April 29, 2024

Do you trust God's plan for your life? Lidiette Rosa's Story

Do you trust God's plan for your life? Lidiette Rosa's Story
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Her God Story with Jodie Chiricosta

Do You Rely On God For Direction? Lidiette Rosas shares her journey of uncovering her God-given purpose. Despite facing health hurdles and battling anxiety, she pressed through and embraced what God has for her. In the process, she has found hope and experienced God conforming her into His image. Lidiette’s story is shared with vulnerability and authenticity. As you listen you’ll discover trusting God’s plan always works for our good. When we let go of control and let God lead we find peace and fulfillment as never before.

#Faith #Godisgood #FollowingJesus. #Trust God #Anxiety #Panicattack

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Transcript

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Hey friends, welcome to the Her God Story podcast where you will always hear a good story to encourage and inspire you in your walk with the Lord.

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I'm so glad you tuned in. I'm your host, Jodie Chiricosta, ministry leader at Somebody Cares America, international author and traveler on this journey with Jesus.

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Did you know that you can download a free six-week devotional on women of the Bible at HerGodStory.org?

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God will use it to minister to you in so many ways. I encourage you to get it.

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You can also have a 12-week devotional on women of the Bible that you can purchase for just $12 and all the proceeds will go to our widow and orphan funds, so check them out.

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Romans 8.28 is a verse that many of us cling to in the face of trials.

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The NIV version reads, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

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Boy, do I remind myself of that frequently.

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But to fully grasp what the apostle Paul is talking about, we need to read verses 29 and 30 as well.

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They say, For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he may be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters, and those he predestined he also called, those he called he also justified, those he justified he also glorified.

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The good that God is working for us is that we are being conformed into the image of Jesus.

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He's working to develop the character of Christ in us for our eternal good. And sometimes trials are not as temporary as we would like.

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But when we see from God's perspective, we know everything is for our ultimate good.

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My guest, Lidiette Rosas, loves God and has been called according to his purpose.

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And she sees how God has been working in her life to conform her into his image.

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It hasn't always been easy. But as she looks at each situation with an eternal perspective, she understands everything is for her good.

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Lidiette has a passion to connect women to each other and to God and is co-founder of Lovebot, a ministry that cares for orphans.

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She lives in Houston, Texas, and is grateful for her supportive husband and three delightful children.

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As you listen to her story, let God speak to you about his work in your life as well.

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Welcome, Lidiette. Hi, Jody. I'm so excited to be on your podcast.

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Thank you for having me. Lidiette, you heard about God growing up, but your parents' divorce and subsequent instability in your life caused you to stray away.

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Tell us about those early years and where you turned to cope with all that was happening in your life.

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I think the earlier years of my childhood were pretty safe. I grew up in a Christian home.

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Shortly after I was born, my parents were saved. So I grew up in a Christian home, grew up in a Baptist church, and everything as far as I knew was good.

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But then I entered my teen years and my parents experienced a divorce. They went through divorce.

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And that really just kind of shook my world because I had this image of our family and them, and then all of a sudden it wasn't.

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And so I think your teenage years are your formative years, and so they're really, really important.

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And unfortunately, you know, this is exactly when I started going through this.

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So in the midst of all this, we ended up moving to another city and I started to experience a lot of rapid, consecutive changes in my life.

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And unfortunately, during this time, I ended up turning to alcohol.

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And I was very young, but I found that was an avenue to kind of just release the feelings I was going through, or maybe perhaps bottle them up.

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But it was a coping mechanism. And I went all in.

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I found myself within a matter of years really just abusing alcohol.

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And I don't say this to gloat because obviously it's not anything to go about.

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But I say it to, I guess, show the frequency of my drinking that being five to probably a hundred pounds, I could out drink a lot of my friends.

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And oftentimes I would be the, quote unquote, designated driver.

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And I'm convinced it was really just by the grace of God that I made it home every time.

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But I really just went all in. I think I hit it pretty well because my parents didn't really know.

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And I really just felt all alone in this.

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Something happened that caused you to do an about face in life. Share about that.

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So I was heading completely in the wrong direction at this point.

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I'm only 18, but I was already several years into the alcohol abuse.

