Episode #6 - The Brights

All right, so for this one's for this week's episode, we got 2

special guests today. I'm going to be very careful on

how I say this because I know there's a particular way that

means a lot more than the other. But we got two people who have

not survived a lot of things but have conquered a lot of things.

So we're going to try to get into a little bit of that.

But we have with us brother Kevin Bright and sister Penny

Bright. How are you guys?

Doing well. Thank you for having us very.

Well, thank you for coming on. So I reckon what we usually do

is we kind of start from the very beginning and you guys can

kind of take turns and go as you will.

But I'll start with sister Penny since she's the the special,

special guest. If you will just give me a

little bit of an introduction your your introduction to the

church, I would say. All right, well, I'm Penny

Bright. Kevin and I have been married

for over 30 years. I don't really know exactly how

long, but 30 something years. He keeps up with that more than

I do, but I we started coming to the church in O 9.

So we actually started initially introduced through brother Shane

Stewart who worked with Kevin and he kept head, invited him a

few times to church. And so we knew about the church

already. But then we were at the Madison

St. festival and Lifegate had a booth up and they were passing

out ink pens and Kevin got one talking to Shane and just chit

chatting with him and stuff. While we're standing there.

He got one of the pens and then we were trying to determine we

were looking for a home church. We've been to a few hadn't

really found anything that we just loved.

And he said, wait a minute, brother Shane invited or he

didn't call him brother at that time, but Shane Stewart, this

guy I work with, invited us to a church.

Let me find that pen and see where where it was.

And so we got the the pen and looked and it was life gate and

we were it was over at Castle Drive at the time and the rest

is kind of history. We've been going here ever

since. What was your perspective of

that brother Kevin, whenever you got that pen came across your

desk so. Shane had spoken to me, I'm not

sure if she said, but we work together and he had mentioned

coming to church before and we were looking and I actually

intended to check it out. And funny thing is, is we did or

not funny but interesting. We checked it out once and we we

were like, well, let's check out another one before we decide.

And so we ended up going somewhere else, which I don't

even remember where we went and I told Penny at the time I said

let let's go back. And so we went back and just

being transparent here, we, we both said, well, we didn't

really get anything from, from the service.

And we kind of slept on that for a little while.

And I really feel like God spoke and he, he said, you know, if

you're not getting anything from it, it may be time to put

something into it. So I told Penny at that time, I

said that's where we're going to go.

And the decision was, we made the decision then that this was

going to be our home church. And kind of, as he said, we did

kind of pour ourselves into just being of service to at that time

pastor, because he was about the only adult in, in the leadership

role at that point because the church was still small.

And, and we've grown with the church obviously, and, and got

more involved as time went on. And so that's what's got us to

this day. What, what kind of what was it

like going to a smaller church like that?

Do you know what I mean? Did that did was that a negative

experience for you guys or was that the play factor?

We always stayed away from the mega churches because like your

dad, like pastor, we wanted a family atmosphere.

We wanted something that we could connect to.

And we had visited, not trying, not looking for a church for us

to attend, but we had visited with friends or family or

whatever, some of the larger churches and it just wasn't for

us. There was no connection.

And kudos to those that are able to find that connection through,

you know, small groups or whatever.

But it just wasn't for us. And we have really been been

glad that we were sitting here because we have grown.

I mean, this is a family. I mean, this is more penny in my

family than our blood relatives by far.

And we grown into this family and others have come and grown

in with us. And you're not going to find a

closer knit group then here at Lifegate.

If you don't mind, can we talk a little bit about just family

with you guys First off? Like did you guys grow up when

close knit families? I guess is that your background?

I'm going to let pennies speak to this first if that's OK, and

then I will. So growing up, I'm the oldest of

seven kids. DC, who also goes here, is the

youngest of the seven. So, you know, there's a lot in

between. US.

But we were very close growing up.

But my dad is very devout, godly man and instilled everything

good in me came from my dad and we were very close.

Because of him I played a kind of a different role in my family

than oldest sibling. I was often a more of a did the

female leader of the family and because of that I was very close

to my siblings. As we have grown, there's few of

us that has grown apart. DC and I are the only two in

church. I do have a sister that lives

out in Colorado. I think she might attend church,

but honestly I don't know. But we're not we're not very

close anymore. We we keep in contact but

unfortunately we've kind of drift apart.

We see each other a few times a year and text daily, but we only

see each other a few times a year.

I do try to stay in touch with my family, but growing up we

weren't really in church as much as we should have been.

My dad was a preacher when I was really younger in in the Church

of God. And then he fell away from

Christ. And so of course the whole

family did. If you know a lot, as with most,

a lot of families, if the dad's not in church, nobody is.

So we didn't go to church for several years.

And then in my late teen years, he came back to Christ.

And but unfortunately, by that time, many of my siblings had

grown and grown away and, you know, train them up in the way

they should go. It's the truth.

Because the ones that didn't grow up into it have no interest

in going to church. So, you know, we're I think

because of us being closer when we were so much younger, but not

now is one of the main reasons I craved the family setting that

we have now. And when we first started going

here, all of ours were little and hadn't grown up at all yet,

and we had just adopted them, so we were just starting our family

as well. So we really wanted that

extended family setting and feeling for them to grow up in.

Yeah. So for for me, we did have a

very close knit family. However, we we did not attend

church. I didn't grow up in church and

so my father passed when I was 9 and he was 33 when he passed so

died at very young age. So it left my mom with her six

children. Two of them were already married

or about sorry, my oldest brother was already out of the

house, he was married. My next oldest brother was about

to get married. And then my oldest sister ended

up getting married shortly after that.

So she was left basically to raise three children.

And she was very moral. I would not say she was godly,

at least not growing up. And so she taught us Christian

morals without having the Christian background and we she

was kind of the glue that kept the family together.

So she passed in 2014 and we somewhat grew apart.

But I still have two brothers that I'm pretty close to, and

I've got a third that I communicate with but don't see

him very often. But we, growing up, did things

as a family and extended family. But unfortunately for me, a lot

of my relatives passed at a young age.

My grandfather, my grandmother and I had relatives in New York

from my mother's side that we never really saw could obviously

been so far away but as a within the home we were very close and

stayed close into adulthood until till my mother passed so.

Yeah. So how important do you think it

is to be like a, like a church family, to be there for each

other? You know, I mean, what does that

mean to your life? You know what I mean?

Like I. I think it's crucial to maintain

the unity. And if you don't have people

buying into this is my brother talking, you know, I'm looking

at Kobe, I know you can't see that looking at John and saying

this is my brother, this is not somebody I go to church with,

this is my brother. And it's, it is from a spiritual

context. But when you have that unity,

you can throw away the spiritual context of it because it truly

is what you say is as family and you can say, well, he's not

blood. Well, Christ would disagree.

This is more so my blood than than my brother from my mother

and father because this is eternal.

And so yes, it I think it is absolutely crucial to have the

environment that your dad pastor has has set for life gate.

And I think the way he started, he's differently wise beyond his

years to, to know from such a young age that this is how you

start a church. This this is how you build a

church. So, so yes, I think it's of the

utmost importance. I'd like to, I like to emphasize

something that you mentioned earlier when you first started

coming to Life Gate, you talked about you felt like you weren't

getting anything out of it, but then God talked to you and said

maybe you should put some more into it.

And I'm like, that is a powerful thing to say because how many

people do you think come through our doors or any doors and they

leave and they go, I didn't get anything out of that.

And, and really it could be one of those things where God could

be saying, well, what did you put into it?

You know, I think of that as like a investments, you know,

when we're, we're, we're investing, you know, and stocks

and so forth like that. You don't care about the stocks

that you're not invested in. If I'm not buying NVIDIA, I

don't care if it crashes or if it goes through the roof, but if

I've got investment in that and I've put my money into that, I

care a lot whether or not it goes up or it goes down.

And I think the same can be said for your spiritual life.

The more you put into it, the more you invest into it, the

more you're going to care whether or not it's, it's in the

UPS or it's in the downs. And I think more often than not

it's going to be in the UPS. That's just how it's designed to

be. So I, I, I really like that, you

know, God talked to you in that way.

And I think that's a very, very important thing that I think

he's trying to tell a lot of people besides just the handful

of us, just in my own personal opinion.

I I would agree with that. Yeah, and we see I, I can't tell

you how crucial you are, especially for me, because even

when I got out of church, it's knowing that you're a guy I

could call up at any time and you come there for me.

And that's something where you said beyond a spiritual context,

that's a community, you know, and you're doing that from a

spiritual context where you're like, this is my brother, my

brother in Christ. But it didn't matter how far

away I went, I knew that there's a lot of people here that cared

about me. And I think it speaks to how

intentional you guys have been. And that's why we see the fruit

with your children too. You know, look at your kids.

