When Fiction Meets Unshakable Faith with Kara R. Hunt

What if you could find unshakeable joy and strength in the midst of life’s toughest challenges? Join us for an inspiring conversation with author and podcast host Kara Hunt, as she shares how growing up in both urban St. Louis and rural Missouri shaped her unique storytelling voice. Kara opens up about her personal journey through life's trials, including her harrowing experience of being kidnapped as a child. Through her empathetic and powerful storytelling, Kara hopes to bring readers closer to God, offering encouragement and strength through her real-life inspired fiction. You won’t want to miss this heartfelt and uplifting conversation!

00:08 Meet Kara Hunt: Author and Podcast Host

00:34 Kara's Wig Collection and Awards

01:10 Life in Rural Missouri and Football Fandom

02:04 Kara's Writing Journey

04:19 The Cheer Up Podcast

06:04 The Habakkuk Series: Inspiration and Themes

14:25 Creating Compelling Characters

20:47 The End Goal of Writing

21:29 Impact of Stories on Readers

24:37 Personal Connection to Characters

26:22 Overcoming Trauma Through Faith

31:16 The Power of Sharing Stories

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 .

Transcript

Author Kara Hunt and Her Journey

Amber 0:00

We are live. Good morning everyone and welcome to the Farm Girl edition of Coffee Chat. We have been talking this morning with our lovely guest, Kara Hunt. Kara R Hunt there's multiple ladies, yeah, and we're so thankful to have the real Kara Hunt here. Author. She is also the podcast host of the Cheer Up podcast and she is full of cheer. We love you, kara. She has some of the most awesome wig collection and I would love for you to come back for another episode to model those wigs Because I just love those cute. The last wig you had on for the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, we had the Golden Scroll Awards and you came away with a couple I was so proud of. You Came away with a couple of those awards with us and you had the the most cutest way. It made me smile. Just what your hair even makes me happy. She lives in the same time zone as us, in the same state, missouri, and are you a cheese fan before?

Lisa 1:31

yeah, let's just take you through a quiz before we can move forward. Do you know who patrick mahomes is? Number one, okay, okay, okay, let me qualify this.

Amber 1:43

Carol lives in rural Missouri, so we have not established the fact. She even has television.

Lisa 1:50

Right.

Kara 1:51

That's why I said rural.

Amber 1:56

Oh, my goodness, and that's why she has so much time to write all these lovely novels and we are so happy to have her on this journey with you, from the redo of your first, very first book, award-winning book Creeper Dolls, and it's so exciting to see you're on. I just finished the cover for book number seven and, girl, you're just racking out novels Like I don't even know, like a machine.

Lisa 2:31

Amber insinuated during our warm-up time that maybe she just because she lived in rural America where there was absolutely nothing to do that's how she's been able to produce so many.

Amber 2:43

Yeah, that's true, she is the Walt Whitman of she's in her little hobbit hole in in rural Missouri hey, if I had if I had a hobbit hole in rural Missouri, I'd be there. I'd be there. Sarah, thank you, welcome to the show and thank you for putting up with our me, my silliness, and this is probably going to be a crazy podcast. Let me just say that got started in writing in general, and now how about you just tell us who you are, how you got started, who?

Lisa 3:21

you are, who are?

Amber 3:22

you. Kara let's just ask that.

Kara 3:25

Okay, that is one of the actually one of the toughest questions for me to answer, because I pretty much to me I lead a very boring life. Sorry, we know that Hubby and I have been married over. He's upstairs, I should ask him. Anyway, we got a lot of questions upstairs. I should ask him anyway. We have two adult sons, blake and Stone, and no daughter-in-laws or grandchildren yet, though there may be a marriage in the next couple of months, wow.

Kara 3:55

So that that'll be a first. Let me see, I grew up in the St Louis area and I grew up in the country. As we were talking about it, the school year was spent living growing up in an urban area and the St Louis schools and everything else, but then in the country, I was with my me and my siblings were with my grandparents, so we had a really awesome time. So that was that was fun. I am like you mentioned. I am the host of the trail podcast. I believe we're on our fourth season now.

Amber 4:24

Wow.

Kara 4:25

And the podcast is based off of John 16, 33. For in this world you will have tribulations and trials, but be of good cheer.

Amber 4:34

Cheer but.

