Episode #13 - Kyla Penton

All right guys, we are back at it.

How are y'all doing today? We've got sister Michelle

Pinton, sister Lexi Holloway, we've got myself Brooke Bosing,

and then we've got our special star of this episode, Kyla

Penton, who has been away for quite some time, but she is back

home. We've kind of got a special

group with us today, obviously mom and daughter.

This episode is really focused on the heart of being a

missionary and with our church being a home missions, you know,

church, we've kind of had that first initial feel of it here in

our small church growing into from, you know, the very start.

Nothing that we had to to now we're I feel like we're we're a

pretty big size church at this point.

We've got so many vast ministries and people from all

walks of life. So just really excited for what

this season is for us. But I guess Sister Michelle, go

ahead and get us kick started. Introduce.

Well, we already know who you are, but let us into the life of

Miss Kyla over here. Well Kyla was our surprise baby.

I used to say when the boys were little that they were my alpha

and Omega, but God saw differently and in fact

everything about her birth was just miraculous.

I knew that something was wrong with me, but I never, I took

pregnancy test, even had blood work and even to the day she was

born, every pregnancy test turned out negative.

Oh my gosh. And so I was already 16 weeks

when it was confirmed by an ultrasound that we had a baby

girl on the way. We didn't even know we were

pregnant until that point. And because we had one Doctor

Who kept telling us, no, I wasn't.

And then, you know, you just trust your doctors, right?

And I'm like, I'm pregnant or I'm dying.

Something is wrong and wound up in an ER on ironically, on April

Fool's Day. And the doctor said, let's just

do an ultrasound and we can confirm or you know, right now.

And it was of course a female doctor and she did the

ultrasound and she said, well, do you want to know what it is?

And so then so from that point on, you know, I was already, you

know, passed the first trimester and it was just a whirlwind.

And then when I was, I guess about 24 weeks in the pregnancy,

a lady, Sister Marilyn should not who was mightily used of God

in the prophetic, she was bedridden at the time.

She had someone from her church to drive her all the way to the

Oklahoma campgrounds because she had a word from God for me.

And at this point we had not found out what she was because

we were very overwhelmed with the fact that I was 16 weeks

pregnant. And so sister should not I say

it was 24 weeks. It might have been more like,

you know, 22 somewhere around there, but that doesn't matter.

But so someone brought sister should not to the campground and

she called me to her bedside and she said, Sister Penton, God has

his hand on the baby girl that you're carrying and the enemy is

trying to kill her. Wow.

So she told me to go and to have the elders of the church pray

over her. And for whatever reason, I went

to the ministry of our church, but it wasn't taken very

seriously and because I was new in the district.

I didn't really know the gravity and the fact of how God had used

sister should not all of those years and that if she said she

had a word for you. You could pretty much bank it

had comes directly. You know it was a word from God.

Well, 32 weeks she came and just almost did not make it it.

Well, I say that, but the fact of the matter is we learned so

much of that time. And I remember sitting on the

Interstate I-35 in traffic and just crying out to God on behalf

of my daughter because at this point she was about seven days

old and nothing worked. They were keeping her alive by

machines. There had been no sign of

activity whatsoever that anything was happening.

And in fact the doctor had met with us and said we need to

know. We need, we need something, we

need a miracle. We need to know that, well, I

mean, we can keep our own machines for the rest of her

life, but nobody wants that, you know.

But we need to know that there is some sign of life.

And so we had a that that Friday night we had had a Allstate

youth rally. The young people and that

district joined together and prayed for Kyla.

Meanwhile, I was at home with the boys, my husband was with

her and I'm on my way to the hospital the next morning.

And as any mother would be, I was so distraught because I knew

that unless God did something, we're going to lose her.

And I remember sitting on the Interstate stuck in traffic and

praying and saying, Lord, I trust you.

But I was like, God, you know I don't.

You know my heart, but I'm going to keep saying this until I

really do. Right.

Yeah. And I remember a song on that

came on the radio. It's so old now.

It's old. But then it was brand new.

And it said, I'll go through the fire if you want me to.

And said this road may not be the road that I would have

chosen, but I will. I will go where you lead.

I'll walk wherever you lead. And I'll go through that fire if

you want me to. And I remember just screaming

out, and this was before cell phones for people no longer look

at you crazy if you're talking to yourself in the car.

And I just say, kept saying, God, I trust you, God, I trust

you, God, I trust you. And until when I tell you a

piece that passes all understanding came into that

vehicle. There was such a piece that came

over me. In fact, it was not just a

piece, but a strength that I gained in that vehicle.

I remember exactly what I had on.

I don't know why I was stressed like this, but you.

All will lie. Because I'm going to the

hospital just to sit in the NICU all day.

And I had this skirt on that had these big orange flowers.

It was a straight skirt. And I remember getting out and

just smoothing the wrinkles down.

And I had on these Navy blue heels and I know it's funny.

Good hospital outfit. Yeah, good hospital outfits.

But I remember getting out of the van and I just straightened

my skirt and I didn't hurry to the NICU like I had every other

day, because the Lord had given me such, so much peace that in

my mind he had taken her. There would be no other reason

for the Lord to give me that much peace.

And when I get up to the NICU, my husband comes out and he's

crying. And of course, you know, I just

think she's gone. But in fact, she came alive so

much so that they had to actually, she exerted so much

energy that they had to actually put her basically in a medically

induced calm coma to calm her down.

Because she came alive. She'd never cried or anything.

All or nothing? Yeah, it was all or nothing, I

guess. And she just was just kicking

and screaming and just exerting so much energy that in in that

just that 12 hour period, she had lost a pound.

Wow. And I know And so it's a.

Lot of moving. Yeah, it was a lot of moving, a

lot of energy. Of course, she was so tiny, it

probably didn't take much. So while when I think about it,

while I was in the car just giving her over to the Lord, he

was already at the hospital working.

But I had to learn to trust him. Yeah, which ultimately has

prepared us for all the other things.

I mean, this child has gone through so much.

Oh, my goodness. And it was a few years ago.

I remember Sister Anne Klein Dance called me, and she said,

Michelle, maybe she called me Sister Penn.

I don't remember. But she said you can cancel the

enemy's assignments against her. You have the authority to do

that. And I'm telling you, I got so

bold in the Holy Ghost because I remembered what sister should

not had told me all those years ago that God had a work for her

to do and that the enemy was trying to kill her.

And so I did. I just in the boldness of the

Holy Ghost, I just said, Satan, I cancel your assignments

against Kyla. And the very next day she and my

daddy were driving down Hwy. 72 just right here by target.