They're completely bought in and their family as well.

That that means so much to me as a dad now because that's a lot

of what what brought me back is a community in itself and having

a place for for people to join together in the the way kind of

we did in the upper room and all.

But sorry, you, you left an impact you, you, you both have

left a really big impact on my life.

I. Do appreciate that I have to say

since you've inserted that and I I don't want to turn this into a

Patty tiller on the back, but it's it's honest and from the

heart, but it was one of the things I noticed when we came to

life gate was you young guys sitting right here now Kobe and

yes and Cameron and Johnny. You were the welcome team and it

was so sincere. It was not hey, you kids need to

get out here and greet people. When people came in, your face

is lit up like my best friend just walked in the door.

For me and Cam specifically, I mean we we had a lot of times

where there were no faces. So that meant a whole lot.

I mean, some of the stuff y'all were talking about as far as

like not having family close, not having those things, that

was really true for us, you know what I mean?

So I mean, just having somebody like you guys come through the

door who's going to be there for us and actually be our extended

family was such a big deal for us, you know what I mean?

Like it. And that's not it wasn't

fakeness. We were genuinely just excited.

So you come through your kids, you know, I mean, that was, I

was a little bit older than than most of your children, but it

just having that like that connection, it meant a lot to

us, you know what I mean? Just being there.

So we do appreciate it. And you know, I'm sure John can

relate because John came in when there was 5 people.

So everybody who came to the door and John's another

transplant from far away, you know, so that's very true for

all of us in this room. And so I think that's important

what the church becomes though that that is, you know, that

that's how we get through this together, right?

Like, because if I, if I'm not there for you and you're not

there for me, I mean, clearly. And we'll go on.

But times do get hard, you know, and we really do got to kind of

be there for each other. Well, actually if you don't

mind, could we hear how you guys met if give us a little context

on that? So how Penny and I met, we, we

actually met at work. I was actually her supervisor.

I worked at Hardee's at the time.

And so I'm getting some eyes cut at us because I will say we had

to transfer to different locations after we started

seeing each other. But yeah, that's how we were,

how we met. See, walked in the door and she

had a Letterman jacket on. And my heart sank because I

felt, you know, it was she was wearing a boyfriend's jacket,

right? So I found out it was actually

hers because she was in the band.

And I was like, yes, so you. Say there's a chance.

So it took, it took about a year before she actually went out

with me. So, so we were working together,

right? And I wasn't a Christian at the

time, so I've got it. I've got to say this, but so

we're not supposed to be dating in the same store.

So, so I had to ask her, do you have a, a date Saturday?

And she said no. And I said, do you want one?

And she said no. So I I left there.

Asking me out. But he tried.

He tried. So I didn't ask her again for a

long time, but. We had been dating a while when

he asked why did you turn me down that first time?

And I'm like, what are you talking about?

So, so that's how we met and I was in.

So we met in 199091 maybe and we were married in 93.

So. So you guys, you guys made a

decision that, like I said, a lot of people kind of struggle

with sometimes, you know, that was that you guys fostered and

adopted children, you know. Can you speak about what led you

to that decision? Absolutely.

I'll take this one. So we both are.

We both had childhood cancer. He had one that he had to have

lots of treatment and surgery for very serious, very rare,

very deadly cancer. I had leukemia and I was

miraculously healed, like on the spot.

They literally told my parents, she's probably not going to make

it another six months, and those six months will be in the

hospital. And that next morning, they woke

up and I was bouncing off the walls.

And how old are you? Four, they said I was in it like

the incubator things where they put their hands in these gloves

to touch you. And mother said she walked in

and I had my feet out of one side and my hands out of the

other flipping around, whereas the night before I couldn't even

open my eyes to look at them. So it was a miraculous healing

overnight he just as miraculous, but it went through surgeries

and chemotherapy and that sort of thing.

So from that, the reason that's relevant is there was damage

done when I was sick and through his treatment that made it

difficult for either of us to parent children the natural way.

I remember being nervous to tell him because he was so good with

my younger brothers and sisters. I mean, he was just, they were

all DC that you guys know was 3 when we started dating and just

he was so good with him and I, I knew he's made to be a daddy,

but, but, and so I was nervous to talk to him about it, not

knowing he was kind of feeling the same way, you know.

And so we finally, you know, when the decision was made, OK,

we're getting married. Then we both sort of breached

the subject and we're like, well, guess what?

I can't either. So, so it kind of, you know,

worked out, but that didn't the desire to have children didn't

go away. So we were married about 10

years and you know, of course no children and we didn't go to the

extent that some people do with, you know, that fertility drugs

and that we, we saw a doctor to see if anything could be done

and nothing easily could be done.

So we talked about it and we prayed about it.

And a lady actually that I knew through some extended people was

talking to me once and she was talking about fostering

children. And I was sad, as everybody

says, I would love to do that, but I just, I, I couldn't give

them back. That would hurt so much.

And she looked at me and she goes, well, isn't that sweet

that it's all about you? I was like, oh, oh.

Oh, how you convinced somebody in my.

Opinion. Exactly.

Well, it wasn't me. I was like, you're right.

And she said she showed me her wall and she had just down her

hallway just hundreds of pictures.

And she said I love every one of these children.

And 90% of them went back to their homes, 80% of them non

successfully. She said.

So these children when they grow up, whether they be in prison or

in a happy home, when they look back on their childhood, they at

least have one good memory and that's me.

They at least have one person that told them about Jesus and

that's me. And I was like, OK, we're going

to be foster kids. So I went and talked to Kevin

and he was like, yeah, absolutely.

We never ever even thought about the thought never crossed our

mind that we'd be adopted in the children.

We were just literally going into foster.

If any of you know of any foster parents, they do dozens a year,

if not hundreds. And if you, we were in foster

care for 15 years, literally we should have fostered, you know,

hundreds of kids over the 15 years we fostered 5 to 4 we were

adopted and one more. So literally God had these kids

for us. He just needed us to go into

foster care at the right time. And the first two that we got

were Joshua and Cassidy and then Gabrielle and then Christopher

just right there together. And then we had one little boy

that came and ended up getting adopted by his grandparents, I

think it was. But those first four that came

into our foster care, we adopted and you know that.

And there there's no way I could love them more if I gave birth

to them myself. They are made for me, Gabrielle.

Paige is spitting image of me and fortunately acts like me.

Christopher the same way with his dad.

And Cassidy gets more like me as the days go on.

So, you know, and Joshua's a mama's boy.

It's, it's pretty precious to see.

So it's these are our children that God got us to us in a

different way. Yeah, I don't know what he's

doing, but so on that on that subject, I, you guys have done a

lot from what I understand in the adoption community, even

just in this area. But I think it's almost like,

and, and my, and my growing up, and I hope this is not coming

off wrong, but the word adoption is almost like a just this weird

taboo word, right? Because you know, it, it

ultimately meant, you know, most people's because you couldn't

have one or you chose not to. But it's just not something that

people really lean towards. But what from what you guys have

gone through, what would you say to people who are worried about

being in that same position? Because I, I know for myself I'd

be just, man, could I, this kid that's not mine, that's not my

blood. Could I see them as my own blood

as time went on or from the get go, you guys, it seems like,

like you said, whether they were yours biologically or not, they

were yours. Well, the first thing to

remember is we're all adopted by Jesus.

Does he love us? You know, so I mean, that's the

first thing. It's literally biblical.

So that's the first thing to, to remember when you're thinking

about adoption. And the second thing is to

celebrate it. I mean, we, we chose our

children. You know, you don't, you give

birth to a child, you're stuck with what you get.

But for real, you and we celebrate it.

We, we have had people come to us and ask us, how did you tell

your child they were adopted? At what age did you explain it

to them? And there was no age, there was

no telling them. We, from the moment we got them,

we celebrated the fact that they were chosen and that they were

adopted. They have a birthday and an

adoption anniversary. We do not call it Gotcha day.

Gotcha. Sounds like, you know, I played

a joke on you and ha ha, gotcha. So we don't call it that, but we

do call it an adoption anniversary.

And so their adoption day is what they call it.

And we celebrate it just like a birthday every year.

You know, even the ones that are grown, they're like this what

day it is, you know, and they, they get it a gift.

We'll go out to dinner. So, you know, but we celebrate

it from the beginning. We celebrate how blessed we are

that they're in our lives and how, you know, I can't believe

God loves me so much that he gave these children to me.

So that would be my, my advice to everybody is celebrate it,

embrace it and be thankful that you get the privilege and honor

of getting to adopt. Absolutely.

