Welcome to the New Journey, a program about real life people 00:00:07.64\00:00:12.67 with real life testimonies doing real life ministry for Jesus 00:00:12.71\00:00:17.75 Christ. I'm your host, Pastor Marquis Johns. Join us on 00:00:17.78\00:00:22.22 The New Journey. 00:00:22.25\00:00:24.39 ¤ ¤ 00:00:24.42\00:00:56.18 What a declaration Jesus Christ makes. Man doeth not live by 00:00:56.22\00:01:01.36 bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of 00:01:01.39\00:01:08.16 God. Today in studio we have two ladies that prove that... 00:01:08.20\00:01:14.90 No, their ministry is one where they're baking bread and they're 00:01:14.94\00:01:18.71 putting the word out and winning souls to Christ using a bread 00:01:18.77\00:01:22.34 baking machine. Leanne, Erica, it's nice to have you with us 00:01:22.38\00:01:25.91 here on New Journey. Now we're going to start off with 00:01:25.95\00:01:27.98 something just very simple. I'm going to tell you who I am. No, 00:01:28.02\00:01:31.79 you guys are going to tell me who you are. 00:01:31.82\00:01:34.79 Erica, Leanne, let's start with you Leanne. OK. Tell us a little 00:01:34.82\00:01:37.06 bit about yourself, where you're from, just real quick. 00:01:37.09\00:01:40.30 I'm from Madison, Indiana. I've got four children under the age 00:01:40.33\00:01:43.80 of eight and a husband. We've been married almost 10 years. 00:01:43.83\00:01:47.27 OK, OK, Erica. Madison, Indiana. I have six 00:01:47.30\00:01:52.27 children. Married 10 years. 00:01:52.31\00:01:55.28 OK, well you guys have a lot in common. Maybe that's what 00:01:55.31\00:01:58.71 brought you together. So, Leanne, let's start with 00:01:58.78\00:02:03.28 you. So, 10 years of marriage, 10 years of marriage, four kids 00:02:03.32\00:02:07.76 under eight. Tell me a little bit about your upbringing, 00:02:07.79\00:02:09.69 tell me a little bit about your upbringing. 00:02:09.72\00:02:11.16 I was raised in Denver, Colorado and my mother and my father 00:02:11.19\00:02:17.70 divorced when I was two. So through the course of my life 00:02:17.73\00:02:23.51 I've had a couple different fathers and our family is 00:02:23.57\00:02:29.24 pieced together, I have four brothers, they weren't all blood 00:02:29.31\00:02:31.91 relations. Right, right. So, let me ask a 00:02:31.95\00:02:34.22 question. When the divorce happened, who did you stay with? 00:02:34.25\00:02:36.82 Did you stay with mom, or did you stay with dad? 00:02:36.85\00:02:38.65 My mother. OK. Erica, tell us a little bit 00:02:38.69\00:02:41.46 about yourself. Who are you and where are you from? 00:02:41.49\00:02:44.83 I'm from Xenia, Indiana. A little bit about your 00:02:44.86\00:02:48.16 upbringing? My mother and father divorced 00:02:48.20\00:02:50.70 when I was two as well. My mom remarried shortly thereafter and 00:02:50.73\00:02:55.84 this gentleman adopted us. I had a sister living at home as 00:02:55.87\00:03:00.94 well and he adopted us children and raised us. 00:03:00.98\00:03:06.68 OK, OK. You know the more and more you guys talk the more 00:03:06.72\00:03:11.25 similarities I'm seeing: the age, the years of marriage, the 00:03:11.29\00:03:15.22 children, the upbringing, the divorce. I mean, I'm beginning 00:03:15.29\00:03:18.69 to see God's hand all over this. Have you guys talked about this 00:03:18.73\00:03:22.13 before? No. No. No? This is the first time 00:03:22.16\00:03:23.87 you're talking about this. So, OK, so, just about two years 00:03:23.90\00:03:28.24 ago, a little over two years ago Leanne, the Lord interrupts life 00:03:28.30\00:03:33.14 for you and the next thing you know you're fully involved in 00:03:33.17\00:03:36.75 the ministry. Tell us a little bit about this. 00:03:36.78\00:03:38.11 Well when we went through a prophecy seminar immediately 00:03:38.15\00:03:42.52 my heart was just broken realizing that God is real, 00:03:42.55\00:03:47.19 there is a Savior. I'd always searched for him and wanted to 00:03:47.22\00:03:50.83 believe in God but we were taught evolution in school. 00:03:50.89\00:03:57.13 Why would God care about people on this earth. There's probably 00:03:57.17\00:03:59.90 lots of life forms out there. It felt really arrogant to believe 00:03:59.93\00:04:03.81 in a God that cared about us on this earth in all of space and 00:04:03.84\00:04:07.74 time and it was too much for my mind to comprehend. But after 00:04:07.78\00:04:11.15 the prophecy seminar when we learned about Daniel and all the 00:04:11.21\00:04:14.52 prophecies, God was real. I mean, the Bible just opened... 