God of Second Chances with Tanya James *Worship leader *Speaker *Author

From heartbreak to hopeful, Tanya James ( married to former lead singer of the Newsboy, John James) leads us through her story in which God shows up.  Tanya and John both speak of his goodness despite years of rebellion and heartbreak, because God truly is the God of second changes. 

 Tanya and John minister together as a powerful husband-and-wife team, carrying a message of mercy, restoration, and second chances.

THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY

From the Co-Founder and Original Lead Singer of the Newsboys

For the first time ever, John James shares the full, unfiltered journey —

the rise, the fall, the redemption, and the God of the second chance.

PRE-ORDER NOW BELOW.  https://www.amazon.com/Newsboy-Story-Hope-Second-Chances/dp/1424571448/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2RXVSM649B79M&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.baGKVeL9zSV6Q3ma2hrj4_oLzKd0YMRgjCzw_ssLwfvGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.PgtkIPgubdpbZTprk6B8Bfr6MZ3XhHRuKTpniHOM27c&dib_tag=se&keywords=newsboy+book+john+james&qid=1767989719&sprefix=newsboy+book+john+jam%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1

Special Pre-Order Bonus:

Pre-order the book, then email (tanya@ireachusa.com)  us a screenshot of your order receipt,

and we’ll send you a FREE full-album download of John’s brand-new release:

“God of the Second Chance”

Welcome to the BRAVE pod

Where we have conversations that matter to grow a task force that fights against the spiritual trafficking of our girls. We are Bold Redeemed Anointed Victorious and Eternal and it’s race against the enemy for her heart. The time is now to go on the Great Rescue, I am your host Amber Johns, let’s talk about it. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:26

All right. Thank you guys for joining us once again on the Brave Podcast. We have Tanya James with us this time. And I'm really excited to dig into your story. I'm so thankful for your time with us. I've been following you for a little while and just your heart for the Lord and for others is just it's so authentic when you speak, when you get up there. I can just I can see just God kind of taking over what you're doing and how you're doing it. And I'm just excited to share your story with those who are listening. And um, I'm just gonna let you take it from here. Just, you know, who you are um and your ministry and just why you have a heart for the next generation and and what you're doing now.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, thank you for inviting me onto your show. I'm so honored to be here. And yeah, we met you in an event in upstate New York, I think with Daryl Strawberry when you were doing it with the sports. And um, John, so I I'm married to John James from the News Boys. I'm a Christian recording artist. We kind of met through music after like a lot of trauma in my life and a lot of trauma in his life. God brought two broken people together to use for the gospel and for his glory. And I love that. And he uses our stories to help other people, you know, up that maybe down or struggling. And there's nothing more authentic than speaking about something that you've actually gone through. And I think that's why we love what we do. We speak a lot in drug and alcohol rehib facilities and schools and military bases and prisons. We just went in our maximum security prison in Florida last year. It was quite an experience, one of the best experiences we've ever had. Scary, but awesome. Because I thought this is where Jesus would be, is right where these guys are. And I had the honor of leading them in worship. And I made a note that as we were worshiping, that some of these guys were singing louder that I couldn't even hear myself singing. They're so bound, but yet so free. And I thought, man, my goodness, they don't have anything. They lost everything. And a lot of them were in there for life, and they have nothing else but Jesus. And it was so amazing to see the freedom and the life. It's honestly, they were more free than most church people when we go into service on Sunday. But it made me really question, wow, am I worshiping the way that I should be worshiping the Lord? Because I we're we should be free. You know, we should be free from the things that hold us down, the setbacks, the struggles, the trials, the temptations. You know, Jesus said, Whom the Son sets free is free, is is free. Not, you know, you work out your salvation with fear and trembling. There's a process to everything, but we're free. You know, a lot of times we think we live bound.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Because we forget that.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

