The Wounds Of The Faithful

Healing Through Prayer and Overcoming Abuse: Ronald Davis Part 1

In this episode Ronald Davis shares his powerful story of overcoming abuse and finding healing through prayer. Ronald discusses his tumultuous first marriage, the deep impact of his relationship with God, and how intense prayer and faith led him to forgiveness and restoration. Diana and Ronald also explore the challenges men face in abusive relationships and the often inadequate support from religious communities. Ronald introduces his book, 'Thy Kingdom Come,' which delves into the transformative power of prayer and its role in personal and spiritual growth.
00:00 Sponsor Message: 7 5 3 Academy
00:48 Introduction to the Podcast
01:22 Diana's New Camera and Podcast Updates
02:26 Introducing Today's Guest: Ronald Davis
06:43 Ronald Davis' Background and Journey
08:04 Ronald's Early Life and Spiritual Awakening
10:59 Understanding Prayer and Its Importance
12:40 Ronald's First Marriage and Struggles
17:02 Healing and Restoration Through Prayer
21:12 Challenges Faced by Male Abuse Survivors
25:27 The Church's Role in Addressing Abuse
27:54 Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser
 
Thy Kingdom Come: The Purpose and Power of Prayer thykingdomcomebook.com
 
Bio: 
Ronald Davis has been preaching the Gospel since his teenage years, driven by a deep passion for spreading the message of the Kingdom of God. With decades of ministry experience, he is known for his dynamic teaching and unwavering commitment to advancing God's Kingdom on earth. As the founder of Kingdom Truth Global, Apostle Davis equips believers worldwide with biblical truths, empowering them to live out their faith and walk in their God-given purpose. His life’s mission is to see lives transformed by the power of the Kingdom and to raise up leaders who will impact the world for Christ. 
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Ronald Davis Part One
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help.
Now here is Diana.
Hi everyone. How are you today? I'm glad that you're here with me for those that are watching on YouTube. I have a new camera today. Um, My old one, kind of, bit the dust and just got a new one. So hope I'm looking good for you guys. It's definitely high definition for sure. You could see my face very [00:01:00] clearly, probably too clearly.
I could see my flaws, imperfections, whatnot. But hey, I'm an authentic person. There's no filters on here. I. Yes, this is my skin. I've not done any work to it. No Botox, nothing like that. It's just me. I don't use AI for very much at all for the podcast. I I just started using it for maybe summarizing show notes, but that's pretty much it.
But anyway, that's what's new here on the show. I do have a great guest for you today. Those of you that have been listening for a long time on the podcast, we've had Shayna Rattler back on episode six.
Yeah, that was second season, talking about what is a God shift. Well, she contacted [00:02:00] me and said her husband has written a new book about prayer and that she asked if I would have him on the podcast. So me and Shana had such a great time that I was happy to have her husband Ronald Davis on the show.
He is a survivor of abuse from, looks like his first wife. I. His journey in prayer helped him to heal and prepare him for what God had next for him. So we're gonna be talking about his upbringing and his ministry. Of course, his story of abuse and how prayer played a big part in his recovery, and that's something that we all need more of is prayer.
Such a touchy topic for a survivor to talk. We're a survivor because we were going through this [00:03:00] transition of going through all this abuse and coming out of it, and. Abuse always affects our relationship with God, especially our communication with God. Many of us are on the couch or we're not really sure about where do I stand on the subject of my faith?
And that's okay. That's what the podcast is for, is we talk about these topics and we wrestle together for the answers. What does the Bible say about prayer? How does God feel about us? He wants to communicate with us and fellowship with us, and yes, we are asking for things with prayer, but we're also sometimes just sitting and listening and it's hard after you've been through an abusive.
Relationship or you're still in one, it's hard to hear God's voice in the midst [00:04:00] of the noise around you. So we're gonna definitely talk that out today. So, Ronald's book is called
Thy Kingdom Come, the Purpose and Power of Prayer, and you can purchase that on Amazon. I am gonna include the link in the show notes, of course. So I'll read what the book's about here. In this book, Ronald Davis takes you on a transformative journey into the heart of God's kingdom and the undeniable role of prayer in unlocking its power.
This book is more than just a guide. It is a called a Deeper Intimacy with God, a rediscovery of identity, and an invitation to experience the fullness of his purpose for your life. Through insightful revelation and biblical reference, you'll explore the different dimensions of prayer and how to communicate with God effectively.
Learn the key stages [00:05:00] of personal and spiritual transformation that align you with God's will. Understand the foundational connection between knowing your identity in Christ and walking in kingdom power. Discover the life-changing impact of intimacy with God on every area of your life. Whether you're a new believer or a seasoned leader, thy kingdom come, will empower you to deepen your relationship with God and live out his kingdom purpose in every aspect of your life.
Embrace the power of prayer. Embrace the purpose of the kingdom. Let your life be a reflection of his glory.
All right, sounds pretty good. so enjoy my conversation with Ronald Davis,
I'm so excited to welcome Ronald Davis on the show. Thank you for coming on [00:06:00] today.
Oh, you're, you're welcome. I definitely an honor to be here. I appreciate you having me.
So I was saying to the audience before you came on that. You are Shayna Rattler Davis's husband. So when she reached out, it was very exciting that you wrote a book about prayer and that you'd like to come on the show.
So any friend of Shayna is a friend of mine. So you said you were only married for five months? So far?
Yes.
Alright. How did you guys meet?
Well, believe it or not a mutual mentor of ours he reached out to me one day and he said he said he wanted to introduce me to someone.
He said, he thought about her about a year or so ago before he called me. He said, when he thought of her, he thought of me, but he knew at that time that I wasn't. By the leadership of the Holy Spirit. He just knew it wasn't time yet. So after a year or so, and what's funny is during that year I was in a deep [00:07:00] consecration and fasting before the Lord and seeking God.
So after the year of that is when he called me and, he felt like it was now that time to make that introduction. And once we met it, we've just been inseparable ever since.
Oh, that sounds fun. Now I'd like to get into a little bit about your history, your ministry how you were raised.
Were you raised in a Christian home?
I was. I was raised in a Christian home. But I was also raised in a very low income area. So it was two different worlds I was exposed to. My mom kept us in church, I got home to a father that was strung out on crack cocaine. And I had older brothers and siblings that were also contributors of drugs.
So I was like, I lived in a house in an environment of, drugs and fighting and, just being exposed to gangs and that lifestyle, that street lifestyle, that, the hood lifestyle where people would refer to it as but my [00:08:00] mom put us in church, so we knew all the Bible stories, we used to receive prophecies as children.
I remember receiving a prophecy that I was gonna be a preacher, my mom would threw it at my face at times. But when I was acting a fool and I wanted to do my own thing, but now look, I'm now writing books and glorifying Jesus many years later. But yeah, so that's kind of short version of my my household coming up.
When did you meet the Lord?
So I became serious about my relationship with God when I was about 16 years old, so from the time of, I'd say about 12, my mom stopped making us go to church, and I got more involved in like, as a young person in streets, sinning , using drugs, trying to sell drugs, trying to, adapt this lifestyle that I was, that was around me.
I was, I was never a good fit for it, though, I'll be honest. I'd do wrong and feel bad, it just wasn't a good fit for me. I always knew my whole life that I was different. I remember having the gun put to my face and and I was about 14, 15 years old. And if there was ever a time ever heard [00:09:00] the first time I ever heard the voice of God, it was that day I could hear as clear as day, you can't die.
I got work for you to
do. Mm.
And I wasn't even saved at the time, but that moment stuck with me to, to this very day. So I knew the hand of God was on my life, maybe 'cause of the upbringing in church. But I always knew God's hand was on my life, but I just thought it would be later in life that I would serve the Lord.
But at 16, I went to a revival. Well, just before I turned 16, I went to the revival and I seen people being healed. I seen children giving their lives to Christ, and the message was powerful, and the man of God was amazing. And I wanted to be a part of what the Lord was doing. So, I, did antar call and I gave my life to Christ.
And my life changed. People in my, my neighborhood saw me change. My school seen me change, so I went to being this bad kid in school to being the kid who was preaching in the hallways, telling people about Jesus. So it was a wonderful experience. I mean, and it's been a journey like everyone else, after we get saved, even that's sometimes when the story really begins,
[00:10:00] right. Yeah. I love hearing people's stories of how they came to Christ. They're all different in yours is, exception. When you came to Christ when was the first time you actually understood the concept of prayer? I mean, talking to God, was that a natural thing for you or a foreign concept?
Well, we've always taught, prayer in, in, in the church, but they didn't teach prayer like I know prayer now. They taught us we should pray. Mm-hmm. But they didn't really model prayer. I didn't know the way of consistent prayer. I didn't know the way of long prayer. So I would say my little daily prayers and as a young believer, just a level of zeal and hunger that we have for God.
So we spend a lot more time, praying, even not praying as much as I do now, but I, what I thought prayer was, I did it to the best of my ability, but more so for me, I was given to the word of the Lord, like my first few years of salvation. I would read the [00:11:00] Bible for hours. That was my way of communing with God.
This, studying the scriptures. So, by the time I was 18 years old, I was reading Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge. I was like, I was going deep in theology and breaking down the, historical background of the text. So before I was even 20, you would think I had went to seminary and I never did.
I just was so deep in the word. So that was the journey that God took me first. He, it's almost like he wanted me to get that word foundation. And then, my journey into prayer as far as the place of prayer that I'm in now is, was relatively later in life. So from that point,
I have that book, that systematic theology book.
It's wonderful. Had I had that through Bible college. So, definitely got a lot of meat in that book. I still have it on my shelf. I do know that you were married before to your first wife. Tell us as much as you're comfortable [00:12:00] with what happened there? How did you meet her and what was the relationship like with her?
Absolutely. So, that's a long story. I would give you the short version of it, oh yeah. Whatever you wanna do. I met my wife, in the church community, so we known each other from church. We served each other, we served each other in ministry. We took a liking to each other.
I was really strong in the word, strong in theology. She had a strong prophetic gift and it seemed like we were just a good fit, the things that I would be studying, she would know by intuition. Like she just know by prophetically. And I said very gifted. And then, I was very rich in the word, but I wouldn't consider myself like as prophetic as I am now, and so, make a long story short, when we kind of took a liking to each other and we decided to get married, that's when the journey really began where I realized that you can have extremely gifted [00:13:00] people. But hurt people, hurt people. That's not just a cliche. It is actually true when the people have deeply rooted issues.
It's hard for them to be loved, and it's hard for them to love. So, we had went through a season, when I first, I remember the first encounter where we got into an argument, a disagreement. And before you know it, somebody's throwing a blow. I mean, got punched in my face and I was in shock because this, this woman of God, this person I've just married, who I was so excited about, I think so highly of, lost control.
So, and when the things ,first stuff like this start happening, obviously you're in shock, but then because we're Christians, we try to be forgiving as much as possible. Now we're in this marriage, we don't believe in divorce. So you figure, okay, I'm gonna love her through her pain, and many people think this, I'm gonna love them through it, but in all actuality, it's like, if two people get some serious help. You can't love them through it. It just sets the stage for [00:14:00] continuous abuse later. ' you know what? You may not want it, but if you tolerate it over time, what happens is now you'll begin to see yourself unconsciously as one that's worthy of such behavior.
You know what I'm saying? Because what tells me that you feel like it's okay is because you stay. And I'll come back to that point later. But anyway, make a long story short, there was physical abuse, there was emotional abuse, there was psychological spiritual abuse. There was a lot of different things going on.
And I'm not by any means trying to paint the picture that I was perfect in this marriage. 'cause I wasn't. Right. Right. I was developing, I wasn't as secure. In my prayer life as I am now. So I was doing a lot mm-hmm. Religiously, I was doing a lot trying to figure it out.
I was doing a lot in the name of trying to love a person through it. I went through seven years of a marriage and I can't remember nine months of, 90 [00:15:00] days of consecutive peace. Yeah. I understand
that.
It was hard. Every, me too, it was just so hard. And as much as you prayed, as much as you tried to get through it, it's like it was always something, something just was never, it was never good enough. So after that, after everything we went through and the different financial hardship, that was the only source of income.
There's a lot. I don't gimme the short version of the story, but there was a lot that I suffered. There was a lot that she suffered. There was a lot that we went through together trying to make it work and it got to the point which eventually we separated due to financial hardship.
And in that separation. She blocked. I was blocked. I couldn't see my daughter. Blocked me on that, all the emails. And one thing I noticed about certain people with abusive personalities is they like to cut off all ties of communication. It's one of the ways that they inflict harm, whether they're doing it intentionally or not.
It's that narcissistic personality is one of the ways that inflicts arm, they now feel like you're gonna suffer. [00:16:00] I'm gonna withdraw my presence from you. And it makes you feel less valued because not you feel like you were the one done wrong, and then they're treating you as if you were the one that treated them the way you felt like you've been treated.
You know what I'm saying? Right, exactly. So in that, during that time of separation with no communication, I was able to find myself, I was able to see like, what is it about me that made it okay? Because even if it was, if this was gonna ever work, it wasn't gonna work like this. It wasn't gonna work.
Yeah. So after all of that. Not having access to my daughter coming out of that relationship, coming out of that marriage. I was broken. I didn't really want to do ministry anymore 'cause we was doing ministry together. I didn't wanna do ministry more, I still wanted, God, I just didn't want ministry.
So I was like, God, I needed to go through this process of healing. So I stopped, going live on Facebook. I stopped ministering, and I just began to shut down and just start working. And I went away for away from my, where I was [00:17:00] staying, went back home, felt like I needed to restore relationships, strengthened relationships back home that would, that would have been strained because of my relationship in this other marriage.
So during that time, somebody invited me to preach one of my friends, and they didn't realize that's where my healing process started. Because it's like once I, wow. Once I started preaching and I saw God use me even in my brokenness. It's like I realized that, okay, like I still, this is what I'm here for.
And I began to seek God in worship, began to see God in prayer, but still not at the level that I needed to. And there was many times on this period of time, I really felt like I hated her. I felt like, and then it was times where I couldn't see my daughter, so I felt that was really making me feel like a hater.
And after all of that, when I went on a deep consecration, after some time had passed, we ain't talking a while, but artist society, you know what, I'm [00:18:00] not gonna date. I filed for divorce. We ended up separated with divorce. She signed, and I still, it was a gap in time when I actually first started seeing my daughter, but I really began to seek God and has left that whole situation in his hands.
I began to cry to the Lord. I mean, I would fast and I would pray. I would pray from 10 to 3:00 AM in the morning. I sometimes I would pray 5, 6, 7 hours straight, just praying and seeking God, laying before him. And it was during that period of time that God really began to deal with me. He began to heal me.
Like I would spend hours cry. I didn't know you could cry. That many got tears. And it wasn't all tears of sadness. It was tears of restoration. It was tears. It was tears of joy. It was like a cleansing, it was deep, and God was reminding me that I am his child. He is reminding me of who I am in spite of what I've been through.
And I think the biggest challenge sometimes is to not identify yourself with your pain. Not identify yourself with a disappointment. [00:19:00] Because how another person treats you doesn't mean that's who you are. That just means how they treated you. So, but in that process of seeking God, God begins to restore me.
And in that process of restoration, I was able to truly, to forgive from my heart. Because what God did is he took me back to the time that she was a child and begin to show me what it felt like to be an abandoned child. What it felt like to be an abused child, what it felt like to go through different foster care systems and nobody coming to your rescue.
So he began to show me, he says, don't take it personal. She's hurting. And at that given moment, I cried with a deep cry and I began to like really just forgive. And it was that journey of forgiveness in complete, in, in wholeness that God was taking me through. That was preparing me for what was coming.
So I won't let you jump in 'cause I don't want to talk too much. If you have any questions. Anything like that.
No, I think you're saying your story very [00:20:00] eloquently hitting a lot of points that I can relate to. And I think, I mentioned to you that we have male listeners on the podcast that are survivors, that are listening is as well as the women.
And they're just starting to get exposure that men do suffer from abuse also.
Mm-hmm.
How did you feel as a man going through abuse? You touched a little bit in general, but as a man did you get any kind of pushback from your community, your friends, your church about, oh, well, men don't get abused.
You're the man of the house. You're supposed to be in charge, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What was that like?
Well, the, the thing about most abusive relationships is you're in isolation.
Yes,
you're in isolation to protect your own image and also because you also want to protect the image of the person you trying to keep.
Especially when you're in [00:21:00] ministry, you don't want people to see her in the light of her flaws. You try to keep people seeing her in the light of her, her gifts and her, her calling, right? So in a lot of times what happens when you're a part of an abusive relationship of any kind, there's an isolation.
There's a pulling away from those who love you. You're not telling everybody your situation, even if they seen some of it from a distance. They don't know if it's continuing or not, because you're not sharing that information. And most men, we don't like to talk, we don't like to tell people what we're going through.
We kind of go through it ourselves. Meanwhile, we're feeling broken. We're feeling devalued. We're feeling disrespected. We're feeling unworthy, and no matter how anointed we are, no matter how handsome we are, when you go through something like that, it makes you feel like less. And the man you feel, you feel like your manhood has been taken from you, and you, what happens is when you're dealing with a certain personality, if you're not careful, you will lose your voice.
And one of the [00:22:00] last things that you can ever do and still re expect respect from a woman, for a man, is to lose your voice. Because if you lose your voice, you no longer lead . So, and to keep the peace sometime, we'll keep silent. So I did get a whole lot, I mean, some family members who knew what I got went through.
I mean, my best friend, he was like, bro, I don't even know why he went back type thing. Like he was like, he was on this, I should have ended it a long time ago. Like he was, he had a different perspective on it all together, but other than that, but there wasn't much from that perspective as far as a lot of pushback from the community or, or, negative talk because a lot of people didn't know the extent of what I was going through to after, even to this day, a lot of people still don't know the extent.
They just know my marriage didn't work, yeah.
I was in full-time ministry with my ex who was my main abuser. And the same thing, I put on the mask. I'm in [00:23:00] ministry, I have to have it all together. I need to protect my reputation. Even, the church's reputation and. I didn't like the way I was treated.
The church denomination I was in, devalued women and their their contributions and it was, submit. And that's the only role you have is to do what you're told. And when I wanted to get out, the church told me I couldn't. That is why I stayed and put up with it because the church said, well, you're gonna get excommunicated, you're gonna lose your ministry.
You're gonna lose your friends and you're gonna have to start all over again. And that's exactly what happened. But I left because I couldn't take it anymore. I'm like, I don't care anymore. I'm, I'm getting out. Yeah. There's only so much you can stomach and then you wake up one day, it's like, I, can't live like this anymore.
And God. I know [00:24:00] you're up there. I haven't been praying for a few years now because I don't think you're listening and but I'm getting out and taking the consequences of whatever happens if they shun me or kick me out for being divorced, so be it. I'll find another ministry.
Well, I was like you, I didn't wanna go back into ministry either. My ministry now is very different than church planting that I was doing before. But yeah. So I can relate to a lot of the things that you were saying. Some some parallel there.
I think the church has done a disservice.
For the most part, the religious community has done a disservice when it comes to matters like this. And believe it or not, we protect the abuser more than we protect the person that's being abused. And this whole idea of, just work it out, work it out, work it out, and they're not understanding the full weight of what's going on.
Like when [00:25:00] people have that, and I believe in deliverance, but I truly believe one of the hardest spirits to get rid of is that narcissistic, abusive personality that grows out a orphan spirit. Because that spirit oftentimes is the people are so far gone that even though they're conscious of what they're doing to you, they don't actually see themselves as being a bad person.
Right. You're making me lose control. You're pushing me to this point. Mm-hmm. And, and a of times they're very intellectual, they're very gifted. They're, and people, they're likable, to the average person. So people are like, yeah, you just gotta work it out. I mean, every marriage have tough problems.
No, I am being abused. I am being manipulated. I am being controlled. God did not create us to be controlled. This is why we always end up feeling some level of depression or a level of unsettling in our belly. Anytime you're under control, because it's not, you're not wired to function that [00:26:00] way, and it's just a matter of time that our, that dominion in us just ride and say, I can't take no more. I gotta get, because I know that, oh, God did not design me to be in control. Unfortunately, we have the enemy sometimes arranged marriages.
Mm-hmm. I
destinies and then he used religion to keep you in it.
You can't get your divorce. You can't. So he'll use scriptures to kind of keep you in something that he's the author of. Because God is not the author of abuse. God is not the author of confusion. God is not the author of disrespect. If my husband is not good and perfect for me, he didn't come from God.
I gotta have that. I have to know the word and be confident enough in the word to know that every good and perfect gift comes from above. I don't care how gifted, I don't care how anointed they appear. I don't care how intellectual they may be. If they're abusing me, they're manipulating me, controlling me.
That was not from God.
Yes, exactly.
[00:27:00] Something I give myself, I'm not gonna say God gave me this person.
well folks, this is a great place to stop our conversation. I know you want to hear more on prayer and how actually to commune better with God. So be sure to be with us next time on The Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. I wish you a great week. God bless you, and we'll see you next time. Bye for now.
Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You could connect with us at DSW Ministries dot org where you'll find our blog, along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week.
 

