SPEAKER_02 0:00

Here comes a sun dude. Here comes a sign that say it's all right.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Hello, fortitude audience. Thank you so much for joining us again today. I am here with my husband Amos. Hello. I am your host, Heather Kittleson, and today is a very special day. We have my best friend is sitting across the table from me. And for those of you who are familiar with mine and Amos's testimony and our story, there is this woman named Kate who crawled into bed with me on December 5th. And uh she is across the table from me today. So Kate, thank you so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Hi. Hi.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Um I kinda, I kind of uh asked Kate to do this very last minute. And so we are just coming together to have a conversation and to talk about a little bit of my and Amos's journey and how Kate was involved in that. But we also want to learn more about Kate and what it is and why it is that she is called out to the front lines to be one of God's vessels because on the day of December 5th, she was definitely God's vessel in my life and Amos's life and has done some incredible transformation for us and why we do what we do today. So thank you, Kate, for always just being led by the Holy Spirit. And um I want the audience to get to know you. I want them to know who this Kate lady is. So if you could go ahead and just tell us about you and the things that you're passionate about, your family, your church, all the things.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

That's a very broad entry into this, Heather.

unknown 1:57

It's broad.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Give us your life story.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Come on, Kate. Okay. Uh well, first of all, so this will just take me a little bit to get into this because as we've said, um, I I like to stay behind the scenes. So this is very much outside of my comfort zone. However, I've taught a lot about stepping outside your comfort zone. So it's only fair that I have to do it too. It's just it's only fair. So um I'm Kate.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

Um, Kate.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Hi, Kate. Hi. So I have now been in this area for 10 years, 10 years this year. So um we live in southwest Minnesota on an acreage. Um with um, I live with my husband and my two daughters. I have uh a high schooler and an elementary aged kiddo, two girls. Um, we live on an acreage um that's long been in my husband's family. And um, his parents also live on the acreage with us, so it's one big happy family. Um legitimately, I love having them there. I love my family. So um, and let's see, um, I have um I've been a nurse for 20 plus almost 20 years. Um and so that that was my vocation for a long time, which I still kind of kind of do in different ways. Um but more importantly than that, um Andy and I have been married for over 20 years. And um I probably never would have guessed this is exactly where we would have ended up. Uh but here we are, and I love it. I I wouldn't um I wouldn't trade it.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Um Your guys' house, sorry to interrupt, but your guys' house has been added on to what three times?

SPEAKER_01 3:45

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Because it's kind of like three houses put together.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Yeah, it is. And I'm not good at telling how the pieces all come together. There was like things rolled across like the railroad tracks and added on. I think maybe part of it was an old post office. He's better at this. It's got some history. It's got some history, but we're fourth generation, and so he he would tell that better than than I can. But um, it's old, as the girls say, This house is old, and to that I say, yes. House is old. There's no way around that one.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

My favorite story for just 30 seconds is the bat story when you guys came from you came from lacrosse and you literally didn't you throw Grace in the car and you left. Like you there was like all of a sudden bats came out, and you're like, Andy, I am not living here.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

That's a bad day for me. That was it, that was it, that was um I had two kids at that point, actually, and one was not feeling well. The littlest one was sick, he was out of the state on a um on a youth trip.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Oh, Andy was gone.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yeah, long story short, um, we do not have central air. There were window units, and one was squeaking, and I told my father in law that was the belt, and he's like, There's no belt in there. And um lo and behold, um, the two of us went upstairs and moved the air conditioning unit, and 10 bats floated us. And we were both I'm sorry, Dad, we were both screaming like little girls, bats everywhere. It was a very bad day for me. Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

Well, I'm grateful that the bats didn't scare you away. That's almost, almost.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

I did leave for three weeks and said, I put my foot down and said, listen here, I'm not coming home until they're gone. Until the bats call me when they're gone, I'll be back.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

It was totally reasonable.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Well, a few thousand dollars later, and some bat fix it people, and I came home. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

Well, and the fact that your Andy's parents also built a house that it's on the same land, and you guys have your pig barn that is now uh I don't want to skip too far ahead, but is now you guys planted a church. True, and so you have a church and you have a ministry and your family farm, and that is not where you would have thought your life would be today, but it is, and we're all grateful for that. So, where did you meet Andy?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

