The Lyric and The Light
A weekly space where faith and music meet. Each episode, we will take one song- from timeless hymns to modern worship- and pair it with the living truth of Scripture.
The Lyric and The Light
Surrender, Simple And Complete
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What if surrender isn’t a single dramatic moment but a steady rhythm that reshapes every day? We open our hearts to the hard parts—praying out loud when it feels awkward, wrestling with worship that values polish over presence, and the quiet ache of waiting for purpose to appear. Then we trace the roots of the beloved hymn I Surrender All and follow its invitation into a living practice: letting go, listening for God, and finding ministry in the ordinary.
You’ll hear a raw story of hitting a wall—hospital stays, financial strain, and the weight of unspoken fears—followed by a real release that led to unexpected healing and a new habit of daily surrender. We talk candidly about church music: when excellence serves the room and when radical authenticity moves the heart. Both matter. Both can point us to Jesus. We also get practical about serving the unhoused with blessing bags, local resources, and a posture of dignity and warmth, remembering Hebrews 13:2 and the call to welcome strangers.
Purpose, it turns out, often looks like small faithful steps. Driving rideshare while praying for passengers. Playing hymns that anchor a day. Hosting a women’s gathering that invites pajamas, no makeup, and deep work over polish. Along the way, we lean on scriptures like James 4:7 and Romans 12:2 to frame surrender as transformation, not defeat. If you’ve wondered how to start, we keep it simple: speak honestly to God, release what’s breaking you, and watch for the quiet ways He meets you.
If this resonates, share it with a friend who needs courage to let go. Subscribe for more conversations that bring faith into everyday life, and leave a review to help others find their way here. What does surrender look like for you today?
Thank You And Sound Check
SPEAKER_00And I'm Dion.
SPEAKER_01And we are I think we're making progress towards having a little bit better of sound today. So we're trying. Dion's still phoning it in. That's all right. So we're doing, we're doing our best. We're making progress. Yes. So I am so thankful to all of you guys for your amazing feedback over the last couple of weeks episodes. That has been so incredibly encouraging and kind. First of all, that you're even listening. Secondly, that you have just reached out and had such positive things to say and that you stuck with us through our terrible sound. Now you're on to our mediocre sound. And eventually we'll get it to where Dion actually sounds like she's literally sitting next to me, which she is, by the way. So poopy. Yeah. We're trying. This is supposed to be our reverent episode. As you just told me, I had the terrible case of the giggles when this whole thing started. And she's like, this is the reverent episode. Because we are talking about hymns today.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Well, we're going to more specifically talk about the hymn I Surrender All.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. And I have never heard that hymn, but before we get started, Dion, I want you to open
Prayer And Honest Talk About Praying
SPEAKER_01us in prayer.
SPEAKER_00Sure. Okay. Father God, thank you for bringing us here this morning together to get into your word, to explore the music, to explore the lyrics, to explore your word. Yeah, you know, I I have a hard time praying out loud. And but I think what's most important, Father God, is that we know that wherever two or more are gathered, that you are here in our presence, and we pray for the listeners, and we always pray that we show you through us, through our words, through our conversation. That you're always at the center of it. And we know that you are the one that is walking us on this journey. And we thank you for that. And we pray for all the listeners, those with a heavy heart, those who are dealing with sickness or mental health or big decisions. We just pray that you hold everyone in your loving arms, keep them protected and blessed. In Jesus' name. Amen. That was good. I really struggle with that.
SPEAKER_01Praying out loud. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's hard. No, we've talked about it before, but it is the most awkward thing to me sometimes. And I I talk to him all day, you know, regular conversation. So I don't know why it's so difficult for me.
SPEAKER_01Do you think that the like the roadblock in it is that you're worried about what the people who are listening are gonna think about what you're saying?
SPEAKER_00Oh, sure. Because we both know we have friends that pray so eloquently, you know, and I just never have. So and uh talking with friends yesterday too, I had said, you know, I often just sit down and I'm like, hey, you know, hey, daddy, hey, hey, you know, hey, father, whatever, you know, it's me, it's me again, you know what I mean, like that. So I'm very casual in my conversation with him. Sure. So it's hard to kind of in front of people do that.
SPEAKER_01So why do you feel well, first of all, the only person you're in front of is me, right? And you know, I I'm not gonna judge you on your prayers, right? At the same time, I mean, I think more people probably pray like we do than do the reverent prayers. And sometimes I enjoy listening to people pray reverently and eloquently, but I also sometimes am like, where is the realness behind that? You know? Like it seems very planned out as opposed to just a genuine, honest cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, too, that when we started this, I wanted to write out my prayers. You know, I would rather write it down first and then read it. Sure. Which I don't think is bad necessarily, but then you get in a group situation where someone's like, Dion, will you start prayer?
SPEAKER_01And I'm like, uh, why have I forgot every word I've ever learned? Yeah. Ever. Words are escaping me. I'm having a stroke.
