Coffee Chat with Amber & Lisa
What does it mean to be a woman of influence in the everyday of life's raw, good, bad, and ugly? Join Amber Weigand-Buckley and Lisa Burris Burns, authors of the #1 Amazon Bestseller and multi-award-winning book Leading Ladies: Discover Your God-Grown Strategy for Success (Bold Vision Books), for coffee and a messy bun conversation. Each week, we'll talk about how things we'd rather keep hidden can prevent us from moving forward in purpose. You'll receive insight and encouragement to be the world-changing woman God created you to be. No makeup, no pretense required. To find out more, go to www.coffeechatladies.com. Like, subscribe, download, and visit @coffeechatladies on social media.
Coffee Chat with Amber & Lisa
Rediscovering Faith and Hope: A Conversation with Human Trafficking Survivor Sioni Rodriguez
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Have you ever wondered how faith and resilience can transform lives? In this throwback episode of Coffee Chat with Amber and Lisa, we are honored to sit down with a remarkable Leading Lady Sioni Rodriguez, a survivor of human trafficking and an inspiring advocate for forgiveness and healing. Listen as she shares her struggles, the scars that tell the story of her survival, and the unwavering belief that God loved her and ultimately would rescue her from this dark world. Her story is not just one of survival, but of profound healing and the transformative impact of sharing one's testimony.
Reflection Questions:
- How has faith played a role in overcoming challenges in your life?
- What does resilience mean to you, and how have you demonstrated it?
- How can sharing our stories of struggle and triumph impact others?
- How can you overcome the things you perceive as shameful from your past and let God shine through them?
Thank you for taking the time to like, subscribe, share, and comment. Visit leadingladies.life to find out more. Also, follow @leadingladieslife on social. Amber & Lisa are authors of the multi-award-winning book, Leading Ladies: Discover Your God-Grown Strategy for Success, which dives into the power of community and empowering women of faith to rise up and make a difference, using our gifts and faith to shine brightly in the world. Watch the Facebook Live edition on our YouTube Channel @coffeechatladies .
Powerful Testimonies of Overcoming Adversity
Speaker 1Hello, this is Amber and welcome to a throwback episode of Coffee Chat. We are so excited and yet we're still taking some time off for the month of August. Everything has been amazing but completely upheaved. In the middle of Lisa finishing up, casey Superstar and myself with my baby girl going back to school, my husband Philip and I celebrating 30 years of marriage and, of course, recovering from a very exciting ASSA conference and Christian Products Expo in Fort Wayne, indiana. We'll talk about that next week. But we have an exciting announcement for those who haven't heard our leading ladies book Discover your God-Grown Strategy for Success One, the Golden Scroll 2024 Anthology of the Year we are so very proud. And another exciting announcement we have our Leading Ladies, my Discovery and Next Steps journal available on Amazon. So we would love for you. If you haven't yet, grab the book, grab the journal. We are so excited about this journal.
Speaker 1So our throwback episode today is our conversation with an amazing leading lady and dear friend, sione Rodriguez. You guys will want to tune into this. You guys will want to tune into this. Sione has an amazing testimony of coming out of human trafficking, which we know if you have read her story in the book. It's a powerful story. This is officially our 35th episode and I'm so excited that you guys can hear it from such an amazing woman. So, without further ado, sione Rodriguez, hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of Coffee Chat.
Speaker 2I don't have a coffee this evening. We're out of our normal mojo here. We're not vibing like we normally do on Saturday morning, because we're pre-recording, and you're right. I have no coffee either. I have water, which is not the same, and I don't want to drink coffee now because there will be no sleeping.
Speaker 1Of course, sione, do you drink coffee at night?
Speaker 3No, I'm a faker, I'm only doing decaf. Yes.
Speaker 1And she loves warm milk. That is one thing she loves before she goes to bed.
Speaker 2Very nice. Welcome everybody to Coffee Chat with Amber and Lisa. Our guest today, sione Rodriguez, is one of our ASSA sisters. She didn't get to go this year to the conference, but we've stayed with her before. It would have been an even better party if you had been there, sione. It would have.
Speaker 3I have to make it next year Definitely. It's just this thing that every year I have to go somewhere and just but yes, we have some exciting news.
