally abusive but she was becoming

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physically abusive so when I was 14 I ran away and the friends that I mentioned

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earlier that I've known since we were little children because they were they

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were friends their parents were friends with my mom and dad before my mom left

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their mom knew where my mom was and so she picked me up and she took me to my

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mom's house and basically said okay it's time for you to be a mom so here I am

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all of a sudden with a woman that I've only seen you know just very few times

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in my childhood and now all of a sudden I was living with her you know I was

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really grateful that I was now with my mom and out of that situation but that

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proved to be an incredibly difficult time as well my mom was married at the

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time I don't remember what number husband that was but she was married at

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the time and that didn't last and things got very rocky and my mom would do

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really weird things like I would come home from school high school and she

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would have changed the locks on the doors and I couldn't get in and so you

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know this is back in the early 80s and people just didn't call CPS like they

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do now you know children's protective services and so I had high school

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friends who this one family in particular the Mitchell's who were just

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amazing and they would just say come to our house because what I had to do is

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this is before cell phones so I walked to a payphone I called my friend Nikki

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Nikki tells her mom and her mom says yeah come on over and I would just stay

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with them until all of a sudden the key would get delivered to my high school in

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an envelope that just had my name on it and that's when I knew I could come home

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and that would happen on the regular for me and I never understood why I wasn't

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allowed to or I wouldn't say allowed my mom and I didn't have the kind of

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relationship where I could ask her why all I knew was the key arrived and I

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could go home and so it was pretty it was pretty crazy and when I went away to

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college I the only knowledge that I had of what a functioning family was was

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from my friends that I'd known since childhood my grandparents and then the

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Mitchell family that was it and I didn't even get to see all of those as

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much as you need to build that good foundation now in my childhood years

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like elementary and junior high before I had run away my dad did take me to

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church sometimes it was he would drop me off at church sometimes he would go he

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played on the church softball team but like I said before there there was no

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evidence of the truth at that time and then when I lived with my mother there

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was absolutely like no sense of right and wrong in her mind it seemed like

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anything went and when I first moved in with her I really wanted her to love me

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and so I you know tried to earn that love and I became an athlete and I was

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you know working on my grades and trying to do all of the things that what I

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thought a good kid should do and that was just met with her utter disappointment

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in me she was so unhappy with me because I wasn't like her and she basically told

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me that to gain her approval I needed to become popular and the way you become

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popular is by partying and by being promiscuous and so I ended up getting

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hurt late in my junior year of high school I couldn't run my senior year I

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was in cross-country and track and I couldn't run my senior year and so my

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senior year I listened to my mom and I began that party lifestyle where I

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began drinking and you know having boyfriends and you know doing things

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that I knew deep down I shouldn't have been doing but my mom was not only

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telling me to do it she was kind of coaching me in how to do these things

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and so that's what I thought I was supposed to be doing and so sadly my

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childhood ended pretty early yeah so I began that type of a lifestyle and then

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took that into college my college years so that was very confusing as a

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childhood you're hearing the gospel at the church you're not seeing it lived

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out you know you're you're being told different messages so yeah when you got

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to college you I'm sure you were looking for just any kind of truth and what

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did you find well my first week there I met a guy and he was everything that I

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thought I wanted I thought he was gonna be that foundation you know that that I

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was craving and longing for and yep and that was the first week there and so I

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met him he was this all-American athlete he was from a wealthy family his

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parents the big thing for me his parents were still married and I thought you

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know he had to a sister and a brother and I'm like oh my gosh this is great he

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was a straight-a student he he was majoring in engineering and he was I

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think second in his class at the university so he was really smart and

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he looked like everything that I wanted but once we got married everything

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changed when we first got married we had left the university and we were in

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Michigan and things were getting I could I was starting to see a lot of the

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signs then but I you know I was just so in love that I ignored a lot of what I

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thought I was in love a lot of things I should have paid attention to but it

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wasn't until we moved back to Texas that things really went downhill in in the

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marriage and we were married for 12 years and it was an abusive situation I'm not

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I was not a battered wife okay I want to I want to be very clear with that there

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was a lot of emotional abuse escalating into physical abuse and then he had

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some addictions that as a wife I could not tolerate even though I wasn't a

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believer it was just something that that I could not tolerate and so after an

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incident that was violent I had to leave that relationship and ended up having

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over the course of the coming months I ended up having to get a protective

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order from him and in the midst of that 12 years we also had two amazing sons

