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Ordinary People Extraordinary Things
108. The Lunchbox Lesson: Why Your "Not Enough" Is Exactly What God Needs with Katie Hauck
Katie Hauck's powerful testimony will transform how you view faithfulness and purpose in seemingly small acts of obedience. With raw vulnerability, Katie shares her journey from deep shame about her blended family to discovering beauty in brokenness, ultimately reaching millions through prison ministries after years of apparent ministry failure.
Her perspective on Isaiah—who prophesied faithfully for sixty years, likely died believing he'd failed, yet became one of history's greatest prophets—offers profound encouragement for anyone wondering if their efforts matter. "The Lord may be using you in ways you can't see," Katie reminds us, challenging our culture's obsession with immediate, measurable results.
Katie's fresh insight on Jesus feeding the 5,000 might forever change how you read this familiar story. Why did only one boy offer his lunch? Katie suggests others either hoarded their provisions or believed their small offering wasn't enough to matter. "God doesn't need it to be enough," she explains. "He just needs your obedience to give what you have, and He'll multiply it."
For anyone struggling with shame about past mistakes, feeling inadequate in ministry, or wondering if small acts of faithfulness truly matter, this conversation offers life-giving perspective. You'll walk away with renewed confidence that God works through our broken pieces, insufficient offerings, and humble obedience to create extraordinary impact—often in ways we may never witness in our lifetime.
What small act of obedience might God be asking of you today? What "not enough" offering is He waiting for you to surrender? Listen now and rediscover how God's kingdom advances through ordinary people doing faithful things.
Watch Katie’s story:
https://youtu.be/wdemK7h2APM
Connect with Katie at
Katie Hauck Ministries - Katie Hauck Ministries
https://generationstogenerations.com/podcast
ordinarypeoplestories@gmail.com
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https://www.instagram.com/ordinarypeopleextraordinary/
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I'm Nancy Brusher and I'm your host for Ordinary People Extraordinary Things, and I'm so glad that you've joined us. If you're listening in the United States or any of the other 112 countries, I'm so happy you've found us. We are talking about faith and hope, and today I get to talk to Katie Hawk and she has an amazing story of how she overcame shame. But she also has some impactful Bible stories that are going to resonate with you. If you've ever wondered if the small faithful things you're doing are enough, stay tuned. I promise you'll walk away recommitted to what God has called you to. And if you'd like to watch this interview, it is on YouTube. Find us at JenNancy that's G-E-N. Nancy, and you'll see many of our Ordinary People Extraordinary Things podcast interviews. Make sure to like, subscribe and leave a comment. Let's get started. Welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Things. I'm so glad to have Katie Hawk on the podcast. Katie, thanks for being on.
Katie Hauck:Hi, it's an honor and a blessing. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.
Nancy Bruscher:One of the most wonderful things about doing this podcast is the most amazing people I get to meet and talk to, and you have just opened your heart to me and just when we were talking and seeing if you were going to be on, I just got really real with you and you were so gracious and loving during that time and just ministered to my heart. So thank you for all that you do.
Katie Hauck:Absolutely, Absolutely. It's a joy and I'm praying that this podcast reaches the multitudes right. So yes.
Nancy Bruscher:If people don't know who you are, can you give three words or phrases to describe yourself?
Katie Hauck:Yeah, so I'm really bad at describing myself. I'm gonna give this a shot. I just always feel like those words are like very arrogant and bragging, you know and I don't want to come across that way at all, because I'm not, but 100%.
Katie Hauck:I've been praying about this, like because you had mentioned three words, and I'm like well, what three words can I use? I'm very driven, like, very driven. If the Lord gives me something, like I am on it, like probably sometimes to my detriment, because I don't always sit and wait for him to reveal all the details of it so very driven to do what the Lord has called me to do. Very passionate, passionate about people, passionate about the word of God, passionate about sharing the gospel. And then I would say teacher, I love to teach. Teaching is my favorite thing. I get the opportunity to teach often and I take it every chance that I can get so that those I would say driven, passionate teacher.
Nancy Bruscher:And are you talking about being a homeschool mom? Are you talking about speaking and preaching? What? What kind of teaching All of it?
