[SPEAKER_04]: Christian parenting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Bible for Kids Podcast with your hosts, author Trisha Goyer, and author and co-creator of Veggie Tales, Mike Nuraki.
[SPEAKER_00]: If instilling biblical values and kids is important to you, this podcast will give you the resources, wisdom, and hope to do just that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's join our hosts, Trisha, and Mike for this week's episode.
[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids Podcast.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Trisha Goyer.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm Mike Nurekki.
[SPEAKER_02]: Trisha and I welcome new author, Willow Weston, on the podcast today, to talk about her debut book, collide, running into healing when life hands you hurt.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you'll have to forgive me for this little ration, but when you have Willow Weston on, you know, I've got to do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And while we welcome Willow Weston, we went to weigh in on what's written in the word.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wasn't getting a lot of attention.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, well, we're reading from First Peter five, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six, six
[SPEAKER_02]: Willowiston is an author, a speaker, a podcast host, and the founder of Collide, a ministry impacting women nationwide.
[SPEAKER_02]: With decades of experience, Willow brings passion and truth, sharing her own journey of pain to inspire others to invite Jesus into their brokenness, so they too can experience healing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Willow writes Bible studies and leads conferences that empower, heal, and transform women.
[SPEAKER_02]: Willow a mom and wife is, as real as you get, obsessed with hosting parties, coffee, the beach, and a good good story.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, welcome.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you guys for having me.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm already having fun.
[SPEAKER_04]: I love that you're roasting my name.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's just keep this going.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, you're thinking.
[SPEAKER_05]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Over 40 minutes of book, which is amazing, by the way.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll just say.
[SPEAKER_05]: What part of the country?
[SPEAKER_05]: And are you snowed in?
[SPEAKER_05]: Because Mike and I.
[SPEAKER_05]: We're, I thought out today that the girl is the grocery store, but we're recording this.
[SPEAKER_05]: There's a lot of ice and snow, and we were stuck in the house for five days, so what about you?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: I keep reading about you guys on the news.
[SPEAKER_04]: You doing okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: That must be not true.
[SPEAKER_01]: So is the beach in your bio indicative of your location?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'm located in the Pacific Northwest so just a little bit north of Seattle in between Seattle and Vancouver BC so up in the like far left corner which is north of stays pretty moderate up there right yeah it rains way too much here and we we when it snows it could snow quarter inch and everyone's a baby and they're like I can't go to work I don't know how to drive in the stuff here in Arkansas I'm in Arkansas Mike's in the worst we've been stuck for five days because there's no on the ground so
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we had a horrible ice storm here, so we're, you know, still climbing out of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thankfully, we are, we didn't lose power, but, you know, our kids did, and their neighborhoods, and so they, they both live in Nashville, so they came and stayed with us, which was kind of nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: We should be sheltering with our kids for a few days, but we're getting back to them.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the best.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, let's jump into the book and collide with which kind of is both a name of your book and your ministry.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a really dynamic title.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe could you get into what does it mean?
[SPEAKER_02]: What does that mean for you to collide with Jesus and how did that the idea of the book take place?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, probably, I don't know, 20 some years ago or something, maybe a little less than that.
[SPEAKER_04]: I had this moment where my childhood pain was unexpectedly triggered and it happened.
[SPEAKER_04]: I write about it in the book and the opening of the book, but I was had this moment where I was flooded with all of the abuse and addiction and neglect.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'd experienced that as a
[SPEAKER_04]: And there wasn't actually anything bad happening, but because I was triggered by who was at the door, I absolutely panicked and had this moment where God said, Will I've done a lot of healing in your life?
[SPEAKER_04]: But there's more healing that needs to be done.
[SPEAKER_04]: And if you don't get help in healing, you're going to hurt your kids.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so it was this powerful moment that I had with the Lord where he said, you need to step out of this closet and you need to go and get help.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so ended up in a Christian therapist office.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I don't remember a single word that checks it.
[SPEAKER_04]: But what I do know is that the counselor, the Lord met me in that room.
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's when he gave me this word collide.
[SPEAKER_04]: He, he, I just started pouring out.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like all these words started coming on my mouth.