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and so yeah so what disappointment you know after you thought you had found

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everything you wanted everything you dreamed about here you were back with a

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you know alone two children but you started to sense you needed to get

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back into church even though you didn't really know what really what was

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drawing you and that eventually led you to the Lord share how that happened

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because it's it's not a real clear straightforward story is it it never is

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but yeah so during the marriage I felt this just urge to go to church and he

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flat out said no and so I kind of started sneaking and this is horrible I was

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lying to him about where I was going so that I could go to church but I didn't

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do it you know regularly but after the marriage ended I went to a church similar

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to the church that I had grown up in and I didn't know what it meant to have a

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relationship with Jesus Christ so I just got very involved in the church I just

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started serving and serving and serving in many different capacities and one of

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them was I was kind of the behind-the-scenes person for the worship

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team and I was doing something for them and this is after probably I don't know a

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year and a half to two years of serving I was setting something up and I was just

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singing like the worship song that you know was going on and someone on the

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worship team heard me and they said hey why don't you actually be on the

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worship team instead of just being behind the scenes and I was pretty

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hesitant and what's crazy is at this time I was not even saved I was just

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filling every moment of my life with churchy things because that's what I

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thought I was supposed to be doing and so I ended up joining the worship team

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and through this and I was on a few different worship teams I was on their

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contemporary worship team I also sang in their their choir their traditional

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choir and then I sang at their youth and young adult service so like high

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school and college age service and on that team is where I met this guy and

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he was a guitar player and a singer in the band but he actually didn't go to the

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church that we were both now leading worship for he went to a different

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church and was just being hired out to play on this worship team or I guess

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moonlighting I don't I don't know if he was always paid to do it but he was

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there and so after the church service which was on Sunday night sometimes the

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team would come back to my house and we would we would eat dinner or we would

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like play games and one night we just happened to come back to my house and

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play monopoly of all things and it was kind of a funny story I was talking to

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another band member and he reached over and stole one of my properties which is

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not very godly by the way and so when I landed on that property I said oh I'm so

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glad I own that and he's like wait a minute I own it look and it was in front

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of him and I got confused well at the end of the game he confessed his you know

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his fevery and it got us all started on this conversation with the Holy Spirit

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and in this particular denomination we didn't talk about the Holy Spirit very

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much and so this was all very new to me I had been reading the Bible I had been

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trying to understand it did not understand it I thought Paul was a

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hater of women I was very confused and then now I have this guy telling me

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about Holy Spirit and everything that the Holy Spirit had done in his life and

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it got me interested and so all the other band members ended up leaving and

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he said at one end of my couch and I said at the other I had to teach the next

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morning it was the craziest thing but all of a sudden I looked at the clock and

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it was 5 a.m. and he had just been telling me story after story after story

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about what the Holy Spirit had you know had done in his life and so I was very

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intrigued and that just really caused me to seek the Lord and eventually I mean I

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got saved through that now it's a funny thing about getting saved because the

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church that he and I then started going to which was his home church really

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talked a lot about you know once you're saved the old things don't affect you

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anymore but one thing that I learned that I did not get immediately delivered

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from the trauma of my childhood I had old hurt I had attitude very bad

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attitudes I had responses that just didn't align with God's heart and it's

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so beautiful that God walks with you through that and and he did and he was

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so patient with me and you know the patient comes later but even just with

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my belief system I had so many things that God needed to tweak and refine

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which he did and is still doing so yeah well it's that you know sanctification

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justification right balance and those are big words but you know when we come to

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Christ we are immediately made right in the sight of God when he looks at us

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everything is perfect because we have we are covered with the righteousness of

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Christ Jesus but yes we still have to go to that sanctification process that

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process of being changed and growing into Christ yeah so it's kind of a you

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know double thing you know it's hard to understand sometimes but God looks at us

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and we're perfect but the Holy Spirit is working us to really make us perfect

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the perfection that God knows we will be one day right yeah so after you gave

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your life to Christ you you actually married the guy and you started attending

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his church and God started working in your life tell us about that well I did

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I made the same mistake I did at the previous church I still at that point

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thought that getting to know God and seeking the Lord was serving him I'm a

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doer I am I've always been a doer when I was a little girl I saw that Jerry Lewis

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telephone for muscular dystrophy and the next day I'm baking cupcakes and out

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selling cupcakes to get money for you know because that's just my personality

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and even as a little girl and so I threw myself into serving realized that oh my

