SPEAKER_02 0:00

Here comes a sand do. Here comes a sign that say it's all right.

SPEAKER_03 0:19

Hello, fortitude audience. Thank you so much for being back with us today. I am Heather, your host, and I am with my fantastic husband, Amos, who is my co-host. People think it's funny. They're actually waiting to see what I say. I've tried to clean it up a little bit, yeah. When I introduce you, yeah. Even though it's awkward for you. It's all right.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

It's usually fantastic or awesome, though. Sexy.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Hi, Laura.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Hi.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Laura, Laura, Laura.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Microphone just in your in front of you just a little bit more, please. Yeah, thank you. That's great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

There we go. We have Laura. And do you say Pedterson? Pedterson. And that would be very important to my husband.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

So and all ease. All ease and a D. Pedderson. Pedterson. And I like to make sure I said that right because I think I have always said Peterson. Most people do. Okay. So Pedterson. I'm glad I said it right the first time. Good job. So Laura, we had Jill on for the last episode, and we're really thrilled to have you now because you guys, I met the two of you ladies together. And you kind of come as a pair to me. And so we also uh met the same the same way through a good uh a dear friend of yours who attends your stuff in Sioux City. Yes. Named Amber. So Amber, thank you for introducing us. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

We're still here together, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:41

Yeah. We are God has not let us part. Uh Laura, your story also comes from a lot of heartache, loss, divorce, just there's a there's a lot of stuff that you have overcome. And you are just on a mission in ministry, helping other women get through so many things. And so just thank you for being willing to share some of the hard stuff today. Yes, thank you. But let's start with the really great stuff because you are gonna be a grandma of nine today. Today.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Today it's the ninth is uh on its way. So praying everything will go well and smoothly and everybody's uh healthy. But yes, uh my oldest son Thomas and his wife are expecting their third. So they have a four-year-old and a two-year-old, and here comes this uh new little one. So they always say, Oh, those kids are gonna be so busy, and I say, you know, the grandparents are.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

You will be loving them up as much as you can. Yep, and a lot of helping. So where do the other five, if I'm doing the math, wait, wait, nine?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Where do the other six come from? Um, my stepdaughter Nicole, my uh husband Jeff's oldest daughter, is in Florida with her family. So uh married and have three boys. So there's three boys there, and then my daughter Becca lives in Texas and is married to Hunter and uh two twin girls and a boy.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

Man. So you have a lot of places you get to go visit.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

I do, and they're fun places because they get me out of the cold winters.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

So yes. That's Amos is is a southern boy. Are you in his blood? Yeah, he loves the south. So if our kids plan to move somewhere, that would be hopefully Florida.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yep. Yes, and you know, we've been there, but the kids are at the age now where they want to come to Iowa to see snow, and I'm like, no, I need to go to the wharf.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

And home. Like to them to come home. There's something special about that.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

Well, congratulations on just a beautiful family. Thank you. They are beautiful. I'm very blessed. And nine, that is so great. I'm not old enough, actually. I was just gonna say that when I was reading and getting updated on your bio, I was like, nine?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Like you're not old enough to have. That's what happens when you marry a little older husband. It's only four years.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

Yeah, awesome. Jeff seems to be a really incredible guy.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

He is, he is, he's the love of my life, yes.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Golly. So we uh touched on just your and Jill's parallels of you know, your some things that you have gone through. And you took on being a single mom really early. Yes. Your babies were young, they were very young, yes. And to overcome something like that, would you just share with our audience how you were able to continue to move on and move through a divorce as a as a young young mama?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

You know, and I was pretty new. I grew up in a very Christian home. Okay, but it wasn't um a home where I just knew Jesus was always there, but the depth of really knowing Jesus. I grew up um in the Catholic faith, which was great. I mean, I knew who Jesus was and you know, all of that, but it was much more rich ritualistic instead of just really digging deep. And so um the divorce was one of the first things that I experienced as a real loss and a hurt. Um, and so I had all my grandparents, I remember going to retreats as a high school child and would hear all these stories from these people, these Christian retreats. And I remember always thinking that my life was boring. Like they had all these things happening, and I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, I just my life's pretty boring. Well, be care, be careful, it's coming. Yep. One of the girls in our youth group just said that last night.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