Katie Hauck:All of it. I have seven kids in the house still. Out of all of our kids, one graduated, but two of them I full-time homeschool and then the other two I part-time homeschool. But then I also teach at Celebrate Recovery, I teach in the jails, I teach in three women's rehab facilities Like I just want to teach, so all of it.
Nancy Bruscher:Yes, yes, and we'll have to link your things because I have been really impacted by your speaking, so we will for sure do that. What else you said? You were driven to do what God has told you to do? What has God told you to do right now?
Katie Hauck:Several years ago, the Lord said go on YouTube. And I was like, okay, I don't even watch YouTube. So I went on YouTube and was like what do I do with this? Do I talk about being a homeschool mom? Do I talking about living on a farm? Do I talk about Jesus? Which obviously I knew I wanted Jesus to be part of it. God told me to go on YouTube, but like how much a part of it. And so I went through this long journey of trying to understand exactly what he was calling me to. But because I'm driven, it was like full force in this, full force in this, whatever it was. And then it was. There was. There was no fruit that we could see. I hired someone to help me and we were putting out videos every single day and we were like two and a half years into it and had finally built up 2,400 subscribers. Like we were praying for that 2,500 subscriber.
Katie Hauck:And uh, and one day I'm like Lord, I have been going and going and going. I don't even like this at this point, like I feel like it's all numbers driven. I feel like I'm seeing no fruit. Can you just, can you just take over and like show me what to do and like, just do it for me. And it took me that long to surrender that to him. And in three months the Lord radically changed how our ministry was reaching people, how we were talking to them, what we were sharing, and we went from 2,400 subscribers to, I mean we crossed to about 150. And today we're at 215, give or take.
Katie Hauck:I don't even pay that much attention to the numbers anymore, but every day I feel called to do something to reach those people through social media and through the videos and the shorts and the teachings that we create, and so that's what drives me most of the days.
Katie Hauck:That's mostly what I'm doing, but that ties hand in hand with so those videos go into the almost. The numbers were just updated and, again, I'm not that great with paying attention to the numbers, but I think we're in over a thousand jails now. I have a drive to to show people that, no matter what they've done, it's not too late, like they are loved, and it's not too late for the Lord and um and and he's always waiting there for them, no matter what, and so I have a drive to let people know how loved they are by their father. You have to turn around and share that love with others and to read your Bible. I want people to read their Bibles. So that was a really long answer to your question. I'm not even sure I answered it properly, but no that's so good.
Nancy Bruscher:I think sometimes I'll say me or we or people we get really into listening to sermons or podcasts and that's what you and I both do and it's so wonderful. But if we forget to actually go back and have our number one be the Bible, we could get led off by someone who, knowingly or unknowingly, in the right heart, is not teaching exactly what the Bible says. So I love that you're saying go back to the Bible and did your ministry as when your shift happened about two and a half years in, did that go more into the jails Did you start to? Is that what God kind of told you?
Katie Hauck:And so, okay, when I first started YouTube, I took some classes and I took classes with really well known, because I was, I go all in right. And so the Lord said go on YouTube. So I found the best YouTubers, the best producers of YouTube videos, and there was a class and I applied for the class and they accepted me and I took their class and what they kept saying is you have to choose your audience. They call it an avatar. You have to know who you're speaking to. And that was really hard to me, and I was, you know, just crossed like 40-ish years old, and I was like, well, I'm pretty sure I'm going to talk to women, probably women in their thirties, who are married and have a couple of kids and they go to church, but maybe they're not, like their life is busy with all their kids and their jobs or whatever it is, and so they don't put as much time into the Lord as possible. And so that's who I was trying to reach for all those years. I sat down with the person who put on this class at one point and my husband and then the guy that had partnered with me to produce the videos. The four of us sat down through a Zoom call and he was asking me about my audience and I told him and he's like, you know, I just I don't, I don't feel like that's the right audience for you and I'm like but that's who I relate to, that's who I was, you know, like this busy mom who didn't give enough time to the Lord. And he and out of the blue, randomly. I've had a thousand conversations with my husband out of the blue, randomly. He goes, I don't know, katie, I feel like maybe you need to reach broken women, like really broken women that came from a lot of dysfunction and things. And I just looked at him like where did that come from? And that well-known YouTuber, he goes, that's it. That's it, that's who you're called to, katie.