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gosh I'm not really pursuing God I'm not getting to know him because I'm so busy I

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mean every waking moment was filled with ministry and so I wasn't getting to know

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the Lord but again God was patient with me my husband was patient with me and

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my husband helped me gain balance in my life because I was the one oh no I got

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this I've got this you know and from the outside it looks like I was seeking the

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Lord but inside is what counts and I wasn't doing what I what I what my heart

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truly desired to do and so a lot of the service even though it was good and

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these and good things were coming from it I didn't have the fulfillment the

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fullness of Christ that I longed for so my husband taught me how to just get

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before the Lord and be still and to know him and so during that time I stepped out

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of teaching and my husband had become the worship pastor and I became the youth

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pastor and together we did inner city pastoring as well we did inner city

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outreach through that you know we so we're working with worship we're working

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with students like junior high and high school students and then we have this

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inner city outreach where we're working with a lot of gang members and some

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prostitutes as well and some homeless actually there was quite a few homeless

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yeah so as you are as you were growing in the Lord the Lord was starting to

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direct your steps to where he wanted you to be yeah oh my goodness you know along

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the way while you were still teaching or maybe you went back to teaching after

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working on staff at the church for a while but while you were teaching eighth

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grade you began volunteering at one of these ministries that the Lord brought

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you to and you started learning more about the sex trade and what it does to

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those who are involved and you realized at that point that you had some

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unresolved issues in your life tell us about that process and how you finally

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overcame those issues that you had been dealing with it you didn't even really

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know were issues for a long time one thing I tell new staff members here to

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Elijah Rising is that whatever you have not dealt with from your past God's

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gonna bring it out and he's gonna give you that opportunity to deal with it and

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that's exactly what I experienced what most of the staff has experienced very

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quickly upon joining Elijah Rising I realized that there is a very high

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probability that I was sexually assaulted when I was a child which would

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also explain why I don't have a lot of memories from that time and so like I

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said I don't remember it happening but I have behaviors that are just textbook

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of what a child who has been sexually assaulted exhibits in their adult life

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when it has not been dealt with and so that all came out and again my husband

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was super patient and gracious with me as I worked for over three years now on

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these issues it was very stressful on our marriage my husband had you know left

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pastoring and become a police officer I had left teaching and is now working for

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an anti-sex trafficking organization we still have the children you know life

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was just really crazy and our marriage was struggling even though he was being

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very patient with me I was the source of a lot of the issues in our marriage and

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then finally and I kept trying to fix everything but finally just one day I

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was up in my closet and I was so utterly frustrated with my situation with

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myself and I realized I I can't do this I was trying to carry the world on my

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shoulders I was failing and I I finally at that moment understood what it means

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to truly surrender everything to lay everything before the Lord and so I

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begin to cry out to him and when I mean cry out I was crying out so loudly that

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my neighbor calls to check and see if I was okay I was great that's loud I'm

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like I'm just praying and they're like okay whatever but we're in a duplex so

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it's a wall but still it's a pretty big wall and so I I in this time I told God

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that I was angry with him that I was disappointed in him that I was angry

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with myself and disappointed in myself I did a lot of yelling I did a lot of

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crying and then I began to write out everything I was writing up my feelings

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and realized that ever since I was a child I hadn't truly allowed myself to

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feel anything from the time I was a little kid even through the abuse that

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was happening in the marriage I I put up I don't I don't know if it's a wall but

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I was like stone cold like I wasn't I didn't let myself feel things and so I

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realized that I need to feel all of this and God God let me that night and so

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after I wrote it all out I finally kind of conceded I guess to the Lord and and

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I I'm like okay well I have tried everything that I can think of I have

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tried every tool in my belt every arsenal and you know weapon in my arsenal

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and that's when I said okay I will try it your way I will do it your way God and

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I you know I remembered scripture saying that my life can be transformed by the

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renewing of my mind and so I said can we start there can you renew my mind and

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release came in that moment like I had I had a brain fog that was so thick I

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thought it was menopause it wasn't it was just everything that had it had

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built up to this like breaking point and so he renewed my mind and so yeah it was

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just it was a beautiful it was a hard moment but it was a beautiful moment

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yeah you know sometimes we we you know we hear well we have to release it to the

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Lord we hear yes we have to do this but you know we often times don't really

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know how to do that exactly but it's getting real and raw with God you know

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and for you it was being in your closet and just venting all of your

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frustration to the Lord he can take it you know and then at the end finally

