Faith Talks host: Hello there, this is Anna Faith, and welcome to episode 16 of Faith Talks.

And as you noticed, Jana’s not with us today.

She said it’s payback time because she’s done enough podcasts without me.

So I’m doing one here.

Jan is actually at a camp in West Virginia, and she wasn’t able to be here for this one.

But I’m excited today to have with us Sarah Swanson, missionary wife of Glenn Swanson.

And before we introduce her and hear her story, I just wanted to mention briefly, I’m sure many of you have heard about the tragedy that happened at our church about two weeks ago with the accident at the fireworks.

One of our dear servants, Benjamin Reamers, was taken home to be with the Lord.

And yesterday we actually had his funeral.

And it was such a blessing to each one of us and a huge encouragement to all those that were there.

And I just want to encourage any of you listeners out there, if you want to be impacted by a servant of God’s amazing testimony and how he just humbly, simply followed the Lord in whatever God gave him to do, I would really encourage you to go on our YouTube channel, Falls Baptist Church, and watch the video there.

It will be a huge blessing to you.

He was a 24-year-old man and in seminary currently, and he just was a humble servant of the Lord and was really behind the scenes of a lot of things that happened here at our church with the music camps, with a lot of the music students, the new song program that we have here.

And we miss him greatly, but we’re just so thrilled with what God did in his life and just so honored to have known him and to just have been there even yesterday at the funeral.

So I definitely encourage each one of you to go back and watch that if you’re able to.

I know that will be a great encouragement.

So here we have, like I said, Sarah Swanson, and she’s going to just share briefly a little bit about herself.

Faith Talks host: Hello, I’m Sarah Swanson, and I am a missionary wife of Glenn Swanson, and we’ve had the privilege of serving the Lord in Cameroon, Africa.

And our main vision that we’ve had is to reach remote villages, villages that are very hard to get to over land and just cut off from things that would help them out in their daily lives and cut off from any way of really hearing the gospel clearly.

And we’ve just had a burden for those people way out in the little villages.

And the Lord has really blessed our ministry.

We’ve seen a lot of souls saved and several churches started through our ministry.

It’s been really a privilege to be a part of that.

We ended up picking a village called Aqua.

So we ended up moving to Aqua.

And part of that was we had to build our own house because there was no house really that was open.

And if there was, it would have been really a difficult situation.

So the Lord enabled us to build a house and it was not easy at all.

We had to dig out our own stones for the foundation and go to the river and pick out our own gravel. and find a tree in the forest for someone to cut down and cut into boards.

And it was really a lot of work.

And my husband, Glenn, he worked so hard.

I could just see that sweat pouring down his body every day as he worked so hard on that house for me.

And it was a really special time just to see how hard he worked to make our home out there in the village.

He’s a very strong husband.

I was so thankful for him.

The people out in the villages always thought of him as someone very strong.

He’s had to work very hard there, and people have noticed that about him.

Some people call him Goliath because he’s just so big and strong, and he could do almost any kind of work.

I could see that in him.

The people are amazed how many different kinds of work he can do.

And he just said, well, it was his dad.

His dad taught him to work hard, and he’s a very hard worker.

So it was interesting, too, because my dad was always like, I call him Papa.

Papa would say, you really need a strong husband, because I was really not very strong, especially when you compared me to some of my sisters who were quite a bit stronger than I was.

So the Lord just answered that special prayer and gave me a strong husband.

But anyway, so after we settled there, even during the time we were building our house, we had a little new church that had just been started recently, and we were working with them, teaching them more things from the Bible.

I would always teach the children, children’s Sunday school class.

And at first, none of the children were getting saved, but I was planting seeds in their hearts.

So in 2018, a war started in Cameroon where our two regions wanted to separate from the rest of the country.

And the two regions are the region where I grew up and then this region where we were now located.

And they’re English-speaking.

The rest of Cameroon is French-speaking.

So the people in the English parts wanted to separate from the government and make their own country.

And at first, they wanted to do it peacefully, and they tried.

And then some fighting started from that.

The government didn’t want them to separate, of course, and so the fighting just started.

