A Conversation with JoAnna Burnett: HeavenEarth Church Stories

What would it look like to start a community that was really,

it's for the people like Jesus would be for.

Welcome to Heaven Earth Church.

I'm Ross Stackhouse, the founding pastor of Heaven Earth Church.

From the start, our heart has been to be a church for people who

don't fit neatly into church.

We want to meet people where they are and know their stories.

Because in every story, there is God's story.

And this podcast is just about that.

It's about inviting you into the stories of the people of Heaven

Earth Church.

So let's turn to the story.

Hello, good people, and welcome to the Heaven and Earth.

Heaven Earth Church podcast.

My name is Brad Miller, one of the producers and co hosts of the

podcast.

This is the podcast where we look to offer in some insights into

the people and what is happening at Heaven Earth Church

and Whiteland, Indiana.

And the thing that we love to do is get to know the people who

are part of the church.

And so we have great guests with us today.

Joanna Burnett, welcome to our conversation here this afternoon.

I'm glad to be here, Brad.

Thank you.

Awesome, awesome.

Well, Joanna, one of the things that we like to do just to

get to know the folks who are part of what we are about here at

Heaven Earth Churches, tell us a little bit about you in terms of

like, what's hometown for you.

Where are you from?

Fairland, Indiana.

In a cornfield.

In a cornfield.

Like most of us in Indiana, really.

But tell me a little bit about growing up in Fairland.

Deanna, what were some things you were involved with a little bit

about home life for you there?

Yeah.

So goodness.

Okay.

So grew up with my older sister Stacy, who's 10 years older

than me, and my little brother at that time, my only younger brother

Ross, and my dad, My father raised us out there in Fairland.

And we just, you know, sporting events, church every Sunday

and whether we wanted to or not and just, I don't know, a lot

of love out there in the Stackhouse home, but which is my

main name, by the way.

Yeah, very good, very good.

Well, so tell me one thing about growing up there that was just

a warm experience.

Maybe a place in your home that was kind of cool or a place

that you went that was kind of something that made you feel.

Feel good.

You know, that's a loaded question because there was so much

warmth and love in my.

In my home.

My father was amazing.

Not a perfect.

He wasn't perfect, but he was amazing.

Love was never an issue for us.

So everything we did, it seemed like There was always.

I mean, not to sound corny, but there was always a little bit

of love in everything we did.

I feel like we were just kind of a.

We were a joyful bunch.

I feel like my dad was always kind of a half class full kind of

type.

But I thought of a memory and it's funny you should ask this question

which I didn't know you were going to ask, but I thought of a

memory the other day because I took my two nieces and my nephew

to fly a kite.

Was it yesterday?

Friday night?

It was Friday night.

And I remember my dad would take us to the cornfield down the

street and we would fly kites in the cornfield.

So that's a good memory of like, just, just my brother Ross

and my dad and I.

My sister was 10 years older, you know, so it was just Ross and

I most of the time.

And so.

But okay.

Like a place.

I don't.

I guess I can't really name a place.

We spent a lot of time at the school.

We were always in activities.

So Triton Central and Triton Middle School and elementary shout

out to you.

It was a, it was a great, it was a great school.

We just spent a lot of time there, maybe, you know, with my aunt

and uncle or my grandma.

A lot of school activities, this type of thing.

Yeah, yeah.

Just brownies and Girl Scouts and sporting events and show choir

and all the things.

So Ross and I were pretty active.

So it's hard to really pick like a place in the area that we

would per se go and might not.

Get kind of a really good, good childhood.

Kites in the cornfield.

I love that imagery.

That, that, that, that's really, really cool.

I do too.

Yeah.

Tell me a little bit about your faith journey, Joanna.

What I mean by that is some sense about your church life growing

up and, or some sort of a how faith evolved for you.

That's definitely a loaded question, but I'm excited to talk

through it.

So.