And I really don't have a story. We're like, you do you want to?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Yeah, yeah. So I just remember always thinking that. And so the divorce was one of the first things that just really broke me to the core. And and in my upbringing, I looked at it more as God was mad at me. Like I didn't keep this covenant, I didn't allow, you know, this to work, or I didn't do something right to not make it work. And then I was also putting that upon my kids because all of a sudden now they're a product of what this looks like in this life. And, you know, at the time I didn't know what was gonna happen in the future, but you think about then they're gonna have step, you know, siblings and stepparents, and you know, was that gonna happen to me? And it was just such a broken, not at all, how I envisioned the white picket fence and the beautiful family that we were always gonna have. And so I don't know that I dealt with it well back then, um, except for the blessing of really being in a Christian community of friends that could walk.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

How old were you, Laura?

SPEAKER_00 6:55

How old was I? I would have been 33, 34 at the time. Yeah, yeah. So pretty young.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Is it fair like you're never ready for that?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

No, no, no. But just not the life experience either. And just being, yeah, it was just such a shock. And and for me, the divorce was he needed some time away, and I didn't know what that meant. And then trying to understand when he was going to come back, and him just saying, I'm never coming home, so do what you need to do. So it was all the sudden wrestling through this process of what does that mean? And uh he owned his own business. So then it became all of part of the legal stuff, you know, like if he defaults on this, then that comes back on you. So it instead of it becoming a Christian like marriage and covenant, it became trying to protect yourself from some of the burdens that would come, whether it's financially or whatever. And so um I didn't even have time to process what this was. And I was all of a sudden having people take me to you need to, you know, yeah, you need to do this. And and so I don't know that I even had time to process it at first. Um, in fact, the um I did the whole where you can't breathe walking across the, you know, panic attacks set in, and I had two kids that were trying to love on me and I needed space and they were one in three.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Yeah. So that that alone right there is getting up every day saying, I have to take care, I'm taking care of these kids. This is this is the hardest part, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:36

And everyone telling you what you needed to do and how to do it. And I didn't know that I even knew what I needed to do or how to do it, you know. And at that point, my first thought wasn't, well, maybe I should just pray and ask God for that help. You know, it was just kind of in survival mode.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Yeah, but you had this beautiful community you did. So that's I agree with you because I also, when I went through my divorce, it was surround yourself with really great, great, amazing people who don't necessarily try to make it better, they just know it's gonna it's gonna be okay and they're gonna walk it with you.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

And I think the piece that probably changed it for me on a dime was something so simple and I should have known. But uh some friends of mine took me to talk to a pastor, and the pastor asked me one question Is there anything your kids can do that would make you stop loving them? And I said, Well, of course not. God is your father, and there is nothing you can do that would make him stop loving you. And it just like was this light bulb that made me feel like, oh wow, you know, instead of feeling this guilt and shame and burden of um breaking a covenant marriage, I knew he was surrounding me and protecting me and loving me in a time and in a situation where it may not have been my choice, but I had to move forward in it.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Yeah, that's great. It's a good analogy. It is, yeah, yeah, it is. I've heard other people say that in um I think when you come from a religion, you do. You instantly go to the shame piece of letting someone down, especially the your heavenly father. And that's not a fun feeling.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Why is that? Why as a Christian do we are we so hard on ourselves when we have a God that continually tells us I love you and put your burdens on me?

