April 15, 2025 • 53 mins
Jamie’s 2.5-year-old son died from choking on chicken. And her close friends couldn’t have kids, experienced late-term miscarriage, and breast cancer at 30 years old. They became magnets for others walking through tremendous suffering and realized that not everyone had their support network. Together, they founded Faithfully Restored, which has served 2,929 women with prayers and specialized care packages.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney and Sophia with an army
of normal folks, and we continue now a part two
of our conversations with Jamie Hurd. Sophia ring the bell?
Why are you guys so weak? Sophia? Do you want
to ring the bell again? Show you dad what you
can do all the way? Yeah, all right, now we'll
(00:23):
be right back with you. But Sophia is going to
tell you.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Right after these brief messages from our generous.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Sponsors, good job, Sophia. Well wow, I mean tell us
a lot. You're on the phone with your dad and
he goes and kills himself, and then you have this happy,
(00:51):
perfect life and your kid chokes on some noodles dies
And I've read I don't want to screw the words up,
but basically that's kind of You're in your thirties and
you have these people around you, and although you have
your faith and everything, you're still stinging and hurting, and
(01:13):
you feel so much love and support by your community
and your faith plus your husband's steadfastness in your marriage
and your community is really what helped you. I'm going
to my words. Cope's that right?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah? Definitely?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And so life continues, what does life look like after.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
We have a really close group of friends, and so
as we were all having kids. One of my best friends,
you know that the parents of Jack, they found out
they could not have biological children, and so they went
through the adoption process. So we walked through that with them.
They adopt Jack. We have some friends have late term
miscarriages that we walked through before the summer before William died,
(02:08):
one of our best friends had just turned thirty and
was diagnosed with breast cancer. Had two young kids, same age,
Madeline and William. You know, it's just tragic. And so
we had had these things going on, these these deep
valleys that we didn't know what to do, and so
we just kept showing up for each other. And so
when I got home from Vanderbilt that day, from the
(02:30):
hospital without William, I got to my back porch and
there was this basket, and that's what we had been
doing for our friends that were walking through different things.
There was a bunch of these notes and a bunch
of just comfort items and stuff. And I was like, Okay,
now it's my turn. And I had notes to read. Yes, yeah,
And it meant a lot. I had people around me,
(02:53):
not even just my close friends, but I had we
had community around us that still love on us. I mean,
it'll be years and I still get text about William.
I still get a card from a friend every year
for his birthday. And I know what is simple. I'm
thinking of you, I see you. I know what a
(03:15):
simple act of kindness, feeling seen can do for someone.
And so as we're walking through these deep valleys, then
we walk through child loss. Six months later, after William died,
another boy in our community, he was eight years old, Hayes.
He died in a car crash. I didn't know that family,
but someone, a mutual friend, connected me. And I had
(03:38):
read this book Through the Eyes of a Lion. Have
you ever heard of it? Lee by Lusco. I'll send
it to you.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I'll read it so good.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And so I had read this book and I was like, okay,
I send Jenny. Rebecca is the mom's name, and so
I just send her a note in the mail and
send her that book. And I said, I'm only six
months ahead of you. This is really hard, but you
are going to be okay. And I'm here if you
need anything, And so she gets I leave my phone
(04:07):
number she calls me just the way the Lord used.
Having someone that had experienced the loss of a child
as as much community as I had. There is something too,
in a in a weight, in someone's words that knows
exactly what you're going through. And I think the enemy
would love for you to feel alone and that no
(04:27):
one else gets it. And so that's also part of
what we're doing, is that's not true. I mean, people
out there have experienced similar things and you're not alone. Yes,
and survived, and so those next few years after that,
I'm still walking through grief. I mean, as much hope
and peace as I had. There's grief there. That's that
(04:50):
doesn't take away the deep valleys.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I wanted to ask you about that before we go.
We're about to we're about to leap into what the
game and what you are now, not what you are now,
what you do now. Really, poor George words, I apologize.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I knew what you meant.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, but the problem is Alex won't edit it out
because they said paint in my butt. But anyway, you
know it. So here's the deal. Emotions, grief, sadness, loss, fear.
(05:30):
I don't know if you know this, but when you
described what happened to William. You talked about your nanny
and the steps that she went through and oh my gosh,
bless her heart, the guilt she must bear. But you
said it was some chicken noddle soup that I bought
(05:52):
a Costco, and then you moved on. You feelt guilt
about buying that chicken little soup, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I don't feel guilt, but I when I walk into Costco,
there's always a point where I hate my life and
I want to scream, and like there's there is an
association there with that Costco.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
You said that.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
I know I saw it.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
You said it. It was not how you said it,
but your facial expressions, and it was when you crossed
your arms it was which meant you were you were defending.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
The reason I'm bringing all of this up is there
are people that listen to this show that maybe aren't Christians,
maybe are on the fence, maybe have spirituality. There's so
many levels of faith and not faith. And you know,
as it pertains to an army normal folks and people
(06:56):
employing their discipline and passion and air needs in the world,
you know, as it pertains to that I don't care
if you have faith or not. I can celebrate your
good work right absolutely, so, there are people listen to
us that are Jewish and agnostic and everything else. As
deep as you are in your faith, and as profoundly
(07:20):
as you have demonstrated our prayer surrender and that that
faith in God's will has meant to you, it's really
important to me that people listen to us that don't
really understand or subscribe, or haven't reached that place in
their life. Understand. None of that replaces grief and sadness
(07:46):
and hurt and guilt and defensiveness and trauma and all
of it. That don't think that as a Christian you're
saying all of this faith and and grace and belief
and free will just makes everything perfect. It does not.
It does not. We are still human and it is
(08:10):
not a magic pill. Not just because it's I don't
want to put words in your mouth, but I think
it's important before we go forward, because of what you're
about to say gives you a deep understanding that people
you now serve but speak to that that that please.
If you're if you're not where, if you're not where
(08:34):
Jamie and Daniel are in their faith. Don't think, oh well,
they're brainwashing and thinking there's no problems because of their
no no, no, no no. You're missing the human side
of this thing.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And I think the enemy would love for that to
be truth for something. Just kind of people think that,
And I want to want to just speak.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
To it a little for folks who don't share your
depth of faith.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
And a lot of people say to me, like, man,
I could never have that faith or I would could
never be that strong. And like we said before, it
is a true surrender. It's a choice I'm making to surrender.
But it's no strength of mine. It is it is
literally me acknowledging my weakness in I can't get through
(09:24):
this day holding this level of grief. It is terrible.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
It is is a terrible to day.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
No, not every day. There are times still in December,
I have a hard time over the anniversary. And but
in Costco, in Costco, I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Go to Sam's going to Costo, Swear to goodness, I'd
never go in another Costco.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
It's a growing experience. I just you know, but I
mean when that happened, you know, I think it's a
good I agree, it's a great point to stop up
and make sure that people are aware that your faith
is not take away that sadness, that grief.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
An anecdote for any of those human emotions.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I was really struggling. I mean, I you know, I
was a teacher. So this was December. So I took
that whole next semester off and didn't go back to
work till August, which was good because I don't think
I could have. But also it was terrible that I
was at home. And so it gets middle of January
and I go to Daniel and I remember Maddelin. I
(10:33):
was laying in bed and Madeline came up to my bedside.
She's four, and she said, Mom, She said, at least
I didn't die. I'm still here. And I was like,
I need to get my stuff to get yeah, And
I went to Daniel and I said, I need to
get out of here, like I'm really struggling. I can't
(10:54):
parent in this grief. I need I need to remove
myself from situation. And so I ask a friend and
I said, I need some place to go that I
can kind of get away. And so luckily she remember,
she recommended a fabulous resort in Arizona that is amazing.
(11:16):
I think I want to go back for it's so expensive,
but I want to go back for the ten year
I just I feel like I actually think I might
write them and be like, hey, this was my experience
ten years ago, and I need to go back. But
in all seriousness, I flew out to Arizona and I
go to this resort and it was the first time
(11:38):
that I feel like I could take a deep breath.
No one around me knew me, and I could just
sit in that grief and just be and it was
very healing for me. I cried on the plane coming home,
like I didn't want to come home to the reality
(11:59):
of what was my life. It was really hard to
manage my grief, to be there for my four year old,
to be a wife, to do to cook dinner luckily
with meals coming for several months, but to do all
the stuff that you had. I mean, when you experience
grief like that, your world doesn't stop. You want it to,
(12:23):
but it goes on and you have all of those
especially with young kids. But I also was thankful for
Madeline because I knew our house could be completely empty
without her, so I was grateful that she was there.
It just it. Parenting those that next year was really hard, which.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Is why I think eighty percent of marriages that suffer
the loss of a child under the age of ten
and a divorce because.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Back and women grieve so differently. That's just a fact.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
But the point is just because you have faith doesn't
mean all.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Right, no, we still I immediately I wouldn't say drug
Daniel into counseling. He went willingly. But the second that
I was like, you don't have to come, He's like, okay,
I'm out. But we went to counseling and that was
really good and something that I, you know, would always recommend.
But yeah, it it's still every December. I go away.
