God Saved My Place As I Was Mom, Nadine Naisbitt's Story

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Hey friends, welcome to the Her God Story podcast where you will always hear a good story

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to equip, inspire, and encourage you in your walk with the Lord. I'm your host Jodie Chiricosta,

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ministry leader at Somebody Cares America and International, author and traveler on this journey

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of faith, and I am delighted that you have joined us. Isaiah 41 10 is a wonderful encouragement and

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promise from God. In the NIV it reads, so do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for

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I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

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You know fear can hamper our life in so many ways. Worst of all, fear can keep us from following the

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Lord. But when we know God is with us and will strengthen us, help us, and even uphold us,

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we can walk forward with him without fear. My guest Nadine Naisbitt has learned this truth and

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it has transformed her life. Nadine is a space operations safety engineer, that's a mouthful,

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working to support the International Space Station. Early in her career she worked for NASA training

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astronauts and then in mission control supporting the space shuttle flights. This brilliant woman

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is also a wife and mother of three. She interrupted her career to homeschooler children and has seen

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God do remarkable things as she has followed his leading. Nadine has a story of God's power to save

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and set us free to walk in his fullness. Welcome Nadine. Thank you Jody. I'm really delighted to

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be here today. Nadine you have quite an impressive resume working on both the space shuttle and the

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International Space Station projects. But tell us a little about your background, your growing up

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years. What was Nadine like as a little girl? How were your interests and your faith fostered when

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you were young? I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to two loving families. I have a brother and a

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sister. My father was the son of immigrants from the Carpatho-Russian area of Eastern Europe and

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my mother was the daughter of immigrants from Serbia. So it was a very ethnic home, hard-born

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languages in my home. But my parents were both educated. My dad was a metallurgical engineer.

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My mom was a librarian but she also taught classes at the University of Pittsburgh. She actually

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could speak five languages. I didn't get that gene. Wow. No I did not. I was going to say did you pick that up?

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We moved to Texas when I was about five years old and we lived in various regions of the state. We

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first moved to the Houston area. Then we moved to the Wild West of Midland Texas where tumbleweeds

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were not only a thing in the movies but we also saw them going down our street. We later moved to

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Dallas area where that's really where the bulk of my growing up happened. My parents were both

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of the Eastern Orthodox faith, the Christian faith, which I would describe as a very liturgical

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expression of the faith. Very formal, a lot of rote prayers, that type of thing. So when I was

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growing up they took me to the Russian Orthodox Church and much of the service was in Russian.

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We also attended the Greek Orthodox Church which is the same except that it was in the Greek

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language. So you got to hear both Russian and Greek growing up. At a very young age though, Jody,

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I can tell you that just going in this formal environment I really developed an awe for God

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and respect for God. So I always had that in the back of my mind, that God was someone who to be

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revered. But I really didn't have a clue that I could ever possibly have a personal relationship

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with Him. I really just kind of grew up wanting to please God in everything I did. I wanted to

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please my parents. I didn't want to do anything that ever hurt their feelings or made them not be

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proud of me. So I really developed this attitude of just being a people pleaser and also I was the

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quintessential good girl. I grew up making the right choices, making my parents proud,

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and when I look back I see that my standard for righteousness was really based on what my parents

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expected of me. As I was growing up my father was really influential in my life. He taught me how to

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fix things around the house. So when I decided to go to college I wanted to become an engineer like

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my dad. So I went to Texas A&M where I studied chemical engineering. But much to my dismay is

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when I graduated I was on my first interview and they talked about wearing steel-toed shoes and

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I was just simply horrified and thought that is just not me. I can't do that. So God had a different

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direction and plan for my life. A friend of mine set me up with an interview with Rockwell

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International who was a contractor for NASA at the time and they were actually looking for a woman

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to train astronauts and I fit the bill and that sounded exciting to me. I went on the interview,

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they hired me on the spot and I actually was their first female hire in the astronaut training

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division. Wow that must have been amazing. Yes it was. Just six years later I wanted to do

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something new so I interviewed for a position with NASA to support space shuttle operations

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from what was called the ECOM console in mission control. ECOM was responsible for environmental

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control and life support systems. So that was a whole new level of challenge and it was really

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quite fun too to tell you the truth. So I was blessed to have that as a career. So you got to

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sit in mission control when the space shuttles were flying. Is that right? Oh yes absolutely.