00:04:14.55\00:04:18.05 the Holy Spirit opened my mind and I knew that he was real and 00:04:18.09\00:04:21.56 it was just like a father embracing you for the first 00:04:21.62\00:04:24.49 time. You knew him but you knew him not. 00:04:24.53\00:04:27.60 So, here is one of the struggles that I've had with the way that 00:04:27.63\00:04:30.63 I've heard Daniel presented in the past. It's that there's a 00:04:30.67\00:04:34.30 personal element that seems to be compromised, if you will. You 00:04:34.34\00:04:37.91 were able to get from this prophecy seminar that God is 00:04:37.94\00:04:41.74 real and he cares about you as an individual. I know the story. 00:04:41.78\00:04:46.35 We all know the story and as a preacher let me tell you, as a 00:04:46.38\00:04:50.32 preacher I'm saying something but God is taking that something 00:04:50.39\00:04:53.59 and it's hitting you with something completely different. 00:04:53.62\00:04:57.79 So, what I want you to do is give me what was this prophecy 00:04:57.83\00:05:01.43 seminar, what was God saying through the story of Daniel 00:05:01.46\00:05:04.33 specifically to you irrespective of the preacher. He's doing 00:05:04.40\00:05:07.00 rah, rah, rah, I'm preaching, I'm preaching but God is saying 00:05:07.04\00:05:09.84 something specifically to you. What was God saying to you, 00:05:09.90\00:05:12.67 Leanne? Come out from the dead. I was 00:05:12.71\00:05:17.98 dead. I realized I was a dead man walking and he had life to 00:05:18.01\00:05:21.88 offer. And I realized that a lot of things in our life needed to 00:05:21.92\00:05:25.72 change. Our children were young and this was the 00:05:25.75\00:05:28.22 opportunity to really regroup and reorganize and change some 00:05:28.26\00:05:32.23 the dirt in our life. OK, so, was your husband 00:05:32.26\00:05:35.06 attending this seminar with you? 00:05:35.10\00:05:36.90 Praise the Lord, he did. The first three days were the 00:05:36.93\00:05:38.77 Master Your Life seminar which I attended by myself. Then I 00:05:38.80\00:05:41.87 told him this guy's really good. You need to come with me and 00:05:41.90\00:05:44.97 normally he's not too big about being dragged out to things like 00:05:45.01\00:05:48.04 that but God's hand was in it and he came and we were able 00:05:48.08\00:05:51.61 both to be on the same page in our lives. Not everybody has 00:05:51.65\00:05:55.12 that, the husband and wife together. 00:05:55.18\00:05:57.49 Right, right. So appeal comes for baptism you and the husband 00:05:57.52\00:06:01.76 get baptized? Interestingly enough two years 00:06:01.79\00:06:05.19 before, actually in 2005, we'd been baptized because we were 00:06:05.23\00:06:09.16 searching for a Baptist church. I made a decision to be baptized 00:06:09.20\00:06:13.44 he went ahead was baptized with me and nothing changed after 00:06:13.47\00:06:17.14 that baptism. The Bible stayed on the shelf and got dusty. We 00:06:17.21\00:06:20.54 went to church, had our donuts and coffee and the children ran 00:06:20.58\00:06:24.31 around with all their candy and we'd go home and just something 00:06:24.35\00:06:28.02 was missing. I mean, it just was missing. So this time was 00:06:28.05\00:06:31.42 different. This time is there a rebaptism 00:06:31.45\00:06:33.72 or...? I did make a choice for 00:06:33.76\00:06:35.09 rebaptism. I felt like the Lord was moving in that direction. 00:06:35.12\00:06:38.79 My husband came into the church on profession of faith. 00:06:38.83\00:06:42.23 OK, OK. So, the kids now... Again, this is just a little bit 00:06:42.26\00:06:46.67 of background because Erica's going to come into play in a 00:06:46.70\00:06:50.21 little while. So, we got the kids. The husband is supportive 00:06:50.27\00:06:53.84 You guys are now seeing some things that need to be changed. 00:06:53.88\00:06:58.11 We need to take the Bible off the shelf and our coffee and 00:06:58.15\00:07:02.35 donuts are no longer good? What happened? Tell me what happened? 00:07:02.38\00:07:06.52 Well we learned the health message which God's been leading 00:07:06.55\00:07:09.62 me in that direction already cause I didn't put a lot of 00:07:09.66\00:07:12.66 sugar in my coffee. I never felt comfortable with that at church. 