And I mean, even just you read the Bible, you know, so much of

what they have to say is about taking care of those and the

orphans. That thing that's that's that's

a command. Sometimes it doesn't necessarily

get emphasized to the Christian community, you know what I mean?

So I just kudos to y'all for, for raising up these kids.

But also like what encouragement, what

encouragement would you give to those who might decide to go

that path? You know what, what

encouragement would you give to them?

Say this is going to make a difference in somebody's life.

So it is important one to remember, especially if you go

the route we did through foster care.

It's not all roses and rainbows. I mean, anybody that knew us

that when my kids were growing up knows there's some rough

patches, but there's rough patches with biological children

too. You just have to roll with the

punches, the good and the bad take the good with the bad.

And you have to be the person that that is their safe place.

So it, it doesn't matter what they say, what they do, how

angry they make you, how much they hurt you, they're just

slashing out because people have left them, especially in our

case. And you know, if so, if you've

adopted somebody from the hospital, maybe not.

But in in the cases, especially with my older ones that had

memories of their biological families, everybody abandoned

them when the going got tough, their families got going.

So of course they're going to push the boundaries to see what

is her limit? When is she going to walk away?

And you just have to show them you're not going to walk away,

love them no matter what and let them know that's fine, whatever,

you're going to get your punishment.

But I'm still going to be here. I'm staying right here.

And I think that is really important.

And the strongest advice I would give to an adoptive parent is

love them through it. Regardless of what they say or

do, just love them. I think the encouragement is

though, that when you pour yourself into anything and now

you're talking about human beings, there's no greater love.

You know, Jesus had the conversation that who's going to

love me more than one? I forgave whatever 2 bits or 20

bits, which one's going to love me more.

I feel like it's the same when you got these little human

beings that are just wanting to be loved and you are willing to

do that. Then there is no greater reward

than seeing these children. You come home from work or

wherever you've been and they light up and they, you know,

it's just a joy to see that you given them some joy because they

have a place to call home, because they they do have

somebody to love them. That.

And some of these kids don't come from terrible situations,

but many of them do. And so when you're able to kind

of reap the reward of of the work that you put in for those

kids, to me that's the encouragement.

Well, and when they first decide of their own accord to call you

mommy and daddy, there's nothing sweeter now, you know, the the

younger 2, they were weren't even talking yet when we got

them. So it was just the, you know,

just like your own that you gave birth to.

But the two older ones were talking and we were Penny and

Kevin. And of their own accord, they

decided that I was mom and he was dad.

And that was nothing sweeter. And no memory in my heart is

more precious all. Right, because we never, never

force that on any of them to to do that.

It was always. And Cassidy might kill me for

telling this, but I think it's sweet.

She would call him my daddy, which is very telling too.

But not just daddy, my daddy. Hey, my daddy, can we go here?

And they're there. And it was really sweet.

So did you? Did you, did you ever think

about it in a way when you first started fostering that you had,

you had in a way stepped out and started your own ministry?

Because through those kids that you worked with ultimately being

the four of them, you didn't just give them a home to get off

the streets or to get out of a foster home or anything like

that, But you gave them a home, that new truth and you walked

them and you guided them through that and you gave them that kind

of environment. How how important do you think

that was to the to the growing of that growing up?

So I tell everybody, I honestly believe that God put those kids

in my life and I'll just speak to me personally, not for their

benefit, but for mine because I have, I have learned way more

having to raise those kids than I could ever imagine to teach

them. So it does work both ways, but

in a way, I don't think I would be serving God with the intent

that I am now if it were not for those gifts.

Because it gives you a new perspective, a new

responsibility of saying, well, this isn't just me.

This isn't just my wife anymore. I'm responsible to teach these

children of who Jesus Christ is and when you study the Bible,

God does not look favorably upon those that neglect the children.

So, So for me, that's what I always tell people when they and

they intend well, mean well of saying, oh, y'all are such great

people for, for taking these kids on.

And it's like, wait a minute, wait a minute that we have

received a bigger blessing. There's no doubt.

So, yeah, beyond that, John kind of talked about it.

Not only did were you guys involved with your children, but

you guys have been involved in the community with lots of

adoptive agencies and you've known lots of people through

that. That's something that kind of

has inspired me a lot. So what what kind of

encouragement would you give to those maybe who aren't going to

be, you know, able to foster children or adopted, but just to

get involved with that? I mean, that's a serious

opportunity to help make a difference.

You know what? And that there's a huge

opportunity out there for that as I've pushed, you know, with

that, doing the different things with bows and Bros for the

Foster Children's Alliance of Madison County.

Brandon Bishop is the one who's over that.

He actually come has come to several of our trigger treats

because of us go in and helping with that.

But there is a huge need out there of not just taking kids

in. There's also, there is the

Foster's closet that's out there that collects.

Then they don't just take all your old junk.

They have specific needs that they have and they'll, they'll

put list out there and they have a, a delivery address and an

Amazon wishlist. You can go on that Amazon

wishlist and order things and have it shipped there.

And there are some cheaper things, but there's also more

expensive things because, you know, foster kids come into

foster care with a garbage bag and clothes that don't fit them.

That's just life. I mean, every one of ours, with

the exception of Christopher, came to us with a garbage bag of

mismatched things that you could tell didn't belong to them that

was just thrown together. And so there are agencies out

there to give them suitcases. There's an agency out there to

give them backpacks and school supplies.

There's agencies out there that raise money to give to it's

called Kincare and it's, it's where a child goes into foster

care and a relative takes them. Those people don't get any kind

of financial assistance for that, but they have taken on a

child that wasn't theirs out of the blue.

So there are there's help for those people to buy things and

you know, formula and you know, stuff like that.

So there's so many opportunities out there to help foster

children that doesn't involve just taking in foster kids.

And I'm not saying don't do that, but a lot can't.

I mean, it's just a fact of life.

We no longer can, you know, we have our hands full with our

own. So that's why we get involved

through Foster Children's Alliance, the focal group and

all the things, all the ones that I've named.

There's just so many opportunities out there where

you can help these foster children.

And if all else fails, pray for them.

If you have no other thing that you can do, pray and not just

for reunification, but pray that the best possible path for that

child is what happens. Because sometimes a mom or a dad

just need to get their act together and losing that child

or children is the thing that fixes it.

However, sometimes kids are in foster care over and over again,

so if you have absolutely nothing else to do, pray for

those babies because they've done nothing wrong and to cause

the situation that they're in. Yeah, that's and what what you

guys are doing is incredible and there's not many people who are

willing to do it. So the fact that you are doing

it and doing it so well is, is massive.

I'm, I'm going to throw us all a curveball real quick, but I want

to take us back again. Whoever wants to volunteer

first, I'd be like, I would like to know how each of you found

your salvation. In other words, how do you got

the Holy Ghost? When did you get baptized?

What was what was your experience of leading up to that

and developing your own relations with Christ

personally? So I'll go first, I guess.

And so this is has some comedy in it and it's kind of

unbelievable, but just again, being transparent.

So I was 19 years old and I had tried to read, like I said, I

wasn't raised in church. I tried to read the Bible a

couple times because, you know, that's what God does.

It's like, hey, I'm here, you know, I'm, I'm calling you.

So I had tried a couple times. Course I had no understanding of

it. And so I kind of, I was probably

as a young teenager when I was 19, I wanted this Camaro.

It was a 1976 Camaro and this was in 9090 one.

No, 90 or 91 doesn't matter. But I actually told God, I said

if you'll let me get this car because I had to get a loan, my

mom had to get a loan for it. So this is tells tells you how

old I was at that time. The banks would not lend for a

car loan if it had over 100,000 miles.

So I'm bargaining with God, you know, because I don't know any

better. And anyway, I said, if you'll

allow me to get this car, I'll go to church twice.

Two times so for a Camaro. So I'm playing this game all

wrong. So so I I just this should tell

people though how much God loves you.

So ended up got the car the the president of the bank was

retiring and he pretty much, well, he said this car is not

worth what they're asking for it, but he's on the way out the

door and he's like, but I'll give it a loan.

So, so got the car. I kept my promise.

So the first two churches I went to I didn't like so at this

point I know I need to go to church.

I've now I've met my wife which we're not married yet but now

I'm thinking OK it's time to settle down because I was not

settled down and we had her cousin.

We were keeping him as a small child and this was before foster

care, but we were already Foster and just not through the

government. And anyway, his daycare teacher

invited us to her church, which is it, which was a Church of

God. And so we ended up going to Five

Church of God. And when I walked in the door,

God's presence was so strong and there was no doubt, and it was.

I had heard about it my whole life, but literally you hear

about people grabbing the Pew white knuckled because I

couldn't sit still. He was like dragging me to the

altar. I can interrupt and add this was

on my birthday and it was his birthday gift to me to go to

church. That's.