We do so easily. We do so easily. And I know both of you are just, you know, worship is one of the things that you just you honor the Lord with and you bless people with. Tell me a little bit about your backstory. Like before even maybe you met John, I know you said like you had a lot of trauma, you had a lot of things, which is gonna lead into why you do speak about the God of second chances. So give us some background on who you are.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Yeah, so I was born into in upstate New York. My dad was um Hungarian, he came over during the war with uh Germany and Hungary, and um he was uh an alcoholic. He I remember as a little girl that he would go to work and go to the bars, come home drunk, and he was just a violent armed man, arms missing off our furniture and holes in our wall. I hit my mom one time that I saw physically with my eyes, and and uh I grew up in that environment, and I remember spending that time when my dad would come home like that behind we had a piano in the middle of our living room, and I would hide behind that piano, and it's kind of ironic that we, you know, you hide behind the things that later on in my life has become my weapon of warfare. And um, anyway, so as a little girl, I was we I had a twin sister and two older that was in this house, and but at the age 11, my dad moved out, and um, for the last time it was for good right before Christmas. And um, after he left, my mom tried to commit suicide, but she lived through that but was non-existent mentally or emotionally. And you figure four teenage girls with not a lot of parental supervision, which we didn't have at that point because my dad was gone and my mom wasn't there, and um, we'll get in trouble, and we got in a lot of trouble. And at the age of 18, I couldn't wait to leave the house. My other three sisters went off to college. I got accepted into a modeling school in New York, and I went off to do that. But by the time I was 24, I was married and divorced two times because hurting people hurt people, and that's just what we do. And I was a train wreck, really, honestly, from you know, you can blame it on trauma, whatever reason. And I wasn't walking with Jesus, I didn't have him in my life as a um guiding point for me. But at 25, God got a hold of my life and started heading in the right direction. And um, I got married a third time at the age of 27, and I had two beautiful boys, and um, I became pastor women's ministries in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, serving the Lord, living the life it seemed. But 10 years into that marriage, it turned abusive, more not physical. He would hit stuff near me, not me. But everything around whatever he did, it just turned into um anger, like hiding from him because he had such anger. And more of the abuse was um not physical, but verbal and emotional abuse, which I think that a lot of times I didn't even know that I was in an abusive marriage because he wasn't hitting me. I thought he's just having a bad day, if if you know, stresses with work and justifying all this to have this safe little protected environment. And um it just started to get worse. It started to take that environment. I talk a lot about environment, how that will affect you. That environment started to take its effect on me. My body started rejecting foods I had eaten my whole life. I was basically lost a lot of weight because I didn't know what was wrong with me. I just knew I was ending up in the hospital a lot with some kind of reaction. And um then I it just started to go bad to worse at that point. And I stayed in that marriage 22 years, and it uh the the breaking point of that was I almost died in the hospital from just a weird thing from my environment. My body was just you deal with trauma in different ways. And I ended up in the hospital and almost died actually from what happened, and um it was a wake-up call for me to be like, Tanya, this isn't the life that God had for you. And I just I lost my identity. I honestly felt like you know, I was in ministry, I was, you know, serving the Lord and then to barely surviving in my life and my marriage, but I felt like I was just trying to protect my kids from what happened to me. And but I was the one that it was being taken out on. And but when I left that marriage, not only did that marriage come to an end, I stayed 22 years in that place. Um, my 18-year-old niece that was like my daughter, committed suicide. She had just started her senior year at high school, and just it shipwrecked my life because I was close to Alicia. I was the aunt in her face, you know, how are you doing today, sweetheart? How are you doing? And she was she was me, I I'm great, right? And I didn't know that she wasn't great, you know, because a lot she was telling me what I she thought I wanted to hear instead of what I desperately needed to hear. And you talked before we started this podcast about music. And I remember after the police came and took my beautiful niece away, and um I went and laid on her bed that night, and just trying to process with this beautiful 18-year-old girl, what she was thinking about the last night she would lay there. And I pulled out her journal and it was full of, I started reading it like it was just somebody else's story, and um, full of pain and trauma that I absolutely knew nothing about. And she was in a relationship with a boy, and we found her phone, and the last text that she sent was to this boy, and it said, Words hurt, and I'm gonna show you how much. And an hour later she was gone. But you were talking about words like music, and we I pushed replay on the her um computer. The music that she was