Katie Hauck:And I was like I don't have a background in addiction. Yes, I have brokenness, we all have brokenness, right. But I lived in a pretty stable family. You know like things happened, but I didn't have this level of dysfunction of so many people out there. I was like, how can I reach these people? And the Lord said, well, maybe I don't need you to reach them, maybe I want to be the one that reaches them through you. And so I stepped back and I said, okay, where do you want me to go? And he led me.
Katie Hauck:I'd never stepped foot in a Celebrate Recovery or a jail or anything at that point. And the Lord led me to Celebrate Recovery and I'm like, what am I going to do? I've never been in addiction, right. But then I realized that we all have these hurts, habits and hangups that we need to heal from. And then he led me into the jail. And then he led me into partnering with God Behind Bars to get the videos into hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of jails. And so none of that was on my radar. None of that was what I was trying to do, because I hadn't taken the time to seek him, or maybe I wasn't ready for the answer that he was going to give me and it just took me that much time to get there. And so radical shift in everything that we did in our ministry.
Nancy Bruscher:Wow, and that's so interesting because what I would mostly think is okay in order to reach someone in jail, you've had to have been in jail or known someone in jail or something, but that's so God is always like doing the unexplainable right.
Katie Hauck:Yes, he blows my mind.
Nancy Bruscher:So how did you come to know Jesus?
Katie Hauck:So I feel like when I was born I believed that there was a God Like from as far back as I can remember I would pray. I fully trusted that there was a God. My parents were not believers. I share a really great story about my dad and why he wasn't a believer, but I won't. It's long, I won't go into that.
Katie Hauck:But I was raised by parents who didn't go to church. Like my grandparents had us baptized, my parents didn't go, you know, because they would just weren't believers in that at the time, and I would go occasionally with my grandparents, but very legalistic church, a lot of rules. And then I had a dad that I adored. He had been to prison before I was born and so he never wanted to go back and so I felt like he had a lot of rules and so this God that I believed in was a God with a lot of rules, right, as long as I was following all of his rules. Then he loved me and that's really all I knew.
Katie Hauck:Like I went to some churches with some friends and things growing up, but I didn't understand.
Katie Hauck:I was either immature, not paying enough attention to understand salvation and Jesus and everything, the loving father that we have. And so then, when I was about 18, I got married and he wasn't really a believer and we were not making the greatest choices and I thought, well, gosh, you know, I just am going to ignore God now because he probably doesn't love me that much. And then I went through a divorce and became a single mom with two kids and I thought, well, I can't take my two kids to church. You know, I had all these reasons why I couldn't go. But then I met a man who is now my husband, but he took me to church and he told me about kids church which I'd never even heard of, and taught me about Jesus and salvation and grace and mercy and things that I had never understood. So I was 27 years old when I went. Oh, this is not what I thought, and I gave my heart to the Lord at 27 years old and began following him then. Such a wonderful story.
Nancy Bruscher:So I don't know if you brought this word up during this time, but before, when we were talking about you talked about the shame that you felt and you might not have said that word, but I think that word was in there. As far as you know, I didn't want to do this. I didn't think I could go to church. I didn't think I could come to Jesus with my life not there. What would you say to someone who feels shame?
Katie Hauck:Yeah, shame is something that I struggled with a lot and through Celebrate Recovery, I now claim that I have a Celebrate Recovery from dealing with shame Not that it doesn't try to creep back in there sometimes but can I share just a little bit about why I felt so much shame and how it brought me out of that, because that'll help set up what I would tell someone. And I'll be brief, but I told you that I had gotten married at 18 and was certain I was going to live the rest of my life content with that man and we were going to have the perfect life. And everyone told me I was too young and I didn't believe them. But eight years later, when I went through a divorce and became a single mom, it was the first time that I felt deep shame, like deep shame, because everyone told me I shouldn't have married him. Everyone told me I was too young and now they were proven right and I was wrong and I was ashamed to tell people that.