They were coming home from Target and they're at the

intersection of oh railroad bed and Hwy. 72 and this man ran a

red light and it should have hit her but instead he flipped over

her car and hit hit a car and then flipped over her car.

Somehow another, the other man was killed and my daddy who at

that time did not have the Holy Ghost, he said, Michelle, it was

just like the Red Sea parting, not one piece of debris and

there was debris all over the highway. 1 of the wheels.

Then this is just for my father telling me that he said one of

the wheels off the car came rolling toward the windshield

and it stopped right before it hit the windshield and went the

other direction. Her car had not one scratch on

it. Wow, praise.

God and we just, I just rejoiced because to me that was evidence

we have power in the name of Jesus and and we can exert that

authority and that power over our children and over our

families. And I think just from all of the

things that she has been through and it has been a lot.

We could write and probably will one day.

I'm gonna write a book because you just will not.

Just this week. You've.

Been home one week after being in a this country in Africa and

she didn't get one scratch on her and I guess because I was

praying everyday Lord let your angels go with her because I

knew she was walking everywhere she went practically and getting

into cars and Uber with where I who knows who in the country and

being a young girl and I was praying Lord let your angels be

with her lest she should dash her foot and she's been home one

week I'm going to start praying again because she.

Shipped her tooth and broke her. Elbow in one week when she went

home. But all of that to say, I had

such a piece while she was gone. I really didn't worry.

I got upset a few times about certain, you know, about

different situations, but I never worried and doubted that

God was going to take care of her because I think it was that

piece and that trust that I had learned 24 years ago that I can

trust God. And I believe it.

Just that trust has translated and everything that she's gone

through. But also just even in starting

the church, I just, I that piece that I got that day on I-35

sitting in traffic in Oklahoma City has been with me ever

since. I know that no matter what, I

can trust God. Yeah, what a testimony so good.

And what a God we serve because, you know, he didn't have to give

you that moment. You know, he could have just

given you that peace and, and let you, you know, go ahead and,

and see that Kylo as well. But you had that moment that you

broke. And a lot of times I feel like

we don't, we feel like we have to stay strong.

And so we don't experience that peace because we're like, I'm

just going to bear, you know, I'm going to hold it and I'm

going to carry it. But it's when we break in front

of God that he's like, OK, let me help you pick up the pieces

now. But we take that, you know,

opportunity away from him sometimes.

Absolutely. Before we kind of get into your

trip, your most recent trip, I did kind of just want to ask you

like if you want to go just briefly how you kind of felt

like you knew you were going into missions.

So I will say for me originally I.

Knew. Because my parents were called

to Alabama that I would be called to ministry eventually.

Cause like, oh, absolutely. Just because like at like 3

years old, I was like, OK, so this is what we do.

We go to random places and we start churches.

OK, that's what we do. All right, got it.

And so I guess in my like childhood brain was like, OK,

well, let me figure out all the people that need churches and

stuff like that. And so I remember I was about

six or seven years old. I told my mom, I'm called to a

French speaking country. Know, know in my heart, I'm

called to a French speaking country.

Didn't even have the Holy Ghost yet.

And then my mom was like, OK, cool.

And you know, 'cause I like 6 or 7, you know, just a kid.

And I would not stop talking to her.

They're like, hey, I'm called to a French speaking country.

I need you to put me in French lessons.

Find, find a teacher. You're.

Like, I'm serious. Yeah, I I've been dead serious.

Like I know. You would not stop.

Like, I need to learn French, mom.

I need to learn French. And I'm just, I'm thinking in

my, you know, all of my adult wisdom.

Well, we had just read the book Madeline and she had just

watched the movie. And I'm like, OK, whatever.

Yeah, it was just an interesting thing now.

It'll it'll fade. Out and I'm telling you from

that moment, man, she just loved all things French I mean she we

she her room was decorated like Paris and she remember she

started wearing the hats and the and every kind of French food

you can imagine if it was on the menu she bought it and it just

you know go to the grocery store and she's looking for the and

you know all the French cookies and I just kind of much.

Time in the international aisle. And I'm just like, this is going

to pass. But she would not stop.

And she's like, I've got to learn French.

Please, mom, I need to, I need a French teacher.

And so finally, I mean, the Lord just opened the door and and I

didn't do it out of ministry. I did it to shut her up, you

know, OK, it won't hurt you with my thing.

Learning a new language will never is always a plus, right?

And like, of course, like, I got the Holy Ghost 8 years old and,

you know, prayed about it and still, like, I never quite lost

that feeling of being called 2 missions.

I just didn't quite know where I was like, well, OK, well, the

French is something I'll try to keep up.

Maybe God will use that eventually.

And then whenever I was about on to say 15 years old, I was going

through, you know, everyone has those moments of like, not

exactly living for God. And I had kind of made the

decision in my heart, OK, whenever I turn 18, I'm gonna

leave. This is not for me anymore.

And we are NYC. And like, the sermon was like,

this is that. And Brother Emery was preaching

and he told us, you know, to receive visions.

And I know I was like, OK, we'll see if this is actually real,

you know, And whenever, like, I did the countdown, did

everything he said to. And I remember whenever it

happened, everyone else was, you know, rejoicing, crying, all

that sort of thing. And I was not in it at all.

I was like, OK, so this is definitely fake.

And I, that was the first time I ever heard God audibly speak to

me, He said. I'm not showing you anything

because you are not living for me.

You haven't chosen to live for me yet.

Wow. And you know that point?

Yeah, I'm, I'm crying. You know, it's like, OK, so this

is real. And I like breakdown.

And then God shows me he, he showed me like potential past,

like careers that I could take. And then he showed me missions.

Is that OK? Which one do you want to choose

now? I'm going to give you the

option. Which path are you going to

choose now? And of course, I chose ministry

and he showed me just little bit I joke and come like screenshots

of like potential things that I could be working in.

Yeah. And I had no idea what any of

them were like. Some of them I figured I figured

out where God would send me and I've been to some of those

places already in ministries like in mission trips and stuff

like that, but some of them had absolutely no idea.

It's still have no idea what part of the world that is.

I think it's good to interject because I think a lot of us know

where you've been, but maybe the listeners don't quite know like

how did you get started into missions?

Where all have you been? Because we, we know exactly your

history. But to hear how you got started

in that and where exactly you went and the experiences you had

in each area, kind of kind of speak on that a little bit.

Yeah. So the first place that I went

was Austin, TX through Apostol Youth Corps, which I know

whenever we think of missions, we don't necessarily think the

US, we think of like other countries.