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And I was always very responsible outside of this. Right.

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And so my mom thought she could trust me. And I was very immature for my age.

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I guess I had experienced a lot. And so I one night, a friend of mine had invited me to hang out and happened to be at his friend's dad's ice house, if I remember correctly.

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So I said, sure. So I picked up my cousin and her husband and we went there.

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And I was just going for a fun night. Right. But once I got there, I realized another young lady had been invited by the same friend.

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And apparently she saw me as somewhat of a threat that night. So one thing led to another.

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And we almost got into this brawl at a bar. Right. And she was fighting for the guy. I was fighting for my name.

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And so, you know, we ended up, I think her friends pulled her back. Something happened.

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But we I went home that night and I remember the next day just feeling like I hit a new low.

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And I thought, what was I doing? I was in an ice house. You know, I mean, there's bars and there's there's ice houses. Right.

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You just imagine these big hairy men. Right. So I was in the ice house about to get in a fight.

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And I just it hurt my pride. But I think even more so, it hurt my spirit.

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And I just I hadn't been raised that way. And I heard God speak and say, I created you for more than this.

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And I didn't realize in the moment how pivotal how pivotal this moment was and how life changing it would be.

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But I was so tired of living this life and I was so empty. And I said, OK, God, well, if you help me, I'll leave this life and I'll return to you.

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So I end up going back to the church that I used to go years before my parents divorce,

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which is Praise Chapel with Gulfman, Gulfman, I'm sorry, with Roy Love, Pastor Roy Love.

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So I went back and I just found this incredibly loving community. They were so accepting.

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They knew my story and they embraced me. And I made all new relationships.

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I realized I had to completely transform my environment to really sustain this change.

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And God was so gracious that he met me there. And the rest is history. I never went back.

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So around that same time, you also started to have some health issues that significantly impacted you. So what happened?

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I was always very healthy. And shortly after I rededicated my life to the Lord, I started experiencing some health issues,

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namely palpitations and weird things going on with my heart.

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And I remember going to cardiologists and he told me I had PTSD. I'm sorry, not PTSD, PSVT.

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And he put me on beta blockers and all sorts of stuff, which really just kind of made me feel sad and down.

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And I just wasn't myself. And so I got off of those. And over time, it just continued to progress and get worse and worse.

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And I can see now what the enemy was doing. You know, it's always 2020 in hindsight.

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But I can see that the moment I rededicated my life to the Lord, I became a threat and a target to the enemy.

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And so he implanted this little thing called fear through this health issue.

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And it really just continued to grow throughout the years. And it became a stronghold.

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And it really just got a hold of my life. And I found myself trying to control my environment in an effort to feel safe.

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And that really just took me in a downward spiral.

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You're growing in your relationship with the Lord, but fear had this stronghold in your area of health.

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And we're going to talk about that more in a bit.

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But during that time, during those years of really growing in your faith, you began dating your future husband.

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Share how that started and how God led you through that time.

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My husband is my microsis. If any listeners happen to know him.

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So I did meet Mike at Gulf Meadows when we were I was 14. He was 17.

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And when I went back is when our friendship really began.

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So we got to be friends for several years before we even thought of dating.

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And when that attraction started, we really wanted to make sure we were on the right course.

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And it was a person God had for us. So we did something I had never done before.

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We decided to pray about whether or not we were, you know, the one God had for each other.

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And so we both we separated for a month. We didn't speak and we prayed and we both sought the Lord.

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And I lost the scripture. I wish I had it.

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But the Lord gave me a scripture and the Lord gave him a scripture.

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And so much later, we began our dating relationship.

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Almost five years later, we got married.

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We wanted to make sure we're in a good, stable place, you know, before we did that.

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But it was funny as we when we were in our dating relationship.

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And when we first started, I began to lose a lot of the friendships that I had made when I came out of my old life.

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And so this was my new community. Obviously, this was devastating for a 20 year old. Right.

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And and so I remember just being really hurt.

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You know, there was people in his family that weren't the most welcoming and then friends that I was losing.

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And I remember being hurt and telling Mike, I just am afraid to make friendships with women.

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You know, I've been hurt so many times.