(13:25):
Sometimes I go by myself. If Daniel's super busy at work,
I go by myself. The past couple of years he's
gone with me, which has been really sweet. I need
a time where I'm not taking care of anyone else
and I can sit in that grief. I rewatch sometimes
like the memorial video, or sometimes I watch the actual
(13:46):
memorial service. I look at pictures, I look at video,
and I cry and I take myself back there and
I get back to a place of total dependence. Lord,
I could not go on about my life without my
child here if it were not for you.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
That is what people need to understand, is that again
you discuss it, You've talked freely about it with me,
but it does not your faith, none of it, prayer,
none of it makes it any less human.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And this is ten years later. I mean I'm ten
years out now. I will say I have a lot
less days that I struggle Tom Hills all one, you know,
so slowly still, Yeah, but it's still there and I'm
thankful for that. Really it comes December. There's a part
of me that if I didn't miss him so much
(14:47):
and still struggle on that grief, his life wouldn't have
been that valuable to miss. You know. That was something
our counselor said early on, is like, this is so
hard because how much you loved him, and that will
always be the case. So I want I want that
to be hard. Sometimes I don't want it to ever
(15:10):
get where. The anniversary passing is like, I'm fine, I
don't remember that, you know, so I'm.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Right, We'll be right back. Okay, the table is now,
(15:38):
so everybody understands how you grew up. The dad William,
the organ donation, grief, the prayer, and your really astute
understanding of the importance of community around all of this.
(15:58):
And so one day you tell Daniel, I don't think
I want to teach anymore. Take us through that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
We that kind of group of friends that Jamie that
struggled with infertility, Heather diagnosed with early breast cancer, Jenny,
Rebecca who also lost a child. Jamie, Heather and I
go to the same church, and so we're walking through
it was an.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Answer and two children lost. It's just a lot.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh, it's a lot. Oh it's yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
And a father commit suicide. I mean it really is.
It's just a lot.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah. Yeah, And we're walking through James.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
We need church, we need each other, we need lots.
And I remember sitting there week after week and it
was an active faith series and it was like, okay,
because we became magnets for child life. I mean, I
still you know, now it's not as surprising, but then,
I mean it was, you know, once every other week
someone's telling me about someone who lost a child, and
(16:53):
same with because yes, now on the one that's like
can I connect you with this or did you hear
about this? And I was like, yes, this is all depressing,
and it was a lot. It was you know you honestly,
like our friend group became like these people can have kids,
these people this person's really young and they have breast
cancer and it's like, gosh, the lost children.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, and so let's talk to the miserable people about
more misery.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
It was just kind of a magnet of all of it,
and it felt weighty. It felt heavy to hear all
these stories. No, thank goodness, no, that would have also
been a disaster. Okay, so luckily, luckily that did not,
and so it was heavy and we're like, okay, we
(17:40):
in really this Active Face series propelled us to like
we can do something with this in the same way
that we were praying for people. But it was like
did you hear about this? Did you hear about this?
Pray for this person? And so we we were like,
we can do something. And so we're like, let's meet
once a month and do the same thing that our
(18:00):
friends did for us. So we're going to pray for
them by name, We're going to write them a note
of encouragement, and we're going to send them a little
self thing.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And the you don't know these are people we don't anonymous.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, yep. And so Jamie Heather and I invited Jenny
Rebecca and were like, hey, do you want to do
this and she's like absolutely. So I remember it was
pouring down rain. We met on my back porch and
we had no shortage of names because people just kept
telling us people. And so we did that for several
months and We're like, Okay, this could turn into something.
(18:30):
And I've heard you talk about it's that feeling of
when you serve someone else, just the different perspective, just
the healing that the Lord does, just what is done
in yourself, like selfishly, it was really healing serving other people.
When I'm writing a note to someone that's lost a child,
(18:50):
and I'm reminding myself of those same truths, like the
Lord will not leave you, you are going to get through this,
you are not alone. I see you. I'm reminding myself
of those truths. So we decided, you know, let's do
something with this. And I was finishing up ten years
at my job and I went to Daniel and I
was like, I remember sitting around with those four founders.
(19:12):
We decided to call ourselves Faith flour Restored. We almost
did Beautifully Broken, glad we did Faith Flour re stored, and.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I don't know, Beautifully Broken's kind of cool time.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
I feel like Faith flo Restored takes a more positive
sweach it does.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Maybe Beautifully Broken could be a subtidal one back.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
And so I remember going around and I was like,
does anyone else feel called to leave their jobs? And
a couple of them didn't even have jobs, but they're like, no,
I'm not doing this, and they're like nope, no, And
I was like, okay, because I could feel like I
think I'm meant to leave my job. And so anyway,
which is a big.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Deal given you always wanted to be a teacher, and
teaching was.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
When I had my dream job. Like I worked at
a really great private schools amazing, Like I loved everything
about it until truly the Lord removed that desig hire
in my heart, and I just knew, I knew, I
knew I was supposed to leave and so and they
had been so good to me, you know, like I
took off six months when I had each child. I
took off six months when we lost a child, had
(20:12):
another child. So I basically worked like worked a year,
worked half a year, work.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
They were so good to me. And so Daniel was like,
you know, what do you want to do? And I
was like, I want to promote organ donation and get
Faithful Restored off the ground. And he's like, that's not
a job. He's like, right, Okay, yes, I get that, Yes,
I would be losing money paying for child care for Annie. Well,
I did my job. Okay, yeah, you were right, You're right.
(20:39):
But then wrestled through that and ultimately I walked in.
It was actually a week before school started. I'd already
gotten my class list and I walked into my headmaster
and I was like, I just know I'm not meant
to come back. And what persuaded me? And I love
to share this because it ensworth orth.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
What great school?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Ah, so good it was. It was really great. Still
keep up with parents and some teachers and stuff there.
But I would gone to gymnastics earlier in that week,
and this gymnastic teacher I was kind of tell her like,
I think I might leave my job this week, and
she said, Jamie, you never know who's praying for that job.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
It's like, well, that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
And I did know because another team member had left
and we knew someone else had applied, and so they
didn't hire the one girl we knew, and so I
was like, I actually do know who is praying for
this job. And so that gave me the confidence. And
so I always tell people if you feel called, if
(21:39):
you truly feel like the Lord is calling you to
sell thing, just say yes. And so I left that
job and a couple of weeks later, we had a
launch event for Faithful Restored August of twenty nineteen, and
we just share there's probably like one hundred and fifty friends, family,
anyone we could get to, and we just stood on
the stage and just shared our our hopes and dreams
(22:01):
of Faithful Restored.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Tell me what they are the hopes, and James, what
now's the time to tell me what that is? I mean,
I hear I guess adolescent organ donation.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
And there's a lot going on there.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, there's a lot going on there.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
So our early board said the same thing, like this
is really broad.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
This is a shotgun like big one. Yes, it's really widespread.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
But our whole thing is whatever a woman is walking through,
we want them to know that they are loved, they
are not alone, and there's hope in Jesus, and until
we have to narrow that down, we truly take in
prayer request from across the country. In whatever it is
(22:46):
a woman's walking through, we serve anxiety, depression, divorce, a
lot of illness, a lot of child loss, because to me,
in the same way, child loss can lead to divorce,
lead to suicide, so can depression, so can anxiety. It
really does not. It doesn't matter how much money you have,
(23:06):
it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter
what you look like. All of those barriers are broken
down when you're struggling and when you're like, your valley
is your valley. I hope people don't lose a child.
I hope their valley is not the same as mine,
but it can lead to that same level of grief,
and for them, their value is their valley, and it's
(23:28):
it's not me to tell them, you know, I think
I think the enemy would love. When we speak as founders,
we always say like, your valley is your valley, because
I think the enemy would love for like people listening
even to say like, man, well at least I didn't
lose a child, or at least I don't have cancer,
and you need community, and you may need to feel
(23:49):
seen and know you're loved and not feel worthy the
same way that someone might feel walking through those struggles.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
I pust my next comment with I believe in the
power prayer, but in my belief set is that prayer
allows God to put action items on your brain and
then says, go do it because prayer alone, I mean,
(24:25):
God could do what he wants to. But my experience
is prayer just prayer without action is they make you
feel better, but it doesn't often lead to a lot
of actionable change. So this can't be an organization. All
you do is sit around and hear people's.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Problems and pray for them, right right, And so that
action piece was what we wanted when we were hearing
about these women. We wanted to respect about women from everywhere, everywhere.
From the beginning, it was women from all over the country.
Now five years in, we've served women in forty eight
of the fifty states. Someone asked me the other day
(25:07):
what were the two and I was like, I actually
don't know. I need to find out and serve them
and just get our stat one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Serve tell me what that looks like.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
So it looks It's the cool thing is it is
super individualized. So, say your neighbor just gets diagnosed with cancer,
you get on our website, Faithful Restored women dot com.
You putting your name and address, put in her name
and address, in a little bit about her story, maybe
you might say. And it depends. Some people tell a
lot of the stories. Some people tell a little Eighty
(25:36):
percent of the time, it is a friend submitting for someone.
We love it when people submit for themselves. We always
encourage that. I think you know, just as people you
always think someone has it worse than you. Asking for help,
asking for prayer is just there is, there is And
so eighty percent of the time it's you know, you
getting on there and saying your neighbor has breast cancer.
(25:58):
So when you submit that, someone on our team, our
outreach coordinator, gets that form and she is responding to you.
She's emailing you back, and every you you the.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Person that's submitted, not you're the person you're submitted.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
About, correct, okay, And so she's writing you back, finding
out a little bit more any you know, anything, if
you know of a specific need that they have or what.
But every prayer request that comes in receives a care
package from us. So all of those prayer requests that
come in in our office are prayed for by name.
So all of this now is done by volunteers. So
(26:33):
we have three hundred volunteers where we are constantly trying
to get more things that volunteers can do. So volunteers
locally can come in our office and they'll get a
slip of paper it might say Jamie loss of child,
Heather a cancer diagnosis, and then they are it's almost
like a store we have set up, and they're coming in.
They're writing a handwritten note for that person, praying for
(26:56):
that person by name, and curating an individualized care package.