In our area, we had a bunch of young men that were very excited about starting their own country, and so they formed their own groups, and they called themselves AMBA soldiers.

And it ended up being like a guerrilla-type warfare where they would hide out in the forest and come out and make attacks.

And anything that had to do with government was very much, they were very much against it.

So that included schools, hospitals.

Anyone that worked for the government was under suspicion by these men.

For us, it was good.

At first, we were able to just to keep on working there.

People knew us.

They knew that we didn’t work for the government, and we were free.

We just continued on in our ministry, and there were dangers around.

We heard of people getting shot and things like that, but we were able to continue for quite some time.

There was one time where we had a dangerous journey to make.

We had our vehicle out there in the village.

There was only a few months out of the year where we could have our vehicle there because during the rainy season, it would rain so much that the rivers would be so full that we couldn’t get our car across those rivers that time of year.

But the few months that we could, we could bring our car all the way to our house.

And at this time, we had some co-workers coming, the Folkers, Seth and Caitlin Folkers, and we had promised them that we would be picking them up at the airport.

And my husband always likes to keep his promises.

And so we were going to make that trip, even though it was going to be a very long and arduous journey.

And we packed up everything and we’re ready to go.

And then some of the villagers came running up to us and they said, no, you can’t go now.

There’s no way.

They’ve cut down a tree.

They’ve blocked the road and there are soldiers everywhere.

And the government soldiers are coming.

They’re going to come and wipe out our villages.

You can’t go.

It’s not safe.

And so we were already all ready to go and we were about to leave.

And we just stopped and prayed and asked God to show us, should we go or should we just stay and hide out here in our house?

And the Lord just gave us a peace that we should go.

We should just go and trust the Lord to take care of us.

So we did.

We began to drive off.

They were all shouting like, no, no, just stay, don’t go.

But the Lord had given us a peace to go.

So we went ahead and went.

And we got to the first village, and we could see there was a tree across the road up ahead.

And as we got closer, my husband, he’s so funny, he just started laughing because that tree they talked about was just, it was very small, and he could easily pick it up and move it off the road.

It wasn’t anything very big at all.

So we’re like, Lord, thank you.

Thank you for letting us go because this is easy.

So we got out and just threw it off of there.

Nobody was around, so we kept on going.

But as we were going, we saw people with their little bundles of things they were carrying, and they were leaving the villages.

They were very scared.

They didn’t know what was going to be happening, and so they were leaving.

And they kept telling us, we really need to watch out.

And we got to one area where a motorcycle was coming, and it was one of those AMBA soldiers.

And he didn’t know who we were, and he was very nervous.

We could tell he was shaking, and he had a gun, one of those rifles.

And he got off of his motorcycle and started shouting at us, and he ended up pointing it at my husband and saying, you need to get out of this car.

And so at gunpoint, he got out, and I was just sitting there.

I had my little baby girl with me, and then they pointed it at me also.

I said, no, madame, you have to get out too.

So I was nervous, especially for my little baby I was holding, and so I was kind of protecting her, like what if he actually shoots?

But I just never had someone point their gun at me before, so it was a very frightful experience.

But after asking some questions and finding out we really weren’t with the government or anything like that, he let us get back in the car and we kept going.

And we didn’t know what was going to be around the next bend.

We just had to keep going in faith, knowing that God would take care of us.

And both of us afterwards, we both said that that song was running through our mind, that God will take care of you.

And God had given each of us that very same hymn as we were driving along.

Faith Talks host: And I think what’s neat too is that you’re in Cameron to do his work, so you know that you have that peace that if something happens, it’s his plan.

But he’s there protecting you because he’s called you to that area too.

So I think that’s neat too.

Faith Talks host: Yes, and he was.

He really did protect us.

We kept going, and we got to a village where all the women and children had left the village, and it was just the men, and they were all sitting around with their guns, and they were telling us, you better not go because the government soldiers are coming any moment and they’re going to come and fight and you better not be in their path.

And we were like, so what do we do now?

But we prayed again and God gave us the peace just to keep going.

And we knew that oftentimes there are just rumors that go around and it very possibly wasn’t true that they were on their way.