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I supported them from both the back room and the front room and the front room is the people that

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you see on the news and they communicate with the flight director. It was a very exciting job to

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have. Nadine you mentioned that you were really the quintessential good girl as you called it and

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being scientifically minded you had a brilliant career path ahead of you and from the outside it

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may have appeared that you didn't even really need God. You had it all together but you had some

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startling supernatural encounters when God became very real to you. He was no longer the far

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distant God that you might have had a sense of when you were young. Share how you came to put

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your faith in Christ. What happened? I didn't know that I needed God at the time. I was a NASA

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engineer who frankly thought she had it made but I still had that underlying desire to please God

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and I think the Lord honored that desire. He opened up an opportunity for an encounter that

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eventually led me to that place of surrender and knowing him. Well I was in my mid to late 20s when

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a young man invited me on a date to a place called Magic Island and it was an entertainment type

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venue where they had magic shows, illusionists. They also had a room where they had what I describe

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now as different occultic services that they offered. They had a tarot card reader, there was a

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Ouija board table that you could play, there was a place to get your palm read, all that type of

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stuff that was in there. My date had decided to get his palm read and he wanted me to do it with

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him but quite frankly that dark atmosphere kind of creeped me out and so I declined you know but he

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went ahead and did it but later that night after I came home I turned the lights out in my room and

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was just settling into falling asleep when all of a sudden demonic creatures appeared in my room.

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I could see them physically with my eyes. I hadn't been drinking, I didn't do drugs, they were a

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reality. They were there, they were right in front of my face so something followed me home that day

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and there were a lot of small creatures that were flying around the room but there was one large head

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that appeared at the foot of my bed. I would describe it now years later as the face that you

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would see on one of those orcs from Lord of the Rings. It was very grotesque, very ugly, and very

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scary so that kind of freaked me out. And so what did your scientific mind think? I didn't know what

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to think. I just got up out of bed, I turned on the lights, I was scared quite frankly and so what I

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did was I had a bible. It was one of those bibles with the zipper around the edges and I put it on

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the pillow next to me because I thought it would protect me. You know I did I never opened it,

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it was still zippered up but it was on my pillow next to me for protection and then I decided to

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turn on the tv to Christian Channel. I just had that Christian Channel on and I slept that way for

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close to a year. I had the Christian TV going on in the background. I never really sat down

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to listen to it. It was on there on because I thought that would offer me some protection.

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Yeah so I mean deep in your heart you knew that there was a spiritual realm but you didn't really

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want to go there. Right exactly I didn't want to investigate. I didn't know how to investigate

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and I never heard of anything like that before so yeah you're right. So but one day often did ship

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work working in mission control because you work around the clock supporting shuttle missions and

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I had one of my colleagues that lived in the same apartment complex and he noticed that my light was

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on all night. You know every time he passed by my apartment after his shift was over he would notice

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I don't know why he would notice my light was on so he actually stopped me one day at work and said

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Nadine are you afraid of the dark? Well yes but I couldn't tell him that so I decided that I was

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being crazy and I decided that night I was going to turn my light off and sleep like a normal person

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and when I did those demonic creatures reappeared in my room but this time they were I would say

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more aggressive. They actually came to me as I laid in bed and I felt a shove. I felt and I actually

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my body was moving so they there was some kind of real entity in my room shoving me moving me. So

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even though all that time of having that Christian tv on the tv I never sat and listened to it I was

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hearing it. I was hearing what they were saying and one of the things I remembered in that moment

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was someone had said on that Christian tv that there's power in the name of Jesus so I called

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out I shouted Jesus and the instant I did those creatures left my room they were gone in an instant

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it was very very powerful display of the power of the name of Jesus and you still didn't know him as

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your savior but just the use of his name just the use of his name was so very powerful. When that

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happened I jumped out of bed of course because now I was excited because I had learned the power of

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Jesus name and so I thought I need to know more about this Jesus. Bolted out of bed turned on the tv

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and there was Paul Crouch on tvN and he was quoting from Isaiah 64 he's saying all are righteous acts

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are like filthy rags and then he quoted from Romans 3 23 for all have sinned and fallen short

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of the glory of God. Well I was arrogant enough to just have this thought come into my head that

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he couldn't be possibly talking about me. Well I thought I didn't sin I was a good girl you know

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what is he talking about when have I ever sinned these are the questions that were going in my mind

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and then it happened I found myself in a white room with God sitting on his throne in front of me

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I didn't actually see God I just knew that it was God that was sitting in front of me. The Lord

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suddenly gave me a life review it started with my childhood it seemingly lasted for hours but I had

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these flashbacks of every place that I had fallen short of the glory of God and it just wrecked me

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it just left me on the floor in a puddle weeping I was having some carpet time at that time and it

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really did seem like it went on for hours and hours as you can imagine a life review would but

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then I started feeling a sense of despair like what can I do now and so that's what I asked I said

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well what can I do now and what can I do to be saved and just as I was thinking that I heard

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Paul Crouch's voice and he said you might be thinking right now what can I do to be saved

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and then he led in a prayer of repentance and of salvation so that night I became a new creature

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in Christ when I prayed that prayer and asked the Lord to become my Lord. Wow. I knew him personally

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now. And did those creatures ever come back? They never came back never never never no. So Nadine what

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changed after you became a Christian I mean you're still a good girl you were always a good girl so