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saying okay I got it all out Lord and now I'm ready you come in you come in God

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yes and that that's exactly how it happened yeah so before you started

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working at Elijah Rising you were when you were still I guess volunteering with

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them you were an eighth grade teacher and even at that point God started using

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what you were doing to educate families and to really intervene in some very

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troubling situations so I know some of it is sensitive and you can't reveal all

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the details about it but explain what happened and how God started to use you

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yes so I was like you said I was volunteering teaching English and 13

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and 14 year old students they are very curious and they always Google their

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teachers to see what they can find about you and I didn't even remember doing

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this but I had done a video testimony for Elijah Rising as a volunteer and it

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explained in great detail that I used to go out to or that at the time I went out

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to Bissinette Street and I was ministering to prostitutes and sex

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traffickers and so this spicy little 13 year old girl comes in right before

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first period and she puts her hand on her hip and she said I know where you go

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every Friday night and I'm thinking there's no way so I said oh you do do you

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and sure enough she did she knew she must have memorized the video and so of

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course that was first period by the end of first period the entire eighth grade

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new and the students began to just demand on Monday mornings that I would

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just give them a little snippet about what was happening on Friday nights and

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I had been you know I was kind of getting tired of teaching anyway so I

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thought this could probably get me fired maybe sued but I did I felt I felt like

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it was something that the Lord was actually leading me into and so I I

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would take the first five minutes of class and I would talk about sex trafficking

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obviously in an age-appropriate manner and after that had gone on for a short

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period of time I got an email from a parent and the only the subject line

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just said topics of class discussions and I remember thinking well that's it

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it's been a good run I'm about to get fired but rather than that it was a mom

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who said you know my my daughter's at this weird age she never wants to talk

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to me anymore but she's coming home and she's talking about what you're talking

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about in class and so we began to look into what sex trafficking is together

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and you know and thank you so much and then the next parent email came in and

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so all of a sudden on my weekly newsletter that I would send home to the

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parents about what we were gonna cover in class that week I'm putting in now

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tips and educating parents about what sex trafficking is and how they can help

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protect their children from it so it ended up being absolutely amazing and

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and because of this my students and I had 150 students every year they were

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becoming educated and so I was sitting in my classroom one day and this young

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man comes through the door I was grading papers it was my off period and he was

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crying big old football player so it was unusual for him to be crying and I

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said what's going on and he said I think and then he said her name is being sex

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trafficked and I said well what what would make you think that and he showed

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me something on his phone and and sure enough it was happening but and we were

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able to get her into safety but because he understood what sex trafficking was

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and saw what he saw and he said something about it you know he was able to get

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her help and there's so many other kids in schools there were three in my school

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alone just in in less than two years when you were in an eighth grade you were

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teaching eighth grade so you're not even in a high school at this point oh no no

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these are yeah like the oldest kids were you know 14 years old and so yeah so

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God really used you to intervene really rescue three girls even before you went

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on staff at Elijah Rising but that was the only one that I was able to really

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intervene in the other one was recovered she was actually taken through an online

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relationship and she was recovered by law enforcement and then the third one we

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don't know where she is and so yeah yeah I just want to be clear about that and so

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okay yeah well I mean I'm sure that there were parents and children who had

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conversations many more than you know about that hopefully led some kids away

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from those who are trying to catfish them absolutely so eventually a position

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of awareness director opened up for Elijah Rising and you left teaching to do

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that you're now also the intervention director share some of the ways that you've

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seen God rescue people trapped in this darkness well well so at Elijah Rising

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we we don't call ourselves a rescue organization we are we empower women

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through the gospel of Jesus Christ and so what we do is we go into strip

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clubs out onto the streets into kentinas into massage parlors and we share the

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truth that Jesus Christ brings we speak identity to the women and to the men we

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meet and we build relationship with them one of the things we tell them is we

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love you in this life and we will love you out of this life because we realize

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they were manipulated into the life and it would be very easy for us to go in

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and convince them that they are victims and manipulate them out of the life and

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that doesn't work and so what we do is we go in we love them we befriend them and

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we like I said empower them by the gospel and when they're ready to get out

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they can tell us and then we are equipped to help get them safely away from

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their pimp their trafficker and so gosh we have we have just seen amazing

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things happen we out on Bissinette Street there was a woman who it took about

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two and a half years to build a relationship with her and one day just

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out of the blue she grabbed my arm and she dragged me over to her traffickers

