S10 E214 - Testimony of Gods Faithfulness

Learn more : https://omny.fm/shows/next-steps-4-seniors-with-wendy-jones

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is Next Steps for Seniors with your host, Wendy Jones. Each week, Wendy brings resources and information to help guide you through those next steps with elderly parents and loved ones. If you have questions or topic suggestions, you can call us at 248-651-5010.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Hello and welcome to Next Steps for Seniors Conversations on Aging. I'm your host, Wendy Jones, and so incredibly blessed to be a host, to be here today, to share my testimony with you. And I hope the next 10 minutes you'll enjoy because God has done an amazing work in my life and I want to share it with everybody. So I started this business next step. This is my story from the beginning. I started my journey with this company, Next Steps for Seniors, not just the radio show, but the company that I started back in 2012. The radio show came in 2013 when I was a guest on someone else's program. And they said, Hey, you know, why don't you start a radio show? We want you to be a host. You have a lot of stories. There's a lot of information seniors need to know and families. And so, of course, I agreed. I don't even, it was just a God thing, right? I don't even have words because I never pictured myself. And we never do, right? God uses us in ways we don't even know. So, anyway, long story short, had the business started in 2012, radio show in 2013. So excited to be able to do radio. And I drove to Ferndale to WDTK every Thursday and recorded a show with a different guest. And for years and years and years, every Thursday, it was a 45-minute drive there and back. And it was just, it became very difficult to do a startup business and a radio show, but I didn't give up. I kept doing it. Praise God. I'm so grateful. So, story continues. In 2017, I am sitting in church at a funeral for one of the most amazing men that I can even tell you about. His name was Bill, and it was one of the first people that we ever placed through Next Steps for Seniors, uh, the company, which is a senior living placement company. And as I'm sitting there, I really felt the Lord impress upon my heart that we have been helping people with the next steps, right? No pun on words, moving into assisted living, independent living, all these options. It's similar to real estate, but it's for seniors, right? We move into assisted living. So we're helping all these families. And Bill was one of those families we helped. But Bill already knew Christ. He was from my church. And when I was sitting in that funeral, I felt the Lord impress upon my heart that not just are we supposed to be moving people physically into the next step, but it was time to move people spiritually into the next step. How greater is it instead of knowing where you're gonna go into an assisted living, but knowing where you're gonna go for eternity, having the assurance in your spirit beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're gonna spend eternity with our Lord and Savior in heaven. That is the greatest gift. And when God put that on my spirit in 2017, I remember being like, oh my goodness, yes, it just made all the sense in the world. All the sense in the world. And it was time. He said it was time. So I started a foundation. Now, this is where the the struggle becomes real. In 2018, I called some amazing people that I knew in my life and asked them to be on my board, started a board of directors, got a 501c3 EIN number, and we started calling. Um, we started a 501c3 nonprofit for seniors. And the goal was to help them spiritually into the next step. But I got a little sidetracked on this journey. And the reason is because I created, I'm saying I now and not God, if you're hearing my words, I created three pillars to support financially, assist physically, and share spiritually. God's goal was to create was just the spiritual part. My goal was to help them physically too. And this is where the struggle becomes real because 2018 until this day, we have helped a lot of seniors financially and physically. But just last year is when we got it. We actually got it that the goal of the foundation was to help people spiritually move into that next step and where they're gonna spend eternity. And we were able to praise God, have some volunteers that went out and visited with our seniors and was able to pray with them, talk to them about unforgiveness in their life, talk to them about any regrets or hurts that they might have, and pray for healing and also to share the love of Jesus at the end of life. And I'll tell you, it was incredible. Last year really was life-changing for our entire organization, having these volunteers. So, fast forward to today, why is my struggle so real? And we all battle with this: the natural versus the supernatural, right? In the natural, I want to meet the basic needs, and then I want to meet the spiritual needs. In the supernatural, it's all about Jesus, it's all about God. And that's really what my heart's desire is. So today I wanted to share that with you because right now, next steps for seniors, the LLC, is moving people every day. We get calls into our office of people who are struggling in situations with their loved ones. Should they be home? Can they be home? What do we need to do to put safety around them? How do I help? How do I know which place to move into? We help in all these situations. That's what the business does. And we are blessed to be able to help and touch so many families. The nonprofit right now is helping physically and financially bridge the gap between what they have and what they need, but most importantly, helping spiritually. So we are blessed because God has given us this platform. God has shared with us, and and this is the fastest growing age group in America ever in history. We have more seniors than we've ever had before in the history of this country. So we are blessed to be able to touch these families in so many different ways. So I wanted to share that with you because this is the impetus behind how things got started. Next week, we're gonna have a guest in the studio, somebody that God brought into my life 15 years ago that is helping us today. And I can't wait for you to meet her. And it's so important as we walk through life, and and I'm feel like I'm on fast-forward speed dial with this, but just to pay attention to the Holy Spirit, He is constantly speaking to us, He is constantly showing us the way. And we're taking, I I was taking little snippets every every couple years or every couple months, or I would get a snippet of what his plan was. But until now did I really get it. It's all coming together, and I am so grateful and incredibly thankful to God for sharing all of this with me, and that I have the opportunity to honor him and to honor our seniors and be the hands and feet and have an amazing team that walks alongside all of these families to share what the next steps are physically, but more importantly, what those next steps are spiritually. So thank you for tuning in to Next Steps for Seniors. This podcast came from the radio show, again, a God story. And I'm just incredibly blessed to be able to share, share what we're doing to help families, encourage people to embrace this time as we age. And really, eternal is so much more important than the physical. And that's really the ultimate goal to educate families and to share the love of Christ. So thank you for tuning in. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for trusting the show. And thank you, God, for giving me an opportunity to share the story for everyone to hear and for you to do. You know, we can all step out and make a difference in our lives, no matter what it is. God's given every single person a gift. And what that gift is, I just encourage you to use it for the kingdom. This is an opportunity like no other. God bless you all. Thank you for tuning in. Be blessed today.