Awesome. So anyway, it was at that point

that I turn my life over to Christ filled with the Holy

Ghost. And so we ended up later moving

to Huntsville and we tried some churches Church of God because

that's, you know, that's what we had done.

And I was baptized in in the Church of God, which as you

know, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. So anyway, just move forward to

1998. We moved to Madison County began

seeking a place and we went to a Church of God for several years

and and ended up leaving for reasons I won't get into but so

we ended up being out of church so for several years until we

started seeking a church again. Ultimately came to life Gate and

was later baptized in Jesus name at life gate.

So that was a quick synopsis of but but there was two things

that God used to to workout, help me work out my salvation.

And it was the car and it was my wife.

And I don't say that because she was she's sitting here, but I

was on a very destructive path path and I didn't, I didn't do

drugs, thank thank God. But if there was anything else

that could get me in trouble, I was I was doing it.

And I met my wife, future wife, and said it's worth, worth

settling down for. So.

So anyway, and here we are today.

There you go. Was there like a so you, you

were baptized the first time and the Father Son, the Holy Ghost,

then you, you come to Lifegate and now you're, you had to have

realized at some point I need to be baptized in his name.

What's that? What's that revelation process

there? Because there had to be a little

bit of a revelation to you. Like, Hey, I I was doing my best

to serve the Lord, not that there was anything wrong with

it. But then you realize, oh,

there's a whole nother level to this.

Well, and I think more than anything for me, I'd like to say

that it was a complete revelation for me.

I, I do buy into the oneness and, and that is important.

Obviously it's very important, but for me it was obedience.

If, if this is where God brought me there, there's a reason he

brought me here. So I felt like you can call it a

revelation, I guess, but it for me, it was like God didn't bring

me here if he if I did not need to be baptized in Jesus name, I

wouldn't, I wouldn't be here under this pastor, you know.

So for me it was an act of obedience, not that I Jesus name

is important. I don't want to diminish that.

I'm just being transparent and saying I was doing it out of

obedience because I did think it was the right thing to do.

And then with me. So I grew up, excuse me, I grew

up in the Church of God, like I said, as when I was as long ago

as I could remember from birth, my parents actually met because

my daddy was preaching at a revival at her church.

So he was a preacher before they even got married and he remained

a Church of God preacher until I was probably in elementary

school and that's when he fell away.

So I grew up in church. I was saved as a child, very

young, baptized when I was, you know, 5 or 6 years old in a

lake, you know, out in the middle of nowhere in Etowah

County. Aurora Lake, if anybody's ever

heard of it. But, and it was quite comical

because it was a Sunday morning and the Saturday night remnants

of things going on was thrown about and it was, it was quite

comical. But so I grew up in it.

Even when my parents fell away, I did not.

And I was able to stay steadfast during my teen years.

It was just always ingrained in me and I think because of my

childhood cancer, I had a dream when I was, I don't know if it's

a dream or what I've told him about this before and I don't

really know what to call it, but I was very sick, hurting all

over. Excuse me.

And they're 2. Two different things happened

when I was sick. One night in particular, I

remember just my whole body was hurting so bad and I was only 5.

So it's you know it, but the memory was so intense that I

remember it. And I remember that I'm a

daddy's girl through and through.

And he worked just all the time. He was just always at work.

And Mother had told me to get over in this chair and lay in it

so she could make the bed and then I could get back in the

bed. Well, Daddy must have come home

early because he picked me up and sit me down, hold him in his

lap. And it's like everything just

felt better because Daddy was holding me.

And so Mother said, all right, get in bed.

And I said, well, can Daddy put me in bed?

And she's like, well, he's not home yet.

And I opened my eyes and I was sitting in the chair alone and I

realized in my 5 year old mind that was God holding me as a

little child, holding me because he is my daddy.

And it made me feel better. And I knew, I knew beyond

knowing that it was nothing spooky or weird, it was God.

And then the night of my miraculous healing, I had a

dream. And in that dream I was talking

to God and he asked me, do you want to come home or stay here?

And I said my parents would miss me, I'll just stay here.

And I woke up the next morning completely healed.

Wow. You don't walk away from that.

You know, our entire testimony, if we were to be able to just

sit and tell, it is so healing focused.

God has from that young four and five year old age till today, we

have been absolutely surrounded by miraculous healings in

ourselves and others around us. It's just been, you know, so I,

I never straight away, I never doubted that God was God ever.

Because of that, there's no doubt in my mind that that was

God loving me and taking care of me and even gave me a choice.

So then Fast forward to meeting Kevin and my dad was just

getting back into church right then and I knew as a Christian I

should not date a non Christian. I knew that.

But man he was cute. There was nothing spiritual

about it, like he said it wasn't him.

I just thought Oh my gosh. And so and in that car, my

goodness, but for real. You needed the guard.

He says he was like you need something, but for honestly

though, he just I just it was almost love at first sight.

I mean I saw him and I was like holy Toledo Batman.

This is the one for me which. Is crazy since you turned him

down. Exactly.

Thank you for that to. Ask you but so you know, we but

I knew that he needed to get in church so as we're dating, you

know I didn't just pound it on him, but I, you know, as subtle

as I could, you know, but mostly just tried to be a good girl

around him and in front of him. And so, like I said, he told me

that one of his birthday gifts to me right after we got

married, I mean, I think it was our first, my first birthday

after we were married is he would go to church and he got

saved, but he got saved that night.

And that's awesome. I mean, the the rest is not, as

they say, is history now on on mine.

I was baptized in the father son and the Holy Ghost.

And now it is something that's interesting to me is when I

started coming to Lifegate and they kept talking about that

other denominations, churches, whatever, believe in three gods.

That blew my mind. I had no idea they were talking

about what I believe because I never saw it as three gods.

I always saw it as one God that had, you know, three.

I don't know, maybe manifestations.

Yes, there you go, manifestations.

But I always saw it as one God. So I may have always been one

this and didn't know it. I don't know.

But I never saw it as three gods.

I always saw it as one God. But we were going through the

infamous. What is the Bible study that

we're doing now exploring God's word with the Stewarts?

And that's when I we finished the one that talked about Jesus

name baptism and they left and I've told Kevin I was like, we

need to get baptized in Jesus name, don't we?

He's like, yeah. There you go and that and that's

the truth hit on something for real though, is that most people

when you think about they think about Jesus being on the throne.

They don't think about that and that only it's only your

theologians that will get into debates on the personas of God.

You know what I mean? Whenever most people who try to

understand God, understand he is 1 Lord, you know, And so that's

a you know, and it's just, it's, it's important people

understand, you know. But one thing, let's talk about

some of those healings you've seen over your life.

God's moved in a mighty way in so many different circumstances.

Yeah, life obviously ups and downs.

And I think with believers, a lot of times, if there's anybody

out there who happens to listen, who is wanting to join the

faith, you know, it's not just smooth sailing after you come to

Christ, you know that, oh, all your problems are gone.

And you guys are a testament of strength for one.

And then I think faithfulness overall.

And so could you touch on that for us and kind of dive into

maybe not just the mountains, but some of the valleys that

you've been through and how God seen you through it?

So I want to say one thing before I say that is you were

talking about there's ups and downs and and God doesn't fix

everything when you come to Christ.

But what it does is gives you a different perspective.

It gives you a godly perspective.

And the things that drive the world crazy, like financial

issues and medical issues, yes, they're still important to

anybody that's having to live here, but it's not the most

important thing. And if you're going through it

without God, it is the most important thing in your life.

And it doesn't matter. And I'm not asking for it,

obviously, but it doesn't matter what's going on in your life

from a worldly perspective. If your car's broke down or your

house is on fire or whatever it may be, it's never going to be

the most important thing as a Christian.

So it gives you a new perspective to realize these

these things are temporary and they're going away anyway.

So when you're going through it, you've got a different

perspective. So, so on the miracles though,

this literally could be a novel for for my wife and I.

And I know, I know you guys have been through it too.

I've grown up with your family, so this isn't exclusive to me.

But since we're talking about the brights right now, I'll

indulge. But so we've already touched on

the cancer that I went through a little bit as as a four year old

when I was diagnosed with that cancer, I was given 50% chance

of making it through the surgery.

And the doctors literally said he's he's got a 50% chance if we

do the surgery, he's got 0% chance if we don't.

So on top of that, they said if he makes it through the surgery,

it'll give you about another six months.

So obviously made it through the surgery, but during the surgery,

so the cancer is a hard tumor should be and they've got to cut

it away and when they got when the doctor got in there to cut

it away when he made the incision to cut it, it poured

out. So it minimize the risk of what

he was having to do. Although still had most of my

right lung removed, chest muscle, back muscle, you know,

rib tissue and muscle because they had metastasized.