Kara 4:35

I have overcome the world, yes, and so we cover topics and biblical figures and books that kind of just really embrace that. We recently just did an encore series because it was one of our highest ranking podcast series that we originally did, I think, in 2022. It was based on a book, the Screwtape Letters oh yeah, by CS Lewis.

Kara 4:59

And we covered some of the topics in there. It's about the demon Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood and how he was training him to manipulate, deceive and eventually try to kill the human he was assigned to. So that's getting back up. We've made an encore of that over the past couple of months and the new seasons and topics will start in November. So we love the podcast. If you type in cheer podcast on any internet search, you will be able to find us on iHeart, spotify, amazon, the works.

Amber 5:31

Yeah, no, this is the and this is a. You said the screw tape letters and such. Yes, how do you find cheer in that? You talk about some, a lot of the, even the series of ladies that you speak about in your book, the Habakkuk series. It's not necessarily cheery, it's that. How do you bring joy to real life situations? How do you bring happiness into some of these? Most the trials of life and what inspired you to do that Life? Most the trials of life and what inspired you?

Kara 6:07

to do that Life? Yes, Some of the awful, scary things that I have been through in my life that God has brought me through. And the reason it's called the Habakkuk series is because my favorite scripture, Habakkuk 319, and there's a particular version and, if you don't mind, I want to read it directly because I do not want to mess it up by trying to go from memory and this is from the classic version of the Amplified Bible. It says the Lord, God, is my strength, my personal bravery and my inventable army. He makes my feet like hind feet and will make me to walk not stand still in terror, but to walk and to make spiritual progress upon my high places of trouble, suffering and responsibility. And God used that scripture a couple of years ago to just really teach me a lot of things. And it just that, really that with, like I said, just life really inspired the Habakkuk series.

Kara 7:13

And, for those who don't know, I write contemporary women's fiction and my debut novel debuted in January 2022. So now book six releases next month and it's a seven book series. But in the first book, getting back to Amber's question, it's based on five different women or dolls, five different women that deal with five very different things that are going on in their life.

Kara 7:40

We have one who's a recent widow husband died unexpectedly. We have a preacher's daughter who rebelled at a very early age and is leading a way more lascivious lifestyle than her mother would like her to. The other one is married to someone for 30-something years and she's finding out he is not who she thought he was and she's finding out the whole marriage has been based on a lie. And then you have Lydia, who was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer and she desperately wants to reunite with her daughter that she hasn't spoken to in over a decade. And then there was Mary, who was kidnapped at a very young age, eight years old, from the front of her home and by the grace of God she's able to find them like 40 years later.

Kara 8:27

Oh, wow so all five of those stories are in book, one paper dolls, and after that each one of those dolls had their own story.

Amber 8:37

Wow so paper dolls.

Kara 8:39

Paper dolls Priscilla. Paper dolls, lydia. Paper dolls, e. Paper dolls Mary yeah. And then book seven is going to wrap it up a little bit, so I have a question for you, because I think it's the question I have.

Lisa 8:52

When I hear you say you're going into book seven of a series and you started this series in 2022. My question is what were you doing before that and what happened? I know you said it was your. You've been through some stuff. Let's be honest. You've been through some stuff, but to go from not writing to writing a seven book series in a matter of just a couple of years Okay, what did God say to you? Or what come about? How did you discipline yourself to produce like this? Because I'm a fairly new writer. I can write bits and pieces. I've been writing articles for Amber and working with Amber on freelance things for years, but when it comes to writing a book, that's a different mindset to me and I'm thinking that's a hurdle that would be really hard to jump just one book, let alone seven.

Kara 9:50

Let me back up a little bit. Technically, I've been writing. I wrote my first manuscript at the age of 12.

Lisa 9:55

But I'm not going to go back that far.

Navigating Illness and Writing Success

Kara 9:56

Okay, I started writing when I homeschooled my boys and at a homeschool meeting, one of the moms who knew I had a love of writing she had said have you ever heard of this group called American? She knew I wrote Christian, I desired to write Christian novels, and she said, oh, you ought to join this group I'm part of, called American Christian Fiction Writers. So that was in about 2011 or 20. And I ended up joining them and I was in a process of writing a book, a manuscript. At the time. They had this awesome critique group and I. That just really helped me and we were able to get together eventually and we created this one group and now, like all of them are, a couple of them are best-selling authors right now, but we were all novices then, okay, and so I was able to get into that by 2013.

