The NorthStar Narrative
The NorthStar Narrative
Jungle Adventures, Family Missions, and Divine Encounters
Karen Keagy shares her journey from growing up in the Amazon jungle to becoming a grandmother, highlighting divine encounters and the importance of family legacy. Her stories of adventure, missionary work, and faith inspire listeners to embrace God’s calling on their lives.
Hi, this is Stephanie Shafer and you're listening to the NorthStar Narrative, a podcast from NorthStar Academy. I want to thank you for joining us. I hope you're encouraged, challenged and motivated by what you learned today. Enjoy the story. Hey everybody, welcome to 2025. So this is our second podcast of the new year and I'm super excited for the guests that we have.
Stephanie:Today. We have Karen Keagy. She was raised in the Amazon jungles of Peru as the seventh child of Wycliffe Bible translators Wes and Eva Thiessen, who translated the New Testament for the Boris people. After high school, she came to the US to earn a B. A in elementary education from Oral Roberts University, where she met and married her ,B arry. Together they spent over two decades in Peru with Wycliffe, during which they celebrated the completion of 24 New Testament translations. Karen has served as a teacher, a school principal, a center hostess and more, traveling all over Peru to support translation teams. Now she's a mother of three grown children and a proud grandmother of nine. She continues to serve with Wycliffe and uses her free time to hike garden, play piano, encourage people of all ages to live wholeheartedly for God, and it is a huge pleasure to be able to have her on the podcast today. So welcome, Karen. Well, thank you.
Karen:It's an honor for me to be here, and this should be a lot of fun.
Stephanie:Yeah, Karen actually knows Kathy McKinney on her staff and was able to work with her in Lima, peru, so she introduced us. So, Karen, you told me something really fascinating that you, at three years old, had your first machete and knew how to use it. So, really interested in that story, could you tell us more?
Karen:Well, because my parents were working in the jungle. We had to learn how to live in the jungle and, honestly, it was just normal natural life for us. But we had a lot of poisonous snakes where we lived, so we all had machetes by the time. We were little and we knew that we didn't go into the jungle after 530 at night. We bathed in the creek, but we always went in when it was still light. If it was getting kind of dark, that's when the snakes would come out. So, um, yeah, I had my own machete at three and four and I would cut the grass. We always kept the grass down to bear, like basically down to the dirt around the house, so that if any snake were to be close to the house, you'd see it. So, yeah, wow, I still have that machete here. Actually, when I talk to kids, I will bring it with me and show them. It was a short one.
Stephanie:That's wow, an adventure, adventure in the jungle Really cool. What's one of your funniest or most memorable childhood moments from living in the Amazon?
Karen:Well, I think I'll tell you about when I was six or seven years old. We had a cattle project out in the village. Mom and dad wanted to help the people have a source of meat if they couldn't get anything in the hunting, and so they brought cattle and daddy was building pastures. So we girls my older sisters, a year and a half older than me we went out and he was putting in fence posts, making a bigger pasture, and he would do all the you know, digging the hole, and then he would tell us to bring the pole between the two of us and he would put it in the hole. Well, we were playing actually I think we found a dead opossum that day and we were, we were playing with the little babies that were were there, and all of a sudden we heard him say Joy, Karen, bring me a pole. And we looked over and it was like daddy, where are you? And he's like just bring it to to where you I was before.
Karen:And so we walked down this little path between the tall grass and we were just about ready to take another step and he goes stop. And we looked down and he was in a sink hole. He'd actually been um standing there working on this and all of a sudden the ground just opened up underneath him and he was over his head in a hole. And a lot of times we lost cattle that way, because the ground would just open up and they would not be able to get out and so they would die. And so he called us, we saw him, we put the, we put the log on top of it and he was able to pull himself out of his machete so he could dig little steps. Anyway, we ran home. Honestly, as children we just thought that was so funny. Daddy fell on a whole day. It's kind of a silly memory, but it was one that we just laughed a lot about.