A Trauma Informed Devotional: Mark and Jennifer Sowersby EP 207

In this episode, host Diana updates listeners on her trauma therapy before welcoming returning guest Mark Sowersby along with his wife, Jennifer. The couple discusses their new book, 'Letters to the Weary,' a 21-day devotional aimed at helping readers find rest and support through God's word. They share their personal journey of marriage and healing, offering insights for dealing with trauma within faith. Additionally, Mark talks about their award-winning short film based on his life and his involvement with the TCT Network’s show 'Ask the Pastor.' The episode concludes with a heartfelt prayer for listeners.
 
00:00 Introduction and Host's Update
02:23 Introducing Today's Guest: Mark Sowersby
03:46 Mark and Jennifer's New Book: Letters to the Weary
05:22 Mark and Jennifer's Personal Stories
11:29 Navigating Marriage and Healing Together
16:50 Writing and Publishing Letters to the Weary
19:07 Interactive Devotional Experience
20:07 Connecting with God Through Devotion
21:14 Personal Reflections and Genuine Writing
24:18 Film Project: Forgiving The Nightmare
26:01 Future Plans and Community Engagement
30:41 Final Thoughts and Prayer
 
https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Weary-Mark-Sowersby/dp/1951475399
Bio:
Mark and Jennifer have been married for over 20 years and have four beautiful children. Mark is a Lead Pastor and graduate of Northpoint Bible College. He is the author of Forgiving the Nightmare and has shared his testimony across the country in churches, seminars, and a variety of media platforms, including The 700 Club, Fox Digital, TCT Ask The Pastor, CTN, God TV, Cornerstone Network, and over 350 podcasts across the globe.
https://forgivingthenightmare.com/
 
