Cops, Criminals, and Christ
"Cops, Criminals & Christ" is a podcast delving into the intertwining worlds of law enforcement, crime, and faith. With Dale Sutherland, a former narcotics Sergeant turned pastor, it features gripping narratives and candid interviews exploring behind-the-scenes work of life undercover, as well as the transformative power of faith in the lives of both cops and criminals. Tune in for compelling insights and real-life stories that challenge, inspire, and reveal God’s grace available through it all, at the hands of its host and Dale’s daughter, Kristen Crew.
Cops, Criminals, and Christ
Redeeming Trauma: Joy Tan-Chi Mendoza's Faith Journey Through Sexual Violence
Dale Sutherland shares the story of Joy Tan-Chi Mendoza, who survived a violent home invasion and sexual assault when she was 15 years old. Joy is joined by her mother, Deonna Tan-chi, in this heart-wrenching yet inspiring conversation. They share how faith, forgiveness, and community support transformed their trauma into a testimony that has helped countless other survivors.
• Joy was assaulted by armed robbers who invaded her family home in the Philippines when she was 15
• Despite the trauma, Joy experienced supernatural peace amid the attack, reciting Psalm 23
• Joy and her friends collectively decided to forgive their attackers within days of the assault
• Going public with their story created space for other assault survivors to share their experiences
• Joy's mother faced her own spiritual crisis but chose to trust God would use even this trauma for good
• The family's approach to healing centered on seeing circumstances through the lens of who God is, not judging God by circumstances
• Joy describes healing as an ongoing journey, with complete restoration coming in heaven
• The family's testimony demonstrates how community support prevents isolation that compounds trauma
You can hear the full story in Joy Tan-Chi Mendoza’s book When a Good God Allows Rape, and you can find Joy on instagram as @joytmendoza.
If you're struggling with trauma or pain in your life, remember that real help is available, and healing is made possible through faith, forgiveness, and community. Greater is He that's in us than he that's in the world.
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Welcome to the Cops, criminals and Christ podcast, where we will hear interesting stories and unique perspectives about the work of cops, the world of criminals and how faith plays a role in the lives of both. Dale Sutherland was an undercover cop and a pastor for many years and will share interesting stories and perspectives and interview guests. I'm your host, his daughter Kristen Kru. Come join us to learn more about these powerful forces and how they shape the lives of people just like you. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2:So life seems like it's perfect growing up in your house, I mean, it seems like you've got an ideal life, you've got business, you've got ministry, you're close family, and then something bad happened. Something bad happened when you were just a kid, you were a teenager.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so at that point in time I was no longer homeschooled. I was in a Christian school called Faith Academy. It was actually I don't know if you've heard of it but it's a school for missionary families, and so we transitioned from homeschooling into that school.
Speaker 3:So I was in my freshman year at the time, and so the way our family was at the time like mom and dad would sometimes do Bible studies outside of the home, so that evening they were not home. It was a Friday night and we didn't have cell phones back then, so there was no way to contact each other. And I had asked my parents mom, is it okay if I go to gym night with my friends? And she was like why don't you just invite your two?
Speaker 4:friends over and hang out in the house because we won't be home. Yeah, actually I said just stay home.
Speaker 3:It's safer. Oh, I, yeah, I don't even remember that. Yeah, so so then what happens is that friday night I was waiting for my friends to come over and eventually they did, but around six o'clock in the evening robbers entered our home. Now, our home was was it's gated? It was gated. We had all kinds of dogs and it was unusual that they weren't barking that much. But what happened was one of my dad's was one of my dad's cousins, like an uncle to us came in to deliver rice, and the guys must have been staking out the home and they followed him in.
Speaker 4:And Candy, our fourth child was the one who opened the gate and she told the dogs to be quiet.
