Janna Faith Van Gelderen: Hello there, I’m Janna Faith, and welcome to episode 32 of Faith Talks. And I’m excited; it’s been a really good week. We’re actually in the Victory Conference Week right now, but I know when this is going to be broadcasted, it’s going to be the week after. So I know I saw a couple of the listeners at the Victory Conference. One person ran up to me and they’re like, “you’re the Faith Talks person.” So anyway, it was exciting to reconnect with some of you.

And I’m also excited because the Victory Conference brought to us our speaker today. So I’m excited about that. We have Mrs. Ingram, and you’ll have to forgive me. Growing up, we called them Aunt Christy and Uncle Billy. So we’ll have to see what name slips out today, but I’m very excited to have her here. Could you just tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do and about your family?

Christy Ingram: Yes, Janna, thank you for letting me come on and talk for a little bit. We have been excited to partner with you and with your dad as far as Faith Talks and watching what you’re doing for young ladies and for grown ladies across America really is a blessing. My name is Christy Ingram. My husband’s Billy Ingram, and he pastors Canaan Baptist Church in Covington, Georgia. We’re just outside of Atlanta headed east on I-20. It’s kind of neat. We’ve been there ten years this coming October, which is very hard to believe. We traveled in evangelism with your dad for about seven years, and then we went into full-time evangelism, and after that, Billy was called to pastor Canaan Baptist Church there in Covington. Very, very exciting.

Janna: That’s neat. And I remember when you traveled, how we were figuring it out before, was I like four or something? 

Christy: I met you when you were four. 

Janna: Okay, that’s when it’s… 

Christy: Yes. 

Janna: I mean, I remember it as a young child, you all, but my memory is not always the best.

Anyway, well, we are excited to hear just a little bit about what God’s taught her throughout her life. And our theme this year that we’re going through is taken from James 1 on perfect and entire wanting nothing, and just how God uses the trials of our faith to work patience in our life. We were talking before, but I remember from a very little girl, we would have family devotions, and we had this little flip chart of people in the ministry that we would pray for. And I remember when Uncle Billy and Aunt Christy would come up, we would pray for them that they would be able to have children because it was quite a few years before they were able to. So I just wondered if she could start by just sharing a little bit of her journey through that.

Christy: Yes, we were married 16 years before we got pregnant with Priscilla. That wasn’t by accident. It was very interesting to watch the Lord stretch our faith through that time. And even though it was a tremendous trial for us, it was really the faith of those people praying for us that was magnified when they found out we were pregnant with Priscilla. It was really sweet. And you included when I taught at Falls Baptist Church, my fourth graders, they would pray, their families would pray, and so very sweetly to see how the Lord blessed us, and the Lord giving us the desires of our heart with Priscilla.

Janna: And just the timing of it too with evangelism to the pastorate and just to see how. And then after that, you had more. 

Christy: Yes, well, it’s very interesting because we had Priscilla for the last eight years of us traveling in evangelism. So when we went to Canaan Baptist, she was eight months. People thought we had come off the road because we had a baby. And Billy said far from the truth. We love evangelism. We love traveling, the people, we love the churches we were in and just ministering together and taking Priscilla with us was just an added blessing. So then God stretched our faith and putting us into the pastorate, and we really feel like God just giving us the desires of our heart then stretching Billy and as he was just maturing in his walk with the Lord had him come off the road and pastor a group of people in Georgia was really the Lord’s timing and it had nothing to do with having children or we still would be there but also just following the Lord and trusting him no matter what. We feel like God then turned around and blessed us with Will and Gretchen. Really fascinating to see trusting God no matter what and then he blesses. Billy jokes that we prayed for 16 years for Priscilla and we didn’t really pray for Will and Gretchen because we didn’t know that we’d have more after Priscilla, and so we’re catching up on praying for them. 

Janna: That’s funny. 

Christy: Yes. 

Janna: Similar to my parents’ journey in that it wasn’t, but then having three pretty close in age. Very close. Are they about a year apart or two? Right, so today Priscilla’s 10, Will is 8 ½ he will tell you, and Gretchen is seven. So they are very close together. You know, and your mom taught me a lot through that time. We didn’t know we were pregnant with twins and we lost them. In 2010 and we were pregnant with twins and we lost them in our 13th week of pregnancy. So your mom was incredible in helping through that time in our life just really trusting God no matter what. He always knows what’s best. 