listening to, I think was MM, and it was actually music that was relating to the pain in her heart, but that music was taking her down a dark path, and it took her down a really dark path where she believed the lie of the enemy that she'd be better off out of this world than in it. And we tell kids be careful what you listen to, be careful what comes in here because it'll get in here. You know, play worship music. The enemy wants to take you down that dark place, listen to things when you get to that point, reach out for help. Because I think that people really feel, and this is not just a teenage epidemic. We we deal with adults, we talk on military bases about suicide, and they actually believe that nobody can relate to their pain. That nobody, what would they think if they knew what was really going on inside of me? And that's why I say this all the time that you can be looking amber at a church filled with people and assume that they have everything going on and that they're good and they're fine, and they may be struggling with stuff that not even people next to them know about. Yeah, yeah. So that's a little bit of my story with my niece. And then my mom died suddenly from cancer within about a year, and yeah, just waiting in New York. It was like trauma, trauma, trauma, trauma. And I would uh pack my car with whatever I could fit in it, no rhyme or reason, but I drove to Florida, the furthest place I could get away from New York. And I just thought I uh this is the truth. I was gonna become a nun. I'm like, I just want to serve Jesus and I'll never get married again. Then they're like, this is funny, but it's the truth. Like they're like, you can't wear makeup. I'm like, that's not gonna work out for me so well. So I started the construction company, but that's it's a true story. Um, it's really what I was thinking in my mind is that I'm just never gonna get married. God, you know, I don't know how all this is, but I had, you know, when I told you when I got saved at 25, I belonged into a good church, and every person, prophetic person, would come and say, You have an international ministry, you have a speaking to women, you have all the stuff I see inside of you. This is 30 years ago that I'm finally just seeing the fulfillment of. But I think a lot of times we get to a point in our life where we say, God, after all that I've been through, how can you still use somebody like me? How can you still redeem this horrible situation that I wouldn't wish on anybody? But God does. He does, he just does. If you and I love Joyce Meyer says this, you can become bitter or better in life. You choose, you choose the outcome of, you know, my past isn't going to define who I am. I used to be so ashamed to sit here and say, I've been divorced how many times, you know, so ashamed of that. But I don't care. I don't care. People need to hear who Tanya was, and that is who I was. That's not who I am. You know, my that's what I did and what was done to me, but that's not God has done some immense healing in my life, and I needed it, yeah. You know, after all that. But I think after you go through that, you automatically, I just want to get back into ministry, I just want to get back into serving Jesus. And he was he took me out in the wilderness, like John talks about my husband John, not John the Baptist, but 30 is always good. Yeah, equal experiences, I'm sure. One is the clothing, Campbell hair. I haven't seen that, but but he'll he'll take because you need to get healed, yeah, you know, because you can't minister to people broken. But that's what I think a lot of people in ministry, when they go through stuff, they just want to get back into ministry. And we speak at a recovery center in Florida every five weeks. We're actually on their roster as speakers, and a lot of pastors, worship leaders, church people burnt out, trying to, you know, barely surviving, and trying to minister out of that hurt and pain. God won't allow you, He will for a season minister to people broken, but he won't allow it for long because you need to be healed, you know, because you I believe you'll actually, you know, portray that on the people your hurt and pain if it's not fixed and healed. Not completely, but you know, we're all on a journey.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Yeah. And you know, yeah. I appreciate you saying that because there's, you know, you're not gonna be perfect, but there's a healthy place to minister from. And I I remember, I don't remember who it was was telling me, like, not that there's an exact timeline, but after there's been trauma, right? To be very, very careful before you start publicly sharing. I want to say it was I do think it was after an assault. And you know, her whole heart was like, I went through this for a reason, I've got to go talk about it. And I remember like that person just being like, you know, we're gonna wait, we're gonna wait, and we're gonna, we're gonna walk through this and we're gonna make sure you're at a certain point. And it was just so wise because I think for me, I'd be like, Yeah, use it. Like, let's go, like, let's tell your story. And there's definitely a time that you and you and God gotta wrestle because I I would love to ask you too. Like, you went through a lot and you still chose to follow Jesus. Why? Like, because you know, if I'm 18, even 25, even 30, like I'd be looking at my life and be like, I don't know if it's worth it. Like, why why did you still follow Jesus? And I think it'd be very easy for you to say, eh, this is not working out for me. Like, I'm gonna do this other stuff. So, can you speak into that phone?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