So Andy and I went to Lacrosse. Um, we both graduated there from yours. No, I grew up in St. Cloud. Yep. He grew up in this house, literally, that we moved back to. Um, but yeah, we met in Lacrosse and then um we lived in Madison for about 12 years, Madison, Wisconsin. Yep. I was working as an OBGYN nurse there. Uh we coned a personal, like a functional training business for several years and started to very slowly feel like we were potentially called back to this area. Um he knew it before I did, and he's, you know, you don't make it to 20 years until you learn a thing or two. And he he had figured out to just be ever so quiet and slow about introducing this idea of um moving back to the farm. Um, it didn't go over well at first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Well, and I'll just you know, I I there are a lot of people that know the story, and it's probably time to just come clean about it. But um, in all in all seriousness, the truth of it is that we've been married for over 20 years, and about um around year five, things were just they were hard for us. Um, you know, working as a nurse and um a very busy practice and trying to run the business, and you know, both of us had a 20, 30 minute commute, and so that just was a lot on our plate at the time, and it that was rocky for us. It was a rocky time for us. Um and Andy, Andy knew, just just kind of knew that we were being called, and he knew at first, and so I um we laugh about it to this day, so it everyone can relax, it's it's okay. But um, I just distinctly remember being in our living room and he just tossed out the idea of slowing things down a little bit and moving out to the country, but specifically um the house that he grew up in. And the thing is is that I I grew up in St. Cloud and I I thought about this recently. I think I ever only went to a farm once. Oh, grew up right in town. Like in town. I think I went there on a preschool tour. And so, and then I had only been here literally, guys, like a handful of times. A handful of times, and I didn't think there was you know I just didn't plan on, I did not, I did not foresee this. And so in that conversation, he just said, I think there's the potential we might be called back to the to to the farm. And um that didn't go over well. And I snapped my finger and I pointed it at him and I said, It will be a cold day somewhere very far south, yeah. It'll be cold in hell, literally before I ever move back to that farm.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

And then I stomped off down the hall and I whipped around and I pointed at him again, and I said, And I do not want to be married to a pastor. And then I slammed the door.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

And you're doing both, and I'm doing both.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

And so lesson one from today's podcast is never say never. Because you know what? I just think the Lord probably delighted in that. Like just probably snickered and was like, just wait. It works. And it was several years before we did move back. Um actually, it got to the point where then, and it there was a few years there in between, where one day I looked at him and I said, Okay, I think you're right. I think that we have to seriously think about moving back to the farm.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

See, see, that's amazing. Because that such a black and white difference from where you started.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

That's how you know it's the Lord, because I just I actually remember the look on his face, and he's got a baby face. So I just remember him like looking at me like, What did you just say? And I said, I think you're right. I think I've probably it was first of all shocking to him that I was like, You're right. Because I was like, I think you're right, uh, comma. I think we're supposed to move back to the farm. I think that's what he's calling us to. And he was probably just like, Holy, well, like, holy smokes, what are we talking about here?

SPEAKER_00 9:56

And so and the pastor thing? What about the pastor thing? Yeah, well, I'm sure that came later, though.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

That came later. That came later. And yeah, and it even when we decided, okay, like let's let's seriously entertain this, there was a lot that had to transpire. And there were a lot of like miracle things that took place to even get us here. Um, you know, because we needed to sell the business. Yeah. And we had um, you know, partners and people involved in that. So it none of it was a quick or easy decision. It took a couple of years before we actually moved in to the farm.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

So this is almost, I'm hearing what, a four-year, a four-year process from the time that made it.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

I'm bad at timelines. It's such a long time ago now. I I would say at least two to three years for sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

But yeah, I mean, it it was a several yeah, at least. I mean, yeah, it was a while.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

What did it feel like? What what started chipping away at that first you had to make your feet were set in stone, but that chipping away that that first the block that was immovable.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

It's hard for me to remember, to be honest with you. I just, you know, sometimes you just know that you know that you know something. Yeah. And I think it started even slowly, but still there was this like strong sense. And by the way, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And I don't mean that in a um I don't mean that in a yucky or condescending way by any stretch. I just, I'd never lived small town before. Um, I had only been out here a couple of times. I mean, I just really didn't have any idea like what saying yes really, really meant. And it was, you know, I I love raising my kids here. There isn't a place I'd rather be. But in all honesty, those first three years were really, really hard for me because I had a job that I loved. Um, I was about to get a promotion. Like, like the day I put in my notice, my manager was like, oh, shoot, I was just gonna talk to you about like, you know, taking over and being the supervisor of the clinic. And I was like, of course you were. Um, but I knew, and so it wasn't even really a temptation because I was like, I I knew. And so um, but we still to this day um have just a ton of friends that became family to us and a church that we love, we just had a lot of things that we had to say goodbye to. So that was a really hard, it was a very difficult first three years.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