Grew up at New Life United Methodist Church in Fairland, Indiana,

and of course, and very traditional Methodist Church.

And I have so much love for that church.

Raised me up in such wonderful ways.

I mean, there were ladies in that church who sewed us pillows.

And for the kids or when I went to college, they'd send cards.

And I think those were just really big gifts in that church.

I can't say I wanted to go every Sunday, but it was an expectation

of my father.

So it was just like, if you're alive, I don't care how much you

Slept last night.

I don't care.

You know, we're not going to talk through it.

You know, we're going to church.

And my dad led the example because, you know, he never missed

a Sunday of church.

And we didn't always want to go.

You know, as kids, you just, there's just other things you want

to do.

But Ross and I go and sit in the pews and sometimes draw or doodle

and all of that then just, you know, so it's a big story because

then, you know, you graduate and high school.

I graduated high school and went to college.

And in college, I can maybe say I attended church twice in five

years.

I was on the five year plan in a summer class to boot.

I went to church once because I was having a bad day, I think is

why I went.

And then the other time was just going with a friend.

It was like a Catholic meetup.

So it was a little different because I was raised Methodist, but

kind of lost sight of that in my collegiate years.

And then life happens after college, in college.

You know, we can get deep into the weeds here because I, you know,

I think that people have this idea of church going, folks that

everything's figured out and everything's perfect or they're not.

People who have troubles or who sin.

And in college that was a.

We'll just jump right into it, I guess.

But, you know, that was a big time of partying for me.

That was a big time of learning how to drink and hang out

with friends and nowhere in sight, really.

It was.

My faith was always with me in my heart because it was ingrained

in me.

But I didn't have a full understanding of my faith until some

things really changed in my life, which I'm happy to go into.

Well, let's just kind of focus on maybe one of those pivotal moments.

A pivotal moment where faith changed for you.

It sound like you went through a process where church was kind of

part of what you did growing up.

College, you went to party and things like that, and that was a

part of your lifestyle.

But it sounds like there was a pivotal moment where faith came into

the picture more.

Let's go there for a minute.

Yeah, I think that's a really good segue.

So, you know, sometimes it's hard to tell this story because you

want people to see the really good things about yourself and you

want people to see the perfect things and to portray this life that's

just really good and great, you know, perfect.

But for me, it was the partying.

I think, you know, my mom, you know, struggled with alcoholism and

she was not always well.

She wasn't present a lot of time, actually, at all.

I'm just being kind.

She really wasn't present.

And I think I had a lot of issues to work out.

And I think I had a.

A rebel heart, so to speak.

Okay.

And I was partying like a rock star.

I was going to parties and throwing parties.

And the pivotal moment, I'm getting to it is I drove home from

a friend's house, and this was about 2008 or 2009.

I'm not very good at years or dates, birthdays or anything, so

roughly 15 or 16 years ago now.

But.

And I had to look that up.

Cause I'm like, when was that?

But this, this event, I left a friend's house and I had been drinking

and I was driving home to my father's house where I lived at the

time.

And I was getting ready.

I was looking for houses.

It was like when the housing thing happened and they were doing

this big, like, rebate if you purchased a house.

So I was looking for a house for the first time.

I was excited about that.

I was living with my dad.

I had graduated college and I was driving home.

Church was the next morning.

I got to my father's house and I was well beyond my limit, drinking.

And I'm happy to share this because I just really want others.

I want to help somebody through my story.

And that's always the case.

I'm never ashamed to tell it because it made me who I am today.

But I then got to my dad's driveway and I thought, I don't have

enough gas to get to church in the morning.

So I drove to New Palestine.

And on the way I dropped a CD.

At the time, it was CDs Brad in my floorboard.

And I leaned down to pick it up, and next thing I know, I'm crashing

my car.

Oh, my goodness.

Going 50 something miles per hour into a tree, head on.

So this is my.

This is my testimonial story because I had no seatbelt on and

my head hit the windshield.

It was into a ravine where there was water.