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you know there there might not have been necessarily behavioral changes but how did you grow in your

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faith and and how did you you know what did you experience as a new believer? Well interestingly

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enough that same week a woman at work approached me and her name was Debbie lover to death she's

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still my very close friend but she said that she had heard I had become a Christian and that she

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wanted to be my friend so I was kind of blown away by that because I hadn't told anybody but somehow

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she knew and at the time really most of my friends were men you know I had studied engineering where

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most of my fellow students were men most of my colleagues at work were men but I believe God

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wanted me to have women friends and he provided them. So Debbie became a mentor to me she was

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awesome she taught me about water baptism and she said have you been water baptized I said sure I

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was water baptized no honey you have to be water baptized sensibly so she led me in that she taught

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me about Holy Spirit baptism she taught me about evangelism she she taught me how to pray she took

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me to church I learned scripture from her she was just an amazing woman of God that really set me

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on a course of really loving the word of God and loving God's people at the time though because

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you know my parents didn't know anything about what was happening I was still connected to the

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Greek Orthodox Church so I was still going to that had one foot there because it was a cultural

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thing it's like oh how do I tell them I'm leaving this you know that was a very hard thing to do

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but what I would do I was part of a group there a young adult singles type group and so everything

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I learned from Debbie I shared with them and so it was a really powerful time of me being an evangelist

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even though I was a young believer in the Lord so it was a lot of those people came into a relationship

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with Jesus so Debbie was the one who also introduced me to Doug Stringer and his outreach

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endeavors that he had and she was the one that introduced me to the late night street witnessing

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in the lower manchos and for those who don't know for those of you who don't know Doug Stringer is

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the founder of somebody cares which sponsors and hosts this podcast and started on the streets of

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Houston and Nadine go ahead and tell what you guys used to do on the streets of Houston okay well I

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was still struggling with fear but Debbie literally drugged me to the streets the first time I went

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but God really did an amazing thing the first time I had told you how I had returned to the

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Greek Orthodox group and that church was actually in the lower Montrose area of Houston and one of

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the girls in that group asked me to pray for a young man named Billy Zorba that week Debbie

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prevailed and I joined her and Doug Stringer's team on the streets and and there we were while

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this huge burly scary looking tall young man covered in tacks came walking up to us and yes

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it was Billy Zorba the young man I had been praying for that week so we talked with him we

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shared the gospel with him we prayed a prayer protection over him he wasn't quite ready to turn

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his life over to Jesus yet he still allowed us to prayer prayer protection over him and I actually

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told him I'd bring him a new Bible if he would meet me at that Greek church the next Sunday so

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dutifully I came with my gift and waited and waited for him to show up and finally the priest

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noticed me sitting alone on the pew after everyone had gone home and he said uh can I help you and I

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told him I had met Billy on the streets and was bringing him a Bible and the priest shared with me

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that Billy had been shot five times the night we prayed for him and my eyes started to well up with

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tears I thought oh my goodness we'd missed it but he said don't don't cry Billy's fine because he

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shared with me how you all prayed for him and and even as he was being shot he saw angels protecting

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him and he knew it was because of our prayers it took a while but Billy eventually surrendered his

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life to Christ so that was a very powerful first encounter on the streets wow yeah even as a young

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believer you got to experience and really witness the power of God which absolutely is is remarkable

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because once you see and experience the power of God you know you never walk away you know that

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it's real and he's real even during those tough times that come in all of our lives you know the

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power of God is going to prevail so you know friends there are a lot of hurting people who

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need Jesus and as a company of women we can do so much to help those who are orphaned and widows who

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have served the Lord all over the world many have special needs that we as a company of women can

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meet together would you consider joining us with a special gift to help just go to hergodstory.org

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and click on the widow and orphan tab at the top of the page so Nadine after you accepted the Lord

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you were still dealing with fear you haven't talked about how you you dealt with fear in the past but

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you that's not something that went away immediately uh you're right Jody I was struggling with fear

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and I believe it was because it was really something that I had learned from a young age

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you see my mom was a chronic warrior she was filled with a lot of fear she was

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a helicopter mom to the maximum she worried about everything and um and everything and I just picked

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up on that so I too from a young age started to have those feelings of fear and worry and on top

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of that when I started my career training astronauts one of the ways that we would train

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astronauts is through simulations and when I was in that training role I would have to think of

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failure scenarios that the crewman would have to respond to and I would have to think in terms of

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the next worst failure that could happen it happens so without realizing rising it as I was

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training astronauts I was really training myself to think of the next worst thing that could happen

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in my life and so I was instead of breaking free from the fear I was actually reinforcing it

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and so when I first came to the Lord the very first scripture that he spoke to me through

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where I knew it was personal for me that had his signature mark all over it was from second

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Timothy 1 7 for God has not given you a spirit of fear but a power of love and a sound mind