Kara 10:44

Acfw had something called the Genesis Contest and I entered my manuscript at the time no 2012. And it's semifinal. And then in 2013, it finaled in a mystery thriller, suspense category and the conference then was in Indiana and I got a chance to meet one of my favorite all-time authors, frank Peretti.

Kara 11:09

Wow, If you know who that is, and so it didn't win. It was one of three in that particular category. I didn't win, but that so the writing started taking place around then, right when my youngest was getting ready to graduate from homeschool, high school, but 2013,. And then, even then, I was contacted by a publisher who I seen I had made the finalist thing. But what happened? Between 2013 and like 2018, so about five, six years I became really ill and it took a lot of. It took different studies, scopes and all this other jazz and I couldn't really figure out what was wrong. But I'm fine now. God is good and we eventually. Oh, there was something very simple, but not quite so simple, but it got to the point where I really couldn't write during those times.

Amber 12:02

Wow.

Kara 12:03

But I was still very much in the writing field. I stayed a part of the writers group with my critique partners. I was still writing, but it was very slow pace and so we would write, but I was still in the writing field. I even worked for a publisher a Christian publisher during that time, so I was still there. Thankfully, about 2019, 2020, I was feeling so much better. We got a grip on what was going on and as the healing was taking place, I'm feeling so much better. We got a grip on what things was, what was going on and as the healing was taking place, I'm like you know what? I've started on this one book, but I think I want to go another direction with it. So then I started there in about 2020. Of course, I was doing a pandemic, so everyone had plenty.

Amber 12:43

Everybody was hermit. Everybody was in their hermit.

Lisa 12:47

You were either redoing your bathroom or you were.

Kara 12:52

So it was. And then in 2021, this other group I was a part of AWSA they were meeting. I thought they were having a meeting like an hour away from me, excuse me, their conference like an hour away from me in August of conference, like an hour away from me in august of that year of 2021. And that's where I said, you know what, this is so close, I don't even have to pay hotel fees because I'm within driving distance, and so I'm like you know what? I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and I'm going to go ahead. Never been one before and I prepared everything. I didn't have a literary agent and I didn't have a publisher. I just had my second manuscript that I was working on and while I was there, I got the interest of two agents and a publisher. So I was there at the thing and I ended up getting an actual agent that day. Sharon Ross Elliott.

Amber 13:43

Yes.

Kara 13:43

I love Sharon we all love Sharon elliot. Yes, you know, we all love sharon, shout out sharon elliot yeah, yes, so she is an awesome lady, she's the best, and so that was august of 2021, by january, by late december, january, I believe, of 2022, she already had a publisher for me and and so it just went from there, but since then it's been like two books a year, so it's nuts Two books a year.

Lisa 14:13

That's amazing to me. So I want to ask a little bit about just how do you go about creating, within your books, your characters, within your books, your characters. I would think that you have to take some time to have these people walk around inside of your brain as you develop them both who they are personality-wise, what struggles they go through in life, even to the point of their culture, how they were raised, what made them who they are. Tell me a little bit about that process. Do you research or are these all people from life, people you've watched and experienced and somehow wrapped them into a story?

Kara 14:55

It's more of. I'm a people observer right.

Kara 14:59

I always like to know why people do what they do and how they react to certain situations, and I'm talking about from even being in a grocery store. I am just a people watcher and I like to observe people and even if I'm watching something mindless on TV like a sitcom, I watch the way that they even though they're acting, but how they respond to certain things. Since I was about a preteen or whatnot, I think characters I started being inspired by character developments from Shakespeare, believe it or not.

Amber 15:32

Wow.

Kara 15:32

And the only reason I say that was because I believe at the time we were required to take it in school and of course, they started with Romeo and Juliet, right.

Amber 15:43

Yeah, yes.

Kara 15:44

Yes, and I just remember I found it very difficult to read and understand at the time, but as I got a little bit older, I'm like well, his characters have a lot of depth. Yes, there's, a lot to these characters and I became a Shakespeare fan, believe it or not. A lot of that like the things that I have known. I have seen loved ones and people I know go through. It's like a little bit of everything all into each character.

Amber 16:10

Wow.

Kara 16:10

Because that adds to a little bit of everything I've known, I've seen, I've witnessed into one character, because they have just levels to them, yes, yes. And all of my characters, however and this is important to me are believers in Jesus Christ, but they are presented with situations that not with all the characters. It doesn't test all of their faith, but it really makes them pull on their faith.