00:07:12.69\00:07:16.06 So, that was one good thing. But on our way home from the 00:07:16.10\00:07:19.70 prophecy series one night, my husband, he drank a lot. But he 00:07:19.73\00:07:23.27 was cracking open his beer and my belly sunk and I said how can 00:07:23.30\00:07:26.37 you even open that thing after what we're hearing, after what 00:07:26.41\00:07:30.31 we're learning. It didn't take him very long but he would drink 00:07:30.35\00:07:34.65 a case of beer in a couple days. And it went away. The Lord took 00:07:34.68\00:07:38.15 that out of our lives which was a huge, amazing miracle and then 00:07:38.22\00:07:41.99 it went on to other things. We were just leaving them behind 00:07:42.02\00:07:45.76 as we continued to climb. 00:07:45.79\00:07:47.13 So, one of the things that has really spoken to you, I'm 00:07:47.16\00:07:49.60 assuming, based on the prophecy seminar, typically one of the 00:07:49.63\00:07:53.40 things that is shared in a prophecy seminar, we highlight 00:07:53.44\00:07:57.14 Daniel chapter 1. Daniel chapter 1 when he purposes not to defile 00:07:57.17\00:08:02.58 himself with the portion of the king's meat and wine. When you 00:08:02.64\00:08:08.02 heard that, come on walk us through it. 00:08:08.05\00:08:10.45 It was beautiful. I just felt like that it makes sense. What 00:08:10.49\00:08:14.99 we put in our body affects the brain and the more I study the 00:08:15.02\00:08:18.93 brain afterward, the frontal lobe and how the brain works 00:08:18.96\00:08:22.53 and how the brain connects and how experiences with our 00:08:22.56\00:08:26.13 children and why would we jeopardize?... 00:08:26.17\00:08:28.50 Wait a minute, wait a minute. You go from regular girl to a 00:08:28.54\00:08:31.57 prophecy seminar to studying the brain? 00:08:31.61\00:08:34.08 A little bit. Not a brain surgeon but 00:08:34.11\00:08:36.58 I mean, but still even when you 00:08:36.61\00:08:37.95 were saying, talking about, I understand the concept of the 00:08:37.98\00:08:41.58 synapse, the highway and so forth and how they make 00:08:41.62\00:08:44.89 impressions and habits. What did that do for you and your 00:08:44.92\00:08:50.19 family? I mean OK so, hubby stops drinking the beer, we 00:08:50.23\00:08:55.46 put away the coffee. Why, why are you doing that? 00:08:55.50\00:08:59.20 So the Lord can get a clear channel. So we can give him 00:08:59.23\00:09:02.94 everything we have. First Corinthians, is it, chapter 9 00:09:02.97\00:09:06.61 maybe second Corinthians, it's a race. We're running. We need 00:09:06.68\00:09:09.98 to be in training. That's what I always call it with the 00:09:10.05\00:09:12.88 children. We're in training, guys. So when we get up in the 00:09:12.91\00:09:15.25 morning if they don't understand something, we're in training, 00:09:15.28\00:09:17.29 we can't do that to our bodies or we need to do this for our 00:09:17.32\00:09:19.29 bodies. So, I'm assuming with this 00:09:19.32\00:09:21.36 concept that we're in training you started doing some serious 00:09:21.42\00:09:24.99 training. Tell us about this training that you undertook. 00:09:25.03\00:09:28.80 Last year about this time we were introduced to the CHIP 00:09:28.86\00:09:33.47 program. Of course, I'd learned about NEWSTART a little bit. 00:09:33.50\00:09:38.11 Let's just assume that people listening don't know what 00:09:38.14\00:09:39.47 NEWSTART is. NEWSTART is a program that is an 00:09:39.51\00:09:42.28 acronym for nutrition, exercise, water, sunlight, temperance, air 00:09:42.34\00:09:49.88 rest and trust in God. That really struck home with me 00:09:49.92\00:09:54.59 because the concepts are nutrition is basic nutrition. 00:09:54.62\00:09:59.26 These are all steps a person can take without it costing them 00:09:59.29\00:10:02.50 a lot of money and making dramatic changes. So you start 00:10:02.53\00:10:06.23 drinking water in the morning, then you start walking, and then 00:10:06.27\00:10:08.84 when you're bored walking you get the MP-3 player so you can 00:10:08.87\00:10:11.47 listen to all the good sermons in the morning when you're 00:10:11.51\00:10:13.91 walking and then you spend the time with the Lord in the 00:10:13.94\00:10:16.58 morning and with all these changes together, the Lord, 00:10:16.64\00:10:19.05 you give him something to work with. You're giving him 00:10:19.08\00:10:21.38 something to work with because you're making a sacrifice. 