So we have a store set up with comfort items,
with books devotions.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
So you're calling the person that emailed you or reached
out to you about the person and saying tell us
about her and what she likes and what she needs,
and then you're literally pulling from a stockshelf of care
and comfort items, things specifically that you know that this
person will want.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And sometimes people submit the prayer request and Kelly writes
them back and it's they're not giving much information a
lot of those details, and we have seen it time
and time again, like the Lord is in those details.
Like I got a call the other day that was
like her, I think grandmother passed away. I wasn't even
She's like, I don't even know how you knew that
my grandmother liked hummingbirds and she received a hummingbird teatowel
(27:47):
from us or something in our care package. And I
was like, I didn't even submit your prayer request and
I definitely wasn't the one making the care package. And
so there's a lot of those details in timing we
hear time and time again in of the timing of
our care packages. Is just the Lord has all of
those details and we trust him with that. So when
(28:08):
we say do you need when we say to cater
that need back, outside of you know, someone might say
they like this or they like that, but more often
those care packages are curated from that volunteer of like
what they think that person might like. But then on
top of that, you know, if you were to say,
(28:31):
you know, they're really struggling, they lost a child, something happened,
and we might say we do we have sent couples
away for like a weekend just for like a little respite,
so we'll send a couple away for a weekend just
to kind of have some time by themselves, grieve whatever
they need to do. Counseling grants will do one thousand
(28:53):
dollars counseling grants. You fill out an application, we'll do
a thousand dollars counseling grants. We've paid widows mortgages, we've
paid ACU puncture, We've truly outside. Everyone gets a care package.
But on top of that, if there are bigger needs,
now with our size, we're able to have bigger needs met.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
We'll be right back. Okay, this is crazy, but I'm
going to do this quickly. Care packages including gift cards, books,
(29:37):
barefoot Dreams are standing on the word, socks, pamper kits,
jewelry and handwritten notes, gas and food. Gift cards for
those facing an illness day outings for grieving mothers. Day
outings for families affected by a loss. First holiday after
a loss, single mom, Christmas packages, Mother's Day packages, Father's
Day packages. Illness packages provide rent or mortgage assistants. Provide
(30:01):
all expense paid trips for grieving moms. Provide counseling assistants
all expense paid respites. Fifteen thousand dollars. Adoption grants to
a grieving mother, provide all expense paid respites for women counseling,
National Assistance for headstones, school tuition, the National Assistance for
mom and daughter who tend to retreat on the first
(30:23):
anniversary of the husband father's death. Furniture to furnish a
new house after woman lost her spouse, spouse respites people
like teachers, military wives, foster moms, mending hearts, residents, female
police officers, adopted moms on college patients, and nurses at
oncology Williams Medical Center. Nurses. Holy crap, This is from
(30:50):
three chicks who had a bunch of loss that decide
they're going to send some people some notes.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
I mean, I'm telling you. When we said yes, we're like, okay, Lord,
we didn't know anything about a nonprofit. None of us
had said on board we had donated that is the
knowledge of nonprofits like I'd given to nonprofits. We didn't
know anything about nonprofits. And when we said yes, the
Lord's like, I've got you. I've got you. Just do
the next thing. And so we have tried to stay
(31:18):
spirit led in everything we've done. And I'll tell you
the biggest gift has been our growth has been incredible,
but the Lord has matched that growth, like the number
of prayer requests we're getting, you know, just we're what
the eighteenth of March, halfway through the month, we've already
(31:39):
received sixty five individual prayer requests, So now we're averaging
like one hundred a month. So that's one hundred individual
women's stories that we're serving. And I'm glad that you
brought up kind of Mother's Day packages and stuff, because
I think what's unique also and impressive about us is
we're not a one and done. So you send in
(32:01):
your aunt that just lost a child with laws specifically,
we are ongoing care has a process, so say that
happened last month, we'll wait a couple months send something
because there's a lot of support in the beginning. We
kind of wait until everything has done, very intentionally because
we're able to know those things because of what we
(32:21):
walk through. So our stories are a gift that have
allowed us to serve in a way that provides meaningful support. Also,
one thing I didn't mention, I don't know if it
needs to, but with faithful Restored, outside of the individual
prayer request, we do community packages. So like for Mother's Day,
(32:43):
we'll do four hundred and fifty care packages, So every
mom or caretaker that has a child at Vanderbilt Children's
will get a care package from us on Mother's Day.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Are you kidding? That's cool? Every single mother as a
kid at Vanderbilt schupp.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Four hundred and fifty and it's been really neat to like.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Look you up with Saint Jude. Yeah, these are these
are now moms from all over the world here with
children fighting cancer, some cancers of which don't even have names.
They don't even know what kind of cancer.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Right, Yeah, it's it's one of my favorite projects basically
kind of because my passion for Vanderbilt and that's where
we were and we were well cared for. But that
selfthing community packages, walking alongside Covenant where the school shooting was,
that has been something. You know, our continued support of
(33:38):
those teachers and staff and I mean we just did
in December a coffee cart for their staff just to
our whole goal is just cantu Yeah, it doesn't matter
if it's a year and a half later, but.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
This is not cheap.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And the cool thing so with that loss, you're your aunt,
that lost a child, she would get an initial care package,
and then Mother's Day we'll have three hundred care packages
go out. And because she'll be experiencing her first Mother's
Day without her child, so she's prayed for by name
in sent a specific care package in November. In November,
(34:21):
before her first set of holidays without her child, she'll
be prayed for by name and sent something. And so
I think the cool thing about us some is one
and done. You know, your husband has surgery that you're
walking through, we might get a prayer request for that,
will send you something, and then it's not really well,
we may follow up with a note or something. But
with loss, it's that continued care. And then even though
(34:42):
it'll be ten years in December, I'm on the November list.
So with loss of child, you stay on that list.
And so every November, as I'm anticipating that anniversary in December,
I'm prayed for by name and volunteer specifically come in
and make anniversary of care packag.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
So does some woman sitting in Albuquerque who's thirty eight and
lost her husband to cancer and has two children. That
happens I picked Albuquerque. Her sister send you an email
and tells you about this, she has no idea, and
(35:21):
then just anonymously, one day, a care package shows up
with a handwritten letter and some things in it, and
it says, You're not alone. Other people have experienced it.
I'd love you, we love you. And then periodically throughout
the ensuing years, you stay in touch with her through
this outreach, so that she has reinforced that there are
(35:45):
people praying for her, loving her, and she's not alone.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
And we have seen generational impact because of those simple
things we're doing. What like I mean, she's thirty eight,
trying to raise two kids and feeling alone. Like the
way the Lord is able to use us to help
remind her that she's not alone. Maybe exactly what she
(36:09):
needed on the day where she was thinking about taking
her own life, or she was thinking about, you know,
doing something, or you know, then before she's thinking about
the anniversary, like she is seen again and then she's able,
like I can do this. This in just that encouragement,
able to be a better mom because of it, able
to you know, someone struggling with mental health. We had
(36:30):
her actually record a video. We just she had never
really been told that she was loved struggled with mental health,
and we just kept on encouraging her and encouraging her.
And you know, when you see people and love on
people that don't have people telling them that they're loved
and that they're worth anything, that can those simple words
(36:55):
and acts of you know, showing up can change their
life life. And so we have seen that happen. And also,
so you said it's expensive, we've we launched in twenty
nineteen and we finished that year with twenty eight thousand
dollars from our event. Ten was from one person, you know,
(37:18):
So we finished with twenty eight thousand dollars. Last year
twenty twenty four, we finished with eight hundred and sixteen
thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Where the heck does that come.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
From individual donors people like you? Really, honestly, we are
not affiliated with churches. We don't have church backing, we
don't do federal grants, we don't do any we don't
even have anyone on our staff, which I'm not against,
but our staff is so we have six part time employees,
and our staff is so small and it has been
so mission minded. We just haven't really you know, done
(37:52):
a deep dive into grants. So it is individual donors.
So that's part. We don't even have anyone on staff
that does development, but it's just our team and a
lot you know, and that's making relationships and sharing our
stories and we just have people that want to be
a part of it. And you talked about you know,
(38:13):
we do time, treasure, talent, whatever it is. I love
meeting with people. And it's like, what is it that
the Lord has for you? With faithful restored? And so
it might be that you have you're an empty nester
and you've got a bunch of time on your hands.
You might want to volunteer with us, or you might
need serve. I meet a lot of women and like
they just need served by us right now. Like there
(38:33):
might be a time that they come around and our
donors and volunteer whatever, but like right now, like we
just want to love on you. And then you have
those people that sit in your office that have a
lot of money or don't even have a lot of money,
but I have both. But you might have someone that
has a lot of money and they just want a
place that they feel good about giving to. And so
as much as our donors are an answered prayer for us,
(38:57):
we've seen so often that we're an answer prayer for them.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Back to what you talked about the depth of satisfaction
people can get from serving by donating to people like
you who are doing this work. Two thousand, eight hundred
and thirty nine of when this was written, so that
maybe that's the number is probably bigger, But to date,
(39:22):
two hundred and two eight thirty nine women have been
served through prayer and requests, submissions ranging from child loss
to widows, cancer, illness, depression, anxiety, disability, financial heartsops, adoption
and fertility stress, and more. Twenty five hundred and seventy
five that's a lot of care packages have been sent
(39:45):
through our special projects initiatives. Anniversaries and holidays can carry
heavy weight, and so you are sure to remember them.
Two of the people who have reached out I've said this,
thank you, dear friends in Christ, for reminding me three
times throughout the year that God has not forgotten me.
(40:07):
The thoughtfulness put into each package, personal notes, and most importantly,
the knowledge that you are lifting me up in prayer
helps me to focus on the blessings rather than my
early loss. The impact you've made on my life is immeasurable.