Katie Hauck:And then I met my current husband, who's the most wonderful man of God you could imagine, and he had also been through a divorce. He had adopted his first son and then had two children with his first wife and about a year before my divorce he had gone through a divorce and so when we met each other and got married, five children came with us into that marriage and then we got pregnant and had twins, so that brought two more, and then the Lord called us to adopt. So we adopted two children and since then the Lord has called us to an organization called Safe Families, where we ended up getting custody of two more children. And then there was a girl that we kind of picked up along the way and became parents to her, and so now we have these 12 children that we claim are ours.
Katie Hauck:And when you meet someone they always ask like hi, who are you? Where are you from? How many kids do you have? Right? Like that's just normal conversation. And to say 12 was kind of like uh, 12, you know, and then, oh, are they yours? Like people would ask that that's like the first question and I would just say yes, because they are mine, are mine, the Lord gave them to me, even though only four of them biologically are mine, and and so I would, I would pretend or put on this, this idea, that my husband and I have this perfect, happy marriage and everything was wonderful and we, we just loved children, we just kept having them right, and so I didn't want people to know like it took my brokenness and my husband's brokenness and these other families brokenness right To form our family, like it was built on brokenness, and I didn't want people to know that. But my husband, he has no shame and he would just be like yeah, they're not really all ours, you know.
Katie Hauck:And he'd start telling them about our divorces and different things, and I would just sit there feeling so ashamed because my life didn't turn out the way that I thought that it would and I wanted people to think that it did, and so I just kept being embarrassed by that and it just kept coming up. And that's how the Lord, I think, works on us. When he wants us to overcome something, was he keeps on putting us in situations where we have to deal with it. And so finally, one day, I'm like Lord, I don't want to keep telling people about all of this brokenness. And the Lord said well, how about, instead of telling them about all that you did, why don't you tell them about all that I've done? And that just radically changed my picture.
Katie Hauck:And instead of seeing brokenness, what I saw was beauty. And I saw how the Lord said when you give me your brokenness, I'll put it together. And I look at my family and I can't imagine something more beautiful than what it is right, and the way that the Lord has used this family and the way that he brought random people from around the world together to create this family. And he did it, and he gets the glory and I don't have to be ashamed of my past, because instead, I can give him the glory for what he's done with that past.
Katie Hauck:And so when I meet these women especially who have this brokenness and they've been through trauma and divorce and abuse and addiction and single motherhood right, okay, okay, but what did the Lord do with that and what can he do with that let's focus on giving him the glory, because I promise you, I promise you, if you take all those broken pieces and you put them in your hand and you say here, lord, do something with them, he's going to. That's what, like, that's what he says, that's his, that's who he is, that's what his desires are, but it's so that he gets the glory. So, instead of focusing on our shame and our brokenness, let's focus on the beautiful picture that he creates through that.
Nancy Bruscher:That's good. So good, Do you feel and this doesn't have anything to do with shame, but do you feel like sometimes people just want a short answer as far as how many kids do you have?
Katie Hauck:And that may be a little part of why you're like I don't even want to get into this. Yes, yes, Because often it's just like conversation oh, where are you from? Oh, originally from Illinois. Oh, how many kids do you have? Oh, 12. And then they're like wait, you know, I didn't think this would be a long conversation. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Nancy Bruscher:So do you always go into your whole story or sometimes, like if you can see that they're not really trying to go deep, do you just keep it surface, or do you always try to show God's glory in that story?
Katie Hauck:So I try to use discernment in that I try to show God's glory in that as much as possible, and so as much as I can I will, I will go into that.
Katie Hauck:But you know that took me a couple minutes right to share, and so sometimes I just say a lot and move on and ask them a question, or I'm not sure I'd have to call home to see how many are there right now, you know, and something funny and and and just sort of move on. What about you, you know, and so it sort of depends on the situation.
Nancy Bruscher:That's so funny. You have to call home. I love that one. So when we were on the phone talking about if we were going to be able to do this podcast, you brought up something that has been on my mind ever since and you talked about the faithfulness and being faithful in the small things, and then you shared a story from the Bible because we went back to the Bible of the prophet Isaiah and how he was faithful. And could you share that story? Because, like it has, literally it's I don't know if I want to say blown my mind, but it has, and I've read through the Bible many times, but I think sometimes you don't get those years right, you don't quite understand, or that part didn't click or something like that. So I would love for you to share that with our listeners.