Website: https://dswministries.org
Email: diana@dswministries.org
Subscribe to the podcast: https://dswministries.org/subscribe-to-podcast/
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DSW-Ministries-230135337033879
Keep in touch with me! Email subscribe to get my handpicked list of the best resources for abuse survivors! https://thoughtful-composer-4268.ck.page #abuse #trauma
Affiliate links:
Our Sponsor: 753 Academy:
https://www.753academy.com/
Can’t travel to The Holy Land right now? The next best thing is Walking The Bible Lands! Get a free video sample of the Bible lands here!
https://www.walkingthebiblelands.com/a/18410/hN8u6LQP
An easy way to help my ministry:
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A donation link:
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Transcript:
Mark and Jennifer Sowersby
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help.
Now here is Diana.
Hey everyone. Welcome to the podcast. So excited that you're here with me today.
We have a great show for you today.
I hope you're doing well.
A little update on my trauma therapy that I mentioned to you. I don't remember which episode that was, but I'm on like session five.
And things are going well. We are still in the [00:01:00] process of me telling my story. we haven't done a whole lot of unpacking. Mostly touching base with me as to how am I feeling, while I'm sharing with her all these things that I went through. Now I'm being more detailed
telling her my life story then when I was telling my story on the podcast, and even when I tell my story in my Mending the Soul groups. There's a reason of course for that so she has a complete picture and
able to pick the correct treatment plan to help me. So, uh, today I got a bill from my insurance company, for a hundred dollars. And up to this point, my invoices have been zero, which I'm assuming mental health with my insurance has been covered a hundred percent. So I was kinda like, what's going on?
I sure hope that I don't owe a hundred bucks every time I go see her, because I would not be able to afford that. [00:02:00] So I will be investigating about why I got an invoice, but again, don't be afraid to reach out to a trauma therapist, somebody that is licensed where you live, the state you live in, the country you live in.
If you need help, send me a message. I'll do my best to help you find something in your area. So,
Now onto our podcast and our guest today.
I'm really excited because I have a returning guest today, a friend of the podcast, Mark S owersby. He's been on the show twice so far. And I really want you to go back and listen to his previous episodes because he is probably in my top five guests that I've had on the show in the last five years, the life of my podcast.
That's why he's back on because he is excellent and, Mark is bringing his wife, [00:03:00] Jennifer, today, which will be fun. Mark was on the show on season one and that was episode 11. So he tells his story, I guess as much as you can tell your story on a podcast in an hour. and he's had this book, Forgiving The Nightmare is excellent.
That is about his story. He's been on a lot of very prominent podcasts and he even has a movie about his life that he has film this past year. The second time, he was part of our Bible series. How can I trust the Bible when I've been abused? So please go back and listen to those.
They are excellent. You'll be blessed. He is on the show again because him and his wife have written another book just as recently called Letters to the Weary. Of course I am wanting to know all [00:04:00] about it. But let me read you a little bit of the synopsis on the back of this book.
Life is filled with moments of confusion, doubt, and uncertainty.
These struggles combined with everyday life can feel impossible to overcome. Do you find yourself feeling weak and tired at the end of each day instead of fulfilled? Do you complain more than express gratitude? Have you lost hope that things can actually change? Letters to the weary is a devotional that will inspire and encourage you to find a place of rest, support and understanding.
Understanding your situation is not enough. We want to show you a way out. Letters to the weary is filled with testimonies, scripture, and encouragement bringing the reader to a [00:05:00] place of peace. It has been said that habits can be broken in 21 days. That may or may not be true, but we do believe if you wholeheartedly
commit to prayer and pursuing God for 21 days, our life will be forever changed. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? I'm always looking for really good devotional.
So Mark, individual bio is Mark Sowersby is a speaker, writer, pastor. In 2019, pastor Mark went through a time of great healing. He began speaking about the nightmare of abuse and years of suffering he experienced in his childhood, and how condemnation, shame, and guilt were replaced with forgiveness, joy, and life in abundance.
He now speaks about his story and testimony of healing, forgiveness, and freedom. Through his ministry Forgiving the Nightmare. So on his website, he is got a lot [00:06:00] of videos, his video testimonies on there. I'll let you watch that. But
you really are in for a treat. You're gonna love Mark. I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Mark and Jennifer S
Alright, we have back to the show today, Mark Sowersby, and for the first time we have his lovely wife, Jennifer, on the show. Welcome.
Thank you. Thank you. It's to be so much good to be with you.
Yeah, this is number three. I mean, you're just like a friend of the podcast, a regular here on the show, Mark.
Well, it's always a blessing to be with you and be able to share.
The testimonies and stories and the victories of the Lord with you and your audience. So thank you so much for having me on, and I'm really excited that my wife could join me. Uh, I'm really great. That's really a blessing. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah, this is gonna be fun. [00:07:00] And of course we all know about Forgiving the Nightmare and your story.
Mark, we heard your story and then you were back. That was episode 11 was your story. That was season one. Wow. Thank you for being on my first season when I was starting out. I'm on year number five now, and then you run episode 100, you did our Bible series.
How can I trust the Bible?
Yes. Amen. I remember that. Yep. That was a great series.
So you're back on the show to talk about your new book, Letters to the Weary.
That sounds awesome. There it is. Yeah. There's a picture. There you go. There you go. Gotta get the angle right. Letters to the, we, our new book, A 21 day devotional.
It's, we're really excited about it. I wrote it with my wife Jennifer, and, we're really blessed to be able to have this, just published and released. Oh, just a few, about a month ago. [00:08:00] It's brand new right out there. It's. It's a little different from the first book I wrote, and that was testimonial with some scripture references and kind of a how to and a hold on to God.
And this is just, I got to put my pastor hat on and kind of share a little bit. So Jen and I were really excited to be able to write this devotional together. What do you think, Hon?
Yes, it was a good time to be able to do it together and to collaborate and I'm honored to write something like this with my husband.
So, Jennifer, tell us about your story, your background. 'cause we haven't met you on the podcast before.
Well, I came to know the Lord when I was five years old. My kindergarten teacher led me to the Lord and I've been following Jesus ever since. And he's kept me from things. I don't have the testimony where I did things and then I , you know, recovered from them.
I have the testimony that God kept me from ever doing them.
Absolutely. [00:09:00] Some people feel bad that they don't have this, well, I did drugs or I was a rebel or something. I really appreciate the stories that, I lived a faithful Christian walk my whole life.
That means that it is possible.
It is, it is, it is possible. Like that God can use you and, you can live a holy life. Now how did you and Mark meet?
I was the three to five year olds coordinator at church. And he was the children's pastor when I was old enough to meet. We've known each other for a long time, but he is seven years older than I am.
So when he realized who I was, I was an adult by that point, and he was like, oh. We were friends. And then when I was in my twenties, I went off to finish college and he realized he missed me. And he was praying about [00:10:00] who the Lord would lead to him to marry. And he's like, God, I need this type of person.
I need that type of person. And he said he felt like the Lord was saying, Hey, McFly, there's a girl down in Florida. She'd be the right one. Right. I knew Jen so long that, you know, I, I knew her parents and when I first got saved her, uh, mom and dad were involved as youth group leaders and like anything else, you go over people's houses for cookouts and pizza parties.
And, and Jen was there, but she was always the kid, you know, she was just the kid of the youth leaders, youth directors, youth helpers, and never really on the radar. And when I finished Bible college, I came back and Jen was our three to 5-year-old director, but she was as, as I say, she was all grown up.
You know, she was all grown up and, but really she wasn't like, I never saw her that way until one day in the prayer, prayer closet, the Lord said, Hey, McFly, uh, you know, she's right in front of you, you know? So, uh, we. We started a relationship, and I remember when I went to the lead pastor of the church, I, when [00:11:00] Jen and I were getting serious and we started to date, I, I went into the senior pastor's office just to kind of let him know.
And I, and I said to him, Hey Pastor, I want you to know Jen and I are gonna date. And he started to laugh and he said, you are the last two to know this. Everybody has known this. The whole church knew that you two were gonna date, you're the last two. So, uh, we started to date and then. The rest, as they say, is history with four kids.
And we're getting ready to celebrate 22 years of marriage. Wow. Amen. I love that story. And, I know your story really well, Mark, and the suffering and the abuse that you went through. I know Jennifer had to be, a huge, huge support through all of
the recovery and raising a family. So tell us, Jennifer, what was it like, supporting him in that way with his past and such?
I think we just, we just live life and I'm naturally, I think I'm a nurturer, so I think I, helped in that way. But, God had [00:12:00] already done a huge amount of healing before we were together because he's seven years older than me.
When we got together, I was 25, so he was, almost 33 by the time we got married. So God had already done a lot in his life. Even when you're healed of things, there's still scars. Like after you've had surgery. Like I had carpal tunnel surgery, many years ago. And even though the site healed for over a year, I couldn't put weight on that wrist without pain because the scar tissue was there.
And I think the same thing happens when you're healed. Emotionally or from other things, you know, traumas that have happened to you, you still have scars. That doesn't mean you're not healed. It just means that there's scar tissue there and. So we had to walk through that. Amen. Amen. I think that's a good way to put it.
Yeah. You know what, you don't know what you don't know, you know? So, of course a lot of my [00:13:00] trauma and hurts, pains, wounds, I brought to the altar. I dealt with my counselor coaches, pastors and friends, but that I've never married, I never had that closeness of a wife, the intimacy of a marriage.
You know that connection that you have. So I didn't know what I was gonna carry in there because I didn't know what marriage was like, and I didn't know how to, prepare myself or warn her or say here. I, we just kind of grew into this marriage together. We both brought our baggage in. My baggage was obviously loud and big, but we both carried our pain as people do.
And what we learned is we had to go to the altar of God. Uh, we had to go and lay our, our marriage down, our hopes down our family down. We laid all those moments, and it didn't mean that it was always easy. There were moments of tears and prayers and challenges and trials and blessings, but as we learned to trust the Lord, you'll hear me say all and each other and each other
because we had to communicate.
I mean, there were, we had to have some frank conversations about things and [00:14:00] mm-hmm. You know, where we, where I expressed where I was hurt in our relationship in the beginning
and, and then that left its own scars. Not that I was hurt because he did something wrong, just the pain of going through feeling like I had done something wrong because I happened to touch one of his scars, you know, where it brought pain to him.
So he handled it the way he did and then I handled it the way I did. 'cause again, neither one of us had been married before. Neither one of us had, dealt with things together. So we've had to deal with things, by communicating and working through things and god has the victory. Amen. Amen.
And that's true. You know, like I, I'll have to say, if you come to our church, I'll pray for couples at our altar. I'll say, Lord, help us grow closer to you so we can grow closer to each other. And I would say those early [00:15:00] years of marriage, as many early years of marriage as you're trying to figure it out.
Uh, you could have, uh, perfect backgrounds or you could have broken backgrounds, but you're trying to figure it out. Uh, time, money, communication, family, uh, re intimacy, intimacy, responsibility, all those things that, uh, you're trying to figure out. And, and just like anybody else, we had our ups and downs, but we had the altar to hold onto.
We had the word of God to guide us and we had friends that would hug us and love us through it. But 22 years we've done pretty good.
When there were times where it was difficult, that's when you run to God, because he's the one who fixes everything.
He's the ultimate healer. So when I didn't understand what was going on or when we were having, um, troubles and learning to communicate and learning to walk, navigate through these things, that's when I would spend time with God and I would just cry out to him.
Amen. And that's why I'm [00:16:00] so glad now that we've been able to. You'll come together and, and work together and parent together and have a home together and a ministry together. And it's blessing that my wife has beside me. So that's what's really excited that we published this book together. These 21 Devotions.
Uh, we both poured ourselves into 'em. Jen wrote some independently. I wrote some independently. Most of them we collaborated on. She knew a better word than I knew. I thought it about this way, she thought it about that way. And it was just a wonderful collaboration of a a 21 day devotional to pour everything that we're talking about you into these pages, to talk about communication and, and trust and ups and downs and lefts and rights, and, and how all God gets the glory.
And that's what we wanted to give in this, uh, new, our new book called Letters to the Weary. So I see that it's on Amazon. Did you self-publish this or do you have the same publishers Forgiving Nightmare? We publish. Yeah. Yep. We work with the same [00:17:00] publisher. He is, uh, our publisher's been a blessing to us.
He is really helped us hold, holds our hand. He is been my friend. He has been my writing coach. He is just kind of been everything to help me write these books , and him and his, team has been behind me a hundred percent. They were amazing. So you have testimony, scripture, encouragement. Can you give us an example of one of them?
Well, I'll tell you what I have, which, like the format. So, so we wanted to write it like a letter and Yes, what happened is I wanted somebody able to go in and read it and have enough of the day, you know, and somebody said, why 21 days? Why not 30 days? Why not 90 days? Why not 365 days? And I can just tell you Jen and I, the church we grew up in, it was very common for