So we kept going. and a couple of guys had come from the direction where we were going, and they said, they’re coming, they’re coming.

But we just kept on going.

We didn’t know what we were going to run into, but the Lord had given us peace to go, so we did.

And we just kept driving, and we got all the way to the bridge.

The bridge is over the big river that separates Aquaya, the region that we were in from another region.

And we got to that bridge, and there were the government guards or whatever, but there weren’t any soldiers, just the guards.

And so we went up to the guards and told them who we were, and we wanted to go through, and they let us.

They let us pass that bridge.

And that was one of our main concerns because they were guarding that bridge very closely, and that was our only way out.

There was no other way unless, of course, we took a canoe, but that whole river was being guarded.

But the Lord opened up the way for us, and we were able to get through and eventually back to our home, to my parents’ home, and then out to pick up our coworkers.

So the Lord opened up the way for that.

That’s really neat.

Faith Talks host: So how has life been since that point, since you haven’t been?

You pour so much energy and heart and soul into the area that God had led to originally, but how does life look for a missionary family that’s not where they had originally been because of a war or something like that?

Faith Talks host: Well, it has been very different.

We felt like, are we really missionaries anymore?

Because we had been so involved and seeing the Lord use us in great ways, seeing people saved and churches started, that now it was almost like a letdown because now we were in the French area and it was hard to communicate with anyone.

And now it felt like we were just living normal lives, almost like more private lives because we didn’t know the people and it was harder to talk to them.

And we were still under shock from everything we had gone through.

So we were really trying to just get through the trauma of it all too.

And it was a big change for quite a while.

There were some other traumatic things that happened.

I don’t know if you have time to go through with my husband what he went through. or not sure go ahead okay um with that one there was a village that was fighting just amongst themselves because they wanted their own chief to be the chief and they were not happy that one of the groups had a chief and the other one didn’t get to have their chief and so then the one that was the chief ended up getting very sick and my my dad who’s a pilot and flew him out to the hospital, but he ended up dying.

He didn’t make it.

And so out there, the people are so superstitious.

And so they automatically believed that it was the other group in that village that cast a spell on this chief and killed him through witchcraft.

And to them, it was so real that they knew they needed to fight back.

So they began to fight back. and whoever was part of that group that had the chief began to burn houses of people from the other group, and they were burning down their houses and destroying their things, and then they ended up killing one man from the other group.

And as soon as someone gets killed, that really makes a whole warfare to flare up, and so things were getting really bad in that village.

And at the same time, we were at a spiritual Bible retreat quite a few miles away, and we heard the news, and one of our believers there was very burdened, and he thought, we need to go there and see if we can do anything.

And it was the funeral, it was the chief’s funeral, and he said, well, maybe we should go and Pastor Glenn can preach.

So they decided to go, and it was a very dangerous situation. and they left me at that spiritual Bible retreat.

So I was there alone, but I had the other believers there with me, and we prayed.

So this other brother, Brother Harry and Glenn, went to that village to preach at the funeral.

And while they were there, they saw five men that were being tortured.

They were from that group that were believed to have cast a spell, and they were getting very, very much mistreated.

They had machete wounds, and I don’t want to go through everything, but they were really suffering.

And when Glenn came back with Brother Harry, they described it, and we were all so just worried for those five men.

It looked like they weren’t going to survive this thing.

And we were so burdened for them that we thought, is there anything we can do?

And at first we were like, well, no, we can’t.

That’s just part of their culture.

And that’s just the way it is.

But the mothers of these men began coming to our home and they were so worried for their children, for their sons.

And they just began to beg my husband and say, can you do anything?

You’re our only hope.

Can’t you do anything to save these men?

And so he ended up just making a decision that he would do all he can to get those men freed.

And he did.

He really risked his life to save those men.

He went there around three different days or three different times.

He would go there and then beg for their release and come back and then go again and beg.

And part of the problem with that village was that there was no way for government officials to come and settle the dispute. and that’s what normally would happen, but because of the war, there was no way for them to get in there.

And so they called for the AMBA soldiers instead, and that did not help anything.

