Real Talk Friday - Laurie Thomsen

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.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Real Talk Friday.

I'm so glad you guys could join us and we are so thankful for your support.

Thank you again for the views, comments and you know, just giving us that praise report

really helps us do so much for you and just boosts our confidence.

That's what it is.

Yeah.

Thank you again.

And I would like to say that we have a new guest in the studios today and we thank him

because he came back again to do a full recording.

Initially, we had a bit of a technical difficulty and we did the full recording and nothing

recorded.

But you know, we can do it again, but this time we'll press record that kind of scenario

that happened.

But we thank him for being here.

As usual, I'm going to give it to Gus and he can introduce our new guest.

Hi everyone.

Welcome back again.

So we have Laurie.

He's a good friend of ours.

Been at church for a while now.

10 years, I think you mentioned.

Yeah, a bit over 10 years.

A leader in our church, a guy that really helps a lot of our congregation out as well.

A very busy man.

Yeah.

You're retired, but not retired.

R-E-T-Y-R-E-D.

There you go.

You've been retreaded.

Yeah.

So a man of God, a man that really keeps busy and puts the time that he has into people,

into God's church, into the ministry.

And not just this ministry, other ministries out there as well.

So yeah, welcome Laurie.

It's fantastic to have you.

Thanks Gus and Ron.

Yeah, well welcome.

As I said, and we're so glad you could join us again.

You know, we know a bit of your story from our last failed podcast, but we were really,

really touched by your story.

And I just really hope that this podcast that we're doing again can bring out the same exact

story because we were really touched.

Yeah, no, it's great.

As Gus said in our previous podcast, Notebook 3.

It was yeah, like the Notebook 3.

Yeah, it was really good.

So we'll start off again.

And just want to know a little bit about your childhood, where you grew up, and you know,

things that you would like to share about your childhood that is significant to you

and you know, in terms of your relationship with God and everything.

So give it up to you now.

Yeah, well, I was raised in a Roman Catholic church family.

And I was one of six kids, a second eldest.

So there was girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy.

And mum lost a couple a lot in the middle and at the end.

So but anyway, we all grew up together.

And mum and dad were just full on committed Catholics.

And consequently, I became an altar boy and in the middle of winter, seeing this white

stuff on the side of the ground going, that looks interesting.

I was riding my bike to be on doing Walter Boyer at the church at six o'clock in the

morning, which wasn't my favourite time.

And I touched this leaf and it just snapped in half and it was that cold, that frost,

white frost.

So I never forgotten that.

Even with your gloves and your jackets and everything, you were freezing.

But that's nothing what we get here in Queensland compared to other places in the world, obviously.

No, that's right.

So anyways, I was raised, then went to the Christian Brothers from grade four on.

And so that was an interesting experience.

That was schooling, was it?

Yeah, schooling.

Okay.

From grade four through to year 10 these days.

They called it junior in those days.

Okay.

Yep.

So yeah, I started year 11 and as a result of my year 10 results, I was given an offer

to join the Commonwealth Bank.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

So, but yeah, so that's pretty much the grounding spiritually.

Okay, that's great.

From my background.

Yeah, yeah.

So it was very strong, very committed, 100% committed.

Yeah, I guess that would have great benefits in a home really.

Like you say Catholic, but that God influence a lot of biblical principles.

The godly biblical principles were there.

That's for sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But not so much on a foundation of salvation, being born again, but at least it'd be good.

More on a...

Morally.

A strict basis.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that's the right word.

Yeah, yeah, no, no, yeah.

Yeah, fair enough.

Yeah, you had to conform sort of thing.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

So you learnt what to do and you made sure you did it or else.

Yeah.

No, that's so good.

Yeah.

I want to know more of your relationship with God.

Where did you see, and like for example, what did you think of God when you...

Was he like just this supreme being up there or was there like a relationship you had with

him when you knew the word of God and there was a relationship you started having with

him?

When I was about 13, there was all...in the Catholic system, you had the Rosary and the

Navinas and all these different things they had on from time to time and Lent and you

had to say the Rosary as a family each night all during Lent for that six weeks.

Yeah, okay.

And I heard this song on the hit parade, Telephone to Glory.

And it goes something like this.

Telephone to Glory, oh what joy divine, oh to feel the current moving on the line.

I can't remember some words.

But then you can talk to Jesus on the royal telephone.

Yeah, yeah.

And that song at 13 years of age just witnessed in my gut.

Yeah, wow.

And after that song, I could not pray to Mary or Joseph or any of the saints or anything

only to Jesus on the royal telephone.

So and I didn't consider it prayer, I considered it talking to Jesus.

Which was more relational rather than...I felt connected rather than out there and I'm

here, separated sort of thing.

So yeah, so that right at 13 years of age that happened to me which was good but I was

still in the Catholic system all the way through.