[SPEAKER_04]: Ideas I'd never thought of.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I,
[SPEAKER_04]: I just was unpacking a lifetime of wounds, and I was like, I was born into wounds.
[SPEAKER_04]: I collided with my parents' wounds who didn't get healing from Jesus for their pain, and they wounded me, and now I'm at wound my kids, and I need healing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And when I look at Jesus in the New Testament, when He collides with people, when He runs into people's lives, He makes them more whole than broken.
[SPEAKER_04]: But you and me, because we're wounded, when we collide with each other with our wounds, we wound each other.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we're a need of a new kind of collision.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I was just so hungry for that healing that I saw Jesus doing people's lives and I wanted it for myself, so that I could bring that healing into my family's lives and my friends' lives.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I could not hurt my own children.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really where that concept came from.
[SPEAKER_04]: Was this place of pain?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I love that because, I mean, I think there's so many people walking around and me for many issues, like you're just shoving it down, but you just can't like live like that.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then we've adopted seven kids, six out of foster care, and talk about allusions of, I mean, yeah, a lot of stuff.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I love that you talk about, you write about a god who runs toward our pain, not away from me.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I know in our own family our own lives and so many people like this is so important.
[SPEAKER_05]: So why is this such a crucial message for readers today?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, well, I think a lot of us are walking around with unresolved pain.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we've been taught to just kind of move on, to move on, to pull ourselves up by the mood straps, to sweep under the rug, to be strong, to pray, and it'll like dissipate somehow.
[SPEAKER_04]: You have Jesus, you're good, and so you have all these Christians, and of course non-Christians who are walking around with unresolved pain, and that's kind of what we're seeing when we have sleepless nights when we have anxiety, when we have these themes of friendship, breakups, or job loss, or general deep seated insecurity, it's unresolved pain that we haven't let God into.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we want to avoid our pain.
[SPEAKER_04]: We want to run from our pain, but when you see Jesus, he actually runs towards pain.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's like in a hop or suit of people who are in pain and he runs towards them because he wants to bring healing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so if we want to experience healing, we actually have to run towards our pain with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_04]: Experience that healing and then become more whole so we can bring more healing into all of our collisions with other wounded people.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, and you mentioned, you know, kind of avoiding or ignoring, you know, as being, you know, something that people do or what what are some other common misconceptions about healing and faith that you address in in your book.
[SPEAKER_04]: Man, I think because of the work I do, I've been working with women now for running a women's ministry for 15 years.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I've had this great privilege of sitting across from people and hearing their stories.
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's mind blowing how much we've been through.
[SPEAKER_04]: And how we've kind of been taught to just sort of move on from what we've been through.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you know, that can be something that is as big as childhood trauma.
[SPEAKER_04]: And it can also be something as small as your best friend keeps making passive aggressive comments towards you in the last month.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we all just kind of like try to move on to try to get better on our own.
[SPEAKER_04]: I met a woman at a retreat.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was speaking at a retreat and this woman came up to me probably late 20s, early 30s.
[SPEAKER_04]: And after the first session of speaking, these crying, she's like, I don't know why I'm crying.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, I have God.
[SPEAKER_04]: Why am I crying?
[SPEAKER_04]: And then at lunch, she came up to me.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she's like, I just keep crying.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I don't know why I'm crying.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, I should be good with God.
[SPEAKER_04]: And like, the thing I'm crying about happened 10 years ago.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I should be over it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Because I have a Savior.
[SPEAKER_04]: And
[SPEAKER_04]: Then again, she came up to me and finally, the third time, I'm like, can we sit down and have a chat?
[SPEAKER_04]: And I said, what is this thing that you're crying about, that you said happened ten years ago?
[SPEAKER_04]: And she said, well, I was dating someone and we were going to get married and we didn't have the same faith and the same values.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I felt like I was telling you that I should go a different direction and I broke up with him and he killed himself.
[SPEAKER_04]: and my pastors and my spiritual mentors told me you have God, you made the right choice, your good move on.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so no one gave her a permission slip to name the pain, sit in the pain, grieve the pain, and I said,
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I said, you're still crying because you're still sad.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're still sad because it's really sad when someone ends their life and to make space for that in invite Jesus into that pain and into that grief is so important otherwise the thing is it's here you are ten years later.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you still have unresolved pain and an ounce leaking outside ways.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I think a lot of us are doing that.