in January, people would do a 21 Day Daniel Fast. It was kind of a tradition. It was just something that our church we grew up in, they would celebrate, the New Year by con doing a Daniel Fast. There's a book called The Daniel [00:18:00] Fast has to do with dieting and things like that. So whenever I thought about fasting or devotion, I always thought 21 days.
It is one of those things that got caught in my head. So, because that was in my spirit, in my head, we wrote this 21 day devotion, but we wanted 'em to be independently. We wanted 'em to standalone. Like, uh, the reader is reading a letter in my first book, forgive the Nightmare. We talked about the trauma. We talked about the hard times.
We talked about the big picture, the, but I wanted to say, okay, you've laid your trauma at the altar, you've given it to Jesus. Now what. Now how do I wake up Monday and Tuesday, and now what do I do? And we hope to put in the pages. Of letters to the weary. The next part, what do I do Now? I've given the big part to Jesus.
I've walked in victory. I've claimed it. I've confessed it. I believe it. I stand on the word, but now I gotta get up Monday and go to work. So we hope this, uh, this devotion in which again is filled with scriptures and testimonies and as you heard, real, real trials and ups and downs and victories that have poured [00:19:00] out of the.
The valley and out of the grace of God, we've tried to pour into this book and let God, uh, be blessed and honored by it.
I hope that when you read it, it feels like you're sitting down reading a letter from a friend and, and that's pointing to Christ and that's why we put the entire scripture in. We don't just put the references is what we write,
we fill out the entire scripture and that way ultimately you're pointed to the Bible, which. God's word and it is amazing. If you're not reading the Bible, you should be.
A spot, they're asked questions or reflections. Mm-hmm. And we, we put something in our devotion called the big question. So every, after every one of them, after every 21 of these devotions we have the big question. We left space in the book to journal, to write, to put your thoughts down. So again, we wanted to be interactive.
We just didn't want it to stand on the shelf. We [00:20:00] picture people a big old cup of coffee, the word of God, and our devotion, and they go in their prayer closet and, and serve the Lord that way.
Yeah, I think that it's a, a smaller book, then you can actually finish it and, get the process starting of connecting with God.
Maybe you don't know where to start with reading the Bible or prayer. You're a new Christian, or you've been away from the Lord because of, of course, trauma and abuse. You know, we're on the couch with God. We, don't understand why he allowed this to happen. This looks like it'd be a great transition into connecting with the Lord, just a short 21 days.
With some of my background, not only the trauma of abuse, but the trauma of academia being a dyslexic, you know? Yeah. In both of my books, I thought, well, what would I wanna read? I wouldn't wanna read this. 607. Now my wife may wanna read the big books, but I read
something you could [00:21:00] read in a plane. I think I would've been too intimidated if somebody handed me this. For me, I wanted to be able to read it, digested it, and then move forward. So I tell people my books aren't huge.
They're not big books, but they're full reads. Right. Uh, so that's how I always identify 'em. We really hope that it pierces the heart. We hope the scriptures fill the soul and confession of praise comes out of one's mouth.
And they're written to be something you can do even when life is crazy busy.
Yeah. So I, I'm a mom, the other thing, and so we wrote it in between life, so. We wrote it, you know, I would work on it when I was dropping the kids off at school. I'd be sitting in the car and, on the computer or, in between making dinner. And so it was written with life going on around us.
And so I hope that, he ministers to each person who reads it. Both of my books. I've always wanted to be really genuine. I. Really genuine [00:22:00] to the reader. And we tried to be genuine in this book. We tried to be as genuine and forgiven the nightmare just to say, look, we're real people.
We love an awesome God. We got ups and downs, lefts and rights. We got bills we're trying to pay. Uh, we got cars that are trying to fix. Life isn't always beautiful and there's hard days and tough days, but God is always good. And we wanted to share that in. In our books, and we wanna share that in this devotional letters to the weary.
Again, hopes it challenges you, makes you think, it makes you praise. We wrote it not only for the individual, but we think it would work good in a group too. Yeah, A bible study, a a men's group, a women's group, a grieving group, uh, a counseling group, a so we figure it has, it covers a wide variety of topics.
Anywhere from hearing God's voice to knowing you're loved, when you're having sleepless moments, when you're feeling like you just wanna blend in and hide just all different, topics. When you're not sure you wanna follow God, there's even a topic [00:23:00] on that. Yeah. When you're not sure where you wanna go.
But God is faithful and he loves us and he is there for us. He's there. 24 7, 365. It says in the Psalms, where can I go from your presence? If I made my bed, in the depths, who are there if I, up to the heavens are there. So no matter where you go, God is there.
Yes. Like I love that scripture.
We, we've been in the pits before, haven't we? Yep. Yeah, we have. We have. Yeah. But once you get out of the pit, it's an amazing view when you're out of it. Yeah. It is amazing when you get out. But it's nice to look back and see. When I was in the pit, God was still there with me, even though I couldn't sense him there.
Yep. Yeah. Yep. Even though I walked through the valley, I shadow death. I shall fear no evil. Yes. Yeah. Amen to that.
Now Amazon, is that the main place that we can find the book or is there other spots? Well, that's probably the easiest and [00:24:00] biggest place to find the book on Amazon, but it is on Barnes and you can go barn, Walmart. You can go to any search engine where they sell books. You go to our website and you can, connect there with the books. But really, if you want worldwide distribution and you want everybody to find it, Amazon is king in that world.
I hear you're this big movie star now. You have a short film about your life, Mark. Let's hear about that. Yeah, well, thanks. It's a great project. I don't know if I'm a big movie star, I might be big, but I'm not a movie star. So, what happened was a few years ago I connected with a great young
director and he and I got ahold of my book and, we started to discuss what to do. Well, it's a full book and in that there's so many twists and turns, ups and downs. It's about a life. It's about victory, it's about challenges. So we kind of had to take a snapshot of one scene of the whole book.
And, uh, we made a 20 minute movie and. We had a set and he had a cast and [00:25:00] we had the lights and we had the DP director of, we had it all. We had editors and, and, this young director, he was just ready to go. Tru Vine, studios, Tru Vine Pictures, a great young guy named Henry Kay. And he has just been my partner and my blessing.
So, so it took us about a year to make it from the moment we filmed it till I went through editing and sound and all the things that needed to be done. And then we started putting in film festivals. And, before you'd know it, we were nominated for many film festivals, all Christian film festivals, and there's one called The Crown, a Crown Film Festivals, which they tell Crown.
Mm-hmm. Crown Sports. And which they tell me is, uh. Kind of one of the most prestigious, or one of the most, recognized one in the Christian circles. And we were nominated for the best short film, at the beginning of this month. And we walked away with a bronze. So they give a bronze of silver and a gold, and.
And we won the bronze in the best short film category for the Crown's awards. And so we're [00:26:00] excited about what God's doing with that. We hope to do a feature film, that's our prayer, that Lord, we could do a 90 minute, two hour feature film where we get to tell the whole story. But for Forgiving The Nightmare Short film, we call it Forgiving Nightmare film.
You can actually go online. There's a website called Forgiving the Nightmare Film, and you can find a little, blurb or a little preview of the film there. And on your website you can see a clip of the film as well. Yeah, you can see a clip there@forgivingthenightmare.com. But, again, it's 20 minutes long.
We don't have the whole thing online yet because we're still in festival season. And so when that's done, we'll be releasing it online, but. Yeah we're excited that we walked away with that bronze award and now people are saying, let your people call my people. We don't know what God's gonna do next, but we believe it's all in God's hands.
Well, that sounds really exciting. It probably cost a lot of money to do that. Well, there was a budget for it. You're right. And I have to be honest, when you say make films,
I wrote the story. It was about my life. But really my [00:27:00] director and his team put it together. I have to, tip my hat. Yes, it was my story. Yes. He gave me room to collaborate, but it was really his eye and his art that, brought this film together. There was a budget, I think we did ours for about, 14 to $17,000.
It was a commitment to doing it, but most films are done for much more than that, so. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we're, we, were blessed to have a good team, a lot of volunteers, but we were given free access to a hospital area. The main scene is being filmed in like a hospital room and it's so hard to find hospital space, because they're always being used and you find when they're very costly to rent for the day.
But God just gave us favor with a school and they, allowed us to film at this place. So a lot of stories where God just gave us favor. We're blessed. It's out there. We hope to continue to, move forward to see what God's gonna do with it.
Ultimately, our prayer is [00:28:00] to make a feature film. I thought about Matt Damon playing me. What do you think?
I was just gonna say if I, you had somebody in mind, who would you want to play you?
Well, I think it's, first I thought about Arnold Schwartzenegger. What do you think? Me and Arnold? Matt Dammon, Mark Walberg.
Yeah. Mark. Mark. I dunno. But no, I'm just happy to have our story told. Who could play my wife? What supermodel will play her, so? Yes. When it comes out where we can all watch the film, that's gonna be a great day.
Has anybody come up to you yet and given you any feedback from the festivals? Yeah, yeah, this really changed my life, or. We've heard how people have been touched by it. We've heard how people have been ministered to it. We've heard how people have said they have felt the Holy Spirit through it and in it.
Mm. Uh, we've heard a lot of great comments. Again, we are in this film festival season, but from what I understand [00:29:00] is the plan right now is to release it on probably YouTube or something of that way. Probably, late summer, early fall. When the seasons are over. So we'll kind of release it that way.
So keep looking for us and we'll keep, continue to promote it. I'm sure when it's released on YouTube or one of these social networks, we'll be able to promote a lot of it and let people know it's out. We do wanna bring lots of eyeballs to it because we believe the story. The story's not about abuse.
The story's about forgiveness. The story's about how to overcome that trauma, and we tried to tell that in Forgiving The Nightmare. And we try to share that in Letters To The Weary. We don't wanna just talk about the pain, we wanna talk the victory, right? We wanna be honest, right Jen? We've always wanted to be honest, but we also wanna say, listen.
We got a hold of Jesus. As much as those early years , were trials sometimes and learning to communicate and learning to walk through. I think today we could say, we're about ready to have a 20-year-old, Jennifer. Wow. You are gonna be a mom [00:30:00] of a 20-year-old. Our daughter's
Just 17, 12, 15, 17 and 20. They're all teenagers. Woo. We have, two of them driving. So, we talk about the early years where I brought in my mess. She brought in her life and, but there's so many victories today, where God has moved.
And, my wife is now teaching a women's group. She's counseling with women. She's writing, these books. So I've just seen God bless my wife and help her grow. And I know that I'm growing and together the Holy Spirit's moving us forward with Forgiving the nightmare film, Forgiving Nightmare Books, and all the different expressions that God lets us do.
Yeah. Amen. So you've shared so much today, much about your relationship, your marriage, and the stuff the Lord's blessed you with to minister to others. Anything you want to leave our listeners with, if you both want to, give your last piece of love and [00:31:00] advice to them.
Well, Jesus says to come to him, all you who are weary and heavy burdened and he will give you rest and that's why we wrote this book. So you have a chance to pause and take some time and come to the father who loves you. With an everlasting love. Amen. And spend time with him. Amen. Pain, trauma loves to isolate people. Loves to, make us feel we're all alone.
We're no good, we're bad. No one will ever understand. And like my wife said, God wants us to come to him and to have that moment of Selah where we just pause and we hope that when you pause, you pause with the word of God. And if either of our writings, our ministry letters to the weary, Forgiving the nightmare can help you in that journey.
Let us just come to the Lord no matter who we are. Let's come and let God touch us and heal us, and we love God. And thank you so much for having us on. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yes, this has been great. And [00:32:00] having you, Jennifer. On the third time that Mark's been here. You guys are always welcome to come back.
If you do another book, another movie, you can just come on and I'll definitely, look forward to that. You guys are gonna probably do more stuff down the pike for sure.
However the Lord leads. We're really blessed. Hey, I just want you to know on Mondays you can find me on the TCT network.
I'm on a part of, I'm on a show called Ask the Pastor. So, you may have it in your market. But if not, you can go, always go online, on Facebook, on Instagram, go to TCT and it's a wonderful network. They have a program called Ask the Pastor, and at 2:30, every Monday, I'm a part of a panel. I'm not the host, I'm just one of the voices of the panel.
But if anybody wants to catch me, see my ugly mug, uh, you know, just turn to, to ask the pastor on TCT Network.
Oh, and we can ask questions? [00:33:00] You can, you can. You can do it in
and stump the pastor?
I think some people think it's called that, but it's really called Ask the Pastor. Oh, absolutely. I'll put everything in the show notes for you listeners.
And I don't remember if I asked you this before, Mark. Can you say a short prayer for our listeners before you go? I would be honored. I'd be honored to.
Father. God, we just thank you so much for your goodness and grace. Lord, we thank you that you love us, that you're still the lifter of our head. You're still the lover of our soul Lord, and the empty tube still matters and the cross where you died
for our sin still has power. But Father your word still goes forth and it wants to heal, deliver and set free. So I pray for everyone, with a heavy heart today. Lord, I pray the lie of the enemy that isolates and robs from them their dignity, their value. Lord, I just pray that those words fall short and Father, we hear the word of God.
It reminds us that we are delivered, made [00:34:00] new and set free. And Father, I thank you for our host today. I pray you bless her. I pray you bless this show. I pray, Lord God, that you go before us and touch us. In Jesus' name. Amen and amen.
Thank you guys. Love you guys. Thank you.
Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You could connect with us@dswministries.org where you'll find our blog, along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week.
 

