Having Faith: Andie Jamerson’s Journey with Jesus

This week’s episode is a special one because it is our first podcast recorded on video! Make sure to check it out on YouTube.

We are joined by Andie Jamerson as she shares her powerful journey with Jesus, from growing up as a little girl with faith to walking with Him through many different seasons of life. Andie opens up about her time in the military during the war in the 2000s, being deployed to Germany, attending flight attendant school, and the path that eventually led her to finding and helping build the foundation of Redeemer Church.

Joined by co-host Maddison Sharp and Gia, this episode is full of testimony, faith, growth, and encouragement. It is a beautiful reminder of how God can use every season of our lives for a greater purpose.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, Robert the Realist back today with another podcast, and we have a special guest with us. We have a couple special guests, but one of them's off video and she's preoccupied. But uh we have a co-host, uh Madison. Hello. And then we have the marketing guru, Jajia. Hello. And then as you guys know, here lately we've been fortunate enough to have uh people come on here and talk about their testimonies, and we've gotten testimonies from testimonies about people changing their lives by listening to the podcast one at a time. That's what I do everything for, is one at a time. So I've got my great friend Andy Jamerson here today, and I know that she's had a I think I call it a wild life, but I don't know if that's if that's you know, we could go really good or bad with that. But just just a good life. And I I think it's important for people all all walks of life to to be on here if we can get them male, female, older, younger, you know, that away you kind of connect with probably a different person than I would, a different person than Madison or Gia or anybody like that. So I know that she's been she's been around, she's been in the military, she's been traveled with her family, and so I wanted to get to know a little bit about her. So I think we'll start with when Andy Got Baptized.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Okay. So When Andy Got Baptized is like the title of a segment that's kind of really long, right? There's three different parts of it.

SPEAKER_04 1:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Uh so my dad was Lutheran, right? So um so my dad is from Wisconsin and my mom is from Georgia. So if I say words weird one way or another, it's because I grew up with two very strong, very different accents in my okay, but I digress. So my dad was Lutheran, right? And so I was born in Germany. Um, and when I was born, um, I was sprinkled, right, as a baby, like they do. And then we lived in Hawaii for a couple of years. My dad was military. So when we were there, um way back in the 1900s, um, they did not all right, kids, I'm talking to you. They didn't have apps on the TV, right? Where you could just remote, like you could choose anything that you want to watch right now. It's they didn't have that. They didn't even have remotes. You had to like turn this little dial on this big box.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

I had to get up and turn it.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Um, that's right. We were the remote. And there were no shows for kids on TV unless it was Saturday morning. So we listened to the radio. Like I'm real old now. We listened to the radio, and I remember there was this show on the radio. It was a kids' show, and so it was a guy who would like read, you know, Bible stories or different things for little kids. It was a Christian kids' show, and he was talking one day about how great it is to have Jesus in your life and in your heart. And so he kind of he led through the, you know, the the steps of of accepting Jesus Christ into your heart, but then also what that means. Because you can say it all day long, but if you don't live it, right, you know, so he kind of went through like what that means for a kid, and I was like, Yeah, I'm I'm all about this. And so I prayed with him on this radio show and then talked to my mom about it. And it was a it was a great thing. I was like four, and then we moved back to Wisconsin from Hawaii, which if you've ever moved from Hawaii to Wisconsin, it's it was brutal.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

It doesn't even make sense, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Like, why would you do that? Thanks, Army. But um, so we got back to Wisconsin and I was I was baptized in Wisconsin. I was about six or seven, right? Six or seven. And then uh a few years later we moved to Georgia. Um, and then from there we moved to the Panama Canal zone. And so I was like an early teenager in my formative years living in the Panama Canal zone, and I was a part of this really great youth group there. And we went on a trip one summer. We got on this big boat. So, and when I say big boat, like you don't send little boats through the Panama Canal, right? Like it's a big boat. It was actually called Logos, and so what it was was like this library boat, like a Christian library boat, and it would travel the world and it had like Bibles and other Christian literature in different languages, and so we kind of hitched a ride on this logos boat to an island out somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Um, and that's where this youth camp was. We spent a couple of days there, like, you know, singing and praying and praising, and it's like that had been my whole life up to this point already, but it became real like this is actually like mine, right? This isn't my parents at church, and I I catch some of it, right? And this isn't uh the adults are talking and the kids are just there. This was like for the teenagers, and it made it real, like in my life. And I was like, man, like I've lived this way, and now I want to show like my friends like this change in my life. Like I'm really gonna grasp onto this and not only live this way, but share it with other people. And so I was baptized then as a 13-year-old in the Panama Canal zone, somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

That is pretty cool. I don't know anybody that's ever said that before that they got baptized in the Panama Canal. So let's let's go from there. So now we're baptized and we're in the Panama Canal zone. Right, right. What's the next big step or journey in your life after that that you can remember? Because I know it's it's been a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

It's been a couple of years, yeah. I mean, I was 13, it was still the 1900s. I'm a little ancient. So a few years later, we moved to Arizona. We were there for a little bit, and we moved to Georgia again and then back to Arizona. And so it was my senior year.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

That was all military.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

All military, yeah. My dad was army. So he retired my senior year in Arizona. So I graduated high school. We didn't move anywhere.