They just sided with one of the sides and just made it worse.

So that wasn’t helping, and so that was part of the problem for Glenn because they didn’t know who Glenn was, and there’s this white man there trying to get these men free, and all they wanted was to kill these men.

And so he ended up sitting on the ground with these men, just identifying with them and saying, these men are innocent.

They haven’t done anything against this man.

Glenn had already talked to the doctor, and he knew exactly what had caused that chief’s death, but they wouldn’t listen to what he was saying.

But sitting there with them, identifying with them, we believe really did something to save them.

In the end, people had to end up paying a price for these men, but he was able to free four of them.

One of them did not get freed, but Glenn was able to share the gospel with him, and we believe that he was saved before he was shot.

But four of these men were able to get freed in the end, and he and I took them.

We had them in our vehicle to a hospital to get treated.

At first, we took them to a small clinic, and they were able to clean their wounds and things, but then we had to take them very far because they had some really complicated issues going on.

One of the things they had done was give them shots of poison so their arms were all swollen up from that, and they really needed a lot of treatment.

So we took them in our vehicle, And when we got to that checkpoint, like I talked about before with the bridge over the river, the guards there didn’t really believe that these men were innocent.

They believed that these were Amba soldiers.

And so they began to abuse them now.

And we’re like, no, we rescued them from the Ambas, and now the government of the soldiers are attacking them again.

And it was just really awful.

And they took them right away to a prison.

And Glenn did that again.

He sat with them there at the prison door and thought, well, they hadn’t actually entered the prison.

They were in the hallway, sitting on the floor in the hallway.

So Glenn sat there with them and saying, these men are innocent.

You need to let us go.

And after some hours of begging and playing and talking, they finally let us go.

But they made us take them to a hospital that really wasn’t really a hospital at all.

They weren’t going to help these men. and we went there, and Glenn told the men just stay in the car, and he was going to see if we were going to be able to leave.

So we went in, and nobody was really talking, and none of the nurses were coming out to help.

So we said, this place is not going to do anything.

He came back into the car.

He said, everyone, just lock your doors.

We’re going.

So we locked our doors, and off we drove, and we were able to get out of there and eventually made it to the hospital late that night, probably around midnight, and got those men checked in.

But all of them actually really made a profession to believe on Christ as their Savior.

And we know of at least one or two of them who are really serving the Lord and faithful in ministry through that.

One of them is the uncle of our pastor there in Aqua.

So we’re just thankful for how the Lord is able to use Glenn and how he protected him.

He had a sith to his throat.

He had a gun to his head during that time.

There was one moment where in my heart, I just thought that he had been shot.

It just came to my heart like he’s gone.

He’s dead.

But at that moment, the Lord gave me peace in my heart that I’m taking care of you.

Everything’s going to be all right.

And that peace that was just so wonderful, I didn’t know.

I couldn’t understand it.

It didn’t come from myself.

It was definitely from the Lord.

He gave me a peace in that moment.

And I think that was the moment where he had that sith to his neck.

And God just gave me that peace, and God brought him through that trial.

Faith Talks host: That’s really neat.

And just even with the recent trial that our church has been through, it’s just so special when you have your faith and your trust in the Lord for your life, you know, and you’re out there, you know, willing to, your husband was out there willing to give his life to see those men free and just to see how God, God protects.

And he knows exactly how long he wants us to be on this earth.

And that’s, like you said, it is so peaceful to realize that and to just place your trust in your life into the Lord’s hands and just let him use you in that way and be willing to risk everything, you know, if God leads you to that, you know, so I think that’s just a testimony to your faith in God and your trust in him and just how he protected you every step of that journey and even just in those those hard times in the seemingly unsafe places he led you through that and realized really it’s it’s so neat to realize that as Christians you know it’s not about just finding a safe place you know wherever God leads you to that’s exactly where wants you to be.

And if it even seems unsafe, if people even think you’re crazy for doing some of the things you’re doing, it’s okay because you’re in God’s hands and that’s the most safe place you could ever be in the, in the whole world, you know?

So that’s really, really neat.

Um, yes.

Just moving along through your story.