I can speak into that actually. And after my divorce, there was probably a year when I was still in New York, and I was not making good choices, and I was, you know, not in a positive environment, and I knew that's probably a lot of why God closed the door and I left a really good job because I knew I had to get away from that environment. Because even though it was too taking me down a path that was relating to my pain, God forgot about me, you know, because then I will do that. God doesn't remember you, you've you've failed. How's he ever gonna use? We listened to the lies where they actually become truth. And I that was one of the reasons why I pick up and I just left in New York, is that I had to get away from all that and I had to let myself go to a place where God could heal me. And that's what took place in Florida. And it was years later that I met John. I was running, I started a construction company, which no rhyme or reason. That's a long story of itself. You have to have to have me back. But it went on to become very successful. And I was doing that, letting God heal my heart, really no intention of getting married again. And uh, John reached out to me on social media and said, Hey, have you ever heard of the newsboys? And I answered, like, yeah, but I was more like, I don't know, one song he sang, I was more like Amy Grant, you know. So I was not one of those spam people, which probably irritated him. But he was living in Texas, and he was actually on a job at a Lutheran church, I think, as a worship leader and other titles, but and God was healing him in that place too, his identity, restoring some things in his life. And he said, We had been talking for a while, and he said, actually, I'm gonna be at a church in Florida in a couple weeks. If it's not far from where you are, I'd love to meet and talk about he found my music, I think, online. Is that what happened? And I said, Well, where's the church? And he said, It's such and such place, and it was three miles from my house. And I said, Well, I guess I'll go. It was odyssey. I'm like, Lord, you are setting me up. And I still didn't even want to go. I was like, I just don't need to, I don't know, you know, you just all that fear, you know, why even put myself out there? I just it's just me and Jesus. I'm doing good, you know. And I met, heard him speak, fell in love with his heart, loved his, uh, he gave his testimony. Yeah, and I just felt like this is the real deal. Like, this is a man that's been had everything, and the world ran him over and left him at this side of the road for dead, and that God's picking back up and breathing life into. And we met, had lunch, he went back to Texas. I stayed in Florida, and I remember he was saying, Hey, I'm gonna be speaking at that recovery clinic that I told you about in Greenville, Florida. He said, I'd love for you to come and do worship. It's a weekend, we do a Saturday night service, we do a Sunday morning service, and then that's it, and go back home. But just come and do worship. And I'm like, Okay, I'll come. And I remember the first time we ministered together, like God showed up, and I and I had it sang, Amber. I had it sang, and it had been a long while since I was able to worship, and I just remember just I was just worshiping the Lord, and just something broke in me that somebody would ask me to sing again. And there's just something powerful when you go through stuff in life, and you can get back to that place and still say, God is good. You know, what I went through wasn't good, but the one thing that stays the same is that God is always good and he's always faithful, and just there's there was power in that moment when I just sang out of my brokenness, and I thought, I'm here in recovery clinic, I'm the one getting healed. Right, you know, I'm like, I'm here for them, but I'm here for Jesus because he's got my heart again. And I felt like something again in me was like, Tanya, you're gonna get through this, you know, because even at that point, I would just I was living but not living. You know, you can live but not live. And I think I was immersing myself in my work and going to church, but sitting in the back row, still mad at God, still a little uncertain, still a little unsure about my future and what that looked like.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