It started in my lung. Although it was not lung cancer,

Rhabdomyosarcoma is what it was. It was the second case ever

diagnosed in the state of Florida, which is where I was at

that time. So made it through all of that

and they said you know if I made it six months, then I would

maybe make it another six months after that.

So basically they said the longer you make it, the less

sense you it is going to come back.

So went through all of that. Obviously I'm still here today,

went through some pretty severe chemotherapy and radiation and

they actually call it the Red Devil is what I had to take for

the treatment. And so made it through all that

later on. Obviously you guys know, but

your audience does. It ended up with a diagnosis of

cancer in my jaw and they were set to do the operation on.

November 18th, Friday. So, so right.

That would have been a Friday. I'm taking my wife's word for

it. So the church actually let me,

let me pause here and let my wife because she was involved in

the prayer meeting that went on and I was not.

So I'm going to pass the mic to her for just a second.

So he, as he said, it was the surgery was scheduled for that

Friday. The doctors called and wanted to

come down to UAB on Tuesday to get an additional CT scan

because it was such an aggressive bone cancer that they

said it would be continuing to spread.

And they needed to know exactly how big it was because if you

cut into the cancer itself, it will immediately spread.

And they needed to make sure they had a good parameter.

And this was probably going to end up in him losing his entire

job. It was, it was very serious

cancer. So we went to Birmingham on

Tuesday and got the CT scan that Wednesday night.

Sister Penton was having a choir with the younger people, not the

entire choir, but with the younger people.

And Gabrielle and Cassidy were both in that choir rehearsal.

If either of you remember Gabrielle and Cassidy or know

them now, they are not Let's hold hands and pray together

kind of sisters. So they would do anything for

each other. But they are like, you know, oil

and water, hot oil and water. So they, I don't remember which

went down first, but one of them went down and during choir

rehearsal went down and started praying for their daddy and the

other one joined them and the Holy Ghost fell.

Excuse me. And so Wednesday night, before

church had even started, there was just, you know, praise and

worship, the Holy Ghost falling everywhere.

And excuse me, I believe that night was when he was healed.

So the next day, Thursday, the doctor called me at work and he

said, he said, first of all, let me start by saying I took the

test myself. And I had my colleagues look at

them because it was found by him going to the dentist and the

dentist saw a spot on when he was X raying the teeth and he

was like, oh, you need to go see somebody.

So he said I had these doctors look that are smarter than me,

no more than me. They confirmed, yes, it's cancer

and it's not pretty. He said I had the same doctors

look at the test I did Tuesday. And those same doctors said

there's no way that's the same mouth.

There is nothing there but what's supposed to be no cancer,

no bone cancer, nothing but a healthy mouth.

And so I believe with all of my, I was in my office at work at

the time just shouting and praising God and, but, and I

called him, I was like, you could work Friday because you

don't have cancer anymore. So God literally miraculously

healed him and they cancelled the cancer or cancelled the

surgery Friday and we actually went on a day date.

So. That's incredible.

That's awesome. So one more and and I'll pass it

to. Penny But again, as you guys

know, I'm going to tell a story of, of how I discovered that I,

I'm in the heart failure. And so I've been having some

difficulty breathing different stuff as far as overexerting,

having some Lightheadedness. And it was, it was becoming a

problem at work. And so it was becoming more and

more difficult to just to do my job and came home on a Tuesday

after working 12 hours. And I had set a doctor's

appointment for the next day because I'm I was off on

Wednesdays. So I had set the doctor's

appointment for Wednesday and I came home Tuesday and literally

just kind of fell out in the bed and still had clothes, shoes,

everything on just kind of face down on the bed, just fell

asleep. And so Penny thought I was in

there just hanging out and she came in there to check on me and

I was sleeping. She woke me up and said I have

they have to find something tomorrow because I can't keep

doing this because I had been going to doctor for probably 10

years trying to find out what's going on and it just got to the

point where I couldn't push through it anymore.

So go to or. I wake up next morning on

Wednesday and I felt fine. I was like OK, I'm good.

So go to the doctor and I'm kind of aggravated because now I feel

fine and you know how it is. You go to the doctor and say oh,

we don't see anything. So I go to the appointment.

First thing they do is EKG and it was a younger male nurse and

I could literally see the panic in his eyes and he's kind of

fidgeting around and and he said I'm on, I'm going to move these

and do it again. So he did.

He moved a little little. Magnet stickers.

Yeah, the little stickers you know, that they put on you.

He moved them around and he did it again.

And as soon as he got the reading, he he literally ran out

of the room and him and the doctor come quickly back into

the room and he's got 4 aspirin and he said take these.

So I took them and, and they're, they're like in front of me

discussing you think we should give him nitroglycerin?

And I'm like, hey, I'm good. I feel fine.

Do not get the paddles. I'm OK, I was joking, you know,

and saying don't get the paddles out.

I'm good. But they from the EKG, they

thought I was actively having a heart attack.

And so they said, well, you we're calling an ambulance.

And still I'm like, I feel better than I felt in a year and

a half, you know. And so the doctor asked me, you

want to go to Madison or Huntsville?

And I said, well, Madison's closer because I'm thinking,

hey, they're going to check me out.

So yeah, you're fine. Go home.

So the EMT's get there and the ambulance and they said, well,

let us do one with our bigger machine, let us do an EKG.

So he did. And he he said, so where were

you going? I said, I think just Madison.

And he said you, you might need to go to Huntsville.

And and so I said, well, are you are you saying that they're not

equipped to handle what's going on?

He said probably not. So we get to Huntsville and they

and I'm still thinking I'm going home.

You know when. Yeah, You know, as soon as I

figure out nothing's wrong with me, I'm going home, you know?

Got yours today. I got to work, you know, I got

to work tomorrow. We're.

Trying to figure out how to get both cars home because you know.

So anyway, again, my memory is much worse than my wife, so

again, I'm going to pass a microphone and let her tell you

what happened at the hospital at that point, and then I'll let

her. So they were doing all kinds of

tests. And again, like he said, we're

both thinking this is some fluke, this is something weird,

you know, maybe a little bit of blockage, but he's in, you know,

the epitome of health, you know, not an ounce of fat on him.

Plays basketball, schools. Are you young kids, you know,

so, you know, literally he'd been playing pickleball a few

days before. And so, you know, we're we're

thinking, you know, this is going to be, you know, whatever

that they might keep him tonight for tests, but that's it.

Well, keep in mind, that's still our mindset.

And the only thing we can figure on this was that the doctor

didn't know that nobody had talked to us before he walked in

there. But they did.

And they did so many tests. I don't remember what was what,

but they did a maybe an angiogram, I don't remember.

But anyway, something where they determined is there truly

blockage because they had said that they'd like took the

pictures of it and there was some fuzzy spots and they were

like, we can't tell what that is.

We don't we don't know what's going on.

Maybe he moved while we were doing it.

We later found out why that was. But at that time they didn't

know when they were like, we we need to do a better thing.

So they went in with the cameras, you know, trying to see

exactly where the blockages were.

Well, we're sitting there for those results thinking that

they're going to say it was just you moved, you know, so you get

to go home. So we're sitting there, we're

making jokes and laughing and, you know, just being all funny.

And this surgeon comes in and is talking about the results of the

test and from us thinking he's going home because of a messed

up test. We hear the heart failure is

severe. The there's so much blockage, we

can't handle it here. He needs to go to UAB and if he

needs a heart transplant, they'll discuss it there.

And we were like, I'm sorry, you must have came in the wrong room

because he moved during the test and we're going home tonight.

And he said that and walked off and we're both just like staring

at each other like, did this just happen?

So some some random nurse walks in and I was like, we need to

talk to somebody because I don't know if what we just heard is

real. Was this for the right room?

And she was like, yes ma'am. And so then we got a better

explanation of what was going on.

They still didn't know what was causing it.

But he had his chest was in such bad shape that they couldn't

even get a proper test and he needed he had three blockages. 2

of them were life threatening and they were not acquitted.

Huntsville Hospital is a pretty significant hospital and they

have their own admission could not handle his case and he had

to be sent to UAB. So they, and they told us it

could take days, it took a matter of hours.

And they they emulate, there had to be a certain ambulance that

took him because they had to have certain equipment in there

because apparently he could die at any minute.

So at this point, we're no longer laughing.

We're realizing, oh, OK, this is a little more serious than we

thought. So we get to Birmingham and for

the sake of time I will just say lots of tests at this point.

He was starting to have episodes that were he not in the hospital

where he was, would have been heart attacks that would have

killed him. It was very scary.