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car she introduced me to him and and she was like hey this is Miss Dawn and and I

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had no idea what to say I don't even know what I did say actually I have like a

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few snippets but the Holy Spirit just began to speak well he liked I guess

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what the Holy Spirit said through me to him so then he starts coming and seeing

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us every Friday and fast forward he called me in the middle of the night one

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night and said hey we both went out of the game will you help us wow and so we

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were able to exit the the guy who was trafficking the girl and their three

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children from the life of exploitation through prostitution and they're still

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out of it to this day and so you know that's that's one example but it's

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amazing when women and men see authenticity just through the faithfulness

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of showing up week after week and by continually speaking the truth in love

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to the point where a lot of times people aren't you afraid to go out there some

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of the traffickers even though they're doing like really horrible bad things

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they're very protective of our groups and they will come over and they allow us

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to minister to them as well and so it's it's really interesting just how God is

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moving and working through our intervention teams I have a great group

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of volunteers who go out week after week and share the gospel of Jesus Christ

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love people to the point where they're strong enough to make good decisions and

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then we can help and your your teams are covered in prayer and you have safety

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protocols in place absolutely and they don't go out alone so listeners

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listeners who want to get involved with something like this make sure you

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connect with people who are seasoned in this in this way that can show you how

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to do do it correctly yes so if you're feeling called to this listeners

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absolutely get involved but get involved through a tried and true

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organization that can show you how to do it the right way yeah we have a lot of

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training and a mentorship program that you have to come like go through to be

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able to serve on our teams just throwing that out there so what does your family

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think about what you're doing my family is amazing and they are all in even

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even my two oldest sons who are from another father from the moment we started

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doing the inner city ministry working with gang members we've involved them

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our youngest children we they know nothing else but serving the Lord through

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that type of ministry and so they are so supportive they are willing to do

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whatever needs to be done to make sure that I can serve in the way that I do

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my husband my kids they really do they carry a lot of the load at home

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oftentimes when things are crazy in my work life they pray for me they support

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me when I have a heartbreak which in this line of work you're gonna have

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heartbreak they they're there they they just step in they they fill the gaps for

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me they're so supportive and they want to see this be successful because they

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they truly and they've all told this to me they truly believe that God's just

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moving so powerfully through the ministry and so they they're there yeah

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so you're not in it alone you've got a you've got a support system there for

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your for you well dawn looking back over your life you you must be amazed at how

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God has uniquely prepared you for this type of ministry the type that you're in

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and do you have any last thoughts you want to share with our listeners oh gosh

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if if I could go back and not be so afraid of facing the trauma that happened

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to me like because apparently I suppressed it if I could go back and do

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with that part again where I met God in the moments of my trauma and allowed

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him to heal me back then you know here I waited till I was in my 50s to you know

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take care of all that I would I would just highly recommend not not not denying

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your trauma not not um because my my take on it was well I'm saved you know I

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God's blood runs through my veins now so everything that happened in my past it

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doesn't affect me anymore I would just tell myself that yet my behaviors were

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you know saying otherwise and so just not being afraid to face it and you know

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face it head-on with the Lord laid at his feet and just see what he'll do because

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I think that that would have saved me a lot of years of having to struggle and

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fight to get to to where I am but I can use all of this because so many of the

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women that I serve now that are being exploited they're where I am or I was

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because they know they need change in their life but they're not willing to

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admit it and so it does actually open up a lot of ministry doors I've had a lot

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of just very candid very raw conversations with women and it's it's

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been so powerful and not that I'm happy that the things happened in my life

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that did but you know God does turn all things to good and he's using what I've

448
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gone through to help others and so I truly am thankful for that I know it

449
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sounds kind of cliche but I really am well it's so I think important for all

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of us to know whatever the Lord has brought us out of because we've all

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come out of different things God did it for our good but he also wants us to

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share it with others so they can be rescued as well and you know you said

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you don't say you're rescuing you you you share that you know how do you

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empower them with Christ Jesus which is exactly right and Christ Jesus the one

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who rescues but we all need to rescue from something so Donna as you close

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would you share about a woman in the Bible whose story has inspired encouraged

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or taught you something yes and this I believe it's Luke 10 I shouldn't look

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this up I'm sorry but it's Mary and Martha and it's when Mary sat at the

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feet of Jesus that has been something that I have clung to because like I said

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before I am so much of I guess you would call me a Martha I can fix it I can do