Another says, I received the most unexpected package in the
mal today from your beautiful organization, and my heart is
(40:30):
overflowing with things. This week has been hard, but I
believe God showed up through you. Thank you for the
reminder that I'm not alone in this broken world. Thank
you for praying and thinking of someone like me. What
goes through your heart and mind when you hear that.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Is so honoring to get to do the work that
we get to do. I had people I could have
written multiple message is just like that about people that
showed up for me, and so I know what that
feels like to get something in the mail on a
really hard day when you feel like the world's gone
on and you're still grieving your child. And so it's
(41:13):
just it's like a dream that this is now my
job that I get to love on women and remind
them that they're not alone. It's incredible and it's been
amazing to have a front row seat to what the
Lord's done through Faithful Restored. And those numbers keep getting higher,
and it's just it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
We just keep doing what we're doing. I mean, someone
asked me. We just celebrated five years.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
And which is stupid and only five years that you've
done all this. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
It is It is ridiculous because those are ending.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Daniel can rest easy. You got yourself a job good?
Speaker 3 (42:12):
I did, Yes, I did. Okay, this is this is brief.
But when we launched in twenty nineteen, you know, he
had just told me that about the job situation. And
we launched and I had someone had didn't know any
of us, that came that night and she called me
and she said, I'd like to do an end of
the year donation. I was like, great, sure, and so
(42:35):
she donated and we're like, we should ask her to
be on our board. And so I meet with her
in December of twenty nineteen, me and someone else, and
she said, so, this is what four months after I
quit my job, and she said, my husband and I
feel called to pay your salary for you to be
employed by Faithful Restored. What So when I tell you
(42:58):
I wasn't praying bold enough prayers. And when I tell you,
the Lord was like, I have got you. He has
he did you know these people I had never met.
That was the first time I'd met her, first time
i'd ever met her.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Did you have did y'all's organization serve her?
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Oh? She had. She went to our launch event and
then went home and talked to her husband and they
listened to a podcast that I'd done with Daniel telling
our story, and they just said, we feel called.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
And the Power podcasts. I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Who's to say what will happen? There's a listener out
there that wants to give us a million dollars right now,
right now. We don't know, so I always you never know,
but I always share that because the Lord's been so
faithful in ways that are just like not like I
think he sees us. I think we're I think this
is it, but like no, I have got you. I'm
(43:52):
going to provide someone that is gonna and they will
tell you. I'm still very very close with them, and
they will tell you what an answer, prayer, faithful, restored
has been for them.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
To them to them. So two questions. Someone listening to
us right now says, someone in deep despair from any
of these types of losses or dealing with these things,
how do they get to you, guys, to get a
(44:24):
package to the person they're concerned about. Tell our listeners
right now and I'm going to tell you something. I
don't know if this is answered prayer or not, but
your your bank account is probably going to go down
after you do this because there's a lot of people
that listen to this show that's okay, and you're going
to get a whole bunch of requests after this thing
goes live. So I'm just fair warning. How do they
do it?
Speaker 3 (44:45):
They go to faithfully Restored women dot com. Say it again,
faithfully Restored women dot com.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Okay, faithfully Restored women dot.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Com on our home page says prayer request And so
you just click that button and it'll explained to you
the process. But you just click that. There's a form, but.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
It's more than a prayer cross, it's the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
It's yeah, yeah, But they so say if they have
someone in mind, they would go there, click and it's
just an easy form that they fill out. They can
go as much or as little as in depth of
the story. And then we love when people do it
for themselves because you have to understand, we're only we
only know as much as that person is saying, and
(45:27):
we're on it's hard to pay. You pay someone's mortgage
whenever you know you're dealing with their friend that doesn't
know exactly what they need or whatever.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
And do you vet this stuff to make sure that
you're not being you.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Dap local people if we can, you.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Have a responsibility to do.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
Right right and we don't pay everyone's rent or anything. Obviously,
we can only do a couple big projects a month
and stuff, so we're but you've got it. Yeah, local
people we meet with if they're out of state or something,
we vet them with a phone call or something. But
they go there, they submit the form, our outreach coordinator
will email them back and so you're talking. Her name's Kelly,
(46:07):
she's fantastic, and they're talking with her.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
The beauty of this is it's based in Brentwood and
Nashville area, but you're reaching the country. So there's really
not a call to put this anywhere else in somebody's neighborhood.
There's just a call to continue to support and blow
up this because you can serve the country and your
capacity in one place, so.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
People around the country could be interested in starting their
own physical location so that they could do the packages.
So someone we were talking about before you got here,
or somebody in Dallas who's doing it, and I don't
know your openness, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Maybe there's unhelpful what I'm saying, but people doing it.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
No, it's okay in other locations.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
But obviously, like you know, imagine there's a group of
you know, ten women in Memphis who want to get
together and you know, physically put together the packages and
are you open to that.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
It's something that is on our radar. We have it's
just managing it, so it has to be right. So
he's right. We have. We have a donor in Dallas
that was like, I will support you guys financially and stuff.
I'd love a hands on way to do this, and
so we went down there and kind of worked it
(47:24):
out and so they her and her couple friends meet
once a month at her house. Her assistant manages it all.
So that that's really what makes it work is no
one on our staff is having to manage it all.
But they have a store setup just like we do,
super nice and they get together once a month. We
(47:44):
give them fifteen names that come in from our system,
and so they're basically volunteering remotely. But the only reason
that works is because they are invested and have someone
they're managing that. So she sends out the care packages,
she ships it all, she reports back to us everything
that was sent when it's sent.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Under that, guys, other people could reach out to you
if they wanted to go to that effort to do it. Yeah, satellites, Yes,
that that person that's going to give you the million dollars.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Well, I would be open to them doing a satellite Okay.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
I'm certain.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
My question is how do they reach you.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
They can donate on our website, same place yep, same
place forward yep, click donate and if they're going to.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Give a million, they should just they can call me.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
Yeah, they can cut my numbers on the website. They
can call me.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
Yeah, I think that's good.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
Yeah, they can call me. We do a lot of
family foundations definitely, like donor advise funds, all of that,
and then also listeners. I love at events talking about
our hope builders. So we have monthly donors. We've but
one hundred and seventy some monthly donors bring in one
hundred and thirty thousand dollars a year for us and
that and those.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Are probably the ten and twenty dollars.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
We have anywhere from ten to five hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Really, it's fabulous.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
And it's amazing because we have someone on our staff, Morgan,
she's incredible who manages our Hope Builders, and so it's
a good way to stay engaged because you're getting a
monthly email. You're getting you know, I mean one of
our Hope Builders lost her dad here recently. I saw,
so I like made sure Morgan knew that. And so
we really care for our hope Builders too because they're
(49:27):
so invested. So any type of donor, my goal is
to bring them closer to Christ. And I know someone
listening to this that's like, I don't even know Jesus
might feel like this is kind of she's she's like
a little Jesus freak or something. I don't know. There's
a lot of faith aspect of it, but but you know,
(49:48):
they might be like I don't even like, you know,
if you didn't grow up in church and grow up
with a faith and don't know Jesus, you might be like,
I don't even know. And so we someone asked me,
you know, do you only serve believers or and it's
like no, I mean, we're of course not. We don't
even know what they look like, or we know their address,
so we do know where they're from. But it doesn't matter,
(50:09):
like I wouldn't. I don't care anything your political view.
I don't care anything about you. That's the cool thing
about what we do. It doesn't even matter how much
you could be super wealthy, and we serve you. So
that's what I love about Faithful Restored is none of
that matters, doesn't matter if you're a believer, doesn't matter
what side of the aisle you're on, Like, we're here
(50:29):
to love you. We love you because of our hope
in Jesus. But if you don't believe in Jesus, that's
okay too, Like we're gonna we're gonna love you like
He loves you.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
So one of the thing I.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
Want to say is even for listeners who aren't Christian,
they don't have to serve in the way that you've served.
But your example of being present for people is something
that everybody can learn from you if they do it.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Absolutely, there's no doubt. There's an example here of the
importance of just being the I don A piece of
redemption I think is does your mom not work with you?
Speaker 3 (51:04):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (51:05):
So crazy?
Speaker 3 (51:06):
Oh it is so sweet. Yeah, it is really sweet.
She actually now comes in the office once a week
and she does all of our finances, so she's on
people about receipts and turning and all this stuff and donors.
She'll get to know some donors and stuff, and it's
it is really sweet. She's super proud, and it's just
(51:29):
a very.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
How ironic the product you are looking for from your
father ends up coming from your mother, who you thought abandoned.
Speaker 3 (51:35):
Right, Absolutely, just a true story of redemption.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
It is Jamie. Wow, what an amazing legacy that your
father and William allowed you to. I think that I
think that you were well prepared and conditioned the struggles
(52:00):
in your life to do exactly what you're doing now.
I think your father and your son's legacy, ironically, one
generation on either side of you, lives on through your work.
Little blessing.
Speaker 3 (52:14):
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
It's been my honor and I have a safe trip
going home. And Daniel, if you're listening, dude, you got
a job. It's all good, bro. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 3 (52:27):
Thank you so much, and thank you for joining us
this week.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Yes, Sophia, thank you for joining me this week. If
Jamie Hurd has inspired you, in general, or better yet,
to take action by volunteering with or donating to Faithfully Restored,
submitting a prayer request to them, doing something like it
in your community, or something else entirely. Please let me
and Sophia know we'd love to hear about it. You
(52:55):
can write me anytime at Bill at normal folks dot us,
and I promise you I'll will respond. If you enjoyed
this episode, Sophia has some suggestions for you.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Come here, Sophia tell them if you enjoyed this episode,
share it with friends and on social subscribe to the podcast,
rate and review it. Join the armory at normal folks
dot us. Consider becoming a premium member. There all of
these things that will help grow an army of normal folks.