SPEAKER_00Like I when I don't know how to talk. Yeah, I get it.
SPEAKER_01If I had to pray in front of my that was the one thing if I ever, not that I had any chance of making it onto my church's worship team, but if I ever did, I was like, man, if I had to pray in front of 2,000 people, I would just, I think I'd just pass out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Why do you think
Excellence Vs Heart In Church Music
SPEAKER_00that you wouldn't make it onto your church's praise team? What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01I think that there is a skill level that is required to serve on my church's prayer or my church's worship team, because there's like a level of excellence that they expect, and I am not at that level musically.
SPEAKER_00Can I give can I give my opinion on that? Not just for your church, but of course for other churches that I have found this in. Yeah. We've recently started a new church too, and one of the requirements is that you audition, I guess, for it. I I don't know. I didn't know I had to audition for God, you know, to to sing for God. So it's been bothering me a little bit. What I have found though through the church that we're attending now is that it's not so much an audition as I think seeing that you can carry a tune. Do you know what I mean? Well, yeah. And then I'm wondering though, what about the person can't quite but wants to serve in that way? How do they handle that?
SPEAKER_01So well, in my church's case, they put us in a choir.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01And that they only use kind of sporadically throughout the year. Okay. They might even, I mean, if you're like completely tone-deaf, they might even redirect you to more of like a tech position, possibly. Yeah. Um, if you have any kind of ability in that area, or just finding you got some schmucks on your face. I'm drinking the saddest coffee ever. You have no idea how upset I am right now. Okay, sorry, moving on. Oh, just link it there, I can't see it. I think it's a little maybe that's just my face.
SPEAKER_00You don't have something ugly like that on your face, Dee.
SPEAKER_01Do you? Yes, I do. Actually, I am just uh ugly. It's a cookie crumb. Anyway, well, okay, moving on. Um, yes, you can. Lick your finger and like a real mom. Okay. Anyway, sorry. Anyway, so that I would think that they'd probably redirect you now. I can play devil's advocate even against myself here because as much as I would love to serve in that capacity, because I do really enjoy singing. I have had people who have wanted to perform our like the way worship's in the park. I don't ask people to audition. I'm not gonna say that that has never bit me in the rear end. Yeah, yeah. So, but I also I make sense of it to myself in that you are not worshiping me. Right. You're not singing to me. Right. And it is a joyful noise unto the Lord. And if my daughter wanted to get on a stage and sing a song about how awesome I am and how much she loves me, I know what my daughter sounds like when she sings. But to me, that would be the most beautiful sound I ever heard. And I would be so incredibly flattered and feel so loved. I wouldn't care that her voice was not perfect. I would just be like, oh my gosh, she loves me so much that she was willing to get up in front of a thousand people and sing about how much she loves me.
SPEAKER_00For sure. And I I completely agree. And so that's where I struggle with that within these. What I what I've noticed it seems to be the bigger churches, yeah, that are doing that because we come from a smaller church background, my husband and I, and there was never an audition to sing for the Lord. Yeah, you know, and we were both on praise team, you know.
SPEAKER_01So But do you also?
SPEAKER_00I mean, but if you have you ever gone and listened to somebody sing that sounds like they probably shouldn't be singing, yes, and though frustrating, I've learned that it if there was one particular time, it's a whole story though, I'm not gonna go into it, but there was this young girl leading praise at a church that I went to, and she literally was so bad that I was internally laughing. Okay, let me finish. I was internally giggling to myself, like this is awful. And in that moment, God convicted me, and she was singing her heart out to God, and she was so in it, she was crying. I mean, it was so once I saw it in the light I was supposed to see it in, she suddenly could have it could have been an angel singing, I don't know, because something came over me that I I've never experienced before. And it flipped it for me, and I was actually crying watching her sing because she did not care what anyone out there thought. She was literally, you know, you call it vertical worship. She was literally praising God, and it nobody else seemed affected by it either. Like no one else was, you know, people had their hands raised and were still praising, but me, like what audacity that I had to. I I felt like if someone was there with me that I knew, I would have we would have been giggling and laughing. And I had to really check myself because he convicted me in that moment that this is my child singing to me, you know, and that affected me the day. So I find it a little weird that some churches do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I got humbled in that very same way that I had to, I had to walk away because it was to me, as somebody who is not tone deaf, it was almost grating, but it does pull you out of a worship space. Like if you're supposed to be leading people into worship and leading people to the feet of Jesus, and you're I mean, it's it's almost distracting how wild it sounds sometimes. It is it pulls you away from that because all your like you can't focus on what you're seeing.