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and he was wanting to retrain me he was wanting to transform my mind and he wanted me to walk in

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faith not fear so you continued to work at NASA and you were very involved in outreach and fellowship

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of Christians through Doug Stringer's ministry at the time and which birth somebody cares and when

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you met a man that you would eventually marry and it's really quite a story share that with us oh

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it's a beautiful story yes I was volunteering with the Doug Stringer's ministry attending weekly

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uh weekly Bible studies that he led and at that time Doug was sponsoring and hosting a spiritual

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impact conference men and women from really all over the world would come to glean from Doug's

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wisdom and experience and others that he had called alongside him too that had the same vision

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since I was working at mission control at the time Doug asked me to take a few groups on a tour of

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Johnson Space Center and one of the guys that was in the group was Russell who was from New Zealand

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and who is now my husband we hardly exchanged any words on that tour but when he got home

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he was sharing photos of the trip with some Fijian pastors that were living with him at the time they

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were going to Bible college in Auckland where he lived and so he was hosting them in his home

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and so it was back in the days where we didn't have digital photos so he had the physical photos

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and when he turned up a photo of me he had a thought come to him that I was going to be his wife

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and when he passed the photo to one of the pastors that lived with them they promptly said I think

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this girl is going to be your wife so that set him on a path of prayer to seek out the Lord's will

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and he's in New Zealand at this time he's in New Zealand and you're in this time I'm in Houston so

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it just so happened though that later that same year I was scheduled to join Doug's team that was

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going to New Zealand and Fiji on a mission trip and then the night before my departure I had a

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friend call me and said she had a dream and the dream basically was that she saw me sitting in a

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field with flowers all around the perimeter of the field that there was a man with me and that he

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laid a blanket or something down on the ground and we sat on the blanket together and the man

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proceeded to ask me to marry him so she said that she thought the Lord had given her that dream and

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that I was gonna meet my husband on this trip so okay I put it in the outponder it pocket you know

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and went on this trip and Russell asked me out to lunch and after lunch he invited me to go on a walk

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with him and we found ourselves in a field that was actually a park that was next door to the

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restaurant and surrounded by flowers just on the perimeter just like the dream and he wanted to sit

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down so he took off his sweater and laid it on the ground because the ground was a bit damp

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and he invited me to sit on the ground with him and I realized at the time that sounds very much

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like that dream that my friend had had and he just cut to the chase he said he had prayed about it

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and wanted to court me with the intention of marriage so there you have it in the moment I

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was like wow this really great this is the dream and then I realized I don't know this person

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I don't know anything about him so I pretty much shut down and he said okay well we can start over

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where do you want to start and I said hello my name is Nadine so but we corresponded through

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letters and through long distance phone calls at the no cell phones at the time and so we got to

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know each other that way and I just been praying about Lord do you want this man to be my husband

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if you do you got to I know this sounds like a very shallow prayer but he had these glasses

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that I really didn't like they were I thought they were kind of goofy looking so so I said

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Lord if you want me to be with this guy you're gonna have to do something about those glasses

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so a week later on our weekly phone call Russell's talking to me and he said you'll never believe

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what happened to me last week and I'm like what's that he said well I was driving down the road and

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my glasses split in two so I had to get new ones and I'm thinking oh Lord you didn't he broke his

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glasses in two so that he he would have to get new ones and I said well did you pick them out

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yourself he said no I had a friend pick them out this time I'm like wow thank God for friends so

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anyway it was a series of those amazing kind of confirmations that the Lord brought us together

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that's amazing by the time you were married you were in your mid-30s and you're you're wanting a

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family you started having children right away and you and Russell talked about raising children

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and you felt like the Lord was leading you to home school I mean you're a rocket scientist

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and now you're thinking of just walking away from it all and home schooling your children

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did you have any hesitations at all about leaving your career and how did you come to that decision

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and why well the Lord put it on both Russell's and my heart to home school and we really did from the

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get-go have agreement about that the Lord confirmed it to us by sending me various women who were

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veteran home schoolers they just I just found myself connecting through church and actually

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through work with other women that were home schooling so they pretty much taught me the ropes

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some of those ladies like I said they were my colleagues at NASA that had done gone-behind

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me and quit their jobs so that they could home school too and I really wanted to have my kids

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to have a Christian worldview and so that was really the primary purpose that we home schooled

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the transition from being a career woman to being a home school mom wasn't all that difficult for me

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it really felt quite natural I was 37 when I had my first child so by that time I had been a career

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woman for a while I had really reached the peak of being an ecom if I wanted to do something else

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and a new challenge you know that would mean I would have to embark on a new path so I was

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coming to a close and the peak of the of the path that I was on so it seemed like a natural time

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and so I really had the thought that I really felt blessed to be able to experience both worlds so

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it wasn't really a difficult transition for me to make mentally the only hesitation I had was how