And at that point, I felt like he was the god that saw me. He's still like Hagar, he saw me. Yeah, you know, in our brokenness.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Yeah, you speak, I don't have heard, you know, identity is a big thing. And I think we we talk about it a lot. Sometimes I feel like it can be a big word. And so when you guys are speaking, and especially you don't to women, to girls, and you're saying, like, hey, we have to have an identity in Jesus. You if you were to break that down for them from your perspective, from your experience, you know, we can say that, and this is why I'm asking, is because I heard it for the longest time, and I'm like, Yes, identity in Jesus. And I'm like, I don't really know what that means. Like, you know, it sounded good, but I didn't know how to be like, what does that mean to have an identity in Jesus as a female as a 13-year-old versus a 40-year-old? Like, so if you did, and I know this is kind of like off the cuff, but if you were like, hey, identity in Jesus, if I were to say this plain speak, you know, what is what is that?

SPEAKER_00 21:12

That's good. That's good because I want to say this first, like my identity, my dad rejected me, my mom really not just rejected me, but walked out, you know, mentally. And I had such little, I had such little value. And I felt like, what do I have when I got saved? Like, I didn't think I had anything to offer him because I saw myself as not the way that God saw me. And my identity is what those things reject. Um, unlovable, those were my titles to me. So when I got saved, I'm like, God, I don't have anything to give you. Like, I I felt I still feel unlovable, but God tells me every day, like, Tanya, there's you can't, I'm a worker, I'm a performer. I always felt like I had to work to get my dad maybe to like me or want to be around me to do this. And it seems like I even flubbed that up, you know, because I was artsy and musical, not skilled at other things. Although I can rebuild a car engine because as my dad did, I'm good at that in the garage with tools, but um. And that's what I did to be with my dad, was be in the garage with him when he was home. He loved cars and restoring antique things. And uh, but learned that there's nothing that I can do today or tomorrow that will make me God love me any more or any less than he does today. Like I feel like, don't you feel like if I just do A, B, and C, that God will love me more? And that was my identity, was I'm a work, work, work, work, and striving and striving. That's grace covers all of that. And love covers all of that, you know. So it's learning to, I had to get in the mirror. And honestly, even though I was modeling, I was on television, it was like in the, you know, you look pretty on the outside, but in the inside, I felt so ugly, really ugly. Just the way that I saw me, people would tell me till they're blown, Ton, you're so pretty and you're nice and you're kind. And and I didn't, you have to get to the point where you like David said in the Bible, encourage yourself in the Lord. Like if nobody else is encouraging you or is speaking to that right identity, you encourage you, you say, I am beautiful, I am valuable. Just because people failed to see the value in me doesn't mean I don't have value. Or even if somebody rejected me, doesn't mean I have to reject me. I talk so much about how we can reject ourselves, you know, because I think more women than not look in the mirror and probably say, I don't like what I see. And the older we get, the less value we think that we have because you start seeing wrinkles and you you're losing your youth, and that we have our identity tied up in that. What happens when you lose that? Because you're not going to be young and beautiful forever, but you you're beautiful, like beauty isn't a magazine or whatever. I know more women that have just they radiate the joy of the Lord, that just being around them, you just want to be in their presence more because they are beautiful, not just physically, but spiritually beautiful. So I think that that's a powerful thing is that that identity is to read the word of God. That's who you God says you are, not the world, not social media, not people that rejected you, not your past.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Yeah, you know, just finding that. You touched on like a million things. So I do spend a lot of time, um, especially with college-age girls, some some in high school still. And so the the idea of perfectionism, even though they don't name it as that, right? It's like the striving to perform, the the people pleasing, the perfectionism, the productivity. Like, I mean, I have a couple of girls are like, I if I have free time, I don't know what to do with that. Like it bothers them. They like to be on the go. Whereas I'm much more of an introvert, I'm like, give me a good couch. I don't understand that. But I'm also like, I like to feel productive too. So I do under, I do understand that. But then their identity get wraps up. If they're not performing well, then they're not measuring up, then it, you know, I I know I've fallen into that. Like, God, am I am I your favorite if I'm doing this? Like, you have internal dialogues. Like, did you see what that just happened? Or did you not see? So I appreciate all of that. And your story has so much background, like that when you come in to say, hey, he is a god of second chances, you can speak to that with such truth because you've watched it. So if there's I do feel no matter how much we talk about it, so many girls, so many women, as you say, there's identity in so many of those things that you just mentioned. But also, as I've navigated, especially, especially girls who uh love the Lord, follow Jesus, but yeah, deal with some of these things that they are ashamed of. So now, like let's for eating disorders, for example. Like, I'll can walk with a girl who knows she's like, I know the truth, I know what Jesus says about me. I'm so ashamed that I still struggle with this because I shouldn't, right? I know the truth. So when you talk about the God of second chances, if you were to talk to those girls, they're just they're they're ashamed of it, you know, or something that they have done. I feel like that's like your your ministry right there is like, no, no, no. He's the God of second chances. So can you like just kind of jump off with that a little bit about why that's so important to you? I mean, obviously, you and John both having quite the second chance in life. Um, how do you encourage that girl who's like, I I don't think it's for me. Like, I don't know if God ever wants me again based on or I can't get out of this cycle of whatever I'm doing. Is he really the God of second chances, or is he out to get me and punish me for what I've done? Because I've heard that too. Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are your I think we often feel like that, like the it's a whole cycle of rejection, or that I'm not skinny enough, I'm not this enough, I'm not that. And John and I are we have to keep this always in balance. We go to the gym a lot, even that can become obsessive, like taking too much time. And I was at the gym, Amber, yesterday, and this girl was in the bathroom doing a photo shoot, and honestly, I slam like the gym door, like to be like, I'm so over that obsessed with the self because I'm on the other side of like I don't even like to look at myself in the mirror when I'm working out because I don't want to be that person. But I go up to them and honestly, and John did this to this lady yesterday that was overweight, but she had a beautiful form when she was doing an exercise. And he he said to her, he says, Sweetheart, I want you to know you look great. You're doing perfect form. Is we go out of our way to find that person that's not the one doing the selfies that's in there just because they're trying to change something they don't like about them, and um say, man, you're doing something great. Because we can, man, we live in a world where we love to put people down, we love to, and we're the worst, we're our worst enemy. Honestly, we are because that's what the bulimia anorexia does is that you're still too fat, you're still too something. And and to them, they actually look believe that when if we were looking at that, we're like, how could you possibly you're a stick and just I don't know. I am a big believer, and I know these are bad words, but like deliverance ministry, like just really praying and asking the Holy Spirit. I I believe this with all my heart. What is the root of this lie? Yeah, and getting to the root of that lie that they believed about themselves that has to be torn out. Because what is a stronghold? It's just something that's got a strong hold on you, it's a fortified place, it is your truth, it is your foundation. Well, you've got to, you can't tear those things down to use find the truth. Is you can't just like, God, I repent or I renounce that I've believed this lie or done this. A lot of times it's maybe generational, and I hate going down all these rabbit holes, but I've seen the power of deliverance, praying for girls that just the anointing of God will come up when we're praying or when we're worshiping, and that will go and not come back. And that's what you want because I don't believe God wants people to struggle the rest of their life with something. You know, healing is healing is healing, but we've seen God do suddenlies, yeah, where he suddenly does something where you identify it, you trace it, you get to the root of it, you tear that out, and you go on with your life, and you wrap up that story under your arm and you carry it around like a testimony. Like, I was this, uh, my identity was that not anymore. But I want to walk you free because I'm free.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Yeah, I love that. And that that is scriptural, though, like praying, like wise, and like what is what am I actually believing in? Because that's the destruction of the enemy, is you know, maybe it is anxiety or depression or this thing that has happened to you. And I love it, it still comes back to self almost sometimes. Yeah, um, not in in that vein of like self-worship, but kind of like when we're so involved. So I love and I think maybe you see this too, is because now you're outward, right? Like you guys have gotten to a place, especially you're healed, you've you know who you are in Christ. So now it's time to go out and speak over other people and share. And in that, do you find even more like yeah feeling as you watch and as you can walk with people that you're talking to? And do you have like um, I know you shared your worship, you know, you're worshiping with John. That was a profound moment in the past couple years. As you've been speaking truth, you talk about identity, you talk about the God of second chances. Do you have like a moment that sticks out to you? It's like, I'm so glad I get to do this. Like, I'm here and you've watched somebody just be released from something, or God has just kind of affirmed in you, like, this is what I had for you, you know.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Yeah, we were actually at an event that at the last minute we got invited to, it was a week-long huge conference at Bethel's Rock Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I think, or somewhere. Yeah, we travel so many places, I think that's where it was. But they had they have in January all a bunch of speakers. So first night, second night, third night, they have somebody fourth night. I think the fourth night they had John speak, and then the fifth day, which was a Saturday, they asked me to speak, and I'm like, I had all these big name guys, and I was so intimidated because I'm like, I speak of like little things, you know. This was a massive church, and I felt so out of my league, and I was like, God, like I changed my sermon like three times, but I just got up and the the altar after I preached, the altar was full of people that were dealing with suicide. There was an anointing for a breaking of that. The it was packed with people that was being touched by God for getting free from that suicide. And I I don't take any of the credit, glory be to God, but there was a tangible anointing that fell for that specific in um sin or situation in people's life. And um, it was really humbling. Like I look back and I even when I I walked off the pulpit, my husband was in tears. Like he just was just couldn't even tell me, like, man, did God when you see God using you in a way, and you never say, Wow, am I great? Because it's nothing about us, you know. But to see, I love seeing people free. Yeah, because I was bound for so long, more than half my life, I believe, even though I was a Christian, you can still you can still be a Christian and still be bound. Yeah, you still can, you know, with stuff, just stuff that you're just like, I'm just gonna limp to the finish line. And God never wanted us to just survive. Yeah, and I believe I was in survival mode for so long, but now I I'm actually thriving, yeah, and that's a good place to be. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Well, in our final um few minutes, and I don't know the answer to this, so I was just, you know, as you journey through, because part of part of Brave, part of my heart is that we equip and kind of set women on fire to go after and fight for the girl. I don't care if you're 80, I don't care if you're 30, or if you're 17 and you're watching a 12-year-old struggle, right? Like when I say next generation, that people kind of think, oh, the 20-year-olds. I'm like, Yeah, depending, like on where you're um did you did you ever have a woman or you know, a friend that came alongside you? I know you said you had some people speak over you, but that really made a profound impact because they they saw you, they noticed you, and they intercepted you. Did you have that?