SPEAKER_00You're saying if they don't sound very well, if they don't sound good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay, yep. It was, and I had to, I ended up walking away, but then I had that Holy Spirit also, you know, and that was when he gave me that that thought about my daughter. And like that's his daughter, right? And when I was watching her worship, she I mean, the reason I invited her to come in the first place because I've watched her worship. I had only heard her in a group before, but I I had watched her worship, and she's a beautiful worshiper. I mean, and just I find myself even in a crowd of people watching her, even if I'm listening to somebody else watching her, because you can just tell how much she loves the Lord when she's worshiping. And she's making me made me cry in just watching her, but from a like a vocal ability standpoint, like probably not the strongest vocal ability, but again, who am I to judge? You know, I get it both ways because I get it. Eventually, when you're evangelizing in a park, I do, we're trying to draw people in. And if you are tone deaf and just singing your heart out, we are you are we're worshiping, but we're also evangelizing. So you kind of need voices that are going to draw people
Why Hymns Still Matter
SPEAKER_01in. And maybe that's part of the reason that the church is the way that they are, because they are getting new believers in there, people coming as guests for the first time. And so if it sounds like you got a bunch of seagulls from The Little Mermaid singing into the microphone, it might turn them away. Because I know for me, the music is what got me. I'm sorry, I just thought of like with a little mermaid. With a little mermaid, you know what talking about? Sorry. Don't be scared. I'm so sorry. So everybody was listening to this.
SPEAKER_00And you're making me actually kind of understand a little better. Maybe we're answering our own kind of question here. Yeah, why did they do that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, so I'm sorry, this really took like a that's the whole experience though. He's like, I'm driving from you know, skirt to the this is the way we're going. But yeah, so I yeah, I don't know why we sorry I did that to us. No. Apologize. Because that's us talking. Yeah, it is. So you're you're you're welcome, everybody. Okay, so to get us back on track, you wanted to share about a hymn, and it was a hymn that I have never heard of, which that just sounded like a tongue twister.
SPEAKER_00So it is the hymn I surrender all, which many will know and many may not, then, right? I'm in the category. It's a very common hymn that's sung in a lot of smaller churches. I've also noticed in bigger churches they don't sing hymns, and it drives me insane because I come from smaller churches that were built on the hymns of the church. And to me, the hymns are the foundation of the church and should be sung. So most people know more of the big ones, probably like great is thy faithfulness or how great is our God.
SPEAKER_02How great is our well, that's no uh I mean Oh Lord, my God, when I an awesome wonder. Isn't that considerable incumbent adolescent and then proclaim my god, how great thou art.
SPEAKER_01How great thou art. Thank you. I was like, oh my god.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, different song, but yeah, sorry, that also, yeah. So there's some bigger ones, Amazing Graves, hello. I don't think that there's not a person out there that doesn't know Amazing Graves. So these are the foundation of the church, they should still be being
The Story Behind “I Surrender All”
SPEAKER_00sung, and it's important to me. So, but what I chose today because of my surrender to God just a little over a year ago. I've been walking with Christ for 22 years, but just over a year ago, gave my all, gave everything to God, my surrender in my living room, and literally handed him everything my health, my mental health, my marriage, our finances, and have been walking that journey for just over a year now. And so I surrender all is always a very huge song for me. I probably listen to it daily. There's many versions of it. My favorite version is by Shane and Shane. They're a little more popular today, so that's the one I decided I would ask people to look up. I Surrender All by Shane and Shane. And so just quickly to run through the first two verses in the chorus is all to Jesus I surrender, all to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him, in his presence daily live. All to Jesus I surrender, humbly at his feet I vow, worldly pleasures all forsaken. Take me, Jesus, take me now. I surrender all, I surrender all, all to thee, my blessed savior, I surrender all. And I surrender all was written in 1896 by Jensen Van Deventer. He was an art teacher, and he wrote it after struggling between staying in art and teaching art or going into ministry. And he he actually ended up surrendering to Christian service in 1896, fully dedicating his life to God. He wrote over 60 hymns in his lifetime, I surrender all, being its most famous. So he traveled as an evangelist all over the world after that then, and actually had a part in starting Billy Graham's ministry with him. So when was he around? 1896 was when he wrote I Surrender All. Is it Billy Graham? Is Billy Graham that old? 189 No, I I think it was Billy Graham. Maybe I have the wrong evangelist, but I thought it was Billy Graham. Do you want to look it up while I finish talking? Um so it's the author of I Surrender All. His name was Judson Van Deventer, and I believe it said that he had a part in helping starting Billy Graham's evangelism. But maybe I have the wrong evangelist.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'll look it up and you can see it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just look it up because I I believe that that was it. So anyway, so this song is is very powerful to me. Since giving surrender last year to God, I have to daily die to myself every day and give up every day my life to Christ. And it's difficult. And I walked last year in a season of just this waiting season for him to open up and show me what what he was leading me to, what was my call, what was my purpose. And in walking that, I had to come to a point also then near the end of last year of that I was no longer in a waiting period, that he was preparing me for something, is how I chose to start looking at it because the waiting was killing me. And so I turned it over to him again that I was going to be patient in the waiting, but that I was going to accept it as a preparing. And now at this point of the journey, because it's been over a year now, I have found acceptance in what he has led me to. Because the struggle
Waiting, Preparing, And Purpose
SPEAKER_00is there daily, still, of what you know, just his purpose in my life. And why are you being so silent on what you're leading me to? And I finally started to look at it like maybe it's not what he's leading me to. Maybe I'm already there. So perhaps when I gave my life over to him and I fully surrendered everything to him, he in effect started that right away. And where I sit today is where I was supposed to be all along, all along this journey of just this year, by starting the podcast, by you know, completing the Christian counseling classes I had taken, by, you know, dipping into the spiritual direction guidance, by taking the transformative prayer ministry certification, by, you know, just all these things that I was trying to complete to better my walk with him and to better be able to help others. Perhaps that was the purpose all along. And now today I am sitting in it now that this was all along the purpose. I'm not saying to do a podcast, but I'm saying within that though, I'm I'm fulfilling my purpose by what am I doing? Trying to bring people to Jesus, right? To in effect, spread the gospel, talk about Jesus, and just within that bringing my true and real self to people, you know. Did you find what said? Who what was the I was letting you finish the thing? No, I can fix that because that's the whole episode.