Amber 16:37

Wow, if that makes sense. You said something earlier about being a people watcher yes, and how that wraps into characterization. How has being a people watcher developed compassion in you knowing or thinking about these people's stories?

Empathy in Writing Process

Kara 17:00

It's interesting you say that, because my husband warns me. Sometimes you get so, especially when it's someone I know he's like. You become so empathetic with them. It's like you take on what they are feeling and what they are going through, as if it's you going through that. So I think just by observing people and listening to them and not just listening to the words that come out of their mouth, but the things that are not being said- it's like a different ear it is, if you know what I'm saying.

Amber 17:34

So I know how that is because I'm a very empathetic person myself and I can take on. I can absorb somebody's situation and to the point that it actually makes me take on. I can absorb somebody's situation and to the point that it actually makes me take on. I guess I can take on their sadness, I can take on their struggle, I can take on, and for me that was huge in actually. I think how it played out in me is actually making me sad or making me feel weighed down by the situations. And I know that people say, oh, you just pray it or give it to God. And I found that is one of the hardest things to do, because it's all just pray, or that's because it's I'll just pray, or that's. It's hard to separate yourself from those emotions. How do you do that? Especially when you're going into a book, you're identifying with a character, you're, I would assume that you have to absorb their emotions a little bit, to even write their dialogue and move them through the story.

Kara 18:46

Absolutely, and it's not uncommon and it happens more often than I care to admit to, where I'm writing a story, real time, and I am bawling. I am bawling and I am just crying and I'm going what is wrong with me? I probably need to see somebody and I'm going what is?

Kara 19:06

wrong with me. I probably need to see somebody, but it's like you can take that on, because I've either known someone who went through that or something similar to that, or the Lord has, in my writing, led me to take it to a deeper level. But in the same breath, in real life and in the books, it's not just the sadness that I can take on. I also take on the joys, and I would be on the phone and my husband and someone would share some good news with me and I'm like I just let out this scream and he'll come running.

Kara 19:36

He's going, oh, what's going on? And I'm like so-and-so, just got this. And he's like, yeah, and you let out a scream like that. I'm like, yes, she's been waiting on this forever. It's a blessing. It can be a burden sometimes, because it's like when they're excited, I'm excited, they're happy, I'm happy, they're overjoyed, I'm overjoyed with them. They're sad, they're hurt, they're crying. Then it's you know what I'm saying. So you have to balance. Writing has been a wonderful outlet.

Amber 20:06

Yeah.

Lisa 20:07

You hear people utilize the term book baby all the time, especially when you live in the circles of authors and it is. It's like they become a part of you, they're your child in a sense, and I would imagine that's very much what it feels like with fiction, especially when you're creating characters, and I think something that makes a really good character, especially in fiction, especially when you're creating characters, and I think something that makes a really good character, especially in fiction, which is a made up story, we base those characters on real life situations, because the reality is you are writing a book of fiction. For the glory of God, you do want him to use this story and ultimately there's an end goal, I'm sure, with your book babies. What is the end goal for you ultimately?

Kara 20:56

For those who do not know Christ to know him by the end of each of the book, and for those who do know Christ to be drawn closer to him, and for those that are in the middle of a trial and or tribulation or who needs God to be their personal bravery, for him to be their invincible army. If God can be for you, who can dare be against you? For those who are struggling and going through situations like that, to just be like oh wait a minute, I forgot who my father was.

Amber 21:26

Yeah.

Kara 21:27

Yeah, see what I'm saying yes.

Lisa 21:29

How Can you give us pictures or real life snippets of how you've seen God work through some of these books? Lives changed people that you talk to. What do your stories do for them?

Book Characters Reflect Real-Life Experiences

Kara 21:44

From what I've, heard different people, different things. For instance, like I said, with book one there's each character, each of the five main ladies there. The five main dolls and paper dolls the actual paper dolls that you cut out play a significant part in there and it wraps up with why the book is called Paper Dolls and everything else. But then there's also like baby dolls in there, and by that I mean they're not the main character, they're like either a friend or a sister or daughter of some of the main characters. I've had people say, oh my gosh, you cannot you've got to tell Wendy's story Because of just the things that she went through.

Kara 22:25

I have heard people say they're like any book you write. Let me know, because it has just ministered to me, it has blessed me. It has made me see things in a different light and things like that. So it's and I've heard more, and I'm trying to try to not take up a lot of time by just some of the things that I have heard, but that's the goal with the book.