He had one in particular the night before surgery that was

absolutely petrifying. But God was there with us.

That is one thing I can say. I never felt abandoned.

I never felt alone and we were kind of initially not spreading

it to everybody because it still felt so unrealistic.

And our pastor and his wife was on a cruise and we did not, we

were kind of not sure what to do because like, I don't want them

to know what's going on and it ruined their cruise.

So I don't want to tell anybody where to get back to them

through the Grapevine. So we're in a kind of a weird

spot on that. And we did end up telling them,

obviously, but it, it was a weird situation on that as well.

We actually, what made us think tell them is the thought of

having to deal with both of them when they got back.

Had we not told them that we were like, we'll call them.

Well, at the point they did start giving me nitroglycerin, I

thought OK, let's. Let's call Pastor.

We've never let them know. Before and I didn't have good

connection when I first talked to sister Penton as well and she

was like what what are you saying?

I'm like, no, you heard that right.

So at any rate, many doctors came in that were very good

surgeons, good at what they did and said they could not do the

surgery. Reason being that the fuzziness

they saw on those tests was because apparently radiation

never stops working in your body.

They gave him radiation to his chest at four years old.

So he's had what are you like 80?

No, I'm kidding. So at 50 plus years old, it's

had, you know, 50 years, you know, ultimately to continue

working in the area that they put it on.

And it basically has melded his veins together in his chest.

And it's just almost melted in there.

And the blockages aren't from bad eating habits or are, you

know, build up cholesterol build up.

It is literally from the veins and arteries melding together

from the damage from the radiation.

And so now the doctors, they were like, you know, they're

just everything we think we can do, we can't.

So there is this Rockstar surgeon up there called Doctor

Steele. Her name is Doctor Steele and

she is good at doing an open heart beating surgery.

And that means they keep your heart beating.

They don't put you on the bypass machine.

They keep your heart working and beating while they do it because

putting him on the bypass machine was too dangerous and

they couldn't disconnect his heart like they do because of

all of the damage. She told us beforehand she has

most surgeons. She's very cocky.

And she said, you know, I, I have no doubt that I can do.

He needed three bypasses. She said, I'm very confident I

can do one. She said, just know while I

can't do the other two, I will fix the one that they called the

Widowmaker, which is a horrible name when you're the woman going

to be the widow if it, you know, that is made.

I was like, please call it something else.

But they said we'll fix the Widowmaker and then figure this

other out now. But this is the one that's

literally trying to kill him right now.

So we'll get that fixed, but the others we'll deal with later.

Just, you know, don't let don't stress over that.

She said, I'll look at them, but we know from the test it's not

going to. I was like, OK, so she came out

to surgery. He was in there all day.

I mean, it was literally like 8 hours something.

I mean, it was just all day with no word.

You know, he's they're focused on that.

So we're just waiting. She finally comes out and she

said he did die once during surgery and she got his heart

back beating because she was holding in her hand, which is

just very crazy to me. But she said that his chest was

an absolute mess. But the three veins, arteries,

whatever you call them that were needed to bypass was completely

open, no blockages. And she was able to do the

connections that she needed to do.

She was able to do only on those 3.

Nothing, nothing else would have been.

She couldn't have done it anywhere else other than on

those 3 arteries and they were completely clear and she was

able to do what she needed to do to do the surgery and him come

through it. So it was just they didn't

realize how bad the heart failure was and that's what he's

dealing with now. But the actual open heart

surgery and blockage was completely just a miraculous,

you know, able to do it because these three arteries were open.

Me being personal with you on that story, you know, it, it

it's happened in the Bible in the past where people would

question God, they would question Jesus.

Why would you let certain things happen?

And you know, they always assumed it was because you did

something wrong or he was upset with you or something like that.

But it was explained that, you know, there are times when

things happen just so that he can show how good he is and and

so that he can use you to show his, his ability to protect you.

And when I hear a story like that, that's what clicks in my

mind. God said, God said, you know,

you're going to have to deal with this, but not because it's

not that I don't love you or anything, but it's because I'm

going to use you and I'm going to use what you're going through

to show everyone else that I'm still here.

And even if it's something that someone says, we can't do this,

I, I, I still can. So that's like the first thing

that comes to my mind when I hear that story.

I'm like that. That's that's awesome and and

just powerful to me when I when I hear that, when I think of it

in that kind of way. Yeah, and on a, a personal

level, a, a direct influence of that, when that situation

happened, my boys, they're they're five and, and three and

we've, we pray with them, you know, every night with Lord's

Prayer, all that, just teaching them to get in the habit of

praying. And when, when that started

happening with you, that's where I took them.

And I was like, all right, boys, we're going to, we're going to

learn how to pray for people. And I'm like, y'all know Kevin

and Kaden, for whatever reason, he, he hates everybody, you

know, and he hated you forever. And then one Sunday out of

nowhere, before we ever any of this news broke, he comes up and

says, where's Kevin? And then he wants to go give you

a hug. And I'm like, that's weird.

But then after that, for me personally at night time at

prayer, I'm like, all right, we're going to learn how to pray

for people and those boys every night we're praying for Kevin to

come through that. And and now I've done I've done

started a problem. They're looking for people that

are sick. They're like, what are we

praying for? Yeah, exactly What do we got?

What do we got on the list that I'm like, hey, everybody,

everybody's been kind of healthy right now.

You know we're doing OK I'm. Gonna.

Pray for me. I'll take a few.

Wow. But I mean, you think about that

you were walking around like that with with blockages and you

didn't even know about it. I mean, you think about.

Right. And, and of course, you and I'm

not one to ever blame God and I'm not, it sounds like I'm

patting myself on the back, but it, it's just, if I'm going to

believe God is God, I'm not going to question it when things

don't go my way. And you know, however that makes

me look, so be it. But but I've never been one to

question God of why are you doing this to me or why have you

let this happen? But I do ask what, what do you

want me to learn from this? And I don't want to steal her

testimony, but he spoke to both of us when she went through what

she had to go through and it he made it clear why we were going

through it. But just just to say, I'll let

it, I'll, I'll let Penny give hers and I'll gather my thoughts

on that. But.

Yeah, before I probably give you that chance, I want to.

I want to. I'll be the brown noser real

quick, OK? How valuable must it have been

that you're going through all of this?

But to have the support system not only from your family, but

from your wife to walk with you every step of the way.

I mean, you had the Lord with you, which was the most

important, and you had your kids with you, had your church with

you. But to have a wife who was for

there for you while also taking care of her family and doing

everything she had to do. You can't put a value on

something like that. So I will say, and I'll say it

sincerely, not being modest and she knows I've said it over and

over, what what I went through was nothing compared to what she

went through having to deal with it.

I would have much rather from a ease standpoint, I would much

rather have been doing what I did and what she had to do

through all that. There's to me, there's no

comparison. So you're absolutely right.

It, it was a lifeline, no doubt. So you, you are definitely

hitting a nail on the head when you say it was crucial support.

Because had she not been there, I could go on and on about just

from a comfort level of saying, you know, the doctors or the

nurses weren't doing what needed to be done.

And she's going to them and saying, you're going to do this.

You know, you're going to give him his medicine or you're going

to, you know what, whatever the case may be, but he's not being

treated the way he needs to be treated.

And you need to fix it. Because we saw people there

without that support, without family.

And it's heartbreaking to to know people are laying in ICU

with nobody and who knows if you know who knows if they're

Christian or not. I mean they literally might be

there with nobody. So yes brother Johnny, you are

absolutely correct and it is crucial support.

Well, and on that note, I have to say to excuse me, that one of

the most powerful moments for me.

So keep in mind at this point, I've known that he died once,

was in the room when he died a second time, Complete heart

failure gone, and I had to do all the things that you see on

TV to bring it back. I'm stuck in a corner and can't

even leave the room. I have to watch it, can't get to

my phone to ask anybody to pray. So I'm just sitting there

praying. It's the things that he went

through that I watched. You just would not believe and

it was horrible. So keep keeping that in mind.

He was very weak, couldn't do for himself, couldn't stand up.

He was having to use a Walker. The first time he was able to

get out of bed and walk, holding the Walker, still very weak.

The first thing he wanted to do was the floor that we were on

with the very critical patients that had a very good chance of

not making it. The very first thing he wanted

to do when they let him get up and walk was walk the halls and

pray for the other patients. And it was the most humbling and

powerful thing I've seen. And that's what he did.

He walked the halls and there were these, he was one of them.

But there were these patients that had this red paper on the

door. And that meant that these are

the bad ones. These are the one that's

probably not going to make it. And those are the 1.

I had to follow him with a wheelchair because he wasn't

strong enough to make it the whole way.

