Real Talk Friday S3 E2: Broken to Blessed with Pastor Noriko Reid,

Welcome to Real Talk Friday with your hosts Rohan Das and Gus Urban.

In this groundbreaking podcast segment, we delve deep into the lives of individuals whose

journey has been profoundly transformed by their faith.

From the trial of adversity to the triumph of redemption, we explore real stories, real

people, whose encounter with God has reshaped their existence.

Join us as we embark on a candid and enlightening journey where authenticity meets spirituality

every Friday on Real Talk Friday, part of Logan City Christian Church.

Hi everyone, welcome to another season of Real Talk Friday, season 3.

Today we have a very special guest for you and I'm going to pass it on to Rohan, my

co-host, to introduce this person.

Hey guys, welcome to our show.

Today is an incredible day because we've gone, traveled all the way to the Gold Coast

to meet this special guest.

This is our first podcast that we're doing on the road.

First on the road.

We were praying about it and we were like, how are we going to do this?

But I think God really provided the equipments, the time and everything.

So we're truly grateful and thank you for your support because without you guys, we just

wouldn't be able to do it.

No, that's right.

We have the statistics nowadays and we see this podcast reaching to America, Europe,

so many other countries, Japan actually.

And it's just going to places we never thought it would and to a point where YouTube has

encouraged us to push up more content.

Yeah, well I just was on the phone before to a person saying, oh I just saw your podcast.

I've been watching it and now I'm following it.

I'm like, oh well that's great.

Oh, we can see God's doing amazing things.

It's reaching it.

I think I was talking to the senior pastor, Pastor Rob, your dad, and he was telling us

yesterday about this guy who walks up to church and he comes and he says to Pastor Rob, you

know, I watched the podcast yesterday, your interview, and I'm here today and I want to

change my life.

So look, these are just some of the stories that are out there from this podcast and we

truly blessed.

But coming to this show today, we have an amazing pastor.

He's the only Japanese pastor on the Gold Coast, Pastor Noriko Reed.

Welcome to our show.

Thank you for having me.

My thanks for being available.

Pastor Noriko has been part of significant events in my life, you know, and I truly appreciate

that.

The most recent event is being part of Hope College, which I just graduated from.

By the time this podcast is out there, I'll probably finish my graduation.

So she was my lecturer and when I heard her story towards the end of my studies, I was

truly touched because there's a part of her story I can truly relate to.

And I felt that, you know, everybody has to hear this story.

And we felt that, yes, God has the power and is able to change a person completely.

And this is going to be one story that is going to be like that.

So not we're going to waste time.

No, that's right.

But we're going to go straight into asking Noriko some amazing questions.

So welcome to the show again.

And you know, one of the questions I want to ask is the only Japanese pastor on the Gold

Coast.

Wow.

Wow.

How does it feel?

I don't know.

I just recently found out about it.

There's other pastors who speak Japanese or have a Japanese wife, pastor, call pastor,

perney.

I'm the only one that's ordained on the Gold Coast at the moment.

So hopefully it will be more coming.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it's amazing.

So I believe there's lots of Japanese people coming to your church.

No, actually not.

This is an interesting part.

So we're very international church.

So we have all sorts of different people from all around the world.

Very small group of Japanese.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Majority is just anywhere really from the world.

But that's a beautiful thing.

How Christ can unite all different people in one place.

That's quite similar to our church from Europe, Asia, a lot from Africa.

As an Australian, I'm sort of the minority.

But that's okay because go beyond where we're from.

We're all going to be in heaven one day together.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah.

But that's so amazing.

And of course you have a story and you've not been Christian your entire life.

You never grew up in a Christian family.

So there's that journey that we really want to hear.

So what we love to do is just ask you initially like when you're growing up, were you Christian?

I'm assuming you're not.

But let's talk through your journey.

Let's talk about your childhood.

How was it like living in Japan?

Was Christianity a thing there?

Because I've never been to Japan.

I'm not sure about you.

No, I haven't.

So culturally, being a Christian, is it frowned upon?

Are you persecuted in some ways because you're a Christian?

Well Japan is one of the very few countries in the world still unleashed.

Interesting enough.

It's very advanced as a country but less than 1% of the population are Christian.

Oh wow.

Yeah, so it's very unleashed.

There's a very sad history of Christian missionaries coming in through the 14th, 15th century

where the government just shut down the country for over 300 years.

Oh really?

Yeah, so no, I didn't actually grow up with any understanding of Bible or Christianity

or even, I don't think I even heard a name Jesus really.

My grandfather on Dad's side was a Buddhist monk and had a, on temple.

So Buddhist was very heavily influencing my family and my mum's side of the grandfather

was elder in the Shinto temple.

So as a child I had a very mix of Shintoism and Abortism but there was no really a family,

the religion of the family followed.