00:10:21.42\00:10:24.02 You're making a commitment. And it's not just about looking 00:10:24.05\00:10:26.76 good anymore. It's about you're doing this for the Lord. 00:10:26.79\00:10:29.42 As a clear channel. So, you do the CHIP program. What's next? 00:10:29.49\00:10:32.39 Because we're training, we're training. So CHIP. 00:10:32.43\00:10:36.60 We learned also early on, praise the Lord, the importance of 00:10:36.67\00:10:40.80 family. I ran a full time day care at the time that we learned 00:10:40.84\00:10:44.94 all this. I quickly got out of that because I didn't have 00:10:44.97\00:10:47.48 control over it. You know, when you start taking the meat and 00:10:47.54\00:10:49.98 the stuff out of the diet and you run a day care, it doesn't 00:10:50.05\00:10:54.02 really go over really well, so, we got out of that. But, where 00:10:54.05\00:10:58.02 was I? So, we got out of the day care. 00:10:58.05\00:11:00.26 CHIP, your training? So, you're making some changes so tell me 00:11:00.32\00:11:04.73 more about this training. 00:11:04.76\00:11:06.93 OK. So, we as a family I wanted to get the family closer 00:11:06.96\00:11:10.10 together. There was something about leaving the children at 00:11:10.13\00:11:13.27 day care so that mommy can go do ministry or daddy can 00:11:13.30\00:11:16.07 go do ministry, I was really convicted that we needed to stay 00:11:16.10\00:11:19.44 together because they learn from watching us. They need to be 00:11:19.47\00:11:22.34 there with us so, we have a family breadmaking class where 00:11:22.38\00:11:25.31 we make the bread and the children are actually making 00:11:25.35\00:11:28.18 their own stuff. Then we go through the NEWSTART principles 00:11:28.22\00:11:30.92 while the bread is rising, while bread is baking. But people love 00:11:30.95\00:11:34.62 to make bread so it's not controversial. It's something 00:11:34.66\00:11:37.73 like to learn how to do. 00:11:37.76\00:11:39.09 OK, so, now regular girl, 10 years of marriage, four kids, 00:11:39.13\00:11:45.73 two-and-a-half years ago has an experience with the Lord 00:11:45.77\00:11:51.37 through a Daniel/Revelation seminar. Here's Daniel 1, it's 00:11:51.44\00:11:55.58 beautiful to her, she tells the family we need to train. Hubby 00:11:55.61\00:12:00.02 puts away the drinking and we start training with the CHIP 00:12:00.05\00:12:04.69 program. Family ministries is a component and where does this 00:12:04.72\00:12:07.92 concept of making bread come from? Like you don't live by 00:12:07.96\00:12:11.09 bread alone, what are you doing, what's going on? 00:12:11.13\00:12:14.63 That's good, but there's more religion in a loaf of bread, I 00:12:14.66\00:12:17.43 heard that one. So, my husband actually learned that art 00:12:17.47\00:12:20.20 through his sisters because his mother was a big huge bread 00:12:20.24\00:12:24.47 maker. He is actually the bread maker in the family and I'm the 00:12:24.51\00:12:28.71 jabber. I do NEWSTART power point while he does the bread 00:12:28.74\00:12:31.88 making and it works out really good. Another thing that's 00:12:31.91\00:12:34.98 interesting about our life is my husband also is the big hunter. 00:12:35.05\00:12:39.29 So, he had a deer processing station right there at our house 00:12:39.32\00:12:43.73 so, I never, ever thought that the Lord would be able to get 00:12:43.76\00:12:47.73 him to where he is now, but it makes sense, it just makes sense 00:12:47.76\00:12:53.54 Wow, Wow. OK so, now immediately to your right it a young lady, 00:12:53.57\00:12:58.41 Erica. You're baking bread. Did you guys know each other before 00:12:58.44\00:13:02.71 you're making bread. Like, tell me a little about how you net 00:13:02.74\00:13:06.11 Erica and then I want to get Erica to just give us her story. 00:13:06.15\00:13:09.52 So, how did you guys meet? 00:13:09.55\00:13:11.19 Well, um, her husband now Lucas has a marina and my husband was 00:13:11.22\00:13:15.96 really wanting to play with boats about 10 years ago so he 00:13:15.99\00:13:18.66 went and befriended him and ever since then they've been pretty 00:13:18.69\00:13:22.56 good friends. He was actually the best man in our wedding. 00:13:22.60\00:13:24.17 So they got married just after we did. 00:13:24.20\00:13:30.31 So, Erica, you are a young lady, small-town regular girl. Tell us 00:13:30.34\00:13:37.05 your story. Tell us where you came from, tell how this... 00:13:37.08\00:13:40.52 because I'm hearing from her she went to a Daniel/Revelation 00:13:40.55\00:13:43.95 seminar. What happened for you? How soon did it happen? 