But he did not want to stop until he passed every one of the

red doors and prayed for them. And that's what we did.

And we did that every day. And that was his walk.

His walkabout that he was required to do was walk in that

floor and praying for those patients.

You note that part out if you want no.

We're not going. That's not going to happen.

That's you could go on and on about that kind of stuff, man,

just to hear that kind of stuff it's.

Very amazing. Yeah, because I, I know for

myself personally, if I was in that role, those are the people

who have been the last thing on my mind I didn't.

I wanted to go to the vending machine and get a Coke, you

know? Man, I'll for the sake of time,

because we've been going on that for a while, but we'll, we'll

transition because he touched on it a little bit earlier.

But now we want to, I want to hear a little bit more about

what you went through because that was also.

It a lot it was. So for starters, I blame Kevin.

It happened in in February of 21.

Well, in December of 2020, we met with pastor and sister

Penton just about like a you know that where do you see your

ministry going and that kind of thing.

And we're sitting there talking about how rough the years been.

My husband, who I thought was smarter than this says to

pastor, you know, we have had a really good few years.

We haven't really don't have anything to complain about.

Thanks for that. So then February of 2020, I was

or 2021, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

I found the lump and they did the biopsy first.

And so we had prayer about it. And during the prayer about it,

God told me it was going to be cancer.

So I knew it was going to be cancer beforehand, which is good

because I was able to deal with it, but I knew it was going to

be cancer. I didn't share it.

I can't remember if I shared it with Kevin or not.

I don't think I did. I think I think I kept it

completely to myself, just trying to process with that.

And then of course, I got the phone call that it was going to

be cancer. And for the first 10 minutes

after getting the word, I wallowed in self pity.

And you know, oh, woe is me. I never questioned God.

I'm, I'm with Kevin on that. Neither of us, I guess, because

we've seen so much, but neither of us, no matter how bad the

situation is, I've never been like, God, why are you letting

this happen? It's just God isn't letting it

happen and it's happening now. What do I need to learn from it

and what good is going to come of it?

And that's how we both always been.

So for about 10 minutes I was, you know, kind of wallowing and

then I was like, OK, I got it. Actually, God used the song.

There's a song that and I don't like repetitive anything, but

there's a song that repeats. It's going to be OK, It's going

to be OK. I would sing, but I don't want

that. But and then the the last one

says, you're going to be OK. Well, that song was playing and

because it was repeating over and over, it finally broke

through and I knew God was because I wasn't listening to

him right then he was using this song and I was like, OK, you're

right, I'm going to be OK. So let me make some phone calls.

So because it was still during COVID, they had called and told

me on the phone. I didn't see anybody in person.

I was actually driving to work and it was very icy outside on

my way to work to do a disciplinary action and

terminate somebody. So, you know, I pulled over and

I pulled myself together and I called Sister Pitten first

because I needed to have prayer going before I called, told him.

And so I told her and then called Kevin and, you know, we

sort of prayed through things there on side of the road and

then went on about my day, told the kids that night, which my

kids still make jokes because I, I stopped by and bought them

each a teddy bear and handed them the teddy bears.

And they were like, what is this?

I was like, I've got cancer. And so now if I have a teddy

bear in my hand, they're like, no, what do you think of the

Telus? She literally called them their

cancer bears. You should get them all a bear

for Christmas. Have them all open boxes.

And be all in particular, she's really traumatized by it.

But so, you know, then we made the announcement to everybody

that, you know, it was cancer. We didn't know what was going

on, you know, what the treatment and stuff look like and the

prayer with everybody was, you know, complete healing just like

we'd seen over and over and we knew it is possible.

It wasn't one of those things like NAYCA few years ago was

don't measure the miracle and sometimes we measure that

miracle. I wasn't measuring the miracle.

I knew he could completely heal me.

But I I had a complete piece about it from the beginning.

Well, 10 minutes after the beginning, I had a complete

piece about it that never left me.

And pastor was preaching about being victorious and having your

train fill the temple and each piece of that train is a battle

that you've won and all. And I was just like, oh this,

this is going to be a healing. And God spoke to me, said, no,

it's not going to be healing. You're going to go through this,

you're going to fight the battle.

It's not going to be pretty. You're not going to die.

Actually, he didn't say that. He said you're going to be OK.

Because I remember thinking, OK could mean I made it to heaven

or OK could mean, you know, so literally I'm like, could you

expand a little bit on that, please?

But he did give Kevin that he, I wasn't going to die.

So that was good. But he, he said you're going to

be OK, but you're going to walk through this so others can see

how you handle it. And I was like, OK, So I told

him and God had already spoken to him as well and said the same

thing. So this was before I knew I was

having to get chemo or anything. So, and part of me was in a

weird place because people were still praying for my healing.

And I almost wanted to tell him, no, no, pray that I handle this

OK. And I was like, you can't do

that. So it was like in this weird

place for people praying for my healing when I knew, you know,

but ultimately, you know, I'm healed, just in a different way,

right? So, you know, we, we adjusted to

that, actually handled that pretty well.

I mean, I was, you know, really didn't even except for that

first 10 minutes, didn't even shed a tear over all of that.

It's stunk. And I was like, well, I wish

that wasn't your plan, but you know, OK, so be it.

Just give me the strength I need to be a good example to the ones

that you're wanting me to be a good example to.

Then I found out I need a chemo. I didn't think that was.

I didn't think I was going to have to need chemo.

Well, until God also spoke to me and told me that I was going to

have to chemo before the doctor told me.

And I didn't share that with anybody either because I didn't

want it to be true. He knew just because he knows

me, but he told me when I told him I had to have chemo, I went

by myself to find out in in hopes that it wouldn't really be

real. And he was like, you knew

already, didn't you? And I was like, yeah, I did.

But I was really hoping that he would change his mind and I

wouldn't. So I didn't handle the getting

chemo as well as I did others just because in my mind I can

kind of push through a lot of stuff and that's how I'm going

to be strong for everybody, which is probably why I had to

have chemo because I was still thinking no matter what, I'm

going to be strong. And you know, that's how I'm

going to be An example. It's got like, yeah, it's not

you. I'm wanting them to really see

as the strong one. You know, I was like oh, OK, so

I had to go through chemo and in going through that walk it was

very hard. First of all, I am a very

headstrong person. I don't know if y'all know that

about me, but it's very headstrong, very independent.

You know, I get things done sometimes too, too much.

You know, you tell me something and I finish it and then you're

like, you know what, we're not going in that direction.

Well, too late, you know, it's already done.

And I couldn't do that. I was, it really knocked me off

my feet. And wow, did Lifegate step up.

Let me tell you, if I hadn't already decided that Lifegate is

my family forever, that solidified it.

I couldn't take care of my babies.

And you know, I just, there was, I couldn't, I was defenseless,

useless, weak. It was just, it was terrible.

And every night for weeks on end, somebody showed up at our

door with dinner, somebody came and cleaned our house.

Somebody, you know, what do we what can we do?

Just like it's like people were almost stumbling over themselves

wanting to help my family and it was so humbling.

My room look like a florist after the surgery because there

was so many flowers and candy and cards and it was just like,

it was amazing. I mean, just life get really,

really stepped up. And that's kind of when it

started for me. This this is a very weird thing

to say and I feel weird saying it, but the way God did things

in the way as close as I grew to him during that and as I was

honored to have been the one he chose to let walk that path, I

felt honored to be the one that he let do this, even though it's

stunk. Don't get me wrong.

And there were days that I just, I was so weak, but I was never

sad. I was never depressed.

I hurt. And you know what it it was not

fun. But he never left my side.

He was there every step of the way.

And it was just my my bond with him was so much stronger after

that. Our bond was stronger after that

because of I'd always been, you know, I wasn't one to, Oh, I'm

the little damsel in distress, take care of me.

But I was during that. He had to hold me up.

He had to take care of me. And that made our relationship

that was already good, don't get me wrong, but even better and

prepared us for things to come during this.

So it just, and I've had people reach out to me that I never

thought was looking at me, that I never thought was talking to

me and say to me, you know, because of how you handled this,

I was able to do this or I came to church because of how you

were handling this. And it was just, it was really

amazing. And I was able to tell everyone

of them, it's not the way I was handling it.

I am not strong. I it is Christ through me that

is strong. It I can't stand it when people

tell me who you're the strongest person I know there is nothing

strong in me. It is Christ in me and that is

what you're seeing. That is what is resonating with

your spirit and be able to witness.

I mean, you, you want somebody to listen to you be a bald

headed female that is obviously going through chemo and people

will listen to every word you say.

And I witness to strangers all the time.

I mean, if I I could see people look at me with it, Oh, look,

and I'd be like, I have cancer. Can I tell you about God all the

time, all the time. And it was great.

