Participants: Pr. Marquis Johns (Host), Erica Soule, Leanne Lengerich
Series Code: TNJ
Program Code: TNJ000024
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00:07 Welcome to the New Journey, a program about real life people
00:12 with real life testimonies doing real life ministry for Jesus 00:17 Christ. I'm your host, Pastor Marquis Johns. Join us on 00:22 The New Journey. 00:24 ¤ ¤ 00:56 What a declaration Jesus Christ makes. Man doeth not live by 01:01 bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of 01:08 God. Today in studio we have two ladies that prove that... 01:14 No, their ministry is one where they're baking bread and they're 01:18 putting the word out and winning souls to Christ using a bread 01:22 baking machine. Leanne, Erica, it's nice to have you with us 01:25 here on New Journey. Now we're going to start off with 01:28 something just very simple. I'm going to tell you who I am. No, 01:31 you guys are going to tell me who you are. 01:34 Erica, Leanne, let's start with you Leanne. OK. Tell us a little 01:37 bit about yourself, where you're from, just real quick. 01:40 I'm from Madison, Indiana. I've got four children under the age 01:43 of eight and a husband. We've been married almost 10 years. 01:47 OK, OK, Erica. Madison, Indiana. I have six 01:52 children. Married 10 years. 01:55 OK, well you guys have a lot in common. Maybe that's what 01:58 brought you together. So, Leanne, let's start with 02:03 you. So, 10 years of marriage, 10 years of marriage, four kids 02:07 under eight. Tell me a little bit about your upbringing, 02:09 tell me a little bit about your upbringing. 02:11 I was raised in Denver, Colorado and my mother and my father 02:17 divorced when I was two. So through the course of my life 02:23 I've had a couple different fathers and our family is 02:29 pieced together, I have four brothers, they weren't all blood 02:31 relations. Right, right. So, let me ask a 02:34 question. When the divorce happened, who did you stay with? 02:36 Did you stay with mom, or did you stay with dad? 02:38 My mother. OK. Erica, tell us a little bit 02:41 about yourself. Who are you and where are you from? 02:44 I'm from Xenia, Indiana. A little bit about your 02:48 upbringing? My mother and father divorced 02:50 when I was two as well. My mom remarried shortly thereafter and 02:55 this gentleman adopted us. I had a sister living at home as 03:00 well and he adopted us children and raised us. 03:06 OK, OK. You know the more and more you guys talk the more 03:11 similarities I'm seeing: the age, the years of marriage, the 03:15 children, the upbringing, the divorce. I mean, I'm beginning 03:18 to see God's hand all over this. Have you guys talked about this 03:22 before? No. No. No? This is the first time 03:23 you're talking about this. So, OK, so, just about two years 03:28 ago, a little over two years ago Leanne, the Lord interrupts life 03:33 for you and the next thing you know you're fully involved in 03:36 the ministry. Tell us a little bit about this. 03:38 Well when we went through a prophecy seminar immediately 03:42 my heart was just broken realizing that God is real, 03:47 there is a Savior. I'd always searched for him and wanted to 03:50 believe in God but we were taught evolution in school. 03:57 Why would God care about people on this earth. There's probably 03:59 lots of life forms out there. It felt really arrogant to believe 04:03 in a God that cared about us on this earth in all of space and 04:07 time and it was too much for my mind to comprehend. But after 04:11 the prophecy seminar when we learned about Daniel and all the 04:14 prophecies, God was real. I mean, the Bible just opened... 04:18 the Holy Spirit opened my mind and I knew that he was real and 04:21 it was just like a father embracing you for the first 04:24 time. You knew him but you knew him not. 04:27 So, here is one of the struggles that I've had with the way that 04:30 I've heard Daniel presented in the past. It's that there's a 04:34 personal element that seems to be compromised, if you will. You 04:37 were able to get from this prophecy seminar that God is 04:41 real and he cares about you as an individual. I know the story. 04:46 We all know the story and as a preacher let me tell you, as a 04:50 preacher I'm saying something but God is taking that something 04:53 and it's hitting you with something completely different. 