SPEAKER_01No, you were writing about that. He was uh he was Billy Graham. It was um the Billy Graham was born in 1918. Okay, and so he was actually present at his deathbed. Oh he plays his music during his evangelism activities. He's yeah, there was you were right. I was right. I just didn't think for some reason, I was like, that seems like so long ago. I was what? Right, you are right. No, I I thought it was. You're right about most things, but I just I was like, that seemed very like a love attack.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, when you say 1896 out loud, it's like Billy Graham. You know, it sounds like he's he's got some beer brittle old dudes. Um Yeah. So, anyways, okay, so it was Billy Graham and And so yeah, so just speaking more into the the the surrendering part of you know this hymn to me, it's just it's been a huge journey this past year. And I mean you have walked most of it with me. It's been difficult, you know, to to trust in him and and have that faith, you know. And where I'm at right now in it though is like I've said I've definitely settled into accepting that you know, a friend said to me, what if what if this was the purpose all along that you were supposed to be, we had talked about it before, like a street preacher, quote unquote, not standing on the corners, you know, claiming that you're going to hell if you don't follow Jesus, but you will. But strange coming in hell. Evangelizing. Yeah, so but that what what I was trying to get at is that what what if this was the purpose all along was to make connections, tell people about Jesus, pray for people. You know, I talked about Ubering and ministering in my car and stopping and praying for people that asked me to pray for them before they're getting out of the car or something. And and we all know I don't pray very well, so that's been a challenge. But you know, just things like that. What if that was all what if that was my purpose and that was all I was meant to do ever in this life was to make heaven crowded, you know? Then what a great purpose that is. What an amazing exactly. So that's what I'm trying to get at is teaching myself that telling myself that every day that you are walking in your purpose right now by bringing people to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01There is so much good in your journey right now, and in because first of all, I mean, are aren't you having fun?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, you get to you get to go meet friends for coffee or lunch or whatever. You get to come over here and record a podcast with me. You you kind of have the days to yourself and get to spend a lot of time with the Lord. Yes, you get to go and give people rides in Uber and meet new people and tell them about Jesus and be a blessing to them, even if it's just all you get to do is give them a ride somewhere and they don't want to hear about the Jesus part, but you're still a blessing to them because they're getting where they need to go and they appreciate that. And what's playing in my car?
SPEAKER_00Jesus music, yes, Russian music. So my car is decked out with prayer warrior on duty and duty, duty, duty, duty. So she did say duty. Um I give away the little mini Jesus's and and then the pious prodigal, I hand out my keys and things like that.
SPEAKER_01So I think you have a you have a pretty awesome gig. If this is what your calling is, I mean it's a pretty great calling.
SPEAKER_00But what does it not afford me?
SPEAKER_01What does it not give me? Things that you can't take with you when you die, anyway. Things. Do you need more things? I need the money. You need the money. You need the money. Are your bills paid?
Ministry In Everyday Life
SPEAKER_01Are you are you hungry? Are you starving? Do you have clothes? Yes. Unfortunately, another podcast. Another podcast. No, but are you do you have food? Yes. Okay. I you're doing you're doing so much better than so many people who don't have those things. Are you loved? Yes. Do you have friends? Yes. Do you have do you get hugs?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Do you know what more than being loved, though? I get to give love every day to like strangers. I mean, you're rich.