[SPEAKER_04]: You guys do such cool work talking to parents about investing in their kids.
[SPEAKER_04]: And the thing is is that when we get healing for our hurt, that actually protects our kids from needing.
[SPEAKER_04]: healing later on in their lives.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like hurt travels, we inherit hurt.
[SPEAKER_04]: I inherited hurt from my parents and I was gonna pass it down to my kids.
[SPEAKER_04]: But if we say yes to healing today for big things and small things and we invite Jesus into the pain and into the mess and into the brokenness, then we're actually helping our kids to not have to have mess and pain and brokenness that they will have to deal with later on in life.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids, Trisha and I are speaking with author Willow Weston.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I love how you talked about leaking out sideways.
[SPEAKER_05]: Because I was like that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Make so much of it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I just had a conversation with one of our kids we adopted.
[SPEAKER_05]: She's in early 20s and adopted from trauma.
[SPEAKER_05]: And she keeps talking about their specific things.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, you know, doing, we need to talk about it.
[SPEAKER_05]: You can talk to God about it.
[SPEAKER_05]: You can talk to your counselor about it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to talk about it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, you're, we live in it over and over.
[SPEAKER_05]: We're like, we need to,
[SPEAKER_05]: Take it for God, really go in to deal with it.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I love that.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's leaking out sideways in a lot of areas in their life, but it is hard, it is hard to fix that pain.
[SPEAKER_05]: But it's also where we find God and God can bring healing.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so there's that line between it's too much to bear that we need God to
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't want to think about it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't want to have to forgive someone.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't want to like do it.
[SPEAKER_05]: So like talk about that in your own life.
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you have a story where you just realized that you had, you talked about, you know, your kids are going to suffer if you don't deal with it.
[SPEAKER_05]: But what was that like that moment where you had to turn it to God for the better, even though it hurt?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean, it's so true.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think we, you're talking about your daughter.
[SPEAKER_04]: We want to avoid pink because we know it's going to hurt to name it, to sit in it, to talk about it.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's for some of us.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like I don't want to relive this over and over again.
[SPEAKER_04]: But our avoidance of pain actually creates more and more pain.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so actually running towards the thing we avoid is how we heal.
[SPEAKER_04]: that is how we heal.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like not dealing, I always say, not dealing is not healing.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I mean, I have countless ways that I feel like I've realized I needed healing, but the example I told you that I shared in the book where I run up and hide in a closet, the reason why I was hiding in a closet was my mom who
[SPEAKER_04]: I hadn't lived with since I was 15 years old, I had to find a different place to live in high school.
[SPEAKER_04]: She moved into my town when I had kids and she showed up on my scene and all of a sudden want to be super grandma but we had never dealt with the years and years of childhood.
[SPEAKER_04]: pain that was caused.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she wanted to just kind of act like all is good.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like we're good.
[SPEAKER_04]: Those things never happened.
[SPEAKER_04]: She wanted me to live in her denial about her addiction all over again.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I just panicked and flipped out.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think about that because my daughter's now 20 years old and if I wouldn't have stepped out of that closet, if I wouldn't have told my husband, what happened that day?
[SPEAKER_04]: If I would have just been like, oh, that was just a bad moment, just a freak out session.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's fine.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm good.
[SPEAKER_04]: Where would my daughter be today?
[SPEAKER_04]: 20 years later?
[SPEAKER_04]: If I wouldn't have started a journey with Jesus
[SPEAKER_04]: that I'd never told anybody.
[SPEAKER_04]: Secrets I'd kept abandonment, I'd experienced a life of living in someone else's denial.
[SPEAKER_04]: I had to start processing all of that stuff with Jesus and invite Jesus into those places to make me more whole.
[SPEAKER_04]: And if I hadn't have done that, I think Bella and Eden would be, they're not perfect by any means at all.