So my car was on, you know, this.

What do you call that, an incline or a decline out.

Yeah.

Anyway, you were in the water in the ditch, right?

It was.

It wasn't quite in the water because the tree had stopped me.

The tree had stopped my car.

I'd hit it head on.

Okay.

And I woke up in the right floorboard of my car on my back like

a beetle.

And for Me, you know, I'm five eight.

I've never been what you call petite.

And I just woke up and I knew I was in big trouble.

I knew I was in big, deep trouble.

I was well known in my town, but I just thought, what am I going

to do?

Were you physically hurt as well?

I was physically hurt.

So I had.

Gosh, you would think I'd remember this story, but I had, I

think, three broken ribs and several bruised ribs.

And I don't know if you've ever had a bruised rib, but it's

extremely painful.

I was highly athletic, and I've had, like, 10 broken bones.

The ribs were the worst.

Wow.

And I remember laying there, and when you have broken ribs, you

can't breathe.

And I was trying to pull myself out of the floorboard up by

my steering wheel, and I couldn't do it.

I mean, I was in this deep, deep incline there.

And I just cried out.

I just said, lord, if you can help me through this, if you can

get me through this, I'll be.

I'll be different.

I'll be forever changed.

And I cried out.

And I think this story, this is where it kind of takes a turn.

And people even struggle to believe me.

But I felt what felt like two hands on my back lifting me out of

the floorboard of my car to the driver's seat.

And I got out of the car and I turned around and I looked at my

vehicle and I looked around and there was nobody there.

And I think people that hear this story think, oh, she was just

concussed.

She just.

You know, she just imagined this.

She was out of it.

She was in shock.

But I know in my heart who it was.

Because if a person was there helping me, they wouldn't have ran

away or vanished.

They probably would have stayed, right?

And when I looked around, there was no one there.

And I just looked at my car and I walked to the first house,

which was actually a good friend of my brother's house and

his mother, who to this day in my heart is a complete saint of a

woman, an angel.

And I'm not going to mention her name, just in case, you know,

that wouldn't be cool with her.

But I was forever changed after that day.

My brother and my dad.

I had her call my brother and my dad.

And always my saving grace, those two guys, my two best friends.

And they came, and I looked at my brother and I said, you know,

I'm going to go to jail because my brother was, you know,

Ross Stackhouse, you know, my heart of Hearts, you know, to look

my brother in the eye in that situation and have to say, hey, I'm

going to go to jail tonight.

It turns out I didn't go to jail that night.

The police came, and somehow, if I remember, I think I passed all

my field sobriety checks, and I think I just blew a little past

the limit because, you know, they do the tests and all that terrible

stuff.

This pivotal moment really changed you, not only physically,

but this was a moment life.

Your life changed.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I thought, oh, the whole town is going to know.

The whole town is going to know that I'm a wild child and this

is what I'm doing in my free time.

And not only that, I've broken my father's heart, I've broke my

brother's heart, and I'm in extreme pain.

But somehow this police officer, and I can't make this up.

This police officer knew my brother because my brother.

Okay, it was either through my brother's basketball games at Triton

Central or it was through his band.

His band opened up for Matt Mason.

So if you're not aware of who Matt Mason is, he is a country artist

who's actually done really well on the country scene.

My brother's being opened up for him for this competitive show

called Nashville Star.

I don't know why I got into that, Brad.

That's all right.

Oh.

Anyway, this police officer knew him.

Police officer, right.

And he basically, literally gave me a get out of jail free card.

Wow.

He said, I can tell you've learned from this.

I can tell you're loved.

You know, that kind of thing.

And this is not, you know, exact verbiage.

I went home and I remember crying out in pain all night from

my broken ribs.

And, man, it changed me forever.

How can you know?

It just changed me forever.

Yeah.

And so that's really part of your.

Your spiritual journey is not growing from that point right on

in a.

In a way that's been.