Katie Hauck:Yeah, so I think what started our conversation was that we were talking about in ministry and how the Lord calls us to something, and then we want it to be successful right Because if the Lord calls it, we should have fruit. It should be successful right.
Katie Hauck:That's just it is. That's how ministry is. And so when you're doing something and you're being obedient and you're not seeing fruit and you're not seeing success or in my case, I wasn't seeing numbers on my YouTube channel, or I would do a Bible study and nobody would come, or I would write blogs and nobody would read them and I would teach a class and again like nobody cared, and I'm like God, I feel like you're calling me to do these things, but no one's coming and it's not successful. Okay, at least it's not successful according to the world and how the world defines success. But when I was complaining to the Lord one time about that success, he showed me how he he views success very differently than we do and in a very different timeframe than we do. And so he brought me to Isaiah.
Katie Hauck:And as I started to study Isaiah, I realized Isaiah came at a time when there was a lot of brokenness in Israel in the Old Testament, and the Lord called Isaiah to prophesy to the people and to warn them. Warn them to turn back from their wicked ways, turn back to the Lord right, because if they didn't, there was judgment coming and there was exile coming and these Assyria and Babylon. They were going to come and take over these nations right and Israel had already split and they were living these wicked lives. And so God told Isaiah warn them about what's coming. And so Isaiah warned them and he prophesied and he spoke for 60 years. 60 years, that's our best guess, based on the Kings Like he doesn't say it was 60 years in there, which is why it's so easy to miss but based on the kings that he prophesied under. We believe 60 years he prophesied and they got so tired of hearing him that they sawed him in half to shut him up. That's what tradition tells us, that the sawing wasn't in scripture, but that's what history and tradition tells us, that they just wanted him to quit talking and they sought him in half.
Katie Hauck:And I believe Isaiah died thinking he had failed because Israel didn't turn back, they didn't fix things, they didn't turn back to the Lord and give their hearts back to them. And I believe he died believing he was a failure. Give their hearts back to them. And I believe he died believing he was a failure. But today, today, we read the book of Isaiah and his prophecy, and we know that he's one of the greatest prophets that ever existed. We know that his book is called the fifth gospel because there's so many references to Jesus Christ that today we can look back and see. And we see like he proved the Messiah. You know through his writings, and it's like this amazing man that one day I cannot wait to meet in heaven.
Katie Hauck:But he died thinking he failed, and so it's just such a beautiful picture when the Lord showed me that that I don't know who he's using me to reach. But it's not about me and it's not about me hitting certain numbers and being a certain thing or getting a certain accolade from people. It's not even about me preaching the gospel and watching others come to salvation. It's not about that at all. The lord says I'm using you and you have no idea what I'm going to do with your ministry. You have no idea what, a hundred years from now, this will look like, or even in an area that I just don't get to see, and I may die believing gosh. Lord, you didn't do anything with me and I'll get to heaven and he'll be like look at all of these lives that were changed through the gospel because you were obedient. And so I just love that about Isaiah.
Nancy Bruscher:So when people say and we hear this a lot, or I've been hearing it a lot is like it's the small things that move God's kingdom and it's the faithfulness God asks us to keep being faithful, faithful, faithful. And so if someone is listening or is feeling that of like I'm trying to be faithful in whatever God's called me to the workplace homeschooling, being a stay-at-home mom, whatever God's called me to the workplace, homeschooling, being a stay-at-home mom I mean after retirement and I'm trying to help my kids or my grandkids, or wherever you are, would you tell them to think back to Isaiah? Would you give them some other kind of an encouragement on how to stay faithful?
Katie Hauck:Gosh, there's so many directions. I could take that, and I think about a different study that I did one time about how the Lord called people to something right and I use Moses and Jeremiah and Gideon as examples in the Old Testament and how the Lord called them to something and they felt completely inadequate and they made all these excuses and the Lord basically said, okay, quit making excuses, just go Right. And they did amazing things. Like Moses was this amazing man right. Like he led millions of Israelites across the Red Sea and saw this dramatic miracle and saw, you know, food rain down from heaven, and like it was dramatic and it was amazing.