Stephanie:Our dad appeared that day. So many incredible memories, but another one you tell me about which is just really cool. I can't wait to hear the time that you think you saw an angel. Can you give us a quick little summary of that experience?
Karen:Well, so that see how I can put it quick we had. Actually, this is when my husband and I were in Peru. Our youngest child was about two years old and it was Mother's Day and Barry had said what do you want to do for Mother's Day? And I loved riding motorcycles. We had borrowed the biggest motorcycle in the center from a friend and you know I'm barefoot and we're just out for a ride. Levi is sitting on the tank of the motorcycle. We're on dirt roads out in the jungle and we came to this mud puddle and slowed down and a four-gun gunman with masks on came out and they held us up. And that was just a miracle of God, because, whatever their intent to do, god didn't permit it. They took the motorcycle and hid the motorcycle in the bushes and I'm thinking, okay, we're buying our friend a new motorcycle. Okay, we're buying our friend a new motorcycle.
Karen:But in that 15 minutes that they held us, I had a conversation with them the entire time, because at first I thought, well, I'm a Peruvian by birth, I have a Peruvian passport, and I was like I was thinking it's a kidnapping, and so I was trying to convince them why would you kidnap another Peruvian, my baby's Peruvian. And then I thought, no, it might be better to be an American, because then it's an international incident. And so, long story short, those poor men did not know what to do with this American lady who never stopped talking to them, and they asked us if there was anything they could steal. And you know, I flipped my wedding ring around and I had another little band from Walmart on my right hand, because in Peru your marriage hand is your right. So God kept them from seeing my diamond on my left hand and I was able to take my right ring off and give that to them. And the whole time, you know, we were saying we have two other children we had left at home. Just let us go, what do you want? And they said, no, no, no, it's okay, senora, we're going to send you home. And we thought well, you know, obviously without the motorcycle. They gave us back the motorcycle and made us go home the long way, but we didn't. They hadn't even stolen the mirrors, the gas, nothing, which was totally. They can take everything off of it in a minute. So we got the motorcycle. We came home on furlough, we were gone a year. We get back to Peru.
Karen:And my neighbor said to me one day hey, you want to go for a motorcycle ride and Barry didn't want to go that day. And so we took off on the motorcycles. My daughter was with me, she was probably around seven or eight maybe, and so we had actually gone out the direction where we'd been held up a year before, but not there was a. There was a four way stop and we didn't stop on that one. So our neighbor stopped on the way back and said hey, I heard you got held up here a year ago. You know where was it? Can you show me? And I looked over and I was like well, now there's a house there. It's not so much you know nobody around, there's a house, it's cleared. And I thought I don't live with fear, sure, I'll take you over there.
Karen:And we were stopped on this little trail. It was a big cattle pasture for some other people, but there's a road between the pastures and so we're stopped there and, seriously, out of nowhere, this man on a horse comes and he's got a yellow pinafore, like we used to wear to play sports. And I mean I hadn't really seen anybody on horseback in that area, but I certainly hadn't seen anybody with a pinafore, it was a yellow pinafore and so he said Senora, you don't want to go that way, cause we were contemplating going down the road where we'd been held up and, um, you know, that's all it took for us to go. Okay, we know we're going to go. And so we took off going back the way that we had come, and my daughter and I looked around because, you know, then you're kind of like where was that guy from? Because there was no houses, that from the direction he came, and I mean, there was no jungle, it was just grass. And so we looked back and he was not there, like he. I don't know where he went, he wasn't there.