I've met several of your friends from the lacrosse area, and man, like Kate, I can't even imagine leaving a single one of them because every everyone that I've met captures my heart. Like they're solid, amazing women. But the cool thing is that this distance and the time and all the things have never changed your relationship with them. No, like you guys are still as close as can be. So yeah, even the distance and that that decision to move here, you still listened, and you followed what Christ was calling you to do, and you were able to still maintain all those, all those relationships, which is really beautiful. So you're here. I'm here, and um, what are we at year year wise?

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Did you say over 10? It was 10 this fall. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

Okay. So we moved into the area six years ago last summer. And I remember sitting next to you. Um, or I think you came up to talk to at football game. At a football game. There was a couple girls that were standing by me, and you came over and started talking. And next thing I know, um I don't remember you at you asked if we'd go to maybe it was just the Bible study. I don't remember. You asked if I would we'd be do something together. And I don't remember what it was, but I remember I plugged you into my phone as Kate Andy Anderson's wife. And it's still in there as that right now. Um but as time went on and I I started to attend your Bible study because I not being from the area, we're considered transplants. Like that's what we uh in when you're from a really small or you live in a small town, but you wouldn't grow up in there, you are an invader. You transport into this small town into a community that is already built and is already established.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

And um and thankfully in our case, it's been very welcoming.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

It's been very welcoming. Oh man, it's been the the best thing we've ever done. Um, but for some people it can be difficult, right? Unless you're outgoing and you talk to people and um so that was that was warming because that was our first we moved in June and that was September, a football game, one of the first home games that we started talking. And um, I was like, Oh, I have friends. This is so great. Like, I think I'm gonna be friends with these people forever. And then invited into your Bible study, and there was a good mix of women who have moved from the big cities that have married farmers in the area. Yes, right. And that's a hard transition for almost every single woman who uh marries a farmer that it's in the family. It's it's never easy. Um, it's a big blessing because you're married and usually into a great family, but um then there's your Bible study that has like I would say 50-50 when I started of those us and then the people who grandma's grandma's grandma have been in that in that community. And so in meeting all of these women, I was blown away at how welcoming and loving they were. And those relationships are still built and even stronger today. And we keep adding new women to our Bible study, and um you've led that and you've it's a it's a lot of time and it's a lot of effort, and not and you normally don't get paid for ministry. I mean, in a sense, you have to uh you have to really lay down your own life for others, truly, and pour into people. And so you and Andy have been doing that, and it just kind of explain how that all transpired, your your ministry, because you have a 501c3 in a church, and Andy quit his full-time job, now maybe moving into a new one, but like all hands in on full-time ministry and relying on the Lord. Yeah, that's not easy.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

No, and I I don't have like a good answer for how this even all transpired. It was just very um natural, or I'll say supernatural, because it just wasn't anything like we never we never like had a plan right for the start of everything. Um and we try not to do things like to the extent that there's room for the Holy Spirit and for the Lord to just like start showing us and start like paving the way for for what he think what we think he's calling us to. And so, you know, we moved back, he got into um ministry right away, and I was still kind of working from home for a friend back in Wisconsin, and um then I had a baby like shortly after we moved, and so you know, for me, you know, one of the things that we knew right from the beginning, and it just has kind of like played out in different ways, and there's been an ebb and a flow is just our heart for uh people in general um to just really know um just how good God is. And um I I spent time um, you know, like I said, I've been a nurse for a long time, but you know, the reason I ever went into nursing in the first place was, you know, I didn't know what I knew now, you know, what I know now back then, but I went into it because I I just love loving on people. And you know, I didn't even go to school for that right away. I went for something else, and then I saw a roommate graduating in nursing and I was like, shoot, I should have done that. And so I worked for a little bit and then went back for that. And I just always had a heart to just love on people. And um, so when we got here, it was a lonely road, like I said at first. And I just thought, well, um, I just I slowly started meeting some people, and I just started um a Bible study called Be T Be Transformed. Um I worked with um New Haven Ministries and Sioux Falls for several years and did training with them and um ministry with them for several years, and I I've always liked that Bible study. I think it teaches a lot of foundational truth. And so I just um started two different Bible studies, really small, in my office at my house. Um, and I met with them every other week. So every week I was meeting with one, and then I just alternated them and just started slowly with honestly, whoever he just kind of like brought into our lives at the time. And um then after a year or two, then I redid that same Bible study, and more people wanted to join it, and then it just kind of, you know, I never had like a I'm gonna go out and search for this and that, or I'm gonna, you know, like try and convince, you know, like I just never did that. It was just more about like, who do you want me to invite to this, or who have you laid, you know, lay somebody on my heart if you want me to, and that's just that, you know?