It was just like cultural, literal things we do.

Oh yeah.

So in the early years you go to temple, you visit local temples on some occasions.

So that was the only things that I ever really experienced in a religion way.

Yeah, yeah.

So I didn't grow up knowing anything about Christianity or Jesus or Bible.

My mum had a friend who was Catholic and she used to send me a chocolate every Christmas.

That was the only things I probably knew about Christians, like, oh there's a Christian,

nice people, they send me chocolate.

That's pretty much it.

But yeah, so I did grow up in a very dark, probably environment.

So yeah, my family was quite broken, dysfunctional.

Oh no.

Yeah, so my father was into the gambolines, drinking.

My parents got divorced when I was young.

So yeah, from there on I went to live with my grandparents.

I was raised by grandparents for quite a number of years.

My mum went through depressions, quite severe mental health issues back then, untreated

of course in the 80s.

Alcoholism, everything.

So I saw domestic violence to gambling to alcoholism, mental health, just in-house every

day.

That was the environment I grew up.

So it was not a peaceful home, very disturbed.

Yeah, I could imagine.

Yeah, unsafe for probably any young child.

So that was just kind of the way that I grew up.

I learnt I guess protect myself, like I self protect in many ways.

Unfortunately I was exposed to some abuse as well as a young child.

So that really did impact me as well.

So it wasn't, there were happy moments of course for every child, but I can't say it

was entirely peaceful or happy child food.

Yeah, definitely.

Now that's terrible and I'm sorry to hear that.

I know a lot of people go through this lifestyle and I have compassion for them.

A child should not be in this environment.

They deserve a stable environment.

Sometimes it's not their fault.

There's nothing you can do.

The devil wants to come and break that family unit.

That's what it's all about.

Once he breaks that family unit, then there's downhill from there.

Is that sort of a common thing in Japan that you find?

Yeah, I think it's actually common in any country these days in modern families.

True.

You see that in Australia as well.

Back in the 80s, when I was growing up, coming from divorced family or single mothers family

was, it came with a sense of shame because there was not many family who would go through

divorce.

Even though family was dysfunctional, people often stayed together just for the sake of

the family or the children.

For my parents that actually go through divorce at the time, it was a pretty big thing.

I think I was only three child in my primary school class that was single mothers.

Yeah, wow.

That also had a bit of a shame attached to my child.

Some of my friends' mom or dad would say they didn't want me to be friends with their

daughters because I was from single mothers family.

No one.

That was the cultural setting in the 80s.

I don't think it is now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Back in the 80s, it was still like that in Japan.

Yeah.

So with that real strong culture that's in Japan of a family unit?

Yeah, very much.

Wow, that's incredible.

Yeah, I can relate to that because I know, I'm sure India's changed by now, but even

before in India, it was the same thing.

No matter what happened in the family, it was frowned upon when they separate.

Yeah, definitely.

It's like, oh, I remember a lot of people used to tell me, oh, the family separated,

there must be something going on, just don't relate to them like the bad people.

But at the end of the day, you don't realize it's not the child's fault.

Yeah.

We try to say don't relate to them that kind of creates that negativity in their life.

It's changed now, definitely.

But I could imagine the impact on the child.

It's the child trying to figure out, hey, what's wrong with me?

What's happening?

I don't know.

It's not my fault.

I don't know.

I want my parents together, but they don't want to be together, why are people looking

at me like this?

So that really affects you mentally.

Was there enough support for you at that point in terms of mental health?

Well, not in the formal ways, like a medical health point, but my grandparents who took

us, my sister and I, into their homes and raised us probably from the age of 8 to 13.

They were like my rock because they were just stable, they were consistent, and they were

always there for me.

So they really become more like our parents because our mum wasn't functioning in her

mental state after divorce.

And dad was nowhere to be seen, of course.

He was not in our life at that point.

So that probably was the biggest support for me.

But even with that, the sense of rejection, abandonment and shame was pretty strong all

the way through my upbringing.

So I look back and not that I was diagnosed or anything, but I already had some mental

health challenge as a child.

It just was never picked up or treated.

Because, yeah, a lot of that.

It's only recent times where we're really learning about mental health.

It's an actual thing now.

Years ago, it was, well, you just sort of got to figure it out on your own, get through

it.

So, yeah, it would have been a really tough time.

And you know what I like about even me studying at Hope College?

They have actually a unit.

It's called Mental Health in Ministry.

They teach you, there's a spiritual aspect to it, but then there's also another aspect

that compliments medicine kind of, you know, just to help get that mental health support.

Like, it's also important.

So I really like that subject and just put it out there.

I think that's being more considered within ministry.

Because it's important that there's some mental health conditions that can be easily

solved and just you need to talk to the person.