Running As Fast As I Can: John David Graham: Part Two EP 206:

In this episode,  Diana continues her conversation with John David Graham, founder of Good Samaritan Home. They discuss his extensive work in mentoring men and women re-entering society after prison, the transformative impact of his program, and his award-winning book, 'Running as Fast as I Can.' They also touch on the broader role of the church in giving second chances and offering hope, particularly to those marginalized by society. Graham shares stories of success and resilience, emphasizing the power of compassion and authentic service.
00:00 Introduction to the Podcast00:40 Recap of Previous Episode with John David Graham01:32 John David Graham's Ministry and Mission03:40 Challenges and Realities of Ministry Work07:13 The Story Behind 'Running as Fast as I Can'12:46 Success Stories and Impact14:30 Current State and Future of the Ministry17:25 Final Thoughts and Reflections
Buy John's book here:
 https://www.amazon.com/Running-As-Fast-Can-ebook/dp/B0CKK418FB/
 
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Transcript:
John David Graham Part 2
​[00:00:00]
Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help.
Now here is Diana.
Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. I'm glad that you're here. We had a terrific conversation with John David Graham last time. He is the founder of Good Samaritan Home, the mentoring program, helping men and women restart their lives after prison. [00:01:00] He has 17 homes that he has started and we're talking about his
fantastic book. Running as fast as I can. I'm not gonna review too much of what we talked about last time, so if you have not listened to part one, as always, I say go back and listen to that first because you'll miss the foundation of the conversation and then come back here with us to hear the rest of John's story.
So I'm not gonna delay any further. Here is my continued conversation with John David Graham.
I think my audience hears me much better than any sermon I ever prepared.
Yeah, Jesus tells us to visit those in prison and serve people that are, less fortunate or struggling or the hated of society like the Samaritan. Jesus went out of his way to meet the Samaritan woman and to evangelize the [00:02:00] Samaritan people.
And they were, they hated ones in his day.
We sometimes forget, we make Samaritan into a compliment. But the truth is that you're exactly right. It was not just a criticism, it was a vile criticism. Yes. She as a woman, was rejected. And Jesus, if I remember correctly, didn't he take a drink from her?
Yes.
Yes he did.
And that was, again, forbidden because she was unclean according to his tradition. And when he would hug people and welcome the lepers and all of that, that to me is exactly what the church can do so well, if we would just do it instead of getting involved in I want you to look like me, then you can come to church.
Amen to that.
Yeah. In fact, you think about it, if I drive down the road and you see a church marquee that says, here's my sermon for Sunday, you are all welcome. But why would somebody who doesn't understand your traditions. Doesn't understand any of [00:03:00] your teaching. Never had been in that building.
Why would they come in and do something that's totally foreign? Just because you're Marquee says you're welcome. They'll never do that. No. But if you go where they are and help them with their hunger, then they'll hear you. I believe.
Yes. I had a a guest on the show that had he had a a ministry to bikers.
It was the same thing. He would invite these groups of bikers that come into church and they got all this, terrible treatment because they ride a bike and they wore leather jackets and they didn't want them there. And yeah, they're not gonna, they're not gonna feel welcomed just by a sign.
Absolutely. And I understand many of the traditions, but if I were to walk into a small church, I would immediately be noticed as a visitor. And even the welcoming would make me uncomfortable. And so identify, I go to a [00:04:00] large church. All of the the swell of people would make me uncomfortable unless I had somebody there walking me through it.
And. A friend, leading a friend , I think the only way you can actually introduce somebody into into your church. And the truth is we don't emphasize that at all because number one, we have so much power that's they'll never give us the right answer. They'll say, oh yeah, I believe all your doctrines.
And what they're saying is, I need this roof over my head. So I just try to be real. I just try to be myself and I don't put any religious pretenses into the conversation. If somebody asks, I will answer, but I try not to. I don't have a score sheet that said I, I witnessed the six people today.
That, to me, doesn't work.
Okay. I am I was a missionary for 13 years in the Baptist Church. I know exactly the kind of list you are talking about. Yeah. And I'm [00:05:00] kind of, sorry of some of the things that I did as a missionary with that particular list.
Yeah. And this, the whole idea, even what a missionary does if we're going and simply teaching, are we teaching our western ways or are we helping people dig a well so that they have water for their farm?
And are we helping them with their medical needs because that's what they need, and our faith motivates us to do these works of compassion, and they hear those works.
So tell me, what your wife, Kathy thinks of all this. What is her role in your ministry there?
She's sitting here with me, so Hey. Let me just say this, that I never could have done this alone because number one, it came out of our own house and when we bought our first house beyond our home, our first shelter, she had inherited a few thousand dollars that was supposed to be for retirement, [00:06:00] but she gave all of that to purchase this other house so that we could remodel it for the next two years.
So she gave not just her time, but her sweat equity and her meager retirement funds. And then she's been basically in charge of all the residential services. So even at her age, and she's the same age as I am, and she will spend her days either painting and patching a wall. Cocking bathtubs today, she was patching a floor that had a hole in it.
So she was working with wood putty and a sander. Now this is a woman who should be watching Oprah on television and at the local community luncheon. But she's more comfortable wearing work clothes. And and then when we leave here, we're gonna go do curfew rounds at the houses and she'll be right there with me.
Sounds like a servant's heart to me.
Yeah. It really is. Because we all, [00:07:00] I think all of us on my staff come from some point of brokenness and we're one step away from our residents and we try to walk with that in mind, and it makes us, I think, more forgiving.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. That you've been through some hard things you can relate.
I want to talk about your book running as fast as I can, and this Daniel Robinson, is he somebody that you actually know, and you then you fictionalized the story, or is it completely separate from your life and your ministry?
I started to write a book 50 years ago when I was homeless.
Actually. I was in my truck and I had a royal typewriter, if you remember those. Yeah. And I realized I had nothing to say, and so I put it on the shelf. And then 10 years ago I said, it's time because I want to tell this story of second chances. But, [00:08:00] I could present data and I could give you statistics. In fact, my doctoral work was in reentry and the social and psychological and spiritual benefits of reentry in the community.
And I, I think maybe six people read it. I spent three years writing that, and it had all the data, but nobody is influenced by data. So what I decided to do is write a story, and I'll give you an example. Let's suppose that I want to talk to everybody about lifeboat safety. It's very important if you're going on a cruise, if you know how to work the lifeboats, I'll guarantee you nobody will watch that video because it's boring.
But if I made a movie. And I had Jack and Rose on the Titanic and I made it into a love story that actually was about lifeboat safety. Everybody will watch it and remember when they get on a boat, where are the lifeboats? So that was my thinking [00:09:00] when I started writing this book. How do I write a story about second chances?
But I want people to read it and remember it and identify with it. And so Daniel Robinson is fictional, but it's based on my life and your life and my wife's life and every life of the men I deal with. But I brought it together. And it's Forrest Gump going through the sixties and the idea he grew up in a home that where he was neglected and eventually he was abused by his pastor, the one man he trusted, and he ran away from home and spent the next 20 years trying to undo the damage that was done to him.
And at one point in his life when he married a woman named Kate who had her own limp. We like to say that when two broken people lean on one another, then they can walk straight. And Daniel and Kate were married and started to create the family they were both looking for. But he [00:10:00] said one line.
I think that probably the most important, he said, Kate, it's been 17 years since that man did that to me, but it's like it was yesterday. I can still smell the after shave he wore, I can still see the room. I still feel that man touching me. And they say, you get over it, but you never do. Some hurts last forever.
And that is the theme of the book. It's the idea of some of us are born so far behind in the race that we have to run hard to even find the starting line, but the object is as long as you're willing to keep running. You will reach your goal. It just, some of us need longer time. And the truth is that the stories resonate very well with readers.
It's garnered 26 awards for literary and inspirational fiction. It, and it's sold thousands of copies [00:11:00] and we're really not even advertising it. We're simply putting it out there on social media. But the object is that I believe, particularly in this day and age, I. Where on the internet, on Facebook, all your sins from sixth grade keep coming back at you, and every little thing you've done wrong will haunt you.
We are all looking for a second chance, and that's why I think this story is resonating. People believe in second chances. They want it and they need it. And here's a story that says you can get a second chance.
Amen. That sounds intriguing. I'm sure that everyone would want to get a copy of this book.
Where can we get a copy of the book? Is that on Amazon?
Yeah. Easiest way is to go to John David graham.com. That's my website and that will link you. To Amazon, and [00:12:00] it can, it's electronic, it's print, it's audible version. So it's available in all the versions. And the truth is that, it's I definitely think that it's one of those it deals with issues that we wrestle with, like homelessness. It deals with drug addiction, it deals with sexual abuse and the response of the church or lack of response to that. What I'm hearing again and again of people who have been victims of sexual abuse often become victimizers too.
Yes,
because they've never learned to forgive and be forgiven. And I had a mentor in college who taught me that healing of the memories only comes when we're able to face our memories and find forgiveness. And that's the intent of this story, is to help people forgive themselves.
Now, do you have a story of someone specific that has really come out on the other side and [00:13:00] has done really well? Obviously don't give their name, but do you have someone like that you could tell us about?
Oodles of stories. Interesting you should say that because just the last week one of our first residents who was with us, I will say his name is Walter, but he came to us when he was 26 years old.
He had been in prison for nine years. That meant he went to prison as a juvenile. And he came out after nine years in prison and he was homeless and he stayed with us for several years, in fact, well beyond the normal time, but he was able to get a job with somebody who's willing to mentor him, and he stayed at that job and he's become a manager in that factory.
And just last week. He put a posting on Facebook. He said he just read my book and how much he appreciated not just the book, but the work that we did in [00:14:00] helping him.
Aw.
And then. Then just a few days after that, I had a call from another fellow named Reggie, who was our very first resident. And he said virtually the same thing.
He's been out of prison for 20 years. He's married, got kids, has a family, and he's working as a truck driver. And he just touched base to say thank you. And we don't solicit those stories, but when they call like that, it makes it all worthwhile.
Oh yeah. You feel like you're making a difference in the world.
One person at a time. Definitely. Now you're in Dayton, Ohio. Is that right?
Yeah we we we started off in a rural area, a small town, and that's why there was so much nervousness with our program. But we quickly expanded to Dayton, which is a larger area, and the truth is that by going into. Homes that were in distress, we're able to remodel the neighborhood while we're also remodeling our residents.
[00:15:00] So we haven't had nearly the politics in the bigger city that we had in the small town. Oh. But on any given day, we may have upwards of 90 to a hundred men and women in all of our houses.
That's a lot of people.
We don't have to do day-to-day management. We just do, like I say, it's independent housing, so we just touch base so that way we're good landlords because we're there regularly, but also we're mentors, so if somebody wants to talk, we're there to listen.
So you said that the guys they come to you through the prison system. They're the ones that. Give you the fellows that need a place? You don't have people just coming up to you and asking for a place to stay?
We used to do that originally, we called it off the street. And the truth is that's actually more dangerous because you have no control.
No filtering. And so we don't do the off the street anymore. Because the need in the community was for men who are [00:16:00] required to be released. It they had a release date. And if you're released from prison and you're put out onto the street with no money, no place to stay, you'll do whatever you have to do to survive.
Our priority became to make the community safe. We need to help those people. And it turned out that we were one of many providers when we started in back in 2003, but most of those other organizations, faith-based organizations disappeared. So we've become the only official provider of reentry housing in the entire southwest corner of the state.
That's why we've had to grow from house to house. The need is so great. And on the positive side, the state will pay us a per diem for this because it costs $109 a day to keep somebody in prison. But what they'll do is they'll pay us a fraction of that.
And [00:17:00] so the state saves tax money, we're able to pay our bills and our staff and then our residents get free housing for six months a year. Some people stay two years, and so everybody wins. Even the community wins because they're now working and spending their taxes their income in the city and paying child support too.
So everybody wins with this.
Absolutely. That's that is amazing. And I know we talked a lot about a variety of different things. Was there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention to our audience?
I see a lot. Again, I mentioned that I see a lot of similarities to the sixties, and the only thing I'm seeing now more so is the church.
Has taken on the role of what I call a political action committee, where it's trying to influence the politics, and I feel that's not what the church does [00:18:00] well, and I would strongly recommend the church go back to do the acts of mercy that we are best at. In fact, the word hospitality, the word hospice.
It comes from the Greek words in the Bible for loving the stranger, what we did. And if we try to get political, we're gonna end up with a Spanish Inquisition. We're gonna end up with all the issues where we have the crusades, where we do battle for God and we do nothing in reality, for God.
But we're just, becoming another army. And right now I see a lot of that, and the numbers are showing, particularly among the Gen Z, they're not responding to the church's actions. They're looking for authenticity. They're looking for honesty. And they're not finding it. And so the numbers in churches have declined 20% over the last decade.
People are not going because they don't want to get involved in [00:19:00] politics on Sunday. They want to find Jesus with the woman at the well. Yes. And I think I've been on these podcasts for just six months and everywhere I turn I hear the same response. There's the sense of hope that if the church were doing this, if we've stumbled onto something that I believe is what the church can and should do.
And I think if the church more churches were to do this without trying to evangelize, just do the work of the evangelist. I think it would change the world.
Yes, it would. Be Jesus.
Yeah. The irony is that we like to think we're too old, but I started Good Samaritan home at 53. I published my novel at 75, and I'm working on two sequels now, so I believe
that you're never too old to do ministry of some sort. In fact I've searched the Bible and I cannot find the [00:20:00] word retirement anywhere.
No. How old was Moses? How old was Caleb in the Bible? How old was, Noah for crying out loud. It
I forget how old he was, but he was a senior. He wasn't a young man.
And to my knowledge, he wasn't a sailor either until he learned to be No.
So yes, I agree with you. There's really no retirement in the Bible. We're called to serve with whatever we have, where we're at in our life right now.
 