SPEAKER_04 5:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Like we had moved almost every summer. It was weird. It was so weird. Like I had been in 13 different schools by the time I graduated.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Oh my.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

So then when it's like, what do you mean we're not moving?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Yeah, what do I do? It's time.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Yeah. So I actually went to Hawaii again that summer. I had a cousin that still lived there. Um, so okay, I'm gonna back up a little bit. When I was there as a four, five, six-year-old, my cousin graduated high school and she came to visit us as her graduation present. She never left. She met a boy, she moved to Hawaii, and she was still there when I graduated high school. So, as a gift, my parents sent me to Hawaii. Um, that was my grad gift, and I stayed with her for a couple of months. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Yeah. And so then um, you know, my trip to Hawaii is over. I come back to Arizona, still there. Like, where do I go now? What am I gonna do? Yeah, all my friends are going off to college, and I don't know, at college was like, okay, cool, but like it wasn't an adventure, right? And so I this is not a part of my life that a whole lot of people know. So brace yourselves. I decided that I wanted to be a flight attendant, yeah, yeah. And I went to flight attendant school in Phoenix.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Oh, wow. Didn't know that, wasn't it? Right. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

So I get there and you know, they have like their their training and all the things, right? And and they only accepted like 12 people out of this class of like 200. Wow. And they accepted me. But then to go on to the next level of flight attendant school, I had to wait until January. And this was August. No, this was July. This was July. I did not want to wait until January. I'm like, what am I gonna do until then? So I'm not good at being still. Oh no, and so then I got home and an army recruiter had left a message on my answering machine because again, 1900s. Um yeah, and I'm like, ooh, there's a message, right? And so it was the army recruiter, and he was like, Hey, based on your scores, we could, you know, send you to the bikini atoll, which is this little tiny island outside of Hawaii.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

The what?

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Uh-huh. The bikini atoll. Bikini.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Okay, I thought you just cussed here.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Yeah, I know. I didn't say bad words. So I'm like, yeah, cool, because I was gonna be a broadcast journalist. I'm like, that sounds awesome. Let's do this.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

So you went from flight attendant to broadcast journalism.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

It gets the on a tiny island. On a tiny island. And it was gonna be so awesome. Yeah. But I was gonna have to be there for two years. And I'm like, I don't know if I can commit like two years, right? Literally thinking about it. Right. And so then I was like, what if I just joined the reserves instead of full-time army? He's like, Well, we could get you into medical school, right? Based on your test scores, whatever. We'll send you to San Antonio year and a half. I'm like, done. When can I leave? Wow. So then I decided to go to basically med school or pre-med, right? Like it was 91 Bravo at the time, which probably doesn't even exist anymore, but it was field medic. So I went to basic training in Leonardwood. I went down to San Antonio. I um took all the classes to be a field medic, carried my little nine millimeter, like all the things, right? And then from there went on to lab tech school. So that was through the George Washington University. So it's like laboratory science, laboratory technology, all of those things. Right. And so that's what I did. And so I I was in the reserves, but I was still active duty for like two years just for school. So from there I went to Fort Benning, and then my active duty time was over and came back to or came down Mowberly.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

So back to flight attendant school. I know that there's your story's greater than the flight attendant school, but I just had a question when it came in. It's like, so what happens at flight attendant school?

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Yeah, that isn't it. So you know, I kind of had to wait until January, I think. So what did you do?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Oh, so you didn't you I thought you went to like level one flight attendant?