But it's incredible how God will reach out through certain different avenues.

Oh, He meets us all where we're at.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It's just incredible.

Yeah, it doesn't matter.

The Catholic people, they love Jesus.

They love God.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And they are in a strong relationship with Him.

But at the same time, having learnt what I learnt now, this is more of a...God's more

of a loving God with grace and mercy whereas in the feeling I had in that system was it

was compulsion.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Yeah, no, too easy.

Yeah, wow.

That's a beautiful, beautiful story.

You know, I really love how you said, you know, God meets you where you are.

And that's a similar story to me.

You know, He met me where I was and the time that I wasn't my best, He met me there.

We're all the prodigal sons until we start listening to Him, aren't we?

Yeah, that's true.

So let's fast forward a bit and tell us about your story because from our last podcast,

we are so fortunate to know your story through our last podcast.

You had a beautiful story with your wife and we want to know how you and your wife met

and how God, you know, worked on your relationship because I think that's...to me that was very,

very good.

So when I was 16 and got this job in the Commonwealth Bank, I started being the first one in the

family of all the kids to actually get a job.

Yeah, right on.

That helped dad and mum very, very much.

Yeah, okay.

Because half my wage went on board.

Oh, wow.

Half.

50%.

Think of that all you kids out there.

So, but anyway, that was what was needed in the family at that time.

So anyway, I decided I got my first FJ Holden and a bit of freedom and that was the first

car in the whole family.

Oh, really?

Oh, wow.

Yeah, mum and dad never had a car.

Dad was in the railway as an engine driver and we went by rail and bus everywhere or

walk or cycle.

Yeah, wow.

Yeah.

So yeah, so that was our reality growing up.

With six kids on one salary, that would have been a hard row.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So dad was always working shift work as much as possible to get as much as he could.

So I admire him for what he did and what he knew.

He was a good dad.

Yeah, yeah.

So, and mum was a good faithful mum as well.

Yeah, that's incredible.

So yeah, very good people.

Yeah.

And I guess, sorry to interject there, but I remember when we interviewed Mike Corrie

with his prison ministry, he was saying how on Mother's Day where pretty much all the

Mother's Day cards would be bought and sent out by the criminals.

But on Father's Day, they'd barely sell any cards, Father's Day cards.

Wow.

Yeah.

And so we just think of the blessing of even though you were just telling us of how financially

it was tough and missed out on, like say, someone might have had a card that you knew

but you guys, you know.

At the end of the day, having a great father and a great mother is such a huge step into

living a successful life.

Yeah, I remember dad actually sitting down at the kitchen table with the newspaper and

going through all the different supermarkets and getting all their specials and writing

out lists for each of us to go and do.

So one would go this way, one would go that way.

We'd all have our list to go to various different shops to get all these specials to help manage

and be a good steward of what he had.

So I realise that now it was good stewardship but it was essential.

So yeah, that's what dad was very diligent at doing.

And that's a great...

Very smart man.

He wanted to be an engineer but never got the opportunity.

Oh, right.

So but he was in the railway for 43 years.

Wow.

Great career.

Yeah.

Yeah, wow.

Went through from firemen to steam train driver to diesel driver to electric train driver.

Oh, wow.

He was one of the first four commissioned in Queensland for the testing of the electric

trains.

Really?

Wow.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So good.

I like what you said about Mike Corey.

And something you added also in that podcast is honouring your parents with a promise.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

That's very significant.

We all must remember that.

Absolutely.

And we can see you doing great things now and we just know where it's come from, you

know, that honouring and the blessing from your parents that have brought you so far

here.

And...

They were very diligent with what they knew.

Yeah.

And it's funny because me knowing you for 10 plus years, I can definitely see the diligence

and the attention to detail, the stewardship, all those sort of things like just...

And faithfulness is a word that comes through.

They were always faithful to what they believed.

Yeah.

And to their family and to everything that they committed to.

Yeah.

So good.

Such simple things but important and powerful things for life.

Oh, solid character.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, that's fantastic.

Oh, amazing story.

Yeah.

So...

So coming back to my wife...

Yeah, yeah.

That's where we were.

Yeah.

As a result of the getting the job, obviously, I had some money and had some time to do some

things and start to live my life instead of being the protected little boy, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

So I started to spread my wings and my mother's brother used to do ballroom dancing.

So I just somehow got to hear about Sandy Robinson's ballroom studio on a Saturday morning.

So I started going along there.

And that was a blast.

I enjoyed that.

Yeah, yeah.

You had a ball, eh?

I express music through my feet.

Yeah.

Through my body.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So...

So, yeah, I got into that.

After about six months, I started going to the night sessions.

Oh, yeah.

You know, Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Yeah, OK.

Bub Pellegrini's in Queen Street.

I had a big dance studio there.