(53:28):
I'm Sylvia Cortez. Until next time, do what you.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
Can, Yeah, do what you can. Ring the bell, Sophia.
We'll see y'all next week.
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney and Sophia with an army
of normal folks, and we continue now a part two
of our conversations with Jamie Hurd. Sophia ring the bell?
Why are you guys so weak? Sophia? Do you want
to ring the bell again? Show you dad what you
can do all the way? Yeah, all right, now we'll
(00:23):
be right back with you. But Sophia is going to
tell you.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Right after these brief messages from our generous.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Sponsors, good job, Sophia. Well wow, I mean tell us
a lot. You're on the phone with your dad and
he goes and kills himself, and then you have this happy,
(00:51):
perfect life and your kid chokes on some noodles dies
And I've read I don't want to screw the words up,
but basically that's kind of You're in your thirties and
you have these people around you, and although you have
your faith and everything, you're still stinging and hurting, and
(01:13):
you feel so much love and support by your community
and your faith plus your husband's steadfastness in your marriage
and your community is really what helped you. I'm going
to my words. Cope's that right?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah? Definitely?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And so life continues, what does life look like after.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
We have a really close group of friends, and so
as we were all having kids. One of my best friends,
you know that the parents of Jack, they found out
they could not have biological children, and so they went
through the adoption process. So we walked through that with them.
They adopt Jack. We have some friends have late term
miscarriages that we walked through before the summer before William died,
(02:08):
one of our best friends had just turned thirty and
was diagnosed with breast cancer. Had two young kids, same age,
Madeline and William. You know, it's just tragic. And so
we had had these things going on, these these deep
valleys that we didn't know what to do, and so
we just kept showing up for each other. And so
when I got home from Vanderbilt that day, from the
(02:30):
hospital without William, I got to my back porch and
there was this basket, and that's what we had been
doing for our friends that were walking through different things.
There was a bunch of these notes and a bunch
of just comfort items and stuff. And I was like, Okay,
now it's my turn. And I had notes to read. Yes, yeah,
And it meant a lot. I had people around me,
(02:53):
not even just my close friends, but I had we
had community around us that still love on us. I mean,
it'll be years and I still get text about William.
I still get a card from a friend every year
for his birthday. And I know what is simple. I'm
thinking of you, I see you. I know what a
(03:15):
simple act of kindness, feeling seen can do for someone.
And so as we're walking through these deep valleys, then
we walk through child loss. Six months later, after William died,
another boy in our community, he was eight years old, Hayes.
He died in a car crash. I didn't know that family,
but someone, a mutual friend, connected me. And I had
(03:38):
read this book Through the Eyes of a Lion. Have
you ever heard of it? Lee by Lusco. I'll send
it to you.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I'll read it so good.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And so I had read this book and I was like, okay,
I send Jenny. Rebecca is the mom's name, and so
I just send her a note in the mail and
send her that book. And I said, I'm only six
months ahead of you. This is really hard, but you
are going to be okay. And I'm here if you
need anything, And so she gets I leave my phone
(04:07):
number she calls me just the way the Lord used.
Having someone that had experienced the loss of a child
as as much community as I had. There is something too,
in a in a weight, in someone's words that knows
exactly what you're going through. And I think the enemy
would love for you to feel alone and that no
(04:27):
one else gets it. And so that's also part of
what we're doing, is that's not true. I mean, people
out there have experienced similar things and you're not alone. Yes,
and survived, and so those next few years after that,
I'm still walking through grief. I mean, as much hope
and peace as I had. There's grief there. That's that
(04:50):
doesn't take away the deep valleys.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I wanted to ask you about that before we go.
We're about to we're about to leap into what the
game and what you are now, not what you are now,
what you do now. Really, poor George words, I apologize.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I knew what you meant.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, but the problem is Alex won't edit it out
because they said paint in my butt. But anyway, you
know it. So here's the deal. Emotions, grief, sadness, loss, fear.
(05:30):
I don't know if you know this, but when you
described what happened to William. You talked about your nanny
and the steps that she went through and oh my gosh,
bless her heart, the guilt she must bear. But you
said it was some chicken noddle soup that I bought
(05:52):
a Costco, and then you moved on. You feelt guilt
about buying that chicken little soup, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I don't feel guilt, but I when I walk into Costco,
there's always a point where I hate my life and
I want to scream, and like there's there is an
association there with that Costco.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
You said that.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
I know I saw it.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
You said it. It was not how you said it,
but your facial expressions, and it was when you crossed
your arms it was which meant you were you were defending.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
The reason I'm bringing all of this up is there
are people that listen to this show that maybe aren't Christians,
maybe are on the fence, maybe have spirituality. There's so
many levels of faith and not faith. And you know,
as it pertains to an army normal folks and people
(06:56):
employing their discipline and passion and air needs in the world,
you know, as it pertains to that I don't care
if you have faith or not. I can celebrate your
good work right absolutely, so, there are people listen to
us that are Jewish and agnostic and everything else. As
deep as you are in your faith, and as profoundly
(07:20):
as you have demonstrated our prayer surrender and that that
faith in God's will has meant to you, it's really
important to me that people listen to us that don't
really understand or subscribe, or haven't reached that place in
their life. Understand. None of that replaces grief and sadness
(07:46):
and hurt and guilt and defensiveness and trauma and all
of it. That don't think that as a Christian you're
saying all of this faith and and grace and belief
and free will just makes everything perfect. It does not.
It does not. We are still human and it is
(08:10):
not a magic pill. Not just because it's I don't
want to put words in your mouth, but I think
it's important before we go forward, because of what you're
about to say gives you a deep understanding that people
you now serve but speak to that that that please.
If you're if you're not where, if you're not where
(08:34):
Jamie and Daniel are in their faith. Don't think, oh well,
they're brainwashing and thinking there's no problems because of their
no no, no, no no. You're missing the human side
of this thing.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And I think the enemy would love for that to
be truth for something. Just kind of people think that,
And I want to want to just speak.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
To it a little for folks who don't share your
depth of faith.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
And a lot of people say to me, like, man,
I could never have that faith or I would could
never be that strong. And like we said before, it
is a true surrender. It's a choice I'm making to surrender.
But it's no strength of mine. It is it is
literally me acknowledging my weakness in I can't get through
(09:24):
this day holding this level of grief. It is terrible.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
It is is a terrible to day.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
No, not every day. There are times still in December,
I have a hard time over the anniversary. And but
in Costco, in Costco, I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Go to Sam's going to Costo, Swear to goodness, I'd
never go in another Costco.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
It's a growing experience. I just you know, but I
mean when that happened, you know, I think it's a
good I agree, it's a great point to stop up
and make sure that people are aware that your faith
is not take away that sadness, that grief.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
An anecdote for any of those human emotions.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I was really struggling. I mean, I you know, I
was a teacher. So this was December. So I took
that whole next semester off and didn't go back to
work till August, which was good because I don't think
I could have. But also it was terrible that I
was at home. And so it gets middle of January
and I go to Daniel and I remember Maddelin. I
(10:33):
was laying in bed and Madeline came up to my bedside.
She's four, and she said, Mom, She said, at least
I didn't die. I'm still here. And I was like,
I need to get my stuff to get yeah, And
I went to Daniel and I said, I need to
get out of here, like I'm really struggling. I can't
(10:54):
parent in this grief. I need I need to remove
myself from situation. And so I ask a friend and
I said, I need some place to go that I
can kind of get away. And so luckily she remember,
she recommended a fabulous resort in Arizona that is amazing.
(11:16):
I think I want to go back for it's so expensive,
but I want to go back for the ten year
I just I feel like I actually think I might
write them and be like, hey, this was my experience
ten years ago, and I need to go back. But
in all seriousness, I flew out to Arizona and I
go to this resort and it was the first time
(11:38):
that I feel like I could take a deep breath.
No one around me knew me, and I could just
sit in that grief and just be and it was
very healing for me. I cried on the plane coming home,
like I didn't want to come home to the reality
(11:59):
of what was my life. It was really hard to
manage my grief, to be there for my four year old,
to be a wife, to do to cook dinner luckily
with meals coming for several months, but to do all
the stuff that you had. I mean, when you experience
grief like that, your world doesn't stop. You want it to,
(12:23):
but it goes on and you have all of those
especially with young kids. But I also was thankful for
Madeline because I knew our house could be completely empty
without her, so I was grateful that she was there.
It just it. Parenting those that next year was really hard, which.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Is why I think eighty percent of marriages that suffer
the loss of a child under the age of ten
and a divorce because.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Back and women grieve so differently. That's just a fact.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
But the point is just because you have faith doesn't
mean all.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Right, no, we still I immediately I wouldn't say drug
Daniel into counseling. He went willingly. But the second that
I was like, you don't have to come, He's like, okay,
I'm out. But we went to counseling and that was
really good and something that I, you know, would always recommend.
But yeah, it it's still every December. I go away.
(13:25):
Sometimes I go by myself. If Daniel's super busy at work,
I go by myself. The past couple of years he's
gone with me, which has been really sweet. I need
a time where I'm not taking care of anyone else
and I can sit in that grief. I rewatch sometimes
like the memorial video, or sometimes I watch the actual
(13:46):
memorial service. I look at pictures, I look at video,
and I cry and I take myself back there and
I get back to a place of total dependence. Lord,
I could not go on about my life without my
child here if it were not for you.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
That is what people need to understand, is that again
you discuss it, You've talked freely about it with me,
but it does not your faith, none of it, prayer,
none of it makes it any less human.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And this is ten years later. I mean I'm ten
years out now. I will say I have a lot
less days that I struggle Tom Hills all one, you know,
so slowly still, Yeah, but it's still there and I'm
thankful for that. Really it comes December. There's a part
of me that if I didn't miss him so much
(14:47):
and still struggle on that grief, his life wouldn't have
been that valuable to miss. You know. That was something
our counselor said early on, is like, this is so
hard because how much you loved him, and that will
always be the case. So I want I want that
to be hard. Sometimes I don't want it to ever
(15:10):
get where. The anniversary passing is like, I'm fine, I
don't remember that, you know, so I'm.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Right, We'll be right back. Okay, the table is now,
(15:38):
so everybody understands how you grew up. The dad William,
the organ donation, grief, the prayer, and your really astute
understanding of the importance of community around all of this.