SPEAKER_02 9:22

So yeah, it was like basically the testing and the the personality exams and the the stress tests. Like, can you handle being on a flight? Like all of those types of things, like the preliminary, like you have to pass these to even be considered for this school.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Oh, so you didn't get to like get on the airplane, practice unruly passengers, no, carrying drinks, handing stuff. Not I mean, I wouldn't want to do their job. I just didn't know what flight attendant school would look like.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

She's a fast-paced woman. Right, right. I wanted to see the world. Yeah. And I figured how like what other way to do that besides like be on an airplane, right? Like go to different spots. But it's true.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

I mean, I see them and I envy it, and I'm like, it's cool, you're going here and then you're going here, but then I like you gotta deal with that guy, and you gotta deal with that guy.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

Yeah, they don't like their jobs either, but that's just not until you're older and have been in it for like 20 plus years, and then you literally have the choice to pick any flight you want and go anywhere you want for any extended time you want, and you just work the flight there, but then you can have a full-on vacation and work the flight back for free.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Well, also went off the rails a little bit right there.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Still still 1900s.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Still 1900s, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

So there was no 9-11.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

There were no rules in place for anything.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

It was probably still smoking.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Yeah, you just got on a plate and you went wherever you wanted to. Like you gave the lady some money and you it was a luxury, yeah. It was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yeah. So you're in Moberly. What part of your life next happens in Moberly that we went to?

SPEAKER_02 11:01

So I was married and I had Tristan, my oldest, who is going to be 27 next year.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Great guy.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

It's crazy. He is a great guy.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

He is a great guy. Yeah, he's a good dude. Yeah, and I'm I like him a lot. I have one that's 31. So yeah, I'd keep him if I were you. Oh, for sure. Yeah, I've tried to return mine, it doesn't work. So pretty sure my parents have too. No refunds.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Great, great kid, though. Great kid. Yeah. All your kids are.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

I agree. So I worked at Mowerley Hospital, you know, lab tech, all that fun stuff.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Did they let you carry your nine millimeter? They did not. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

I mean, I don't think they would have noticed, but but I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Because we're still in the 1900s. We're still in the 1900s together.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Right, right. I mean, you could you could do all the things. Nobody cared.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Nobody cared.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Um, so yeah, this was 1999. I had Tristan. A couple years later, I had Emma. And then man, I don't know. I decided to stay home for a while. And then so what year would that have been? Oh three. Right. Yeah. There you go. Oh, here we go. The global war on terror started in 03. The G blocked. Right. So it was um Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom and all the things. And there were big deployments again. And by that time, I was almost out of the military. I still went, you know, one week in a month. I was in the reserves. It was all good. And then when you're done with your six years, you transfer into what they call the IRR. So you're in the individual ready reserves. You don't really do anything. It's just in case they need you for a couple more years. You're on call basically, but you don't have to do anything. Well, I got caught up in that stop loss. They didn't let anybody go into the IRR because there was a war going on, and I got deployed. So my my husband at the time, he was also deployed. And we had two really small kids. And so they went to stay with my parents in Arizona, and we went to war. And so in 03, I've got uh, you know, Emma was almost two, Tristan was almost four, missed both of their birthdays, Mother's Day, my birthday, like all the all of the kind of big things, okay, but still not quite 1900s, but early 2000s. No cell phones, no, no, no, FaceTime, no computers, barely email, right? So, like I I I was in Germany. Um, so I was actually deployed what they call downrange. I was supposed to go to Iraq. Germany is the stop-off spot, that's where the big hospital is. And so got to Germany and they were like, actually, we don't need you to go down to Iraq. We're sending this whole hospital unit together. We need you to backfill this hospital unit. So I stayed in Germany the whole time. And I was kind of in charge of the phlebotomy room in the laboratory. And so I'm just, you know, I'm an E5, I'm young mom, like I was 24. I'm like away from my kids, and it was just like, oh, thank you, Jamie. Yeah, yeah. I'd do it again if I could. Yeah. But the only way to keep in contact with them was to, you know, make phone calls. And for them to be awake in the middle of the day, I had to wait until about 12:30, one o'clock in the morning, find the little payphone in the hallway where there's a line of soldiers because the time difference, we're all trying to call home to our kids while they are awake. And so every couple of days I would be able to get on the phone and talk to them a little bit. And so they they heard my voice, but they didn't see my face like the whole time I was gone. And so my mom was real great about sending mail. She would take pictures and you know, take them on her camera, take them to the store, take the film in, get them developed, uh, you know, and she would mail them. So it I would get like these pictures in the mail of the kids doing all this fun stuff, right? And so that was awesome. But then when when soldiers who were actually downrange in the war, when they would be injured, they would get on their the helicopters, right? They would load them up on the litters in the helicopters and they would come to the hospital that I worked at. So it was Londstuhl Medical Center in Germany, and that is the only point. So from downrange, they have to fly there to be stabilized to then come over to the United States to go to DC and Walter Reed Medical Center. You can't go directly from um the Middle East to the United States. Like you have to stop off there. That is such a long trip. I don't, I don't know, I don't know gas logistics, right? I don't know fuel and planes. I don't know if they could have made that that far, but I know that the patients most likely could not. So they would stop in Germany and be treated, if possible, good enough to at least make it to the United States and then be flown over. And so when you were on litter duty, which you had to do once a week, you were pulling soldiers off of these helicopters. And most of them were pretty badly wounded if they had had made it there in the first place. Um and a lot of them did not make the flight. So we were carrying body bags off of the helicopters, but also soldiers who you just needed to get into the hospital. So that that as a 24-year-old is is a lot, right? And now I like I've lived I've lived twice that life now, right? Like that that was more than half my lifetime ago, which is crazy. And it's it it feels like a whole different life. It was a whole different lifetime ago. But if I didn't have if I didn't have Jesus and if I didn't have the peace of God in my life in that time, oh my goodness. There's no way even now that I would be able to process that trauma. Right. So I'm a I'm away from home, I'm away from my kids, I'm seeing this trauma day in, day out, like all of these things. But I don't know how people do that without Jesus. I I couldn't ever imagine.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