So anyway, we were only there a short time and I got invited to go to Sandy Robinson's

place over at New Farm.

And he had a big ballroom underneath his house.

Yeah, wow.

So all the posts were pulled out, girders everywhere and just this beautiful timber

floor laid and it was just magnificent.

Yeah.

But when you went first in, it was like a garage with probably three or four bay opening.

Yeah.

And then it came in underneath and it was all under the whole house, a big old Queenslander

right on the waterfront at New Farm.

Wow.

So, but yeah, and this was just amazing for me.

So I was so eager.

I got there really early and I was first there and the opening was there but no one else

was around so I just sat in the back and the lights weren't on.

It was dark.

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden, here's this gorgeous looking woman strutting through the door.

And I go, oh my goodness, look at that.

And so yeah, I was besotted right there.

Yeah, yeah, wow.

And I could only see her in silhouette but the hourglass figure and everything, she was

amazing.

Yeah, wow.

But so yeah, so things got started to happen and people started to get to know each other.

I'd never seen her before.

And most of the people hadn't seen each other before because they come from different class

areas.

Right, right.

But the reason they wanted us to come there was to pair us up for competition work.

So God had his hand in it and made Jean and me partners.

Yeah, yeah, wow.

So I liked that.

Yeah, I could imagine.

She didn't like that.

But that's okay.

Just a bit inconvenient.

Yeah.

But we just happened to be the right height for each other and everything worked out fine.

Okay, so yeah, matches by.

You've got to have your hip height and everything.

Match made it happen, doesn't it?

So yeah, so cut a long story short, we did the competition work for a while and everything.

But she was going out with all these other guys all the time.

And I was being faithful and pick her up and take her home and all that sort of stuff.

But nothing was happening.

So anyway, cut a long story short, she went to bargaining with another boyfriend from

the studio and hurt her hip so she couldn't dance, hurt her leg actually and couldn't

dance for a while.

So we had to go to this and it was probably about a good 18 months to two years that that

went on.

Wow.

So that I, at all that time I was besotted with her.

And I was praying to God and saying, God, turn her heart to me please.

Yeah, wow.

You know, turn her heart to me.

But nothing was happening two years down the track.

So I thought, I'll take someone else out.

So one of the other girlfriends that she was associated with, she was over Chimsideways,

I took her to the movies and it was nothing, no connection.

So anyway, just after that we had to go to a competition at the Rylance studio in Toowoomba.

And so Mum had an old Ford console, my FJ was off the road.

So we jumped in this four cylinder Ford console, big heavy car with a little motor.

Not like the FJ.

So yeah, so I was taking both Gene and this other girl up for the competition.

So on the way up, the girl I took to the movies sat in the front and Gene sat in the back.

And soon as they got there, they disappeared and I didn't see them for the rest of the

day virtually.

Oh wow.

And that was from 10 o'clock in the morning till 10 o'clock at night.

Oh wow.

For all this studio.

See them on the dance floor but not connecting, not sitting with each other or anything.

So I was like the war flower, you know.

But anyway, so we jumped in the car to go home and Toowoomba had this pea soup fog.

And we didn't see it until we got to the top of the range.

And as soon as you got to the top of the range, here's this thick fog that was just, oh man,

you could probably only see about 20 or 30 feet in front of you.

And so we're going down this windy mountain road.

And anyway, when they got in the car to go home, the other girl that was in the front,

she said, I'm getting in the back and I'm going to sleep.

So Gene had to sit in the front.

And bench seats in the front.

Oh lucky you.

And she's sitting right against the door.

And as soon as we get to the top of the range, she sidles over and puts her arm around me

here and up on my shoulder.

And I go, this is good.

And then she says, I was so naive then.

She says, if I told you you had a good physique, would you hold it against me?

And I said, no.

She looked at me and says, are you sure?

And I thought for a minute and finally got it.

Yeah, so that's where God turned her around.

Yeah, wow.

After two and a half years of praying and asking God to turn her heart.

And that two and a half years would have been an emotional rollercoaster.

Agonizing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

Gut wrenching.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

I could only imagine.

That's so good.

And then actually, in that two and a half years, were you like dead set about her?

Like, this is the one I'm going to marry.

This is the one that I have my future with.

Or was it a time where you were not sure?

Or was it that you just kept on praying God, asking him for it?

I just kept praying and thanking him for it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you know, I've learned now where I'm at in my life now, there's a thing in the Bible

that says, pray with prayer and supplication, put your petitions to God.

Yeah.

And I've only just recently looked up what supplication really mean.

It means really digging in there and earnestly saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want this.

I'm going to do whatever it takes to get this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's what supplication means.

Yeah.

Oh, that's true.

It also reminds me.

It's not just a light prayer that just, oh yeah, I'd like this God.

Yeah.