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

So God sent people. Well, yeah, and it's been like that for the ministry. And, you know, you know, I'm gonna say this because I just always want to make sure, you know, the ministry is not about Andy and me. Um, the ministry is about a lot of different things, but mainly just a community of believers coming together and um one heart, one mind, just being willing vessels for the sake of the gospel.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

Okay, let's go there.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's not about us, never has been, and it won't be.

SPEAKER_03 19:24

Because that's that is a very true statement. We are we are the product of that.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Which is kind of the opposite of where you were when you were before you moved. You you just mentioned uh the career that you loved. You both had careers and you had a business. It was hard, and I get that. Um, you had a career, there was um a talk of a promotion, yeah, and which is where you're still helping people, it's still me. This is my career. Yeah, well, yeah. It's just this complete flip, which to me is a testimony to the Holy Spirit and how He how it's changed you from the inside out. This is wasn't something that sounds like you went and okay, I need I'm gonna change my perspective on life. It just happened naturally because you invited it.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Yeah, and you know, it's a long story, but um, my friends in Madison and I, we went to um some life-changing conferences, that's the easiest way to say it. And um, you know, I think what I figured out just real slowly is um, and I think this is the case for a lot of people, um I loved being a nurse and I loved loving on people, and that just my heart is just always for people, especially hurting people, and I got to do that a lot in all the different areas of nursing I worked in, but um, I figured out along the way that I had made a whoopsie, and the whoopsie was that I had let um my identity I I got caught. I got caught in thinking that my identity was that I'm a nurse. Right. And that um That's legit for a lot of people. That's legit for a lot of us. Um, and what I didn't realize is that my identity, right, is I'm a I'm a daughter of the Most High King. And then whatever I ended up doing vocationally is whatever he calls me to in that season. And that's a very, very different way of living and one that um we talk a lot about because um I think it causes a lot of struggle and heartache when you get lost in thinking that your identity is whatever you do for a job. It does. Because that's very opposite of what the Bible has to say.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

So yeah. In being the hands and feet, that we we've spoken of that quite a bit in our testimony, how God put you and Andy and uh several others from that area, husbands and wives, a lot of the wives that were in the Bible study, along with the Bible study you go to, the men, um you guys really stepped into being the hands and feet and the community that wrapped your arms around. Us in our most difficult state of our marriage in our life, and how instrumental it was. It like just to think that through how our world has be, I mean, there's definitely communities out there, and there's a lot of people that operate in the hands of the feet, but it's it's it is few and far between compared to what we're dealing with on the other side of people being um wrapped up in their own world and their own victimization of whatever their mental health addiction, all the things. Um and when you start to walk in the spirit and you allow God to show you the things that He wants you to focus in on. Um, when you I want to go there with you, Kate, because um a lot of people don't understand and they'll ask me that question often of like, how how did Kate not approach you if she could if smell the alcohol on you at Bible study? Or how how did Kate not point fingers at you or Yeah, Kate, why didn't you do that?

SPEAKER_00 23:02

What took so long?