What I've tried to do, Diana, is I try to think, how is my message? How are my words heard? So when I write an article for Substack or if I put something on Facebook, or if I on these podcasts, I I try not to speak in church language. I try to speak in the language of my listeners. And the listeners that I'm I'm hearing back from are looking for hope.
They're looking for purpose, and they know. What they're seeing out there is not working and they're looking for authenticity. [00:21:00] And the feedback I've been getting has confirmed that we're on the right track and I'm just glad to be part of it.
I'm glad to know you, John, that you're out there being the hands and feet of Jesus to the people that need it the most.
And you're making a difference.
Tell folks if they go to my webpage, there's a contact link and they're welcome to contact me. I'm open for discussions. I do a Substack newsletter where I talk about this and other things, and we've had just a lot of positive feedback and I think if we can talk, if we can discuss, and we may differ, but as long as we're talking.
With one another and not at one another. I think we can make a difference.
Amen to that. I'm subscribed to a couple people on Substack and I'll subscribe to you too. I would really like to hear more especially about your theological discussions. Jesus.
So I have a lot of fun in [00:22:00] Substack 'cause you can actually wrestle with some ideas.
Yeah there's people that really like substack and you can get a real following on there. I really appreciate you coming on this show today, John. It's been educational and inspiring and if you have any new books coming out or another new ministry, you're always welcome to come back on the podcast.
I'd love to have you.
I find it ironic that there were two tragedies that happened today, filling the news, and yet the message of hope is what's gonna end my day. And hopefully the end the day of some of your listeners too, that no matter what happens on the news, no matter happens in the world, we can still present a voice of hope and I think people will hear that message.
Amen. God bless you, John.
Hey, thank you so much, really, I enjoyed this, Diana. Thank you.
Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please [00:23:00] hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You could connect with us@dswministries.org where you'll find our blog, along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week.
 
 

Empowering Lives: From Struggle to Rehabilitation with John David Graham EP 205

In this episode Diana introduces her new sponsor, 753 Academy, which specializes in anti-bullying programs and holistic martial arts training. Diana's guest, John David Graham, shares his remarkable journey from experiencing homelessness to founding the Good Samaritan Home. John talks about the challenges and successes of providing post-prison housing and rehabilitation for former inmates. He emphasizes the importance of respect, community support, and teaching life skills to help individuals reintegrate into society. John also reflects on his personal experiences and how faith drives his mission to help others. The conversation provides valuable insights into the struggles of those re-entering society and the impact of compassionate support.
BIO: JOHN DAVID GRAHAM is the founder of Good Samaritan Home, a housing / mentoring program helping men and women restart their lives after prison. Prior to that, he was a door-to-door salesman, children’s home counselor, substitute school teacher, truck driver, fireman, building contractor, minister and journalist. As you can see, he has a lot of life experience. Sometimes the road home takes many twists and turns to develop what John calls “calloused hands and a tender heart” which he used to write his award-winning debut novel RUNNING AS FAST AS I CAN. Readers Favorite hailed his book as “truly a masterpiece.” It has won 30 awards.
Get his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Running-As-Fast-Can-ebook/dp
00:00 Introduction and Host Welcome
00:36 Exciting News: New Sponsor Announcement
01:30 Introducing 7 5 3 Academy 02:35 Martial Arts and Fitness Programs
04:45 Podcast Transition and Guest Introduction
07:13 John David Graham's Background and Ministry
13:13 Challenges and Success Stories
17:32 Community Resistance and Overcoming Obstacles
20:56 Daily Life at Good Samaritan Home
26:11 Faith-Based Motivation and Service
28:22 Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser
Link Tree
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Keep in touch with me! Email subscribe to get my handpicked list of the best resources for abuse survivors! https://thoughtful-composer-4268.ck.page #abuse #trauma
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John David Graham
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help.
Now here is Diana.
​ Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I have some big news for you today. I do have a new sponsor, a local business that I'm involved with, called 7 5 3 Academy. . You guys know me really well, that I am very particular who I endorse on this podcast.
I'm not just going to have mattress commercials. I want to support [00:01:00] somebody that is going to benefit you personally in your life and also benefit your healing and, recovering from abuse, trauma, or domestic violence. There are very few businesses that I'd be willing to go into a written financial agreement with, so you must know that this is, something that I really believe in , a business that is benefiting me personally,
So I would like to introduce you to 7 5 3 Academy.
So it says, our martial art programs specialize in anti-bullying programs for kids, to combat proven Filipino martial arts. We take a holistic, fun, and innovative approach that simply works.
We have a motto for our karate system, I train in martial arts for self-defense to protect myself, my [00:02:00] family, and my friends only. We follow the 7 5 3 code,
and they include seven warrior virtues, five keys to health, and three states of mind. So that's where they get their 7, 5, 3 from.
Are you concerned about your child's ability to handle negativity, stress, and anxiety while maintaining positive self-esteem and self-worth?
In an age where distractions are everywhere, karate helps students improve their concentration and mental clarity.
So the other thing that they teach is pekiti tersia kali.
The nature of PTK focuses the mind and improves hand eye coordination and improves cognitive function and ability. Training that helps improve self-confidence through combat geometry.
Learn to protect yourself and those you love [00:03:00] today.
They also have
health and fitness.
No matter where you are in your fitness and health journey, we got you covered. We specialize in helping you exceed your health and fitness goals, whether that is losing body fat, gaining muscle, or nutritional coaching to match your fitness levels.
We do it all with a written guarantee for results so you don't waste time and money on a program that doesn't exceed your goals.
All this to help you become more functionally fit and healthy in the simplest way possible. Our fitness community is friendly and supportive
without the over the top muscle gym atmosphere. Our coaching staff are professionally trained with over 30 years of experience, providing group semi-private and private classes, nutrition and health, fitness management.
Get started with a free class by claiming your free class voucher. So go to the link in the show [00:04:00] notes for your free class voucher. Now, this is in the Phoenix Metro area. This is a local business that is supporting the podcast. So reach out to Coach David and coach Eric, over at 7 5 3 Academy.
I've been training in the pekiti tersia kali program for over a year, and I definitely can personally recommend them. So check that out folks.
You'll be hearing more about 7, 5, 3 in the coming months. I am going to have them on the show here soon to talk about
Topics relating to abuse or trauma, and so stay tuned for that. And now onto our podcast and our guest today.
I hope that you're enjoying some of our guests this year. We've had quite a few really exciting people, and today is going to be no [00:05:00] exception. We have John David Graham on the show. I'm gonna talk about his ministry with Good Samaritan home, and his book called Running as Fast as I Can.
So this is a mentoring program for men and women restarting their lives after prison. We've had some folks on the show that are recovering from prison life. And I think you'll find this interview very interesting. John has had a lot of varied life experiences.
We have a terrific conversation about his story and then. His fantastic book that we're gonna talk about. Reader's Favorite has held his book as truly a masterpiece and it has already won 26 awards, so that's a good reason to read this book.
So the book [00:06:00] is
about the character Daniel Robinson as he struggles to overcome generations of poverty, neglect, and abuse that have left him totally incapable of the life and love he desperately wants. So I think some of us can relate to those things, can't we?
So I find it really exciting to see that he has started 17 good Samaritan homes in the greater Dayton, Ohio area. So he is doing some great work and I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of the episode of this interview.
So I'm not going to delay this any further. Here is my conversation. John David Graham.
Please welcome to the show my guest, John David Graham. Thanks for being with us today.
I'm very glad to be here, Diana, thank you very much.
[00:07:00] I'm really excited to hear about your Good Samaritan home, and we're gonna talk about your book that sounds very interesting. Running as fast as I can.
So before we do that, I'd like to hear about your story growing up. I see that you've had so many things that you've done.
You're being kind. Yeah.
You've had a lot of experience in many different things and. I know you have a story of how you went through life. You grew up in the sixties, huh?
And yeah. And give us a little a start of, your background, your upbringing, and how'd you get to here?
What I've noticed lately is even today on the news, you're seeing issues of bombings and terrorists attacks. And it seems every day we're seeing political violence and religious violence.
And [00:08:00] it reminds me a great deal of the sixties, particularly 1968. It was extremely tumultuous time and we had college campuses in protest and being shut down and it was, it was at best it was disorienting. And in fact, I was in even involved I went to see a girl at Kent State on the day of the shootings in 1970 and got involved at another campus that very day in a student protest.
And you get swept up in it just by following the crowd. But it took me years to come out of a college that period and even enter a voting booth. So there was a 30 years in fact because we were so bombarded with distrust and even to some of us contempt for the government because we felt betrayed, but also the economy was shifting.
And what we'd had in the sixties was prosperity in the mills and in the [00:09:00] factories. And that disappeared in the seventies. And so everybody who had these stable plans lost them. So as a result of all that politicking and all that turmoil. I went through a series of 30 years where I was just trying to find my place.
Went from job to job. I was a children's home counselor, a substitute school teacher, a truck driver, a fireman, a journalist, and at one point I was even a minister thinking that I could find some degree of stability. But what I found was that even into church, there's politicking, and particularly in the Protestant church where it's based on did you please the congregation, did you grow the congregation, did you fill the offering plate with your sermon?
And I found that, the vision of the ministry is a lot like Hollywood. It it's presented as being a wonderful [00:10:00] life, but in reality it's it's a D-Day front. You feel like you're under attack on all sides. I was 53 years old. I had a family. We had moved through several states and instead of looking at retirement, I was looking at what am I gonna do with my life?
So my wife and I decided to maybe we can help people who were struggling more than us, and we decided to open our own home. It was an old Victorian house that we were the only thing we could afford. It was very old and needed a great deal of repair. We decided to use it as a homeless shelter. To help people who were struggling more than us.
And we did that with really no money, but just using what we call sweat equity, our own labor. I promised her we get it remodeled in three months. Truth is, it took 14 years. Yeah, I there was a lot of sweat in that equity, but in the [00:11:00] process. We use that house as a model of what can happen when you take a broken life.
A broken house is like a broken life. If you put equity into it, if you put effort into it, if the community volunteers can support you, you can change a house and you can change a life. And we did that and eventually the Department of Correction asked us, can we take people coming from prison who are homeless, low risk offenders, but simply need a safe place to live temporarily?
And we did that, and that allowed us to expand to another house and another house. And over the next 24 years, we grew from our house helping one or two men to now we have 19 houses in three different counties and a staff of 10 people. And our company is called Good Samaritan [00:12:00] Home for obvious reasons, and it's a nonprofit, but the idea is that we are trying to give the least of these.
These are people coming from prison, by and large are lepers in our community. We went through a lock 'em up mentality in the eighties and we filled our prisons and we tripled the prison population only to realize that people come home from prison and if they don't have someone or something to help them, they're not gonna make it.
They're gonna go back to prison. And so the idea is in the community, if somebody has housing and structure and some degree of stability, then they'll get a job. They'll pay child support, they'll stay out of prison. I. And that's what happened. We've worked with upwards of 2,500 men and women over the past quarter century and by and large and yet obviously some people don't stay.
[00:13:00] But by and large, it's been extremely successful and be the idea is that we're not doing it just for them. We're doing it as an expression of our faith, and that's made all the difference.
You said you have been homeless before.
Have you been in prison before?
No I've never been to prison. But I have been homeless, particularly when I was single when I was married. Of course, I had to take my family through various different states to follow the work, but I never forgot what it was like to be living in my truck.
And have worried about where can I park my truck so that somebody won't come out and tell me to move? Or where am I gonna eat tonight? The weather's coming down, what am I gonna do? And then they repossess my truck. Oh. So yeah, I forgot you have to actually make payments on that thing, oh. But my, my homelessness was not the extent of some people, but.
I [00:14:00] do know what it's like to look at the clouds to say, is it going to rain? Where am I going to sleep? And so what I was able to do was transfer that, that understanding to my residents, because the idea of, say you get released from jail and you're told, okay, go out and get a job. You don't know what the first thing to do if you've never had a job.
And sometimes if you've been in jail for. 20 years. Can you imagine coming out and not have ever used a cell phone that everything is done on a cell phone today? Yes. Yeah, e even the idea if you're getting food stamps, it's all done on a bank card. Now, you used to get stamps in a paper booklet, and you took that to the grocery store, but now it's all electronic.
So what you and I take for granted. Is a whole new world for many people. We like to say that we're in rehabilitation, [00:15:00] but the truth is, I think we're in habilitation, we're teaching skills that some of these people have never learned. And that's, it's been an education for me. I'll guarantee that.
Now also the people that come out of prison, most people will not hire them because they have trust issues with people coming out of prison. So they have that against them too, right?
It's a double issue because technically, the you shouldn't discriminate. But we all do because, and you should in reality because if somebody has a felony, you know that they have something that you have to be aware of.
For example, if it's theft or drugs, then can you trust somebody to work in a at the cash register? Or if it's a violent offense, is that, are they safe even though the offense may have been 30 years ago? Or if it's an addiction offense, alcohol how do we know that addiction is not continuing?
You're absolutely right. You should be careful, but yet, [00:16:00] I believe as a community, we really have to give somebody a second chance because the alternative is. Is throw away. You just have to throw away people who have made mistakes and as a moral people, we can't do that.
Have you seen a TV show called Pit Bulls and Parolees?
I'm aware of it and I'm aware of the program actually.
 