461
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it I can carry that load I can make sure everything's perfect I can do all these

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things and it wasn't until I sat at the feet of Jesus did I begin to experience

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his fullness and to experience freedom true freedom if you would have asked me

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10 years ago I would have told you what a free woman I was but I was not free it

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wasn't until I just sat with him put it all down there and that's what changed

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my life like just boom right then amen Jesus changes everything Psalm 30 was

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written by King David who boy he had a lot of trauma in his life even though he

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was following the Lord closely all the days of his life so but King David was

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rescued by God numerous times and numerous occasions and in Psalm 30

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verses 1 through 5 11 and 12 the new in the new living translation reads I would

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exalt you Lord for you rescued me you refuse to let my enemies triumph over

472
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me oh Lord my God I cried to you for help and you restored my health you

473
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brought me up from the grave oh Lord you kept me from falling into the pit of

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death sing to the Lord all you godly ones praise his holy name for his anger

475
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lasts only a moment but his favor lasts a lifetime weeping may last through the

476
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night but joy comes in the morning you have turned my morning into joyful

477
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dancing you have taken away my clothes of morning and clothes me with joy that I

478
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might sing praises to you and not be silent oh Lord my God I will give thanks

479
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:44,120
to you forever you know God is such a loving father who rescues us to bring

480
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:49,880
us to himself he takes us from the grave keeps us from faith falling those who

481
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:54,280
look to him are given joy instead of weeping and dancing instead of morning

482
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but it takes surrender to his good plan and trust in his faithfulness if you've

483
00:47:59,960 --> 00:48:04,200
experienced rescue by the Lord you know this and I'm sure you're filled with

484
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praise to him and if you're waiting for rescue call on the name of the Lord

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00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:14,520
Jesus and he will come through for you don't would you take a moment pray for

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our listeners oh I'd love to oh heavenly father God I thank you I thank you for

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this time I thank you that you are a God who sees everything about us that you

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see the things that we don't even know about us Lord you are a God who answers

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the cries of your people yeah when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus he

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will come through for you or for us God he who Lord the way you come through

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isn't always what we've planned out so Lord I ask that our listeners that are

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calling upon your name God would have ears to hear your plan and if it

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differs from what they had planned God open their heart to receive what you

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have because Lord you you know you know far better than we do you are the

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beginning you are the end and you are everything in between and there's so

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little that we actually know about even sometimes our own situations but you can

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see into them you can see through them you can see beyond them and so Lord as

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we cry out and you hear our prayers God pause our minds from racing and trying

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to go to the next step and trying to figure out what's next and just like

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Mary God let us just sit at your feet and hear what you have for us so give us

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eyes to see when when you bring these things into our life give us ears to

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hear as we as we read your word and as we seek you God that you will put our

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feet upon the path that you have for us that you will lead us in the direction

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that you want us to go and that you will bring us through every trial that comes

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our way Lord truly no weapon formed against us will prosper because we're

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yours and everything that happens in our life even when we don't understand it

507
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God has a different purpose Lord I Lord I think I've been studying Job and just

508
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God how he just struggled and struggled and struggled for understanding just

509
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:05,720
like I did for so long I needed to understand things before I took my next

510
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steps or whatever so God I I ask that for anyone listening today who is calling

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upon your name that they would just be calm that they would just not try to do

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all that figuring out but they would just sit with you that they would pour into

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your word and that you would speak to them in Jesus name

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listeners if you would like to pray with someone directly and personally we'd

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00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:39,600
love to pray with you we have a 24-7 prayer in text line you can give us a

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00:51:39,600 --> 00:51:50,480
call or text us anytime at 855-459-CARE that's 855-459-CARE or you can email us

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00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:56,520
at prayer at somebodycares.org thank you for tuning in check out the show notes

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00:51:56,520 --> 00:52:00,520
at hergodstory.org for scriptures and other information we talked about and

519
00:52:00,520 --> 00:52:04,680
there you can find a free download of a six-week devotional on women of the

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00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:08,680
Bible and while you're there consider joining our company of women by

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00:52:08,680 --> 00:52:13,120
supporting the widow and orphan fund and now dear friends I bless you with an

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00:52:13,120 --> 00:52:20,920
adaptation from 1st Samuel 26-24 now may the Lord value your life and may he

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00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:26,320
rescue you from all your troubles her God story is a ministry of somebody

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00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:30,600
cares America and International to find out more about or support the ministry

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00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:40,600
go to somebodycares.org