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Like you were so you were so gentle with me, and I um I guess we've never really even talked about that. So this is new to me. Like, what was from the outside looking in to what was going on with Amos and I, you knew and you never said you never out outwardly said it like uh there's there's a real issue. She is an alcoholic. Like that what were the conversations that were going on behind my back? Come on, do tell.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Well, I mean, I do remember there was one day when we went over there when I came. Um, there was one day when you two had a very rough day. Um, and this is before the day um that you talk about where um I crawled into bed with you.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Yeah. Um Yeah, I remember you told, I mean, Amos said, Kate thought she smelled alcohol on you. And I was like, whatever. I was not, of course, because we lie, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Well, and it was very hard for me, to be honest with you. And the thing is, is that sometimes I wasn't sure. Um, sometimes I was pretty sure. Um you don't you don't have a nose that looks like this, and you don't not have the ability to distinctly know some things. And I did at times like know some things. However, I knew your reaction to just even that one day, and I knew that you weren't ready. And that's a really, really hard place to be, and what probably most people would call like a fine line or a gray area. But the thing is, is I just we had prayed for you, we had prayed about you, we had prayed for you, and we just knew that your time was coming, and I just felt like the Lord said, wait, which is a very difficult thing because um I like to go a lot. Um, but I've also learned in ministry over the years that if I try and do things on my own timing a lot, and I haven't figured this out, so don't I mean fully, right? Like I'm a work in progress, we all are, right? But I'm working with the Lord more and more about learning to just be more and not and be more of a human being than a human doing. And and when I get into human doing mode a lot and I don't listen to the Holy Spirit, then things tend not to go so well. Right, you know, and you know, there is a verse that um, well, I know you guys all make fun of me because I always bring up verses and I'm like, that's my favorite. And then they make fun of me because I say it a lot, but but for real, one of my favorite verses um is in John 1.14, it talks about how Jesus came in the fullness of both grace and truth. And so he is grace, he is truth, and knowing the timing with people really, I think is an important thing because if they're not ready, um, and if you force them, um, and sometimes it's necessary, by the way, but um, it just really depends on listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. It's the best way that I can explain it and being in prayer and not just going just because I think it's a good time or a good place to do it if I haven't spent time asking first. Is that an okay answer? It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

It is because I'm I'm very grateful you did not approach me because I would have stopped going to Bible study, I would have stopped going around you like I did to everybody else that that confronted me. And now working in the field of advocating and educating people on this disease, and they'll say, Well, I think we need intervention. I think we need to, I think we need to call this person to the carpet and we need to tell them that they need help and they need to, and I will very unless they are truly in and most most individuals who are in the middle of their addiction are harmful to them and to others. Um, there is a point it does get unsafe. Yep. And lives are in stake where yes, you do definitely need to do an intervention. But in in my case, um I really feel like if in it's all in God's timing. Always, always, always, always, but I would have pushed you away. And so I just I think I've told you before, I'm just so grateful at your stance on how you approached me and and just everybody was so hands-on and yet so hands-off with with us.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

That's such you said it's hard. I guess kind of it's such a trusting thing for you to do to to hold off like you were told to. Yeah, because you're watching it happen.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Yeah, and I I mean, there definitely have been other circumstances, you know, like you said, it it it comes down to listening to the voice of the Lord, and that is why I will maintain my stance on never taking any credit for that day in any sort, because it it wasn't me. Yes, and it it wasn't me. It really truly was not, and I will maintain that till the day that I die because um I just that day that I crawled in with you, I just knew in that moment when I crawled in that he said, Okay, now. Yeah. Like, and that is why those words came out of me, like, okay, it's time.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Right, right then. Right then it wasn't on the drive, the the 10-minute drive.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Best that I can recall. No, because I just distinctly like I, you know, like I said, some if we're listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, right? If we're listening to the Lord, He will tell us, the Word says he tells us of things to come, He'll tell us what we need to know, right? And so I just remember crawling in and being like, yep, it's time. Like now.

SPEAKER_03 28:23

I can tell you that before you crawled into bed with me, the only things that were going through my brain were, I need to get out of this house. I need to figure out a way to continue to m go through with what my plans were. Yeah, I need to get past Amos somehow. If he talks to me about anything, I'm just gonna say everything's fine. I just not feeling well. Like I said every single other time that I just wasn't feeling well.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:45

And I'm still gonna go through with through this. So when you crawled into bed with me, and I I know that I've said this before too, but I thought it was Jacob for a second. But the because you're so you're you were the same size as him. But I thought, sorry, Jacob. Why is Jacob? He was only 11 that time. But why, why, why, why is Jacob home? And then I smelt, I smelt your perfume. Or I smelt, I just I could smell it.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Why is Jacob wearing perfume? That's weird.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

I don't even know if it was just Kate. Then I knew. I knew it. I'm like, because my back was to the door, so I didn't know. You just crawled into bed with me. And so, but when you said that and with your arms wrapped around me and how you said it, every single wall came down. Every wall inside every all those thoughts that I had thought right before you walked in that door were gone.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

And that's how you know that it's not me. Correct. And it should be the same for all of us, right? Just where um, I'm gonna give all the credit to the Lord because I there's nothing special about me. You know what I mean? In that way, like truthfully. But there, I don't have any special, like whatever. I got nothing to give other than just offering to be a willing vessel.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