Pastoral care is one of the biggest things.

Sitting with the person, praying with them, talking to them.

And these things, you know, God can deliver that person out of this problem.

But there's some things that require more specialist help.

And that's the time we exercise fasting.

I 100% agree with it because my entire life, it's been a mental health challenge.

In a journey, it has been quite severe.

Even to I got help medically as an adult, but then also understanding the spiritual aspect

of it, where the demonic influence was a part of my mental health challenge.

And understanding it both, that really did help me to get my freedom in Christ.

It's incredible because most times we'll see people will either go medically or they'll

go spiritually, but they'll never think or talk about maybe there's both sides to it.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

And so this is actually something you've been through personally and you understand.

That's very incredible.

The ministry for that today would be huge.

It will be with me.

I think especially after the pandemic and everything.

Oh yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

But I think it is a reality also we need to be recognizing in the church as well.

People are struggling.

In life is a tough.

Many situations do happen, abuse happen, there's a trauma also being unhealed.

And we need to look holistically in not just overspiritualizing, but also not ignoring

a spiritual influence, that demonic attachment that could have been influencing over the

challenges.

So mine was actually a bit of both.

Yeah.

Yeah, I had a chemical imbalance as an adult after having two children.

So the hormone imbalance.

Oh, okay, yes.

That's where my challenges started.

But then I opened myself to more of the spiritual dark stuff where I believe that's where demonic

attachment came and made things worse for me.

So I understand both sides of that journey.

Yeah.

It's good you said that because we'll come to that story later on in the segment.

But your journey as a child wasn't that great.

But coming to the part you actually came to Australia because I believe everything started

the minute you came to Australia, the whole, you know, your testimony.

And so let's talk about that journey of you coming to Australia.

How was that like?

Yeah, so I met my husband in Japan.

Oh, okay.

So I was 19.

He came as exchange staff to Japan.

So, and I was assigned to look after him at work.

I supervise him, really.

So that's how actually we got connected in and we start dating.

So we got engaged, decided to move to Australia because he's wanting a contract with a job

finished.

Yes, I was 20 when I moved here.

My first overseas trip ever.

Wow.

Got my first passport and moved to Australia when the Gorkos was not so popular.

Yeah.

32 years ago.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

The first probably challenge I faced was the social isolation.

Yeah.

I did not speak English very well.

I did not have a family, no friends.

And back then there was no smartphone, no Google Translate.

There was not even the internet.

Wow.

Nothing.

So only ways of communicating with my family back home was writing later to each other

and sending, printed out the photos, you know, from K-Mart.

Yes, yes.

You know, you go in and K-Mart and you print a photo.

Yeah, I know.

Send it in envelope.

Remember those days?

Yes.

He doesn't.

But you don't.

You're too young, of course.

Yeah.

So looking back, I think it was social isolation was probably the major challenge that I faced

when I moved to Australia.

So I was not a Christian back then, but I pretty much went into depression straight away.

Yeah.

I couldn't sleep at night.

I was constantly crying.

Yeah.

Homesick, depressed.

Not having a community around you.

Just a normal thing.

Just let's go out for coffee.

Yeah.

Let's chat on the phone.

I was totally cut off from all of that, apart from my husband and his family.

So that was first probably 10 years in Australia for me was quite difficult.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And do you think that being added on top of your past as a child growing up was like

where some people might think maybe that wasn't that bad or I've been through it, but if

you've gone through childhood trauma and abandonment and then all of a sudden you're in a country

and you don't know anyone, yeah, it just...

Yeah, 100%.

A lot of weight on your shoulders.

Yeah.

It's like a pressure cooker, you know?

Yeah, that's exactly what happened.

Yeah, that's exactly what happened.

And the whistle's just waiting to fall.

Yeah.

But back then I did not understand any of that.

I was just surviving.

No, totally.

I was surviving.

I didn't know the Lord.

Yeah.

I was just surviving from day to day, really.

And my husband was surviving from day to day with me being in that state.

Oh, yeah.

So, and then trying to raise a young family, it was tough.

It was really tough.

So, yeah, definitely my childhood trauma that hasn't been healed got triggered in a circumstance,

and especially when we started our own family.

Yeah.

You know, suddenly I got really responsible for this life that I don't even know how to

take care of.

So, yeah, it really did...

It really pushed me to the edge.

Yeah.

But interestingly enough, that's how the God actually led me to Him when I just hit

the lock bottom.

Yeah.

You know, just I didn't know what to do with it myself anymore.

I was suicidal.

I was heavily medicated.

Maxed out on antidepressant 300 ml a day.

Wow.

I know what you're saying.

Dr. Rohan.

Yeah.

Really, I couldn't function at all.

I'll be waking up in the morning.

My husband actually had to physically dress me.

Wow.