SPEAKER_01You're rich. You don't. I mean, money, the money stuff. Like, I know so many wealthy people that are just poor. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Poor in spirit. Absolutely. And you can buy all the things and you can live in a fancy house and drive a fancy car. It's all, it can all be gone tomorrow. It can all be gone today. Right. You know, none of that stuff is worth it. Look at all the things they had. Not one single person talks about at your funeral about your shoe collection or your purses or your, you know, how how much money you spent on your balayage hair and your extensions and all this stuff. It's nice to have that stuff. You know, it's it's there's conveniences, or it's it's fun to have toys, but you have so much more than that. And some people have all of those things, and they don't have a lot of the things that you have. And then there's some people that don't have either. Yeah. They have, they don't have God, they don't have food, they don't have homes. And like those are the people that we need to be reaching for sure.
SPEAKER_00You know, I've met those people too because I drive South Bend too a lot, and one of my missions is always to I have I carry in my car blessing bags. Yeah. It's just a gallon ziploc bag. Anyone can do it, but I put a bottle of water in there, I put a protein shake in there, I put granola bars, yada yada. I stick my prodigal key in there, the little New Testament, like Gideon Bible things, and usually like five or ten dollars, you know, in the bag. And I just hand them the bag as I drive by. So even in that sense, right, I try and give them a hope, not just because I gave them the water, the money, but that there's something about Jesus in that bag too, you know. And my prodigal Kia stick that in there.
SPEAKER_01And some of some of the unhoused individuals are in better shape than a lot of the wealthy ones.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I don't think many people look at it like that at all. You know, but they're not seeing the right things. Yeah. And somebody the other night said, What if, you know, well, because even my husband, his he'll look at me like, what are you, you know, giving someone on the side of the road, you know, reaching over and taking $20 out of my wallet and handing it out the window, and my husband looks at me like, What are you doing? You know, and but I always do it because if I have it, I don't know that person's story. And there's a song by I think it's by Alabama called What if What If She's an Angel? And the the the words are, What if she's an angel sent here from heaven? And like you walked by that person and didn't do anything, and here they were an angel sent from heaven to teach you something, maybe, and you just sort of walk by and and pass them up, you know.
SPEAKER_01And well, there's that Hebrews 13, 2, which says, Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. So, I mean, it's biblical, and you never know because God wants us to take care of people. I made my husband the other day a little more weary of giving money, he'll give money. He keeps cash on him for that. But I I like to give food and drinks and hugs because well, I think Aria and I were talking about this the other day on the way to the zoo with her friends like what is our biggest fears? And the kids were like, her best friend Mateo was like open ocean is his biggest fear.
SPEAKER_00I agree with that.
SPEAKER_01If anyone knows me knows I'm definitely afraid of the ocean, it's ocean's scary place. And then Arya's is semi-trucks, driving next to semi-trucks. Really? She does not like it at all. She doesn't do the no no elbow, you know, the arc. She wants them as far away from her as humanly possible. I don't know that about her. Yeah. So she's just nervous because she sees them swerve into like lanes, you know, which I'm sure they do. They're driving big trucks and whatever, and they're doing the best. But a lot of them are probably very tired too. But semi-trucks were hers, but I said she said, Mommy, what's yours? I said, being homeless. And she's like, she's like, why? I said, because so many people just act like they don't see them, like they're not there. And I can't imagine how horrible that feels to feel invisible and to not get hugs and be loved on. It's you know, food in the water, you know, there's there's shelters you can go to, there's food banks, and you know, and and people are generous in that way, but I I live on hugs. I really do. I need I need so many hugs a day to survive.
SPEAKER_00And I would be a couple people here. Yeah. Is that okay, you think? I don't see why not. It's not in a bad manner, but the Bowshaws, Sammy Joe Boshaw and Alan Boshaw, they run Yahweh Army. Yep. That's always giving coats and food and things to the homeless. They set up different things, look them up, they're amazing. Yahweh army. And the Petrovics, Dominique Petrovic and Mike Petrovic, are always involved in giving, again, coats, food to the home, you know, the really homeless focused or the needy.
SPEAKER_01You know. Yeah, the Good Grace Project. Okay. I go every Thanksgiving and Easter time to Michigan City with them, and we serve people. There's a hotel right off of uh 49, I mean 94. It's like right in the beginning of downtown by Franciscan Hospital.
Serving The Unhoused And Local Resources
SPEAKER_01There's a hotel right there that we set up, they what they set up tents with food and toiletries and clothes, and they feed people. We do that every Thanksgiving, and then they do like an Easter basket giveaway for the kids and stuff, and they have toys and stuff for the kids too, but they during the Thanksgiving one, but they do it also at Easter time, they do it back to school so that the kids that are staying in that hotel because a hotel is what for people that are unhoused. The hotel lets them stay there very inexpensive. And what is like the Good Grace Project? The Good Grace Project. Jessica and Jared Hayden started it. Okay. Um, there's different people running it now, but they still are very heavily involved. And then Beyond the Church Walls, they go to the nest, and I think one other shelter, but the Beyond the Church Walls ministry are also really big about going into um take care of the homeless.