No, you're, it's like birthing it really.

Yeah.

And I think that's cool because it's also a parable that talks about it where you keep

on knocking.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And you know, your friend will get irritated and finally give you what you want to just

let you go on your way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I think that's so important being, you know, being like a prayer warrior and you

know, keeping on that set series about what you want in terms of relationship or anything

in life.

I think you keep on asking God.

And you know, unfortunately, as I said, even in my last podcast, we are the kind of generation

that need things very quick.

Yeah.

Like a fast food restaurant.

Yeah.

But it just doesn't happen that way.

We have to keep on praying and God has its right time and everything will come at its

right time.

And He prepares us as well.

Oh yeah.

True.

But the thing I've learned also is all our dreams, hopes and desires, God has given them

to us.

He's planted them in us.

We're the soil and He's the provider of the seed and everything.

Yeah.

And the only dream, hope and desire we personally have is God given.

When I realised that it wasn't mine and I was asking Him to be my helper, no, when I

realised that He was in control and His timing is perfect.

But at the time also, I wasn't ready to receive what I was asking for at the time and I had

to grow a bit to come to that point.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then, and maybe the other person had to grow a bit too.

Yeah.

But God's timing is perfect.

No, that's...

I've learnt that.

Yeah.

But I didn't appreciate that at the time.

No, no.

Yeah, yeah.

I could imagine but that makes perfect sense.

And how many people would have given up or, you know, who knows what could have happened

when it was still the plan.

Yeah, well, that's persisting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I mean, that's the passion God plants in you and that's your purpose in life.

Yeah.

And it fits in within His will.

When His will and your plan and your commitment to it are in alignment, it's only a matter

of time.

Yeah.

We've just got to learn the patience, persistence and perseverance.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The things we don't naturally have.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Well, we must pray about it.

But thank you again for that story.

That's beautiful.

Because you know, as you said in the last podcast that didn't get recorded, it's worthy

of a notebook movie again.

Yeah.

Well, this is just the start.

So yeah.

Yeah.

There's so much more to go.

Yeah.

So let's continue your story with you and your wife and how you got into ministry and

everything.

So let's take it from where you stopped and want to know more about how God led you to

ministry.

So from the time I met her, I was about 17.

So it took four years of going together after, well, four years of knowing her, two years

of chasing her.

Okay.

Yeah.

Or trying to woo her and getting God on the job.

And then another two years before we got married.

Okay.

So we got married, moved to Bundaberg.

I was in the Commonwealth Bank and they transferred me there at 21.

And so we're both 21 year olds in Bundaberg with no family support or anything.

Yeah.

Wow.

Totally in an area that we'd never seen or been before.

But we make the most of everything and fit it in and it was really good.

Yeah.

So beautiful place, Bundaberg.

Yeah.

So I was involved in tennis and did a bit of rugby league then.

Yeah.

Cool.

And because tennis was my passion, I got an injury and I thought tennis I can play all

my life.

Rugby league's very short life.

Yeah.

That's right.

So I still enjoy it.

Yeah.

But I certainly have that competitive nature.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, definitely.

And spirit.

So, you know, Gene used to like me and go and play tennis for fun.

I was trained to play tennis to win.

To win.

Absolutely.

And they are two totally different mentalities.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

So, but she wasn't a sports person at all.

She was a very, very talented seamstress and dressmaker.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yep.

So she had great skills.

She worked for Deon's Bridal Wear, which was the top bridal company in Brisbane, Queensland.

Yeah.

Wow.

And the boss would only let her make the gowns for the salesmen to take as samples to sell

their wares.

Yeah.

Wow.

So that sample has to be bang on.

Her work was just spot on every time.

Yep.

Later on she was working with her girlfriend who was a...and these two girlfriends all

met at Deon's.

One was a cutter and the other two were seamstresses.

So, but the cutter and the two seamstresses all worked and were lifelong friends all their

life until she passed.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The other two are still alive.

Yeah.

Okay.

So, yeah.

So, but she passed just before her 70th birthday.

Okay.

So she had good innings, but, you know, these things, we don't argue with God.

We just accept it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No.

Exactly.

And the other girls, they were just all hourglass figures and they used to have to get the bus

and walk down George Street to get to the sewing place, the workplace.

Yep.

And she used to tell us about all the guys on the building projects in this George Street

with the wolf whistles and then they'd go...

Play up to it.

Wiggle the hips a bit.

Strut their stuff.

Oh well.

Yeah.

We're all human.

Yeah.

That's such a good story.

I'll come into more of the time that you lost your wife and your dear friend, because I

feel like you have such a good story.

And if I look into that unfortunate moment that you lose your best friend, you lose your

life partner, my relationship with God, I would question it.

I'll be like, you know, I know that she had to go at some point, but it's why have you

left me alone without her?