And then, you know, put me in a living room, wherever he'll go to work, come back, and

I'll be still sitting on the same spot.

Oh, my goodness.

You know, so I was like, I could not function at all.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I lost my weight.

My weight dropped to like 42K in those times.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Couldn't eat, couldn't sleep.

Even with sleeping pills, I couldn't sleep.

Anxiety, depression, panic disorder, all of the heat, all at once.

Wow.

And our children were very young at the time.

So it really was a survival.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Do your children remember that or were they sort of protected by innocence a bit during

that stage?

Like, they maybe sort of knew something wasn't right, but because when I was a kid, there

was a few things in my family.

I didn't, oh, six years old when we first started going to church.

But when you grow up and find out later about what mum and dad went through, you go, oh,

wow, I didn't realize it was like that.

Do you know if your children were sort of like that or?

Yeah, I think our children actually told us they remember us told and been told to them.

So our children would be very young, maybe five, seven, around that age.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah.

And then when I was in the well, they actually remember dad cooking for them.

And funny enough, they hate that meal.

Oh, really?

Like that dish because I think their memory is associated to mum not being well to the

dish.

So which is like a...

So more than taste buds.

Yes.

Wow.

So the smell of the sauce from the jar.

Yeah.

So my husband used to use this jar to cook chicken.

Like a canton chicken sort of thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And they actually remember and they will not touch it.

That's incredible.

Yeah, because they remember that's all that dad could cook because mum wasn't well.

Yeah.

So they might not understand all the details, but they remember that memory of that food.

There's that trigger.

Yeah, it's a trigger.

Definitely.

But yeah, I did actually ask my oldest son who's 29, almost 29 now.

He said he only remember us told and been told to him.

Yeah, okay.

But they do remember something was happening.

Yeah.

And it really impacted them as a child.

So our younger son who's actually a high school teacher teaching psychology.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, he had to go through processing himself before he could teach.

So they did identify their own trauma as an adult.

And they took a step for the healing for themselves.

Okay.

Yeah, so that's...

I'm really grateful to go for that.

Absolutely.

Because when I came to know the law, the one thing I was really concerned with was how

much of damage have I done to my children in those early years?

Yeah.

Yeah, so in a way, I think God did protect them, shelter them.

But they do remember a few story that was quite significant.

Like one night, I just had a just emotional meltdown.

I just could not function and I wanted to hurt myself.

So I was taking a knife.

I think I do remember having a knife in my hand.

My husband was trying to stop me from cutting myself or hurting myself and I accidentally

stabbed him on the hand.

And then that was a trigger to me.

I actually called the police myself and asked the police to come over to arrest me.

Wow.

And then my children actually do remember being questioned by police officers in the house.

So the police came, they saw it was domestic violence happening.

Police went to ask our children what happened.

And our children said, no, it's not that, it's mummy.

Because sometimes the wife might try and defend the husband.

Exactly.

Yeah, so.

Yeah, and then my husband had to explain to the police officers that I'm heavily medicated

as a, you know, mental health challenges and this and that.

But they do remember that part.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So just, probably just the snapshots of here and there.

But maybe not all the details of what was actually happening.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

No, that's very unfortunate.

But so this is why we're doing this testimony is because we can see where you were at, you

know, the lowest of the lowest.

Yeah, it's just incredible.

But now we see you right here, Pastor Norrigal of Hope Church.

Yeah.

Now we want to know how God changed you from being that person to where you are right now.

That's what we really want to know that, that change and what God did in your life.

You know, that's a true testimony.

This is why we do the show.

It's because we want to tell people that there are gods in all of this, that God is going

to be there in the toughest situation to take you out and he will put you at a better place.

That's exactly why we do the testimony.

So we want to really hear that story of how God brought you out of all of these things.

Yeah, it's just all good to God, isn't it?

Absolutely.

It's not something that we can manufacture.

No.

And I even look back and go, how did God do that?

So as I explained, I was in a really bad mental state.

I do believe it was quite demonic at the time.

Not that I realized, but I look back and then definitely it was some demonic attachment

to it.

So I had a lot of anchor issues from my childhood abuse that hasn't been healed or resolved.

And that was all coming out in my state.

I was working in the film industry back then.

One morning I wake up just in such emotional mess and pain.

I was just, I was tormented really.

I was so tormented.

I remember getting up three in the morning, walking to my kitchen, I just fell on the

floor, started sobbing.

Because I just wanted this pain to stop.

And I verbalized it.

And I look back and I go, I don't even know why I verbalized it.

But that morning I actually said, can somebody stop this?

And then I was working on a film set that morning.

I went to the film set and I saw a friend whom I had been seeing for a long time on

the same film set.

It used to be in the same acting class.

There was two friends.

One, they were both Christians, which I didn't know.