SPEAKER_00And there's several can you probably plug people into those are just the top four off the top of my head. Yeah. Okay, so definitely look look into those people if you're interested in stuff like that. I know even Invelpo is hilltop too. I'm sure Dominique can give us people a full list. Absolutely. Dominique Petrovic, I'm telling you, if you look her up, any resources you need, if you are a person that needs a resource, please contact her because I I I swear to you, the girl's got resources for everything.
SPEAKER_01I've never met someone who volunteered for so many different ministries and was so I mean, she is the walking embodiment of being the hands and feet of Jesus. I am she's one of the people I'm the proud the most proud to know. Yes. And she's actually going to be a speaker at our Light the Way Women's Conference on March 14th. So excited for that. I'm so excited too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, go ahead and uh talk plug that for a minute. The women's conference.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00We had people asking who it is, and sorry, tickets are are sold out. Sold out, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Even our overflow, we ended up having, so we we sold 80 tickets and then we had 20 vol or 17 volunteers. And then so when I went to the building to go make sure, see how we could set it up, sorry, excuse me. We were able to fit 114 seats. So the people that were like, oh my gosh, I didn't get a ticket in time, because it sold out in less than six hours, which was wild. I reached out to them and I so I got them tickets first, and then after that, it's just been a conversation and just God kind of placing the right people in my path. And I've guessed so all I'm down, I have 113 tickets given out, so I have one ticket left. So I'm kind of just waiting to see who God puts in my path to go. But it is the whole conference is about empowering women to follow the calling that God has on their life, despite the lies of the enemy that tell them why they can't. So each woman that's speaking, there's five speakers. We have Norma S. Williams, we have Jenny Bolton, Dominique Petrovic, Beth Saraffin, and myself. And we are all kind of representing different types of women and different types of excuses that we have as to why we can't follow the calling that God's placed on our lives. Um you get to wear pajamas, which I'm so excited. Excited about. So some people have asked about that. They're like, why is it a pajamas? I think there's no makeup in the belt, right? No, no, no. We're actually encouraging them as soon as they take off, they get there to take their makeup off. We're gonna have makeup wipes on the table because of and put and hair ties and be like, go ahead and take your makeup off and put your hair up because this is not about being fancy. It's not about being seen. This is we're gonna get and do some. So the reason we did the pajamas in the first place was because we're going to be doing a lot of like deep emotional work, and I just wanted people to focus on that and not on what they looked like. And I was like, Well, I'm about to make these women really uncomfortable, so they should probably be dressed comfortably. And so I and I was like, Well, what's more comfortable than pajamas? So that was how the pajama thing got started, and then it just kind of leaned and we kind of leaned into that a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00And someone the other day said, Do I have to wear pajamas? And I said, No, you do not have to wear pajamas, but don't come dressed up. Yeah. Because there's going to be things going on.
SPEAKER_01T-shirt and joggers, whatever, whatever you're comfortable in, come in there. But I will tell you, I mean, the the setup is it's it's going to very much lean into the pajama party theme. So it would, I mean, I highly recommend pajamas. I'm excited for it. I'm excited to have some great worship leaders. We have a two ladies that are going to be singing and one's playing piano and two the and her and another girl are singing together. And then we have one young lady that's coming and she's dancing and she's doing flag worship. And then there's another woman who's coming and she's doing sign language too. So we're showing a couple different forms of worship. The Fearless Queens podcast hosts, Tina Martin and Sarah Kiros, are oh, she's married now. Soberg. Soberg. Thank you. Tina Martin. They are T and Tina Martin. They are gonna be our MCs for the day. So we're so I just think they're gonna do such a good job, and they have such such great positive energy, and there's such women of God. A lot of sisters and price a lot and a lot of foods and amazing volunteers and amazing volunteers.
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm very proud of you and how you've pulled it all together.
SPEAKER_01This is this is all Dion's, I mean, she spoke this over over light the way, and I told her she was crazy because we didn't do we didn't do any conferences, we just did the concerts. But it's been it's just I mean, God really had his hand all over it right from the beginning. We were we were given the building right away. I knew who my speakers were. I've never deterred from that. And some of them, I mean, myself and Dominique and even Beth, I'm Beth's done some public speaking engagements, but me and Dominique were pretty green, but I knew that we had something to say.
SPEAKER_00I don't think it's about always having, you know, your polished TED talk speakers. I don't think that it's necessarily about that all the time. That's great.
SPEAKER_01We'll have that too, because Jenny Bolton and Norma are powerhouse fans.
SPEAKER_00But I I went to a conference with some friends, and of course, we love the keynote speaker, and she was wonderful. And and then there were a couple ones that you know were you definitely could tell they were not seasoned, they had their stuff on paper reading it, and I didn't get anything less from that person. You know what I mean? So no, I think what you've done here is put together a nice group of different walks of life, absolutely, you know, with one common, with one thing in common, which is Jesus, Jesus. Yeah, and that's what's important.