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And he said something that I'll always remember. He said, don't shut that door.

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He said, oftentimes the enemy attacks you in the area of your calling.

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And up until that moment, I had never felt a call to women.

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But that really planted a seed and it birthed something inside of me.

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And after that, I started to realize I loved relationships with women and I loved building on that.

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And and so I knew at that moment, I didn't know what it was, but I knew God was doing something.

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And during that time, you also helped Mike fulfill a desire of his heart by doing something in Colombia.

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Share about that briefly. Right.

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When we started dating, I think a month or two into it, we opened a soup kitchen in Colombia.

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So for seven years, we ran it from 2007 to 2013 and we brought the word to the children of the community.

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We fed them and we had school from kinder to second grade.

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And at the end of seven years, we found that a lot of the kids were still following the patterns of the kids around them.

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And they were joining gangs and entering prostitution rings.

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And so we knew we really needed to have something that would make sustainable change.

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And that meant having them full time instead of releasing them to their environment at the end of the day.

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So the Lord released us to close that down, to start the transition by bringing in a government soup kitchen

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and another church to kind of do the work that we were doing because God never leaves us nor forsakes us.

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Right. And so we started that transition and close that chapter.

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You weren't married long before you started a family.

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And when your first child was born, God really birthed in you or clarified the vision he had started forming in you when you were dating.

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Share about that.

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Yes. So I was used to working.

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I'd been working since I was 15 in part to help my single mother.

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And so I really actually enjoyed working.

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So when I had my daughter, I was working in the oil and gas industry.

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I had a very good paying job, but I knew it wasn't what I was called to.

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So after a lot of prayer, the Lord said, I can leave when I want to.

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So I decided to leave two days before my oldest, Alessandra, was born.

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And that was really a culture shock for me because, you know, you're used to corporate America and all of a sudden your home all day by yourself with this needy child.

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And so, of course, it was wonderful.

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But so my husband being in ministry was gone a lot.

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You know, there's meetings to attend and traveling.

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I think he traveled for the first time 14 days after Ali was born.

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So, you know, that was a lot.

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And I remember just kind of having this pity party and thinking, you know, feeling so alone.

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And and this was happening more and more.

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And so I remember the Lord telling me, you're not the only one.

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And there's a lot of women that are facing this out there.

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And there's pastors, wives, and there's just regular wives and mothers and, you know, just women in general who are feeling alone and are needing somebody to bring them in.

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And make them a community.

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So God started to kind of develop that.

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And I just I honestly felt too busy at the time and I was a little afraid.

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So I just kind of, you know, set it to the side, put in the back burner.

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Until Mike got an offer, actually a request to come and take over as pastor of a church.

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So share about that season and what God did with you in women's ministry.

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Yeah, so that was a very exciting season.

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We we accepted this invitation, moved across town, sold our house, and we didn't have pastoring in mind ever, really.

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But when we felt the Lord call us, we were all in, you know, because whatever the Lord says goes.

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That's that's our saying. And so, you know, we went all in and I enjoyed it so much.

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We so they allowed me to be over the women's ministry and I really enjoyed that.

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We I got to know this wonderful group of women.

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We would have Bible studies. I would write their curriculum.

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And, you know, we got to go on a retreat.

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Everything was really lovely with the ladies and we really were building deep relationships.

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However, two or three years into it, some changes took place.

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The founding pastors just got a second wind as they saw, you know, new growth.

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It was exciting times. And so we prayerfully made the decision, the difficult decision to sort of step aside just to prevent difficult things.

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You know, and so in doing this, we we made a hard transition.

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It wasn't exactly as planned. We didn't get to really say goodbye.

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And I wasn't expecting to lose the relationships that I did.

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And the same thing happened that had happened prior or in a similar way.

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But I found myself just really grieving this time.

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And it was just a weird thing because I remember I remember thinking the last time I grieved, I had alcohol.

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I don't have alcohol this time. And how do people agree with that alcohol?

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And that was a surprising thought for me because I hadn't thought about alcohol at all, you know.

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And so I was like, OK, well, you know, God, I've got got this time and God's going to carry me through.

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And he did. But as I realized how alone I was once again, God brought to my heart again the ministry and the need for a mentor and the need for a community of women around me.