Katie Hauck:But then I would go to a man named Ananias in Acts, and he called God to pray for Paul who had just been blinded because he had an experience with the Lord. And Ananias was afraid because he knew that Paul was coming to arrest Christians you know, believers in Jesus and he was afraid to go. And the Lord said go and he went and he prayed over Paul and Paul received his sight back and that's it. That's all he did, right? Yet the person he prayed over became the greatest missionary of all time Right, the greatest church planter that ever existed, right, but Ananias believed he just helped one person, right, just one, that's it. But God needed him. God needed someone to have the faith and the obedience to do something, even though it was scary, even though it was outside of his comfort zone, even though it didn't make sense, even though it seemed small, to change the world.
Katie Hauck:And so, like in those small things, you have no idea what God's going to do with those small things. You may think, gosh, I've only ever shared the gospel with one person. Well, you know what that one person could be? The next great evangelist that leads millions to Christ, right? Well, I only take care of my kids? Right, but you have no idea what your children are going to do in the kingdom of God when they grow up, right? Or I've only ever, you know, I'm just a stay at home mom. Okay, do it with glory, and people will watch you and they'll see things in it.
Katie Hauck:Right, like we don't even know God's ways. The Bible tells us God's ways are not our ways, right, we can't begin to understand what he's going to do with our obedience, right? So, even though it doesn't look like you're doing very much, even though it doesn't look like you're seeing fruit from it, even though it looks like oh, I'm frustrated. Do I keep going? Yes, just keep going, because one day you may look back and say, wow, look what God did with my little tiny acts of obedience. And one more. I'm sorry talk a lot because I just love this.
Katie Hauck:Bible. But there's one more story I think about when Jesus fed the 5,000, right, and here's what I think about my family got to be on the Chosen and we got to be in the scene where Jesus fed the 5,000. We're not on camera, but we were there and it was an awesome experience, right, and there were literally 5,000 people there for that filming, and I looked around and I thought to myself I had a bag full of snacks for my kids in between filming and I had to hide it because it wasn't like, didn't line up with the century that we were in, and so I had to hide this back. But bad, but when they would pause the filming, I take it out, give my kids snacks, because my kids need to eat. And so I started thinking about the original 5,000 people or more, I mean theologians say could have been as many as 15,000 people were there, right, and I can't believe that no mother came ready to listen to Jesus for as long as he spoke, without snacks for the children, without food, right, and so I'm like so why was it when Jesus said who has food? Go out among the people and find out what you can have? Only one boy was willing to talk about his food. Only one boy brought his loaves and his fish, even though it wasn't enough.
Katie Hauck:I thought I know other people there had food, I know they did. So what were they? Just keeping it for themselves, like my family's going to need this, I can't share this or did they think it's not enough? It's not enough. What I have to give isn't enough, right? But God didn't need it to be enough, right?
Katie Hauck:Jesus needed the faithfulness and obedience to say here you can have this. I know it's not enough, but here you go. And then he multiplied it in ways that we can't even begin to imagine. And I think what if we sat at home thinking what I have to give isn't enough? Teaching one thing this one time isn't enough, reaching this one person? It's not enough. And the Lord says I don't need it to be enough. I just need you to obediently give it to me. Give me your time, give me your resources, give me whatever you know, the little amount of money that's in your bank account, whatever it is, give it to me, I'll multiply it. I just need your obedience. And so just continue to be faithful and obedient, even when it feels like it's not enough, even when it feels like it's not successful, like the Lord will do the miracle. He just needs you to step forward and give him what you have.
Nancy Bruscher:Oh, katie, thank you. I have never heard. I've heard this like the preaching of that so many times, specifically the the multi multiplying the lunchbox or whatever they want to call it. But that is so interesting that, like, the gospel does not say that more people had it, but like, yes, out of that many people, no one brought any food except for one boy. Like no one brought anything, for I mean, they would have had to walk and know they were going to be. Like that makes so much sense that there had to have been and, yes, maybe one of those two things stopped them. Oh, again, wow, I'm going to be thinking about this for so long and I hope that people start to listen to some more of your speaking, because I think they'll be greatly impacted by it. But, as we wrap up, what Bible verse or story is one of your favorites right now?