04:57 So, what I want you to do is give me what was this prophecy 05:01 seminar, what was God saying through the story of Daniel 05:04 specifically to you irrespective of the preacher. He's doing 05:07 rah, rah, rah, I'm preaching, I'm preaching but God is saying 05:09 something specifically to you. What was God saying to you, 05:12 Leanne? Come out from the dead. I was 05:18 dead. I realized I was a dead man walking and he had life to 05:21 offer. And I realized that a lot of things in our life needed to 05:25 change. Our children were young and this was the 05:28 opportunity to really regroup and reorganize and change some 05:32 the dirt in our life. OK, so, was your husband 05:35 attending this seminar with you? 05:36 Praise the Lord, he did. The first three days were the 05:38 Master Your Life seminar which I attended by myself. Then I 05:41 told him this guy's really good. You need to come with me and 05:45 normally he's not too big about being dragged out to things like 05:48 that but God's hand was in it and he came and we were able 05:51 both to be on the same page in our lives. Not everybody has 05:55 that, the husband and wife together. 05:57 Right, right. So appeal comes for baptism you and the husband 06:01 get baptized? Interestingly enough two years 06:05 before, actually in 2005, we'd been baptized because we were 06:09 searching for a Baptist church. I made a decision to be baptized 06:13 he went ahead was baptized with me and nothing changed after 06:17 that baptism. The Bible stayed on the shelf and got dusty. We 06:20 went to church, had our donuts and coffee and the children ran 06:24 around with all their candy and we'd go home and just something 06:28 was missing. I mean, it just was missing. So this time was 06:31 different. This time is there a rebaptism 06:33 or...? I did make a choice for 06:35 rebaptism. I felt like the Lord was moving in that direction. 06:38 My husband came into the church on profession of faith. 06:42 OK, OK. So, the kids now... Again, this is just a little bit 06:46 of background because Erica's going to come into play in a 06:50 little while. So, we got the kids. The husband is supportive 06:53 You guys are now seeing some things that need to be changed. 06:58 We need to take the Bible off the shelf and our coffee and 07:02 donuts are no longer good? What happened? Tell me what happened? 07:06 Well we learned the health message which God's been leading 07:09 me in that direction already cause I didn't put a lot of 07:12 sugar in my coffee. I never felt comfortable with that at church. 07:16 So, that was one good thing. But on our way home from the 07:19 prophecy series one night, my husband, he drank a lot. But he 07:23 was cracking open his beer and my belly sunk and I said how can 07:26 you even open that thing after what we're hearing, after what 07:30 we're learning. It didn't take him very long but he would drink 07:34 a case of beer in a couple days. And it went away. The Lord took 07:38 that out of our lives which was a huge, amazing miracle and then 07:42 it went on to other things. We were just leaving them behind 07:45 as we continued to climb. 07:47 So, one of the things that has really spoken to you, I'm 07:49 assuming, based on the prophecy seminar, typically one of the 07:53 things that is shared in a prophecy seminar, we highlight 07:57 Daniel chapter 1. Daniel chapter 1 when he purposes not to defile 08:02 himself with the portion of the king's meat and wine. When you 08:08 heard that, come on walk us through it. 08:10 It was beautiful. I just felt like that it makes sense. What 08:15 we put in our body affects the brain and the more I study the 08:18 brain afterward, the frontal lobe and how the brain works 08:22 and how the brain connects and how experiences with our 08:26 children and why would we jeopardize?... 08:28 Wait a minute, wait a minute. You go from regular girl to a 08:31 prophecy seminar to studying the brain? 08:34 A little bit. Not a brain surgeon but 08:36 I mean, but still even when you 08:37 were saying, talking about, I understand the concept of the 08:41 synapse, the highway and so forth and how they make 08:44 impressions and habits. What did that do for you and your 08:50 family? I mean OK so, hubby stops drinking the beer, we 08:55 put away the coffee. Why, why are you doing that? 08:59 So the Lord can get a clear channel. So we can give him 09:02 everything we have. First Corinthians, is it, chapter 9 09:06 maybe second Corinthians, it's a race. We're running. We need 09:10 to be in training. That's what I always call it with the 09:12 children. We're in training, guys. So when we get up in the 09:15 morning if they don't understand something, we're in training, 09:17 we can't do that to our bodies or we need to do this for our 09:19 bodies. So, I'm assuming with this 09:21 concept that we're in training you started doing some serious 09:25 training. Tell us about this training that you undertook. 