It sound like you were kind of on it basically, for lack of a better

term, kind of a destructive path or not a healthy path, let's

put it that.

That way.

And now you pathway that was productive and greater things were

happening for you.

And then.

Yeah.

So tell me a little bit about how it came to be out of your faith

journey that you eventually got connected up.

What led you to Greenwood, Indiana, and Whiteland, Indiana,

and to eventually get connected to Heaven Earth Church.

Yeah.

So from that day on, life wasn't perfect.

I wasn't just no longer seeing my Friends or going to parties or

hanging out.

But I had a new spirit.

I knew I had these things going on.

So there's so many things that I could tell you that have happened

miraculously that a lot of people, they just don't believe.

But for the sake of time, I'm going to limit this to several things.

And I'm always happy to talk through it if anybody has questions.

Like, I can share many stories, but.

All right, so I carried on and I knew I had to change.

I knew I could no longer keep continuing going and throwing all

caution to the wind and making these choices, disappointing myself,

mostly my family, my friends.

And I knew that a real change was going to need to happen to live

a life of wellness and joy and healthiness.

And I can't say I didn't go to parties again or that I never got

drunk after that.

I did.

Matter of fact, I still have drinks from time to time.

I'm more.

I never.

I'm never throwing all caution to the wind.

It's never something where I'm jumping out and saying, hey, I'd

really like to drink, to really just get drunk or anything

like that.

You know, at 41 years old, I've learned that it's just about

connecting with somebody and having experience.

So I'm able to go to parties and places now.

A lot of people aren't able to do this, but I'm able to go to many

places, never drink and drop and just really enjoy my time with

people.

So anyway, I say all that to say I gradually.

I gradually developed change and discipline.

And it was hard at first.

It was hard to be of this person in the world, but not of the

world and to still love my friends and to still be able to connect

and see them in that atmosphere.

And so I used to attend concerts for Dave Matthews, and I've

probably been over 17 or 18 shows of Dave Matthews.

I forgot what they call.

What do they call the.

You know, like, you get the dead heads, follow the dead.

There's some name for the Dave Matthews fans.

What is that?

Oh, my gosh.

Well, I mean, there's symbols, the fire dance around.

I don't know that there's an actual.

You know what I'm saying?

You were a Dave Matthews big time fan.

The Tripping Billies.

I don't know.

I don't.

Anyway, there's.

I don't know that I actually know.

I got a soft track.

I apologize about that.

You're fine.

Let's.

Let's see how this, your faith journey led you eventually here to

Greenwood Whiteland.

And how did you first get somehow connected to Heaven, Earth,

Church?

How did that happen?

Yeah, so I think, you know, there's just a lot in the middle.

So I was.

I have to tell this story because it matters.

It gets you to where I am here.

But I was going to that concert and I was driving and I thought,

how am I going to go to this show?

And I'm camping for two days at this show.

My friends are going to be drinking and there's just, you know,

the party's up there a lot and how am I going to do this?

And I was on my way and this big.

I noticed like a bright light shine in front of me and I saw this

almost like a star burst, like when you stand up and you see stars

or you stand up too quickly.

And I saw myself, like standing with one, like standing

up, like elevated and chains breaking off of me.

And I couldn't.

My eyes hurt and I didn't know what was happening to me.

And I understand, Just keep following me.

I understand if this is hard for people to receive.

I called my brother.

I pulled my car over and I called my brother Ross.

And I was like, ross, something is happening to me.

The light is so bright.

I'm seeing things so clearly.

And I just feel like chains are busting off of my body and I'm

just no longer bound.

And I think the Lord is telling me something and helping

me or something.

And so that was one instance my brother.

My brother had, you know, big Pastor Russ with all, all of his

education and knowledge and history and never had anything like

this happen to himself, per se.

Even though I will say this, another life changing thing was seeing

my brother praying in his bedroom at 16 years old while I was

out going to parties and bye, Ross, I'm leaving.