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was I going to explain this to my parents and my siblings that was the single most thing that proved

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to be a challenge because they basically thought I was nuts for leaving my career to home school my

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children as you said you know your family family can can play a big you know they do play a big

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part in our life in in our in our decisions and in how we perceive what we're doing but years later

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you had the opportunity to lead your mom to the lord and then she understood your decision share

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that story that was a very powerful story my mom had had a colonoscopy gone bad the physician had

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punctured her colon and she ended up in icu she survived the ordeal but russell and i packed up

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the kids loaded up the car so that we could go spend some time with her to care for her while she

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was recovering in dallas one night while we were there i saw that russell i walked into the room

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and russell was talking with my mom and he gave a very serious look at me and said it's time to tell

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your testimony to your mom and i was back there uh no i'm not gonna do it i know what that's gonna

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you know i know we're gonna have an argument no we're not doing that and then i looked and saw

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my mom and she had tears in her eyes and i found out that she had just asked russell a serious

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question do people have visions of hell before they go there his answer to her was quite blunt

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i think they do and so that really sent her in a tailspin so come to find out my mom had had a

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similar experience in icu with demons surrounding her like i had had so many years earlier so i

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shared my story with her and when i got to the part where i told her about paul krauts leading

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me in a prayer she said now what was that prayer i realized at the time mom do you want me to pray

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that prayer with you now and she burst into tears it was so beautiful that was the moment that god

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breathed new life into her it was an honor to be a part of that but every day for the next week

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she would pray with me and as the lord was leading her she just wanted to repent of things from her

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past so one thing after another she would come like we need to pray with the pray about this we

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need to pray about that and it was absolutely a beautiful time a real bonding time but one of the

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things that she had mentioned in that week that i spent with her she said that the lord had opened

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her eyes and told me she understood now why i homeschooled my kids so it was really quite amazing

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yeah the lord just gave you that stamp of approval of course you always had his stamp of approval

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but we like to have that from our parents too don't we yes we don't always get it but the lord was

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gracious to allow you to experience that oh absolutely and while you were homeschooling

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god led you and russell to start a house church for about 10 years and that's kind of a unique

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thing as well what was that like and and what did you see god do through you that was a beautiful

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time as well we had been attending a mega church at the time where we were serving we were growing

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and really quite frankly we were being equipped and russell i have always always had a heart for

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small groups and for hospitality so it was just a natural thing for us when the lord called us out

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into starting a home church and i really feel like a lot of discipleship is done over the dinner

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plate or over a cup of coffee and it really creates that safe place to share with your friends

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and deal with things that might be swept under the rug in a larger setting so initially we thought

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our house church would be used to bring in the unchurched like our neighbors sort of an urban

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missions type ministry as we started the lord began to just bring partners to help lead it but

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he also brought young christians he brought timid christians and he brought wounded christians

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and he brought wounded christians to us so in the long run i believe our house church became like

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an incubator for people it was instrumental in developing the giftings and callings in those who

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attended and it was also a healing place for the wounded i'll give you an example of how we were

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used to reach the needs of people that might not be able to be reached and in a larger church

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setting on occasion we had a man come his name was dale and he had done time in prison as a sex

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offender and while he was in prison he had given his life wholly to jesus and was actually when he

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got out he actually got involved in prison ministry someone in our group invited a friend from work

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and as it turned out this new person had a son who was on trial as a sex offender and that night

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dale was able to minister to this father who was distraught about his son the man would not

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in my mind would not probably been able to open up to somebody in a larger regular church setting

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but in the comfort of our home while being surrounded with people who would pray and love

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on him and stand with him it was just an incredible display of of ministry the one on one ministry so

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we have many many stories like that that happened while we had the house church yeah you know when

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i was growing up after we got saved we were in a house church setting for a long time we were also

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attending a church on sunday but really our spiritual growth happened kind of in a group

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home a home church type group that met midweek and we still have relationship with those people 50

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years later right um they are you know they are our christian family i mean they feel just like

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normal family and i think that is miss i think so many believers miss are missing that um sense

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of connection um not because churches are trying to keep people apart but it's it's the culture of

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the world and we get swept up and don't stop long enough to say hey let me take you in like like

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you know your friend at work who i don't know the lord might have told her you were a believer she

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might have seen a new sparkle in your eye and she came over and said hey let's be friends right um

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you know when we truly believe there's going to be a mighty harvest coming soon with a lot of people

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getting saved and we who have been walking with the lord need to take time to get to the Lord

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time and befriend them and share our story which is really one of the reasons i do these podcasts

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in the first place to to share our faith journey to share other women's faith journeys so new

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believers and struggling people who are struggling with different issues know the power of God you

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did the house church for about 10 years and after that you got involved in another ministry uh and

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this one's called trace diaz is that is that right i think you just did a trace diaz weekend last

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weekend yes so tell us briefly about that ministry how you got involved and and how God gave you