That was my question because it kind of gave me it made me anxious listening to you talk about 24, you know, no, no FaceTime, no kids. Or then just to top it off, you had to be in the part of the litter, is that what you call it, or the you know, the soldiers and the wounded and the dead and at 24.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

It's crazy. Yeah, that to me is like okay, so now we see retired military kids, mid-20s, that come back are just lost like from that type of stuff that can't handle it. So, you know, you brought up Jesus, because that was gonna be my next question, is you know, you're still a believer, obviously, probably more there is a way, you know, to lean on him during that. Do you think that if Jesus was more present in people's lives in the military, that they would maybe come out and be I don't want to say like better, but I know, man, they just really mess with trauma and less trauma, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

For sure.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Would they really have something would their could their life be different if that was based on Jesus?

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Military chaplains have got their job cut out for them for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I thank you for your service for sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Well, absolutely. Proud to do it.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

But that's uh Yeah, that I tell people all the time I I didn't serve in the military. I'm not man or woman enough to do it.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

I couldn't when you were like, we just both went to war, I was like, oh my goodness.

unknown 18:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Well, and so my brother was deployed at the same time. So goodness. My mom had to have a flag specially ordered. You know, they do the flags as the white flags with the star on it when you have children deployed, or when you have a spouse deployed, or something like that. And my mom had to special order one with three stars on it.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Wow. How'd how'd how'd mom do during this?

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Oh man, because I look back now and I'm like, my mom would have been about the age I am now, a little bit younger, right? Like taking on a one-year-old and a three-year-old while two of her kids are at war, right? Like, what a strong mom is the hero, right? Like for sure. My parents are the heroes big time.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

That's for real. Yeah. I wouldn't even I'd have to be like kicking and screaming to get me to go to war.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

I've always been in church, and I was like, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Good job, mom and dad. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, they're my heroes for sure.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

That's pretty wild. So we've been baptized, the Panama Canal. We've we've moved around, we've we've wanted to be a flight attendant, ended up in in military, went to the hospital, went to Germany, should have gone to So do you think if you went do you call it downrange? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

If you went downrange, would you have been on on the front line or would you have been medicy medical?

SPEAKER_02 19:40

No, I would have been back in a medical tent somewhere. I wouldn't have seen any kind of combat.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

I mean, unless they brought it to us, right? I wouldn't have gone out to see combat.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

You signed up for it, and that's a lot. That's yeah. That's yeah, it's still to me it's we're still early 2000s at this point.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Like girls are not on the front line. Yeah. That's why.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

Yeah, that was not a thing at this point.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yeah. That's crazy. All right, so we're we get through that. Right? Obviously, we're s we survived that. We make it back home.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

The worst part, I'm gonna tell you, the worst part of the the whole deployment was when I came back home going to my parents' house to pick up the kids. They didn't know we were coming.

SPEAKER_04 20:19

It was a big surprise, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:21

Like, ring the doorbell, the door opens, and there's Emma at two years old, and she just looks up at me, like, okay, somebody's at the door. She went, like, walked back in, and I was like, like she did not know who I was, she didn't recognize me. And so I like I got down on my knees and I was like, Emma, like it's mommy, and she recognized my voice because we had like called home so much, yeah, but she didn't know my face anymore. And so then she was just you know, and big hugs, and she didn't leave my side for you know the next 30 years. But um it's that one moment you're like darn it. Yeah, no, I love my girl. But uh yeah, so that that heartbreak right there, I was like, okay, nope, I'm out. I had I stayed in, okay, this I'm really old. Had I stayed in, I would have retired 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

I don't like when you say you're really old because we're the same age.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

A little bit younger, right? I got you by like a couple months.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

That's what I do with my wife. I got her by a month in that month.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Living it up, that month, that month.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Really? 49?