09:28 Last year about this time we were introduced to the CHIP 09:33 program. Of course, I'd learned about NEWSTART a little bit. 09:38 Let's just assume that people listening don't know what 09:39 NEWSTART is. NEWSTART is a program that is an 09:42 acronym for nutrition, exercise, water, sunlight, temperance, air 09:49 rest and trust in God. That really struck home with me 09:54 because the concepts are nutrition is basic nutrition. 09:59 These are all steps a person can take without it costing them 10:02 a lot of money and making dramatic changes. So you start 10:06 drinking water in the morning, then you start walking, and then 10:08 when you're bored walking you get the MP-3 player so you can 10:11 listen to all the good sermons in the morning when you're 10:13 walking and then you spend the time with the Lord in the 10:16 morning and with all these changes together, the Lord, 10:19 you give him something to work with. You're giving him 10:21 something to work with because you're making a sacrifice. 10:24 You're making a commitment. And it's not just about looking 10:26 good anymore. It's about you're doing this for the Lord. 10:29 As a clear channel. So, you do the CHIP program. What's next? 10:32 Because we're training, we're training. So CHIP. 10:36 We learned also early on, praise the Lord, the importance of 10:40 family. I ran a full time day care at the time that we learned 10:44 all this. I quickly got out of that because I didn't have 10:47 control over it. You know, when you start taking the meat and 10:50 the stuff out of the diet and you run a day care, it doesn't 10:54 really go over really well, so, we got out of that. But, where 10:58 was I? So, we got out of the day care. 11:00 CHIP, your training? So, you're making some changes so tell me 11:04 more about this training. 11:06 OK. So, we as a family I wanted to get the family closer 11:10 together. There was something about leaving the children at 11:13 day care so that mommy can go do ministry or daddy can 11:16 go do ministry, I was really convicted that we needed to stay 11:19 together because they learn from watching us. They need to be 11:22 there with us so, we have a family breadmaking class where 11:25 we make the bread and the children are actually making 11:28 their own stuff. Then we go through the NEWSTART principles 11:30 while the bread is rising, while bread is baking. But people love 11:34 to make bread so it's not controversial. It's something 11:37 like to learn how to do. 11:39 OK, so, now regular girl, 10 years of marriage, four kids, 11:45 two-and-a-half years ago has an experience with the Lord 11:51 through a Daniel/Revelation seminar. Here's Daniel 1, it's 11:55 beautiful to her, she tells the family we need to train. Hubby 12:00 puts away the drinking and we start training with the CHIP 12:04 program. Family ministries is a component and where does this 12:07 concept of making bread come from? Like you don't live by 12:11 bread alone, what are you doing, what's going on? 12:14 That's good, but there's more religion in a loaf of bread, I 12:17 heard that one. So, my husband actually learned that art 12:20 through his sisters because his mother was a big huge bread 12:24 maker. He is actually the bread maker in the family and I'm the 12:28 jabber. I do NEWSTART power point while he does the bread 12:31 making and it works out really good. Another thing that's 12:35 interesting about our life is my husband also is the big hunter. 12:39 So, he had a deer processing station right there at our house 12:43 so, I never, ever thought that the Lord would be able to get 12:47 him to where he is now, but it makes sense, it just makes sense 12:53 Wow, Wow. OK so, now immediately to your right it a young lady, 12:58 Erica. You're baking bread. Did you guys know each other before 13:02 you're making bread. Like, tell me a little about how you net 13:06 Erica and then I want to get Erica to just give us her story. 13:09 So, how did you guys meet? 13:11 Well, um, her husband now Lucas has a marina and my husband was 13:15 really wanting to play with boats about 10 years ago so he 13:18 went and befriended him and ever since then they've been pretty 13:22 good friends. He was actually the best man in our wedding. 13:24 So they got married just after we did. 13:30 So, Erica, you are a young lady, small-town regular girl. Tell us 13:37 your story. Tell us where you came from, tell how this... 13:40 because I'm hearing from her she went to a Daniel/Revelation 13:43 seminar. What happened for you? How soon did it happen? 