[SPEAKER_04]: And neither am I, but
[SPEAKER_04]: They'd be in a whole host of mess, but instead of needing so much healing, they're going out with me and we're chasing down people who need it and trying to point them to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I think as a parent, you have to look at what's leaking outside ways and how is this impacting my kids?
[SPEAKER_04]: Do I have anger, undell with anger from something that happened at my job five years ago,
[SPEAKER_04]: that is still coming out at home.
[SPEAKER_04]: Do I have issues where I don't trust people?
[SPEAKER_04]: Do I have friendship issues where that are causing a lot of stress?
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's coming out in giving my kids anxiety or my kids insecurity.
[SPEAKER_04]: We have to be able to, like, instead of avoiding what is true, looking at what is really going on and allowing Jesus to help us be real about it.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then invite him to come in and he can do a mending for sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I don't know, sometimes when we're in the process of going through a hardship or dealing with pain, it can just take, it can feel like it's taking forever, you know, and how do you encourage somebody who's been praying for healing, but just feels like, you know, nothing is happening in their stock.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that's such a good question because I think we do want to think sometimes we put all of our expectations for healing on God, like God, please just wave your magic wand and make me better, we're all better.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, all better.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like we we're just hoping to wake up on a Wednesday and God answered that prayer and.
[SPEAKER_04]: or we're going, oh, I have to do all the healing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And the Jesus I see in the Bible is actually he's a healer, but he invites us to participate in our own healing.
[SPEAKER_04]: If you look at the guy who is waiting by the waters, he's been waiting by the waters for 38 years, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: He's almost 40 years old, he's been hoping or been waiting for as long as a 40 year old for these waters to heal him.
[SPEAKER_04]: And Jesus shows up on a scene, and the guy is still talking about the waters.
[SPEAKER_04]: Jesus says the most poignant thing he asked him the question, do you want to get well?
[SPEAKER_04]: The guy never actually answers Jesus's question, which is crazy.
[SPEAKER_04]: The healer standing right in front of him.
[SPEAKER_04]: He still obsessed and hyper-focused on the one thing that's going to get a better, which I think we all do.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, if I get this career, if I get this promotion, if I get a new body, if I get, you know, a husband, whatever it is, and we think this one thing's going to make our life better, and that's what this guy was doing in the healer standing right in front of him.
[SPEAKER_04]: And this cool thing happens where Jesus and him banter back and forth, but then Jesus actually says pick up your
[SPEAKER_04]: This guy has to be like, what do you mean pick up my mat and walk?
[SPEAKER_04]: I have a moved in 38 years.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm the guy that doesn't move.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think Jesus is saying, I want you to participate in your healing and want your healing as much as you want me to want your healing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like you're going to actually have to move to get unstuck and I think that's part of like we can pray and ask God to heal us, but I think God's going to come back and I think he's going to say, I hear you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm here.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm with you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm walking with you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to provide for you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to love you on the council.
[SPEAKER_04]: You guide you care for you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to send in armies of people to help you and be your community.
[SPEAKER_04]: but you're actually gonna have to move and do something you have not done yet.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like sometimes it's trying a thing that you haven't tried or doing a thing you have not done and not just waiting for Jesus to wave the magic wand.
[SPEAKER_02]: Love that.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's so good.
[SPEAKER_05]: And speaking of doing something, you just wrote a book and it's almost going to release.
[SPEAKER_05]: And it's like, yes, that which is exciting.
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, so and which is a process, Mike and I know it's a process.
[SPEAKER_05]: So talk about that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, especially, I mean, there is a physical writing in the book, but emotionally, spiritually,
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean, I feel like I'm about to have birth to my third baby, but really, you know, writing isn't hard for me as far as I've been writing sermons and things for almost 30 years.
[SPEAKER_04]: What was hard was writing about what I wrote about.
[SPEAKER_04]: I really, I wanted to talk about Jesus and how he runs into people's lives who are hurting and brings healing, but
[SPEAKER_04]: I wanted people to know that Jesus didn't just do that then he's doing that now and I knew like I have to be really real about my own pain so that people understand like they can resonate we can journey together to Jesus and be real about what's hard and how we all need him.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I also shared stories of other people who I've watched experience the healing of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's kind of like this woven book of all those things.