00:13:43.99\00:13:48.22 Well I grew up going my neighbor lady took us, my sister 00:13:48.26\00:13:52.39 and I, a small town but a little church next to our house and 00:13:52.43\00:13:57.33 every Sunday I went to church there. Wanted to kind of get out 00:13:57.37\00:14:02.54 the house. Then when I turned 18 years old, I kind of reunited 00:14:02.57\00:14:07.74 with my real father and he was remarried to a lady that 00:14:07.78\00:14:11.35 became best friends with and started going to her church, 00:14:11.41\00:14:14.92 it was a Methodist church right down the road and really became 00:14:14.98\00:14:19.95 quite close to the people attending this church so it was 00:14:19.99\00:14:23.99 like one big happy family. So we'd still do our two hours on 00:14:24.03\00:14:27.46 Sunday for the Lord and the rest of the week we lived the 00:14:27.50\00:14:31.53 way that we wanted to, not serving the Lord. My Bible sat 00:14:31.57\00:14:35.64 on the shelf as well, but I was constantly having my children 00:14:35.67\00:14:39.74 having their daily devotions because I felt that was 00:14:39.77\00:14:43.35 important that they needed their time with the Lord although I 00:14:43.41\00:14:48.18 didn't have time for that. So then Leanne had come to us and 00:14:48.22\00:14:54.16 was telling us about Leo Schreven's seminar and I did not 00:14:54.19\00:14:58.93 want to go at all, but... I don't even remember how it 00:14:58.96\00:15:03.67 started. She was big into selling 00:15:03.70\00:15:05.03 Pampered Chef and I was running my day care. She said, I got to 00:15:05.07\00:15:07.37 come over and show you what I can do. And I thought, I've got 00:15:07.44\00:15:09.67 all these children, I can't talk about Pampered Chef. And I 00:15:09.70\00:15:12.41 thought, Oh yes Lord. Come on over and show me about Pampered 00:15:12.44\00:15:14.61 Chef. Because I know that Leo Schreven is getting ready to 00:15:14.64\00:15:16.78 teach a three-day on how to make your business flourish. So I'm 00:15:16.81\00:15:20.72 thinking OK, so that's the end. 00:15:20.75\00:15:22.62 Yes I did and I remember getting over there and when she started 00:15:22.65\00:15:26.65 telling me about her life change I was like stop Pampered Chef; 00:15:26.69\00:15:30.66 tell me more. We didn't talk about Pampered 00:15:30.69\00:15:32.63 Chef at all that day. 00:15:32.66\00:15:34.00 And she told me about the seminar getting ready to come 00:15:34.03\00:15:36.43 and it was only in Columbus. And I thought Columbus, oh man. 00:15:36.46\00:15:39.03 She's like I went for nine days straight or 12 days straight 00:15:39.07\00:15:42.70 and well I'm not going to go nine days straight. I'll go when 00:15:42.74\00:15:46.34 I can but I'm not going to do every day. 00:15:46.37\00:15:49.88 OK so, you go how many days? 00:15:49.91\00:15:53.62 Every day. Every day? 00:15:53.65\00:15:55.38 I said let me watch your children. I'll put them to bed 00:15:55.42\00:15:57.25 and everything. So you end up going every day? 00:15:57.29\00:16:00.06 And you were recently baptized? 00:16:00.09\00:16:04.26 Six weeks ago I was baptized. 00:16:04.29\00:16:06.53 Six weeks ago, baptized? So OK, so prophecy, six weeks ago 00:16:06.56\00:16:12.57 baptized, bread making ministry. Did you end up going into prison 00:16:12.63\00:16:19.04 ministry somehow, some way? Leanne. 00:16:19.07\00:16:24.41 Yes Christmas Behind Bars came and we were invited to come and 00:16:24.45\00:16:30.39 help distribute the bags to them. So we went to a women's 00:16:30.42\00:16:33.32 correctional facility. It was like on a Tuesday or Wednesday? 00:16:33.36\00:16:38.13 On a Wednesday. And Lemuel's really creative and he decided 00:16:38.19\00:16:41.80 he would ask, Come on up here and speak. And we were OK. So, 00:16:41.83\00:16:45.43 we got up there and we spoke. It was really an amazing 00:16:45.47\00:16:48.24 experience because there's a captive audience and those women 00:16:48.27\00:16:52.24 you can speak freely because you can tell what's on your heart 00:16:52.27\00:16:55.38 and they want to hear it. They want to hear these words of 00:16:55.41\00:16:58.51 life. And it was just so... It was an amazing experience. 00:16:58.55\00:17:02.05 I also felt really weird sitting up in front of them because 00:17:02.08\00:17:05.55 they have them out there. And I was like, they're here, they're 00:17:05.59\00:17:09.02 on trial basically. But we are too. It's like it felt like 00:17:09.06\00:17:12.23 sinners talking to sinners and when I got up and spoke I just 00:17:12.26\00:17:15.80 told them I was like we look like we've got it all together 00:17:15.83\00:17:19.47 up here but we're all facing a judgment day. We're all facing 00:17:19.50\00:17:23.24 a court day. So don't think we have it all together. But we all 00:17:23.27\00:17:26.98 have hope. And the beauty of the gospel is 00:17:27.01\00:17:29.11 God communicated a perfect 00:17:29.14\00:17:30.61 message through an imperfect messangers. So, how are you guys 00:17:30.65\00:17:34.22 now using this bread? Tell me more about this bread ministry. 