Speaker 2While we were there, we actually went to the Golden Scrolls Awards and, although our book is still a baby, like it's only been born to what like two and a half months, not even three months, yeah, we somehow, by the grace of God, walked away with a Christian market book award for leading. Discover your God.
Speaker 1I would say thank you for voting for us, but nobody voted.
Speaker 2Except for the judges the judges, that was a real blessing and a wonderful honor to have the book honored. And, siona, you were just talking to us before we went live about the book. You said you just finished reading the entire book.
Speaker 3Yes, I did, and I have my copy too. I read this book and I just like, wow, every single chapter in this book is just a good chapter. And what I love about this book is just that it just speak to everyone, whether it is you a Christian, you're not a Christian, whether you have come from a good home or you have come for a back home. It just speak to so many people from so many different ways of life and I just love the whole book. The first time I read in the back, it says Sister, it's time to get down to business.
Speaker 3That's right, sister we got to get down to business, whether it's business with Jesus or it's business with our friends, business with our coworkers. Let's talk about this book. Everybody must have a copy of this book.
Speaker 2That's a huge, nice verbiage there. Everybody must have this book. That's a huge, nice verbiage there. Everybody must have this book. I want to point out that Sione is one of our chapter contributors. She is our chapter 10 and her chapter is called Find Strength in Telling your Story.
Speaker 2When we are asked in interviews, are there stories that stand out? And there are many stories that stand out for different reasons. I know you had mentioned even the story Maureen Charles, how that story affected you when you read it. I have to say that a story that stuck out for me is always your story.
Speaker 2Some of the stories are warm and fuzzy and, yes, they have some deep meaning to them, but some of them show that there are those of us on this planet serving Jesus. We've walked through some difficult things and when I look at your life, sione, I see a woman. I look at you today and you're just a beautiful reflection of Christ, of his love. You are vibrant, you are full of love. I can't tell you, I can't even tell you people, how many times Sione just texts for no reason to say I love you, I'm praying for you. You truly have got a presence of God that just emanates goodness and joy. But when you look at the story, the story of a little girl who is betrayed by the people who should have loved her best and cared for her, best.
Speaker 3As you mentioned, I was so into human trafficking when I was a little girl, by my mother, who was supposed to be loving me, protecting me so three times that's the name of the book that I wrote me, and protecting me so three times that's the name of the book that I wrote. Now, in my adult life, I realized that really hurting people hurt people and I realized that I'm not saying that what my mother did, it was right, it's complete wrong, and I had chose to forgive her for what she did. But I also believe that my mother was such a broken human being that she didn't know how to love back. I had to be the way I was my parents. I had to be. I don't have to love someone because nobody loves me, and we don't have to live the life like that. We can break the chains and change our lives. I couldn't be that mother too.
Speaker 3I also have two children. Well, they are adults now. But I talk about when I was a young mother and I said you know what? I don't have to be like my mother. I went through so much abuse that I can, if I look back, I might be able to say you know what. I had the right to be an angry person. I had to be there, a right to be an unforgiveness human being. But I chose to change, break the change and be. Say you know what, I don't have to be like my parents and I know.
Speaker 3Maybe you know, maybe someone is here listen to this and might say but you don't know what I went through, yeah, and I will say you might don't know what I went through, but I know that when we chose to walk in the healing whether it is a healing in your life, it it just makes a big difference. And when I was a young mom, I said I don't want to be like my mother, I don't have to be like her. I want to break the change. I want to be a mom where my kids will say one day, you're my superhero, kind of thing. Yeah, and that's what I want. I want to break the chains of all hurt. I don't want to be that person that I'm going to hurt people because somebody hurts me even though I did, went through a lot, but because I know that sometimes we want to do these things our own. Sometimes it just is very hard. I always say that my life is like this beautiful thing. It looks so beautiful outside and then inside you're so broken in little pieces. And, yeah, you go in your life and try to glue things together, put it in little pieces and then you might be able to put some big pieces together and glue together, but when it comes to little pieces, only God can make those things happen. He is the only one. And that's exactly what I did in my adult life.