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Why why is that? I mean, I know it's a spiritual battle. Is there, I mean, I wonder if there is a just a it's a the a human condition that we just we're so hard in ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

I don't know. Just when you said that, it made me think of like even my parents. I think a lot of times when you love someone so much, you don't want to let them down. Oh, for sure. And so I think that love is so strong that there's a piece of you that just feels so disappointed in yourself, I think.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

Yeah, and that that's another reason why even our kids, when we ask about um lying or don't don't because no matter what you do, I will never love you any less, ever. So always feel that you can come and talk to us and tell us, but they that it's that piece that they don't want to say, yeah, because they don't want to disappoint us. Right. Yeah. Uh so you felt lost with your husband and felt lost, like lost and lost. And then as you continued in your beautiful life, you and you encountered a couple other situations, Laura, that were so hard with your daughter, um, sorry, with your dad and with your sister. Yes, yes. And this was so pivotal in your world. So can you it was within a year that you lost them both. Yeah, it was. But you went through a journey with your sister before losing her. So can you share about both of those?

SPEAKER_00 12:02

So for probably um 15, 20 years, my whole family walked a journey with my youngest sister, Sarah. There's six of us kids, three boys and three girls. And Sarah was the youngest, and she was in a car accident. And after that car accident, she was in so much pain and couldn't walk, um, went to doctors, no doctors could figure it out. She was in college at the time. She wanted to, of course, get a job after that and worked for a little while, but she just couldn't like sit for long periods of time and do different things. Anyway, long story short, take it through the 10 plus years. And we found out she had a disease called ankylosing spondylitis. And it came back to that car accident where it released a gene that was dormant in her that just kind of went throughout her body. And the gene, what it does is it fuses your bones, and so her different joints would start fusing um at different times. And it also developed a um hypo, I can't remember the name of it now, but your immune system's gone, like you become allergic to everything. And so she'd eat, you know, a certain food. And after six months of eating that food, she couldn't figure out why she wasn't feeling good. She developed an allergy to the food. And so that led to her also becoming allergic to the different medications that would help the ankylosing spondylitis disease and help that pain. And so she really just walked a journey of not knowing what to do because one thing led to another in her disease, and then that cut off her being able to do certain things. And in the end, the last three years of her life, the autoimmune portion of her um illness made her allergic to the air outside. So she truly became like the kid in the bubble. Like we couldn't do like a nursing home or get her help from her being able to move because she couldn't be around any type of allergen or anything. And so, um, but what Sarah did throughout that time is she started a blog. And this is when the blog world kind of exploded. Exploded. You know, you didn't really hear much about it. And then she decided, because she was a writer, that was one of the gifts that God gave her, and she worked for a newspaper when she was right out of college. And so she told us she was going to start this blog. Well, you know, our first thing was you're alone, you're, you know, locked into your home, you can't go out, and you want people to know where you're at and what's going on in your life, you know. So the first thing was safety. But she knew that that would be the outlet that she needed to feel like she still had a purpose. You know, she was searching for her purpose. She was, you know, late 20s. She her life didn't turn out how she envisioned either, right? And so she started this blog, and it was called Gitson Girl, because my dad had a nickname for all of us, and he would always say to her, Gitsy Gitsy Goo. So her name might be Gitsen Girl. So that was uh her blog handle, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

How do you spell that?

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Gitson G-I-T-Z-E-N. Git. And her uh blog is still out there. But uh yeah, so she started that blog and just started writing. But what that writing turned into was how you have choices no matter what happens in your life. You have a choice and how to respond to it. And as she developed her relationship with God, she wrote about it and just her thoughts and how she could, even though in the midst of all the pain and everything, that she had a choice and what she wanted to do. And she knew that she could choose joy in the midst of it. And the last uh three years that she was confined to the four walls of her home, that's all she talked about was this life isn't about me. It's about what he can do through me. And she had all over a million hits to her blog before she passed away. And just the lives she changed from the four walls of her home was uh yeah, truly amazing. So that whole process for our family for 20 years was just getting through and figuring out what was going on with Sarah and uh her disease. And uh right before that, my dad was my biggest, like there were three of us girls and three boys, and dad had a hog farm. And I would rather go clean the hog pins than dust the house. Yep, I'm out. So my my dad my my dad and I were very, very, very close. And uh it was actually on my son Thomas's birthday we got a call. He was he and mom were up with uh their family up in a lake in Minnesota, and dad was going back to get skis to go water skiing. So he was healthy, you know, he was a farmer, and he got stung by a bee and went into anaphylactic shock, and it died, he died at the cabin. At the cabin, yeah. They were out on the boat and they got him back in. Um, and my uncle actually called me. I was in Target with my daughter Becca to tell me what was going on, and of course, just shock and um waves going through me and trying to figure out what he was talking about because it was just such a shocking thing. And um, yes, we had to walk through the death of my dad very suddenly, and Sarah was confined to her home. So figuring out how to let her know. Um, and by this point, her disease had the her rib cage was fused, like she couldn't take deep breaths, she couldn't move around, and she was confined to her home.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