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Like that map don't match. I'm not that.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

48. Yeah. 47.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Mindy doesn't look a day over 20. Okay. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Yeah, it is true.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Yeah, so uh at that point, like I went ahead and like got out. But yeah, yeah that was it. That was it. That was it.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

So you can fast forward as far as you want, but Jesus is still part of your life, and I know that today that you're you know, you have your nonprofit, which is Christian based. For the most part, right? And then you're helped or helping kick off Redeemer Church and be a part of that, right? And part of the school Citadel. And so all those things have to do with Jesus and which is super cool. I I I love that you guys are doing that. Where talk about Redeemer. Let's talk about Redeemer. Like when you were part of Redeemer, how did that come about?

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Okay. So you ready for this? Alright, I'm ready. So there was a lot of life that happened between, you know, 2003 and let's say 2017. That was when uh Redeemer Church became a thing, was in 2017. I was attending forum in Columbia, um, Ben and I. So we had uh we had Gracie by then, and I was pregnant with Finlay. And so uh Gracie was like a year and a half ish, and I was getting ready to have Finley, and we couldn't really get plugged in. Driving to Columbia, you know, Ben was working in Hannibal at the time, so he's driving one way. I'm trying to stay home with a brand new baby, I'm pregnant with another baby, like I'm and almost 40, right? Like right, like life started over. It was really hard to be connected in in the community in Colombia with the church that we attended. And so then I saw, you know, on the billboard that they were having like this new church was starting. And I was talking to a friend of mine, and um she was like, Yeah, have you guys ever decided or thought about trying out the Redeemer Church, that new church? There's a lot of people from other area churches that have started going there, and I was like, Well, we we looked at it, we just haven't had a chance. I wasn't feeling great. I was right at the end of my pregnancy, it was hot. This was like July, August-ish, right? So we hadn't really done much, but I decided, okay, I'm gonna reach out to a friend of mine who I know goes to Redeemer Church. She was part of the core team, started the church, all this stuff. I texted her, I'm like, hey, Lynn's, tell me about Redeemer Church. So she's like, Oh, it's great, you're gonna love it. We're actually starting to meet at the Fourth Street Theater instead of the auditorium. Like, come check us out. And I was like, you know what? We'll we're gonna do that. We're gonna go to church on Sunday. Thursday, she calls me back and she's like, Hey, I know this is kind of short notice, and I know you don't actually go to Redeemer Church yet, but we are providing the uh bereavement dinner for a gentleman who recently passed away. And uh, we need more people to bring some food, so we're gonna do this at First Baptist, but we need people to bring food. Can you bring like six pies? I'm like, Yeah, I can totally do six pies right now, right? And so uh I I told Ben, I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna make all these pies for this dinner for church. He's like, What church? I'm like, the church we're gonna start going to. So we hadn't even gone there yet, right? But I knew that a lot of my friends did, and so we got all these pies made, all these different desserts, showed up on Saturday, and several other people that I knew were like bringing stuff in. So Heather Gehrig, right? She's like got all these like containers of food and she's bringing them in to a different church. Like it was at first, no, yeah, it was at first Baptist. So she's bringing food in. I was like, Oh, hey, do you go to Redeemer? She's like, No, do you? I was like, not yet.