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really a deeper revelation of second timothy 1 7 which you touched on earlier right oh i just

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absolutely love the trace diaz ministry it's a it's a three-day weekend hence the trace diaz that

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has the goal of bringing people in a closer relationship with the lord Jesus Christ and

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it also has the goal of raising up servant leaders we've been involved with trace diaz for eight

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years now and we are also involved in the youth version so they have a adults and for youth the

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three-day weekends are often life-changing for most people who attend because they get a real

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tangible display of the love and grace of God after you've attended a trace diaz weekend for

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the first time that you can come back and serve with the ministry so when you attend as a participant

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for the first time you are loved on you experience all this when you come back you get to pour out

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into others who are attending so it's just a very exciting ministry they train you um to be a servant

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leader so you are trained to follow instructions you're trained to lead small teams you're trained

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to lead larger teams and eventually you're trained to lead a whole team which consists about 140

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people that includes team and participants this ministry trains men trains women trains young

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adults we train them to write and deliver talks that include biblical teachings and we we train

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people how to share their personal testimonies which is really powerful when you combine that

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with the word of God there's multiple avenues of growth in this ministry you can serve on

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a prayer team so some people come and they've never prayed out loud before and so they learn

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how to do that they learn how to do spiritual warfare you can serve on a chapel team a mobile

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or logistics team a music or tech team a dining and kitchen so you learn hospitality

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a fellowship team it really teaches you how to be Christ hands in action which is so important it's

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just it gives you those tangible tools you need to go out into your environments into your spheres

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of influence and pay it forward and to to help others and when you first got involved you were

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actually I mean you had been a believer for many years now you'd let a house church yes but when

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you first went as a participant you got a deeper revelation from the Lord I did I did even as a more

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mature believer I did I did not only did I give God a deeper revelation of his love and his desire

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to set me free from that fear he also helped me through this ministry build my confidence and help

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me overcome that struggle that I did have fear and so just this last fall I was blessed to be

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able to to be the director and the visionary for the weekend where I was responsible for management

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of that entire team for this scaredy cat to move into that place of responsibility it was quite

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freeing for me and it really instilled in me just a new courage and new confidence but going back to

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the second timothy 1 7 for God has not given you a spirit of fear but a power of love and a sound

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mind for years I had just focused on that first part God has not given you a spirit of fear and I

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didn't really think about the second part you know but the the Lord has been drawing me to that

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second half he has given me a spirit of power and the Greek word there for power is dunamis it's the

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same word that Jesus uses in Acts 1 8 when he said but you will receive power when the Holy

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Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem in Judea and Samaria and to the ends

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of the earth so I can witness without fear or persecution I can move forward and tell people

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about Jesus so that was really powerful for me to get that revelation that I don't have to be

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bullied by fear I don't have to be intimidated at all because God has given me that power that I can

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witness and then he's given me a spirit of love I can love others freely without fear of rejection

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and that's powerful because you know when you're a shy scaredy cat you fear rejection but coming

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into that place where you can love like he loves where you're not expecting anything in return and

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if somebody doesn't receive your love it's okay you're still loved by the father so you just go

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on to the next assignment knowing that he's still at work and whoever it was that he had called you

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to share love with in the first place and then the third part of that scripture he's given me a sound

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mind some versions say he has given me self-discipline so I can make wise choices without

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fear of failure so that was really powerful for me that wow the Lord is on my side I can make

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you know and even if I do fail he'll he'll bring a course correction so I don't have to have fear

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yeah so as you're walking out this new understanding that God has given you his power and his love and

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a sound mind you said you've started stepping out in faith how how just give us a story of how you've

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applied that in your life and what you've seen God do I will tell you this sweet story I love this

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sweet story I was taking my friend to her chemo treatments and sitting with her because she wanted

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somebody to sit with her after she started her treatment she fell asleep so there I was in this

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room full of other people receiving their treatments as well and so I just asked the Lord you know who

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in the room needs to know you and who in the room needs to feel loved I looked around the room and I

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saw this elderly man there he must have been about 85 years old and he had on a hat that had hot dogs

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all over it so I affectionately called him hot dog hat man I somehow was not fearful went over to him

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and and struck up a conversation and the moment he started talking I noticed his accent it was a

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Pittsburgh accent so we really connected right there in the beginning because I was born in Pittsburgh

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as I told you earlier and it just really opened up the door for him to be I don't know he just

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trusted me from the beginning and he started sharing with me his joys and his struggles

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and I learned along the way that he was actually of Eastern European descent he had been a chemist I

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was a chemical engineer he had worked at NASA I had worked at NASA he had worked on the space shuttle

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life support systems and I had worked on the space shuttle life support system so we kind of just

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made these connections with us right off the bat we just had an ease of talking with with one another

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which was unusual for me but I had stepped out in you know that spirit of power to be able to talk