Amber 22:47

Yeah, I know that a lot of people with characterization and all that, and even with our Leading ladies book, where we took out these stories of women 30 people they may have not connected with every woman, but that something they learned in that reading their stories, that brought them to new understanding and that's what I think, that even as Christ followers and I think the end goal is understanding through love and also it's a working out of our faith, as we see, reading stories of somebody we might align with, that is outside of our story and encouraging them in a way that they are growing closer to God, and it's almost like you're giving them a visual walkthrough of things that they shouldn't maybe and things that story and actually you want to accomplish. You want to accomplish bringing people closer to God and you want to accomplish healing in them through seeing these stories. I want to say who is the person in your book series that most lines with you? Is there a person?

Kara 24:45

Yeah, maybe, okay, but and I think it would be if I had to say, because I love, lisa said I love all my book babies and all my dolls. Every last one of them is very close to my heart and when you read, one of the first things you see when you open up one of the books is that these characters are fictional but the situations and the circumstances that they find themselves in are not right. So if it would have to be one that I think I had to draw a little bit, some of them have a little bit of me and my story. I think the one that resonates with me the most in a way, it would be Mary, and she was one who was kidnapped from her home at the age of eight and then she reunites with them, like four decades later, her biological family.

Kara 25:34

I was not kidnapped from the age of eight, but I was kidnapped at gunpoint by a stalker. And when you look back on everything that happened, when I look back on everything that happened in that particular situation and how there's always that thought in the back of your, that thought of I get back home, I see my siblings, I see my mom. You know what I'm saying. It's the way your mind plays tricks on you during those types of things, and so it was. If I had to say one that I had to draw something from that, was it. Fortunately, by the grace of God, I was returned to my family that night. That night and everything else. But I think if one of them it would be that being not knowing that someone's watching your every move and just waiting for the chance to you know when I were investigating, just interviewing, talking about things with you, we were looking at how light this conversation could be, but we just took a real solid turn.

Lisa 26:34

There didn't we be? But we just took a real solid turn, there, didn't we? A real life situation like that ultimately has to change you from the inside out, and only Jesus can come into those spaces, whether you're a child or a grown woman, when you have traumatic incidences. Only Jesus, his presence, his peace, can come in and heal and inspire us to take the steps to move forward. Amen, yeah so true.

Kara 27:08

Oh, absolutely Absolutely. I can't. I want to say so much more about that, but I'm just saying situations like that can put you in chains spiritually and when you let God in, the freedom that comes after that, the freedom that comes with that, is just amazing. A lot of forgiveness is covered in my books. A lot of talk about freedom being just not being having no strongholds in your life anymore, confronting very difficult things. However, I don't want everyone to think that the book is just emotionally heavy and everything like that, because, like life, we need light moments. Right, we need those light moments and they happen without us even trying Something or someone in your life just constantly makes you laugh and forget about.

Kara 27:52

So it's not just a very. The topics are heavy, but there's also situations and circumstances in there that I hope have you rolling on the floor laughing.

Amber 28:01

Yeah, right, that's. That is, I've always said some the ultimate prescription for even fear a scary situation is to find a reason to laugh. Even if it's even if it's not related to the situation. God always encourages us to look up to joy, look to his provision, and he preserved you which is very joyous in that situation, and you must have known in that time that God was looking out for you in a very significant way.

Finding Redemption Through Faith

Kara 28:45

Oh, absolutely, and thankfully for me, and God is so good. I had people in my life when I was younger, before some of those major incidents happened, that always took me to church from when I was little and everything else, and it was during those difficult times in my life that what I was. You think when you're a child that stuff goes on deaf ears, but it doesn't. No, it doesn't, it doesn't.

Kara 29:11

The seeds are planted and in those situations I knew to call on the Lord wow, wow you understand it was like I knew what to do I knew what to do when man can't help you, when you don't know if anyone in my case someone did know what was going on my my younger brother actually was. He alerted my mom to what had happened, and so, thankfully, that's how I was able to be rescued that night, because the kidnapper had other plans right, he had a car wait.

Kara 29:39

There was a car waiting and so there was other plans. But thankfully my my brother was able to contact my mom really quickly. He was able. She got the police on the scene pretty quickly and my youngest brother was able to show them the last place he had saw and what was going on, and he had to look for me from there. But anyway, it's those. I knew what to do.