Karen:So I was actually teaching the high schoolers that next couple weeks later and I was talking about all the ways God still speaks to his people, and I was kind of going through them and you know, I think, oh, god hasn't talked to me this way, and then the Lord would remind me, well, actually. And so I came to the one with the angel and I was like, well, I've never seen an angel. And my daughter looks at me, she goes Mom, remember the guy in the horseback? You know, I won't know until I'm in heaven. But the more I thought about it, the more I'm like I don't know where he came from and I don't know where he went. But when we got because we didn't go that way we went to a friend's house. We stopped and had coffee and you know, I told her about this incident and she said didn't you hear? And I said hear what she said. There was someone killed on that road last week. Well, I've been gone. I had no idea. So God protected us and we didn't go that way.
Stephanie:That's incredible. Yeah, god gives us right what we need. We need it and, yeah, protecting.
Karen:So many stories from missionaries all over the world and, yeah, protecting so many stories from missionaries all over the world. I think the greater miracle for us was that God took the fear. It's not that I didn't sense the fear in the moment, but I will tell you that I felt the presence of God in a very tangible way and I've had friends who've been held up walking down the sidewalk or whatever in Lima, and you know, each of our experiences are different, but I just thank God because it it wasn't something that caused ongoing trauma and that's that's a gift, that's a, that's a touch of God.
Stephanie:It is Praise God for your many, many experiences. Well, I could keep asking you all kinds of questions like that, Cause I know you've got so many all the years, but one that stands out so much is the 24 translations that you and your husband were able to do and be to be in. As you just look back over these years as a child growing up and then now as a grandmother and so much life experience we could keep you here all day learning from you and your wisdom. But when you think of 24 translations, what are you most proud of during that time?
Karen:Well, I think I need to clarify something that many churches don't understand. My mom and dad actually were translators, so they spent a lifetime translating one New Testament and they didn't have a written language when they were there, so they had to learn the language, come up with an alphabet and translate, and that's a lengthy process. So the 24 that were um dedicated, we participated in that. My husband worked in finances, he was the center director for a while. I worked in hospitality, I was a teacher, I taught the missionary kids. It takes a team to translate, so we were not the translators. I have a sister who translated a new testament on Easter Island and my mom and dad but Barry and I were support workers, and so you know I think what was amazing was because I'd grown up there, my parents were some of the pioneers with Wycliffe in Peru when Uncle Cam, our founder, was there, and so you know those languages this is before computers and they took years and years and every verse was written out on a three-by-five card. And you know we dedicated the Bore New Testament in 1980, but I come back in 1993 as an adult and work as an adult there and a lot of those New Testaments were coming to completion so fine.
Karen:The joy for me was that, you know, a lot of my friends growing up, had grown up in those cultures, and I got to be there when we saw one New Testament after another New Testament, after another New Testament, because those early years there would be years and years and years before you celebrate the dedication of one. And then I was in a season where, you know, computers had come on the scene at the very end of when my parents were, you know, putting the New Testament. They put it on the cassette tape back in the early day of computers, you know. So computers were making things easier, but it was like, all of a sudden, there's just this momentum of one after another being completed. So we have like 50 New Testaments in Peru now, in different languages.
Karen:It was an incredible season and we saw the Lord raise up the people as mother tongue translators. Then, you know, they have their schools, they have their New Testaments and they want the Old Testament, and so a lot of what my husband and I worked in was just coming alongside of them to see how we could support them, train them, do the, you know, find the consultants for their projects. So we got to be. We weren't the pioneers, we were the ones that came worked when they worked that way and then seeing how things had to change and were changing. But we could appreciate both the past and the present because we had been raised there, which was really quite amazing that so many of us had gone back as second generation missionaries.
Stephanie:It is, yeah, amazing that so many of us had gone back as second generation missionaries. It is yeah. And whether you're the one putting on a three by five card or tying it all together, you know, no matter what your job is, support it's part of doing what God calls us to do the Great Commission and sharing God's word and getting it out there. And I love one of my favorite things when anybody asks about NorthStar, I always go back to the beginning.