But in this trip, we actually got to go to several home

mission churches, which very much so reminded me of our early

days in Lifegate. And like some of our people were

making comments. We're just like, oh, we feel so

uncomfortable. There's only like 10 people at

this church. And it's like, oh, I thrive in

that. We're going to humble you real

quick. Exactly like one of the churches

that we went to, like literally like quadrupled in size just

because we were there. Oh wow, yeah.

And so we got to like, help them build churches.

We helped one person, like, completely renovate their

church. It was so hot that day that

everything was melting. Oh man.

Awful to. Play with Texas.

Hot is different than regular hot.

Exactly. Hosted block parties, you know,

just teaching Bible studies, all that stuff.

How old were you? I was 17 and that.

Drew And that was your first one.

Yes. And then my second one, I was 18

and we went to another Abbaso Heath courtroom.

It was for France. And so we got to travel in Paris

and about four or five different cities in western France.

That is awesome. Just ministering, doing whatever

they needed us to do, doing music we couldn't.

They had preachers, but we had to translate them.

And I. Bet it was a different

experience for you from here in the US.

We know the culture, you kind of know what to expect to go to a

total different country where, you know, spiritual liberties or

may not be as open as they are here or just free and people

have to be a little bit more reserved or you approaching

people, how did they accept your message or or even you

approaching them about it? And I know most countries would

be like, no, no, no, you know, I don't want to hear that.

Shoot, we're here. We're some of us are like that

here, you know, and. Like in France, it was really

odd because like, you know, we have our ideas of what France

specifically is like. And I remember like one of the

people, they warned us, they said, hey, listen, they're, they

are, can be a little rude, you know, compared to Americans.

And I remember thinking like interacting with them, it's

like, oh, they're not rude. They're just, they don't do

small talk. Very direct.

Yeah, they're direct. They ask real questions, and if

you're not being real, they want nothing to do with you.

Yeah. And so it was very challenging

to, like, have to put forward that, like real behavior there

'cause you can't just be like, hey, how you doing?

Yeah, know about Jesus. Can't put on that Southern

charm. Exactly.

And then the next I was saw Keith Corps trip I went on was

to my OAT and 2023. So I was about I was 21 at that

.20 turning 22. And that one was interesting

because we were there starting a church.

There had never been a church in my OAT before and it had start

like I think the missionary had only started doing Bible studies

maybe like two or three weeks before we got there.

Wow, really? So it was very brand new and

they were, they tried to get like a church building for us

and they found one that they could rent out.

And it was actually a mosque. And the persons who was the

landlord over it said, no, I do not rent out to anyone that's

not Muslim. So you cannot rent out our

church. And our missionary got really

bold and said, how about I give you a Bible study and see what

happens? Let's just see.

Like, just just hear us out. Yeah.

And he gave her a Bible study. She got the Holy Ghost and got

baptized. And she's like, yeah, of course.

Here's my mosque and all of the people that actually went to

attended the mosque was like, well, we don't want to go find a

new place to worship. And so they just became

Apostolic. I guess I'll get with the

program. I'll convert.

Exactly. So we were talking about it that

like in one service they went from having only like 3 people

to having 25. Wow.

That's awesome. It is.

Were they? French speaking.

Also, yes, they were completely French speaking.

Yeah, I did want to ask, other than having to learn French as

the language, what was some training or education that you

had to pursue before departing and how useful was it when you

actually got on the field? So in terms of education

beforehand, it was mostly stuff that I had to do research on my

own. And with my OAT, it's such a

small country that I couldn't find any literature on it.

Like I found one, like surprisingly, one newspaper

article that was actually in my doctor's office.

And so like, I took it, read it, got all the information, took as

many notes as I possibly could. It's almost like a sign, like

you know you're going to go like here it is.

Exactly. It was like, oh, this is

perfect. Literally in my hands and then

see. God will give you all the

resources you need. You don't have to go too much

out of your way. In a day and age where we don't

even read newspapers or magazines anymore.

To even see it, there it was. So wild that's.

Cool. Like I remember like I just like

mom was with me and I like Hannah was like, do you see

this? The excitement.

And then like and then like France, it was easy to find

stuff. For Austin, it was easy to find

stuff for. My most recent trip was Senegal

for six months and that one I was kind of scared to research

because it was different than any other trips that I gone on.

Because, you know, in Austin I was only there for two.

I'm only there for a week and France and my OAT, I was only

there for two weeks and then this one, I was there for six

months and I was like, oh God, I don't want to find anything, but

I was going to freak me out. Psych yourself out.

Exactly. I don't want to change my mind.

Well, I want. To know also like how did you

discern from a short term trip from one week to two weeks to a

long term calling to I mean six months like that's a long time.

Like if you think of yourself dedicating to anything for six

months, the first thing our flesh goes to is we can't do

this. That's a.

Long time, yeah. But and to completely get out of

your comfort zone, you're not not your bed, not your home, not

your food, your people. I mean, you kind of step in the

daily to an unknown. So what would be the discernment

that you that that from the trip that was two weeks in my O to I

think I want to take a six month trip next time.

That I actually credit to Sister Adams who is actually the

regional director. Well, she and her husband are

regional directors over Africa. We were very blessed and this

was totally a God thing. Every single person that I

needed to approve of my application to go on AIM was on

that trip with me. Oh wow.

And so it's like the regional directors over South Africa and

their regional directors over the entire country, like entire

continent. South Africa or West Africa?

It was South Africa. Luckily, the Sullies who I

actually got partnered with are the regional directors and we

already knew them. They were, they were the only

ones not on that troop, but. Senegal is West Africa, right?

Yes. Yeah, OK.

But from my understanding, they need approval from more than

just one regional director. Yeah, so God was already making

all of those connections way in advance.

Exactly. And.

I didn't know that. Yeah, whenever, whenever we were

in my OAT, we were only there to be.

We're only there for actually 5 days because Mayotte is semi

access challenged. There's only one factor that

doesn't make it an access challenged.

Well, two, we can talk about it. And the second thing is that you

don't need a visa to get there. And it's it's not a dangerous

country though. But whenever we went there,

though, we had to kind of disguise ourselves as tourists.

So we, we were in France for about 3 or 4 days doing

everything that a tourist would do.

You know, we went to the Louvre, we went to the Eiffel Tower,

took as many photos as we possibly could.

And then we made it to my oats. And whenever we made it to my

oat, they really wanted us to, you know, get the heartbeat of

the country. And so they gave us Bible

studies every single night. And those Bible studies were

some of the most intense Bible studies I've ever been a part of

because it wasn't just them, like the regional directors did

it, but they also made each of us give a Bible study.

So like every single day. It was one of the AYC years and

one of the preachers that was on the trip giving a Bible study.

That's awesome. And Sister Adams, actually, I

don't even know she remembers this.