So did people go in and see her?

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Not if they had a cold, like if someone had an earache, she'd get pneumonia, you know. I mean, very careful. Very and she had stations outside that they had to wash before they came in. Um, if it was winter, they'd have to take out their coats and stuff from the allergies outside. So yeah, no, it was pretty much it. She was she, no, she had nobody but God in her home with her. And she used to say that to us. She'd say, you know, um, I'm blessed because I don't have all the busyness you guys have. I get to just hear him.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Wow, what an amazing attitude. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Didn't mean she didn't have really hard days, but uh no, she had a perspective that only God can provide here.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

We live in the richest country in the world and we're miserable. Yeah. And she had so little and she was happy.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Definitely, yes. Yep. Man, how did your how your parents through trying to figure it out and all the doctors' visits and all the the exploratory trying to figure things out, you said for almost 10 years until they figured it out. It was there ever anything she wrote about about that disease? Because people have no clue when it comes to like we just had Amber Lee Lago on our podcast a few two episodes back, and she almost lost her leg and they got it back on, and now she lives with chronic pain, and it's a full-on everyday all day, right? And she also chooses joy through the journey.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Yes, when I listened to that, Sarah was all I could think about when I was hearing her story because that chronic pain, you know, and then Sarah would go through too. You have to then judge or not judge, but decide between what's worse. Is it the physical pain or is it my emotional pain right now, you know? And just working through what that kind of pain does to you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. It takes you to your knees. Yeah, you know, yeah. And just the hope. I mean, Sarah would tell me sometimes, you know, she'd just watch the, you know, clock tick by and just wonder what was next for her and just get in those times of just um where she had to surrender because that's all she had.

SPEAKER_03 20:44

Yeah. You're 10 it it's uh how long ago was this? You said it was 2001.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

So she passed away in 2011.

SPEAKER_03 20:53

The amount of studies that have been done, right, for met the medical world. How how did you watch, sit back and watch your parents go through all of that for 10 years of trying to search for an answer?

SPEAKER_00 21:06

You know, it was extremely hard. And again, kind of like I had mentioned, um, I don't remember if we were just talking or if I mentioned on here, but you get everybody else's ideas and thoughts and just their things on what you should do. And people were telling her that she should go to some shrine and pray at it. And, you know, if her faith was stronger, you know, as Jill would say, you just a miracle would happen, you know. And she would take that in, and it was just more of a burden for her than anything, you know. So in some ways, she had to just shut a lot of that out. And a part of that was my parents and us too, because all we wanted was to make her better. And so, well, let's try this. Let's try this. Well, maybe this natural, or maybe go to this doctor, or we'll take you over here. You know, there was just everybody wanted to do everything. Everything that they could to help make her better. And she tried for so long, but so many of those things made it worse.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Instead of better. And she's like, is it is it better just to stay at the point I'm at now instead of getting worse, you know? So it was just this constant battle for everybody. And so I think we all had to just kind of help each other realize that Sarah knows her body better than anyone. And we know that she's the type of person that is going to want to live life if that is what she can do. But it's really only her and God that can decide what it is that's next for her and what she should do, if anything, um, to try to make that better.