Amber 29:59

Yes, yes, that's so good and that's. I can see why everything about your life is pushing all the trouble and turmoil and all the dark places to light and wanting people to look up, because that's really our source of joy. Happiness. Tear is when we see that there's always joy, someone above our situation who is fighting on our behalf. He has all the power of the universe in his hands and he loves us more than we know.

Lisa 30:39

God is so good. God is good Because he redeems all those pieces. Yeah, yeah, he redeems those pieces, and you're even taking a life story, something you've bumped up against as serious as this, and weaving it into a story that can bring glory to him and redeem what you went through. How good is he to do that?

Kara 31:04

Yes, oh absolutely yeah, and there was a time where I was just like just what's the word? Oh, woe is me Combining that situation with some other things that happened. And then, once you start see, the devil works in darkness. Once you keep all that to yourself, you don't realize how many? Other people are going through other things. But once I started just opening up and talking about it, and then other women would come to me and tell me their stories and I'm like, oh my gosh, gosh how could I be?

Kara 31:39

what was me? What I went through was nothing, nothing compared to what they went through for not just a day, not just weeks, not just months, but years yeah and everything else. And it's when you bring those stories to light and shine a light on them, god can take them and they just minister and embrace people and they just yeah, it's because when he keeps it in a dark he likes to tease you right.

Amber 32:02

Who are you?

Kara 32:03

You're so tainted You're not worthy. You're this, you're that and everything else, but God, like he, redeems it all.

Amber 32:14

Yeah, yeah, everything else, but God, like she didn't give me things at all. Yeah, yeah, I am. That's exactly what Lisa said. This is turned into such a profound. Thank you for sharing your story, and I know that a lot of our ladies may have not been through a situation like you have, where your life was on the line in a very traumatic way. For a girl, any woman, any person, would you close us in prayer for those people, those ladies who might have walked through trauma, who have it's still keeping them bound, it's still keeping them in the dark. Satan is lying to them, but would you close this out in this episode in prayer?

Kara 32:56

Yes, father God, adonai El Shaddai and a great I am. Father God, there is none other like you, none other, none can compare to your goodness and your, to your goodness and your mercy and your salvation. Father god, there is none other like you who in the world can compare to your glory, your honor and your power. You are the ancient of days. You are jehovah jireh. You are our healer, father god. You are our peace. You're jehovah shalom. You are the, the great I, and beyond all of that, you are the great physician, father God, and I just lift up to you in prayer anyone and everyone listening to this podcast this morning, father God, who are gripped by the ties of the past, father God, that the past just still has their icy fingers into their skin and is just gripping so tightly and refuses to let them go. Father God, I am a witness to how things from decades ago, father God, can still try to control your life to this day. And I just lift up those women, father God, and I pray, father God, that you just heal them mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. Father God, from everything. Heal them Mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally, father God, from everything that the enemy is trying To hold them bound, to set them free, lord, and I know you can do it, lord. I am a witness and besides Whom the son set free Is free. Indeed, set them free, lord. Bring them closer To you, lord, let them See and witness your Physical healing.

Kara 34:31

Father God, heal them from the inside out. Heal every hurt, every past. Teach them about forgiveness, lord, minister, to their hearts, in a way that only you can, because, father God, there's no one who knows us the way that you do. You knew us while we were being knitted in the womb, before we were in the womb, lord. Father God, you knew us. You know our thoughts, the things we say out loud, the ones that we don't say out loud. Father God, I just pray that you put people in their path whose steps have been ordered by you, father God, to help them heal, to guide them closer to you, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen and amen.

Lisa 35:10

Oh, thank you, Thank you, thank you so much.

Amber 35:18

Thank you so much, kara. I felt as you were praying, there's a lot of women trying to move forward in purpose and they keep tripping over their past and they feel that somehow they are sinning or in sin because they are tripping over trauma, and I feel that God just wants to come in and have the freedom to take that from you. Yeah, just wants to take that from you and to know that there is no shame over tripping. There is no shame, there is no shame over tripping. There is no shame, there is no shame. But he wants freedom for you to walk without a limp. Yeah, so be free.

Kara 36:02

And, if I can, it's just like in that scripture we were reading, where he makes our feet, like hind feet, to leap freely over those precarious slopes in our lives, over those high places that have risen up false altars in our life. That he wants us to be able to do that, so we can leap over them freely, not staying still in terror, but to leap free enjoy over them there are some situations too.