Janna: And I’m sure that was hard just having prayed so long and then you’re finally pregnant and then to lose those.

Christy: It was, you know, and it’s funny that you said that because I haven’t really thought deeply about that before today. And when the miscarriage came, it was almost like Isabel Kuhn talking about the Misty Flats. I wasn’t moving forward and I wasn’t going backwards, but it was like time just stood still. And even though I was grieving, I didn’t know what to do with that and how to move forward. So really it’s just trusting the Lord, obeying him through any kind of trial he puts in our lives and just trusting him to do the impossible with me and how he could use it. I wasn’t really sure. And to be honest, I didn’t even use that testimony until later, after Priscilla came, that God used the loss of children to be a blessing to other people. Of course, in the trial, you don’t think it’s going to be a blessing to anyone. And quite possibly from transparent, you don’t really want to be a blessing to anyone as you’re going through the trial. But certainly I can see the Lord stretching me, revealing layers and pride that needed to be revealed. I don’t believe that’s why he gave me the loss, but I think through that he taught me more about myself, which was super helpful for me and moving forward and becoming the mama that he wanted me to be. 

Janna: Exactly. And I’m sure we always tell my mom, we’re like, “yeah, you were preparing all those 11 years for us.” When we came, she didn’t want to do it wrong because she had had all those years. And I think there’s wisdom in that too. God knows the timing even in preparation. 

Christy: Oh yes, I say it often. I parent differently because of going through the trial of not having children and watching other parents parent while they’re younger. It was just different for us. Of course watching your mother parent y’all we were in the thick of it while y’all were younger and she was teaching you and training you and really it was a blessing. We took good notes and we’ve asked them to take really good notes at every phase of your lives so that they can pass them down to us.

And in anything like that, there’s wisdom in counseling. And so just humbling ourselves and asking for help and direction and your mom has just really helped in that way. Of course, your mom is really a lot like my sister so she’s, of course, that’s how I think I became Aunt Christy. Or you got stuck with me, I’m not sure. 

Janna: And then did you want to just mention a little bit about Will and blessing there? 

Christy: Sure. So in 2013 we had Priscilla and shortly before that we had gone to a clinic that specializes in genetic testing and just all kinds of testing to maybe see why we weren’t having children and we knew the Lord was in all of the timing. We had a Christian doctor. She sent us to downtown Atlanta to a renowned physician that was able to get to the root of whatever problem of why someone was infertile. And it was through that time that the Lord was stretching our faith that the doctor kept asking us very odd questions about what we did, about God, and about what he then could do for us as far as helping provide this miracle of children.

This might be too much information, Janna for this faith talks but through that even that day that we were there we did genetic testing and it showed that in our makeup there was no evidence of us ever having a child with special needs. So then God gives us Will and early about midway through the pregnancy we found out that he potentially would have a special need and of course there’s a small percentage that he would not so we began by faith praying that the Lord would heal this baby that was in my belly. And it was closer to the time we still were uncertain. We knew positively that he was going to have a special need. So when he was born, there was a special team there. The Lord allowed us to minister to those people, but it really became a grieving time. You know, you’re talking about a child that you’re wanting to be perfect in every human way, and God’s saying, “I’m giving you perfection.” 

So through that time, he had to go into the NICU, and something didn’t transfer correctly between his red blood cells and his oxygen. And through that time, we watched them draw blood multiple times a day. We could hear nurses behind steel thick doors yelling at the lab, “this is the same baby we drew blood on this morning. We’re not drawing blood again.” So we knew and we were convinced that God was healing Will. Little by little, even while he was just hours old, God was protecting him. And when we walked out, we knew we were walking out with perfection. 

So although Will has some challenges, we don’t look at him as a child with special needs, and certainly it’s not been without a lot of physical therapy and speech therapies and occupational therapies, but truly, he is a true miracle. So we’re just praying him through, he’s still every day, and we know the trial that he has to go through that we pray that his speech would be clearer.

And at eight and a half, he’s probably delayed about a year in his speech. And we are very open with praying the Lord will help him just develop that aspect because God’s going to do something great with him. 

Janna: Wow. Well, thank you for sharing that. And then I was just going to ask you about your back. And was that this past year? I believe. 

Christy: Yes. A year ago, in January, I had surgery on my spine. So March of 2020, of course, is a wonderful, famous COVID year.