And I would see him on his bed reading his Bible.

So, okay, I have to inject that into the story.

Fast forward after that, I get married to my husband and we move

to Ohio for his job.

And in Ohio, we were working very hard.

I left my job at 17 years and we moved out there.

I started working for him and I started looking for churches out

there.

I started bouncing around to different churches to find my church

home.

And I ended up landing at the Vineyard, Columbus.

So I've been to many churches in my life.

If we ever went out of town, my dad always took us to church out

of town.

Okay.

I ended up bouncing over to the Vineyard, Columbus.

Amazing church, full of culture there.

You know, I was a minority there.

There was just so many cultures there.

I loved that.

It was a big engine.

It was huge.

So I didn't, I couldn't really connect, but I was feeling moving.

The spirit was moving inside of me.

I was feeling nudged.

I was feeling all of these things.

I felt like I was just kind of blown wide open and I was ready to

just hit the ground running.

And then my husband lost his job after a motorcycle accident and

I said, well, let's move back to Indiana.

And we moved back to Indiana.

And blessedly, you know, he's very happy at a new job and we're

very, very happy.

These things do happen for a reason.

Yes.

We landed back in Indiana.

I was living in Greenfield, and I wanted to support my brother.

You know, when he planted Heaven Earth Church with God and

then the Methodist Church and all their support, I wanted to support

him, but I didn't, I couldn't in Ohio.

And so I had my best friends, Christy Stone and Michael Windsor,

who still attend this church, and Mandy Wendell at the time.

Excuse me, Mandy Ron, now Manny Markham.

Anyway, sorry, Mandy.

Anyway, they, they were doing it and I saw my fruit.

I had bared fruit into my friends that they, they wanted to

help my brother do this and on the mission and help God and that.

They started jumping in on this mission and I was kind of jealous,

like, wow, my friends are getting to be a part of this amazing

thing that God is doing out in Whiteland and I'm not.

And, and it was from Greenfield, about a 45 minute drive.

So I didn't always make the drive out here to Heaven Earth when

it was a very small, like, worship in the parking lot type deal.

Right.

And I, we ended up, I ended up praying like, God, make a way for

me.

Make a way for me.

I've been an optician for 17 years.

Make a way for me.

I have some financial goals.

I have, you know, all these things that we're wanting to do.

We were wanting to buy a house at the time.

Right.

So we just pulled the band aid, we started looking for houses

and we found a house in Greenwood, a little fixer upper.

And my husband and I moved out here.

And because I was commuting here at that time regularly, actually

I had developed and came to that.

And then we started just attending here regularly.

So just to be clear and to kind of give a little bit of context

here, you, your brother, Ross Stackhouse is the pastor of Heaven

Earth Church.

Yes.

So you got connected to what he was up to regarding that sort

of thing.

Yes, my beloved brother.

And then you literally came here, moved to Greenwood in large

part because of your brother and because of the church.

Is that fair?

Yes.

No, you're exactly right.

My goals were for my husband to be closer to his new job that

he really loved, to be closer to my brother and his children so

that I could help be a support and to help grow Heaven Earth Church

and bring the kingdom of heaven to earth and do my part.

And I got very passionate.

And then my brother would have me sing sometimes.

Yeah.

On just, you know, because like I said, it was in the parking

lot right out here, these doors, and, you know, I came once

and I sang or did harmony maybe with him, and then I started

singing maybe more frequently, and then I jumped in on the worship

team, and I'm kind of a normal fixture on the worship team here.

So you got involved with Heaven Earth Church, you're on the

music team, and you're one of the vocalists and.

And just a part of life around Heaven Church in many ways.

Let me ask you this, though, Joanna.

What keeps you here?

What keeps you here?

Family is one thing.

I get that.

Your brother's one thing.

Right, right.

But what beyond that keeps you here as part of heaven or church?

I love that question, and I love when I get that question, because

I have, like I said, I've traveled.