SPEAKER_03 22:49

Man, there's I have I'm guilty. And that's the reason I'm guilty of the people sharing their stories and they say, I've I feel like I've done it all. I'm like, What have you done? Have you? And because that's all you you just want you want to fix it. You want to fix it. And so what you're saying, just so our audience hears it loud and clear, sometimes ask like maybe we don't give our opinion. Maybe we don't we just pray on it. Yeah. And let God really honestly press it in on themselves, you know, like through their own prayer and through their own time with God, He will, He'll reveal. Yeah. Do you do you think?

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Oh, absolutely. And as you say this, I don't mean I don't want to go off on all these tangents, but when you have so much happen in your life, you know, but um my biggest uh in my face kind of thing with that was after Sarah passed and dad passed, I went through a time of just knowing that everything she went through didn't have to end. All the teaching that God did through her didn't have to end just because she wasn't here anymore. And that's when I felt God's call to start in ministry. And so I just started down this path of getting her spirit-led words into a book that God blessed us with. It's called Choose Joy, Finding Hope and Purpose When Life Hurts. And right when that book was released, and I was just on the speaking realm to get the book out there and sell the book, I was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. And so it was like I was on this path that God wanted me to be. And then whoops, he stopped me dead in my tracks. And I remember with that again, it's the shock of what? You know, we don't have breast cancer in our family. This can't be happening, God wouldn't do this kind of thing, you know. And the whys all started. And the first thing you do is ask others, what should I do? What should I do? What should I do? And you get as many answers from them as you do people you ask. So I think Sarah was in that same spot, right? It was just like, you know, nobody really knows except for you and God. And you should get all the information and check into things, but it really is letting go the shame or guilt or whatever it is from all these other people, you know, looking at you like, well, are you giving up because you're not doing this? Or, you know, the judgments. I guess the judgments.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

And opinions, opinions and judgments are there's not a lack of. Yes, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Yeah, yeah. And everybody's opinions and judgments are correct, right? So, so yeah, it really comes down to you have to just trust that God will lead you where you need to go. And so that was the first time after watching like Sarah go through that and my family go through the loss of dad, that I really had to do that for myself.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Did you go through a non-traditional treatment?

SPEAKER_00 26:01

No, I did end up uh going through a year of chemotherapy and radiation, but I had lots of people tell me, don't put that stuff in your body. Don't put that stuff in your body.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Easy to say when you're not in that situation.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Especially, I wasn't as worried about myself, but I'm looking at my kids and those people that I love and my grandkids that are coming, and you know, it's like, okay, what's the right thing to do here?

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Yeah, I think about that sometimes too, if if faced with that. You know, you hear about like the juice diet, and there's these other um treatments that are you can go to Mexico for, right? That are actually outlawed in the US. And you go, I think I'd do the former, right? I think I do the the juice diets, but then it smacks you in the face. Right. And you just you can't say until you're in that situation.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

No, you can't. And you know, some people have made it through with the juice diet, and some people have made it through with chemotherapy, but it's not really either of those. It's really God and what his call is for your life. And I think that's what you have to surrender to is just I don't know that it really I mean, it does matter what you do, but it matters with where God's telling you to go with it.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Yeah, so true. That's why you just have to be in touch to be able to hear and make that space to be able to hear. Yeah. And the juice diet is not medical advice, which I'd say I don't think I'm saying you're gonna be able to do that. Something similar to that.

SPEAKER_03 27:21

So having cancer, how has that how like just your thoughts now today? Like in those moments of the pain and and the suffering and the chemo and all the things, did you just feel so much more connected to your sister?