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Yes, yes. When I got saved at 25, 26, um, I got involved in a church in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania at Freedom Valley Worship Center. And I got connected. There were three women that sewed into my life for seven years. They saw something in me that not even I saw, and they spoke into my life, they prayed for me. I got so much healing and so much deliverance, and they're still like my accountability people, like when I, you know, am struggling that I'm friends still with two of them, and they're spiritual mothers. That's why I love what you do, Amber, because it's so important for we need that. I'm a huge advocate for spiritual mothers and these young girls' lives because I didn't have that. And man, I I clung to them like it was a lifeline for me because they truly they helped me. Yeah, they did, and they sewed so much time into my life. And even I was like, Why are you what do you see in me? You know, yeah, but they sure did, and they still they're my prayer warriors when we're I'm speaking at a conference. I'm like, be praying. They are they are my prayer warriors, I love that. And uh, they speak into my life, and I'm just I don't want to say that, but they discipline me too, you know, and I love discipline. I am not one that always wants a fuzzy prophetic word of man, you're gonna have. I want correction. We've got to learn to not be so sensitive to correction, and we have gotten correction. And I feel like any person in ministry, you have to learn to love correction as funny as that sounds. Like I love it. I value that when they love me, when I know it's coming from the love for me, not just somebody just having a bad day and just throwing, but I and I honestly I may not agree with what they say, but John and I always have learned to take what they said and say, Lord, is this something we need to receive from you? Is there truth in anything that they've said? And if it is, and this dear prophetic lady friend of ours, she's on our board, says, you know what, you eat the meat and spit out the bones. And that's what you do. That's it, that's what you do. But you always take it to the Lord, say, God, what do I have to learn or glean from this? And let me throw all that whatever else out.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Yeah. I so love that that was your answer because, like, I do, I, you know, I've had to get overcome my own insecurities, kind of like, what do I have to offer? Who am I to say, you know, to anybody to speak anywhere to like take out a girl for lunch and like encourage her? But I do believe it's the responsibility of a generation older to go seek out those girls and be like yourself. And I do get a lot of not, it's honest feedback, like where I just don't know what I have to offer. And I'm like, coffee? Could you offer coffee? Just the fact that like we do, you know, because we love Jesus and we want them to love Jesus, most of the time, whatever girls in front of you, they just want to be seen and heard. Like, there's no it's not as deep as we're making it. It can be, you know. I look at those women and like they get to be, you know, when they stand before Jesus and they're accountable for you, and then your ministry expands. Like they get to get to enjoy that that they fed into that, they spoke into you. So whatever you do now, they're like, Oh, that's us too. Like, that's a part of us, that's a part of the extension of our walk with Jesus, is you, and I that's what I want people to see. It's like when Jesus says, you know, where are your disciples? And you get to turn around and there's just like a sea of people behind you because you're like, Oh, I had lunch with that girl, you know? Like I know her. Yeah. I want people to like the opportunity. And so just having that, I and I've rarely, if I have yet, and I'm sure there's some found a girl who has survived life well or come to the feet of Jesus without another female or someone that has intercepted them and helped them along. Like, I haven't heard that story yet. I I yeah, talk to everybody, I'm sure it's out there, but God uses us for that. And I think as women too, we do have that maternal instinct. We we are compassionate, we're made for that, you know, for other women. So I love that. If you were to encourage, you know, in that vein of just like women going after girls, other women, friends, you know, how important is it that we we do share that God is a God of second chances, but how important is it that we be discipling somebody instead and reaching out?