Um, let’s maybe even go to the recent trial that, um, you’re even working through right now.

And I know you talked about how your husband has been so strong and the recent health crisis in his life.

Would you be able to share about that?

Faith Talks host: Yes.

So we were able to take our first furlough.

Our daughter is adopted from Cameroon and some of that paperwork was delayed, but the Lord finally answered the prayer to get her paperwork done and we got her visa.

So we came on our first furlough and we’ve been traveling to churches, reporting our work and people have been so generous and we’ve been getting some gifts that are so so big we’ve never gotten before and we were just wondering what are we going to do with all this money we what we don’t really need this much money and what are we going to do with it and we were wondering I wonder if God is preparing us for something that we don’t know about right now and as I look back now we can see how much God was preparing us for what we were going to be going through.

So we were just about to leave on a trip to go out west.

We had some churches.

We had a church in Colorado and California and Oregon and Wyoming.

So we were going to make a big loop and go around the west.

And right before that, we had taken a pregnancy test and found out that we were finally expecting our first child and we were so excited about that.

The Lord had finally answered that greatest desire of my heart and I felt like wow now I can really focus on other prayer requests because this has been like on the top of my list for a long time and we were really rejoicing that.

So our whole trip out west was just really a wonderful time of knowing we were expecting finally and enjoying the different beautiful areas that we stopped at.

We did some camping and hiking and things like that and it was a wonderful time.

When my husband and I were helping at a camp, just doing some things, getting the camp ready for the summer, my husband was cutting down some dead trees and working very hard.

And at the end of that week, Glenn began to experience some symptoms that were really confusing.

We didn’t really know what was going on.

He first thought, well, maybe it’s allergies because we were in some areas we weren’t used to being in and just had something going on with his skin, some sensitivity and such like that, but there was no rash or anything.

And then it began to get worse and his back was having some pain.

And at the end of about two weeks, he had some more issues going on and then he couldn’t walk straight.

He began to stumble around and almost fell down at times.

And we were like, wow, this is serious.

We need to do something more about this.

So we ended up taking him into the ER.

At that time, we were in Grand Junction, Colorado, and walking into the hospital, into the ER, I had to support him.

He couldn’t really walk very well on his own, and then he ended up, we ended up pushing him in a wheelchair, and at that time, it was just so strange to see my strong husband so weak like that, and it was very different.

So they checked him in, and they were very confused about what was going on, and the next day was a Saturday, and he was getting worse, and he couldn’t even stand at all on his own at that time.

He ended up staying in the hospital for a week, and they did a whole bunch of tests.

I just remember when they were doing an MRI the first day, and he had to be out for about two hours, and I was all alone thinking and just crying out to the Lord, just feeling so desperate.

I opened my Bible to the book of Psalms, and my husband had just bought me a Bible that had many promises highlighted in it.

So I was just going through those promises that were highlighted and trying to find anything that would be encouraging, that would help me through this trial, and the Lord really ministered to my heart in those moments.

One verse that stands out to me is, I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

And we were in a hospital where he was on the, I can’t remember, seventh or eighth floor.

But it was a beautiful area where you could look out and see the mountains.

And I was just picturing how that was where my help was coming from.

Not the mountains, but the creator of those mountains.

And so I lifted my eyes there and just asked him to help us through this trial.

So we ended up leaving the hospital a week later.

He still couldn’t walk very well, and they were very reluctant to let him leave.

But we asked them if we could just have him home.

We needed to get back to Iowa.

And our insurance, the type of insurance that we have, wouldn’t allow us to have him be in the therapy.

He needed therapy. but we ended up contacting someone in our hometown who was a therapist.

So she said she could work with him, and so they let him go because we had a plan of someone who could work with him to give him therapy.

But with all the testing and everything that they did, they still didn’t find exactly what was the problem.

They knew the name of what was going on.

It was called transverse myelitis, but really the cause of it, so they would know how to treat it.

They couldn’t find that real issue.

By the end, they were leaning towards it being autoimmune, but they weren’t ready to put him on immunosuppressants yet because that could flare up a bacterial disease.