SPEAKER_00 27:35

In a lot of ways, yes, I did. Um, because her words, well, God's words through her. I keep having to tell myself those, they really weren't her words, but she allowed the Holy Spirit to bring them through. And I know that because she died when she was 38. She had no, I mean, she was young, right? Like she didn't have life experience to know what that is. So if you do read the book, I think you'll see too where it's just God's words through her. And what's the name of the book? It's called Choose Joy Finding Hope and Purpose When Life Hurts.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

That's great. And you're the author.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Um my sister's writings, and then we found a co-author that does writing that actually put all of her, yeah, put all of her words into the book. Her name is Mary Carver. So yep. Um so I'm sorry, where were we? What was the what were we talking about? The word are you just you being able to connect to the words. So yes, but I think more so because of what I learned through her, like her the teachings and those kind of things, and just going back, and like I said, she always said, it's not about me, it's what he can do through me. And so I knew in my heart, even though my head maybe didn't want to be there, is that there was some plan in all of it. And I don't believe God hurts us or does things to us, but he uses what it is. And I do believe that for a long time or at first, and I still do a lot, I don't like attention to myself. So I hide behind Sarah's story instead of telling my own sometimes, you know. Um, but so I had to walk it myself to be able to really speak to it, feel it, know it, understand what it is. And I think that's what some of that was.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

You said something that's uh really hit me hard because um when you just said that you don't believe that God hurts us. Can you unpack that? Tell us more where where'd that come from and and and just tell me more about that?

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Because God is love. You know, I think that he allows the things that happen in our life or that the evil one puts into this world. He uses those things for a purpose. And the big verse that came to me, and mostly when Sarah was going through what she did was one in James two through four. And that is that um, you know, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials, because it develops perseverance within us. But we have to allow, we have to choose to allow that perseverance to grow. And it's hurts, it's not easy. And a lot of times when I look, when I'm in it, I don't feel like he's, you know, there protecting me and holding me and loving me. But when I look back, it's the whole footprints poem. I I know in my heart of hearts I would have never made it through what I did if he wasn't walking beside me or holding me.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Yeah. When people say things like, I guess the God needed another angel, or God let this happen, or God, you know, just something akin to God gave someone cancer. Do you have a loving response for that?

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Yeah, I think that God doesn't, God is love. He doesn't hurt people, God doesn't give us this to hurt someone. Um, but we live in a fallen world. That is the reality of who our first parents were, Adam and Eve. Yeah. And uh so that reality of that being in this world means that there's things that we have to walk through until he comes and, you know, completely washes it clean again. And so even in those trials, even in those hearts, I think the joy thing, and um, we talked a little bit about my uh ministry partner, Jill. We've always said that is when you say choose, like choose joy, yeah, I can't just wake up and say, oh, life sucks, but I'm gonna choose today, you know, I'm gonna choose to have joy. Sometimes it's a day of crying, but there's a lightness in your heart that is joyful. Like God is joy, Jesus is joy. And unless you have him in your heart, I don't know that we can explain it until someone actually feels it and accepts him into their heart enough to just say, God is good and he's love. We went to Mercy Me concert uh last night in Sioux City, and just the worship and just the overall love you feel when you have him in your heart and soul is again, it's something you can't describe until you actually surrender it to him and say, I want you in my life, God.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

Yeah. Even in the sorrow. Even in the sorrow. It's the what Jill said, when you know that you know that you know, my dad would always say that to me as a kid, and I would be like, Why are you repeating yourself? Why do you say that all the time? But now as an adult, in some of these moments, even when I'm sitting with a friend that's going through some of the toughest things, I'm just like, Lord, whatever we're gonna learn from this, so that we, you know, we can press on and help change other people's lives. And that's what you guys, what you're doing, what you ladies are doing.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

And it's hard because they may not be at that point yet. And so it's guiding them through with truth, which is Bible, yeah, and just having it there for them to read and allowing God. That's the one thing I learned early on in ministry is I always felt like a failure if someone didn't get saved or someone didn't change until I realized that our job is to just introduce God to them. And it's the Holy Spirit's job to actually move in their heart so that they can choose who God is and what he can do in their lives. So I think we take on this whole job of you know, making sure we save all these people. And our job is to introduce, it's to minister, to model.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

We just get to model the love of Jesus Christ and what they do with it from that point on and how the Holy Spirit moves. Yep. Yes, it takes a lot of pressure off, doesn't it? Yes, it does.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

I have to remind myself of it a lot though.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

I will I will walk you to the water if you need a drink. It's up to you if you want to drink it. Exactly. Amos has taught me that because I feel like I get to save the world.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

It'd be nice to on a daily basis. And he's like, not your job.

unknown 34:22

Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

To save the world?