Speaker 3After I came to the United States. I was very broken. I left Costa Rica because it was so much hurt in that country. I encountered in that country just nothing but pain, bad memories. They hurt me, being so into human trafficking. Then my mother she saw me for the third time bring men to the house and she literally brought the brothel to their home because she knew that I was going to escape, because I escaped three times. So she said, this time you're not leaving me. So all that I left behind. And then I come to this country looking for the best, trying to move forward. And then I find another problem, another thing, this man, they purchased me, they brought me to America and thinking that my life is going to change. And it didn't happen that way. But yeah, I was putting those big pieces together. But when it came to those little pieces, that's what I was like. You know what? I can do this in my own. I need Jesus and he was able to put those little pieces together.
Speaker 2Can you tell us about Jesus? I know that you encountered Jesus when you were younger. I know that you encountered Jesus when you were younger, but you were still very much in the midst of the sex trafficking industry. No-transcript be free from that. You had another experience with him. Tell us about the difference between those times for you.
Journey of Healing and Faith
Speaker 3So I think when one thing is, I think, one thing is know him, and one thing is encounter with him, surrender to him. It just is such a different thing. I believe as a little kid, when I was 12 years old when I came to Christ, I think I did it because, yeah, I was desperate, I was looking for love that was given to me in that home, which that was the first time I walked to the house and people welcomed me. They were having church in the home. Pastor, you want to say Jesus as your Lord and Savior? I'm only 12 years old. I have not experienced anything besides pain, hurt and violence in my life. So I want that, but I didn't know exactly what was really surrounded to him loving him, knowing that he is going to take care of you, that he's going to be there with you going through everything, um, and then here I'm coming to America, and then, of course, I'm not ashamed about that, because whatever happens to me or whatever we have done in the past, it doesn't define who we are. So here I'm coming to America.
Speaker 3The man left me. So what I do, I went back to prostitution because that's all I knew, and it's not because I couldn't do another job. It's just that I didn't know the language. I didn't know how to speak a word in English and I didn't know anything. And yet I had two babies that I didn't need to be fit, so I went back and then I started going back to church and I realized that you know what the lifestyle it was not the right lifestyle for me.
Speaker 3And then I eventually started trying to get back to serve him, to surround it to him, and you know what, when I started experiencing that God would start opening the doors for me to get a job, he started opening the doors for me to meet people that really wanted to love me, help me. And then I see the difference. He started opening the doors for me to meet people that really wanted to love me, help me. And then I see the difference. One thing is to really to know him and to really have the relationship with him, to really know that he is there with you, by your side, and it doesn't matter how things look. You might not have a food for that day, you might not have nothing, but you have him and he will never leave you or forsake you. And I do believe in that and I'm firm belief that God is there by you and your side when you really have an encounter with him.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know, Sioni, one of the things that I remember you showing me is pulling back your arms and showing all the burns that your mother she would burn you with her cigar. And just seeing those wounds, how does that affect your everyday? Do you see those in a different way now?
Speaker 3in a different way. Now I do so. When I was a teenager, I was very cautious, very aware about my scars in my body, not just in my arms, I do scars in my back and my legs. I was very caught up in my look as a young girl, maybe even when I came to America I was very don't want to show. But did you know, one time maybe 10 years, I don't know many years ago somebody told me that was beauty marks and now I look at them and I realized that you know what this reminds me, that devil always wants to kill me and destroy me. But God has a different plan in my life and every time I look at them, I look at the beauty marks.
Speaker 1Yeah, that is good. I think it's exciting that even Jesus, his scars, won't be held in heaven. It's a testimony to what we've walked through and a testimony for him of his love for us. People would think that I would have the right to be hospitalized, I would have the right to be not right in my head, I would have that all that, yet trauma just doesn't go away. How did you deal with that trauma growing up, and when did you actually feel like you healed? Do you still have trauma?
Speaker 3I was just. I was actually sharing with Lisa, when I'm married with my husband, that I'm married now, which is I call him my boys because he's my redeemer. When Richard and I got married in 2003, the first three years, it was the bootcamp in our lives lives and I look back and sometimes we sit together we say I don't know how we stood together, but sometimes you don't know that because that is the one in control, right, but I was so broken and and very. I don't think I had the trauma right now. No, there is because I don't know if I do some things. Okay, I'll give you an example. I went to see the movie. They just, it just came out and sound of freedom.
Speaker 2That's right.