Speaker 3:Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, so I'm finding out details as we speak. It's a good thing you're here, so I didn't know that. Oh, so I'm finding out details as we speak. That's, it's a good thing you're here. So so I didn't know. I was just talking to carolyn the other day because we we did an interview together, but apparently my sister carolyn, who's our youngest sister, the one who's pregnant with her, with her six, she said the. The men came in, they were all armed and they took my siblings who were there was my, my brother, paul, canny and carolyn, because peter, my oldest, my oldest brother, was away at a basketball event which we were supposed to go to the next day, so took them tied them all up, hands and feet, on the marble floor in our house and in the living room area. They were, they were tied up and of course, they were terrified. They were really the living room area. They were, they were tied up and of course, they were terrified. They were really young at the time they were instructed carolyn said not to be.
Speaker 4:Yeah, if you move, we'll kill you yeah, they were.
Speaker 3:So apparently this was a gang that had been going around robbing houses in the area. So I didn't know, because I was all the way in my parents bedroom, which was down a long hallway and um, so I didn't hear. The only thing I heard was I heard footsteps on the wood floor of our house. Because it wasn't common to hear rubber shoes squeaking, I understood what it would sound like to hear feet like.
Speaker 1:If my siblings were running around.
Speaker 3:But rubber shoes squeaking in and out of bedrooms was a very unusual sound. So that's what I heard and I was like, lord, there's something wrong. I don't know what it is, I'm just going to peek. But then I said a prayer. I said, lord, but if there's something happening, would you just protect our family?
Speaker 3:And when, sure enough, when I looked down the hallway, I saw a man running down the hallway. He was a mask on and he was running towards me and so I tried to close the door but I couldn't bolt it. It was a very old Nara door, very heavy, and the lock didn't work anymore. It misaligned even back then. So I couldn't lock that door. But I went into the bathroom door, which was just like a push lock. It was like one of those knob things that you, you turn, and then it had a lock on it and I was just waiting because I didn't know what to expect and I was just praying.
Speaker 3:I did lock the bathroom door, but the guy comes into the room and he starts banging on the bathroom door and and he was yelling and he had keys. So how he got the keys, I don't know. It's almost like they knew where to find things in our house and the way that our house was um situated was you could see all around it because there weren't houses around us, so you could see it from the front, where the gate was. From the sides you could actually look into our home and we weren't particular even. I mean you, would you, if it was nighttime, you would see everything we were doing in the house practically.
Speaker 3:So they must have, I'm not sure, but they probably, you know, sure planned yeah, observed, observed our family, yeah, and so the guy was able to come in. He eventually found the right key and then he was yelling at me for hiding and he had a gun, and so he was asking me where, where's the money? Um, and I mom, mom and dad never really kept cash in the house, but they used to have a jewelry business. So the stocks I knew where the stocks were kept, and so what I did was, since I knew that, I said, well, okay, here is you the jewelry, you might be interested in that. And I just decided to be cooperative.
Speaker 3:Because he had a gun and I didn't know where the rest of my siblings were At the time. I didn't know how many people had entered the house. So then he asked where are your dad's guns? Which was interesting, because how did he know that my dad had guns? My dad did have guns because he was interested in guns. He kept them in different places in the house, so I showed him what I knew.
Speaker 4:Did you know where they were?
Speaker 3:Some of them, because he had some secret compartments right Like one in the closet, where there was a secret door. I knew where those were, so I showed those and then after that I thought he was going to shoot me because I thought he was just one guy that entered the house and he said okay, so I can't remember exactly what he said, it was in tagalog and then and then that's when he proceeded to to assault me at gunpoint. So I, just when it was happening, I was like what? I was a virgin. I never kissed anybody, never had a boyfriend. I was 15 at the time and so, like some of the stuff that he was doing to me, I didn't even it was my first time to experience all this, so it was just it was.
Speaker 3:It was terrifying. I was like this is.
Speaker 3:This is a literal nightmare that I'm experiencing yeah but you know, interestingly, there was a, a peace that transcends understanding. That I knew came from the Lord, because I remember from that first moment. God reminded me, like I was just reciting Psalm 23 in my mind, and God reminded me, you know, joy, they can touch your body, but they cannot touch your spirit Because, no matter what happens, I knew that if I were to die that night I would be with I would be with jesus, and I really owe that to my parents, yes, yes, um, so what happened was from from that, from that guy, I was passed around to different men, different rooms in the house, because they were they were looting and ransacking the rest of the house.