So apparently a girl who was on the film set with me was praying over me without me knowing.

She told me later after I gave her after Jesus, she was praying over me that I will come to

know the Lord.

And the other friend who was a male friend, he actually looked a bit like Jesus.

Now I remember actually making comments to him on the film set, you look like a Jesus.

So anyway, so I got just an amazing thing on that day.

Someone stole my mobile phone and wallet on the film set.

So I was stuck on the film set.

Another friend that looked like a Jesus.

He came along to help me and then helped me sorting forms and reporting it and took me

out for a meal because my husband wasn't home.

And he was at that dinner table.

He started actually talking to me about his mom.

And it was a really interesting conversation because it came out of nowhere.

But he said to me, my mom had a mental health issue.

She had a depression and she killed herself when my brother and I were young.

And he said, I don't want your children to grow up without mom like we did.

And he did not know anything about my life.

So he knew nothing what was going on.

Nothing.

And he also didn't know the four months before that day, I was actually at the hospital emergency

after my suicide.

I pulled the guss into the car trying to kill myself.

Nothing he knew about it, but he actually started talking about his mom and their story.

And I said to him, why are you telling me this story?

And that's when he said, oh, you might think I'm strange, but I'm Christian.

And God is telling me to tell you this story right now.

Yeah, wow.

Because as an actress, you can cover up.

You can hide everything on the set.

But then you can't hide from the Holy Spirit.

So he had a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit.

I was also in a proper relationship outside of my marriage at the time.

And he actually named the person that I was involved with.

So God gave me a word of knowledge from heaven.

Yeah, you could not deny.

I could not deny.

And I was like, OK, so what is this?

So and this guy actually said to me, I know you can't help yourself, but I know that somebody

can help you.

So I'm thinking they got, OK, which doctor?

Which psychologist?

Which psychiatrist?

Tell me, because I tried them all.

I was seeing a psychiatrist.

I was seeing a psychologist.

I was seeing a GP.

I was heavily medicated.

They were talking my dup in my brain to possibly putting me in a mental institution in Brisbane.

It was that when God sent this guy to tell his testimony of his mom.

And when he told me that his mom died when he was nine and his brother was seven.

And my children, the two boys, we have two sons, they were nine and seven at that time.

And so I was like, OK, who is this person that's going to help me?

So he took me outside of the restaurant, pointed to the sky.

And I just looked up.

There was nothing there.

I was in the sky full of stars.

But my man, I looked up and saw the stars.

The stars start moving towards me.

I actually felt it.

I saw it moving towards me.

And I just kneeled on the ground, start weeping.

Wow.

And you know the scripture talks about his creation, the girl of my God.

Exactly that was that moment.

I just realized there was something out there that began in my soul.

And I didn't know what hit me.

I was on the footpath by the beach weeping and weeping and weeping.

And probably about 10, 15 minutes I was just sobbing and crying so that he did not lay

hands on me or prayed or anything.

Nothing.

He did not say, well, Jesus, nothing.

I just start weeping.

And after 10, 15 minutes I looked at him and said, I need to become a Christian.

I have no idea why.

And he even asked me.

My friend said, why do you need to become a Christian?

And I said, I don't know why.

But if I don't become a Christian tonight, I don't think I'll be alive tomorrow.

So that's how God just encountered me in supernaturally.

So we went back to my house to tell my husband what just happened.

My friend, the young, model looking nice looking boy.

So he knocks on the door.

My husband answers the door.

We're standing there.

And my friend said, we got something to tell you.

That looks wrong.

I know it did look wrong.

And I had a bad history.

But I said to my husband, OK, what's going on here?

And my friend said, Noriko wants to become a Christian.

So my husband was back in the church with our children at that time.

So he was saved?

Yeah, he was saved as a teenager.

But he met me and he has a meaning in the church.

But it was all of the mess that started happening in our life.

He was going back to church with children at that point.

So anyway, so my friend told my husband, she wants to become a Christian.

And my husband said, no, you're mocking me.

Oh, really?

He didn't believe it?

No, he said, you're not that kind of woman.

Really?

That's how bad I was.

That's sort of like when Peter and John are arrested and they're praying for him to be

released and they come and they knock on the door.

And they don't believe they're there.

No.

Yeah, so anyway, he was really skeptical.

But he did let us in.

And my friend said, no, she's really wanted to become a Christian.

And I said, yes, I do.

I had no idea actually what it meant.

But I said, no, I do.

I need to become a Christian tonight or I won't be alive tomorrow.

So then my husband said, are you going to church?

And I said, yes.

Are you going to read the Bible?

Yes.

Yeah, wow.

So my husband and a friend let me to the Lord in our living room.

And in the moment I prayed a sin as a prayer with them, I actually felt something come out

of me.

Wow.