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Yeah. So your vision to connect with women, it didn't die.

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And neither did Mike's desire to care for orphans in Colombia.

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So you really began pursuing both simultaneously and then COVID hit.

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So tell us about that. What happened?

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So I guess that lands us right around the I think 2019 is when God put it back in my heart.

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And this time it wasn't just a subtle hit. It was a shove.

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And so I said, OK, God, it was the end of 2019. He worked on my heart throughout that entire year.

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OK, I'm going to I'm just going to go full speed next year. Early next year. We'll start.

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So 2020 started. I gathered a group of women. Most of them happen to be in ministry.

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And so I said, OK, we're going to this is a pilot. You know, we're going to give us a try and see what happens.

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And I and I didn't have the full picture, but I knew God was going to kind of show me what we needed and how to shape it.

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So everybody was so excited. And then COVID hits and just kind of rain on our parade.

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Right. And so once again, I put it back on the shelf and just kind of dealt with COVID.

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I also had a child in 2020, which kind of added to my busyness.

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And we also finally launched after years of fighting the government in Colombia.

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We finally got our license to operate. It was it was it was a seven day notice.

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And they said in seven days we'll be dropping off 30 girls.

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And of course, we got to run it and we made it happen. And so it was a very difficult and a very amazing year at the same time.

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So you had to travel to Colombia pretty regularly for meetings and to oversee the start up of the orphanage and to work on details,

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even though you're dealing with health issues that actually had never really totally gone away.

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So you still had that fear bubbling inside of you about your health.

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And that all came to a head when you were on a trip in 2021. Share that story, because it's pretty intense.

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You know, Mike stays pretty busy with his ministry and we have businesses at the time as well.

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So I was over homeschooling, you know, keeping the home front and running Love Bot from here.

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We had a 22 piece staff that I had to manage and oversee from another country. Right. So I think the busyness of everything and the pandemic and everything kind of.

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Kind of disguise that kind of covered the health issues that were going on at the time. I was they weren't right in front of me.

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I didn't think it was an issue anymore. And so come 2020 comes along. Sorry, 2021. We're on a trip.

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Everything's going well. And I were having a meeting up in the orphanage. We're 12,000 feet above sea level.

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All of a sudden, I start feeling ill. And I remember that my legs kind of started going numb from my feet to my knees.

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I just started experiencing weird symptoms. And then I remember that my blood pressure drops when I don't eat and all these things happen.

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And I think I start to get a little panicky. I thought about the fact that my mother-in-law had experienced altitude sickness recently.

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And so I get into a bit of a panic. And so I tell my husband, I'm like, we have to go. We have to descend the mountain.

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So we get in the car with the driver and he starts driving. And I roll down the window. I just don't feel like I can breathe.

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And things really just start to escalate at that point. And can I tell you, that was the longest 40 minutes of my life, maybe 30, because he tried to trim it as much as he could.

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He hit the pothole. He drove so fast, but I just couldn't breathe. I couldn't catch any air as much as I tried.

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And that numbness just continued up my body, up my legs, up my torso until I couldn't feel anything from the tongue down.

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And at this point, I think I'm going to die. I could tell that my hands were cramped. Mike says my face was turning blue.

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And it was really, really just a traumatic moment. And I remember thinking, I cannot believe this is where my life ends. I can't believe this is where my story ends.

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It was such a surreal situation. And I thought I didn't think it would happen with my kids back home and me on a mission and now today, you know.

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And I remember looking at Mike and saying, please tell the kids that I love them. And it was a hard, hard thing to do.

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It was just a hard situation altogether, thinking I'd never see them again. And so Mike locked eyes with me.

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And he said, before doing that, he asked the Lord, is this Lydia's moment? Everybody has a moment. Is this it?

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And so he locked eyes with me and he said, this is not your time. You are not going anywhere.

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And he said, I want you to look at me and do not take your eyes off of me. And we're getting through this.

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And so I just tried to breathe and I just tried to stay with him. So we get to the bottom of the mountain.

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As we're descending, I kind of start getting my air back, you know. And so, you know, they take me to the hospital.