[SPEAKER_04]: The hardest part about this book.
[SPEAKER_04]: How does the girl who was told she can't talk about what went on in her home?
[SPEAKER_04]: write a tale of like not a tale, but like a story and stories and finally come out with it.
[SPEAKER_04]: That was really hard for me to be like, is this okay?
[SPEAKER_04]: How do I do this?
[SPEAKER_04]: How do I tell the truth when I've been told my whole life?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not supposed to.
[SPEAKER_04]: So that was super hard.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then of course, you guys know, but like the editing process.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I'm like writing about trauma and then I'm having to relive it over and over again every time you need a new comma.
[SPEAKER_04]: You can do your hair.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like,
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I would say it's like it's for those other people out there, but it's also for me and the messages and the lessons I'm just listening to a podcast and before this and I talked about like right bits and pieces of your story Then like explore and like oh, I did this piece of my story in that book All right fiction on fiction some of them my characters deal with all the situations like with father abandonment stuff It's my characters, but you're dealing with the things I think it is it's hard But it's also what makes our books
[SPEAKER_05]: Connect with other people like a media laser reading your book.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm like oh my gosh This is amazing the writing's good, but you can tell this is hard stuff We're talking about even though the voice is very fun and immediately takes you like, oh, this is this is serious It's rich and it's like it's it's hard, but I think it does bring healing to us
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I've been joking around lately, like, Lord, why didn't you call me to write a recipe book or like a bucket with a book?
[SPEAKER_04]: And like go to this roller coaster, go to this park.
[SPEAKER_04]: But this is, this is the story I've been given and I just want to make it count to help other people.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it is time once again for a short break, so we're gonna do that and we'll be right back on the Bible for kids.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome back to the Bible for kids.
[SPEAKER_05]: So we are here with Willow Weston.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you've mentioned the ministry collide that you found it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's to help women meet God in real messy places.
[SPEAKER_02]: Could you maybe talk about how your ministry has influenced your writing and vice versa, maybe tell us a little bit more about the ministry in general?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so I shared earlier about how I went to this therapist's office and was just so hungry for Jesus to heal my pain and crazy enough because I was walking out of that office, God said I'm going to do something with those two words wounded collision.
[SPEAKER_04]: that he gave me the office and I wasn't looking to do anything.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I was a wreck.
[SPEAKER_04]: I literally was hiding in the closet with my kids.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I wasn't looking to start a ministry, but God has such a great sense of humor.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think within a week or two, a college age girl asked me to mentor her and she showed up with 25 friends.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and that turned into a small group.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I switched right there.
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
[SPEAKER_04]: I invested in those girls for several years in their college time.
[SPEAKER_04]: And that we looked at the life of Jesus colliding with wounded people and what he did.
[SPEAKER_04]: And as we were watching him collide with people in the New Testament, he was changing our lives and
[SPEAKER_04]: It was a beautiful thing and then they just invited some friends who invited some friends and now You know, it's become this unexpected ministry where I joke around all the time like God.
[SPEAKER_04]: I didn't ask for this job Like we we ministered to Thousands and thousands of women a year now, which is absolutely crazy wasn't looking for that to happen But what I have learned in this experience is
[SPEAKER_04]: I have truly seen the power of what happens when we open up about our pain.
[SPEAKER_04]: We give other people permission slips to do the same and when we do, the power of Jesus can come in and actually do something life-changing.
[SPEAKER_04]: One of the first moments I realized it, that small group turned into this.
[SPEAKER_04]: event that at one point early on, we had 300 people come now.
[SPEAKER_04]: We have more, but why was like, oh my gosh, I think I'm in women's ministry and these boys that were running powerpoint and sound were laughing at me.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're like, you didn't know you were in women's ministry and I was like, no, there is a woman downstairs with a poodle inner person.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I have to love her.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like,
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that as a meme, as a meme, when you wake up one day and realize you're in women's ministry.
[SPEAKER_04]: I had, I wasn't planning it, and that actual event at the end of that event, I was cleaning up in the fuse, picking up garbage, and paper, and stuff, and this woman walked up to me, and she was, she was mute.