And it was like a big air just coming out of me.

Wow.

Yeah.

And just in that moment my head start spinning.

And so I look back and I know there was demonic attachment or actually even possession.

Yes.

And that all came out with that.

Wow.

And my husband handed me his Bible that night.

Yeah.

I said, are you going to read this?

I've never read English books until that night.

Oh, wow.

I opened it.

I couldn't stop reading it.

Really?

All night.

I was just staying up reading.

All night, crying.

Every page I flipped, the Holy Spirit just started talking to me.

And I'm sobbing and I'm crying.

And then just got to start doing a renewing of mind, bit by bit.

Wow.

So just before that happened, I was actually diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

Okay.

So psychiatrists told me that I would never be cured.

I just had to be medicated, learn to cope with my condition for the rest of my life.

So we were actually in a state of hopelessness really.

My husband was like, okay, do I need to have this for the rest of our life?

Yeah.

What's going to look like for our children?

His mom not functioning.

But more and more I received a Christ that God just started doing a renewing of my mind,

giving me new identity as a daughter of the King.

Start doing some healing works of my traumas, abuse, just a bit by bit, layers by layers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then really start taking a place.

Yeah.

But I remember actually praying and I just really said to the Lord, I don't want to go

back where I came from.

I don't ever want to cross that line ever again.

So that was my benchmark to never go back to where I was in my mind or in my behavior.

And I made a commitment to the Lord for, I guess, start cleansing and purifying my life

as well.

Yeah.

So that was my seven years healing journey followed after that.

So it was not just overnight.

Everything was sorted.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was abandonment issues, rejection issues, impact of abuse.

All of that need to be healed over the seven years going through both Christian Psychologist

counseling but also prayer ministry receiving that.

Yep.

A bit of deliverance, of course, comes with it.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

It was a bit of a journey and it was like you make advance maybe three steps, one step

back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And time to time you just feel like you haven't progressed in any way and the devil come and

try to tell you nothing has changed.

You're still insane.

Yeah.

You're still mentally unwell.

Yeah.

And so it was like a mind game that's happening.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it was just a bit.

I guess one of the things, sorry.

Yeah.

And when we, or Christians typically hear an amazing testimony like this and the transforming

power of God like on a night like the night you got saved and that we tend to think that

well it's just all smooth sailing from here.

That's never the case.

No.

Really.

That's when we start growing roots and start addressing real issues and it's like there's

a work that starts beginning then.

And like what you said, like three steps forward and then one step back.

And the moment we take that step back and we feel like we've failed, Satan's there to

just jump on and ride us and try and bring us back to where we were.

But I think from what I heard that the key was you made that decision.

I'm never going back to where I was.

And I think if anything speaks volumes, it's that.

Sort of like with Daniel, it says that he decided in his heart that he wasn't going

to defile himself and it was that decision then that led him to be the man of God at

that time.

And I guess the same thing for yourself is that that decision, you're never going to

go back to where you were.

Trial and tribulation never kept you down.

That may have knocked you over, but by the grace of God always able to get back up and

continue in His grace.

Definitely.

So that's just incredible.

Yeah, and really understanding it's not by trying harder that we get renewed or transformed.

It's by the power of the gospel.

It's by the power of the gospel and His truth.

We started exposing the lies of the enemy that has been, I guess, keeping us in the

enemy's camp.

Yeah.

So it's one by one identifying all those false belief that was in me and God just highlighting

and illuminating to me and learning to apply the Word of God over my life, not just as

a knowledge, but living a theology.

We say we can think.

A revelation.

Yes.

So I think that was my process and it still is a process.

Yeah.

You know, even recently I was actually doing a ministry into the trauma healing areas and

that actually triggered me something that I didn't even know that I haven't processed

yet.

Really?

I did receive a ministry just recently myself because I identified it.

As soon as I identified it, I said, I can't leave it there.

I need to actually deal with it now so that we don't give the enemy a foothold.

So I do believe in sometimes we as a Christian can have so much knowledge of the Word, but

not living the Word.

Very true.

That's a very very true.

Right?

And it's such a big gap, such a big gap.

We can talk about Jesus not knowing Jesus intimately.

We can be in a church every week and not encountering His presence and it's so easy to do.

So that's just been my journey and my passion really.

Like just, I love studying of the theology and the Bibles and all that, but if you can't

leave out the theology, really it's just information.

Exactly right.

And that's where you can, the difference between someone that ministers information and another

one that ministers life.

Like I got no doubt that this testimony is going to impact so many people in such a positive

way just because of the relationship you have with Christ.

It brings life to wherever we go.

It's nothing special about us, but the beauty that He brings inside of us.

It's just incredible.

And no one, no one is too far gone for Jesus.

He ministered to the prostitute, tax collectors.