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By the time I get there, I can breathe fine. So they say I basically just had an anxiety attack and dismissed me within 20 minutes.

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But I wasn't the same anymore. I wasn't the same. And so I just remember going to the hotel, still not feeling like I could breathe and not being able to catch a flight home because I wasn't saturating enough.

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My oxygen would get down to the 80s. And I just couldn't. I would go back to the hospital and they would dismiss me.

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And it was a very traumatic situation. Before coming home, I had my very first anxiety attack in the airport.

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I was by myself while Mike tried to get me an oxygen machine. And my heart rate escalated to 160. And I'm all alone.

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I had to tell the guy next to me, I said, do you remember what my husband looks like? I need you to search the airport for him and let him know that my heart rate is at 160. I didn't know it was an anxiety attack.

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So they take me to the airport hospital and treat me and release me. And so it was just a lot of like, I felt like there were also mind games because it's like you're okay. No, you're not.

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Because I didn't feel okay. And the oximeter said I wasn't. But everybody was releasing me. But I do want to go back to one point.

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And I think it's possibly one of the most important points in the whole interview. And it's that when I was in the hotel the day after it happened,

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I remember feeling so vulnerable and calling out to the Lord and saying, God, what happened? I was on a mission here, right? Like I'm doing what you called me to do.

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And I felt so forsaken. And I was just crying out to him. I was alone. Mike had gone down to get some food for us. And so I remember just asking the Lord. I was desperate to hear.

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And so I flipped open my phone. I go to YouTube and there's a message from Bill Johnson. And the very first thing he said, and I hope I can do it justice as I describe it, but he basically he talked about us abiding under the secret place of the most high,

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under the shadow of the Almighty. And he talked about going through the valley of the shadow of death. And he said, and we're both, we go through both.

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And so he said, but what happens is that when you go through the valley of the shadow of death, you're passing under the shadow. But even between you and the shadow of death is the shadow of the Almighty.

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And he covers you. And oftentimes, when things seem darkest is because God is holding you the closest. And in that moment, I didn't have all the answers I needed, but I knew God was with me.

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And that's all I needed in that moment. And that's basically what allowed me to continue pushing forward.

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So you finally did get home. And, you know, at that point, you're you're dealing with the aftermath.

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And, and, and God started speaking to you over time. And he did answer that why question. Why did that happen to you?

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Share what he will share what he revealed to you. Well, before any of that happened, I came home with terrible PTSD. I mean, it was debilitating. I couldn't drive for a long time. I couldn't even breathe. I forgot how to breathe. I had to relearn how to breathe.

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I tried my best to keep it together. I was still running lovebot. And here I am just falling apart, trying to keep it together in front of my staff. But I mean, mentally, I was I was just so fractured. And so spiritually, like in every sense, and it's funny how trauma plays such a big part in your health to my health started to go downhill as well.

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So I'm going through this difficult, at least two year battle, and trying to make I still felt like lovebot was riding on me. I still felt because prior to this, I felt like I made this happen. If I hadn't been there pushing the government, we wouldn't be here.

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And so it's just a very work different work culture over there. So I thought I had such a big hand. And God just taught me that his favor can get us so much further than our own hustle can sometimes.

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And I just learned to trust in him and I learned I wasn't as great as I thought I was because I crumbled and when I did he held me together. And, and so we just continued pushing forward.

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But my health, my health was really just getting worse and worse. And I started experiencing terrible, terrible depression and debilitating anxiety. And it wasn't till earlier this year that I started to realize that there was a there was a crack in my foundation.

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And I think that the reason so many of these things happen, and God allowed it to happen was to point to these cracks because I could never build, or he could never build on the foundation that I have without addressing these things things would have continued to crumble.

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And so I think in a way what happened in Columbia was the absence of knowing who I am in Christ and his love for me, and the fact that he would never leave me or forsake me so I think that's what I learned in all this that God was pointing there was something greater he allowed me to struggle just a little bit because it was worth it like what was coming was worth it and it was necessary in order to be able to fix these cracks.

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So you did share that the love bot orphanage opened and is now home to some precious girls there. And they're learning the value how valuable they are to God the same thing that God's really been showing you how valuable you are to God.