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Yeah, I believe that with all my heart, discipling people, going out of your way to help another person get up. There's gonna, and I love that you said that, like you're gonna turn around someday and see all these people, and probably some people you even with a word like the lady at the gym, man, you're you're doing a great job. That cost John nothing, and it took literally 20 seconds to walk across the room to say something positive. You have I have there was my sixth grade teacher, I I had such few positive words spoken over me as a young girl. My sixth grade teacher said to me, Mrs. O'Leary, she said, Man, you're I'm five foot nine, so I'm all legs and tall. She said, Man, you could be a model. I remember that word to this day. That was sixth grade, the only word that I remember ever anybody speaking something positive over my life. There was something powerful about you. You have no idea what the person is going through in the grocery store line in a you know school picking up your kids from school. How little and that cost you nothing. I mean, I do believe in mentorship, but man, it's the little things in life that make the biggest difference in somebody's world. I'm sure that girl at the gym will never forget this Australian with one eye.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

Like one has an eye and sink into local. Nothing does. Did she marry a pirate? What? Right? I love it. No, you're so right. You're so and I think sometimes even just that simple kind word, it can lead to something more profound, more deep, more all of a sudden, like you've opened that door and like, wait, you see that in me? And all of a sudden it's lunch, and then all of a sudden it's like Bible study, or it doesn't always work out, but just opening those doors to to share Jesus, or at least you know, put kind words into somebody's head is priceless. So I love I love that he did that. Absolutely. I love that he did. So good. It's like him to do that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, Tanya, is there anything else that you want to touch on before we um end our time here? I'm so grateful to have this time with you and just talk about Jesus and and your story. It's so wonderful. And I'm just I'm so thankful for you and just praying over your ministry and John's as you guys reach. I know he has a um you know a book coming out, yes, or is it okay? So do you want to talk about that a little bit? I'll put the link in the comments.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Yep, it's uh pre-release, so it'll be out June 2nd and it's available on Amazon. And if you buy the album or not the album, buy the book for pre-sale. If you email me, we'll have that maybe at the link below, Tanya, at iReachusa.com with a screenshot that you purchase a book. I will send you John's not even released yet album, all 11 songs for free for buying his book that will be on June 2nd on Amazon. It's a great story, and I've been honored to be part of his, you know, ongoing healing and journey with singing again. And that's maybe you'll have him on another podcast. But just you know what? God of the second chance and the third and the fourth and the fifth, and that nobody's too far gone is our message and our test testimony. Nobody's too far gone for God to use and reach for his glory.

SPEAKER_01 42:23

Yeah, you've got two powerful mediums, music and words, you know, like the written word music, like to put them together. That's that's kind of beautiful. So thank you so much for sharing that. I will make sure all of that is accessible in the show notes. So, Tanya, thank you so much for being with us today. I appreciate you. Thank you. God bless.