Speaker 3:And it was only after then that I was like thinking what happened to my friends? Did they come?
Speaker 3:it was a pretty large house and when I was brought out to the living room area, um to the to the foyer area, and I was tied up there, I saw my friends bags. They had been like it, like it's like exploded on the floor right at the entrance. So apparently they had come in and they were also taken and their stuff was everywhere. So at some point the three of us were tied up together. I didn't know where my other siblings were and we knew that. I knew that stuff had also happened to them. So we were kind of chatting about it quietly, but eventually, after everything was done, that's when we processed it. But but so how that what happened then is maybe two hours later they were. They were trying to wait for my parents. They want I think they probably wanted more money, because they weren't getting any cash really.
Speaker 3:So what I what I did was I lied and I said, look, my parents are out of town so they're not going to be home. And then, at a certain point, somebody rang the doorbell of our home and they were a little bit like, what are we going to do? Because somebody needs to go answer the door. So I think because I had been cooperative, because I just knew, since there were guns.
Speaker 2:I am not going to fight them. Yeah, there's nothing I can do.
Speaker 3:They had a knife also, right, yeah, they had all kinds of stuff. So then what I did was they said to me you go answer the gate, which was shocking, because I think what happened was because I was cooperative, I was showing them the things that they wanted to find and I wasn't being difficult. I think they felt like, like, we'll send her out, so they sent me out, and then it was the parents of one of my friends who were just checking on us and I just looked at them, I opened the gate and I looked at them and I just said there's robbers in the house. And then I closed it and I just said bye later, like to act out that whole, that whole thing. And then I ran back inside. When I came in, the guys were like you told them, didn't you?
Speaker 3:which maybe they were trying to threaten me and just find out if I had and, and then they said well, we going to have to kill you all now. So they started cocking their guns. Oh my, and I just remember praying. I know it was kind of a selfish prayer. I was like Lord, if they really plan to kill us, can I go first? I don't want to see a massacre.
Speaker 3:I knew there were a lot of people in the house, so for some reason they decide then it was time to go, so they just decide to leave, and they took my uncle hostage to have him drop them off somewhere, and then that's how they got out. So I don't know all the details of that part, but what happened then was maybe 30 minutes after they left, because we were just in the quiet. It was all dark. None of us knew what to do. We weren't sure that if we got up and did something would they come back.
Speaker 3:Were they really gone? We had no idea. So then, like 30 minutes later, we saw people shining flashlights into our house, and so we were like, oh my gosh, they're back. But it was neighbors, neighbors and friends. So these neighbors and friends came to rescue us. So my friends and I were taken to a different location because they found out what happened to us yeah, I don't know it was.
Speaker 3:It was a home in in riverside, it was somebody's house, it wasn't a dorm. We went to the dorm later on that night to sleep. Oh okay, yeah, that's where I was with you at that time. So then we had to wait for my parents because they had no idea what would happen. We were taken there, and then I think that my siblings were taken to A dorm, but not us, not the three of us. So then, when you came, what did you see?
Speaker 4:You were at the dorm already. No, I wasn't. I was at that house, you came to see me at the house. Well, Candy was there.
Speaker 3:But when you first entered the Our house, our, house.
Speaker 4:What did you see? Oh, it's like there had been a tornado. Everything was gutted, you know, and my husband, when we drove up from the Bible study, there were some police cars outside and my husband said something terrible has happened. And I'm not an alarmist so I didn't think anything. But when we got in, the whole house was gutted and we thought it's okay. Whatever they got is fine.
Speaker 4:Just so our kids are okay. But we thought maybe our kids were killed, we didn't know. But then we had missionaries living downstairs and by god's grace they didn't rape the wife. And then the guy came up to tell us that there had been a robbery. And then, um, he said your daughter was raped. And I just burst into tears.