SPEAKER_01And I think I I think one of the things I'm most excited about is that it's uh the conferences I've been to, I don't know if you're the same, because I've been to quite a few. It's a lot of listening and this is much more interactive. And I'm really excited about that aspect of it because you know, and also that they can eat whenever they want. Because I've been at conferences where you had to wait for lunchtime, and I was like, I did not make it to breakfast on the trying to rush here and also trying to make sure I look cute and you know, and put together so I
Women’s Conference: Vision And Details
SPEAKER_01could come, and you know, and so I wanted to make sure that they could they could do that whenever they whenever they want. Yeah, absolutely. Or grown adult see what you want. But yeah, I'm super excited about that. Anyway, I'm I know again we swirled off from our talking about our hymns. So I want to ask you a question about surrendering, because I don't know that I've surrendered. What does that look like? Like actually, like that particular day, or I mean, what is I guess? No, that that particular day when you were finally like, I've that's it. I've had enough. What was like the breaking point that got you there? And then what does that look like? So if somebody's like, maybe that's what I need to do, is finally just surrender. Like, what is that? How do I do that?
SPEAKER_00I think probably anyone can choose to surrender, you know what I mean? To really choose to fully do that and take it to God and have that conversation with him. For me, it was in a moment of breaking, though. I had spent two nights in the hospital over New Year's, New Year's Eve and into New Year's Day. And then when I got home from the hospital, like I said, this was over a year ago, January. I woke up the morning that I had finally been home the first day. And I think in my situation, I was in gross physical pain. I was at a point of mental breakdown. I don't want to say my marriage was struggling because our marriage really has never been in a struggle necessarily, but we were not, you know, we were not probably not as close as we are now. Financially, we were sinking. I am a spender and had spent, we had just passed, you know, Christmas and da-da-da. And uh, you know, I had spent too much at Christmas, you know, because all the things were weighing on me. And I woke up that morning and I walked out into the living room, and my husband was having coffee. And normally I would go make my coffee and come sit down, and I didn't. I just went directly and sat down, and he was like, What's going on? How come you're not getting coffee? And I was just sat there for a minute and I just busted. I just started sobbing. And I think he thought I was having a nervous breakdown. I he said, Do you need to go back to the hospital? I didn't know if he thought I was in pain, whatever. He wasn't sure, but I was just sobbing, sobbing, sobbing, sobbing. And I just excuse me. The Lord helped me. I'm joking. Anyways, not to get too lengthy, I was just I was broken. That's all I can say. I was broken. I was completely broken that morning. And in that brokenness, I just started begging God to help me and that I cannot take it anymore. I can't take the pain. I can't take the physical pain. I can't take the mental pain. I, you know, we're sinking in life. I just, I can't everything. I just I can't do this anymore. I didn't want to go forward in anything. I was just absolutely broken in that moment. And I said to my husband, I I give it all to God. I'm giving it all to God. I'm giving him everything. I cannot carry all this anymore. And, you know, he was like, Do you need me to call the pastor? You know, like then he think I think he realized what was happening. And from the tips of my toes to the top of my head, I felt a tingling sensation. And literally, it was like, you know, it was crying. The I I couldn't breathe, and literally it was and and I say, breathe in, yeah, breathe out, way, ya way, as you breathe. And it was literally a breathing in of Christ, the Holy Spirit, breathing it out. And in that moment, I was not hurting. My stomach was not hurting, which was what I was in the hospital for. They had said I had colitis. Some know that I had been diagnosed previously with stage three liver fibrosis, which is one tick under cirrhotic of the liver cirrhosis of the liver. I just was a mess. And in that instant, my pain was gone. My my pain I deal with every day, body pain from autoimmune disorders, my neck, my back, my spine. I I just was not feeling anything in that moment. I felt weightless. I just felt something came over me, and all that stuff was gone. And I can't I don't I can't I can't explain it to someone because I've had the Holy Spirit come over me twice in my life. Once in a prayer circle, it happened, and my knees buckled and I got the one when you're mad. When I had yeah, my my knees buckled, and I some warm feeling came over me, and which now I know was the Holy Spirit, and this time in my living room. So when you say your original question was, How did that happen? For me, it was in breaking moments. So for someone else, it might just who's listening right now, they might feel like I need that, I want that, then take it to take it to Jesus, you know. That's a song. Take it to Jesus, it's really good. It is, anyways, you know, but seriously, take it to God, take it to Jesus. You might have that breaking moment, you know. If you have a war, war room or war closet, prayer closet, whatever you got, take it there, you know. And what I did find out though, that I wasn't expecting was the daily surrender after that. So now I've given it over to him. I've given him all of it. Take it. I I quit my job, I did everything he was asking me to. To do. I released everything. Gave him control of our finances, just all that stuff. I told you that I had the liver, the stage three liver fibrosis. I went two weeks after that