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to Charles and so I asked Charles how can I be praying for him and he shut down immediately when

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I asked that question he didn't want to hear it he began to fidget uncomfortably and didn't want

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to talk to me so I changed the subject to food and he was instantly relieved but after about an hour

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of conversing with him it was time for him to go and he's he just paused and he said you know

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he goes I'm a scientist and science and God are not compatible and he just paused a minute

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and so I looked back at him and he goes well I'm a scientist too and I have found that God and science

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are not mutually exclusive so he kind of tilted his head and just let him he didn't get angry with me

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so as I was seeking the Lord of how to minister to him because I knew I'd be back with my friend

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and that he would be there at the same time the Lord gave me a strategy from Proverbs uh 1816 a

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00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:26,880
man's gifts makes room for him so I thought wow I will start bringing him gifts Lord show me what

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gifts to bring so I bring him muffins I bring him little things like that and then the Lord showed

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00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:39,200
me that I need to get him a book and it was a book from that was written by an astronaut

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00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:45,920
and it was called my journey in space and faith as NASA's record-setting frequent flyer and so

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00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:51,920
what happened was I was able to get this book personally autographed for Charles so I went a

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little extra mile there to get it personally autographed and it turns out that Charles was

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responsible for the system within these space suits that removed the carbon dioxide and this

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00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:13,920
is probably too much detail Jerry Ross was an astronaut who did the extravehicular activity

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that just did the spacewalks outside of the vehicle so he wore the suits that Charles worked on

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00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:27,760
so there was that connection right away so when I handed Charles this book and he saw that it was

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Jerry Ross the astronaut had written the book he was delighted to get this work book but he I said

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look Charles it's been autographed for you personally so he opened it up and this is the

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00:44:38,720 --> 00:44:44,240
quote that Jerry signed he says Charles thank you for giving me fresh air to breathe in my

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space suit always trusting God signed Jerry L Ross PS please pay special attention to pages 213

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and 214 well I nearly fell over when I read those pages because on page 213 Jerry Ross had

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underlined underlined these words I have no problem combining science and faith they are not mutually

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exclusive wow those were the exact words the very words I had spoken to Charles on the first day

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I met so yeah I love it so did Charles come to know the Lord at some point yes I visited Charles

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00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:33,040
for the next eight months and he was very resistant to the gospel the whole time but

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I just kept sewing into his life kept bringing his gift him gifts he wondered you know he goes

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he one day he says why do you visit me because you know I don't have any money

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00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:51,360
you know I'm too old to date you and you know I mean it just could not figure out why I was so

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00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:57,760
nice to him you know I was able to visit him on found out that he was on hospice care and I was

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00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:05,360
able to visit him and this is a really powerful story I shared the gospel with him he didn't

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accept it and I thought well maybe he didn't understand so I shared it in a different way

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with a different approach he didn't understand so I just paused and asked the Lord to show me

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to show me you know how I can reach Charles and the words that the Lord gave me I just leaned

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over to Charles and I whispered in his ears Charles I know you don't think God is real

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00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:35,760
but there's one way that you can know without a doubt that he is real that he loves you and

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that he wants you to spend eternity with him and so Charles eyes open wide he looked at me

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00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:52,880
listened and I said Charles you can know that God is real because he sent me to you to tell you

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00:46:53,680 --> 00:47:00,480
about him it was such a powerful moment and you could see the light bulb come on and so all the

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00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:06,480
years that he and all the other people who had witnessed to him all it just came I just happened

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00:47:06,480 --> 00:47:13,840
to be the closer it was so powerful and he and so I asked him if he wanted to acknowledge that

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Jesus was his Lord and Savior and he said yes and then he drew me into him so I could hear him and

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00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:26,160
he said thank you thank you thank you Nadine after being home with your children for about 20 years

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00:47:27,200 --> 00:47:33,600
they all went away to college as kids do and you found yourself with a lot of time on your hands

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and also some big college bills to pay so after praying you decided it was time to go back to work

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00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:47,680
and God did some amazing things what was that once again God was so very faithful I had mentioned in

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00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:54,640
my group of friends that I was looking for work I wasn't confident that I could go back to

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the space industry because I had been out for so long so I was told them you know I'm looking for

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00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:08,400
maybe take a ship job or work at Aldi or maybe at the mall and so a friend of mine in that group

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00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:16,400
asked me to put my resume together so I quickly put a resume together for her and it was a pretty

444
00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:23,280
weak resume I hadn't worked in 20 years except for a few administrative tasks that I did for my

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00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:31,200
husband's company and so it was even hard to tell from my resume what I was even looking for in

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00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:38,400
employment because it was so scattered and it was so sparse but despite the awful resume I found

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00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:44,560
myself having an interview with KBR Kellogg-Brunnenrute who are a NASA contractor