unknown 24:59

This is my first time.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

Right. So Lindsay had kind of you know put the call out, like, hey, I need you guys, you're my people, whether you go to the same church or not, right? Like, yeah, we were all part of the church, right? And so we're all in it together. Yeah. And so I'm pretty sure that they um like Heather's family was going to the crossing at the time. We had been going to forum. Lindsay had been on the team that started Redeemer. We were meeting at First Baptist, right? But it's like, it's God's people, right? We're the church. And so we just all kind of all kind of met together and did the thing because it was the thing that needed to be done, right? You just you do the next right thing, get all frozen on you, like just do the next right thing. And so after that, Saturday, right? Like we decided, okay, let's check it out on Sunday. So we checked it out Sunday. We have hardly missed a Sunday since. Like it was incredible. And I met Gina, the pastor's wife that day, but I did not meet Pastor Cole. The next week, still didn't meet Cole. The next week, went into labor. So we had been there for a couple of weeks. Maybe it wasn't the third week, it was a couple weeks later, right? We've been there for a little bit. And uh so I knew a lot of the people, but I had not met the pastor yet. And so Emma is a senior in high school by this point. Gracie is not quite two, she's one and a half, and so Emma stayed home with Gracie while Ben and I went to the hospital to have family. We're there, family's born, all the things. Ben leaves the hospital to go check on the girls at home, right? And so I'm there, it's just me and Finn, all good. And then there's a knock on the door, and this big dude comes in and he's got his phone, and he's looking at the phone and he's looking at me. It was Cole. He had me, he had looked at my Facebook profile because we had never met. He's like, I want to make sure I'm in the right room. So he's trying to find out what I look like, right? So he's checking Facebook to see what I look like, to make sure he's in the right spot. So that was when I met Cole. And you know, he and his wife, their family, they're they're some of our best friends now, and it's fantastic. But um he uh he prayed for Finlay that day, and last week Finley was baptized at church. Yes, and so Cole was there again, and it was just so neat to see, you know, like this this is the man who was who was present like af right after you were born, right? He prayed for you right after you were born. And now it's because of this church, because they were obedient, and because we listened to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and you know, we've got our girls in church and our older kids are in church, and they're hearing the truth all of the time. He was there to witness her being, you know, born again. And so it's just awesome. So cool, so awesome. And the children's pastors there, Mike and Mandy, they are they're amazing. They they are amazing. They're amazing. Yes, I I love them so much, and they are such a big part of our girls' lives as well. Um, and so to have them there, it was just it was so special. And I know I I went off on who knows what, but uh I I really love I love the church and it's where God has called me and my family. Amen. But it's not the only church, right? Like um, I love that there are so many different churches represented by so many great Christian people in our community.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

Um especially around this area. I feel like they the churches around this area are so quick to work together. I love it, and like the communities of the church are so quick to work together. Like, yeah, Pastor Vic, whenever I worked at Family Life Fellowship, he would consistently be in contact with the other pastors around the area, just trying to figure out what they could do, like how they could help X, Y, and Z, like amazing, amazing communities, right?

SPEAKER_02 28:40

There's no reason for churches to be in competition, right? Like exactly fill in the gaps. How can we help each other out? What can we do to make this better? How can we support you? How can you support us? We all have to be able to do that. Because we're reaching, yeah, we're reaching the people for Jesus, not for X, Y, Z church. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Yeah, so it's a vertical relationship.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

Yeah, yeah. And I love that that I mean, we can all sit in the same room not going to the same church, and still like we serve the same Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

We need to do like a one big worship thing one day. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

That'd be so fun. Yeah, it would.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Yeah, because if you've if you've heard the statistics of people that don't go to church in this town, in this community, even with one on every corner, yes. With one on every corner with great pastors in all of them, is pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

You don't have to be scared to just pick one, just go to some and see what you have.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Yeah, Pastor Cole is a rock star. I like Pastor Cole. And I sit up front. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

So there's always chairs by me. And you sit up front, I'm sure there's always empty chairs, right? I got a spot.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

I'm a front row church. I'm in the very back right corner of I wasn't always though. Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Yeah. No, that's that's yeah, redeeming.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Pick a church and come sit by one of us because we're all there. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Yeah, there's so many different good churches. We all serve the same purpose and the same Jesus, and that's Amen.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

We're all gonna be in the same place one day. Right, so might as well start now.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

And that's what's that's kind of what brought us even to today is that you know, here I wanted to hear your story. I wanted to hear I didn't know you and Jesus went back that far. Me neither.

SPEAKER_04 30:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Pretty impressive. Six seven. Six seven. Yeah, we've gotta bring the two thousands, you know. We've been in the 1900s.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Right, right, right. Right. We've got to bring it current water, and also what an amazing like stepping stone for these youth that are coming through with foster youth and stuff. Like, what an amazing stepping stone to come meet little Miss Andy Jameson. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Yeah. You might be the seed.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

You might be the seed that's planted. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

I'm down with that. Have you felt that seed being planted? Have you seen it sprout? Have you sure you have? I've treated out great stories about that.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's so many. And a lot of them I can't share because they're not my stories to share, right? Like talking about other people is very easy, but talking about other people with a dignity and sharing their stories from their point of view is impossible.

SPEAKER_04 31:01

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

And so um, especially when foster care is involved, right? I don't want to share their stories. I will definitely share the success stories of Faith Bridge, right? And like how we, you know, we've reached, my goodness, in the the past year since being open in our new location, in 2025, we served over 2,600 children.

unknown 31:21

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

That's it's awesome, but it's also like heartbreaking, right? Like there are that many kids. That doesn't matter. Um if Faith Bridge goes away, that number doesn't change, right? There's still that many kids in foster care or in kinship care or in in the state's care, you know, in different homes or whatever, those kids are still gonna be there. And so I think it's it's our job, it's our it's our calling to reach them where we can. So, you know, God or Jesus himself says, you know, the widows and orphans, like that's just closest to my heart. That's who I need you to reach. I need you to reach out to the widows and orphans. And yeah, they most of them have parents, but they are situational orphans, they don't have their mom and their dad right now taking care of them. Right.