13:48 Well I grew up going my neighbor lady took us, my sister 13:52 and I, a small town but a little church next to our house and 13:57 every Sunday I went to church there. Wanted to kind of get out 14:02 the house. Then when I turned 18 years old, I kind of reunited 14:07 with my real father and he was remarried to a lady that 14:11 became best friends with and started going to her church, 14:14 it was a Methodist church right down the road and really became 14:19 quite close to the people attending this church so it was 14:24 like one big happy family. So we'd still do our two hours on 14:27 Sunday for the Lord and the rest of the week we lived the 14:31 way that we wanted to, not serving the Lord. My Bible sat 14:35 on the shelf as well, but I was constantly having my children 14:39 having their daily devotions because I felt that was 14:43 important that they needed their time with the Lord although I 14:48 didn't have time for that. So then Leanne had come to us and 14:54 was telling us about Leo Schreven's seminar and I did not 14:58 want to go at all, but... I don't even remember how it 15:03 started. She was big into selling 15:05 Pampered Chef and I was running my day care. She said, I got to 15:07 come over and show you what I can do. And I thought, I've got 15:09 all these children, I can't talk about Pampered Chef. And I 15:12 thought, Oh yes Lord. Come on over and show me about Pampered 15:14 Chef. Because I know that Leo Schreven is getting ready to 15:16 teach a three-day on how to make your business flourish. So I'm 15:20 thinking OK, so that's the end. 15:22 Yes I did and I remember getting over there and when she started 15:26 telling me about her life change I was like stop Pampered Chef; 15:30 tell me more. We didn't talk about Pampered 15:32 Chef at all that day. 15:34 And she told me about the seminar getting ready to come 15:36 and it was only in Columbus. And I thought Columbus, oh man. 15:39 She's like I went for nine days straight or 12 days straight 15:42 and well I'm not going to go nine days straight. I'll go when 15:46 I can but I'm not going to do every day. 15:49 OK so, you go how many days? 15:53 Every day. Every day? 15:55 I said let me watch your children. I'll put them to bed 15:57 and everything. So you end up going every day? 16:00 And you were recently baptized? 16:04 Six weeks ago I was baptized. 16:06 Six weeks ago, baptized? So OK, so prophecy, six weeks ago 16:12 baptized, bread making ministry. Did you end up going into prison 16:19 ministry somehow, some way? Leanne. 16:24 Yes Christmas Behind Bars came and we were invited to come and 16:30 help distribute the bags to them. So we went to a women's 16:33 correctional facility. It was like on a Tuesday or Wednesday? 16:38 On a Wednesday. And Lemuel's really creative and he decided 16:41 he would ask, Come on up here and speak. And we were OK. So, 16:45 we got up there and we spoke. It was really an amazing 16:48 experience because there's a captive audience and those women 16:52 you can speak freely because you can tell what's on your heart 16:55 and they want to hear it. They want to hear these words of 16:58 life. And it was just so... It was an amazing experience. 17:02 I also felt really weird sitting up in front of them because 17:05 they have them out there. And I was like, they're here, they're 17:09 on trial basically. But we are too. It's like it felt like 17:12 sinners talking to sinners and when I got up and spoke I just 17:15 told them I was like we look like we've got it all together 17:19 up here but we're all facing a judgment day. We're all facing 17:23 a court day. So don't think we have it all together. But we all 17:27 have hope. And the beauty of the gospel is 17:29 God communicated a perfect 17:30 message through an imperfect messangers. So, how are you guys 17:34 now using this bread? Tell me more about this bread ministry. 17:37 The bread ministry, besides the bread class, pretty much the 17:41 bread ministry is my husband makes the bread and I usually 17:44 snatch a bunch of loaves and give them away before he can 17:46 catch me. He gets really frustrated sometimes but he lets 17:50 it slide because he knows. But I put on the bread a cup of 17:54 whatever, a cup of living water and the love of Jesus. It's my 17:57 little ingredients that just say something like that. And then it 18:00 says our name and to order more. But we give that out at 18:03 Christmas time or whenever he makes bread and I want to give 18:06 it to somebody. But the other day we made some and we went 18:08 to the library and my children were acting up a little bit and 18:11 the librarian helped calm the children down and let me finish 18:15 downloading some Ivor Meyers on audio verse and I was like 18:18 wow that was so kind and we drove away. And I was like, Oh 18:21 I had to turn around because I remembered I had two fresh 18:23 loaves of bread in the back and I was like Oh yes Lord because 18:25 before I left the house I said I don't know who these are for 18:28 Lord, but just tell me. Then I left the library and I was like 18:30 I gotta go back because one of those breads was for that lady 18:33 and I didn't get it. But the Lord caught us and I took it 18:36 back and she was, Oh it's still warm, just stole her heart. 