Stephanie:That we are literally founded on God's Word, because the whole purpose was to keep Wycliffe missionaries on the field so they could work in whatever area they were in the translation and their kids could still get school. So I consider my job is to help, because we still help Wycliffe missionaries today and many other missionaries. So all of us always encourage all of our faculty staff, teachers, everybody. We play a little tiny role in each of those translations, you know, and getting it into the hands of so many people. So, yeah, I consider it all. We all in the kingdom work together.
Karen:And I love that. And, if I can take just a moment, I want to thank every person who has actually supported you know somebody who's overseas and been involved in any way, because it really does take a huge team, so nobody does it alone.
Stephanie:Yeah.
Karen:Yeah.
Stephanie:Our mission. Even though it's been many years since we were founded in 1998, we remain true. That's our number one goal to keep missionaries on the field and support the kids and the families, and so it's just such a delight to be able to do that and get up every morning, no matter where we are all around the world.
Karen:Thank you, thank you for what you do.
Stephanie:Yeah, so love hearing your story. So now you're a grandma of nine nine grandchildren. How has being a grandmother shifted your perspective on life and faith?
Karen:overseas and then they passed, one set passed when I was younger and then the others were in the home. But I didn't have their input in my life and I think what is humbling and stunning to me is that our grandchildren, like we, have this direct door open into their lives and the love that they give us. Um, it is just. It is a beautiful thing. I've heard people talk about it but I never really understood it because I didn't know my grandparents and my husband really didn't know his and have that closeness with his. So I think that the responsibility you know of what does it mean to be a preparing grandmother? You know of what does it mean to be a preparing grandmother? And how do I speak into their identity, how do I help them to know who they really have been created to be? And the calling and to speak that destiny over their lives and to you know, speak into their lives. You know one of my first interactions that was memorable to me, when my when my oldest, second oldest grandson, you know, was having conversation and he had that choice at one point to pester his brother or not, and I could see it in his eye. I knew that there was this. You know that moment where you're going to go. Am I going to be good or am I going to be a stinker? Here, and grandma could say I have that same battle. I have moments where I, too have to decide. Am I going to be kind, am I going to do the right thing or say the kind thing, or am I going to be a stinker thing or say the kind thing, or am I going to be a stinker? And and just the way that God has opened these opportunities to speak into my kids, my grandkids, lives and, um, even something that God had really brought home to me a year ago, um or less than that. It was sometime in 24.
Karen:I was reading the verse in in Psalm 32, and it says he will guide you with his eye, or another version. Let me read it here. It says I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. And I just had this massive revelation in the moment. I read the verse so many times and it was like God could lead us. He does lead us with his right hand and that. But when he says I we have to make eye contact right, and eye contact is something that we do, we're vulnerable and we're we see love. It communicates a love.
Karen:And if I refuse to look at someone, it's because I feel shame or I've done something I don't want to. And so I'm bringing that to my grandchildren. And you know, one time one of them had gotten into a bit of trouble and we were taking care of him and I was just like, look at me, look at me. And they didn't want to look at me because they knew that they had done something they shouldn't have. And so you know to say, look at me, because I want you to see the love in my eyes. I want you to see the love in my eyes. I want you to know that I accept you and there's no shame, because your battle is the same battle. I have the same want to go do my own thing or to disobey. It's not your battle alone, it's all of us.
Karen:And so to say, look at me, because I can't communicate my love and my acceptance. There's no shame, we're just having a conversation, you acknowledge, you know, and so. And to even say, when you want to look at me, it's because you don't feel badly. And so, before the Savior, you know, it's like wow, if I'm going to know what he's guiding me with, I have to look at him. Wow, if I'm going to know what he's guiding me with, I have to look at him. And if I'm going to look at him, that means I have to have a clear conscience, because we don't look at somebody that we don't feel good about. And so, as the Lord just opened up that whole, what does it mean to be led of the spirit, you know, led by his eye? I thought this has been something that's been so cool to share with my grandkids, because it's a real tangible um. It's vulnerability, it's intimacy. There's a lot of ways God could lead us, and does, but he wanted it to be completely intimate.