Speaker 3:I didn't know, they knew that. I just thought that they had told you something happened to joy so they told me you were raped that night how do you manage, I mean as a mom?
Speaker 2:uh, you know, you're at a bible study. For heaven's sakes, doing what, what, the Lord wants you to do and something horrible happens, like this by the way, it was seven men.
Speaker 4:you were raped by right yeah, so it was a carnage. There was ten men.
Speaker 3:And then one friend was one and the other one, I think it was three or four, yeah, and we had a helper that was also raped. I mean it was horrible. I think they went ballistic.
Speaker 4:They got so comfortable they made the helper cook for them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there was like a bowl of brownie batter that my sisters were working on and they had like licked that up.
Speaker 2:Did these guys go to prison, by the way?
Speaker 3:Okay, you can share that so.
Speaker 4:I burst into tears because I thought I thought lord, why hurt, why not? Me yeah sure, and so on the way down to um see her, I realized satan is an opportunist. So going through my brain was this thought why will I follow god? Why will I follow follow god? He didn't protect our daughter. What if I just turned away?
Speaker 1:yeah, you know, so this is thought on the other side.
Speaker 4:I was thinking but if I turn away from god, where will I go? Because he's my life and he's my love, he's everything. So this, uh, this was going on, and I didn't know that was going on in peter's brain also. We weren't talking, actually, we were just riding silently in the car. But in the midst of this chaos, god spoke to me. And he just said Deanna, will you trust me that I will use this rape for good? I'll turn it into good. And I was like what A rape.
Speaker 2:You know, we know, god causes all things to work for good. Right, right right.
Speaker 4:He said, yes, Will you trust me? And then I just said, by his grace. I said, okay, I will trust you and like Joseph, Jacob, like Jacob, I will hold you to your promise that you will keep your word to cause it for good. So somehow that calmed my spirit and my husband and I both decided in the car before we saw her that we were going to trust God to cause it for good.
Speaker 1:Now, in the car before, we saw her that we were going to trust god to cause it for good. Now we have to face two sets of parents.
Speaker 4:Oh my, not only her, but the other girls. They weren't with you in the same house. They were somewhere else?
Speaker 3:no, because what one of my friend's parents was based in hong kong they were missionaries in uh, macau, sorry macau. So they had to fly in the next day. The other one was there because they're the ones that came to the door, so they were there. So when you arrived at the house, I was even. I was trying to process. How am I gonna tell my?
Speaker 2:parents yeah.
Speaker 3:I didn't know that they knew because I didn't get sure that he had told them and, in the meantime, with my, with my two other friends, we were also just trying to think through. This really happened and what are we gonna do? Are we gonna get pregnant? What are we going to do? Are we going to get pregnant? What are we supposed to do? And so, um, when you came to the, to the house, I saw you. I saw you first.
Speaker 4:No, candy wasn't there. Yes, she was. She came out and she asked me is my sister going to get pregnant?
Speaker 3:oh, they were you you must have gone to the um, not to that house, mom. You must have gone to the dorm, first to check on them and then to me.
Speaker 4:Okay, maybe, yeah, I don't remember yeah, I know, and so when you came to me, I went out alone to then I saw you.
Speaker 3:We hugged yes you had your purse. You were holding your purse and then I saw you and dad standing there at the entrance. You had. I didn't want you to come into the house yet because I wanted to go out and tell you Because it's.
Speaker 2:It's just too horrible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know, the thing about something like this is you feel so much shame, just feel so dirty and so ashamed, and I didn't know how to say the words to my parents that it had happened and how would I explain it to them. And I know that they had happened and how would I explain it to them. And and I know that they had protected me all my life we prayed every night for god's protection.
Speaker 2:Yes, of course, and so.
Speaker 3:so when I went out there to talk to them I just say just say, you know, mom and dad, I was, I was raped and I think you just hugged me right. And then we went inside and then we processed it with the other family and my two friends and then I can't even remember whose house you were in that part was a blur.
Speaker 2:Here's what I don't get. If this would have happened, I would think you would never mention it again, that it would be too horrible to ever even think about it. But you've written a book about your life, right? Is that right?