Katie Hauck:So every time I teach on something I say this one's my favorite. I think I have a lot of favorites, but I'll share quickly both my favorite verse and probably my favorite passage at the moment. But my favorite verse is Romans 8, 28. God works all things together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose, and I think that's so beautiful because when I picture the brokenness that he did in my life, I think about how he worked it together for my good and his glory, and I think he wants to do that for all people, and so that's just really beautiful. But there's a passage in the Bible that probably is my favorite.
Katie Hauck:It's found in Mark, chapter nine, and a man has a son who is filled with demons and he brings them to the disciples and the disciples can't cast out the demons. So he brings the boy to Jesus and he says can you heal him? Basically, this is the Katie version. Right, go read it for yourself and whatever version you want to read, but this is my translation. And Jesus basically was like can I? Well, anything's possible for those who believe. And the man says, well, I believe, help my unbelief. And that's one of my favorite lines in scripture because I think it's so relevant and it's so real and raw and vulnerable. And it's how I feel at times. Like I believe I believe, but I also have some unbelief that I'm dealing with right. Like I believe you're the Messiah, but I have unbelief about whether or not you can actually heal. I believe you have a plan, but I have unbelief about whether or not it's actually going to work out.
Katie Hauck:I believe you know, and so it's just the most real and raw verse, I think, from anyone in scripture that's just like so relevant to my life, like yes, I believe, I believe I believe, but I'm also struggling with this unbelief in this area, and so I just I love that because it makes me like, gives me grace for myself when I'm struggling, when I'm praying for someone for healing, but I'm struggling to believe it, or I'm praying for a situation and I'm struggling to believe it that God still healed that man's son. He healed him. That it took faith, but it also there was grace for the lack of faith when he was honest about it.
Nancy Bruscher:So that I just feel like God's saying Nancy, tell this story. So, if you'll, if you'll, let me. What you are saying just really reminded me, and you know I believe in prayer, I believe in in just big miracles. But last December there was a man from our church that was dying from cancer and I got to be with him and his family and walk this journey with him. And the family called and asked if I could come in. They said, you know, they think he only has like a day to live. And so I went and we prayed and he was like I really want to go to church one more time. And I was like, yeah, I think.
Nancy Bruscher:In my head I was like it's not going to happen. Like I'm looking at you, the doctors, the nurses are saying this, like there's no way you're getting out of this bed. So I'm thinking that and so we pray and I actually I pray for it. But I even stipulated in the prayer God, if, like, he can't go to church, could you have him have peace about it? That's how little I believed. That prayer Kind of breaks my heart that I said that. But then a few days later I get a text from his daughter we're going to church on Sunday. No, he called me, the man called me and he's like I'm coming to church. And it was on voicemail because I couldn't pick it up. So I texted his daughter and I was like, is your dad kind of going insane? Like what, what's happening? And he's like she's like no, we're coming to church. I was like what? And they did, and God gave him a few more weeks and that has just really impacted me on like not trying to put God in the worldly box.
Nancy Bruscher:Like really praying and really believing and knowing he can do anything. And I mean, I think I'll probably always struggle with it. And maybe part of it, if I'm being honest, is we know that God sometimes says no right and so you're asking for a miracle and you know he can do it. But if I ask so blatantly and he doesn't do it, will that hurt my heart as well?
Katie Hauck:Yeah, and to that my dad died of cancer and I fully believed that he was going to live, and that's why I've struggled with believing for healing for so many years. And I spoke to a pastor friend of mine one time and I said how do you handle that Believing for healing when you've seen people fail? And he said, well, I choose to stand on the word of God, not my circumstances fail. And he said, well, I choose to stand on the word of God, not my circumstances. So I will stand on the word of God and the promises of God, not my experiences and circumstances and lack of things in this world. And then accepting that his ways are not our ways, right, and so that was powerful for me.