00:17:34.25\00:17:37.82 The bread ministry, besides the bread class, pretty much the 00:17:37.85\00:17:41.02 bread ministry is my husband makes the bread and I usually 00:17:41.06\00:17:43.99 snatch a bunch of loaves and give them away before he can 00:17:44.03\00:17:46.86 catch me. He gets really frustrated sometimes but he lets 00:17:46.90\00:17:50.50 it slide because he knows. But I put on the bread a cup of 00:17:50.53\00:17:54.00 whatever, a cup of living water and the love of Jesus. It's my 00:17:54.04\00:17:57.31 little ingredients that just say something like that. And then it 00:17:57.34\00:18:00.54 says our name and to order more. But we give that out at 00:18:00.58\00:18:03.38 Christmas time or whenever he makes bread and I want to give 00:18:03.41\00:18:06.11 it to somebody. But the other day we made some and we went 00:18:06.15\00:18:08.78 to the library and my children were acting up a little bit and 00:18:08.82\00:18:11.55 the librarian helped calm the children down and let me finish 00:18:11.62\00:18:15.39 downloading some Ivor Meyers on audio verse and I was like 00:18:15.42\00:18:18.43 wow that was so kind and we drove away. And I was like, Oh 00:18:18.49\00:18:20.96 I had to turn around because I remembered I had two fresh 00:18:21.00\00:18:23.40 loaves of bread in the back and I was like Oh yes Lord because 00:18:23.47\00:18:25.57 before I left the house I said I don't know who these are for 00:18:25.60\00:18:28.37 Lord, but just tell me. Then I left the library and I was like 00:18:28.40\00:18:30.81 I gotta go back because one of those breads was for that lady 00:18:30.84\00:18:33.38 and I didn't get it. But the Lord caught us and I took it 00:18:33.41\00:18:36.88 back and she was, Oh it's still warm, just stole her heart. 00:18:36.91\00:18:40.38 But we forget to be thankful. Sometimes we don't 00:18:40.42\00:18:43.95 see Jesus. So Erica. So the similar 00:18:43.99\00:18:49.02 background but something is telling me that there have been 00:18:49.06\00:18:51.93 quite possibly a couple of struggles on the way toward your 00:18:51.96\00:18:55.00 baptism so tell me... Give me a brief synopsis on what took 00:18:55.03\00:18:58.03 place over the last 10 or so years, that you're now 00:18:58.07\00:19:00.24 coming to Christ 00:19:00.27\00:19:01.60 and then looking back. Hindsight they say being 20/20. Tell us a 00:19:01.64\00:19:04.74 little about those 10 years of marraige. 00:19:04.77\00:19:06.34 My marriage? Well again we went to church on Sunday for two 00:19:06.37\00:19:12.01 hours. We put in our time and then a lot of the time we'd come 00:19:12.05\00:19:17.62 to church on Sunday, my husband would come maybe with a 00:19:17.65\00:19:22.86 hangover or not happy to be there. And I wasn't any better. 00:19:22.92\00:19:28.06 I just went and had fun. I just maybe didn't do as much drinking 00:19:28.10\00:19:32.40 but there were struggles because we didn't have the word in our 00:19:32.43\00:19:36.71 life. And we had a split family so we raised all six of my 00:19:36.74\00:19:40.98 children. My husband has two from a previous marriage and I 00:19:41.01\00:19:44.48 have two from a previous marriage and we share two. So, 00:19:44.51\00:19:47.92 we had obstacles on the outside, you know, Satan trying to reach 00:19:47.98\00:19:52.25 into our family. Anyway his girls would go with their mother 00:19:52.29\00:19:56.52 on some weekends and my children's father had had a 00:19:56.56\00:20:00.90 stroke so that was a little hard to explain to them why these 00:20:00.93\00:20:06.77 big things are happening. But actually two years ago my 00:20:06.80\00:20:12.11 daughters, two of my daughters got baptized previous to my 00:20:12.14\00:20:16.54 baptism and I thought the Lord can use children and he did. 00:20:16.58\00:20:20.95 You know I kept getting questions: When are you guys 00:20:20.98\00:20:24.65 going to get baptized, when are you going to get baptized. And I 00:20:24.69\00:20:27.59 did not want to get baptized until I felt when I was ready to 00:20:27.62\00:20:30.49 get baptized. But I knew the Lord was using my children. 00:20:30.53\00:20:32.16 Let me ask a question. What do you feel were some of the road 00:20:32.19\00:20:34.70 blocks preventing you from making that decision? The Bible 00:20:34.73\00:20:37.37 says the young shall lead. So, what were some of the road 00:20:37.40\00:20:40.07 blocks, some of the things that finally were moved out of the 00:20:40.14\00:20:42.77 way six weeks ago. What were some of those? 