She came up to me during one of the Bible studies and said, you

know that God is calling you to this and you know, you need to

commit, so you need to submit your application.

You know what you got to do? I was like, OK, that's all I

need to know. So sometimes God's going to hit

you over the head with exactly. So I'm pretty sure like the week

I got back was whenever. No, no, I waited a little bit

longer because I'm a little stubborn and submitted my

application and sure enough it it got accepted within two

weeks. I mean getting.

Typically it was like a month or two, a month or two before.

You would even. Hear back and yeah, she heard

back just. I mean, you just see God opening

immediately all those doors one after another.

And my husband was not really on board, honestly, because he's

not thinking, oh, this young lady is called to missions.

He's thinking, my daughter is wanting to go to a different

country and live for six months. Yeah.

And even in that a lot of times the first time a namer goes,

it's only for three months and then not six months.

And he made the mistake of saying the only way that I will

be comfortable with this if he get if she gets appointed with

Craig and Lynnae Sully. And we're like, what are the

chances? And I even said, babe, if it's

God's will, you're going to have to be good with it regardless.

And who did she get appointed to?

Craig and Lynnae. Sully, I was like, OK, I got.

You. I got you.

Don't worry about it. That's awesome.

So then how did you get to after you got to Senegal, like what

was kind of the one of your first things that you did there?

Well, whenever I got there, they kind of put me to work

immediately. So naturally, yeah, which is

great. I'm OK with that.

So like I immediately started working in Sunday school teams

and to which all of the little kids are so funny because they

do not care about the language barrier at all.

And we're just trying to ask me questions.

And I was like, sister's all you got translate for me.

We'll place rights. It's fine.

Yeah. It's OK.

Yeah. And you?

Me, yeah. And then like they asked me, I

was like, hey, we have a regional conference.

We need you to come with us if you can.

And so I was like, OK, great. And so I went there and my job

there was to help out with the MKS and you know, ring all these

MKS, make sure they're acting right in service and ended up

just being one. But it was great and just

filling in in whatever teams that they needed.

That's. Cool.

What, like cultural norm, surprised you the most when you

first arrived, if there's any? There it definitely is a

different world. I was actually just complaining

to Brooke about earlier about the traffic was insane.

If you had a 2 lane Rd. there'd be 4 lanes of traffic on it.

And the people there were, they were excellent.

They were really nice. Some of the nicest people I've

ever met, to be honest. But there were just several

things that definitely weren't American.

Like their building structures were completely different than

they are here. No AC pretty much anywhere.

And it's just so hot. Yeah, I think, I think one of

the things that like really got me was I left the US drinking

nearly a gallon of water every day.

And I was like, OK, I'm good. And then I got to Senegal and

got extremely dehydrated and had to double that water intake.

Oh. My goodness, what was the

temperatures like 'cause it was over summer?

Yeah, it between 90° and 120. But you're you weren't there.

Were you there during their summer?

Yeah, because I miscalculated like I thought what season meant

winter? Apparently it means summer and

their winter time is the dry season and so their their

seasons are divided into 6 months and so it's just two

seasons a year. Wow, wow.

Interesting. Yeah.

But the car, it's right on the other side of the Atlantic

Ocean. Right.

Yeah, it is the furthest West in Africa that you possibly get.

Literally the point you see on the map of the continent of

Africa on the West side, that is Dakar that really and we

actually even walked out to the point that the last bit of

ground on the continent and that was so incredibly.

Yeah, that's insane. Very pretty, too.

Very beautiful. It is an extremely beautiful

country. Like, in my opinion, yeah.

Some people might like, look at it and be like, oh, there's

like, like, OK, there's a lot of, like, destroyed cars

everywhere. And like, some people might look

at it and be like, oh, there's a lot of junk on the side of the

road. And I was like, oh, it's, it's

just pretty. Yeah, it's all about

perspective. Exactly.

How did you build trust with the locals that may be skeptical of

outsiders if you're approaching them, whether just be not even

for ministry purposes? Did they ever have a little bit

of a, you know, they kind of take a step back and like, oh,

who are you? What do you want?

Definitely. I got the stereotype just

regular white American and so in their minds it meant rich, it

meant snobby, and it meant that I was better than everyone,

which is not how I be myself at all, especially with the money

portion. She was on a very limited

budget. Exactly like surviving off of

faith, but with I was able to establish relationships with

like my landlord, actually someone on our corner store

where I would get my water and all of my guards.

I was able to establish relationships with them because

they kind of figured out that I wasn't just there.

Like I was there for a reason. It wasn't like.

Purpose. Yeah, it wasn't like just work

brought me here 'cause they get a lot of like Americans over

that, work for the embassies and stuff like that, and they're

just working. They're just there to represent

America for the most part. But my guards, we would

actually, me and my roommate, whenever I had one, we would

every time we come downstairs, we'd always ask them, you know,

in French, hey, how are you guys doing today?

And actually try to have conversations with them.

And that gained a lot of respect for us.

And it was actually awesome enough that one of our people

that doesn't speak French because we found out that

there's a village language called Wolf that isn't even

written down that a lot of people speak.

And he decided that if we can't, if we can't speak his language

and he can't speak ours, that he's just going to teach us his.

And so he would, every day, he would stop us and ask us in his

language, how are you doing? Make us respond.

And then, you know, he would use his, you know, gestures, you

know, like, if it's like, you know, if it's two of you, it's

this. Yeah, if it's one of you, it's

this. Then he would, you know, gesture

outside. Oh, this is the time of day.

This is this how you say it? He was training you.

Exactly. And so just, I think what helped

us was just consistency. Like every single day we were,

we treated each other like we treated each other and the

locals the exact same way. There was no difference between

how I treated my roommate versus how I treated them.

Yeah, sounds like just showing people that you actually care.

Like you said, there's some people that go over there,

they're just for work and then they're going to go home.

But that there's, you know, that you really did care about the

people and, and the place you were at.

I mean, that can be true here as well.

And people, yeah, people don't care what you have to say until

they know you care about them. Don't.

Care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Exactly. And that was ingrained in you

your whole life. So it's kind of easy.

It's so amazing how God kind of prepares you for all the things

you need to know. And like, you know, pastor and

Sister Pinton's story, like obviously you're a part of that.

And then I'm not, not not taking away from your story, but

there's so many aspects of it that if she wasn't raised in

your household and didn't experience your story, then you

wouldn't been prepared for your own.

And it's just so wonderful how how God kind of just intertwines

all of our stories in that way and prepares us for all the

doors that are eventually going to be open that we don't even

know. And if we did, we'd probably be

scared, right? Yeah.

I'm not ready for that. Absolutely.