Katie Hauck:I will choose to stand on this is what your word says. I'm standing on it, even if it doesn't happen. That's not my problem. Not my problem to explain why it didn't happen or even understand why it didn't happen, which we know from the book of Job, that it's not, it's not us, we weren't there when he created the world, right and so. But that's a hard one, and so I probably would have prayed a similar prayer as you. You know give him peace if he can't come to church. How amazing that the Lord, despite that, answered that prayer and let him go to church again. That's so cool.
Nancy Bruscher:It is what are you grateful for?
Katie Hauck:I wake up every day.
Katie Hauck:And don't get me wrong, we've had hard days, right. We have four children in my house right now that weren't born from me or my husband. That came from a lot of trauma and there's a lot of ups and downs with that. The Lord has called me to start a relationship with some of their biological family and that's hard, right. It's hard to see that brokenness. It's hard to deal with the kids. It's hard to be so busy. There's a lot of hard. The kids. It's hard to be so busy, like there's a lot of hard.
Katie Hauck:But every day I wake up and I look around at my husband and my kids and our house and my ministry and my church and everything that he's brought into my life and I'm like, why did you do this? Like he's given me such gratefulness for the things that he's done and the people that he's put into my path that I can't even understand. Even in the heart, even in the heart, it's like, no, it's an honor and a blessing to be used in this heart and so, um, I'm grateful for everything, uh, everything.
Katie Hauck:And I'm grateful for you, um, doing this podcast. I love, like I'm so passionate about sharing stories and sharing testimonies because, I mean, revelation tells us we overcome by the blood of the lamb, which is most important, but the word of our testimony, and so I'm just praying that your podcast blows up and that millions watch it. Whether that's in your lifetime or down the road, I don't know, but I know the Lord has a plan for it, and so I'm grateful that I get to be a part of it. And because I know he's going to do something with it, I know he is, and so I'm grateful for that and all of it.
Nancy Bruscher:What is a kindness you have received or a kindness that you've shown in the last week?
Katie Hauck:What is a kindness you have received or a kindness that you've shown in the last week. This to me was like the most kind thing and it's just such a blessing. So I told you that we're in jails and I think the number is over 1,000 right now and I get letters every day from inmates, every day letters from inmates. I read every single one of them. I love getting the letters, but I can't personally respond to all of the letters that come in, and and nor would I, because the majority of letters are from men, and I just I don't believe that that's appropriate to build that sort of relationship with a man. But I so desperately wanted these men to have a personal response, and so I prayed about, like Lord, how do we do this? Like I would send them a generic letter, like, hey, we're praying for you, because I do. I pray for all of them.
Katie Hauck:I read every letter, but it just didn't feel the same as having something personal. Go back to these people who are incarcerated, who are seeking God, who are feeling broken and need some encouragement. And I had an organization that I got in touch with. It's a men's 12-month faith-based rehabilitation program called Fountain of Hope, and they agreed to write letters to all of these men, personal handwritten letters to these men who are incarcerated.
Katie Hauck:And so I showed up at church on Tuesday and they had a stack of letters for me to send back to the inmates. And it just brings me so much joy to know that there's this group of people who are broken themselves right. They're in recovery, they've just met the Lord, many of them are new in their walk, but they're so kind and loving and compassionate that they want to reach others with the same good news and that they're willing to take some of their day and write out these letters for these other people. And it just to me was like so awesome that they would do that, and so that's kind of kindness for me, because I asked, but really it's the kindness to those who are incarcerated and to the Lord, I just adore that, and so that to me this week was like so special.
Nancy Bruscher:Oh, that's so wonderful. And partnering with people, I think, is so powerful. Yes, yes, katie, this has been an amazing time. I have been so blessed by it, and I know that our listeners are going to too, so thank you for taking the time to chat with us today.
Katie Hauck:It was an honor. Like I said, I really am viewing this as a blessing and just believing big things for your ministry and your podcast and I'm excited to be a part of it.
Nancy Bruscher:Thank you, katie. On Ordinary People, extraordinary Things. Your story is His glory. What impacted you about Katie's story the things that keep on resonating with me is Isaiah's 60 years of ministry and her perspective on the 5,000 people Jesus fed. I can easily relate, either keeping it for myself or thinking it's not enough to give to Jesus. If any of the story resonated with you, make the small difference in someone's life and share this podcast with them right now. I'll be back in two weeks and we're talking to legend.