18:40 But we forget to be thankful. Sometimes we don't 18:43 see Jesus. So Erica. So the similar 18:49 background but something is telling me that there have been 18:51 quite possibly a couple of struggles on the way toward your 18:55 baptism so tell me... Give me a brief synopsis on what took 18:58 place over the last 10 or so years, that you're now 19:00 coming to Christ 19:01 and then looking back. Hindsight they say being 20/20. Tell us a 19:04 little about those 10 years of marraige. 19:06 My marriage? Well again we went to church on Sunday for two 19:12 hours. We put in our time and then a lot of the time we'd come 19:17 to church on Sunday, my husband would come maybe with a 19:22 hangover or not happy to be there. And I wasn't any better. 19:28 I just went and had fun. I just maybe didn't do as much drinking 19:32 but there were struggles because we didn't have the word in our 19:36 life. And we had a split family so we raised all six of my 19:41 children. My husband has two from a previous marriage and I 19:44 have two from a previous marriage and we share two. So, 19:47 we had obstacles on the outside, you know, Satan trying to reach 19:52 into our family. Anyway his girls would go with their mother 19:56 on some weekends and my children's father had had a 20:00 stroke so that was a little hard to explain to them why these 20:06 big things are happening. But actually two years ago my 20:12 daughters, two of my daughters got baptized previous to my 20:16 baptism and I thought the Lord can use children and he did. 20:20 You know I kept getting questions: When are you guys 20:24 going to get baptized, when are you going to get baptized. And I 20:27 did not want to get baptized until I felt when I was ready to 20:30 get baptized. But I knew the Lord was using my children. 20:32 Let me ask a question. What do you feel were some of the road 20:34 blocks preventing you from making that decision? The Bible 20:37 says the young shall lead. So, what were some of the road 20:40 blocks, some of the things that finally were moved out of the 20:42 way six weeks ago. What were some of those? 20:45 It was Steps to Christ. My lord. 20:46 Well when I first was introduced to it, I believe you put it in 20:52 my vehicle. Who in the world put this in here? Tossed it to the 20:57 side. Then about a year later I picked it up and read chapters 21:01 one and two and I thought this is the most boringest book I've 21:06 ever read in my life. I put it down. Then we were 21:09 faithfully attending our church on Wednesday night Bible study 21:16 and we had a prophecy study on prophecy. My friend had said, 21:21 you know when I read that book it wasn't just about... usually 21:25 when I read a book it's usually about the author and I'm usually 21:29 drawn closer to the author. She said when I read Steps to Christ 21:32 I was lead straight to Jesus Christ and my relationship with 21:35 him strengthened. So, I said man I really ought to pick that book 21:39 back up. And then another gentleman in our church 21:41 Wednesday night said you have to pray for insight. You can't just 21:45 pick up a book, especially like this, and then be touched by the 21:48 Spirit. And I said, I gotta go home. Well I immediately went 21:51 home and I did not read chapters one and two again, I already did 21:55 that. And I started on three and I could not get enough of this 21:59 book and I read it completely to the end and it changed my life. 22:02 Tell me some of the tangible ways that it changed your life. 22:05 Because I had such a struggle with forgiveness because of my 22:09 past and I was holding onto that and I knew I had to release that 22:18 and I did with Jesus's help. All I can say is that he released me 22:25 from it. Actually my kids and I made a list of forgiveness to 22:30 and from, who I need to forgive and who I needed forgiveness 22:35 from. And once I made that list and then with Jesus's help I 22:40 pray every day Jesus please guide me to who I need to 22:44 forgive. I may not even need to approach them personally but 22:48 help me to forgive them. Not that my list is completed at all 22:52 but once I felt like I could do that with his help, I felt like 22:57 I was released and it was time. 22:59 So, forgiveness was the road block to you truly experiencing 23:04 Jesus Christ? Yes it was. 23:07 Now this is going to be a little personal, who were some 23:12 of the people you felt like you needed to forgive? 