I would have rather gone with her.

You know, these kinds of thoughts are very natural to come in.

I just want to know how you dealt with this situation and your relationship with God.

Was it hindered or was it...

Did you always question what happened, the tragedy?

Well that goes back to our journey of marriage, because in our marriage, like everyone, you've

got this culture and this culture and you're trying to make them work together, you know.

And you've got these habits and this one's got this habits, you know, and they clash

and you've got to work all that out.

So over a probably 15 year period, there was a bit of tick-tack-toe from time to time.

I think every couple has arguments from time to time and differences of opinion.

And we didn't have God's way of dealing with it.

So we actually...my wife actually was a visionary and a people person.

So she actually went out to...when we were in Bundaberg, we actually had a situation

where we were struggling financially and then Gene's brother actually said, get your butt

down to Brisbane with this...I want to show you a business.

Oh, okay.

So we...four and a half, five hour drive back from Bundaberg at that time.

So we did that and came down and found this direct marketing business.

So she actually got fired up with it.

I mean, on the stage.

I'm a banker.

And I'm a shy, introverted person at the time.

So that wasn't my bag.

But if she wanted to do it, I was prepared to support her.

So we went back to Bundaberg and we started this thing and...well, she started this thing

and I backed it and supported her and played the backdrop sort of thing.

My attitude was always, well, you go do it.

I'll do the paperwork and manage things behind the scenes sort of thing.

So anyway, cut a long story short, she dressed me up like in a safari suit, pink and grey

safari suit in the 70s, mind you, in a country town and dressed me up and trained me to do

this presentation of how the business worked for potential recruits.

And I knew it, this guy had trained me from Brisbane and I could do it verbatim.

Anyway, I got up there and I said, good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and looked at the person

in the front row and froze.

Oh, no way.

And they said I went so white, they thought I was going to fall over.

So the guy that trained me raced from the back and grabbed me before I did fall over.

Oh, no way.

And then that was my first experience of getting up in front of a group of people.

Really?

Scared the living daylights out of me.

See I never would have picked that with you because you do a lot of public speaking now

and everything like that.

Well, you can change.

You can learn.

Necessity is a great teacher.

But you know, it took a long time.

But I learnt a lot.

And God knew that I needed to learn all that and put me with her would bring that out in

me.

True.

Yeah, very true.

So she was not going to ever do paperwork or be a detailed person except in sewing and

creativity.

Okay.

But when it comes to people and intuitive and the compassion and the heart for people,

she had it in space.

And that was God's gift to her.

She put her with me and me with her to complement each other.

When we were into our Christian walk, we actually started going to Christian Outreach Centre

because Jean was watching these TV programs online.

So she changed to be a Catholic to become a, for us to get married.

But the instruction that she was getting from the priest up in Bundaberg didn't answer all

questions.

So anyway, we moved back to Brisbane with this business and we're in Barton and we're

just full on forgetting Christianity, forgetting religion, forgetting everything.

We're going full bore.

We're going to be prosperous.

Yeah, okay.

So we went down that track for a season and after about two or three years, I said to

her, I said, I don't know about you, but I just feel so dry and desolate on the inside.

I want to go back to church.

And she said, yeah, I've been thinking the same.

We lived at Barton at the time.

So the Barton Catholic Charismatic Movement was just the base, embryonic base in the Barton

Catholic Church, which we had no idea.

So we trotted off there on the Sunday morning and then met somebody and they invited us

to a Sunday night, which was the charismatic version of the Sunday night service.

And that was different.

That was just totally out of comfort zone.

I think, holy cow, what's all this?

But it was still within the Catholic Church.

So I'm thinking, okay, understand all this.

So anyway, we cut that long story short.

We went over to move to Barton and bought, not Barton, Hawthorne to buy our first house

and went to Peter's and Paul's, but we got introduced to a Casillo movement in the Catholic

Church, which was a short course in Christianity, Spanish word.

And it was a live in three day weekend where people testified as to what God had done in

their life and how they'd changed their life for the better.

And Jean wanted to do this, but they wouldn't let the women do it without the husband doing

it first.

So I was coerced into going to this, what do they say, the neck turns the head?

So anyway, I went to this one on long weekend, Australia Day weekend in 1974, just around

when the flood was.

And so I went to that at the Banyo Seminary where they trained the priests.

That was a very cold castle type place, with rocks and stones in the building itself.

Recession Freemasonry, right?

No, no, no.

Never got there.

Never got there at all.

Oh, that's good.

So anyway, at the end of that, you've got a little red book called The Fourth Day, and

that's the rest of your life, basically.

And so it then gave you instructions in this little red book, and it was almost like the

same shape as the old catechism that we used to learn.

And it gave instructions of how to have home meetings.

So we'd have a meeting with other people that were in our parish that had been to that

casillo type thing.