And then like in our church, I cut, I did the same way.

They actually made me start their youth group.

There wasn't a youth group before I came.

And so I became their youth pastor just for the short time

that I was there. And one of the things that

helped me gain trust between my girls was just being vulnerable

with them. Yeah.

I cried with them. They cried with me.

And it established a relationship that, like, I

wasn't trying to talk down to them.

Not that I think that anyone in their congregation was, but it

helped them realize, oh, this. She is real.

Yeah. And she wants to know what we

have to say. And I'd texted Sister Sully in

the middle of my first lesson because, like, one of our girls

absolutely broke down and cried. And I was like, I think I messed

up. This is going really well or

it's going really bad. Oh man.

Yeah, yeah, as Kylie would tell us stories and then I know you

all know that that I went over and I spoke at the ladies

conference there. But what some people might not

know is that the Lord even orchestrated this because they

had asked me to come speak like a two years.

We didn't know that, Kyla. Would be there.

We had no idea because her getting appointed and going it

was a really quick turn around. In my opinion though, it just

felt like it. But we didn't.

I didn't know when I said, yes, I'll come that she would

actually be there. But God knew, and we also knew

my mama's heart, that. I would absolutely I.

Would need that. But I know, Lexi, you probably

remember this, but I teach a course here.

I'll it's the world literature course.

And one of the things that I bring out is that the human

experience is universal. And that's, you know, we read

all of these short stories and plays and we talk about in that

course how that everybody is the struggles are the same, that,

you know, the human experience is universal.

And I think nothing has made that more real to me than seeing

her work in Dakar, meeting the people that she was working

with, you know, and, and just being in the presence of God

there. I mean, you immediately, I

immediately felt at home. I could not speak one iota of

the language. I tried to learn one thing

because I picked up on them saying it.

And then when I finally got brave enough to use it, Kyla

said, Mommy, do you say that during the day, not at night?

And I was like, oh man, I thought I had you were this

close. I was so close.

But they would worship and of course, you know, I have a ear

for music and so I would just be singing the words on the screen.

My dialect was terrible. But but I didn't even have to

know what the words were, right to know what the meaning was.

Yeah, that makes sense because the worship and the just the

complete, I don't even know how to describe it.

It. It's just something universal

about the presence of God and the Holy Ghost.

Unites us. It does.

It unites us, every tribe and every nation.

It's just, it was just the most amazing thing and, and the to

see her working there when I came in, of course, I don't

know. I thought initially it was like

they just knew. It wasn't very hard to figure

out who I was in the group. But one of the things that one

of the ladies, it was translated to me.

They treated me with such high honor and respect, but it was

because I was Kyla's Mama and they would call me Mama, you

know, and, and it was because. Mama.

Michelle Mama Michelle because I they loved her so much that

there was just a just the way they treated me was just

unbelievable. But it wasn't because of me.

It was one because of God and, and the love of God, but also

the love that they had for Kyle. It was so amazing and the love

that she had for him, them. It was just, I mean, it's just

God, you know, we are the people of God no matter what.

As I said earlier, every tribe, every nation, right?

And that was just the most beautiful experience I have ever

had. I think just being in that

atmosphere where you are, you know, right away, this is a

family of God. Yeah.

One thing I would like to mention too, just a little side

note, what I absolutely loved about that church is whenever it

came to music, and this is kind of convicting for us, is that

they would sing it in whatever languages were spoken in that

congregation. So in a single service we could

get 5 languages in by in song form.

Man, that's awesome. Well.

There's always the risk when you ever you do a missions trip,

especially to a country that what is the percentage of of the

spirituality? Is it Muslim?

98% Muslim I think is what it was very high. 98% Muslim.

Whenever you first go over there or I don't know how often that

they are used to, you know, Apostolic or really any other

denomination that's there. Were you ever faced with any

kind of opposition or danger, or you or yourself or or someone on

your team that was there? From what I know, none of us

faced any of that because in a lot of ways, with the country

being as high a percentage of being Muslim, it's almost the

same as a lot of people in America identifying as

Christians, where like they'll go to church like once or twice

a year and then identify as a Christian and that's kind of

similar to how they were. However, we did have a

interesting situation with someone passing through from an

Access Challenge nation that we had to house him for a couple of

days and all he did was read the Bible because he couldn't bring

it back home. Wow.

And so he read and memorized as much as he possibly could, and

then we sent him back. You know, is that the the same

guy that came through when I was there or was that we?

Had we had two people like that? Yes.

Because there's another guy that he, they basically were staking

him in and out of different situations.

And I don't know how much we probably can't say very much,

but it was, it was so convicting to me that I have the

opportunity every single day to share the gospel And I don't

outside of my, I really, because I basically eat, sleep, I don't

sleep here much, but here, this is my job.

I work here. I work.

I'm hardly even outside of these walls in all honesty and just

the opportunity to share the gospel and taking advantage of

every opportunity we have to, to read our Bible, to, to study,

to, to share the gospel. It was just the most convicting

thing in the world. I mean seriously, the most

convicting thing I have ever experienced.

To see someone so hungry for the word.

Yeah, and we just take it for granted.

And we even, we even had a Bible that we translated into Arabic

so that it would make it easier for those people and access

challenged nations to read it and be able to preach it.

In fact, I think the one that we had was like only one of very

few in the world. Man, that's crazy.

Was there any a time anytime on the field where like your faith

was tested? For sure.

Yeah, you're. Like what can I say?

For sure there this is something that I didn't broadcast and just

something I just had to pray about was that whenever it got

to the last two months, two months of my trip, we realized

that my budget wasn't exactly accurate, especially whenever my

budget would help. My budget to stay accurate was

that I would have a roommate for my entire trip.

Well one of my roommates left, which not like anything like it

was her time. Her time was up.

She had to go back to the US and replacing her.

That roommate canceled her trip, which I understand and it's

probably not God's timing and I pray that one day she will come

back or that she'll go on a different trip.

But for the time being, like, she didn't come.

Yeah. So it left that gap.

Yeah. And I don't, I that was three

months left of my trip and I did not have the finances to even

stay in my apartment. Yeah.

And so I ended up running out of money and just struggling to get

by. It got to the point that we're,

it was like the last month of my trip and I had pulled out the

last of the money that headquarters has and I was like,

OK, let's see how I can make this.

Because at that point I had, I had to move up my trip because I

was supposed to be getting back this week actually, but I had to

move up my trip. And I really feel like it was a

God thing that I moved up whenever I did.

And, you know, it got very frustrating in those last two

months where I was like, OK, why is this going like this?

Why don't I have enough money to get by?