Speaker 3The whole time I'm watching the movie. I was that little girl and it was so many tricks and I had to like. I came out of the movie I'm like, oh my God, emotionally I was destroyed. I was destroyed emotionally and I feel like, oh my God, is that it? Did I do the right thing to go watch this movie, because you know that trauma. It came back and I haven't experienced that for so many years. But it went back and even right out of the movie I broke out and I started crying. People Right out of the movie I broke out and I started crying. People came and I went out with a whole bunch of friends so they all started praying for me because it hit home.
Speaker 3The answer is you know what? Maybe things like that, maybe it's still in the back end here, and sometimes we put it in the back and we don't want to talk about it, we don't want to deal with it, and then it's here, now and now. What are you going to do with this? And I think maybe it is something there that I'm not sure.
Speaker 1Yeah, it may be, but so I feel like it, I'm healed, but again things can come back yeah, that's why I like the whole idea of just being honest about what you're feeling and that, because not just keeping something behind you and not admitting that you have any feelings or trauma or anything.
Finding Strength Through Sharing Testimonies
Speaker 2It just isn't real, it isn't truth. I think things have a way of allowing us to sometimes encounter when we think something's gone, it's back there, we're not going to deal with it. I believe sometimes he does allow us to encounter those thoughts and those feelings and I have to believe that is part of even deeper healing for us. At the right time at the right place, you were able I'm not saying it's good either way, but you were able to have friends around you, be in a situation where, yes, that little girl's story resembled yours, but it was not yours.
Speaker 2It triggered memories of yours. You were not back there and you are now safe, an adult woman with many years of experience and God's healing, and he will continue to heal. It's also sometimes the timing of when these things come forward. I have to say that God knows what he's doing and how he's doing it. I'm just grateful that you had friends to watch that film and that you're here smiling in front of us today. Your story is remarkable to me.
Speaker 2I had to pull up Isaiah 43 just real quick, because I had to say this when you're talking about how do you walk through those extreme spaces and I just look at chapter 43 when he's talking, he's basically talking to Israel and he's saying Israel, the one who formed you, says do not be afraid, for I've ransomed you, I've called you my name, you are mine. He doesn't leave us when we're in the midst of those really hard spaces. When you go through those deep waters, I'm with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up. The flames will not consume you, for I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Look at that. And I have to remind myself that when we do go through those deep things and we bring up those memories, god the Father is with us right now and I have to believe he was present even then.
Speaker 1Yeah, I was thinking about the love of God and how his love has never changed for you, sione. He loved you the same when you were little and he loved you the same when you were prostituting yourself, and you know what. God has some grace for that, and I know that it's easy to hide that under a shame oh, I did this and I should have known better. But the very fact that God's grace in those moments. He knew where you were at, he knew the desperation in your heart and he had grace for those moments, even with your mother. God's love never changed for her, even though she did. How do you face that the love of God for a mother who was despicable in everybody's eyes? To me, it'd be hard not to go back and murder my mother, but yet, even when she was ill, you decided to sit by her side and care for her. What kind of strength did that take?
Speaker 3You know how God alone remember the whole thing. With him going to the cross, he endures a lot of pain.
Speaker 3So he understands the pain we go through. Why I do believe. I know that my mother one day I'm going to see her again my husband was able to lead her to cry. The way I see it is, if I wouldn't choose to forget my mother, if I wouldn't choose to be by her side, taking care of her for one month, doing everything for her, the opportunity for her to have an encounter with Christ wouldn't be there, not chose to forgive her, which is God's creation. Who? God really died for her? Because God died for her, just like it died for me and for you and for anybody.
Speaker 3So it doesn't matter how spiritual this woman was, god died for her. Okay, so now, who? I am not to be there and show her love, the love that I say Christ leads in me. So now I'm able to show you. This is the real love that you need to know, that God, the love that God has given us, that he was able to die on the cross. And now I'm giving you what I know with this love that I have to you.
Speaker 3She was able to receive that love and be able to say you know what I want, that love that you have, because if you didn't have God in your life, you wouldn't be here, sione, taking care of me and loving me the way you are after I've been such a speaker of mom to you and and it's all because him. Without him, I would not be able to do that. The first thing we want to do is you know what you deserve to be dead right, it's just a normal thing, the human, and it's nothing wrong with that. The, the people will think that way, but what makes a difference is him. It's him. Without him we'd be able to do things. But when we have him, our love is different. It's unconditional love that you want to give to someone else.