(15:58):
And so one day you tell Daniel, I don't think
I want to teach anymore. Take us through that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
We that kind of group of friends that Jamie that
struggled with infertility, Heather diagnosed with early breast cancer, Jenny,
Rebecca who also lost a child. Jamie, Heather and I
go to the same church, and so we're walking through
it was an.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Answer and two children lost. It's just a lot.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh, it's a lot. Oh it's yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
And a father commit suicide. I mean it really is.
It's just a lot.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah. Yeah, And we're walking through James.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
We need church, we need each other, we need lots.
And I remember sitting there week after week and it
was an active faith series and it was like, okay,
because we became magnets for child life. I mean, I
still you know, now it's not as surprising, but then,
I mean it was, you know, once every other week
someone's telling me about someone who lost a child, and
(16:53):
same with because yes, now on the one that's like
can I connect you with this or did you hear
about this? And I was like, yes, this is all depressing,
and it was a lot. It was you know you honestly,
like our friend group became like these people can have kids,
these people this person's really young and they have breast
cancer and it's like, gosh, the lost children.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, and so let's talk to the miserable people about
more misery.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
It was just kind of a magnet of all of it,
and it felt weighty. It felt heavy to hear all
these stories. No, thank goodness, no, that would have also
been a disaster. Okay, so luckily, luckily that did not,
and so it was heavy and we're like, okay, we
(17:40):
in really this Active Face series propelled us to like
we can do something with this in the same way
that we were praying for people. But it was like
did you hear about this? Did you hear about this?
Pray for this person? And so we we were like,
we can do something. And so we're like, let's meet
once a month and do the same thing that our
(18:00):
friends did for us. So we're going to pray for
them by name, We're going to write them a note
of encouragement, and we're going to send them a little
self thing.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And the you don't know these are people we don't anonymous.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, yep. And so Jamie Heather and I invited Jenny
Rebecca and were like, hey, do you want to do
this and she's like absolutely. So I remember it was
pouring down rain. We met on my back porch and
we had no shortage of names because people just kept
telling us people. And so we did that for several
months and We're like, Okay, this could turn into something.
(18:30):
And I've heard you talk about it's that feeling of
when you serve someone else, just the different perspective, just
the healing that the Lord does, just what is done
in yourself, like selfishly, it was really healing serving other people.
When I'm writing a note to someone that's lost a child,
(18:50):
and I'm reminding myself of those same truths, like the
Lord will not leave you, you are going to get through this,
you are not alone. I see you. I'm reminding myself
of those truths. So we decided, you know, let's do
something with this. And I was finishing up ten years
at my job and I went to Daniel and I
was like, I remember sitting around with those four founders.
(19:12):
We decided to call ourselves Faith flour Restored. We almost
did Beautifully Broken, glad we did Faith Flour re stored, and.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I don't know, Beautifully Broken's kind of cool time.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
I feel like Faith flo Restored takes a more positive
sweach it does.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Maybe Beautifully Broken could be a subtidal one back.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
And so I remember going around and I was like,
does anyone else feel called to leave their jobs? And
a couple of them didn't even have jobs, but they're like, no,
I'm not doing this, and they're like nope, no, And
I was like, okay, because I could feel like I
think I'm meant to leave my job. And so anyway,
which is a big.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Deal given you always wanted to be a teacher, and
teaching was.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
When I had my dream job. Like I worked at
a really great private schools amazing, Like I loved everything
about it until truly the Lord removed that desig hire
in my heart, and I just knew, I knew, I
knew I was supposed to leave and so and they
had been so good to me, you know, like I
took off six months when I had each child. I
took off six months when we lost a child, had
(20:12):
another child. So I basically worked like worked a year,
worked half a year, work.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
They were so good to me. And so Daniel was like,
you know, what do you want to do? And I
was like, I want to promote organ donation and get
Faithful Restored off the ground. And he's like, that's not
a job. He's like, right, Okay, yes, I get that, Yes,
I would be losing money paying for child care for Annie. Well,
I did my job. Okay, yeah, you were right, You're right.
(20:39):
But then wrestled through that and ultimately I walked in.
It was actually a week before school started. I'd already
gotten my class list and I walked into my headmaster
and I was like, I just know I'm not meant
to come back. And what persuaded me? And I love
to share this because it ensworth orth.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
What great school?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Ah, so good it was. It was really great. Still
keep up with parents and some teachers and stuff there.
But I would gone to gymnastics earlier in that week,
and this gymnastic teacher I was kind of tell her like,
I think I might leave my job this week, and
she said, Jamie, you never know who's praying for that job.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
It's like, well, that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
And I did know because another team member had left
and we knew someone else had applied, and so they
didn't hire the one girl we knew, and so I
was like, I actually do know who is praying for
this job. And so that gave me the confidence. And
so I always tell people if you feel called, if
(21:39):
you truly feel like the Lord is calling you to
sell thing, just say yes. And so I left that
job and a couple of weeks later, we had a
launch event for Faithful Restored August of twenty nineteen, and
we just share there's probably like one hundred and fifty friends, family,
anyone we could get to, and we just stood on
the stage and just shared our our hopes and dreams
(22:01):
of Faithful Restored.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Tell me what they are the hopes, and James, what
now's the time to tell me what that is? I mean,
I hear I guess adolescent organ donation.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
And there's a lot going on there.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, there's a lot going on there.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
So our early board said the same thing, like this
is really broad.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
This is a shotgun like big one. Yes, it's really widespread.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
But our whole thing is whatever a woman is walking through,
we want them to know that they are loved, they
are not alone, and there's hope in Jesus, and until
we have to narrow that down, we truly take in
prayer request from across the country. In whatever it is
(22:46):
a woman's walking through, we serve anxiety, depression, divorce, a
lot of illness, a lot of child loss, because to me,
in the same way, child loss can lead to divorce,
lead to suicide, so can depression, so can anxiety. It
really does not. It doesn't matter how much money you have,
(23:06):
it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter
what you look like. All of those barriers are broken
down when you're struggling and when you're like, your valley
is your valley. I hope people don't lose a child.
I hope their valley is not the same as mine,
but it can lead to that same level of grief,
and for them, their value is their valley, and it's
(23:28):
it's not me to tell them, you know, I think
I think the enemy would love. When we speak as founders,
we always say like, your valley is your valley, because
I think the enemy would love for like people listening
even to say like, man, well at least I didn't
lose a child, or at least I don't have cancer,
and you need community, and you may need to feel
(23:49):
seen and know you're loved and not feel worthy the
same way that someone might feel walking through those struggles.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
I pust my next comment with I believe in the
power prayer, but in my belief set is that prayer
allows God to put action items on your brain and
then says, go do it because prayer alone, I mean,
(24:25):
God could do what he wants to. But my experience
is prayer just prayer without action is they make you
feel better, but it doesn't often lead to a lot
of actionable change. So this can't be an organization. All
you do is sit around and hear people's.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Problems and pray for them, right right, And so that
action piece was what we wanted when we were hearing
about these women. We wanted to respect about women from everywhere, everywhere.
From the beginning, it was women from all over the country.
Now five years in, we've served women in forty eight
of the fifty states. Someone asked me the other day
(25:07):
what were the two and I was like, I actually
don't know. I need to find out and serve them
and just get our stat one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Serve tell me what that looks like.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
So it looks It's the cool thing is it is
super individualized. So, say your neighbor just gets diagnosed with cancer,
you get on our website, Faithful Restored women dot com.
You putting your name and address, put in her name
and address, in a little bit about her story, maybe
you might say. And it depends. Some people tell a
lot of the stories. Some people tell a little Eighty
(25:36):
percent of the time, it is a friend submitting for someone.
We love it when people submit for themselves. We always
encourage that. I think you know, just as people you
always think someone has it worse than you. Asking for help,
asking for prayer is just there is, there is And
so eighty percent of the time it's you know, you
getting on there and saying your neighbor has breast cancer.
(25:58):
So when you submit that, someone on our team, our
outreach coordinator, gets that form and she is responding to you.
She's emailing you back, and every you you the.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Person that's submitted, not you're the person you're submitted.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
About, correct, okay, And so she's writing you back, finding
out a little bit more any you know, anything, if
you know of a specific need that they have or what.
But every prayer request that comes in receives a care
package from us. So all of those prayer requests that
come in in our office are prayed for by name.
So all of this now is done by volunteers. So
(26:33):
we have three hundred volunteers where we are constantly trying
to get more things that volunteers can do. So volunteers
locally can come in our office and they'll get a
slip of paper it might say Jamie loss of child,
Heather a cancer diagnosis, and then they are it's almost
like a store we have set up, and they're coming in.
They're writing a handwritten note for that person, praying for
(26:56):
that person by name, and curating an individualized care package.
So we have a store set up with comfort items,
with books devotions.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
So you're calling the person that emailed you or reached
out to you about the person and saying tell us
about her and what she likes and what she needs,
and then you're literally pulling from a stockshelf of care
and comfort items, things specifically that you know that this
person will want.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And sometimes people submit the prayer request and Kelly writes
them back and it's they're not giving much information a
lot of those details, and we have seen it time
and time again, like the Lord is in those details.