So it was like a home church type setup.

And we just did our own Bible study and everything, which up until then, in the Catholic Church,

we were told, don't read your Bible, you won't interpret it correctly, you've got to get

the priests' interpretation.

So that's how it was when I was growing up.

I don't believe it's that way today.

There's a lot of Bible study now.

And that's good.

Yeah, for sure.

But I think the Charismatic Movement has actually, or Pentecostal Movement has actually been

a catalyst for that.

So praise God for that.

Absolutely.

So we went through that, and then Jean was still not real good on the Catholic side because

she wasn't getting all our answers.

And she was asking me questions I couldn't answer.

I said, go talk to the priest.

So she talked to the priest.

At least she did everything.

She didn't sit back.

And then she started watching all these Christian programs on TV, you know, Freddie Price and

Hour of Power, Robert Shiller.

There was Clark Taylor with The New Way of Living, and that was in our own backyard.

So she decided, I'm going to go and check this out at West End days.

Just around the corner, really.

From where we were.

From where we were.

Yeah, yeah.

Not far.

Yeah, so anyway, I'm still with the Catholic side of things, and I'm just saying, hmm.

So I used to sit there with the Bible.

I've got my Bible.

And I used to sit there with these Christian programs and say to her, I didn't say it to

her, I'm saying to myself, I'm going to watch these with you.

And if these guys put a foot wrong by this word, I'm going to nail their hide.

So that was where I was coming from, you know, protecting my wife and trying to protect what

I'd been taught.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, but anyway, Freddie Price one day had on this TV program said, man is spirit and

soul and body.

And I go, what?

And here it is in the scripture, man is spirit and soul and body.

Three distinct functions.

And I go, ooh, okay.

Most of my Catholic teaching had said spirit and soul were interchangeable, virtually the

same thing.

Dichotomy.

And New Age says the same thing.

So, but it's not.

So that really shook me.

So I had my Bible, had the scripture, went off to them because I watched the programs

before mass time on a nine o'clock on a Sunday morning, and then I go off to mass.

Okay.

And then I saw the priest and...

You had your own questions.

Straight round after he's because to the sacristy where he changes.

And I knocked on the door and said, I was watching a Christian TV program this morning

and I was watching it in the Bible too.

And in the scripture, it says, man is spirit and soul and body.

Can you explain that to me, please?

Because I've always thought spirit and soul were...

Like the same thing.

Within the same thing.

Yeah.

Okay.

I don't have time now, but this guy's a senior priest.

He's a monsignor, which is one short of a bishop.

And I would have expected him to know the answer, but anyway, he didn't.

So I said, okay, well, check it out.

Give me the answer next Sunday.

So next Sunday, I went to communion and I give him the nod and he knows I'm coming.

And get round to the sacristy.

He's gone.

Oh, he just took off.

And I thought, ooh, okay.

And there was a school fight just after that.

So the week after on the Saturday.

And anyway, he was tall and I was a bit taller and we could see above the heads.

Okay, yeah.

And I saw him about 50 metres that way.

And he spotted me, but he pretended not to.

And I started making a beeline for him through the crowd.

When I got there, gone.

No way.

So I thought, but this stage we're going to Christian Outreach Centre and getting a lot

of teaching.

I still went to the Catholic Church for seven years.

Doing my duty.

And I'll do that on a Saturday night.

And then I go for two hours on a Sunday morning and two hours on a Sunday night to Christian

Outreach Centre because it was feeding me.

It was giving a new foundation.

And in that seven year period, I got enough biblical knowledge.

And then at the end of that, this guy in the church gave me a Crusader series of comics

put out by Jack Chick, which actually talks about this Dr. Alberto Rivera, who actually

was a Jesuit priest and got high up from Spain into the Vatican and got opportunity to study

in the Vatican.

And then he got ordained, someone gave him a King James Bible, which was not allowed.

It was heresy to have that, but he kept it.

And he used to compare everything the church was teaching with what the King James says

because he wanted to know how to convert them.

See, we all have our motivations, but God uses those to bring us around.

And his word is living.

And the truth sets us free.

And his word is the truth.

So anyway, he knows how to get us all.

He made us here.

He sure knows how to get us.

But anyway, so yeah, so these Chick publications.

And this guy had wrestled for six months before he'd given to me because he thought, oh, this

is going to shake history.

He was groaning within himself.

And he thought, oh, if he gets angry, he'll knock my block off.

Because he was a shorter guy.

Anyway, Saturday morning, we're sitting in bed, reading these four comics that he gave

us.

There was five, actually.

One was about the angel of light, which is how Satan comes as an angel of light.

And then there was Alberto, double-crossed, Godfathers, and the Four Horsemen.

And these are big-sized comics.

And it was good that they were in a comic form because picture and words together gave

it a better thing.