I believe that everyone needs a and again to be a willing vessel, you have the the willingness to allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide your footsteps in moments like that. So when I joke that everyone needs a Kate or everyone needs an Amos, truly what I'm saying is that everyone needs to follow Christ's call on their life and where He is directing you because you can be a Kate, and you can be an Amos. Like I always sat on the edge of bed of the bed with you, and I was so embarrassed and I was I was so ashamed, and I didn't have any makeup on. I looked, I looked like somebody who is on the verge of death, literally. So I remember feeling a little bit embarrassed about that, and then I thought, or I said to you, um, I don't want to be on this side of things. I don't want to be here. I want I and I'm supposed to be in your shoes, Kate. This is not where I ever desired to be. I desired to be where you're at right now. And three years later, that's I'm we're doing the same thing, which is well, my answer to you that day, if you remember, was you will.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

You will, you will be. Because I don't know how I can't remember exactly, but I do know that it was a month or two maybe before that that we had a conversation. I remember sitting on the couch in my office, and I remember you saying to me, Um, someday we're gonna do great things for the kingdom together. And I just remember thinking, like, you bet we're gonna. I know we're gonna, right? Because it's the call on all of our lives, right? Like, I know that we will. Yep. And it's coming. And I I I think I felt like it was, and I don't mean to be like, you know, I just I knew there was something different about you in a really beautiful way right from the start. And so when you said that, I was like, totally that's gonna happen. And you know what? It's gonna happen sooner than you think.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

I am I remember sitting on the couch. Oh, I forgot. I kind of forgot about that actually. The transformation study that we did. Um, I think that was my first Bible study at your house in your kitchen. And um, I remember always snuggling up next to one of the girls, and she could because she didn't like to be she didn't like to be.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Actually, it was in the living room, remember at that big table. Yeah, the big table. Yeah, I put you by her purposely.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

Yeah, because I did. I always snuggled up next to her. Um, and yes, you know who you are. Yeah, you know who you are. I'm sorry. Um, but that that study, I I want to do it again, even though I know I've already been uh transformed. But I remember going through that study, and that study was very significant for me in the place I was at in my life because I couldn't quite grasp it all because I was so far in the dark. I was like tiptoeing across that line of of light and dark and and going back and forth. And so when the transformation happened, and when it does happen for someone, speak to that because in all of our conversations, I'm a firm, firm believer that anybody in any type of addiction does not, it doesn't matter what your addiction is or or mental health and all the things, you truly can be transformed in Christ. And that is that that's my healing. That is, people will say, Well, don't you go to AA and don't you do all these things? And I I will repeat, I I have been transformed through my heavenly father. And yes, do I still have the same temptations? And yes, do I still um there's days where I'll go, wow, where'd that come from? Like, why'd that thought pop in my head? Yeah. But we're still human and we're still sinful. But when you walk in the spirit and you are transformed by him, there's a it's a whole nother world opens up. And and I love the way that you verbalize that or how you speak that.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

So you I think it's actually very simple. I mean, but it's simple to the extent that we know the word and know what the word says about us, and that comes into play, I think, when we come to this place of deciding I I don't want to try and do this on my own anymore, and I don't want to try and live for me, um, for the self-life anymore. And I've decided to put my life in your hands. That's the moment where the transformation starts to take place. And you know, um the ministry is called New Creation Ministries, and we named it after 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Um, one transl uh one translation reads, This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person, the old life is gone and the new life has begun. And that's to me, that's the seed that births the understanding of, but but if you're a new person, then the past really he does wipe it away, right? That's um that's Psalm 10312, right? As far as the East is from the West, so far as he removed our transgressions from us, right? If you're not that same person anymore, then you don't have to live under the mistakes that you've made. You don't have to live, you know, hanging all of that over your head, because if he doesn't do that to us anymore, then why should we do it to ourselves and why should we do it to each other? You know, um I I was thinking about this podcast and um I I kept getting this phrase over and over. Um, and it's one I've said for a long time, and I really true I really truly do believe it, and I my heart is for other people to believe it as well, and that's you're not defined by your past. That does not define you, and that is not that's not where your identity comes from. There's one person that defines you and says who you are, and it's him and it's not us. And and I think sometimes it's easy to get caught up in, okay, well, believing that like for other people, but then there's this entirely, entirely different way of living when you realize, oh, that's for me. I am who he says I am, you know, and and and so um, you know, this ministry that he's called us to, like I said, it's it has a name to it. And yes, we did um plant with a and it's not just us, there's a a group of people that are just family to us, near and dear to our hearts. They are our peoples, and that has invited more peoples in and more people in, and it's you know, it's where we happen to meet, yes, in our old pig barn on on Sunday, but um it doesn't smell like a pig. It really doesn't. That's a miraculous thing.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