Speaker 3:It to ever even think about it. But you've written a book about your life. Right Is that right it took me 20 years to write that book, and this is why it's because when that happened to me, because of the support systems in my life, first of all, I had those two friends, so we journeyed together. I didn't feel alone in that sense.
Speaker 3:But I had this really strong family anchored in the lord and we processed everything from a biblical perspective yes we had our church community, we had the school community, so it was like all these people rallying alongside us praying for us just kind of really showing us god's love and presence during that time. So I think it made it easier. But I think all of us in the family had to come to a point like a crossroad where we had to decide are we still going to choose to believe that God is good?
Speaker 3:to trust him and, of course, to forgive the man who did this and to look forward and believe that he's going to cause something so terrible to be used for something good, right. And so, since that was the starting point for our journey towards healing, and then I felt like when I wrote that book Lord, this is your story in my life, so how can I maximize it to be?
Speaker 1:a blessing to others.
Speaker 3:Because I knew that the statistics at the time was like one in every five girl gets sexually abused or raped. So I'm like it's not like it's uncommon, but since it became public, because our church community found out about it, the school community found out about it.
Speaker 4:Actually, that night everyone purposed to forgive the guys.
Speaker 1:I mean, it was like the next day. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so together, collectively, the girls said they would forgive the rapists and the robbers because they didn't know Jesus. And so they forgave, so they didn't carry the weight of bitterness and you know, unforgiveness in all of us. And then, because some in the school knew about it, because they were in the dorm, they decided to go public to the school. I mean, in our family we don't hide stuff. I mean you know if God allows, god does not cause it.
Speaker 3:They realize it's sin because yeah, those guys don't know Jesus If.
Speaker 4:God allowed it, then God's made a promise to use it for good. So they had a missionary, read their statement and basically said that you know, this is what happened to them and their virginity was taken away, but they could be spiritual virgins for the Lord, something like that. And then after that, after they made the announcement, a lot of women came. People came forward to hug them, but other women came forward and said could you hug?
Speaker 1:us Could you?
Speaker 4:hug me Because I was raped and I've told nobody, and I think that and I told nobody and I think that's the harder part If something like this happens and you keep it a secret. It's a secret you have to keep your whole life.
Speaker 3:It's so heavy, and so that was the beginning of healing and I remember there would be adult women that I mean. We were young at the time but adult women that would come up to us and say you know what? This happened to me when I was younger. I've never even told my husband wow and and so so you realize that there is so much brokenness in the world and people, when, when you start sharing and being vulnerable, it's like you heal together, like you invite other people into the journey, and then they resonate with it, and then you all process this together, and so I think that that was one of the good things that came out of it.
Speaker 3:For sure, and because we shared it, there was like people all around the world praying for us, yeah, and so just the power of community right to get through something like that, and I remember my parents too. I think one of the good things that they did which I didn't like at the time, to be honest, was maybe the very next day. So what happened was that night Mom stayed with me in the bed.
Speaker 1:I slept with her. Yeah, just hugging me.
Speaker 3:Actually, we didn't talk much that night, I think. I think Mom was just processing what happened and she just hugged me that whole night. And the next day I went to the doctor. We went to the doctor, and then I think we were talking about it as a family and I think it's amazing, right, we went to the doctor and then I think we were talking about it as a family and, um, I think uh, it's amazing she wasn't, I mean you weren't.
Speaker 4:You didn't have any major. I was in shock. I was in total shock.
Speaker 3:I think the shock what else was you know, for it was just I was still thinking this. I used to read those readers digest stories and I felt like this is one of those stories, like it doesn't even seem real. But I was processing it and I had like all these things where if people like slam the door or if I heard certain noises, I was always on edge. I would imagine and I didn't.
Speaker 3:I was so scared to be alone and I had a fear of men, for a while but you know God helped me process that and it was all part of the healing. So if you you know when I hear the story.