To read it in a book, I would never have done that.

Because I just hated reading anyway.

But I would happily read something that was true, like a real-life story, and had a purpose

for what I could use going forward.

But I was a slow reader.

But I had good comprehension.

So that was good.

So anyway, these comics, I was reading Alberto and double-crossed.

And Jean was reading the other two, which was more in-depth to what the Catholic thing.

And she's, I'm reading and just being straight reading.

And she's reading, going, waiting for me to explode.

Anyway, I finished the second comic.

And I said, that's it.

I'm going to see the priest.

So I put my feet on the floor.

And just about to get up.

And these words come to me.

No, don't go yet.

Read the other two.

And then go.

So we swapped.

And so all that morning, probably about four hours of it, we read these four comics.

At the end of the fourth comic, I didn't have to go and see the priest.

It was all fully covered and explained.

Now, if somebody read that that hadn't been through the Catholic or Anglican traditional

religion type setup, they would just not believe any of it.

It's just too much.

But because I had been through it, and I could identify with what they were saying, it really

made a lot of sense.

But God didn't give it to me until he had laid a new foundation.

And I made the mistake of giving those same comics to my parents without the foundation.

Oh, that didn't go down.

But anyway, so as a result of our Christian conversion, we changed completely.

That's when I left the Catholic Church after that seven years.

And just pursued biblical Christianity.

And my wife and I had these times where we'd spark up a bit.

And so we went through a marriage seminar called Marriage Plus by Ray Mosholder, put

that together over a 10-year period.

And it's in a book now.

You can get it online.

So this Marriage Plus covered what God says about marriage, what God says about divorce,

the role of the husband, the role of the wife, sex in marriage, finances in marriage, raising

children, and I think that's about it.

But each of the segments on the role of the wife and the role of the husband, there was

four tapes on that.

Tapes would be four CDs if you don't know what they are.

You couldn't put them in your iPhone.

So there was four and they were an hour each.

So there's in-depth teaching, which really just changed the course of our marriage.

And it gave us understanding of not clashing but complementing.

So we are together.

Why is he so different from me?

Why is she so different from me?

It's how we bring the differences to be a completion of each other.

When we understood that, that changed the whole course of our marriage.

Well it's sort of like gears are meant to merge together, not grind against each other.

Exactly.

Although there's a time when you get diamonds in the rough.

You've got to cut the facets and then polish them.

So God's cutting and fashioning us as we go by grinding on each other, etc.

Or chipping from each other.

So that's the way we visualised it.

So anyway, because of that transformation of our marriage, Greg Anderson in COC was

the assistant pastor then under Clark.

He actually asked us to do the marriage seminars of the Ray Mosholler material because we got

the whole manual on the whole deal.

So we did a whole series on that over about a three year period in the late 80s, right

up to about 1990 I think it was.

So we ran two of those seminars a year, which was over, I think it was about an eight or

ten week period.

But the marriage thing we learnt was the covenant relationship.

So we learnt about that and how we to complement and to complete each other.

Every time we went to go and do these seminars, the devil would push buttons in the universe

and there'd be an arcing up.

I could imagine.

Because the devil's never happy when he's not winning and he'll cause trouble any way

he can.

But God has got our back and we just stay true to the word and he brings us through.

So anyway, in these marriage seminars we actually got to the point of knowing the covenant relationship

and that Jesus was actually saying at the Last Supper a marriage proposal.

So the marriage proposal was at the Last Supper he was saying, unless you drink of this cup

you can't be part of me.

Well I've seen a little documentary movie called Before the Roth, W-R-A-T-H, and that

talks about the Galilean marriage ceremony and that enriched me.

I only got introduced to that here probably about five years ago.

Was it that long ago?

Yeah.

Wow.

That was amazing because of the marriage seminars we'd done.

And so yeah, so that was just rich.

To get back to the question of how God helped me with my wife passing, had to have that

background before I could answer that.

Because our marriage just got richer and richer and richer and it was just so good all the

way through.

We still had our differences but we didn't have anything.

We just time out, you know.

But at one stage when we're coming through that we're having a bit of a hark up and

the biblical teaching had been getting in there and we started to know what was going

on in the spirit realm.

And I can just see Jean there but behind her I could see these things in the air like little

Pac-Men, you know.

And they're gone.

And I could see them just pushing buttons in Jean and pushing buttons in me.

So there's the devil behind pushing our sensitivity buttons.

And I thought, whoa, you're mongrels.

Yeah, that's right.

So I said to Jean, stop.

I just saw this.

And she was in awe.

So that's what's causing our problems all the time is these devils behind the scene

pushing our sensitivity buttons and not willing, always wanting to be, this is what I want.

Well, it's not about I, it's about us.

And when you come to the us and under God, everything, God commands the blessing.