I've been to many, many churches.

Different kinds, hole in the wall churches, big, huge churches,

you know, all different kinds of kinds.

And when I came here, I loved my brother's mission.

And it wasn't just my bias towards my brother.

It was just the Sunday conversations were real.

They were.

They were just full of goodness, full of truth.

Churches I had been to in the past, I didn't know what their true

mission in the community was.

You know, were they getting their hands dirty with things that

weren't so pretty, like addiction or homelessness or, you

know, what were they doing with their money?

And they were probably doing great things with their money.

I just never asked.

It was never.

It was never told to me.

Whereas here, I know exactly now, probably because I know how

honest my brother is and how responsible he is.

But I know that any resource of my own, time, money, effort, singing,

whatever gifts I pour out into this church, I know that are going

towards good.

I know that for me staying here, I just feel this sense of home.

I also love that it's not a huge church, to be honest.

If it was huge, we.

You know, obviously we'll face.

We'll face those things as they come.

You know, I don't know what that would look like, I know that.

Just the heart.

Finally you found a place of heart, of home, beyond family ties,

which is one thing, but you've also developed relationships beyond

this small core that you kind of initially started with.

You have through the music team and other things as well.

It seems like to me, you developed some.

Some relationships that are important to you.

Is that fair?

Growth, I think for me.

And you know what?

This is it.

Growth.

You're fine.

I felt like I was growing here.

Growth.

The Lord has given me all these gifts, has shown me his miracles,

has shown me his wonders.

Many times for me, I'm like, I need to grow.

I need to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Where can I do that best?

Where can I grow and just grow with others?

So growth means not only being where you're at, but it also means

extension.

It means helping others.

It means spreading the seeds, as it were, to grow more.

So one of the things that's said here at Heaven Earth Church

is that the mission of the church is to make a lasting impact

in our community.

So I guess my question to you, Joanna, is, is that true?

And how's.

How is that being done?

How do you see that being done?

The answer is yes.

Is it true?

In my heart of hearts, yes.

Is there always more that can be done in our community and more

around, Yes.

I love.

My brother, says I should call him Ross.

What Ross says is, you can do some things about something.

Whereas my brain gets carried away of, like, what are we gonna

do about this?

We gotta do something, you know, and he's like, you can do something

about some things.

And I know that our church is doing something about some things.

Now, that being said, I have volunteered many times.

Not to puff myself up, but I have been able.

My church creates opportunities for me to volunteer.

Whereas when I came to the church, I remember being in the Vineyard,

Columbus, back to Ohio, going back to Ohio and just asking people,

how do I get involved here?

How do I volunteer?

It was such a big engine.

I felt overwhelmed by that.

Like, I.

I don't.

I don't know what I'm doing.

And here I.

It's just more feasible.

They make it really accessible to sign up for something, to volunteer

for something to do it.

Even scared.

Like, I.

Sometimes there has been times where I've volunteered to do a food

delivery or a gift delivery or out community outreach.

Just.

I've literally went door to door.

And, you know, that's a lost, you know, behind.

Besides our, you know, our Jehovah's wit, you know, Jehovah's

Witness or I, you know, I'm not trying to throw anybody under

the bridge here.

Okay?

But I'm just saying, like, I've actually done that because I

wanted to get to know the community and Heaven Earth and, and

the pastor here, Ross Stackhouse, has empowered me to do

that.

I wanted to know the neighbors.

I want them to know that, yeah, maybe church is nowhere on

their radar, but like, we're here, we're here and we, we want

to know you, we want to help you.

We want to just.

They made it Heaven Earth Church makes a way for me to get

involved in something or to share ideas.

I have maybe those, those ear, those, those ideas will not be received,

you know, to a listening ear, but hey, I'm welcome to give that

idea.

So there's that aspect about making impact that has to do with

partnerships and other things are going on here in the life of

the church.