Right at the time when everyone was starting to quarantine, we were gardening because we thought, okay, great, we’re gonna be home. We’ll get out and do yard work, we’ll plant a garden, and this will be fun for our family. So through the yard work, I started having some trouble with my back, which wasn’t too unusual, but this time it was just different. I was having shooting, lightning pain, go down my leg, thought, okay, well, Google, tool to self diagnose with and I am saying that jokingly I don’t recommend self diagnosing on Google. 

Janna: It does sometimes help to give you an idea. 

Christy: Right yes I guess that that’s fair and I we then realized we could isolate it to maybe some sciatic nerve trouble but during that time you’re kind of nervous to go to the doctor you don’t know who to go to so I stayed home and did all the stretches that the internet recommended that I do and it wasn’t getting any better. In fact it was getting a little worse. And once the COVID restrictions started to lift, we went on family vacation. It got a little worse. And back to the Christian doctor who we had under right before Priscilla came, I called her. She recommended a different doctor that was a Christian that specializes in spine, spinal injuries or whatever possibly I had. 

So we followed that path. And this lady doctor that was recommended to us just prayed with us through the journey, we found out that I had a cyst in my spinal cord that there was not anything that you could do about it. So you know through different medical procedures they would try to try to alleviate some of the pressure but it didn’t alleviate it altogether. The cyst would just keep growing. And eventually in the latter days of fall 2022 the cyst completely blocked the right side of my legs and was referred to a surgeon and the surgeon said if I did not have surgery in 10 years I would be wheelchair-bound. So very interesting. I didn’t have an option. My surgeon was a Christian. The immediate doctor was a Christian and we just prayed. Billy and I prayed through what the Lord wanted us to do. But the consensus was I had done everything I could humanly do and the recommendation was to just take out that level of my spine, removing the cyst altogether. So it didn’t have any bearing on a bulging disc or things like that. This was just a cyst in my spinal cord that had to be removed and that’s the only way to get to it. 

So in January 2023, I had part of my spine removed. And I kind of struggled with that. I didn’t want to mess with the body that God had already given me. So I was a little nervous about that and they replaced the whole level and put in an implant with some screws. A year later, January 2024, I was doing really well. And then something flared back up and I just recently went to an MRI. So it’s like the trial with the just circle back through. This time it’s a little different. I’m not sure, but certainly just trusting the Lord. We know the surgery worked and maybe there’s some people that we need to minister to through this, but just trusting the Lord that he will. He’ll see us. Continue to give healing there. 

Janna: And I remember, I think it was after just hearing about the pain involved in it was pretty intense. 

Christy: Oh, it was like lightning bolt pain and I would suck wind. Someone would be talking to me and I would gasp and I would have to apologize or if the pain was so severe I’d have to say you’re gonna have to repeat that. I could hear you but I’m not exactly sure what you said to me

Janna…to concentrate during that.

Christy: to concentrate right.

Janna: And then with small children who don’t understand the  pain was probably an added just difficulty there. 

Christy: Oh yeah and at some point I couldn’t pick them up anymore because the pain would go down my leg and to my knee and it would make my knee buckle. So at the final stages of it, it would shoot to my foot and I would misstep. So almost like someone who potentially had like a drop foot or couldn’t walk with one of their one of their extremities, it was unpredictable. So that was scary. So I didn’t want to carry one of my children. Of course they were getting too big to carry anyway, but even just picking them up to hug them or hold them to read a book, those days had stopped because it was too much pain. 

Janna: Too risky too. 

Christy: Right. And children are so resilient though. So they knew they would pray for me and it’s always precious to hear children pray for their parents. So it was really sweet. 

Janna: So when you were during that trial and even just other trials in your life, I know you’re talking a little bit before just on the perspective you had on that that I just felt like was very helpful because so often you can feel overwhelmed or just like, you know, even maybe it’s a punishment from God and there’s just different doubts and darts that Satan can really get you with when you’re down in a trial. But what’s just some helpful perspective thoughts you’ve had during trials or helping others go through trials? 