Lisa 36:31

I'm just grateful. Like we said several times, he redeems those crazy moments. That is so good of him to do that, because when you're walking through them you have to say, god, why would I ever have to go through this? Why did I have to, why did I? And sometimes he's just sweet enough to show us that redemptive part of things. He redeems those moments. He's so good about that. We're so happy you were here with us today. I'm so happy our conversation took that turn, although we are very happy with Light and Fluffy at all times yes.

Lisa 37:11

And we enjoy it, but I'm grateful for the reality of your story and I please keep telling people these stories. I am going to have to find this series. I'm going to be one of your newest fans.

Amber 37:27

I'm going to have to get all of it. Yes, there it is.

Lisa 37:29

Where can people find your books, should they want to start your series?

Kara 37:35

they are available, they should be in your local bookstore. If they are not, please order it and ask for it so that you can get it there. For those who love to shop online, it is on amazon, kent, burns and noble, and I believe they're also in Walmart and Target in some areas. So also the first. I believe all five of them yes, because book six doesn't come out for two more weeks and that's Paper Dolls, mary, but I believe all five of them are on Audible.

Amber 38:06

Oh, wow, that's awesome.

Kara 38:08

So for those who love to listen to the books, then you can go and you can download them on Audible as well, and if you want more information about the books, then feel free to go to KaraRHuntcom. That's Kara with a K-A-R-A-R-Huntcom, yay.

Amber 38:29

Before we end. I know, lisa, you have some important. We have some important information. We have some important information. We have some important news.

Lisa 38:38

Yes, we do. We are so excited to tell you that, for those of you that have a copy of our Leading Ladies book which we're so thankful that you purchased it and that you've been using it for studies we finally have in our hands our leading ladies, my discovery and next steps journal. We are going to be doing a little soft mini launch this next week. It's going to be available for those of you that maybe want to be on our launch team, but didn't you still have time?

Amber 39:12

Yes, you do.

Lisa 39:13

Messages. We will get you on the launch team. We're going to start talking about this next week. You're going to start to see things rolling through your social media. We cannot wait for you to have this in your hand. Many times, as we were going through this book and people were reading it, we had the privilege of doing a blog tour. Many times it was brought up. I wish there was a journal companion to this book. Amber and I, of course, can't do anything.

Lisa 39:39

simply, we have to be extra, and so we put together this journal and, yes, of course there is journaling space, but we also wanted the journey to go just a little bit deeper for you. Yes, so we also incorporated some new things to think about for each chapter and, amber being even more extra than I, sometimes, she makes sure that you had some adult coloring spaces in here.

Amber 40:07

Yes.

Lisa 40:08

Really great spaces. It's a beautiful, beautiful journal. I believe it will take you just even deeper into the journey of finding purpose, renewing purpose in you. We talked a little bit about life experiences that Kara went through. Sometimes life experiences can stop us in our tracks and keep us stopped and thank God that did not happen in your life, kara but also the stories of the women in our leading ladies book. Basically, the stories in this book are more illustrations of how women could have stopped in their tracks, but God spurred them on, and so we want you to go deeper. It's coming.

Kara 40:49

It's here. You're going to hear about it this week. We're so happy.

Amber 40:53

And we have a lot of extra goodies that is going to be available on our Etsy store that you will not be able to get on Amazon, including autographed copies, our new fragrance and a gift set and some beautiful key chains that that lisa has gone. All yarny and beautiful every turn.

Podcast Expansion to YouTube Channels

Amber 41:20

So yes, we have some lovely macrame key chains that I every little knot was lovingly tied by our own, lisa burns thank you, guys for joining us today and, as always, please subscribe to the podcast. We are on all the podcast platforms. Now we are on YouTube, we're up and we're publishing all the silly antics of our silliness, and so if you want to laugh, go there.

Lisa 41:52

There are a few serious moments as well, but, yeah, you'll get to see the live video version of the podcast.

Amber 41:59

So, yeah, it's so good. So we, until next time, we will see you and take care, and God bless God bless you, bye Okay. When do I stop waving?

Lisa 42:13

I'm sitting here going. When will it sign off? It still says we're live, but I know we're not Hi guys, if we're live, I'll keep waving.

Amber 42:22

I'll keep doing the princess wave Amber will keep doing the princess wave.