448
00:48:44,560 --> 00:48:51,920
I interviewed with them and just a few weeks later I was employed as an operations safety engineer for

449
00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:57,120
the International Space Station and I also do safety assessments for the Gateway Project which

450
00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:03,600
is space station that will be circling the moon so that is I mean that was like a very coveted

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00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:12,080
project to be working on in the space industry and God just opened that door as if you had never left

452
00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:18,560
he's so faithful it was amazing there was no concern for my age you know I'm in my 60s

453
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:26,960
there was no concern for my 20-year hiatus and work history it was truly a door that

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God opened because my experience related only to the space shuttle and not to the space station so

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00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:38,640
so what looked like a 20-year professional gap was really nothing to God and you and you had been

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00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:44,480
following his lead and sewing into your family so when it was the right time he opened the door for

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you that nobody else could have opened and and you see it as an opportunity we were talking the

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00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:56,880
other day you see it as an opportunity to be a witness even in the workplace but Nadine as we

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00:49:56,880 --> 00:50:04,160
kind of close out here what are one or two key truths that you want other people to know in their

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journey with the Lord well first of all you know we are all on this journey of transformation with

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God and so he can if he can take a scaredy cat like me and make me confident in him he can do

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that for anybody Romans 815 he hasn't given us a spirit of bondage that leads again to fear but

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rather a spirit of adoption by which we can cry out Abba father and I want women to know and

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everybody to know that he is your daddy and that you are his daughter and knowing whose you are

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and who you are is foundational and walking in your God-given purpose and secondly he has chosen

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us to partner with him that is mind-blowing and he has chosen us to reach others and so women of

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00:50:54,400 --> 00:51:01,920
God who are listening the spirit of the Lord is upon you because he has anointed you to love

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00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:08,880
and influence others for him you've got to live like that you will never never ever regret accepting

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that call so persist I would say carry on keep going move forward in him and allow him to show

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you just how faithful he is as we close Nadine would you share about a woman in the Bible who

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has inspired or encouraged or taught you something oh there's so many we've can certainly learn

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00:51:29,200 --> 00:51:37,840
something from every woman in the Bible they're just amazing stories but I relate well to Lydia

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00:51:37,840 --> 00:51:45,200
she was a business woman who sold highly prized purple cloth and when she is first mentioned in

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the Bible she is described as a worshiper of God or rather a God-fearer yet at that time she didn't

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know Jesus so it was a lot like my life God opened her heart to receive the fullness of the gospel

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00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:05,760
and she became an influencer for God in her own family as well as in the city of Philippi

477
00:52:06,480 --> 00:52:12,480
and she supported the ministry of Paul financially and through her hospitality that's what I love

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00:52:12,480 --> 00:52:19,520
about her it was in Lydia's home that the church of Philippi first gathered so she had a home church

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I'm inspired by her because she showed boldness and courage by receiving Paul and Silas into her

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home after they were released from prison even though the people of Philippi were still angry

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with them so that took just a sense of a boldness and courage for her for her to be able to do that

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she risked her reputation to do that and perhaps even her livelihood but she still showed no fear

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00:52:46,080 --> 00:52:52,000
so Lydia is my champion yeah I hadn't really thought much about her life but you're right she

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00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:58,800
was a bold bold courageous woman we've talked a bit about second Timothy 1 7 which encourages us

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00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:05,040
to reject the spirit of fear and walk in the power and love and sound mind that God gave us

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00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:12,560
and Romans 8 11 tells us that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us

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we have that same power God wants his power to flow out of us to minister to others he wants

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to use you dear friends to give others hope like he's been using Nadine Nadine would you take a

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moment and pray for our listeners father I come before you in the name of Jesus lifting up all

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who are listening I ask the spirit of wisdom and revelation would rise up within them so that they

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can know the Lord Jesus in all his glory reveal to them Lord that you have not given them a spirit

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of fear but rather of power of love and a sound mind I asked that all my sisters would refuse to

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be bullied by their own fears or diminished in any way by their own insecurities father convinced

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them that the same spirit that was on Jesus is on them the spirit of the Lord is upon them giving

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them courage boldness wisdom understanding counsel might knowledge and fear of the Lord

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they have been anointed to share the gospel and bring the light of Jesus into darkness

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raise them up to be leaders and influencers in every environment that they are in let your

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grace be poured out in such measure that they have the desire to do your will and the supernatural

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ability to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus amen well thank you for tuning in check out our

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show notes at hergodstory.org for scriptures links and other information and sign up there

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00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:54,320
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00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:16,160
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and now dear friends I bless you from Philippians 4:7 -9 may the peace of God which transcends

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all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus and may your mind be filled with

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the truth the note the true the noble the right the pure the lovely the admirable and things that

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are excellent and praiseworthy so that the peace of God will remain in you. Her God Story is a

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ministry of Somebody Cares America and international to find out more about or support the ministry go

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to somebody cares.org