Christy: Well, that’s a good question. My perspective is often different from the average person and I’m thankful for that for many reasons. But I think truly James 1-2 where it tells you to count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. And I feel like the Lord has always taken me back to just choosing joy. That’s not always easy. And of course, I’m not an expert on how to change your perspective by any means. But certainly having a relationship with the Lord is the foundation to starting having your time with the Lord, making sure you’re spending time with him so that you know who the person is that you’re turning to to choose joy through in the trial. So my mother was a nurse. She was a critical care nurse and certified in every area of the hospital which was fascinating, and I would watch her care for cancer patients, motorcycle accident victims, just a myriad of major, major trauma. And I would watch her go to their bedside or even go to their homes as someone in the ministry would do and minister to these people and talk them through the trial that God had given them and how they needed to see God through the trial. And if they could get their focus off of themselves and focus on others and focus on the Lord, the trial would be easier. And she would lead patient after patient to the Lord. 

And truly, I think back in the day, nurses were called into the medical field because it was a ministry, and it truly was a ministry to my mother. So she obviously was a foundational help to my thought process of the perspective of taking your trial and seeing the good in it and choosing joy and pointing us always back to the Lord. So that was very helpful, and then as I was growing up and experiencing those on my own, then Billy was a tremendous help with pointing me through scripture, pointing me to the Lord and really discipling me and showing me how to have a relationship with the Lord the right way, how to spend time with the Lord.

Then of course, the Christwalk journals came along, and just knowing, having a plan of worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth and having that right focus only comes from a true relationship with the Lord. And so if somebody is going through a trial, I was able to help them by getting them back to the foundational truth of what you think about Jesus. So your dad always when we traveled in Minutemen would refer to the what we call the tree quote and you know what I’m referring to and Ken Collier said that “you believe what you believe and you do what you do and you think what you think because you believe what you believe about God, the Bible, and who he says he is.” and that’s true in everything. So when someone is anxious or they fall into a trap of anxiety or they can’t get their thoughts, it’s because their belief system in God is off and wrong. So pointing them back to God, back to the Bible, and helping them know who God is to them and getting their right belief system biblical, then you can move forward and help them through a trial. So feelings are real. When my mom passed away with early-onset Alzheimer’s, those feelings of grief were heavy, strong, and dark at times, but my perspective of Jesus was accurate. And so God was able to help me through that time because I was able to think correctly about God. And again, Uncle Billy was really helpful in just always making sure that I had my time with the Lord, making sure that I was focused on the right focus instead of myself. And the kids and I sing a song now about esteeming others better than ourselves. 

Janna: And I found that to be true too because it’s you know if you kind of base your feelings on what’s going on in your life you’re really gonna be all over the board and especially if you have a large health trial I think those are unique in that you really can’t do anything about it like even a financial trial you know you need money and that can be a real thing but a health it’s so far out of your out of your bounds of being able to do anything or something really have to just rely upon the Lord, but it’s so true that that God hasn’t changed during that time. 

And I was thinking a lot about Joseph this week just in my Bible reading and thinking about how if he had lived his life based on his feelings or based on what was going on in his life, how much of a roller coaster he would have been on, you know? Like being sold into slavery and he could have  been bitter at his brothers, he could have been like him steady, which really he was pretty steady throughout his life. You know, he goes straight from when Potiphar throws him in jail to the next verses like, okay, now he’s serving in the jail and being a blessing and now rising to the top. Like, I don’t know, I would have been, you know, sulking or crying in the jail for a good year before I would think about, you know, helping somebody. You know, you just think through what you would have thought and done in those circumstances. But it’s really true that the foundation is your walk with God. And it can sound too simple sometimes to say like, “oh, you know, you just need to walk with God or have that time with him in the morning”, but that is, that is the foundation for everything else. And if you do have that, like everything can fall into place. And I was blessed by Brother Johnny Pope’s message, just where he was talking about even the tone or the relationship.

That you have with the Lord. And he was giving the example of, you know, he would say to his friends, you know, “love you, bye”, “love you, bye”. And then he said that to his wife. And she was just like, you know, you did that to everyone else. Why are you doing that to me? Like, you need to show it. And so then he went on this big extravagant way to tell his wife that he loved her. But I was just struck by the fact that that so often can be easy in but that you can just treat it like you would treat anyone else. “Okay, love you. Have a good day”. You know, instead of really just reveling in who God is and what that means in your life. And it’s that kind of relationship that’s going to carry you through when you have those deep trials. 

So thank you so much for coming today. I really enjoyed just hearing, I knew a little bit about those trials, but not in the depth. Do you have any, any other comments or takeaways for our listeners? Just as they go through trials or anything else that comes to your mind?