He went to them, ate with them, sat with them, spoken with women at the well.

That's Jesus that we have.

Sometimes we feel like we need to be perfect or we need to be a better before we can come

to God.

But I think God wants us to bring us as we are, broken as we are.

And I just love that about His love that I never experienced that in my upbringing from

my dad.

You know, so coming into the God's family and experiencing that love of Jesus through,

not just in my life that we go about with one another, the fellowship.

That just really helped me in my healing journey.

So I'm really passionate about people being in a fellowship in person.

I know online is great and then it's very convenient.

But if you're not in a fellowship, you're not going to grow in your personality or in

the character of the Christ.

If you don't have somebody to love, you're not going to learn how to love like Jesus.

So it's just had a lot of layers in my journey.

One of actually quite demonic things actually happened.

Shortly after I got saved, I had a dream.

I dream a lot.

Okay.

But I had a dream and in my dream, I saw the big white dragon appear to me.

Wow.

Wow.

And the dragon actually spoke to me.

I was standing in front of the dragon and the dragon said to me, you belong to me.

Oh, wow.

And I said, no, I belong to Jesus.

Yeah.

Be gone in the name of Jesus and the dragon disappeared and I woke up from the dream.

Really?

So I thought, okay, what was that?

Yeah.

It's like, oh, my mom in Japan, I said, mom, I saw this white big dragon in my dream.

I don't know where it came from.

And then she told me the story.

I was dedicated to the Shinto temple as a newborn baby.

Really?

And the Shinto temple's gods is a white dragon.

No way.

Wow.

Yeah.

So, you know, sometimes we just see as a literal cultural practice.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Especially coming from something like Japan, we have many of those things.

Dedicating baby at the temple is actually a normal thing.

Oh, wow.

We don't think it's special implication today.

Yeah.

But only when I came to know the one true God, of course, the demonic things manifested

in my life trying to get me back there.

So I had to actually, I went back to Japan that year and I had my mom's past is going

through prayer ministry to deliver me from that, to just renounce it.

All the ties with the temples to anything that even without me knowing there was in

agreements, I had to go and cut everything off.

Wow.

It really affected me so much to the point it was appearing in my dream.

Wow.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

So I'm very passionate when I see the international people coming to our church.

It's called like, okay, we all need to actually look into the enemy is starting a bloodline

as well.

Yeah.

What is that in there?

You can't explain, but you just know something's not right.

Yeah.

So that's been also part of my journey quite heavily.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's really how with all this negative upbringing, it's through the grace and power

of God, it's equipped you to not only see yourself delivered, but then just help so

many people.

Yeah.

I mean, let's look at the name of this church, Hope Church.

I don't think there's a better name to be honest.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Like if anything speaks hope, it's your testimony in Christ.

So yeah, that's just incredible.

Yeah.

I just, I feel very encouraged from hearing your testimony because you know, there's,

I can say that I really, really understand the situation you've gone through because

there's some parts of your testimony I've had in my life and I had to deal with and

I can understand that it's not easy.

And I mean, I look at Justin, who's also the senior pastor for Hope Church, who's your

husband and what he had to endure was truly remarkable.

Yeah.

And you know, what I see is that forgiveness, that grace, that, you know, I'm trying to

think from his, you know, being him and thinking, if I was him, would I be able to do that?

Yeah.

Well, the grace on his life as well.

Yeah.

And I think definitely in love of Jesus, in his cup was overflowing to my life because

he also decided to go back to the Lord in his relationship with him.

So when everything just went really bad, his go-to was God and God has spoken to him

in that moment.

He actually told me, we had termites in our house in a wall.

Okay.

Yeah.

And then he discovered he could hear it and he pushed the wall and the wall just crumbled

really.

And at that point, Holy Spirit spoke to me to say, this is how you build your life.

Wow.

And he said he just fell on the floor, start weeping.

And God spoke to me from this day and always, you will build your life on the rock.

Oh, wow.

That's when he went back to church with the children.

Yes.

He started praying.

He was reading a Bible, gay.

So he had his journey of returning to the Lord through the mess.

And I just look back and it's just such an amazing God we serve.

There's nothing he wastes that we go through, even the hardest thing we go through in our

life.

He's still used for his glory.

Yeah.

He's still used for his purpose.

So when we were asked to take over this church as a senior pastor, so we were associate

pastor for like over 10 years.

And then our founding pastors asked us to take over church.

We looked at the date of the church being founded so over 30 years ago.

It was a very week that Justin, I came back from Japan.

The church opened.

No way.

Yeah.

So that to us was a confirmation.

Yeah.

Even though I didn't know the Lord and my husband was not walking with the Lord closely

at the time.

Yeah.

God ordered us so what was come in 27 years later.

Yeah.

The God knew that we will take over church.