Also, one of the other things that's said here quite often about

life here at Heaven or church is that it's something to the fact

of if you feel like you don't fit in church, you could fit in here

and other things such as, you know, we're a church for misfits

and things like that.

First of all, is that true?

And how do you see that played out?

How's that manifested?

Oh, yes.

Oh yes, Brad, I, I have seen, you know, different walks of life

come in the store.

But I have a friend that attends this church who's a friend

now, she wasn't always a friend who, you know, asked me to

do a 12 if I wanted to do a 12 step program.

You know, I was able to jump in there and I met so many different

types of recovered addicts or addicts that were just trying to

find their footing while they were in addiction.

I was going to learn more about myself with I, you know, I

suffer from polycystic ovarian syndrome and I not to over share,

but I have a, I have a bad relationship with food.

So my body, it's a hormonal imbalance for those of you that don't

know.

And so that was really hard to share with people because that's

also not pretty.

And so I was like, you know, let's see what I can learn about

myself.

And then I say this story to say I met so many people that I would

have never really probably connected with of all different status

of in all different places.

And now we're the greatest of friends and we can all share our

story with others.

You Shared some of your vulnerability and they shared theirs.

Yeah.

And there was not.

I'm.

I'm not hearing a lot of judgment, a lot of things that are

uncomfortable.

You were all you were comfortable in.

Yeah.

Just, you know, there's people that walk in here, you know, chucked

full of trauma.

Chucked full.

But some people, then there's like more of an elder stance.

People that have already walked a lot of trauma and are on

the other side of that, and they can help kind of, you know,

wrangle people in and just spread love.

And I think that this church is a church of love, a church of

loving people where they're at.

And to me, it's obvious.

I've seen many people walk through the doors of this church,

and I just don't feel as though there's any kind of judgment.

I wanted to deeply be a part.

I deeply wanted to be a part of something to where any person

that is sinning as they walk in the door or doing something to

harm themselves as they walk through our doors, they can come

because we are all.

We are all.

You know, I'm sinning every day.

I'm doing things to sin all the time.

You know that anybody in the throes of.

Of those things can just walk in.

That we can just learn and grow together.

That we can just follow and chase after Jesus together.

Different walks of life can come together and.

Yeah.

And it's okay.

Yeah.

Having said that, now just give me just one.

This is going to take me to my kind of.

My last question for you, but give me just a nugget about your

family, husband, kids, anything like that, any good thing

or cool thing about them.

Yes.

So I am married to Shane Burnett, also known as Shani Baby

Blueberry Love Muffin.

He was my boy.

This is a great story, Brad.

I love my love story.

So he was my boyfriend in sixth grade, and he was my rebound

boyfriend, and we broke up.

It didn't work out at that time, but I don't know if God was

teasing us or what was going on because he found me in 2010 on

Facebook.

So I can't say too many bad things about Facebook because it.

It brought my husband to me.

So we fell madly in love in 2011, and we have been together since

2011, married since 2008, and we just.

We just have so much fun.

We just do things for others, for each other, for ourselves.

We just walk this life and just roll with the punches together.

He's just a great partner.

He's my best friend, but we're just crazy about each other.

We wanted to have our own children.

And that's another thing, you know, a couple years.

You know, I guess it's been a year and a half to two years now.

We.

We weren't blessed with children.

We fought that battle.

We fought that hard fight.

We fought fertility for a while, and it just.

It wasn't something, you know, I felt the Lord telling me, I know

the desires of your heart, Joanna.

I would give you the des.

I would give you the desires of your heart, but I felt the Lord

protecting me and that I.

I truly felt the Lord through all my prayer.

I mean, trust me, I prayed and prayed and prayed.

I had others praying for me.

I wanted miracles for myself.

And I felt the Lord saying, I would give you the desires of your

heart, Joanna.

But there's a reason I'm not.

And I.

I don't know if it's just that I.

It wouldn't have been a good journey for me to have a child or

what that would have been.