surrender in my living room. I went two weeks later to have a new scan done on my liver just to check things out. The stage three liver fibrosis was gone. And it was back to fatty liver. So why? You know, why is good? Because God is good all the time. And you know, I've had people say, Well, you know, I I've never experienced that. And why does so-and-so have to struggle with cancer? And why I don't, I don't know. I don't know the answer. Yeah. We live in a fallen world, unfortunately, full of evil and grief and sickness. And yeah, you know, and it's so hard to describe to non-believers. I just wish I I wish I had all the right words because I don't. Yeah. But even those that follow Christ and want to know more about surrender, surely reach out to me. I can tell you the bigger story behind it and things like that. But ultimately, it's just it it's a breaking. It is a breaking of your control over everything. Yeah. Which is hard for me because I am a controlling person. And that was the most difficult part. But within that breaking, something beautiful, I think, is coming out of it, you know. And I felt him calling me to ministry, not in a way of like pastoral ministry or anything, because I believe everyone can, everyone can be in ministry. Anyone can be in ministry. Absolutely. You know, I don't care. I don't care how many certificates you have. I don't care what licenses you have. I don't care your PhD. I don't care your WXYZ after your name. You know, I don't care what doctorate you have. I I honestly don't, I don't care what coaching certificate you have, I don't care who you think you are. I am nobody. I am an absolute nobody in this world. But I believe, I believe myself to have what I need, what God needs to lead people to the feet of Jesus, to lead people to Christ, to love them, to love like Jesus. And that's what I believe He's calling me to. Now, I I talked about taking like the Christian counseling classes and things like that. I was never certified, never licensed. People go, why weren't you? Because you could get a job, blah, blah, blah. I don't I don't want that job then. I don't want a job that's going to require all these things. Because I believe through the Bible, love, prayer, and Jesus we can help one another. So if you have a job for me out there, that's all you require that I'm I'm open, then I'm looking for a job. Yes. So he does know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Weirdest job application. Oh my gosh, you know, right.
SPEAKER_00I said I throw out things and I'm like, what am I supposed to put? Because I love people and I love God,
What Surrender Looks Like
SPEAKER_00and I just want to help people to love themselves better, you know, because I've struggled with that as well with my mental health and stuff.
SPEAKER_01So when he is ready for you to do something other than what you're doing, he will put that in front of you.
SPEAKER_00And I know that I believe that's true. I do believe that. Now I do believe that. I live that. So there was a little uh I found a couple scriptures too on surrendering. So James 4 7, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Romans 12, 2, that I really love. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So there's many more, but there's two. Those are good ones. Always look up. I always just look up. You can go to this page two called gotquestions.org. And it's really great for Bible questions or looking for scripture. There's many apps out there. I'm just saying, got questions, though, is a good one to go for questions too that you have. It's it's good. But we all know that the best answers are in the Bible. The Bible. Always take it to scripture in the Bible, open up a Bible. Right.
SPEAKER_01But it's hard to find where things are sometimes about like where to find exactly what you're looking for because the Bible's 66 books. And if you don't know your way around it, how do you know where to go?
SPEAKER_00And I always say I don't know the address, but I can, you know, give you directions and turn on the GPS and we can find it. Yeah, I mean, so always take it to the Bible, though.
SPEAKER_01So well, thank you so much for sharing about that hymn. I will definitely be looking up the Shane and Shane version of that.
SPEAKER_00It's beautiful. Oh no, you know what? No, that was Sayla. Sayla does I Surrender All. So, what was the Shane and Shane? It's a different song. I'm sorry, I was reading something different here. They might do it too, though, because they are a worship group. You know what I mean? They do a lot of old hymns as well.
SPEAKER_01We might find a whole different version that we're like, oh, this is actually.
SPEAKER_00You know, I have them written down for a different song, but I surrender all by Sayla. You can look up I Surrender All by many people, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01Well, maybe we'll share that one on our Facebook page later. Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you. I appreciate you. Closing prayer. Am I on the closing prayer duty? She puts the opening on me. Oh. All right. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for today, for this conversation. What a blessing. Thank you for for taking us on this journey today. And we discussed so many great topics, Lord. And then it just, if it didn't bless anybody, it definitely blessed me. So maybe I would just be the one that was blessed through this today. It's always healing to get to spend time in your presence with your people. God protect us as we close out our day and bless all of the people listening and let them know that you love them so, so much. And that if they need to find you, all they have to do is seek you in your word and you'll be with them. We thank you. We love you. And we say all these things in your precious and awesome name. Amen.
SPEAKER_00Amen. I'm Dion. And I'm Lena. And we are the leader in the light.
SPEAKER_01We got together that time.
SPEAKER_00Bye. Be good.