Speaker 2:As a matter of fact, I heard the story years ago when I first met your father, back when I was at the church there, and I thought I have daughters too and I just thought I mean, even as I listen to you here, I'm glad you've forgiven them, because I haven't. I'd like to kill them.
Speaker 1:So that's the way, as a policeman, my dad wanted to kill them. Yeah, I mean as a policeman, as I listen.
Speaker 2:As a policeman I say you know, these guys were particularly evil, as home invasions go money, I understand all that, but this kind of assault was just horrific. So I would just say that's where I'm a spirit. But spiritually, to hear what the Lord has done in your lives and he's turned it into a way to help, actually, other women that have gone through this kind of pain and torture, it's very encouraging to hear what the Spirit of God does.
Speaker 2:Because you know how we say it's like when you testify at a trial all you're doing is testifying to things you saw and heard. And that's all of our story is we're just testifying to what God has done through these events, whatever events it may be, how you know, would you say, looking back, you know, to today, how has God restored you? Where's your life today? How has God redeemed this for you and changed your life?
Speaker 3:You know, I think that growing up it was sheltered, in the sense that I didn't really see a lot of the brokenness that people I mean I didn't live the brokenness that most people do. Right, we had a great family, and so I think that my idea of goodness was very humanistic. So what happened was when I realized, lord, I can forgive these people because you have forgiven me, and actually they are sinful, but I am sinful too. You know like I had to frame it. I had to realize and recognize that god died for those guys. He also died for me.
Speaker 3:Therefore, who am I to say that I'm better? You know what I mean. Like, when we compare ourselves horizontally, we think, well, I would never do something like that, you know. But it's when we see ourselves vertically that we begin to understand, lord, I too am a fallen person and apart from you, I, my destiny, is the same. So it's only by your grace that I've experienced your forgiveness and I've experienced your grace. Therefore, with this forgiveness and grace that I've experienced, who am I not to bend that outwards and forgive the guys who did this to me, because who don't know you, and so it's like I can't explain it, but there was like in my heart all of a sudden. It was like a pity for them that I realized people do these things because they don't have god, and that's why we need jesus, and so my desire was that, lord, I pray they come to know you so that they will change, because no amount of reform well, yeah, no, no, nothing human can change.
Speaker 2:It's really the Lord this is the gospel at work. Hearing what the gospel lived out in your heart, it's just supernatural hundreds and hundreds of victims of crime, and I've never heard anybody talk about it the way you just talked about it, and it is, uh evidence that the spirit of god has done supernatural things.
Speaker 3:It's just grace, it wasn't even me, I mean I think that, you know, I think the benefit we had was we grew up in a home where we where we loved jesus, and my parents taught us the word of god, so we had that foundation yes and I had a good family, so I knew that god was real right.
Speaker 3:But when I went through that, it's like God reminded me of all his truth. And you know, joy, I prepared you for this moment because of your background, your foundation, and it was all by his grace, really, and honestly, me as a person, I wouldn't have chosen the right thing to do. It was really god's grace and and then I began to think my situation in some ways is easier because I didn't know these guys. You know a lot of the women I counsel. It's like an uncle, it's a relative, it's a close friend.
Speaker 3:Yes, that they have to continually see, see again, yeah and again yeah, and that is different, right, because I could choose to forgive these guys, but then I didn't have to live with them or see them, and so I felt like that was also grace in my life, that I didn't know these people, and my heart really went out to those women who they were in situations where they couldn't even tell their mother because they told their mother. Their mother said, no, that's not true. That can't possibly be true or be quiet, so that's like a double betrayal right.
Speaker 3:So imagine living with that kind of pain. So I think it was just reframing. Lord, what are the good things that can be seen in this situation? Your goodness, despite how terrible it was. The goodness of your grace in my life and just how you have saved me. You have forgiven me. And secondly, your truth, the goodness of your truth that anchored us that God is sovereign. He knew it was happening, he allowed it and so he must have something planned for this. And then just the goodness and beauty of community and healing alongside others and family. You know all those blessings that I just felt. Like, lord, I am so fortunate. So if you want to do something with this story in my life, I'm willing because I believe that you allowed it's to be a blessing to others.