Christy: Well, Janna, thanks for having me first. This was fun. A lot of thought process. I had been thinking about trials and trying to process my thoughts through them, but truly I think my challenge would be to mothers to set their children up for success in how they respond to trials because they’re really a product of maybe what their parents were and how they responded to trials, but they become a team at some point in helping and showing their children how to respond. 

So for my children, for instance, I tell them, of course, your mom again has been a big help to me in this area and setting them up for success in spending time with the Lord. And I know for your mom, when y’all were in the trailer, she told me she would bring y’all breakfast maybe in your beds so that it made it a little bit, or a snack, where y’all could do your time with the Lord a little bit more easily.

Of course, I joked with my kids and said, now listen, you’re not gonna have breakfast in bed and I’m not bringing you snacks, but I will tell you this, the Lord’s waiting on you. So we try to set all of that up before they go to bed at night and be prepared so that’s the first thing that we do in the morning so that they know that they’re ready. So having a good schedule and just preparing your children for success so that they then can have a right foundation for spending time with the Lord, I think that’s monumental and then just personally having their time with the Lord so if this is a teenager watching and they may not have a parent that can help set them up for success then they need to seek some help either their pastor’s wife or their Sunday school teacher or some godly influence, and even if they don’t have that, then they know that they can do that themselves. 

So I’m trying to eliminate any excuse that someone listening might have as to why they can’t do the essential things first, because they’re not going to leave without a shower. Then most people, most people hopefully don’t leave without brushing their teeth or they don’t leave without their clothes on. They know that that’s essential. So setting their lives up in a way that they see what’s a priority. So my children also know that if they can’t do their time with the Lord in the morning for some reason, then we have other times in the day where it is a priority, maybe right before they have practiced their instruments. And if that doesn’t work, then the priority is right before you go to bed, which is personally not the most ideal time because then they’re sleepy and ready to go to sleep. So just making it a priority to spend time with the Lord and to learn who he is and what the Bible says about who he is. And so getting our right perspective of who God is and then when the trial comes you already have a great relationship with the Lord and then you are set up to go through that trial in a way that God wants you to and just be passionate about it.

Some of that can be manufactured because of what you’ve seen somebody else do. And maybe you have to mimic somebody for a while until it becomes second nature. But I tell my kids, the Lord is waiting on you to spend time with him. And if you don’t meet him where he’s waiting on you, then you’ve missed what he’s had for you for the day. And so that’s the same thing in trials when your being stretched and God is revealing himself to you and revealing who you are, he’s saying I’m trying to teach you something about me and I’m trying to teach you something about moving forward in your walk with me. 

So I hope that’s helpful just really spending time with him and just knowing who God is and maybe memorizing scripture regarding the trial or regarding how to move forward in whatever area that you’re being tested on.

I hope that part was helpful. And certainly just talking and communicating with somebody who can help you, certainly through your faith talks, they have a way to access maybe a contact on the website there for the Thee Generation and knowing, hey, someone can help me through the next phase and getting through this trial and getting through this, in victory with the Lord’s help. And I really feel like there’s a whole other generation that can go through trials without being anxious, without having extra onset anxiety and choosing joy and having the right perspective of who God is to think about the next generation that can do great things for God because they’re responding right to all the things that he’s teaching them.

Janna: Well, amen. That was a blessing to hear. And I think so often you can hear even, you hear a story of a martyr or something and you think like, oh, I don’t know if I could do that, but just thinking back to, okay, am I walking with God right now? And honestly, the best thing you can do for future trials that would be in your life if you’re younger and you haven’t, you think, I used to think, oh, I haven’t really had many big trials. Well, the best thing you can do is to deepen that relationship with the Lord, because that’s what you’re gonna have when you go through that, but maybe you are going through a trial right now and reaching out for help obviously relationship with the Lord, but then also getting a godly mentor who can help you and I know I know we’ve had a couple of people respond through the faith talks email. Just asking for even contact info for any of some of the ladies who have spoken. But if any of you are out there and say, you know I could I could really use help for that you are more than welcome to respond and we can hook you up with somebody. But I was very encouraged today. 

So thank you for sharing that with us and listeners as you go about your next week. Remember that this is a matter of faith choosing to have joy in trials and so just remember that faith doesn’t just talk, faith walks.