SPEAKER_04 32:06

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

And so we're called to step up and do that.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

That just clicked in my brain, though. That part you sorry, you just explained that to me. Sorry. No, that's awesome. That's awesome. The the not having a parent thing that just clicked.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

I don't know why, but yeah. Yeah, well, and a lot of people get tripped up. They're like, well, they're not orphans, they have parents. They do.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

Right. But they cannot care for them in the way that they should right now. And so there's a difference.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

There is, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

So they are situationally orphaned for the moment, right? And so we are called to step in and take care of them, whatever that looks like. It's powerful. Um yeah, yeah. And so and that's part of why we're called Faith Bridge, right? Like we want to be the bridge, you know, the that facilitates what people have and the people who need and and get those things, right? Like we we bridge that I have this, I need this, right? Let's make that happen. But also we want to bridge people's faith, right? Like, if God is calling you to reach widows and orphans, that's what he's called you to do.

SPEAKER_04 33:06

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

Right, like it's there's a period there, right? Like do that. Yeah, um and so we want to give people um the opportunity to put that faith that they claim that they have into action. We want to bridge that I have this faith into I'm acting out this faith. And so giving people an opportunity to to come and to to help out or to reach these individuals. It doesn't have to be serving at Faith Bridge, right? Like we would be happy to have you there as a volunteer, but it's not about us. Right. It's about reaching these children. And so what can you do to, you know, to maybe hang out with a teenager and and share Jesus or even share how to balance or balance a checkbook. Remember, I'm from the 1990s, how to reconcile your bank account, right? How to how to not borrow all the funds that you can from your Cash App and your Venmo and your this and that, and you know, live kind of within the means that you have, or to um to dress appropriately, or to have a job, or to, you know, just all the different things that that kids maybe in their teen years in foster care or aging out of foster care, they don't have anybody in their life to be like, hey, maybe that's not the best choice for you right now. So to even bring that mentor type relationship, it doesn't have to be teaching them anything. It could be hanging out and just being somebody that they can call, right? Or they can yeah, yeah, they can text a meme to that makes them laugh, like anything, just somebody to be on the other end of that because they're on their phones all day long. Who's on the other end of that, right? Like that's a huge dark question mark is who's on the other end of that, which could um very much determine an outcome of a situation. Absolutely, yeah. So if I'm on the other end of that and my phone rings at two in the morning and it's some girl who's like, Hey, I was just scrolling through. You know, I thought about you because this made me laugh, right? Like, that's big. So even just people willing to say, Hey, okay, I'll hang out, you know, I'll do whatever and to form those relationships, that's what it's all about, is the relationships and moving them towards a relationship with Jesus, which will, I mean, better their life hundred percent. But they're not gonna get there until they know that you care about them, they see that you care about them, they they see evidence and fruit in your life. Cause if I'm just complaining all day long about how crappy things are, and then I'm like, oh, by the way, Jesus loves you. They're like, Oh, okay, sure. Yeah, I can't wait to be as awesome as you are, right? Like we've got to live it and show it in order to share it.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Yeah. And it takes an army.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

It does.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Oh, goodness, yes.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

Because we just think you know, we just think that you know, you have clothes and you give those things out and do stuff like that. We don't think about the mentor side. We don't think about the yeah, you know, what they're going through.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

Your shirts even matched today.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Should have worn my Faith Bridge shirt today.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

Man, I think you said that last time I was here by doing one.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

I didn't even need to.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

Maybe I thought she was gonna stand me up again.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

No, not two weeks in a row.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

Oh, that's terrible of me. So well, we're glad to have the little visitor, blonde-haired visitor. Did you get baptized?

SPEAKER_01 36:11

So good.

unknown 36:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

She's so excited. That's so awesome.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Was the water cold? No.