00:20:42.80\00:20:45.11 It was Steps to Christ. My lord. 00:20:45.14\00:20:46.84 Well when I first was introduced to it, I believe you put it in 00:20:46.88\00:20:52.81 my vehicle. Who in the world put this in here? Tossed it to the 00:20:52.85\00:20:57.79 side. Then about a year later I picked it up and read chapters 00:20:57.82\00:21:01.89 one and two and I thought this is the most boringest book I've 00:21:01.92\00:21:06.06 ever read in my life. I put it down. Then we were 00:21:06.09\00:21:09.93 faithfully attending our church on Wednesday night Bible study 00:21:09.96\00:21:16.77 and we had a prophecy study on prophecy. My friend had said, 00:21:16.81\00:21:21.74 you know when I read that book it wasn't just about... usually 00:21:21.78\00:21:25.65 when I read a book it's usually about the author and I'm usually 00:21:25.68\00:21:29.35 drawn closer to the author. She said when I read Steps to Christ 00:21:29.38\00:21:32.55 I was lead straight to Jesus Christ and my relationship with 00:21:32.59\00:21:35.72 him strengthened. So, I said man I really ought to pick that book 00:21:35.76\00:21:39.39 back up. And then another gentleman in our church 00:21:39.43\00:21:41.80 Wednesday night said you have to pray for insight. You can't just 00:21:41.86\00:21:45.13 pick up a book, especially like this, and then be touched by the 00:21:45.17\00:21:48.47 Spirit. And I said, I gotta go home. Well I immediately went 00:21:48.50\00:21:51.77 home and I did not read chapters one and two again, I already did 00:21:51.81\00:21:55.64 that. And I started on three and I could not get enough of this 00:21:55.68\00:21:59.21 book and I read it completely to the end and it changed my life. 00:21:59.25\00:22:02.32 Tell me some of the tangible ways that it changed your life. 00:22:02.35\00:22:05.92 Because I had such a struggle with forgiveness because of my 00:22:05.95\00:22:09.46 past and I was holding onto that and I knew I had to release that 00:22:09.49\00:22:18.20 and I did with Jesus's help. All I can say is that he released me 00:22:18.23\00:22:25.07 from it. Actually my kids and I made a list of forgiveness to 00:22:25.11\00:22:30.08 and from, who I need to forgive and who I needed forgiveness 00:22:30.11\00:22:35.38 from. And once I made that list and then with Jesus's help I 00:22:35.45\00:22:40.72 pray every day Jesus please guide me to who I need to 00:22:40.76\00:22:43.99 forgive. I may not even need to approach them personally but 00:22:44.03\00:22:48.00 help me to forgive them. Not that my list is completed at all 00:22:48.06\00:22:52.53 but once I felt like I could do that with his help, I felt like 00:22:52.57\00:22:57.01 I was released and it was time. 00:22:57.04\00:22:59.64 So, forgiveness was the road block to you truly experiencing 00:22:59.67\00:23:04.95 Jesus Christ? Yes it was. 00:23:04.98\00:23:07.28 Now this is going to be a little personal, who were some 00:23:07.32\00:23:12.25 of the people you felt like you needed to forgive? 00:23:12.29\00:23:18.69 My mom. So on that list was she the 00:23:18.73\00:23:28.17 first person or the last person on the list? How do you feel 00:23:28.20\00:23:31.71 seeing... After struggling because sometimes you have this 00:23:31.74\00:23:34.94 anger for long, this lack of forgiveness for so long, that 00:23:35.01\00:23:38.65 you... I mean you forget where it began. You forget and it 00:23:38.68\00:23:42.08 begins with this person and when you come to that realization, 00:23:42.12\00:23:44.75 because I had to make a similar list. I had to make a similar 00:23:44.82\00:23:47.36 list. I preached a sermon once called Forgiveness is Forgiving. 00:23:47.39\00:23:49.89 And I'm here preaching this thing, blah, blah, blah and the 00:23:49.92\00:23:52.39 Lord tells me the same thing. How are you going to preach love 00:23:52.46\00:23:54.90 how are you going to preach forgiveness when you haven't 00:23:54.93\00:23:57.63 forgiven your mother? See I was brought out by my mom. 00:23:57.67\00:24:00.27 My mom was a gang member, my mom raised us to be gang members. 00:24:00.34\00:24:03.54 She gave me drugs and alcohol as early as I could remember and 00:24:03.57\00:24:06.91 it wasn't until I came to grips with this, I needed to list the 00:24:06.98\00:24:10.25 people that I have to forgive. I wrote that down. I was going to 00:24:10.28\00:24:12.75 shrinks and stuff and they were saying you hate your mother. 