It's been transformed itself.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Exactly. That is a miracle, that's true. Um, but you know, church is not the building that you meet on where you meet on Sunday, right? Like the Bible studies that we do, one we do, I think, as like people coming from, I don't know, five, seven, nine, something like that, whatever um, churches. Um, and I should just say I think of that as church buildings, you know, like we're part of church family together, right? Because we are the church. And so this just has always been about um coming together with like-minded believers who've said yes to just believing the too good to be true news of the gospel and really just being love, right? Just loving others like he has first loved us, and um just sewing into other people and letting the Lord do his thing. I mean, it's I mean, there isn't anything like that's why it's like, well, you can ask me about it, but I mean, it it's it's a teaching ministry, it's a discipleship ministry, it's whatever he tells us to do and whoever he tells us to love on. It's hard to explain that to people. Yeah, it's tricky. Something put into words.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

To be fair, we don't attend your church, but we're a part of your church. Yes, so we don't go there on Sundays, but you guys do more than just Sunday service. And I think that's what's so special about what you do. And I think that's it's it kind of goes back to what you see in the Bible. When what what is a church? There is there are people who describe it as a building, and that building becomes a church Sunday mornings, and then Sunday afternoon it shuts down and it stops being a church. Everyone goes home, they split away, and the church stops. But you guys perpetuate the church Sunday through Saturday. There's a community. Yeah, there's people that get together, they do things, they serve, they invite others from the community who aren't part of your church to be a part of just of things. Yeah, and I think it's it's specialists on your on your property for some reason. But to me, it's like the church isn't the hog barn. It's you, it's it's you and the congregation.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Well, we are the church, right? We are very biblical wherever it is that we happen to gather that day.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

And I'm not trying to toot your horns here, but you guys are doing the right thing, I feel, in the in the way that the church feels like community. There's something special about that.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

And for those who don't belong to a church or a community of and they're searching for that because uh my whole life, I think, um, going into different settings of a church or a community of a Bible study, um, you know if you're if you feel like it's the right fit for you, right? Everybody has different desires as to what they want for a community and for a church. But um the support and the love, unconditional love, the the outpouring of the truth of what how Christ treats. I mean, you think it's like it's one big bundle of goodness that comes from a community of faith and living out your faith and walking in faith and and loving another's the way Christ loves on us.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:30

Um, there's a lot of people that are searching for that and can't find it. And I hear all the time in our community. I went to this church for a while, uh, but they were just doing some wonky things. And then I went to this one. This they were doing wonky things. And then this person really enjoyed the authority and liked being in the spotlight. And so there is definitely Christians who are not living out the way that what we are, what we are a part of sitting right here. There's there's a lot of fake out there.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

So it is very authentic and very um, it's not, it's not an it's it's it's different in other communities. And so what I can say to the audience, if you are not a part of a church community, search and search and search until you find the one that you truly feel like you are a part of something really special and beautiful, uh, that are authentic Christians living out godly love. Because don't you what what do you see?

SPEAKER_01 40:28

Yeah, I mean, I I think it's hard because people have uh experienced a lot of hardship um in in churches in different ways and for different reasons.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

And people are people are messy, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Well, we all you know, we're all just a work in progress. That's just it, right? And I I think that I I just don't think it has to be that hard. And I just think it's not it's not that hard to love people. It's really not. Um what gets in the way is when we have expectations. Um what gets in the way is um when we judge. And you know, I I think that grace, it doesn't ask you to be a doormat, but it does ask you to understand. And I just I don't think it has to be that hard because if you just if you look at the way that Jesus did things, right? If you read the red letters, um if you look and study the way that he talked to people and how he treated people, I mean, he was manifest love on the earth, right, in a physical being for the time that he was here. And then left and sent us the Holy Spirit, so we had that version of him to live with until he comes back and redeems all of this and rights every wrong, and he makes promises to us that that's what he's gonna do. And so in the meantime, um his church, his bride, right? This he he's asked us to to love one another like like we first been loved. And and I I don't think it actually has to be that difficult, but I think we we make it difficult along the way. And you know, Andy and I um, you know, and a lot of people actually involved in our ministry and in the church plant, like I said, like it it is one big family, and you know, we're all doing different things, and wherever we're called to in the season that we're called to, you know, um we've worked at the post office, we've taught, you know, worked as a nurse along the way. Um Andy's now gonna be working at um uh an addiction and rehab treatment facility, you know, like it's I I like what he's doing with all of us because all of the people, like I said, even in the church family, everybody's doing different things, right? Just vocationally or as we're called to, but we all but that doesn't all matter because what matters is coming together and having the same heart and the same mind. And while we do different things throughout the week, we do come together with just um just this heart for for the goodness of God to be known. And um I don't I don't think it has to be too hard. It it's you know, not always easy just trying to put the pieces together and we all have families and just you know, doing life and trying to figure all this out. But um I think staying rooted in just um his unconditional love and having grace for one another and grace in the process, that's that's what keeps us doing what we're doing and until he tells us to do something different, you know? Right.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