What is going on? And, you know, just really

having to pray just like God. I just got to make it because I

didn't have a car there. And also what happened in the

last month is that the bridge that I would walk to get to

church got torn down. And so I had to get a taxi to

get to church every single day, whereas I lived close enough to

the church that I could just walk there.

Because of the bridge. Yeah, because of the.

Bridge. Yeah.

A different route. Because like what the the bridge

does is it goes over a highway, right?

I really don't want to cross that.

You know, it wasn't, it wasn't necessarily my favorite thing to

do. So with that ended up adding on

more expenses that I just didn't have before, but I made it, you

know, people, actually a few people that had no idea that I

was even going through financial issues sent me money through

Cash app. I don't even know how they got

it to be honest, but it was very sweet that these people came in

and I one person literally just put on their so this is for your

taxis for the next month. I was like, that's so nice.

And you had no idea that I was going through this.

And it kind of like helped me. Like it let me know.

Like God is still watching out for me.

Yeah, he will provide. He's still providing.

I, I had gone to Mississippi Ladies Conference and I was just

talking to some friends of ours, my childhood best friend and her

sister ironically, was my one of my mom's best friends at one

point and had they had taught Sunday school together.

And I remember Teresa just coming to me and saying, how's

Kyla doing? And the next thing I knew, she

had written out a check, you know, just to hear give us to

Kyla, you know, and, and just little things like that.

And, and we're so appreciative to everybody who donated.

And one, one of my friend girl that you know, she's younger

than I, but she got on Facebook and said, OK, everybody, you

know, you know, Michelle, this is her daughter.

Let's all donate. And there were people that I

went to high school with that I haven't seen in.

I mean, I've been on high school for a whole time, 40, I don't

even know how many years, but I've been married for 35.

So it's something up there. Yeah.

And people I've not seen in that long who and donated money, you

know, for for her trip, and I mean for her experience.

It's not her her dad kept saying a trip, but she was living

there. It was more than a trip.

It was a, you know, a divine appointment, a season.

Right. That kind of leads my question

into like funding for a missions trip.

If you had to tell somebody who feels like they're calling is

into missions, obviously sustainability, that's the very

first question that people have to bring to, to the table of

like, well, whether it's a week or six months or, you know, 12

years somewhere, you have to kind of plan ahead for that.

So I know that for quite some time you did the Little Thrift

Shop Ladies conference, you had your booth.

What are some other ideas that you had put together that helped

with your funding for some of these trips?

For me, a lot of my funding came from jobs that I worked like I

worked, I picked up as many jobs as I possibly could and still

maintain a sleep schedule so that I could fund this trip.

And I know a lot of people they'll do like these like 100,

like calendar give a like not giveaways, but like they'll

assign like a number to like a day.

And whenever you get to that day, you give that amount of

money if you sign up for that. And that raises a lot of money.

I think it's like $5000 that that can raise.

Fundraising. Is not easy.

It's not. Especially when there's a lot of

Labor involved. If it's just you, I mean

obviously you can have people who are willing to help, but.

And like, I know a lot of my friends that are on AIM, what

helps them and their trip is that they get as many people as

they possibly could to pledge money.

And that's typically how they fund their trips is they'll be

like, OK, how much money are you willing to give me each month

or, and how many months are you willing to give me?

Give it to me. And like there are some people

that like one of our Aimers that was with me, which is Sister

Jean, that was how she funded her trip was only through

pledges. And even if she didn't have

enough pledges, God always worked through her.

She honestly, I'd joke with Mom that I wish I could trust God as

much as Sister Jean does because there's one point where she

looks to me just like, yeah, Kyla, I don't have enough money

to make it till next month if people don't donate.

And then like the next week, if she tells me, well, someone gave

me $3000, I was like, OK. I was like speaking and into

existence, like, yeah, can't do it.

They don't. Please do.

When faith starts, yeah. Exactly.

I think, too, one of the things that that Kyla might have

learned while she was there was that you definitely learn to

live frugal. Things that we don't need.

Yeah, I really don't even need it for our body like.

Coffee every day and waste a lot of money.

They waste a lot of money. And I think that is one thing

that she really learned over there was that when you just

kind of put the thing, you know, in priority of what's important,

you know? But also, I just want to give a

shout out to anyone who may be listening and it's considering a

trip. If you're from Alabama, our

ministries here in the state. Kyla got funding from Nam, North

American missionaries. They sent her money, Global

Alabama Global Mission sent money.

Ladies Ministries sent her donated as well.

And so when we are giving to like Christmas for Christ and

when we are giving to like our global missions offerings that

we give all the time and when we give to like Mothers Memorial,

we are using it within our state.

We are using that money to help these students that God has

called them. There are so many scholarships

available that I know all the departments we want to help in

whatever capacity we can to, to these young people who do have a

call of God on their lives and want to experience mission,

whether it be a home missions or, you know, you know, it's not

called home missions anymore, but North American missions

locally or abroad. So that is one way of investing

in the Kingdom. Just knowing that that when you

give to these ministries outside of our local assembly, you're

you are helping to finance people just like Kyla who have a

column of God on their lives. I do got a couple of kind of

real quick. Since you've been back, I want

to know what is your funniest translation fail since, you

know, being there for several months, whether it be well, it

could really be any of them. Austin here.

I mean, I mean, I don't know Spanish.

Somebody's put somebody Spanish in front of me and I would be

like, no, Habla Espanol, like no.

But let's hear what you got, Kyla.

So this actually it, it's one of those smaller ones that

happened. It was on my first AYC trip to

France. You know, I was like, I've taken

French, I know what I'm doing, I know how to order.

This is great. And so we're at our first

restaurant and I didn't realize that if you ordered a soda like

there, sometimes they don't give you cups to put in.

Like sometimes they would just give you the the cold can and

that would be it. And so I asked her.

I was like hey can I have a class to put this in but I

misused the word glass and asked for a beer sign and said so I.

Asked her. So she got.

Very confused. She was like, I don't think this

is what you want. And like the girl said, that's

not what it means. I was like, oh, oh God.

So we got it fixed up and she brought me what I wanted.

That's oh man. What about do you have any local

food that you missed while you were there that you were excited

to come back to? From here.

From here or you can go reverse the the question and was there a

a dish there that maybe you were kind of skeptical about but

really ended up liking it and you know, you want to try to

make it here. So there is, I think we're here

that I missed while I was over. There was simply accessibility

because there was only one place that we could go to that had,

well, two places that had takeout.

Wow. And like, or at least two places

I knew of that had takeout and it was a Lebanese food or KFC.