Stephanie:So yeah, that's so sweet and special and that you have that type of relationship and just thinking some people might be listening, whether it's with their kids or whether it's their grandchildren um, how do you build those types of relationship where you can have those vulnerable conversations and just be able to get to that point?
Karen:you know, we don't live near our grandkids. We're praying about moving to be closer to them, but we see them maybe once or twice a year, a couple times a year. So it's a longing that we have. But when we're with them, you know, I just, every opportunity that I have to speak, identity over them and really, you know, even with the eye thing guiding, with your eye, it's it's, it speaks our identity. We see that reflection of how they feel about us and so I just love my kids as much as I can in a way that um makes them feel safe. Yeah, and I and I do have long conversations. You know, if they want to throw a little tantrum or whatever, you know I try to relate to it. Don't trust me, I'm not a perfect grandma, but I, you know, I've even said hey, I don't do that. So you know if you want to have that, and it's interesting to me because, oh, okay, grandma, you know I have grandchildren that obviously love me and so if I correct them they're not running away from me. I think they're actually happier when they know their boundaries. I believe that now, again, I'm absolutely sure I have more patience with my own grandchildren probably than I had with my children, if I could go back and do things differently with my children. There are things, yes, why did I pick that hill to die on? But again, as a grandmother now I know I knew this was, but I didn't know why. And so you know.
Karen:Even the family table it was a tradition in my family. We ate around the table three times a day and we told stories. My daddy, it wasn't where, the kids had to be quiet. We all told stories, we laughed and then, of course, there was coffee time in the morning, there was coffee time in the afternoon. We spent an immense amount of time around the table.
Karen:I knew I wanted that for my kids, but I didn't really understand the sacredness of the table. Jesus invites us to a table, he sets a banqueting table before us in the presence of our enemies. There's communion, there's fellowship. The table is something that is sacred because we are offering people a place and a space to get to know each other, to be seen, to be heard, to enjoy good food and fellowship. And you know, I think if there's something that I want to see continued with my own grandchildren is the value of that time at the table where you can be heard. Let's talk, let's let's laugh, let's tell stories, let's dawdle, let's not just.
Karen:You know, as a child, I got a little tired of how long we spent at the table. But as an adult, as a child, I got a little tired of how long we spent at the table. But as an adult, as a grandmother, I'm like, oh, I want to offer that to my grandchildren. Where there is a, there's a place where we're going to, you're going to have my attention at the table. Might have a lot to do during the day, but the table, that's sacred, and how do we, how do we bring that and communicate that? I think that's, that's our challenge.
Stephanie:That's incredible. Absolutely love the wisdom. Yeah, you're bringing right now and so thankful to be able to hear that. And as you look back, you said, yeah, you, you would have done stuff different as all parents. Um, but as you look back, what was it like being a child, a TCK, and then raising TCKs? How did you do some of the same things? What did you learn? Yeah, and you've told us how you've kind of transitioned into being a grandmother. But go back a little bit and tell us maybe a favorite story or what comes to mind.
Karen:I think, when I think about my own life and when I share with them you know the parents that are heading overseas.