And having been in Cameroon, they thought it was a very possible thing, that it could be a bacterial infection somehow.

But all the tests so far have been coming back negative for any kind of infection.

So now they transferred us to Mayo Clinic, and they are continuing on with some of the testing and still trying to figure out if it’s an infection or if they should treat him for autoimmune disease.

So it’s really difficult right now.

We’re just waiting on the results of those tests and really waiting on the Lord to show us what kind of treatment he really needs.

In the meantime, he’s getting around all right with a walker with some difficulty and having some issues going on.

But the Lord has really been helping us to lean on him more in this time of weakness and this time of not understanding what is going on, but trusting him.

So being pregnant with our first child, we were very happy about that.

That was like our bright spot through all this whole thing going on.

The Lord gave us one thing, and now he’s letting us go through something else.

But then, let’s see, I was about 11 weeks along, and we were out of the hospital by then.

We were actually back in Iowa, and we were getting ready to go to Michigan for a missions conference there.

And we were going into my midwife to see if she could hear the heartbeat for the first time.

And we went in there, and she could detect a pregnancy, but she couldn’t quite hear the heartbeat.

But she wasn’t worried because she said that happens often where she won’t hear it that early that day or something.

So she wasn’t really worried about it.

But then I started having some other things going on, and then during our drive to Michigan was really when it happened where I lost that pregnancy.

And it was difficult because we were on a trip and we weren’t at home.

And thankfully, the Lord had provided Glenn’s sister to drive for us because she was off of school and she had the time and she knew how hard it was for me to drive that long distance by myself since my husband couldn’t drive.

So the Lord really provided at that moment that we really needed it.

So during that drive was when the Lord took our little baby home.

And I’m just very thankful for the time that I got to have that pregnancy.

It was a very special time.

The Lord had answered my, I had a specific prayer that God would give me a child that I could give back to him.

And I didn’t expect it would be so soon, but I was able to give him back to him that soon at 11 weeks.

But I’m just thankful for how he gave me that special blessing for that time.

It was a very dark time.

We felt like everything was just falling apart into pieces.

But as I thought about that, I knew that God could take those pieces and put them back together in a more beautiful way than ever before.

And so we’re seeing him doing that gradually.

Faith Talks host: That’s really neat.

And I just, it’s just so amazing to hear your faith, even in the middle of a trial, trial, you know, this is a recent thing and you still don’t have the answers for your husband.

And just to see your faith in God and your just simple trust and rest in him, even when the puzzle pieces don’t seem to be, you know, put together and you don’t see the end of it.

But, you know, that’s what faith really is.

It’s seeing when you can’t see.

It’s believing when you don’t know what the end is, you know, and just just resting in the Lord that he is the creator.

He’s in control of everything, and he’s going to work it all together for good, even if we don’t totally understand it right now.

So thank you so much for sharing your story.

And just wrapping up quickly here, how about you just share your favorite character of the Bible quickly and why it’s your favorite character, and then we’ll just wrap up with some action steps.

Okay.

Faith Talks host: My favorite character right now is the Shunammite woman.

She was a woman who was rich, and she had a home, and she provided a place for the prophet Elisha to come and stay in her home.

And she knew that he was serving God, and she just wanted to serve him.

And she wasn’t trying to get anything for herself or make herself look great or anything.

She just wanted to serve.

And she didn’t have any children, and I believe she had the desire, but she had given that over to the Lord and was content to not have any children.

And when the prophet wanted to give her that child at first, she reacted like, please don’t lie to me, don’t lie to me.

I think she didn’t want to get her hopes up too high and then have them dashed.

And that probably happened for her many times.

And I understand that because I’ve had a lot of disappointments of not having a baby that I wanted to have.

And the thing that I like about her is that she was just content.

The Lord ended up giving her that desire and giving her a child, but it wasn’t because of her begging for it or seeking after it.

The Lord gave it to her, even though she was just content to be without them.

And that’s really a challenge to me.

And I really enjoy thinking and meditating on that story of that woman.

Faith Talks host: That’s really special.

And I think in a different sense, it reminds me even of Ben, the man that passed away in our church a couple of weeks ago.