That was it Yeah. That was exactly which is the

funniest brand I saw there because I out of all things from

America, y'all got KFC Exactly. But yeah, so it was like

accessibility was what I mostly missed, not like I missed

certain foods, but it was mostly just being able to be like,

let's go through a drive through.

Yeah, convenience of it for sure.

And then alternatively, there were several foods that were

brought over there. Like one thing that one of our

girls did was that services were so long, they could be anywhere

between 4:00 and 6:00 hours long on Sundays.

And our music leader, Grace, every single, every single

Sunday, she brought banana bread, but her banana bread

looked like donut holes really, but like like oversized donut

holes and like they were, it was so good.

I wish she would send me the recipe for that.

And one thing though, that was that I was skeptical of though,

was they told us we cooked a meal after service.

This was actually before mom got here.

They told us we cooked a meal after service.

I was like, OK, cool. So they give, they, they bring

out this table for us, put all the ministry team at one table

and they put out this large plate and then give each of us a

spoon and we're all, we're all supposed to share that one plate

of food. And so like it had like, oh,

it's not like quinoa or rice. It's still couscous.

Yes, couscous. They had couscous and like

chicken on it that had the specific spice that they call

Pima, which it just means pepper, but it's like a green

like sauce. This is so good.

Really. In which we.

Would find that, but yeah, that is why I wish I would drink,

yeah. What about do you have any

souvenir that you got that you won't part with?

Like. Like if you got a souvenir from

there that maybe has a special sentimental purpose from

someone, one of the, you know, children that you were with in

the Sunday school classes or, you know, maybe a visitor that

came through or you know, any kind of souvenirs that are that

are cool. Actually my favorite souvenirs

that I got is I actually got a few outfits made personally for

me. That's cool.

The one actually wore Sunday, I had no part in designing it.

The person actually just wanted to surprise me and so she took

my measurements and on Sunday I had this like handmade dress.

So like she like hand beaded it herself?

That's so sweet. Made like the shower this past

Sunday. And they, they did that for

another outfit of mine. We had a concert and they wanted

everyone in the music team to look alike.

Yeah. So they just took, once again,

they just took my measurements and just made it for me.

And so there's a few outfits that I have there like that.

It's another. Testament to like that whole

family and unity feeling, yeah. And like on the last Sunday I

was there, they actually this is something very special.

I didn't know they were going to do this.

Every ministry that I had taken part in presented me a gift.

So the children gave me a hand bound, leather bound Journal of

Africa. Then it was the music team that

gave me the dress and my my youth girls bought me sandals.

But it's a little cold to wear that right now.

They got you set up for summer though.

Exactly. You'll see them as soon as

summer rolls around. I appreciate hearing your story.

I, you know, kind of testified last Sunday, but that was very

brief. So kind of getting that more in

depth story. It's really awesome.

It was definitely just to me from the time that she left and

just seeing. And of course, thank the Lord

for FaceTime. Yeah, Oh my word.

I don't know how I would have made it without being able to

see her. So do they have readily

available Wi-Fi and such? It depends.

My apartment had Wi-Fi most days, our church had it most

days. We also had we had power outages

all the time, so it just depended on whether or not we

had power. Tell them about how the power is

paid for. Yes.

So we don't pay like in America. You give like bills and stuff

like that. For what you've already.

Used for what you've already used in Senegal, you pay for how

much you think you're going to use, estimate it, and so you

have to. Four to six hours services.

Yeah, exactly. So you have.

Even it in your apartment and you go ahead.

Yeah. And you have a little box that

you're given and you have to download an app on your phone or

go to a like one of the little corner stores and you have to

figure out your your, I think, I think they called it a router.

You had to figure out your number for your electricity, and

you had to give it to these people and tell them, OK, I want

10,000 franc for this week. And the thing about is that

however many units that is for that week could vary.

Yeah. Because if it's at the beginning

of the month, that might be 120 kilowatts.

Wow. But if you're in like the second

or third week, that might be 60 kilowatts.

And so you have to pay that and then it'll start flashing

whenever the whenever you're running out, and then you have

to pay for more. Wow, I could not.

Yeah, about running, turning on her lights and I think you only

ran your AC light. A night that would.

Be a lot of times you'd be walking in the dark, that's for

sure. Exactly.

And like, I was worried about, I was like, man, what if it cuts

off in my fridge is like starts melting because it was hot

enough there that I lost power for like an hour or two once.

And I go to my kitchen and my fridge is leaking because my

entire freezer had already defrosted and everything in my

freezer had already melted. And so I would like, it'd be

like, OK, so now I have to keep up with this because if my power

goes out, all of my food is rubber.

You know, I think one thing that was so interesting there is to

get the unhealthy food like we have prepackaged was way more

expensive. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just, I wish it was like

that here because she ate very healthily while she was over

there. But for me, the thing that just

blew my mind was that no matter what restaurant we went to,

whether it was just like a corner bodega or something like

that, or a fancy, fancy restaurant, which we went to,

one really beautiful fancy restaurant, I took her out for

her birthday. Nutella is always on the menu.

Really. That was very interesting, Very,

very interesting. That's the French influence.

Yeah. I guess one thing we didn't

cover that I thought was really cool seeing the videos was

riding camelback. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that

experience real quick. So the first time that you'd

ever done it? Yes, it was.

So it was actually at a lake that is so high in salt that it

turns the water pink, and so the water was very pink whenever we

went. You can float on it.

We didn't because of all the you know, you don't want to because

about but it it actually. It's like the Dead Sea in the

Dead Sea. And so there they had, they had

camels there. And we're like, why not?

We're over here. Anyway, in Rome.

And like, whenever I found out that there was going to be

camels there, I immediately told the missionaries, like, we're

getting my mom on it. I don't.

Care what one way or the other. I will pay all of my money.

I will fast for an entire month if I need to, but we're getting

my mom on a camel. That's fantastic.

And so it was very, it was very fun getting on there.

I feel a lot of sympathy they for all of the people in the

Bible that had to do that for everyday because like it was way

more comfortable than riding horseback, surprisingly, but it

still wasn't exactly. Comfortable.

He was like, no, I disagree on that.

Like because the camels have very heavy steps that any step

that they would take and shake your entire body, you know, and

leave you bruised. It was great.

Though, and my camel was limping a bit and so I kept feeling like

I was like I was going to fall because I was like leaning, you

know, and the God come up and, you know, spotted him on his

backside and he straightened up. But then all of a sudden I'm I'm

back up right. And every time the God was

looking, he'd get a little bit lazy and I thought, I'm going to

fall off this camera and. They're normal.

They're tall. They are enormous.

I mean, their teeth are enormous.

It is unbelievable how big these camels are.

That's awesome they were giving us attitude too.