Karen:One of the things I always tell them is, I think, why my family loved our favorite place in the world was to be in this home in the village. And we had two homes our mission center home and our village home. And we worked hard as a family, we played hard as a family, we prayed together as a family. But I think the reason why our childhood was not perfect but beautiful was because my parents always made us part of what they did. They you know from the time that my mom and dad, we would be in the village and they. There was no medical care, we were very remote, and so they learned how to give shots, they learned how to take care of the TB patients, and I can remember as a three-year-old walking through the jungle and going with my daddy, and you know, helping him build the pasture, or we built a road. It was a swamp and I carried a lot of dirt and I mean we worked hard, but we did it as a family, and so, you know, I just encourage whatever your ministry is. God doesn't call adults, he calls families. And so when my family, you know, we thought we were going for a year, we stayed for five in the jungle. We ended up staying 21, and 11 of those were in the jungle and 10 were in Lima. But when we moved to Lima our kids didn't want to go and we didn't. Actually, I always said I couldn't live in Lima. Don't tell God you can't live in somewhere, he'll take you there. But we told the kids God would not call us to Lima if he weren't calling you. He calls families and there are doors that kids will open that parents will never have the opportunity. I mean, my sisters learned Bora before my parents did. They were the ones that led so many of the villagers to Christ because they were fluent. And so when daddy was, you know, starting to translate, he would give my older sisters a scripture verse or you know a few verses, and say go have Bible club with the kids. And so many of the people came to Christ with my sisters not my parents sharing the scripture. And so you know, we were part of what my parents did with our ministry, because we weren't translators, we weren't in the village, you know. We wanted our kids to know that we all had a purpose and I think you know as hard as it was for that move to Lima. You know all of my kids love Lima now, but I think if you were to ask them individually, they could each share reasons why they believe God took us to Lima. You know that there were reasons that God had for them, people for them to influence and whose lives they were to touch. So those are some of those things. You know. Even now I've grown MKs. They all three got to go back home to Lima this last year. Their brother, their youngest, is a pilot and he was able to make that, facilitate that for them.
Karen:And you know, I think when he says, mom, I just need to go home, I think he appreciates the fact that mom gets it Like there are times where, just like I live between all these worlds, I look like an American and I am an American. So you assume that I think like you, but I don't. I improve, I never quite fit, because I have a Peruvian passport. I've lived there 35 years of my life but I'm not, you know, obviously, a native. I I'm bilingual, but I'm I'm American, so I'm a gringa, as we would say. So you know, my kids have lived in that space too and when they really just go, oh, I just want to be home. What's home, you know? But I get it. It's like you're always living between cultures, always you know, learning, and so, anyway, I think the kids appreciate the fact that mom gets it and, yeah, and I love the fact that they embrace. They embrace their childhood just gives you a bigger perspective. But for all the challenges of being a third culture kid, there's so much blessing and benefit in it.
Stephanie:Yeah, that's such a blessing, I know, for all TCKs listening and the parents and but I love it doing it as a family and God calls families and if you're listening and you're not overseas right now, if you're in your home country, like I am, you still can do it as a family. We're still all ministers, right, and so I love that. And I've got two older daughters, but I've got a son we had later on in life and so totally different raising a boy and all the energy and so my husband's a pastor and just being able to incorporate him, like we had the senior adults over a bunch of them and did a pancake breakfast and he helped serve and talk to them and interact and just being able to love on them. And so, yeah, we try to do that and I'm really trying to do it more. And so, yeah, we try to do that and I'm really trying to do it more.
Stephanie:So, whoever may be listening, anything and everything is opportunities to involve your family. So, yeah, so much good wisdom in that and then being at the table and being able to talk about what was great with that or what was not, or you know and tell the stories. I love, love, love hearing that. All right, any advice, wisdom you would give. Maybe someone's listening right now that kind of feels like, oh, I think God's calling me to missions or calling me to get out of my comfort zone in some way. What would you tell them about listening to God, about pursuing that?
Karen:I always tell people that the best place to be is smack dab in the middle of God's will, the safest place. You know, we were held up at gunpoint but God protected us. Now I know that there's other stories, there's hard stuff, and yet I will still say absolutely the best place to be, the greatest adventure. If your life is boring and dull. That's not what Jesus ever asked of us as believers. It's supposed to be exciting, it's supposed to be filled with adventure and the greatest adventure we can have is with Jesus.