23:18 My mom. So on that list was she the 23:28 first person or the last person on the list? How do you feel 23:31 seeing... After struggling because sometimes you have this 23:35 anger for long, this lack of forgiveness for so long, that 23:38 you... I mean you forget where it began. You forget and it 23:42 begins with this person and when you come to that realization, 23:44 because I had to make a similar list. I had to make a similar 23:47 list. I preached a sermon once called Forgiveness is Forgiving. 23:49 And I'm here preaching this thing, blah, blah, blah and the 23:52 Lord tells me the same thing. How are you going to preach love 23:54 how are you going to preach forgiveness when you haven't 23:57 forgiven your mother? See I was brought out by my mom. 24:00 My mom was a gang member, my mom raised us to be gang members. 24:03 She gave me drugs and alcohol as early as I could remember and 24:06 it wasn't until I came to grips with this, I needed to list the 24:10 people that I have to forgive. I wrote that down. I was going to 24:12 shrinks and stuff and they were saying you hate your mother. 24:15 Where are you guys getting that from? She wasn't even in my mind 24:20 a factor. So then coming to that realization that I needed to 24:26 forgive my mom. Wow, I mean words can't express. So when you 24:31 got ready to write that list and you realized that one of the 24:35 first names was 24:37 your mother's name, did you experience some liberation 24:41 writing that name down? It was hard, hard to write it. 24:45 I didn't realize that I had such hatred and anger towards her. 24:50 But I can, I mean, I know why and I totally not only do we 24:55 have to forgive, we have to forget to be changed. So there 24:59 was a lot that I had to let go. We now have a relationship and I 25:06 know the Lord is using me to win her. 25:09 So, here's the consistent, although it wasn't as prevalent 25:14 with Leanne. There's this divorce, this upbringing where 25:19 there's a fractured, fragmented family and so for me there are 25:23 some young ladies out there right now who are probably 25:26 struggling with the same things. Maybe they're regular girls, but 25:29 maybe they're struggling with I need to forgive my mom. I want 25:32 you to look at this camera over my shoulder and I want you to 25:36 speak to the Erica that you were seven weeks ago. Because she's 25:40 out there and she's listening to this. Speak to her. 25:41 We cannot do it on our own. For a long time I tried and I 25:47 struggled. I was trying to fill that void that nothing else 25:53 could. With the help of Jesus Christ I have forgiven a lot of 25:58 people and I he's completely changed my life. 26:03 And you believe that maybe, just maybe, the silent witness, Ellen 26:09 White speaks in this book of being a silent witness. You 26:13 never know. I remember doing literature evangelism, my 26:18 customer, you know if you just buy this book you never know the 26:19 impact it could have. You may leave it in the back seat of a 26:22 car and two years later someone picks... And here you are right 26:24 in front of me being the realization of me telling 26:26 someone that exact story. So, what I hear you saying is first 26:31 and foremost, come to Christ. Christ will help you and show 26:36 you who you need to forgive and then when you can extend that 26:40 forgiveness there's a liberating affect, there's 26:45 something that happens, the weight that is lifted off the 26:48 shoulders makes you feel today that you a completely different 26:53 person than you were eight weeks ago. 26:56 Yes, but something else I need to say is we don't need to clean 26:58 ourselves before we come. We need to just come and he'll 27:01 clean us. Leanne do you have anything on 27:03 that? We'd all be in trouble if that 27:05 was the case. 27:06 The Bible says, Behold I stand at 27:12 the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and I come in, I 27:15 will sup with him and he with me. This is the interesting 27:19 about that. If you notice first Jesus says he's knocking, but 27:23 notice the knocking. But then he said if you hear my voice. See 27:26 the thing I love about what that implies is that Jesus has gone 27:31 from knocking to calling. From knocking to calling. He doesn't 27:35 give up at the knocking. He continues to call. And what I 27:39 see in you two ladies is two ladies who have heard the knock 27:43 and you maybe didn't answer initially but after you heard 27:46 the call you answered and now we're doing ministry, now we're 27:50 doing ministry, now we're speaking of forgiveness and now 27:54 both of us, all of us are on The New Journey. This tells me that 27:59 that you at some point dared to dream and God answered that 28:04 dream. God bless you. |
Revised 2017-04-11