SPEAKER_03 34:24

Yeah, that's solving all the world's problems. We can give it a shot.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

Heather, your shoulders aren't big enough. I won.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

No, no, no, no, no, thank you, no responsibility taken. I am grateful, Laura, that I had the opportunity to meet you and Jill and just the sabbatical that you guys are both on in this journey. I pray with all my heart, God has spoken some really big things because I this is really just kind of the beginning. I feel like you've tiptoed and you've tested a little trial and error, kind of walking in this space of all right, God, this next chapter is gonna be big.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Yeah. And we do really believe that. Um I worked in business for I worked in human resources and organizational training and development for all my life until my sister passed away. Well, and then I still worked there for a while until I was diagnosed with breast cancer and met my beautiful ministry partner, Jill, because she stole my husband's bag. Yep. And uh then we just happened to both be going down to Don Maxwell. We didn't even know that at the time. And a month later, we I'm like, uh, were you the one in the plane? Anyway, so we just started talking. And she had been in ministry forever, and I was such a newbie that I was just searching for someone to help direct me through it all. And um, you know, I was yeah, floundering.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

Totally different world when you go from a corporate, like you're saying into ministry. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 36:02

So we've been taking this sabbatical, you know, the business side of me says, you know, we've built this ministry. And if we don't keep it going, people are just gonna forget about us. And, you know, how do you bring it back from a sabbatical? And you know, so all the logical things that business teaches you kind of just goes out the window in a lot of ways. And so it's releasing a lot of learning also to just trust the Holy Spirit and not control it, but let God do his work and trust him with it all.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

There's a whole podcast just on that. There isn't there. Yeah, because it's it's not business.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

No, it's not. It doesn't make sense. No. And in fact, when I'd first start talking and stuff, they'd be like, quit training people and just talk to them, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

It's really hard. It's a it's a pattern, a learned behavior, and it's very well ingrained in every single one of us who have ever worked in corporate. You do do it a certain way, you act a certain way, you are it's compliance. And if you're a rebel in any way, shape, or form, you get called to your office, Lauren. So it's like it's discipline, it's shame, it's all the things. And when you step out into God's grace, yeah, and in his will. Yeah. Yeah, you're like, well, wow.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Even the whole goal setting and stuff, you know, what's your big, hairy, audacious goals and where do you want to be?

SPEAKER_01 37:26

And how many souls do you want to save this year?

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Yeah, exactly. Put the tick on the wall. Um, well, this is my goal, unless God makes me pivot, which he does often, right? Yeah. And so even just the thoughts and understanding of what setting goals means when you're really in surrender to God is uh quite the that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

There's an entire podcast there.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Yeah, there really is.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do speaking, you still do motivational speaking?

SPEAKER_00 37:53

I do, I do. Um a lot of uh churches, and then we I think uh mentioned with Jill's podcast, we've done women's events up to 800 people. And I'm, you know, believe it or not, I am an introvert.

SPEAKER_03 38:08

So I know this about you. You're in good company.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Yeah, me too. So Jill's kind of had to pull me out of my comfort zone and put me in this world of uh just just doing stepping out in faith. Yeah, just doing it. He's got you, and I'm so glad that it's happened, but it has not been a comfortable process.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

It's really fun to pull the introverts out. It is so funny.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

I've enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

That's Jill in the background.