So I like that great you don't have to be a doormat. You just have to what'd you say?

SPEAKER_01 43:38

You just have to No, I I I'd think of a simple saying it Grace doesn't ask you to be a doormat, but I think it does ask you to try and understand. And sometimes we forget to try and understand where people are at. And you know, our lives have looked really different from each other one another, right? And so um I just talked to a bunch of kids about this, like especially even just like in healthcare whatever you do, it doesn't matter, but Dan. Day out, whether you're working in an office setting or school setting or healthcare, wherever it is, doesn't matter, is just remembering that I don't know where you've come from and you don't know where I've come from. But if we are willing to offer grace to one another and see past um what you just see physically on the outside, if you're willing to see people for more than just that physical body that you can see and know that there's so much more to them, if you're willing to do that, then the sky's the limit with what God can do.

SPEAKER_03 44:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

And we're the ones that put, you know, boundaries or stifle things because we get in the way sometimes. And if we're willing to be more like that willing vessel, right? And to just, like I said, just look at people and not define them by their mistakes or by their past, um, that's where the Lord moves and and can just that's where the miraculous happens, you know?

SPEAKER_00 44:57

I'm sure there are lots of people listening going, what is that what does that mean to be a willing vessel? What does that even look like? And I know we're kind of running out of time here. Is it is that a simple is there a simple answer to that? What kind of encouragement can you can you give to someone who's at has that heart and is looking for what that what that looks like?

SPEAKER_01 45:18

I think um And someone said it really some someone said it in a way I really like that. I I heard someone say this last week. Um I think the Lord is very practical. He's a very practical God. Sometimes I think we forget that. And I think it's as simple as um, you know, in our Bible study we started in the beginning is learning to not be caught up always in in doing but being. And what he really wants and yearns for with each one of us is this moment-by-moment relationship with him, to live with him moment by moment, to be thoughtful all throughout the day about him, to be asking questions along the way. Lord, Lord, what do you want me to know? What do you want me to do? Who do you want me to talk to today? What do you want to speak to me about this? Like, what should I know? You know, just being receptive to that instead of just like going out and doing, and then at the end of the day, being like, oh, there the day went. You know, and and by the way, I'm a work in progress on that too. You know, that's for all of us because we live in a pretty busy world. But yet um he's got a still small voice and we can't hear it if we're so busy and the world is loud. And so it's just learning to live in a in a different way and and looking at things probably differently than we have, and thinking about what we're thinking about, you know, just little things that mean a lot, but they they have big impact. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:49

I I struggle with that, the the noise, the constant, something always going into my ears and not being used to the stillness of nothing. You know, there's always there's always another podcast to listen to. Uh fortitude is a great one.

SPEAKER_04 47:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 47:03

But there's always there's always more, and there's always just something interesting that wants to grab my attention, and I have to risk resist that. I have to make the space intentionally. And that's that's something. Um that's my advice for people.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

For me, it was surrender. Yeah. I had to surrender all earthly things and desires and all the things I would fill my time in my head and my space with, and surrender all of that and turn it over and allow God to fill that, allow his present presence and his relationship with me to fill that space because then I am allowed in my own mind and heart and all the things to be filled with him, and then he directs me as a willing vessel to act out what he needs needs me to do. So that's kind of my well, this has been awesome. It's uh I know that there's gonna be a lot of people that'll be excited to hear this one. So thank you, Kate, for your time for being in our lives and just always always serving the Lord in such a profound way.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

Thanks for having me. You know how I feel about you. I love you.

SPEAKER_03 48:11

Love you too, honey.