00:24:12.78\00:24:15.92 Where are you guys getting that from? She wasn't even in my mind 00:24:15.95\00:24:20.59 a factor. So then coming to that realization that I needed to 00:24:20.62\00:24:26.90 forgive my mom. Wow, I mean words can't express. So when you 00:24:26.93\00:24:31.27 got ready to write that list and you realized that one of the 00:24:31.30\00:24:35.64 first names was 00:24:35.67\00:24:37.37 your mother's name, did you experience some liberation 00:24:37.41\00:24:41.48 writing that name down? It was hard, hard to write it. 00:24:41.51\00:24:45.51 I didn't realize that I had such hatred and anger towards her. 00:24:45.55\00:24:50.59 But I can, I mean, I know why and I totally not only do we 00:24:50.62\00:24:55.22 have to forgive, we have to forget to be changed. So there 00:24:55.29\00:24:59.83 was a lot that I had to let go. We now have a relationship and I 00:24:59.86\00:25:06.37 know the Lord is using me to win her. 00:25:06.40\00:25:09.17 So, here's the consistent, although it wasn't as prevalent 00:25:09.20\00:25:14.31 with Leanne. There's this divorce, this upbringing where 00:25:14.34\00:25:19.35 there's a fractured, fragmented family and so for me there are 00:25:19.38\00:25:23.22 some young ladies out there right now who are probably 00:25:23.25\00:25:26.25 struggling with the same things. Maybe they're regular girls, but 00:25:26.29\00:25:29.46 maybe they're struggling with I need to forgive my mom. I want 00:25:29.49\00:25:32.26 you to look at this camera over my shoulder and I want you to 00:25:32.29\00:25:36.16 speak to the Erica that you were seven weeks ago. Because she's 00:25:36.20\00:25:40.00 out there and she's listening to this. Speak to her. 00:25:40.04\00:25:41.67 We cannot do it on our own. For a long time I tried and I 00:25:41.70\00:25:47.48 struggled. I was trying to fill that void that nothing else 00:25:47.51\00:25:53.15 could. With the help of Jesus Christ I have forgiven a lot of 00:25:53.18\00:25:58.82 people and I he's completely changed my life. 00:25:58.85\00:26:03.43 And you believe that maybe, just maybe, the silent witness, Ellen 00:26:03.49\00:26:09.76 White speaks in this book of being a silent witness. You 00:26:09.80\00:26:13.90 never know. I remember doing literature evangelism, my 00:26:13.94\00:26:17.97 customer, you know if you just buy this book you never know the 00:26:18.04\00:26:19.87 impact it could have. You may leave it in the back seat of a 00:26:19.94\00:26:21.94 car and two years later someone picks... And here you are right 00:26:22.01\00:26:24.01 in front of me being the realization of me telling 00:26:24.05\00:26:26.21 someone that exact story. So, what I hear you saying is first 00:26:26.25\00:26:31.32 and foremost, come to Christ. Christ will help you and show 00:26:31.35\00:26:36.12 you who you need to forgive and then when you can extend that 00:26:36.16\00:26:40.93 forgiveness there's a liberating affect, there's 00:26:40.96\00:26:45.00 something that happens, the weight that is lifted off the 00:26:45.03\00:26:48.80 shoulders makes you feel today that you a completely different 00:26:48.87\00:26:53.38 person than you were eight weeks ago. 00:26:53.41\00:26:56.21 Yes, but something else I need to say is we don't need to clean 00:26:56.24\00:26:58.65 ourselves before we come. We need to just come and he'll 00:26:58.68\00:27:01.18 clean us. Leanne do you have anything on 00:27:01.22\00:27:03.28 that? We'd all be in trouble if that 00:27:03.35\00:27:05.42 was the case. 00:27:05.45\00:27:06.79 The Bible says, Behold I stand at 00:27:06.82\00:27:12.09 the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and I come in, I 00:27:12.13\00:27:15.66 will sup with him and he with me. This is the interesting 00:27:15.70\00:27:19.50 about that. If you notice first Jesus says he's knocking, but 00:27:19.53\00:27:23.47 notice the knocking. But then he said if you hear my voice. See 00:27:23.51\00:27:26.84 the thing I love about what that implies is that Jesus has gone 00:27:26.88\00:27:31.05 from knocking to calling. From knocking to calling. He doesn't 00:27:31.08\00:27:35.22 give up at the knocking. He continues to call. And what I 00:27:35.25\00:27:39.45 see in you two ladies is two ladies who have heard the knock 00:27:39.52\00:27:43.39 and you maybe didn't answer initially but after you heard 00:27:43.43\00:27:46.70 the call you answered and now we're doing ministry, now we're 00:27:46.73\00:27:50.57 doing ministry, now we're speaking of forgiveness and now 00:27:50.60\00:27:54.30 both of us, all of us are on The New Journey. This tells me that 00:27:54.34\00:27:59.64 that you at some point dared to dream and God answered that 00:27:59.67\00:28:04.88 dream. God bless you. 00:28:04.91\00:28:08.58