SPEAKER_03 38:35

Jill, yeah. Man, I uh we might have to have him come back. So uh okay. Throwing a curveball.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:46

All right. Amos is feeling it. I don't know. Can I hit curveballs? You've already hit them.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

I was thinking about Sarah and the things she went through and how she's pain-free.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

100%.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

How a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

I think of that often. In fact, it was very selfish of us to be sad when she died. Because I was there with her. I was the only one with her, and they told me we should consider hospice. And I just tears immediately. And she looked at me with this huge smile on her face, and she said, Oh, isn't this exciting? And I was like, Oh my, I gotta change my perspective here. Because yeah, she was ready to go home to God.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Yeah, we have a friend who just went through that, and my and we found out that uh the family member had died, and we said the first words out of my mouth was good for good for her. Yeah, you know, now she's basically a lot of yeah, she ran the race, she's pain-free now. My brother, who died from cancer at a young age. Same thing for him. Like he tried, he'd tried and went through a chemo's hard and went through lots of uh ups and downs, and then all of a sudden he didn't have to deal with it anymore. Yeah, and that assurety, so listeners uh a surety of knowing that you're gonna go to heaven.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Is is such a freeing, freeing thing. So, what I was asked my wife to do here was was uh do an altar call.

SPEAKER_03 40:11

We've never done that on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

That'd be beautiful. I think it I think it's appropriate.

SPEAKER_03 40:18

Okay. You're asking me to do it?

SPEAKER_01 40:20

You're great at the moment.

SPEAKER_03 40:22

Oh, goodness. Okay. All right. Well, let's just pray this out for any of you who are listening to the podcast right now, and you're in a moment and you don't know your Lord and Savior as your own. You've heard bits and pieces, you may be following us and hearing all these incredible stories of salvation and redemption. And you're tired. You're just tired, and you want to lay it all at the foot of the cross. And so now is your moment. And so I ask you just to get in a comfortable position and just put your hands out on your lap or wherever in the position of ready to receive. Because there is nothing, nothing more important in your entire life than this moment of receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And so if you have any sin, if you have anything that is weighing you down, I just ask you to cry out to the Lord and just ask him for forgiveness. Repent. Repent of your sins and just lay it at the foot of the cross and tell Jesus, I am all in. If you profess with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord and Savior and that he died on the cross for your sins, and you ask him into your heart, you will be saved. And that is all it takes, brothers and sisters. That is it, for you to confess your sins, to lay it at the foot of the cross and ask Jesus to come into your heart. It will forever change your life.

unknown 42:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 42:15

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

It's not by works.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

It's not by works.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

If it's by works, it makes you this is my saying, it makes you a little mini god. It's like you got yourself to heaven. It's a true gift that you just believe that Jesus died for your sins. And He died for everyone's sins. And there is no sin too great. And just that receiving that's that's that's the New Testament. That's what the Bible says.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

All your burdens and bondage can be released, and you can walk in the freedom and the fruits of the Spirit that is so abundant for the remainder of your life. And no matter what you go through, the Sarah's, the Laura's, the Jills, the Heathers, and the Amoses, we've all been there and we've walked through literal hell and back, is what it has felt like. But we still stand here on a foundation of Jesus Christ, and we live our life every single day, choosing joy. Yes, yes, and choosing to live our lives for others to so that they can find and be a part of this beautiful heaven on earth that exists. We don't want anyone to miss out. Ever. Yeah. So if you did pray that prayer and you want to start digging in, reach out to us, please. You can reach out to Jill or Laura. You can reach out to Amos and I through Fortitude Ministries on any of our social medias. I know that Laura and Jill both have lots of stuff out there that that um you'd be able to get in touch with them. We will post stuff on the episode, their websites, their whatever else. I don't know, your blood type, whatever else you guys want to give.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

We're an open book. We're an open book.

SPEAKER_03 43:56

So we will make sure that people can reach out to you and thank you. Just be in touch because this is this is the beginning of something really great, you guys. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you for being here, Laura.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

Thanks for having us. Yes. Yes, you're welcome. Okay. Thanks so much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:12

Thank you so much for listening. We want to change lives through this podcast. And if you want to support this podcast or our guests, please see the links below for our Patreon and giving links.

SPEAKER_03 44:21

And like and subscribe and also share our podcast as much as possible. Thank you.