Like I got a call the other day that was
like her, I think grandmother passed away. I wasn't even
She's like, I don't even know how you knew that
my grandmother liked hummingbirds and she received a hummingbird teatowel
(27:47):
from us or something in our care package. And I
was like, I didn't even submit your prayer request and
I definitely wasn't the one making the care package. And
so there's a lot of those details in timing we
hear time and time again in of the timing of
our care packages. Is just the Lord has all of
those details and we trust him with that. So when
(28:08):
we say do you need when we say to cater
that need back, outside of you know, someone might say
they like this or they like that, but more often
those care packages are curated from that volunteer of like
what they think that person might like. But then on
top of that, you know, if you were to say,
(28:31):
you know, they're really struggling, they lost a child, something happened,
and we might say we do we have sent couples
away for like a weekend just for like a little respite,
so we'll send a couple away for a weekend just
to kind of have some time by themselves, grieve whatever
they need to do. Counseling grants will do one thousand
(28:53):
dollars counseling grants. You fill out an application, we'll do
a thousand dollars counseling grants. We've paid widows mortgages, we've
paid ACU puncture, We've truly outside. Everyone gets a care package.
But on top of that, if there are bigger needs,
now with our size, we're able to have bigger needs met.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
We'll be right back. Okay, this is crazy, but I'm
going to do this quickly. Care packages including gift cards, books,
(29:37):
barefoot Dreams are standing on the word, socks, pamper kits,
jewelry and handwritten notes, gas and food. Gift cards for
those facing an illness day outings for grieving mothers. Day
outings for families affected by a loss. First holiday after
a loss, single mom, Christmas packages, Mother's Day packages, Father's
Day packages. Illness packages provide rent or mortgage assistants. Provide
(30:01):
all expense paid trips for grieving moms. Provide counseling assistants
all expense paid respites. Fifteen thousand dollars. Adoption grants to
a grieving mother, provide all expense paid respites for women counseling,
National Assistance for headstones, school tuition, the National Assistance for
mom and daughter who tend to retreat on the first
(30:23):
anniversary of the husband father's death. Furniture to furnish a
new house after woman lost her spouse, spouse respites people
like teachers, military wives, foster moms, mending hearts, residents, female
police officers, adopted moms on college patients, and nurses at
oncology Williams Medical Center. Nurses. Holy crap, This is from
(30:50):
three chicks who had a bunch of loss that decide
they're going to send some people some notes.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
I mean, I'm telling you. When we said yes, we're like, okay, Lord,
we didn't know anything about a nonprofit. None of us
had said on board we had donated that is the
knowledge of nonprofits like I'd given to nonprofits. We didn't
know anything about nonprofits. And when we said yes, the
Lord's like, I've got you. I've got you. Just do
the next thing. And so we have tried to stay
(31:18):
spirit led in everything we've done. And I'll tell you
the biggest gift has been our growth has been incredible,
but the Lord has matched that growth, like the number
of prayer requests we're getting, you know, just we're what
the eighteenth of March, halfway through the month, we've already
(31:39):
received sixty five individual prayer requests, So now we're averaging
like one hundred a month. So that's one hundred individual
women's stories that we're serving. And I'm glad that you
brought up kind of Mother's Day packages and stuff, because
I think what's unique also and impressive about us is
we're not a one and done. So you send in
(32:01):
your aunt that just lost a child with laws specifically,
we are ongoing care has a process, so say that
happened last month, we'll wait a couple months send something
because there's a lot of support in the beginning. We
kind of wait until everything has done, very intentionally because
we're able to know those things because of what we
(32:21):
walk through. So our stories are a gift that have
allowed us to serve in a way that provides meaningful support. Also,
one thing I didn't mention, I don't know if it
needs to, but with faithful Restored, outside of the individual
prayer request, we do community packages. So like for Mother's Day,
(32:43):
we'll do four hundred and fifty care packages, So every
mom or caretaker that has a child at Vanderbilt Children's
will get a care package from us on Mother's Day.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Are you kidding? That's cool? Every single mother as a
kid at Vanderbilt schupp.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Four hundred and fifty and it's been really neat to like.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Look you up with Saint Jude. Yeah, these are these
are now moms from all over the world here with
children fighting cancer, some cancers of which don't even have names.
They don't even know what kind of cancer.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Right, Yeah, it's it's one of my favorite projects basically
kind of because my passion for Vanderbilt and that's where
we were and we were well cared for. But that
selfthing community packages, walking alongside Covenant where the school shooting was,
that has been something. You know, our continued support of
(33:38):
those teachers and staff and I mean we just did
in December a coffee cart for their staff just to
our whole goal is just cantu Yeah, it doesn't matter
if it's a year and a half later, but.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
This is not cheap.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And the cool thing so with that loss, you're your aunt,
that lost a child, she would get an initial care package,
and then Mother's Day we'll have three hundred care packages
go out. And because she'll be experiencing her first Mother's
Day without her child, so she's prayed for by name
in sent a specific care package in November. In November,
(34:21):
before her first set of holidays without her child, she'll
be prayed for by name and sent something. And so
I think the cool thing about us some is one
and done. You know, your husband has surgery that you're
walking through, we might get a prayer request for that,
will send you something, and then it's not really well,
we may follow up with a note or something. But
with loss, it's that continued care. And then even though
(34:42):
it'll be ten years in December, I'm on the November list.
So with loss of child, you stay on that list.
And so every November, as I'm anticipating that anniversary in December,
I'm prayed for by name and volunteer specifically come in
and make anniversary of care packag.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
So does some woman sitting in Albuquerque who's thirty eight and
lost her husband to cancer and has two children. That
happens I picked Albuquerque. Her sister send you an email
and tells you about this, she has no idea, and
(35:21):
then just anonymously, one day, a care package shows up
with a handwritten letter and some things in it, and
it says, You're not alone. Other people have experienced it.
I'd love you, we love you. And then periodically throughout
the ensuing years, you stay in touch with her through
this outreach, so that she has reinforced that there are
(35:45):
people praying for her, loving her, and she's not alone.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
And we have seen generational impact because of those simple
things we're doing. What like I mean, she's thirty eight,
trying to raise two kids and feeling alone. Like the
way the Lord is able to use us to help
remind her that she's not alone. Maybe exactly what she
(36:09):
needed on the day where she was thinking about taking
her own life, or she was thinking about, you know,
doing something, or you know, then before she's thinking about
the anniversary, like she is seen again and then she's able,
like I can do this. This in just that encouragement,
able to be a better mom because of it, able
to you know, someone struggling with mental health. We had
(36:30):
her actually record a video. We just she had never
really been told that she was loved struggled with mental health,
and we just kept on encouraging her and encouraging her.
And you know, when you see people and love on
people that don't have people telling them that they're loved
and that they're worth anything, that can those simple words
(36:55):
and acts of you know, showing up can change their
life life. And so we have seen that happen. And also,
so you said it's expensive, we've we launched in twenty
nineteen and we finished that year with twenty eight thousand
dollars from our event. Ten was from one person, you know,
(37:18):
So we finished with twenty eight thousand dollars. Last year
twenty twenty four, we finished with eight hundred and sixteen
thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Where the heck does that come.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
From individual donors people like you? Really, honestly, we are
not affiliated with churches. We don't have church backing, we
don't do federal grants, we don't do any we don't
even have anyone on our staff, which I'm not against,
but our staff is so we have six part time employees,
and our staff is so small and it has been
so mission minded. We just haven't really you know, done
(37:52):
a deep dive into grants. So it is individual donors.
So that's part. We don't even have anyone on staff
that does development, but it's just our team and a
lot you know, and that's making relationships and sharing our
stories and we just have people that want to be
a part of it. And you talked about you know,
(38:13):
we do time, treasure, talent, whatever it is. I love
meeting with people. And it's like, what is it that
the Lord has for you? With faithful restored? And so
it might be that you have you're an empty nester
and you've got a bunch of time on your hands.
You might want to volunteer with us, or you might
need serve. I meet a lot of women and like
they just need served by us right now. Like there
(38:33):
might be a time that they come around and our
donors and volunteer whatever, but like right now, like we
just want to love on you. And then you have
those people that sit in your office that have a
lot of money or don't even have a lot of money,
but I have both. But you might have someone that
has a lot of money and they just want a
place that they feel good about giving to. And so
as much as our donors are an answered prayer for us,
(38:57):
we've seen so often that we're an answer prayer for them.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Back to what you talked about the depth of satisfaction
people can get from serving by donating to people like
you who are doing this work. Two thousand, eight hundred
and thirty nine of when this was written, so that
maybe that's the number is probably bigger, But to date,
(39:22):
two hundred and two eight thirty nine women have been
served through prayer and requests, submissions ranging from child loss
to widows, cancer, illness, depression, anxiety, disability, financial heartsops, adoption
and fertility stress, and more. Twenty five hundred and seventy
five that's a lot of care packages have been sent
(39:45):
through our special projects initiatives. Anniversaries and holidays can carry
heavy weight, and so you are sure to remember them.
Two of the people who have reached out I've said this,
thank you, dear friends in Christ, for reminding me three
times throughout the year that God has not forgotten me.
(40:07):
The thoughtfulness put into each package, personal notes, and most importantly,
the knowledge that you are lifting me up in prayer
helps me to focus on the blessings rather than my
early loss. The impact you've made on my life is immeasurable.