[SPEAKER_04]: She just walked right up and stood in front of me, and I thought, oh, Lord, help me out with this one.
[SPEAKER_04]: If she is socially awkward, I don't know what's going on here if she isn't on a talk.
[SPEAKER_04]: She just wasn't talking and I was like, hi, I willow it and I saw that her pain was so deep.
[SPEAKER_04]: It literally was coming from down in her stomach and it was coming up and she was like, you know, I my husband and I we raised our kids in the church and and we loved the church and we were really involved in the church and
[SPEAKER_04]: She said, you know, we love Jesus and our adult son went to the military and he he killed himself and the church couldn't handle the topic of suicide and so they either told us that he was going to hell or they didn't want to talk about it or they pitted us and so we left the church.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she said, and then my husband died, and then just in the last few years, I got a call that my adult daughter attempted suicide and she looked at me stone gold and she goes, and I told myself, it's fine.
[SPEAKER_04]: I buried my son, I buried my husband, I can bury my other kid.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then she said, but today I came here and you told me Jesus can handle my pain and she just broke like you could see that she for years I've been trying to like hold herself together and become callous to God in the church because of being wounded in the experience that she had and she just broke open and she's like today marks the first day of me coming back into the doors of the church.
[SPEAKER_04]: And that was the moment where I realized, oh, wow, God is actually doing something with pain.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's actually using pain and showing up and pain and powerfully telling people, like, I can do something with this.
[SPEAKER_04]: I can heal this.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then I can use your story to help heal other people.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so that's really what I've learned in the last 15 years with this experiment,
[SPEAKER_04]: Women are hurting deeply.
[SPEAKER_04]: There are moms who are hemorrhaging all over their kids.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're a women who think they have to be so strong and they're definition of strong is that they have to pretend that they have it all together.
[SPEAKER_04]: When they know they don't, and they're so hungry for something different, but it's so hard to be real about it and trust that God can do something about it.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so that's what I'm hoping to be a part of.
[SPEAKER_02]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so good.
[SPEAKER_05]: We're just well, and with this one question.
[SPEAKER_05]: So, you know, just if you had three sentences, five sentences, there's a person out there right now listening.
[SPEAKER_05]: There's been sitting in their pain and they're like, I hear what she's saying.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know what to do with it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, go by the book.
[SPEAKER_05]: But listen to the podcast.
[SPEAKER_05]: What message do you have for that person?
[SPEAKER_04]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think I want to remind you that you're worthy of healing, that Jesus makes that so clear, that you're so worthy of healing, that He would give up His life for yours.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's how much you mean to Him, and your kids are worthy of your healing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And if you're having a hard time doing it for yourself, do it for them.
[SPEAKER_04]: And if you don't know where to start, I mean, honestly, like,
[SPEAKER_04]: email me, find me on Instagram, like I can help give some next steps.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I would say one of the first next steps is talk to a Christian therapist, talk to a pastor, talk to a best friend, and name it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm hurting.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think I need some healing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you have advice on what is one next step I can take today?
[SPEAKER_04]: and then you can ask the same question tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_04]: What is the best next step I can take today and the next day and the next day?
[SPEAKER_04]: Healing is a journey.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not, it's not going to happen overnight.
[SPEAKER_04]: That magic wand, the Lord wants you to walk with Him in the process in something richer and deeper and better is going to happen because you do.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's beautiful.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, Willow, thank you so much for being with us today.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know there are folks that would love to find out how to connect with you and learn more about your book in your ministry.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you let us know how to do that?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, for sure.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, thank you guys so much for having me.
[SPEAKER_04]: By the way, I love what you do and I appreciate your heart so much.
[SPEAKER_04]: As far as people connecting, I'm on Instagram at Willowan Weston.
[SPEAKER_04]: You can grab a copy of the book, collide running into healing when life and you hurt on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or wherever you buy books.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I also have a website Willowaston.com if you want to find out more about other stuff I'm a part of.
[SPEAKER_05]: I love it and listeners be sure to follow us on Facebook or Instagram at the Bible for Kids.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Visit thebibelforkids.com to explore our store, donate, or learn more today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to the Bible for Kids Podcast with Trisha Goyer and Mike Nurekki.
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