Yeah.

You know, so I just look back and go, what an incredible God we serve.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Wow, that's incredible.

Yeah.

And just, you know, your story just never fails to make me so happy and gives me so much hope,

honestly.

Yes.

It's just, there's so many aspects from your story that I can personally learn from, you

know, the forgiveness aspect, you know, the grace and so many things I learned from.

And I'm sure when our viewers are watching this, they, you know, we can never understand

the entire situation, what you exactly went through, what your family went through, you

know, just because this goes on for like an hour, the podcast, and we're saying a story.

But this, we have to understand this happened within a certain amount of time and there

was so much ups and downs.

And we just, we cannot imagine that, you know, how God can change one person.

Like for me, it's just, I'm like, wow, the story is amazing.

Like how, you know, this is a true testament of how God can change.

And as I said, when starting of the podcast, from where you were, your bottom low to where

you are right now as a, you know, pastoring this church, it's incredible.

And I thank you for, you know, being so candid and being so open about your story because,

you know, a lot of people don't want to go into specifics of the story because, you know,

you being a senior pastor, you'll be like, I don't want people to think this way about

me.

But what you've done is actually been so open about your story and you've let, you know,

people actually live through what you've lived through.

And this shows the love Christ has for us.

And I'm truly so grateful for you to be in the show, to, you know, share with us this

thing.

Definitely.

Unfortunately, we don't have much time.

But thank you again, Noriko, for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you so much.

And what we like to do towards the end of the show, we give you some time to look into

the camera, or you can also tell us, but preferably the camera, send a message out to the people,

what do you feel God's placed in your heart to tell them.

And we like to also have you pray for our show and what we do after you, you know, share

a bit of your message with our viewers so you can go ahead and do that now.

Sure.

Sure.

Yeah, I want to show you the Jermai 2911, which is actually what our church is funded

on.

I love that scripture.

So the Jermai 2911, I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans not to harm

you, but to prosper you and to give you hope in the future.

And that promise spoken through Prophet Jeremiah was giving to God's people when they were

in exile.

They were not in a good place.

They were actually in the enemy's camp.

And as far as history concerned, at that point, nobody has returned from exile.

So when God gave the promise of the future plan of hope, he was actually speaking, he's

about to do something impossible.

So that's always to me the encouragement.

And we speak that over our church and anybody comes through our church as well.

Regardless of where you are right now, whether you're in an enemy's camp or in a hard place,

God still has a plan for your life.

God still has a plan for your life and his plan is a good plan.

His plan is future and hope through Jesus Christ.

So I just want to encourage anybody watching this, might be going through a difficult time,

hang in there, don't give up because God is in control and he hasn't forgotten about

any of us and he's at work where we can't see and we can't feel it.

He's making a way behind the scenes.

So yeah.

I mean, that's incredible, absolutely incredible.

We thoroughly love this podcast.

This is why we do what we do to hear stories like this every day and testimonies that God

uses a lot of people to bring out his love and then we truly enjoy it.

So thank you Noriko again.

Thank you.

We'd like you to pray for us and we can end our show then.

Yeah.

Okay, let's pray.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you.

We just want to say we just thank you.

We firstly and mostly thank you for your love for us, Lord.

God is saying to you that you love us so much.

You sent your one and only son to us.

And God, we are so grateful for the forgiveness we receive, Lord, through Jesus Christ.

We are so grateful, Lord, that even when we go through a difficult time, you are still

in control.

You are still in charge, Lord.

So God, I just thank you for this podcast, your Lord.

Thank you that this is not just a good idea, but I believe this is a God idea, Lord.

So God, you may use this show to spread the power of the gospel.

And even as the people are listening to this, pray, Lord, I just pray that you will just

turn the lights on in the darkness, Lord, to just agree and show yourself and reveal

yourself to the people who are listening to this, Lord.

And we just thank you that may your name be glorified and lifted high through this show

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you again, Narkah, for being in our show.

Thank you for having me.

No, that's all good.

And thank you everyone for joining us on another episode of Real Talk Friday.

And I'm sure we have great testimonies coming your way, and we're going to try our best

to bring you an amazing testimony every Friday.

Thank you again, and can't wait to see you guys on our next episode of Real Talk Friday.

As we conclude our episode of Real Talk Friday, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all

our listeners for joining us on this enlightening journey.

But our journey doesn't end here.

Join us every Friday as we continue to uncover the real stories of real people, where authenticity

intersects with spirituality in profound ways.

Together we'll navigate the complexities of life, finding inspiration and hope in the

remarkable narrative shared within the walls of Logan City Christian Church.

Thank you for tuning in, and until next time, may your faith journey be filled with grace,

understanding, and the unbeboring presence of God.

Stay tuned for more Real Talk every Friday on Real Talk Friday.