Karen:So you know, if we're trying to self-protect by saying, well, no, I can't do that God, we're really actually denying ourselves of the greatest adventure that he wants to take us on, because when we go with him, then we see him. You know greatest adventure that he wants to take us on, because when we go with him, then we see him. You know, in my book I have chapters on how God put somebody exactly where they needed to be, when they needed to be there and when I needed to be somewhere, where I needed to be there, where this resource came in, like we watched God do miracles, because we needed them. If I live in a place where I feel like I can self-protect and I can kind of keep my life risk-free. Well then, am I going to see God the same way? So is that really the life we want? You know, I think I just tell people go where God wants you, because that's the greatest life that's. That's where he's going to allow you to become who you're really supposed to be.
Stephanie:All right, you've been talking about your book. Do you have a title for the book or when that's coming out?
Karen:I actually wasn't going to bring up my book. So you know what? I have the rough draft, and I've had an editor look at it, and then I got overwhelmed just with how to make it accessible to more people. So, no, god actually woke me up.
Karen:I feel very much like God woke me up one day with a title which is in Spanish, la Vida Sabrosa, but it doesn't translate in English. It did give me an idea of what I was supposed to write, though. It's like the yummy life, the tasty life, but in Spanish, that's the idea is. It's all about that idea that life was never supposed to be boring. You know, it was not supposed to be boring, and so, um, I've played around with different, um, titles I don't yet know in English. I think the latest one, let me see life as it was meant to be, but I not set there la vida sabrosa. I don't know, I don't know yet, but that is.
Karen:That is something that I'm praying actively about god. How do I finish this? Because it's just a collection of. You know, god was never meant to be known here. He was meant to be known in our hearts, very personally, and so you know how can I invite others not to what I've had. I don't want you to live my life. I thought my message. I want you to want more for your own life. I want more. I want you to want to go further with Jesus than I've ever gone and to recognize that he wants to talk, he wants to interact.
Stephanie:So, so good. I wrote down some of the things you said. Maybe you could title it something around the table oh huh, I don't know if you could work that in, but that uh resonated a lot.
Karen:The table, yeah the fact that god gave it to me in spanish was just like um lord, what does that mean? And I realized too that, you know, maybe it's supposed to be translated, but I'm one of those, I'm not one that's going yes, I want to write a book. I'm writing a book because God just would not let me off the hook.
Stephanie:He's given you so many life experiences and wisdom and I know one of the things you said was you love to challenge young people and, I'm sure, everybody to live wholeheartedly for God, and you've definitely done that here on the podcast today. So and you'll continue to do that in the book and yeah, Stories will make people go.
Karen:I didn't think that was you know, maybe that was God. Oh wow, you know, god set this thing. Maybe that was really him. So just no stories, that's what I like to do.
Stephanie:Yeah, you're a good storyteller, so I'm excited to see what God's going to do the book, the title he'll give you and the perfect timing when it'll launch and go out. But I've so enjoyed talking to you and just getting to know you and hear some of your story. I know there's many, many more stories you can tell here, but thank you so much for just the legacy you have already created and how you're pouring that into your grandchildren and then, yeah, continue to pour into others through avenues like the podcast and to share in God's love and great challenges. So good, thank you so much.
Karen:I couldn't say no because, before I left Peru, I told the Lord. It was one of those light bulb moments where I realized that I was not, I was not using what he had given me, stewarding it all. Well, for various reasons and actually a lot of those are because I felt like the motivations of my heart had been challenged. And so you, just, you know, you just start to shut up, shut that off of right. And so I told the Lord if you open opportunities, I promise that I'll walk through, because I don't, yeah, it's not about me, it's about him. And if I'm saying no to an opportunity but he wants to use some part of my life or some story, some crazy thing, you know, he's taught me who am I to say no, and that's where I'm just trying to learn how to say yes.
Stephanie:So, sam, Well, thank you so much for saying yes today. Really enjoyed hanging out with you. Good to talk to you too. Thank you so much for listening today. If you have any questions for our guest or would like information about Northstar, please email us. At podcast at nsaschool, we love having guests on our show and getting to hear their stories. If you have anyone in mind that you think would be a great guest to feature, please email us and let us know. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on upcoming stories.