Speaker 2Because of him, love is different. How you love is different. How you extend love is different because of him, because if it was left up to us, we wouldn't be very good witness or example of love. It can only be what it is because of him. Tell me, what is God doing today? How is God using you today and this story in reaching so many different women?
Speaker 3God, just he has. He's continued to open the doors for me. I was able to translate my book in spanish finally. I'm so excited because now I even touching the spanish community, which is big and guys use me. I'm still going to, as in different churches, doing women's conference, traveling to different countries. I'm going to Thailand in October, I'm going to be working with a ministry up there and I'm going to be working in Bangkok human trafficking survivors. I will be going to Dominican Republic next month. I just got back from Uganda, africa.
Speaker 3I got the opportunity to work with these women who have been in silence for so many years. It was a woman who's been very abused through men, people who come to the village. They have sexually, a lot of them missing limbs from their bodies because they tried to retaliate and they saw abuse. And I had the opportunity to minister and me be able to tell them you know what God can change, god can do things and see the miracles and see them to say you know what this God that you said is going to work, it's going to end, it's just a beautiful thing. We know that. You know what With the devil and we heard this so many times and everybody's saying the devil meant to destroy. God can turn around, do it for good, and I'm such a firm belief in that.
Speaker 3We all have a story to tell, whether it's a story about a little dog who got killed or someone who went through something like me. But whatever story that we have, let God write your story, because when he write, he frame it. He just does such a good job and our testimony is to glorify what God has done in our lives. I go to the prisons on Sundays and I got the opportunity to minister to those women in the prison and I always wanted tell me what's going on with your life. Not that I want to know what they're there for, but I want to know what God is doing in their lives, because you can see the transformation in their lives and how they want this God and they want to change their lives and they have these stories to tell and I told them. Once you leave this place, you're going to go out there and tell your story, because your story is so important, because somebody needs to hear your story, because it will be guidance for their future.
Speaker 2That's amazing. I love you tying that in because once again the title of your chapter is Finding Strength in Telling your Story. And obviously telling your story has brought strength to your life, and I have to believe that because you've been willing to share the deepest hurts. When you lay that all out on the table, like Amber was saying, when you keep it hidden and tucked away, when you put it out here in front of yourself on the table for all to see, then there's nothing the enemy can do with it any longer. It's there for all to see. He can't lie to you about it, he can't deceive you anymore. He can't hold it over your head, he can't put shame upon you. It's here and I'm offering this out to God. I'm giving it to him and letting him redeem it, letting him do what he can with it so that others can come to know him. I'm so grateful for you, sione, and for your heart. I want to make sure everybody knows your book.
Speaker 2Sione's book is called Three Times Sold A Story of Faith, survival and Forgiveness. As she said, they're getting ready to release it now in Spanish. What you read about Sione in chapter 10, there's an entire book full of such amazing God stuff, all of the goodness. Sione, the person in front of you right now is all because of Jesus and what he's done to restore her and redeem her and use her, and so go to the leadingladieslife website this book you can get it there. Sione, thank you so much for joining us tonight. We love you so much. Do you have any last words you want to say to anybody?
Speaker 3I just want to say that you know what. Just if you have a story to tell your story, don't let the devil to pull you back. Don't let the devil to speak lies to you to tell how, because whatever happened in our past, it doesn't define who we are. That's all true, and keep moving forward, serving god and just loving people yeah that's right.
Coffee Chat Podcast Subscription Announcement
Speaker 2That's the best part about it. Yeah, oh, sioni, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1Yes, your final words for our we are going to be live, hopefully, the week after next. We're just taking on every other week approach to our lives so we can just get some Sabbath for ourselves. So we want you to be sure to join us also for our lives, but also subscribe to our podcast over on Apple and it's on Amazon, Spotify, iHeart, I think, anywhere their podcast. Look up Coffee Chat with Amber and Lisa and you can subscribe. We'd love to have you subscribe and get that feed direct to your inbox.
Speaker 2Yes, okay, okay, everybody, we loved having you for this episode. Thank you so much, sioni. We love you to pieces. We're grateful for your story and until next time we'll see you later. See you, guys.