In unity, God commands the blessing.

So but the enemy is still there poking you.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

And so yeah, so right from that very time we signalled this time out.

If ever we got into this thing, we just, whoever recognised it first, timed out, could go away,

calm down, sit in a public place with a cup of coffee and talk through our issues biblically.

Yeah, yeah, perfect.

And that worked a treat.

Yeah.

So that was why Craig got us to do those seminars because he saw the difference.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So but anyway, because of that marriage, understanding the depth and what the marriage relationship

is about and what Jesus, when we're born again, we're actually accepting his betrothal offer

that he gave at the Last Supper.

Then with that knowledge and understanding, I was able to hand Jeanne over when it was

obvious she was going to pass to the Lord as her new husband because that's, we are

called the bride of Christ, the church is the bride of Christ.

So why are we the bride of Christ?

Because he's the bridegroom and we're going to be with him and that's what's going to

happen at the rapture.

Yeah.

So yeah, so I just said to Jeanne when it was obvious three days before she passed,

I just said to her, I said, honey, I said, you know, with the marriage seminars, it's

actually what we know from blood covenant and everything that Jesus is our husband and

you're going to go and be with him.

So I thanked her for being my wife in the natural and all the things that we'd grown

and learned together and then I just said, when Jesus comes, you just go and be happy

and everything will be fine here because God will be looking after it and I will too.

So it was emotional but at the same time she just was totally at peace.

She just rolled over and went to sleep and I sat back on the chair.

And with that sitting back on the chair, God popped a song in my head that I hadn't heard

since COC days for a long, long time and it was simply Jesus, lover of my soul, Jesus,

I will never let you go.

You fashioned me from the miry clay and this peace came over me.

So sure, I had plenty of crying time in the natural but it wasn't lasting and it wasn't

a long term grief process.

And God said, I've got things for you to do.

Amen, amen.

I guess bringing God into the, acknowledging God in your situation is and handing Gene

over to Christ.

We both acknowledge him as being sovereign.

And that sort of opens the door for God's grace in your life to be able to move forward.

Absolutely, absolutely.

I've experienced it amazingly.

Because I remember those times and just thinking, wow, Laurie just seems so strong.

So he's doing...

At peace.

Yeah, it really was miraculous to be able to know what you're going through, what had

happened and yeah.

God's love and grace basically.

The very first time I visited the grave afterwards, I just sat there and acknowledged her.

But the words came to me, she's not here.

And I had this vision of a dancing around heaven with Jesus.

Yeah, exactly right.

So, you know, there's nothing.

She's not there, she's in heaven.

Yeah, exactly right.

Amazing.

Thank you, Laurie, so much for your story.

Unfortunately, again, I wish we had more time.

But we are looking at another second episode where we can bring our guests back and they

can answer some of your questions or some of your comments.

We would love to have that.

And you know, we're here to ask questions and help you in your journey too.

But thank you again for your story because I think this is a very powerful story.

And a lot of people, you know, have marital problems or are facing problems within their

family that can hear your story that you've said today and give them hope to move forward

because it's not impossible.

Absolutely.

If everything's possible by God.

So thank you so much.

Once we put God on the throne of our marriage, it's like a triangle.

But you know, we're equal but God's sovereign.

And if we've got a difference of opinion, we just go to His Word and He'll give us the

answer.

That's right.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Would you like to pray for our viewers and us as a show?

Sure.

And most importantly, praying for people who've gone through the same grief of loss and people

who are having marital problems or having relational problems.

I think that's one of the focus of the prayer.

So would you like to pray for us?

Yeah.

One of the first things that God laid into me as a foundation was in Matthew 6.33, it

says, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Then all these things shall be added unto us.

So what are all these things?

All our dreams, hopes and desires.

That's what God wants to give us.

But we have to seek first the kingdom of God and do it His way.

Yeah.

Not like Jaco.

I did it my way.

Yeah.

Or I'm an individual.

So yeah, Father, in Jesus' name, we just give you all thanks.

We give you praise and we give you all the glory.

We thank you for your Son Jesus to pay the price, to set us free.

The blood covenant exchange of giving His robe of righteousness to us and Him taking

our sins and iniquities away from us and giving us the victory over those things and the devil.

As you said, resist the devil and he will flee and we do it in the name of the Lord

Jesus Christ who has won the victory.

And Father, we just ask you, Lord, in every marriage and in every grieving situation where

people have lost their partner, their lifelong partner, that they just have the knowledge

and that the Father is the loving Father and Jesus is the loving husband in Jesus' name.

And we just give you the praise, the glory and the honour that He's got us covered.

We just have to trust and rely on Him in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you again, guys, for joining us for our show.

I hope you enjoyed it.

It was a beautiful conversation with Laurie and we hope you join us for 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 narratives 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 unwavering presence of God.

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