SPEAKER_04 36:17

It was so warm.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

That's good. Well, congratulations. Awesome. Getting baptized. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

It is really cool. That's a big step. That's a big step.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

It was her, her, and three of her friends. They all were baptized together. Oh, that's awesome. And uh, they're all Citadel students. I know you briefly mentioned Citadel. Uh it's the newest Christian school here in town. It's K through 5 right now. Finley was part of the um the inaugural class last year. There were 12 students last year. She was the only first grader. That's awesome. 14 students. I'm so sorry. 14 students, and she was the only first grader. Um, enrollment has more than doubled for next year, which is great. Awesome. Yeah, super.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

That is so awesome. It's gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

If you guys want anyone to come play some songs, you just let me know. Yes. I would love to, actually. Some worship songs or something, and we can absolutely myself up.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

I'm down, I'm coming. Okay, yeah, we'll do it. We'll get you in touch with Miss Lisa and it'll be all good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Yeah, that's a great thing. I love that that school's cool. Yeah, it is cool. That's really cool. Do you girls have anything else you want to do?

SPEAKER_03 37:21

No. Just that I admire all of the hard work and dedication that you put in, and I truly do look up to you for that. I truly appreciate that. As a 23-year-old. As a 23-year-old, I want to live my life the way that you have, and I know that I can do that through Jesus. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

It's just saying yes. There's nothing special about me. Yeah, all I do is say yes.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Just saying yes. Just say yes. Just say yes.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Literally, just say yes.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

Madison. Did you want to mention the benefit? I know it's kind of far off.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Yeah. So we do our our big fundraiser once a year. It's the Low Country Boil. It is our only fundraiser. And uh, what we do is we raise the money for operating expenses for the following year. So it'll be September 26th at the auditorium this year. It is fantastic. So Zydeco's comes out and they cook up Zydaco's. They cook up an all you can eat. Okay. It is all you can eat. They do shrimp and boudan. They've done gator bites the last couple of years. It's man, it's so good. So jamboli, like all the things, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:23

It is good.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Super yummy. We've got uh a craft lemonade bar. So they sit there and they they mash up all the fresh, you know, fruits or jalapenos or whatever you want in there, and it's so good. We've got live music. Somebody super special. I'll be there.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Third year, third year. Yes, thank you for letting me do it.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Not that benefit. Oh man, I love it. I love it. It's so fun.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

It is, it is great. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

So it's a good time. Um, and also not this coming Saturday, but next Saturday, June 20th, is our birthday party. So we have been around for five years, which has gone by so fast, hasn't it? That's awesome. This little turkey has grown up there. Right. But we're gonna have a birthday party from two to four on Saturday, the 20th, at the auditorium. It's free. Everybody come. It'll be a good time. We're gonna have like, I don't know, 20 tables, 30 tables. I don't know how many we can hold, but we'll have a different birthday theme at every table. That's so cool. We'll have cakes and ice cream, uh, we'll have live music, and every kid that comes is gonna get to take home a birthday present, right? Like it's our birthday, they get the presents. That's so sweet. We don't need any presents, just give them all out. Right. That's right. So everybody come, it'll be super fun.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

Yeah, yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Well, I appreciate you, you know that, and appreciate all you do. Back at you, and all your hard work, and I support anytime I can. And if I can more in the future, you know how to get a hold of me. So all the things that you do, I can't do what you do. So that's why it takes an army because it's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

I can't do what you do. My friends are so cool. Oh my god, yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

And I and I can't sing, and I can't obviously run a podcast. So you know just it takes us all. It does. Like we we we have a place, God puts us in there, he gives us our talents, he tells us, he, he, he points us in the direction we gotta listen, we gotta say yes. Yeah, and he's he's pointed us all in the in a direction, especially you, and that's why we have you on here and to tell your story. Super cool, because there's things there I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Yeah. So it's like you know, all the the talents that God gives us, right? Those are his gifts to us. The way that we use those, that's our gift back to him. Right? So he gives us these gifts freely. Bye, Madison! Love you guys, love you back, you're good. So he gives us these free gifts, but not just for us to hoard, right? Right? Like we can't just take our gifts and stick them in a closet behind us and never look at them again. Like we open them and then we use them for other people, and that's our gift back to him. So that's right. Um I am thankful to be in a room and in a community of people who not only have these giftings, but but use them. Use them, yeah. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

That's the ticket to it. So that's that's what this is, the the podcast, all the things I do is just a big ministry. So it's just finding the one, it's just helping people out. I don't ever want anything monetarily from it, nothing ever. I don't know, I don't just I just enjoy having conversations and helping people out.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

So trying to pad my way to the man upstairs. Yeah, doing my job.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

I'll make it work so that way, bye.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

But yeah. But either way, I appreciate you coming in.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

I appreciate you having to.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

And we appreciate you making a surprise visit.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Yeah, shit, all right.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Well, don't forget to like, subscribe, or comment. We appreciate you guys tuning in and next time, Robert Dreal is out.