Speaker 4:so you know the when I prayed, god showed me that, that actually I believe that we have his force field around us. You know we're protected by the power of god. God does protect us, but he showed me that for a moment in time he opened his hand and then he gave me the verse in john 10 10. He says the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy. But jesus said I've come to give life and I've come to give it abundantly. And so we chose not to not to judge god based on the circumstances, but to judge the circumstances on who god is. And we believed him and actually we didn't go through depression. I did cry, but she didn't live with depression, I think.
Speaker 3:I definitely wrestled with. You know, when you're violated like that, there's a loss that you have. Yeah, the loss. I think I really grieved the loss because I didn't know how to process it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3:And that's what I cried about too, because you know, her innocence was stolen from her, yeah, so it's like when I Maybe I originally saw the world with rose-colored glasses and then all of a sudden it's like no, this world is a really evil place and I had to that put. That part of the healing I think was realizing they're also good people in this world, because god has redeemed people's lives, but not kind of yeah, lump everybody, everybody, yeah, because you you.
Speaker 3:You struggle with, with trust issues, right like you're you're, you're not sure of people's motives. I don't know why it's like all this whole, all of these distortions that I had to wrestle through, but I've told, I've told people, you know it's like all of these distortions that I had to wrestle through, but I've told people, you know, healing is a journey and our destination is ultimately in Christ. But you make decisions that are aligned with God's word Forgive, choose to trust God, choose to see your perspective from the lenses of faith that God can use this for good. And then God puts you on that healing journey and there's a lot of things that you wrestle with as you grow in your life and your walk with the Lord. But then you see every step of the way how God brings more and more healing and then ultimately, we'll be healed in heaven. Completely right. But I remember that there was a certain point when, as a mom now having kids, I was like a little bit wacko when it came to.
Speaker 3:I'd always ask my, my kids hey, okay, so make sure that nobody touches you in these ways. And I would, I would always be asking them did anyone touch you inappropriately? You can always tell. Mommy and daddy, I think, was like okay, I think you're a little over, make your point, I think, and and because I was always concerned that something might happen to them, yes, sure, I remember during one fasting week as a church and I was like Lord, I'm not having a breakthrough. And God specifically said to me have you ever entrusted, have you ever surrendered your kids to me? Because you live with this fear that something?
Speaker 2:bad is going to happen to them.
Speaker 3:Because in my mind I was thinking, lord, what if something like this happens to them? Of course you know. And then he said, joy, have I not given you the grace to go through something like this? I gave you the grace. Do you not understand that I would give the same grace to your children if anything were to happen to them? And that was the first time I really just cried before the Lord and I surrendered and I said okay, lord, you know, I know my children are not my own. I'm going to choose to surrender them to you. And it was a different kind of like. There was a different release and relief.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when that happened, well, let me say this this is the grace of God in action, this is the gospel and mercy, both supernaturally, but also in your lives. It's incredible to meet you and and to think of this, and think of our wonderful Savior. One day soon, though, we're gonna be in heaven and all that's gonna be restored, and he will be able to see a world that is healed from all this wickedness and all this pain. So can I pray for you guys? Pray God's blessing, lord boy. You've already done so many miracles here.
Speaker 2:Lord Jesus, people talk about healing a leg that is hurt or a bad heart. Those are amazing, jesus, when you do this, but to heal joy like this is just beyond belief. We are amazed at your wonder and your mercy and the power you have. I pray, lord Jesus, that you'd pour out your mercy on her, pour out your mercy on this ministry, and that you might use her to encourage others. We pray for others that are suffering as a result of horrible circumstance in their life. That they might turn to you, lord Jesus, and find at your feet the mercy and the grace that Joy found. Guide us, lord Jesus, and find at your feet the mercy and the grace that Joy found. Guide us, lord Jesus, together, how we can be better at loving you and trusting you, in spite of this kind of horrific pain that the enemy wants to cause. So we look to you, lord Jesus. Greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. We thank you for that, in Jesus' name, amen.