All like the groaning and stuff like that.

I swear my suicide eyed me multiple times.

They it was interesting. It was fun, though.

Oh, yeah. I don't know that I would want

to do it again, but I've done it.

It was, it was a good experience, yeah.

Well, I think that's really all that we've got to cover.

Kyla. I guess the last question is do

you have any upcoming or in the foreseeable future?

Any other trips that you're prayerfully thinking about?

So I do know that for certain. I will, I will go back.

I don't know whether or not it'll be Senegal, but I do know

that I will be going on a trip soon.

I say that because you really can't know because I didn't

really know about Senegal until I got sent on it.

That's true. And so for me, yes, I have

strong desires that I want to go again and like I would like to

do 6 months or maybe even longer because I think that was really

good. But whether or not, when that

is, that is entirely in God's hand, right?

Just I'll wait for him to say, hey, go here and then I will.

Right. So we all have to stay tuned.

Exactly. You know, I know this is kind of

out of sequence, but just for a second, I know when you called

home, you said the most impactful thing that happened to

you while you were living in Dakar was working with

Compassion Services International.

Yes. Do we have time for it?

OK, go for it. With compassion Services, what

they do is they send a group of apostolics and do whatever they

need to do. So if it's teaching like grades,

they'll do that. If it's teaching like first aid,

they'll do that. If it's coming in, assessing

people, building buildings, disaster relief, they have it

for multiple countries including America.

They do several compassion. Medical clinics and all kinds of

things. Pretty much anything that you

can think of, compassion does. Wow, yeah.

And they sent over, they sent over a group of nurses to us.

And our church isn't very big. There's only like 30 people in

there. And our pastor just said, OK,

are you locals? You go tell everyone that you

possibly can. Here's the invitations.

Tell them they have to have an appointment.

And you get people to come to this.

Well, and ended up being more people than had received

invitations that actually showed up, which, and I'm so thankful

that the group of nurses that we had were so fluid that there's

like, we're willing to stay as long as there's people outside.

And it would have to get to the point that would be like, OK, we

have to go home. Like it is 8:00 at night and we

got to be here at 8:00 in the morning.

We. Got to go.

And so it was very interesting going there because stuff that

are so accessible for us in America, we had to help them get

like a few people came in with just cavities, not that big of a

deal. And so we would give them then

like toothpaste, toothbrushes and like vitamins, like for

women, we'd give, you know, all the PMS stuff, just regular

stuff that we'd come in like that are so common here.

But then there were other people that would come in and it was,

it was very sobering and the fact of knowing that some of

these people would never receive the help that they needed.

Like we had one person come in and she very obviously had

breast cancer. We could tell that.

And it was so sad because like, the nurse came in and assessed

her. So yeah, it's cancer.

Like we do not have the tools to take care of that.

And we're lucky that the car finally got a Cancer Center,

because before that cancer was center was built, the closest

one was in Paris, France. Wow, wow.

And a lot of people came in with broken bones and like just

sicknesses. One person came in with

tuberculosis that we. Had to so their medical

facilities there, they just weren't established or didn't

have them really. Dakar was blessed more than most

countries in Africa, but not nearly to arson, not nearly to

our degree, Our level, Yeah, our degree.

One of those things that we had to deal with was one of these

people came in with a broken bone and we knew that that bone

was going to grow in Misshapen because if they were to get

X-ray or MRI. It would take them eight months

to get that, and by that point it's already healed and it most

likely is healed wrong. And in what is so unfortunate

about West Africa at least, and it's probably true for the rest

of the continent, is that whenever you get a sickness or a

injury like that, the only thing that you can do for the rest of

your life is become a beggar. That is the only job opportunity

that you have. And so it's like whenever you

get injuries like that, they're basically death sentences.

And just knowing, even with me breaking my arm this week, if it

happened in Dakar, they would have to fly me to Paris.

Right, it's a whole different. Even see if I had afford that,

most people can't afford that. Yeah.

And so a lot of people, whenever they have these illnesses,

they'll just take pain medication and inevitably just

die from it. For the rest of their life.

And my thing is that here in America, even the poorest of our

poor can, if you can find your way to an emergency room, you

can get a treatment, you know, And there they just do not have

that option, you know, It's just so incredibly sad.

We had one person that he came in, he and he acted like, oh,

this is no big deal. This is just how my life is.

And that it was he had extreme high blood pressure to the point

that he was going blind for 8 hours every day and they had to

tell him it's like, listen, you need to go this.

Is not normal, yeah. This is not something that you

can treat lightly. You have to go somewhere.

And the dude just broke down and said there's nowhere to go.

There's nothing I can do about this.

And they did their best to provide what they could, but

unfortunately, with just a handful of like, it wasn't able.

Like we had like a few suitcases full of medications and stuff

like that. It's like that's all we could

provide them. We'd have to send them to places

that may or may not exist within that country and tell them this

is your only hope. And it may not be something that

is attainable. But with the lady with

tuberculosis, what really impacted my life with her was

that she wasn't even planning on coming to see us.

She was recommended by her son's friend who just said you have to

come here. There's something different

about these people. You have to come see what they

have. If you come here, they will heal

you. And she came and she grabbed my

hand actually and told me she was like, I want you to pray for

me because you have something that I want.

And I know that if you pray for me, I'll get it.

And so I got the nurses and we prayed for her.

And she told us after we prayed for her and she's crying the

entire time we were praying. We're crying too.

She told us afterwards, whenever I walked into this building, I

was heartbroken. I had no one in my life who

cared for me. And I have felt such a peace

since being here. It is a peace I haven't felt in

years. And I know that it's just from

you guys. Yeah.

And whatever peace that you guys have here, that's what I want in

my life. That's awesome.

Yeah. Wow, Yeah.

Did you baptize any any visitors or anyone come through actually

while you were there? During CSI we actually had one

baptism. That's cool.

And we had a few outside of CSI too.

We had several people that either had been coming to church

or one person hadn't even been in our church long at all.

Like he we just happened to meet him on the side this road and he

decided, OK, if you say I need to get baptized, let's do it as

soon as possible. And the next day we filled up

our baptism tank and baptized him.

And so we had a few that got baptized.

That's awesome. One thing that actually this

time, mom, that I missed whenever I came back was that

every time that they would get a baptism, they would always sing

after the baptism, sing about how Jesus is coming back.

And, you know, look at what God has done.

Look at what God has come in this life and one of the songs

actually changed the lyrics from like oh Galilee, see what God

has done to O Senegal, see what God has done.

It's like. A rejoicing response.

Yeah, it was very sweet. It was always, they would always

sing and dance after someone got baptized.

It was excellent. Wow.