But I do feel nudge sometimes to go down the journey, you know,

to find, you know, a way to adopt or something like that.

But no, we love spending time.

I just had my two nieces and my nephew all, you know, all weekend.

And so we love pouring ourselves out to other.

Ask you about your marriage and your family life a little bit

there, and we got a little bit your background there to give you

kind of a context for the question.

Want to kind of bring our conversation around to here, Joanna,

that is this.

If there's people in your life outside your church life now, connected

to your marriage or your family or your workplace or social

life or anything else along that line, that you know someone

that you have a relationship with who is some issue in life, whatever

it is, marital, financial, workplace, health, and they confide

in you in some way.

Do you think that heaven or church would be a place that you

could invite them to become a part of?

And if so, why?

Absolutely.

If I could.

If I could just get every person I know that's fighting a battle

or struggling with something to understand where a relationship

with God, the knowledge that Jesus can give them and what they

can gain, and that our church could be the vessel, I would.

Oh, my goodness.

I would just shout it from the mountaintop.

I would tell everyone.

I would.

Because it's all about just taking that first step, right?

Like people are afraid to walk into the doors of a church.

I think sometimes just taking that first step to say sometimes

on the other side of fear or discomfort is Goodness.

So sometimes part of the first step is invitation, too.

It is.

You're right.

And guess what?

I'm not always good at invitation.

Sometimes I'm scared to invite people.

Sometimes I'm like, what are they gonna think if I'm like, hey,

I want you to come to heaven or church.

Yeah.

You know, part of that invitation process.

Is a place that you feel that's confident that they could

be fine.

Oh, my goodness.

Without a doubt.

Without a doubt.

What I want people to know is they can come here, grow, learn,

make friends.

If you want to sit by yourself and don't make friends and just kind

of take some steps to learn something that you didn't know.

And maybe you.

Maybe they can't come to church.

We have our online community who, you know, people can just show

up and, you know, not be seen as much.

If they.

If that's what they prefer or if it's just a distance, I really

recommend that people start there.

If they're afraid to come into church physically and in person,

that they should start there and just, well, let's go.

There for a second.

Because this is a tool, this podcast and the video goes with it

will be used as a tool to help other people.

So what would you say to that person who has a challenge in life?

What would you say to them about what would they would find

here at Heaven Earth Church?

What would you say to that invitation type thing to that person?

I think that they would find love and goodness and light.

I think that they would find the fruits of the spirit with Jesus.

For those of you that don't know the fruits of the spirit and

goodness, don't test me, but it's love, patience, kindness, joy,

discipline.

Okay, I don't know them all.

Okay, but look up the fruits.

Google the fruits of the spirit.

Okay, but you're saying that people would find that here?

Yes, they would find that.

And I think that that would be.

That would drive them.

That would drive them to follow Jesus and be a disciple.

Because it's not about.

In my mind, that should be.

That love should be the driving force.

Not, not, oh, my goodness, I'm going to hell if I'm a sinner.

You know, that that should be the driving force.

That light.

That light that's just so bright, like in my car that day,

that.

That warm, blinding light of change just coming off of you.

So you want to hear people that have experienced the warm, the

warmth and the light and the love, and I appreciate that, period.

Well, you've been awesome here today, Joanna, and just appreciate

sharing with the folks who are a part of the Heaven Earth Church

community and those who may be considering connecting up with the

Heaven Earth Church community.

Her name is Joanna Burnett and she happens to be the sister of Ross

Stackhouse, the founding pastor of Heaven Earth Church, and

she's been our guest today here on the Heaven and Earth Church

Podcast.

We want to thank you for spending time with us today.

My name is Ross Stackhouse, the pastor to Heaven Earth Church,

and you may think out there that your story is over, but in fact,

your faith story may just be beginning.

If you want more information about our church or you're interested

in the next step, you can go to heavenearthchurch.org Otherwise,

we look forward to being with you next time at the Heaven Earth

Church podcast.