I mean, I just, it opened up so many doors that I was able to

just witness to people and I was like, I think I'm going to keep

my head shake. This is really open it to doors.

And now I have a lot of people online that reach out to me that

I don't know don't know where they're coming from through

Facebook asking for prayer and advice in their walk.

Because you know, this person or that person has told them about

my journey and they'll reach out and ask for for prayer.

And you know, of course I do. And you know, it's people that

maybe in other states that'll never come here to life gate,

but they're reaching out for prayer and who knows where

that's going to lead. So it's just God really worked,

not through a healing process like I would have thought, but

the miracle upon miracles that he worked through that.

And I have to say, because I'm talking to you, brother John

Bozing, Johnny's daddy, if you had asked me who's going to

other than your husband, who's going to speak life into you the

most and help you the most through this, I would have said,

well, other than Kevin, it would be pastor or brother Mac Testin.

John Bosing's not somebody that I would have thought, you know,

and he probably would have said the same thing, you know, It's

not, you know. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. I'm not going to be Penny's word

here, but he on two different occasions, he came up to me and

said, you know, this is, this is weird, but God has spoke to me

and I, I need to, to share a word with you.

And one of them was when my hair was growing back and it was

just, it was too uncomfortable to keep wearing a hat.

But my hair was like, you know, Peach fuzz.

And I was like, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to

church with no hat on. It's just too uncomfortable.

And I was so self-conscious about it, trying not to, you

know, trying not to have my hand up on my head.

And Brother John Bozing came and he was like, I'm so glad you're

not wearing your hat. And I was like, OK, that's

weird, but OK. And he was like, no, seriously.

We, the whole church, we've spent this time praying for you.

And your hair is like that regrowth is like, the healing is

working. It's a new beginning.

It's a new start. And it's a a visual reality of

that what we've been praying for is coming to fruition.

And so that I was like, yeah, look at my Peach fuzz.

It's beautiful. But he, he really helped me

through those times. And he was the one that planted

the seed of not being a survivor, but being a warrior

and a champion. He said, you're not coming out

of this limping and, you know, with torn clothes and burns on

you. He said you're walking with your

head held high, a better person than you were before because of

Christ. And because of Christ, you're a

champion. And he just, he will never know

how much that helped me and meant to me both instances.

So I do want to take this opportunity to give him that

shout out. And I'm glad that he listened to

God and said those things to me. Yeah, he was, he's, he's always,

usually he, we, we mentioned that to us in the episode we had

with him. He's always like kind of

self-conscious, but he does it anyways.

That's one thing. I'm I'm happy that he does it.

When he feels like God tells him to talk to somebody about

something, he does it. That's just how his brain works.

But I remember when all that happened, it, it impacted him a

lot because when he when, when, when, when God talks to him,

he's not purposely and I'm spilling his beans, but he's

never intentionally praying about something in specific.

The way that he for him is he'll just, he'll just usually it will

read and then he'll just like sit in silence and just listen.

And so to, to him, the way that he's always described the way

that God will talk to him as it's like, it's as close to an

audible voice as he can get without it being audible.

It's almost as if someone's talking in his brain.

So he, when he told us he was like he was, he told us pretty

much what he had told you. But obviously it was like, hey,

don't this is don't tell nobody nothing because he's always just

nervous. Like I don't want to bring

attention to something or make someone feel uncomfortable or

anything like that. But I do remember how much of an

impact it had on him watching all that.

And he, he knew, he told us that he knew when God told him that

he knew at that point in time it was going to be, it was going to

be a healing, but there was, there was not going to be any

more problems. It was going to happen because

he felt like God told him this is the start of something new.

Because I, I think he phrased it something along like the lungs

of a new promise or a new covenant or something like that.

And that's what he told because me and him have our

conversations. He told me that he said, you

know, God told me this and I know it's going to be fine.

There's we don't need to be praying for for her to make it

through it. We just we need to be thanking

God because it's going to happen.

So I know that it made a huge difference on him as well.

So most of you would shared a lot right now about going

through these circumstances. What what advice would you give

to those who find themselves in the situation like that?

What kind of, you know, God's giving you both powerful

testimonies and situations, both instant healings, long form

healings? What advice do you give to

somebody to make it through? So it it's so simple that it is,

it almost sounds like a cop out, but trust God.

And there's really nothing you can add to that.

It's when you're going through something.

Trust God. I can tell you in the 30 plus

years that I've tried to serve Him, I cannot name you one time

when He let me down. I can name a bunch when I let

Him down, but I cannot tell you one time that God let me down or

disappointed me. So I wish I had some

philosophical lying to give you, but I know.

It's no, but that that is and and I think even with Penny,

especially because you're such a type A, you know, and and go.

Through and through. Yeah.

And in in my life, it seems like when I was taking hold of

everything, everything was kind of falling apart.

And so while you're saying it's not philosophical, it is.

It's easy to say, but it's hard to do, especially you think

about what we just heard all of your story to sit there in the

places you guys have been and actually say, you know, I trust

you got whatever happens from here on out.

This this is you and and I'm going to follow your will.

It it's easy to say it's hard to do and you guys are living proof

right now that it can be done and that the fruit of doing it

it it's beautiful. And one thing I want to touch

on, I don't know if we're wrapping up soon or what not,

but I wanted to say this to you guys as well to speak on y'all's

character because you know the y'all humble people that don't

like being. We are characters I'll give you.

That you are characters. But this we're putting y'all in

the limelight. Y'all don't like that, but but

we like it. We we want to get this story out

there especially. When you came on the pod.

That's right, terms and conditions.

But I'll tell you for, for me, some of the hardest times that

I've have ever had to go through in my life personally, the the

death of people that really close to me, my grandparents, my

grandma's, my grandpa and then my uncle.

And it it's crazy, like, you know, we traveled for these

funerals all this time away and you're so caught up in your

grief. A lot of times you go to this

funeral and everything. And each and every one of those

times, y'all don't know how much it meant to me that y'all made a

drive for multiple hours. It's not a fun drive, you know?

But seeing y'all's faces there, and I think that speaks so much

to y'all's character that you're willing to take a drive to be

there for someone else that's hurting and even in the midst of

everything going on in your own life.

And I can't thank you enough for doing that.

And I, I can never tell you how much that's meant to me over the

years. I appreciate you saying that.

And I have to take this opportunity to say this because

we kind of touched on it earlier when when I talked about you

being my brother. And it goes beyond even, you

know, even if you take the spiritual aspect of it out and

when you feel that connection with people, you would rather go

through, let hurt yourself than to see your brother go through

it. So it for us, and I know I speak

for Penny as well, those actions, there's nothing else we

can do to ease your comfort. But, but be there and say, hey,

we're, we're here, you know, we're here and we love you and

we hate you going through this. And that's why we do it.

It's not, it's not a a burden or a sacrifice, But I appreciate

you, the sentiment that you have given.

And and we do it because we love you, because that's what family

does. And I'm, I'm telling all the

listeners out there, there, there's no greater place to find

that connection than right here. And we want to see everybody

saved and going to heaven, even if it's not life gate.

But if you're looking for a place, you're going to find it

here. If you're looking, if you're

looking for fault, you can find that here as well.

But if you're looking for a place where you can connect,

there's no other church on the planet that's going to be more

connected than right here at Lifegate.

Well, to close it out, I guess I will say you guys already know

it. But one of the I I told you when

I first asked you if you would come on the podcast, I said your

story and what y'all have been through to me is, is if I could

visualize, it would be like that stone that you build on being

able to see people who go through it and they never change

them. You never change them.

I mean, goodness gracious you, you're still dealing with the

heart issues and we still see you out there cutting the grass.

And I'm thinking, man, I'm well, this, this basketball.

Yeah, this. We're not talking about that.

But I mean. We weren't supposed to disclose.

The basketball fan might. Go Yeah, you can blame him for

that one. Yeah.

But you know, you never stop. You never stopped.

You never let it get you guys down, at least not that we could

see as as bystanders. We never saw it.

It always looked like you were just like, like, like we said,

you know, summarize it perfectly, like you guys were

not survivors. You were overcomers.

And it showed to the rest of the people.

And that was one of the reasons why we were like, we, we got to

get you guys on and we got to get you guys on quick because

that's, that's a spirit that I would love to see flood into the

rest of the church and to the rest of the people.

Because I believe that if that could happen, you could go to a

whole other dimension of, of church and of family and, and

having people like you guys here that are, are that grok for us

to watch is, is very powerful and very valuable.

So that was one of the reasons why we wanted to get you on is

because we wanted to tell you that and and make sure that

other people could hear and, and believe that as well.