And my brother was just talking about how he was just a content, you know, just servant of God.

And he was always happy.

He was always gentle with any person that he worked with.

And just that similarity where he just was, he lived a content life because he knew who God was and he was walking with him all the time, you know.

And that’s a special place that we can be in, just resting in him.

Even as we were talking about earlier with your journey, just trusting him for that protection and then just resting in him for whatever he gives or whatever he takes from us.

And obviously, I haven’t been through deep trials like that.

But even just in my own life, seeing how God has, you know, as I take those steps of faith and trust him, he comes and he brings that peace and he brings that joy into my life. even when I can’t see, when I don’t know the end story.

And that’s actually a special time when you can get to know your God in a way you wouldn’t have known him.

You know, he says, the trying of your faith worketh patience and patience having your perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing.

And recently there’s been some things that I’ve just been wondering what God is doing in my own life.

And what God just keeps bringing into my mind is that perfect work.

He’s doing that perfect work in my life.

And I just need to rest in that, in whatever he’s doing right now in my life and just trust him with whatever that is.

So I just encourage each one of you girls, even just hearing the story, hearing all the things that you’ve gone through.

Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

And that’s going to be a great blessing.

It’s already blessed me so much just hearing it from you.

But just realizing that our lives are not our own.

We just need to put them in God’s hands.

Trust him for whatever he has for your life. because really your life is not worth holding on to.

There’s so much joy, so much rest, so much peace when you give God your life and when you trust him with every part of it.

And I just encourage each one of you girls to just take that next step and just even if it’s a surrender point.

And like I started the podcast out with just encouraging you to watch that funeral from last night.

I just really recommend that you would do that because it is such an amazing testimony of a surrendered servant of God.

And just, you know, if there’s a point of surrender in your life that you need to take right now, I just would encourage you to do that right away.

Don’t wait because there’s nothing like having that peace and that rest that God gives.

And is there anything else you want to say before we finish?

Faith Talks host: I think we just need to take those steps of faith and just be content with how the Lord works things out in our lives.

Oftentimes things don’t work out the way we want them to, but he has a plan and we can trust him in that.

Faith Talks host: Yes, so I encourage you girls to just trust God, take that next step, and then even make just a list of things that maybe you’re struggling with right now and just say, God, even if these don’t work out, I still am going to choose to be content and rest in you.

And I know I want to go do that after this podcast and just give those things back to the Lord that maybe I’m holding on to or maybe I really want out of life and just realize you don’t know how long your life is.

And we’ve all faced that recently, even in our church.

But just realizing that living for Jesus is the only thing that will fully satisfy you.

It’s the only thing that truly is worth living for.

And I’m sure you’ve seen that in your life.

And I know we’ve all seen that.

But as God leads you in those steps, just take them and he will walk with you.

He will be with you as you surrender to him and as you trust him.

Faith Talks host: That reminds me also of how when I went through that miscarriage, of how much I desperately wanted God’s presence there.

And his presence came.

And there are so many verses in the Bible that I could think of, thinking about how God is with me.

And my favorite song during that time was, When He is Near, listening to the words of that song, thinking about His presence, real, His touch I feel, His voice I hear.

And it was very real to me during that time.

Faith Talks host: Yes, and I think it’s so amazing to realize that it’s not just something we’re trying to talk about or trying to make up.

It is real.

Even though you can’t see it, you can’t touch it, it’s as real or more real than the physical realm that we live in.

The spiritual realm is so, so real.

And God, he wants to be real to you.

So if you feel maybe that he isn’t real, just cry out to him and ask him to show you.

And he will.

And even if it’s in ways that you wouldn’t expect, he will show himself real to you.

And you can trust him fully, even if you can’t see the end right now.

So I just encourage each one of you girls this week, faith doesn’t just talk, faith walks.

Guest: Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Thee Generation Podcast.

If you’re serious about living a life of total surrender and total dependence, please consider signing the The Generation Pledge.

It’s not a promise of perfection, but a declaration of direction.

To join hundreds of others who have signed the commitment, please visit thegeneration.org.

That’s thegeneration.org. slash play.