Yeah. I love that show and I think that's a great thing for both the dogs and the people on parole. Now I will need to say that I'm very careful that people understand that this is not some sort of hug, a thug program where you simply say come here brother.
Let me give you a big hug. And Jesus loves you, and all is fine. Hug a thug. I believe we have to be why is this serpents and gentle as doves? And gentle sometimes can be pretty tough too because, you I never forget. It's like the adage about when you pick up a snake and the snake bites [00:17:00] you, why are you surprised?
Because that's the nature of the snake. Yes. But what we try to do is learn how to handle, and the key element, I believe, is to treat people with respect. Because that to me is the universal language. And we have guidelines, we have rules, we have accountability. But we also try to respect the people we're dealing with and I think that's why it's worked.
You started these Good Samaritan homes and you're in these communities. Did you get any resistance when you started housing former felons? What was that like?
It I got the the innocent part down right when I first started. I had a newspaper reporter call and say, you'd like to do a story about our house.
And I thought, this is good. We'll be able to get
people to support us and emotionally. And I wasn't looking for financial necessarily. I just wanted supporters in the community. And once the article came out. [00:18:00] The blowback was instantaneous and it was intense, and it was beyond anything I anticipated. That there were petitions passed immediately in town.
There were calls to the city council. There were meetings there were threats. I had letters to the editor from grandmothers parents. One fourth grade girl wrote to the editor and said, I'm afraid to go to school. Because of that house somebody else they moved the bus route away from my house so that students wouldn't have to drive by our house.
And I had a woman in McDonald's threatened to kill me, and she said, I'm a grandmother, but if one of your guys came around my house, I would I'd kill you and him too. We ended up in three lawsuits and it was I even had police protection at one point. Wow. It was incredible. But I will tell you this, that I.[00:19:00]
When you're under intense pressure and I can speak in a biblical reference here. When you're come before the authorities and it says that God will give you the words to say, I have found a calmness has come over me, and I have found that. When I'm speaking what I feel to be the words of, not words of God, but I'm speaking on what I feel to be the right mission because I'm very careful to give God credit for things that that often are mundane and, so I just try to act as if I am the hands and feet when I speak. And I found that I. I didn't feel the need to defend myself, nor did I feel the need to come at critics or even to combat the lies. I found that the best thing we could do was to not respond in kind. In fact, we used our snowblower to speak louder than I ever could.[00:20:00]
When it snowed in winter, we got the snowblower out and did the whole block, and we cleaned everybody's sidewalk all winter long without saying a word. And eventually the neighbors saw that we were not a threat, and eventually it took time. Those same people that used to wave at us with one finger. Now wave with all their fingers, if I'm so glad to hear that. Yes. Yeah. So it, it was an intense time, but also it was about as close to what I call an apostolic mission. As I've encountered where we were, we felt we were doing the right thing and we wanted to make sure that we acted accordingly and we did.
 
That sounds wonderful
that most of them came around eventually seeing the service that you were doing in the community. You talked about rules and staff. Tell us about what a typical day is for [00:21:00] those in your good Samaritan home. And is there anybody that you wouldn't take?
We we don't discriminate based on the offense.
It's based on the risk score and the Department of Correction technically is in charge of that. So if somebody is considered to be a a high risk, that doesn't necessarily mean they're dangerous because this is called independent housing. So we wouldn't get somebody who needs to be under lock and key.
Our housing is is in lieu of. Being homeless on the street. So it's almost like a boarding house. We have rules in that you have to, you're responsible to clean your room, you're responsible to be in a curfew. You're responsible to respect your your roommates. Basically it's what a boarding house is like.
And if you don't want to be here, you're welcome to leave, but you'll lose your free housing. What we try to do is we try to teach basic stills, like EE even something. Benign as making a bed is actually the [00:22:00] focal point because you're gonna go out and apply for a job and get rejected, just like you said, and you'll apply again and again.
You may get rejected. Dozen times. But when you come back at night and your bed is made and your room is clean, you feel like at least you have control over something in your life, and that gives you hope. So we're trying to teach rehabilitation through basic skills and one of which is respect for yourself.
And the object, the key element here is if I respect me and I respect my roommate, I begin to think in terms of we instead of I. And that to me is a critical element in rehabilitation. Because what got you to prison was thinking of I only we don't offer any, training programs because that's not our role.
We are only a housing element. We we offer mentoring. And [00:23:00] most of my staff has either been through the system on one level or another, so they're very aware of their own mistakes. And so we're not here to say, you need to do this. Our response is, how can we help you? So we don't necessarily cook for you.
We provide a place for you to cook. And with, there are food pantries in town, but more important through the county resources, there's a training program. The, what the counties have often done is that they've developed reentry offices. And the idea is that how do I help you get a job? How do I even teach you to to do a job interview?
I. You, you and I, you may take it for granted, but how many people have never conducted a job interview? And so what they do is they train them how to walk into a room, how to talk to somebody. And at the end of the course they volunteers even provide a suit so that men who have never had a suit.
[00:24:00] Are given something, a certificate that says you are a graduate and that, and they're wearing a suit and tie they've never done in their life. And I've seen grown men 50, 60 years old, been in prison for years, start to cry because they felt like they've accomplished something and that, that to me is really what it's all about.
And we didn't do it. We were part of the process.
I've been trying to find a transfer within my job and I've done like 12 interviews and two years, and it's really hard to get a job or a promotion or, make more money.
I can imagine how hard it is for them. But I might have to try that making the bed trick because I don't make my bed, John. Oh, this is being recorded, isn't it? Yeah. I might have to try that. Maybe I'll have some control over more of my life if I make the bed before I go to start my [00:25:00] day I need to tell you that it's not my idea.
That's a trick that the Navy Seal teaches their recruits. Yeah, I'm sure. And the idea is that at the end of the day, after being beat up on the training ground, you can get. Some degree of a satisfaction that you've done something, right?
Yeah. Is your is your good Samaritan home different than like halfway houses?
I. Well, a halfway house would be an extension of prison. It literally is halfway home. Okay. And that's where they do intense programming. And the idea is to they may have some sort of psychological program or offense training program, particularly if the offense was sexual in nature. They may need a halfway house to deal with the psychological issues.
We don't get into any of that. Because when they come to us, they are legally allowed to be free in the community, but they have nowhere to go. And that's a big difference. So in, [00:26:00] in effect, it's voluntary. Somebody who come to us says I want to get out and get my own place. I just don't have a job yet. I need time.
And that's what we offer.
You say you're mentoring them, but do you do any spiritual work with them? You are a faith-based organization, but how do you approach spiritual side?
One thing we started our program back under the faith-based initiative under George Bush.
Oh. And the idea was that the president Bush felt that the faith community was equipped to do much of the the good works in the community. And they did it voluntarily. But they had certain guidelines. For example, you couldn't proselytize while you were doing a program for the government.
And the idea was if you're a Christian dealing with a non-Christian or someone who was completely outside of any religious faith the idea was they still needed your service. So you had to be equally [00:27:00] servant to all the community, but what we found was that if your faith motivates you, you can speak volumes through your hands and feet.
You don't have to speak the words. And I'll be quite candid we sometimes get volunteers who want to come in and say, do you ask them if they're saved? And what I say is I ask them if they're hungry because that's the language they understand. And if I offer somebody food. The natural question is, why are you doing this for me?
And the answer is because my faith motivates me to help you as much as someone helped me. And that speaks volume without getting into details. And my experience in the church after years having grown up in the evangelical tradition, having seen the good and the bad of that. I have found that I have to speak the language of the community if they're going to hear me, not the language of the church.[00:28:00]
And the church today in particular has crossed into areas of politics and and yes, and and it's crossed into areas that I feel the church is not suited to do well. And what we are very good at is service. And I think that right now we are doing the work of the church in the way that I wanted to do.
I think this is a great place to stop. I wanna hear more about his story and what he's doing here with Good Samaritan, and I know that you do too. So please come back next time on the wounds of the Faithful Podcast to hear more. God bless you folks. Goodbye for now.
Thank you for listening to the [00:29:00] Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You could connect with us@dswministries.org where you'll find our blog, along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week.

Healing for Dissociative Identity Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder: Dr. Benjamin Keyes EP 204

In this week's episode host Diana speaks with Dr. Benjamin Keyes, an expert in trauma and the developer of the Heart Model for healing. Dr. Keyes has over 40 years of experience and multiple accolades in the field. The discussion covers his unique faith-based approach to trauma therapy, including self-forgiveness and contemplative prayer techniques, the differences between Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and the critical role of divine presence in recovery. Dr. Keyes also shares about his work with Green Cross, an organization that provides mental health support during disasters, and plans for future research on the Heart Model’s effectiveness. Personal stories and professional insights offer listeners a deep understanding of trauma recovery and the hope and healing available to survivors. 00:00 Introduction to the Podcast00:57 Welcome and Opening Remarks
 
02:33 Introducing Dr. Benjamin Keyes
03:13 Dr. Keyes' Background and Credentials
09:49 Understanding Trauma and Disorders
13:39 The HEART Model Explained
21:23 Green Cross and Disaster Response
27:05 Success Stories and Real-Life Impact
34:12 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
37:38 Closing Remarks and Subscription Reminder
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1960236075/?
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Buy Dr Keyes' book on Amazon!
Website: www.greencross.org
email: bkeyes@divinemercy.edu
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Dr Benjamin Keyes [00:00:00] Next on the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. From a Christian standpoint, they may never forgive a perpetrator, but self forgiveness for healing is absolutely essential, and it opens them up to receiving God's forgiveness. God has forgiven us, but sometimes we have to dare to forgive God for not being who we wanted God to be. Where was God in the midst of what I went through, right? Right. And that, and I told them, I said when we do this, when we use this prayer technique, that's the very first question I want you to ask him. And I want you to sit expecting an answer. And it's amazing. God, in all the years I've been using this model, God has never not shown up and has never not answered. Oh, that's powerful.
[00:01:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer, songwriter, speaker, and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help. Now, here is Diana. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. So glad that you're here with us. It is a pretty volatile environment out there in the world, isn't it? I'm hoping that when you come to listen to the podcast that you get some encouragement and...