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Tell us just a little bit about how love bot cares for these girls. So we went from 30 to 50 girls we've expanded since last year. And it's just been such a blessing.

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I believe that it's not enough to just give them a home and a warm meal, even though that's wonderful and that's where we should begin. It extends beyond that and so our goal is to restore them our goal is to bring them healing body mind and spirit.

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And so, from the very beginning we introduce them to the saving knowledge of Christ we bring them the gospel. I remember one of Mike's earlier trips.

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We did the gospel to them he we connect with them every Sunday we do a Bible study but he wanted to do that in person so he went and they had a game of basketball he said whoever whoever loses will not get to have TV for a month, so being up a mountain

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that's really kind of all you have sometimes.

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So they lost it was 30 to one they lost, and they were so sad going back to the home so after dinner he's like, I have an idea. He says how about I take your punishment for you.

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And I go without TV for a month and they're like no no it's not fair to you know we won't do that to you. And so through that example he presented the gospel to them and he said, in a much greater way.

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Jesus took your punishment so that you wouldn't have to suffer. And so, you know, at the end of the day.

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And at the end of his speech he asked who would like to know Jesus personally, all these hands shoot up into this guy with scars on their wrist from cutting and just, I mean, their stories being told on their forums on their arms.

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And so, 28 girls, two employees and the driver gets saved that day.

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It was 50 degrees. And that day is cold outside no warm water but he says who wants to get baptized. So they pull out this big trash can never used, fill it up with water and the girls run to the front, eager to get baptized.

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And it was just one of the most beautiful moments, beautiful moments we've experienced. Amen. Lydia, as you consider all that God has taught you over the last several years.

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One or two truths that really stick out that you want to share with others. I think first and foremost, it's that God has always been there for me.

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You know, I've gone through a lot of things, you know, since my childhood.

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And there's been many changes. I moved 16 times and within, I think, 10 years, if I'm not mistaken. And so it was, it was constantly changing but God has been my only constant through it all.

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And he's been there and he's carried me through and he's been faithful. And I just couldn't do life without him and I just thank God for pulling me out of just the muck that I was in.

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And so it's just that it's that he's been with me through it all. And I think the second thing is, is kind of a funny thing is as I was working on these answers.

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I found myself reaching for the silver lining and I'm like, okay, come on, find the silver lining right.

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And I've been able to do that for the sake of the story. And, you know, I realized oftentimes we're just really uncomfortable with sadness and difficulty, you know, and, and vulnerability.

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And so many times we feel like we've got to work through our testimony and get to the other side.

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I don't mean that you're supposed to linger in it by any means because I'm just as uncomfortable as the next person.

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I feel like it's so hard for somebody to share their current testimony. It's always like, I went through this. There isn't that vulnerability.

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And I feel like there's something beautiful about the ugly too, or at least it leaves something beautiful. And it's this vulnerability. It's this empathy.

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It's, it's, you know, what did I learn through the season? What did God teach me? Where was God? And did I find any revelation of him?

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And I've been able to go through this and I've been able to, you know, I've been able to go through this and I've been able to keep it up in my mind for a long, long time.

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I've been able to take this long enough to learn from it. And I feel like if we did that, and even if we shared it along the way, people would heal with us.

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If you've been walking with the Lord, I mean, I've been walking with the Lord for decades. Don't feel like you've got to have it together

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Really? Nobody's gonna have it together till we get to heaven

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Everybody's dealing with something and if you're not you're probably about to and so I just I really just encourage authenticity

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I encourage vulnerability and I think God wanted me to to share that with people and really just

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Encourage people going through the same because there's a purpose God is

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Conforming us into the image of Christ Jesus and that's uncomfortable at times

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It is it sure is so as we close Lydia

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Would you share about a woman of the Bible whose story has inspired or encouraged or taught you something?