Another says, I received the most unexpected package in the
mal today from your beautiful organization, and my heart is
(40:30):
overflowing with things. This week has been hard, but I
believe God showed up through you. Thank you for the
reminder that I'm not alone in this broken world. Thank
you for praying and thinking of someone like me. What
goes through your heart and mind when you hear that.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Is so honoring to get to do the work that
we get to do. I had people I could have
written multiple message is just like that about people that
showed up for me, and so I know what that
feels like to get something in the mail on a
really hard day when you feel like the world's gone
on and you're still grieving your child. And so it's
(41:13):
just it's like a dream that this is now my
job that I get to love on women and remind
them that they're not alone. It's incredible and it's been
amazing to have a front row seat to what the
Lord's done through Faithful Restored. And those numbers keep getting higher,
and it's just it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
We just keep doing what we're doing. I mean, someone
asked me. We just celebrated five years.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
And which is stupid and only five years that you've
done all this. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
It is It is ridiculous because those are ending.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Daniel can rest easy. You got yourself a job good?
Speaker 3 (42:12):
I did, Yes, I did. Okay, this is this is brief.
But when we launched in twenty nineteen, you know, he
had just told me that about the job situation. And
we launched and I had someone had didn't know any
of us, that came that night and she called me
and she said, I'd like to do an end of
the year donation. I was like, great, sure, and so
(42:35):
she donated and we're like, we should ask her to
be on our board. And so I meet with her
in December of twenty nineteen, me and someone else, and
she said, so, this is what four months after I
quit my job, and she said, my husband and I
feel called to pay your salary for you to be
employed by Faithful Restored. What So when I tell you
(42:58):
I wasn't praying bold enough prayers. And when I tell you,
the Lord was like, I have got you. He has
he did you know these people I had never met.
That was the first time I'd met her, first time
i'd ever met her.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Did you have did y'all's organization serve her?
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Oh? She had. She went to our launch event and
then went home and talked to her husband and they
listened to a podcast that I'd done with Daniel telling
our story, and they just said, we feel called.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
And the Power podcasts. I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Who's to say what will happen? There's a listener out
there that wants to give us a million dollars right now,
right now. We don't know, so I always you never know,
but I always share that because the Lord's been so
faithful in ways that are just like not like I
think he sees us. I think we're I think this
is it, but like no, I have got you. I'm
(43:52):
going to provide someone that is gonna and they will
tell you. I'm still very very close with them, and
they will tell you what an answer, prayer, faithful, restored
has been for them.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
To them to them. So two questions. Someone listening to
us right now says, someone in deep despair from any
of these types of losses or dealing with these things,
how do they get to you, guys, to get a
(44:24):
package to the person they're concerned about. Tell our listeners
right now and I'm going to tell you something. I
don't know if this is answered prayer or not, but
your your bank account is probably going to go down
after you do this because there's a lot of people
that listen to this show that's okay, and you're going
to get a whole bunch of requests after this thing
goes live. So I'm just fair warning. How do they
do it?
Speaker 3 (44:45):
They go to faithfully Restored women dot com. Say it again,
faithfully Restored women dot com.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Okay, faithfully Restored women dot.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Com on our home page says prayer request And so
you just click that button and it'll explained to you
the process. But you just click that. There's a form, but.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
It's more than a prayer cross, it's the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
It's yeah, yeah, But they so say if they have
someone in mind, they would go there, click and it's
just an easy form that they fill out. They can
go as much or as little as in depth of
the story. And then we love when people do it
for themselves because you have to understand, we're only we
only know as much as that person is saying, and
(45:27):
we're on it's hard to pay. You pay someone's mortgage
whenever you know you're dealing with their friend that doesn't
know exactly what they need or whatever.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
And do you vet this stuff to make sure that
you're not being you.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Dap local people if we can, you.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Have a responsibility to do.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
Right right and we don't pay everyone's rent or anything. Obviously,
we can only do a couple big projects a month
and stuff, so we're but you've got it. Yeah, local
people we meet with if they're out of state or something,
we vet them with a phone call or something. But
they go there, they submit the form, our outreach coordinator
will email them back and so you're talking. Her name's Kelly,
(46:07):
she's fantastic, and they're talking with her.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
The beauty of this is it's based in Brentwood and
Nashville area, but you're reaching the country. So there's really
not a call to put this anywhere else in somebody's neighborhood.
There's just a call to continue to support and blow
up this because you can serve the country and your
capacity in one place, so.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
People around the country could be interested in starting their
own physical location so that they could do the packages.
So someone we were talking about before you got here,
or somebody in Dallas who's doing it, and I don't
know your openness, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Maybe there's unhelpful what I'm saying, but people doing it.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
No, it's okay in other locations.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
But obviously, like you know, imagine there's a group of
you know, ten women in Memphis who want to get
together and you know, physically put together the packages and
are you open to that.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
It's something that is on our radar. We have it's
just managing it, so it has to be right. So
he's right. We have. We have a donor in Dallas
that was like, I will support you guys financially and stuff.
I'd love a hands on way to do this, and
so we went down there and kind of worked it
(47:24):
out and so they her and her couple friends meet
once a month at her house. Her assistant manages it all.
So that that's really what makes it work is no
one on our staff is having to manage it all.
But they have a store setup just like we do,
super nice and they get together once a month. We
(47:44):
give them fifteen names that come in from our system,
and so they're basically volunteering remotely. But the only reason
that works is because they are invested and have someone
they're managing that. So she sends out the care packages,
she ships it all, she reports back to us everything
that was sent when it's sent.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Under that, guys, other people could reach out to you
if they wanted to go to that effort to do it. Yeah, satellites, Yes,
that that person that's going to give you the million dollars.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Well, I would be open to them doing a satellite Okay.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
I'm certain.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
My question is how do they reach you.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
They can donate on our website, same place yep, same
place forward yep, click donate and if they're going to.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Give a million, they should just they can call me.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
Yeah, they can cut my numbers on the website. They
can call me.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
Yeah, I think that's good.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
Yeah, they can call me. We do a lot of
family foundations definitely, like donor advise funds, all of that,
and then also listeners. I love at events talking about
our hope builders. So we have monthly donors. We've but
one hundred and seventy some monthly donors bring in one
hundred and thirty thousand dollars a year for us and
that and those.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Are probably the ten and twenty dollars.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
We have anywhere from ten to five hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Really, it's fabulous.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
And it's amazing because we have someone on our staff, Morgan,
she's incredible who manages our Hope Builders, and so it's
a good way to stay engaged because you're getting a
monthly email. You're getting you know, I mean one of
our Hope Builders lost her dad here recently. I saw,
so I like made sure Morgan knew that. And so
we really care for our hope Builders too because they're
(49:27):
so invested. So any type of donor, my goal is
to bring them closer to Christ. And I know someone
listening to this that's like, I don't even know Jesus
might feel like this is kind of she's she's like
a little Jesus freak or something. I don't know. There's
a lot of faith aspect of it, but but you know,
(49:48):
they might be like I don't even like, you know,
if you didn't grow up in church and grow up
with a faith and don't know Jesus, you might be like,
I don't even know. And so we someone asked me,
you know, do you only serve believers or and it's
like no, I mean, we're of course not. We don't
even know what they look like, or we know their address,
so we do know where they're from. But it doesn't matter,
(50:09):
like I wouldn't. I don't care anything your political view.
I don't care anything about you. That's the cool thing
about what we do. It doesn't even matter how much
you could be super wealthy, and we serve you. So
that's what I love about Faithful Restored is none of
that matters, doesn't matter if you're a believer, doesn't matter
what side of the aisle you're on, Like, we're here
(50:29):
to love you. We love you because of our hope
in Jesus. But if you don't believe in Jesus, that's
okay too, Like we're gonna we're gonna love you like
He loves you.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
So one of the thing I.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
Want to say is even for listeners who aren't Christian,
they don't have to serve in the way that you've served.
But your example of being present for people is something
that everybody can learn from you if they do it.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Absolutely, there's no doubt. There's an example here of the
importance of just being the I don A piece of
redemption I think is does your mom not work with you?
Speaker 3 (51:04):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (51:05):
So crazy?
Speaker 3 (51:06):
Oh it is so sweet. Yeah, it is really sweet.
She actually now comes in the office once a week
and she does all of our finances, so she's on
people about receipts and turning and all this stuff and donors.
She'll get to know some donors and stuff, and it's
it is really sweet. She's super proud, and it's just
(51:29):
a very.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
How ironic the product you are looking for from your
father ends up coming from your mother, who you thought abandoned.
Speaker 3 (51:35):
Right, Absolutely, just a true story of redemption.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
It is Jamie. Wow, what an amazing legacy that your
father and William allowed you to. I think that I
think that you were well prepared and conditioned the struggles
(52:00):
in your life to do exactly what you're doing now.
I think your father and your son's legacy, ironically, one
generation on either side of you, lives on through your work.
Little blessing.
Speaker 3 (52:14):
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share.
Speaker 1 (52:18):
It's been my honor and I have a safe trip
going home. And Daniel, if you're listening, dude, you got
a job. It's all good, bro. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 3 (52:27):
Thank you so much, and thank you for joining us
this week.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Yes, Sophia, thank you for joining me this week. If
Jamie Hurd has inspired you, in general, or better yet,
to take action by volunteering with or donating to Faithfully Restored,
submitting a prayer request to them, doing something like it
in your community, or something else entirely. Please let me
and Sophia know we'd love to hear about it. You
(52:55):
can write me anytime at Bill at normal folks dot us,
and I promise you I'll will respond. If you enjoyed
this episode, Sophia has some suggestions for you.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Come here, Sophia tell them if you enjoyed this episode,
share it with friends and on social subscribe to the podcast,
rate and review it. Join the armory at normal folks
dot us. Consider becoming a premium member. There all of
these things that will help grow an army of normal folks.
(53:28):
I'm Sylvia Cortez. Until next time, do what you.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
Can, Yeah, do what you can. Ring the bell, Sophia.
We'll see y'all next week.
Host
Bill Courtney
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