Healing from Trauma: Insights from Scotty Aemis on Parenting Adopted Children EP 203

In part two of Diana's conversation with Scotty Aemis, they delve into the complexities of adopting children from traumatic backgrounds and the challenges that come with it. Scotty shares practical advice on finding trauma-informed counselors, the importance of creating a safe environment for children, and the necessity of establishing trust before enforcing discipline. They discuss how integrating trauma awareness into various facets of life, including church and social activities, can significantly aid in the healing process. Scotty emphasizes the need for parents to provide a stable, loving environment rather than focusing on correcting behaviors. The episode concludes with resources for connecting with trauma-informed support and announcements about a new trauma-focused book and ministry services.
00:00 Introduction to the Podcast
00:33 Recap of Part One with Scotty Aemis
02:00 Choosing the Right Counselor
03:34 Creating a Safe Environment for Traumatized Children
05:25 Navigating Family and Social Situations
08:16 The Role of the Church and Faith
12:07 Final Thoughts and Resources
14:40 Conclusion and Farewell
Scotty Aemis is passionate about helping parents navigate childhood trauma. After he and his wife adopted two children, they found themselves learning everything they could about helping their children thrive. Everything that felt instinctually “right” was actually not helpful for children trying to heal from trauma. That set him on a journey to develop out my PSR (Positive Safe Relationships) Approach to parenting. It’s helpful for all children and parents, but especially those navigating childhood trauma.
https://www.childtraumasherpa.com/
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Part Two Scotty Aemis
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer, songwriter, speaker, and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help.
Now, here is Diana.
Hey everyone. Thanks for coming back to part two of my conversation with Scotty Aemis We had a wonderful time with hearing his background and how he came to adopt two children from Russia in a horrible orphanage And the surprises that he encountered when things just didn't go the [00:01:00] way that they planned.
All you need is love. It's not necessarily true. We need a little bit more. than love to parent children, including children that have had severe trauma.
So I'm excited to hear the rest of his story about
some examples of what works and what doesn't work, and what resources are out there for parents.
We're going to talk about discipline in detail. Sometimes discipline needs to put,

Healing Childhood Trauma Through Positive Parenting: A Journey of Adoption with Scotty Aemis EP 202

In this episode, Diana is joined by guest Scotty Aemis, who shares his experiences with adopting two children from a Russian orphanage and the challenges they faced. Traditional parenting techniques failed to address the needs of his traumatized children, leading Scotty to develop his Positive Safe Relationships Approach to Parenting (PSR). Scotty, who calls himself the 'Child Trauma Sherpa', discusses the importance of relationships in healing trauma, the pitfalls of public schooling for traumatized children, and his journey towards finding effective therapeutic interventions. He offers practical advice and examples for parents in similar situations, emphasizing the need for patience, trust, and regulation. Scotty also touches on the role of trauma-informed therapy and specialized schools like Lakeside in Philadelphia, which are designed to support children with trauma. The episode concludes with a promise of more insights and resources in the next installment.
Bio:
Scotty Aemis is passionate about helping parents navigate childhood trauma. After he and his wife adopted two children, they found themselves learning everything they could about helping their children thrive. Everything that felt instinctually “right” was actually not helpful for children trying to heal from trauma. That set him on a journey to develop out my PSR (Positive Safe Relationships) Approach to parenting. It’s helpful for all children and parents, but especially those navigating childhood trauma.
Main website: https://www.childtraumasherpa.com/
Link to his book: https://www.childtraumasherpa.com/book/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1002238933611804 I have a number of free resources on my website, a free Facebook Group, and a bestselling book available. All of these can be helpful to your listeners.
00:00 Introduction to the Episode
01:05 Meet Scottie Amos
02:08 Challenges of Overseas Adoption
02:43 The Positive Safe Relationships Approach
03:40 Scottie's Personal Journey
06:24 Practical Parenting Techniques
15:25 The Role of Schools and Counselors
24:07 Lakeside School and Trauma-Informed Education
29:05 Conclusion and Next Steps
Main website: https://www.childtraumasherpa.com/
Link to his book: https://www.childtraumasherpa.com/book/
 
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EP 201: Confronting Forgotten Past Trauma: Jodeen Bradfield

In this episode, host Diana welcomes Jodeen Bradfield, a survivor of 17 years of incest and sexual abuse, who shares her story of healing and faith. The episode delves into Jodeen's new book, 'This Is Not My Life: God's Providence Through My Story of Abuse and Recovery', her journey through trauma therapy, and the impact of Mending the Soul groups. Jodeen discusses the importance of seeking professional counseling, forgiving abusers, and how her faith journey intertwined with her healing process. The conversation offers support and encouragement for abuse survivors, emphasizing God's presence and the value of professional help and faith-based group support.
00:00 Introduction and Childhood Fears01:02 Welcome to the Podcast02:18 Diana's Personal Update03:48 Introducing Jodeen Bradfield06:15 Jodeen's Abuse Journey and Mending the Soul08:49 Writing the Book: A Therapeutic Journey12:37 Repressed Memories and Counseling21:03 The Stalking and Its Impact23:39 Faith and Healing25:58 Returning to Church and Growing Faith27:39 A Shocking Revelation About My Father29:51 Struggling with Depression and Seeking Help30:35 Unraveling My Past Through Counseling34:55 Support from My Husband37:32 Discovering More Family Secrets38:56 Healing and Forgiveness44:09 Sharing My Story and Helping Others47:13 Final Thoughts and Resources
Jodeen's website: https://www.Jbradfield.com
Her book is also available on AmazonFollow her on Facebook: Jodeen Bradfield
To find a group in your area, go to www.mendingthesoul.org
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Jodeen
[00:00:00] Next on the Wounds of the Faithful podcast. So I was by myself a lot. And I would go out in the front yard and play, and he would drive down the street in the camp van when there was no one else on the street. I mean, there was no one in the neighborhood that he needed to pick up. And I remember being scared to death. And in fact, my whole plan was, I came out through the back door of the house, And kept the front door locked because now this is childish logic here.
[00:00:38] Um, I figured I could run faster and get at least to the back of the house before he got out of the car and got to the back of my house. Get in, lock that door. And if he stopped and thought he was going to fool me and come in the front door, ah, it was locked. had a whole plan, but I do remember the fear [00:01:00] this happened more than once.
[00:01:02] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer, songwriter, speaker,

EP 199: How Much Does It Cost To Save One Girl Out Of The Sex Trade? Kenny Sacht Part Two

This week on the podcast, Diana continues her conversation with missionary Kenny Sacht. Kenny shares his profound experiences and vivid visions of rescuing girls from the sex trade in the Philippines. The discussion covers the significance of prayer and fasting, the power of God’s intervention, and the importance of education and spiritual healing for the girls. They highlight Kenny’s mission organization, Wipe Every Tear, which provides safe houses, education, and holistic support to help these girls build new lives. The episode also emphasizes the need for financial support and volunteers to sustain and expand their impactful ministry.
00:00 Introduction and Vision00:57 Welcome to the Podcast01:32 Kenny's Story Continues01:58 A Vision of Compassion02:54 Treating Everyone with Dignity05:20 Revival in the Sex Trade06:27 The Power of Prayer and Worship08:22 God's Miraculous Guidance11:04 Success Stories and Challenges14:15 The Importance of Education21:52 Funding the Mission25:39 Call to Action and Support29:28 Closing and Prayer
Link to send listeners to: https://www.wipeeverytear.org
Kenny's phone number 208-866-1967
Our website will demonstrate our heart and what God is doing in the sex trade, and how to get involved. And for those desiring to give for her freedom, there is a link where it's quick and easy to do so! They can also go to our social media pages on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wipeeverytear, and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/wipeeverytear.
Wipe Every Tear started in a high school teacher’s classroom. After years of leading basketball and volleyball teams to the Philippines, Kenny’s eyes were opened to the nightmare of human-sex trafficking. Having five daughters of his own, his heart broke at the reality that girls were being sold for sex. In 2008, Wipe Every Tear was born, and in 2012 It all began in 2007 where Kenny lead a summer basketball mission team to the Philippines. The following year in 2008 while leading a girl’s volleyball team, Kenny’s eyes were opened to the nightmare of human-sex trafficking when his heart broke at the reality that girls were being sold for sex. After the 2008 trip he and his wife decided to help one impoverished girl he’d met during that time and they founded Wipe Every Tear. Helping one girl quickly became four, and then many. He entered into the sex trade (the good side!) in 2012. Kenny began with the mindset, “If these girls were my daughters, how would I want someone to treat them and come to their rescue?” Shortly thereafter he left his teaching and coaching career to dedicate all of his time rescuing and restoring girls and women from the sex trade. Their first safe house, called Hope House, was secured in 2012 in partnership with local Filipinos. Wipe Every Tear works closely with local Filipino churches to help women escape the imprisonment of sexual exploitation, providing a new life in Jesus along with formal college education which is a must in the Philippines to even work in the fast food industry. Kenny is passionate for revival and seeing the kingdom of heaven invade the poor, hungry, destitute, and lovely women trapped in the sex trade, believing the presence of God changes everything. Since our inception, many more women have been welcomed into our safe houses where they experience freedom, security, three meals a day, education, and discipleship. Through this simple act of providing a loving home, women’s lives are continuing to be restored to this day. We have had the privilege to see the transformation of dozens of young girl’s and women’s lives, bringing hope, freedom, and a great future in the name of Jesus. Kenny travels one third of his time in the Philippines and also speaks at churches, gatherings, and conferences in the Philippines, America, and other nations. Prior to Wipe Every Tear, Kenny graduated from seminary and pastored two churches. He was a high school teacher and basketball and track and field coach for ma...

EP 198: Rescuing Women from the Sex Trade: Kenny Sacht: Part One

This week, host Diana interviews Kenny Sacht, founder of the ministry Wipe Every Tear. Kenny shares his journey of discovering the reality of sex trafficking in the Philippines during trips with his basketball and volleyball teams. Touched by the plight of the trafficked girls, Kenny and his wife founded Wipe Every Tear to provide safe houses, education, and holistic care for women escaping the sex trade. He discusses the challenges, approaches, and the divine protection they've experienced in their mission work. The episode also highlights Kenny's transformation in his view towards the men involved in the sex trade and emphasizes the power of God's love and presence in their efforts. His joyful enthusiasm, love for Jesus, and care for these girls is contagious! You will love Kenny's interview!
00:00 Introduction to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast
00:04 The Reality of Sex Trafficking in the Philippines
00:37 Mission Trips and Building Relationships
01:57 Meet Kenny Sacht: A Life-Changing Journey
02:46 The Birth of Wipe Every Tear
04:16 Rescue Operations and Safe Houses
07:49 Challenges and Spiritual Battles
20:04 Loving the Unlovable: A New Perspective
25:29 Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser
Kenny's website:
https://www.wipeeverytear.org
Our website will demonstrate our heart and what God is doing in the sex trade, and how to get involved. And for those desiring to give for her freedom, there is a link where it's quick and easy to do so! They can also go to our social media pages on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wipeeverytear, and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/wipeeverytear.
Website: https://dswministries.org
Email: diana@dswministries.org
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Rescuing Girls In The Sex Trade: Kenny Sacht: Part One
[00:00:00] Coming up next on the Wounds of the Faithful podcast.
[00:00:04] I saw these girls. There are 240 bars and over 12, 000 girls in Angela City, Philippines.
[00:00:12] So these are adult women, they're supposed to be, they can be minors, but they're supposed to be 18 years of age. Sex trafficking is illegal in the Philippines, and yet It's everywhere. On this street alone, this area, some bars have hundreds of these girls in them.
[00:00:29] So we go into the bars and Filipinos cannot go into the bars in the Philippines. Only foreigners can go in. And and that's why we do mission trips. We need Americans. We need foreigners. No matter what country you're from Canada, anywhere in Europe, all over the world.
[00:00:47] We get people coming and then we do these mission trips, and then we do teams and we get our Filipino staff with you, and we go into the bars and. And it's the foreigner it's they're the ticket to get in the bars. We go in we build [00:01:00] relationships you know during the week we feed meals. And so we have a very good reputation and God has just covered us.
[00:01:07] God has just been so gracious to us.