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I think that would be Ruth for me. We kind of skimmed past it earlier, but she's a person that

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Inspired the name of the women's ministry

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That I developed and that's glean glean women and it's based off her story

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obviously she went and she gleaned the fields and

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Met Boaz in the process

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but if we go back at just a little bit we realize that she would have never done that if she hadn't gotten the blessing of

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We all know her as her mother-in-law, but really at this point her husband was dead. There was no other connection

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I feel like at this point at this point

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she was more of a mentor and so she consulted with her mentor before going out and doing that and

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I just think it's such a beautiful thing because from that came

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Just an incredible lineage of people. I mean think of King David think of Jesus

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Jesus eventually came from that lineage as well

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I think it was like 31 generations later and so I think about what would happen if women

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Got together if women gathered to glean from each other and to fulfill the calling on their lives

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What if it was a church full of women? What if it was a city of women?

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What if it was a nation of women and I think that that just brings me back to the whole need for

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community and mentorship and

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I feel like Ruth gives us an incredible example of the potential that lies in these relationships and

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I feel so passionate and challenged by that story

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And I I guess before leaving I really just want to encourage women if there's anybody out there who feels disconnected

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First of all, you're not alone and second of all, there's a whole community of women looking to connect with other women

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I always say it's not good to make to make circles but make horseshoes that allow other women to come to come in and join

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The community and really just show the love of the father through that. Amen

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Well, Romans 12 2 tells us don't copy the behavior and customs of this world

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But let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think

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Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect

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At the beginning of our time together. I read some verses from Romans 8 about being conformed to the image of God

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And when we allow him to change the way we think like Lydette has been doing

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Then we're transformed into that new person that is the image of Christ and we learn God's will

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The NIV says be transformed by the renewing of your mind

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It's a process as we read God's word. We declare it over our lives. We apply it in our lives

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That renewal happens

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Lydia, would you take a moment pray for our listeners? So god, we just thank you for this day father god

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We thank you for this opportunity to come on this podcast. We thank you that this podcast is reaching so many

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Men and women across the world father god that they're being encouraged and challenged father god

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We ask that you would be with your listeners father god and whatever journey they're on lord god

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Whether it's a good one presently father or a difficult one father god

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I thank you lord that you're making yourself so present in their lives father god

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I thank you lord god that you carry them through father god god your word says

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That you perfect the things that concern us lord god if anybody is struggling with something right now father god

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I pray that you would be with them lord god god

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I pray that you would reveal to them the purpose of this season lord god god

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I thank you father that in doing so father healing will come father god and

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Repetitive cycles will be broken lord god. I thank you father that freedom comes from you

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Lord god god. I thank you that you only have good and perfect things for us lord god

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And that you bring us through all difficult seasons god

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I thank you that you're ever present lord and that you love us lord

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And so I pray that you would show your love to the listeners lord god. I pray father that this week father

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This week of all weeks lord. I think you've already shown the ultimate sign of love through your son

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Jesus god, but I pray that in a very practical way father

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You would reveal that to them lord god and let them know that you love them lord god

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That you think of them that you're with them father in every moment lord god

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And that you would draw them closer to you father that they would see you in a new way father god

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A new facet of you father god that they would become enthralled with you lord god and just

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Overwhelmingly in love with you lord god

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I pray that you would be with every listener and that you would bless them as they go on lord in jesus name

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We pray amen. Amen. Thank you. Hey if you have not heard yet

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The indoor bathroom is a great place to be

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But the indoor bathroom for the girls home in kenya has been completed dedicated and is now in use

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So thank you to all who have donated to our widow and orphan fund go to the her god story.org website to see the pictures

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But there are many other widows and orphans all over the world who also need a tangible expression of god's love right now

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If you haven't joined us yet

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Would you consider giving a special gift to help widows and orphans through our fund?

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Just go to the her god story.org website and click on the widow and orphan tab at the top of the page

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Thank you for tuning in check out the show notes at her god story.org for scriptures and other information that we talked about and remember

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To get your free six-week devotional on women of the bible there

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We'd also love to pray with you on our 24-7 prayer and text line

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You can give us a call or text anytime at 855-459-CARE or email us at prayer at somebody cares.org

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And now dear friends. I leave you with a blessing adapted from psalm 119 verses

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98 through 104 may the lord's commands make you wise

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And be your constant guide

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May you have great insight as you remain obedient to his word

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May god's word be sweeter to you than honey and his commandments give you understanding

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Her god story is a ministry of somebody cares america and international

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To find out more about or support the ministry go to somebody cares.org