March 26, 2025 • 50 mins
What happens when everything you've built suddenly crumbles? For Lena, the collapse of her successful internet marketing business and the end of her marriage became the catalyst for extraordinary spiritual transformation. Her story reveals how God redirects our paths when we least expect it.
From dreaming of Hollywood stardom as a girl in Arctic Norway to becoming a top-producing internet marketer, Lena had achieved what looked like success. Yet beneath the accolades and material comfort, she recognized a spiritual emptiness—her relationship with God had become secondary to her ambitions. When her business unexpectedly collapsed in 2013, everything changed.
Today, Lena leads community outreach at her Los Angeles church while traveling to maximum security prisons in Mexico, providing eyeglasses and sharing the gospel with inmates who find profound joy despite their circumstances. Her approach to sharing faith is refreshingly practical—focusing on "seed sowing" rather than pressure, helping people move just one step closer to God through authentic conversation.
Perhaps most powerfully, Lena shares the life-altering experience of helping her severely autistic stepson recover from a debilitating swallowing disorder that nearly claimed his life. For nine months, she and her husband quit their jobs to spoon-feed him 12 hours daily, witnessing a miraculous recovery that culminated symbolically on Easter Sunday when he took his first bite of solid food.
Through these crucibles, Lena discovered a formula for unshakable joy: Jesus first, Others second, Yourself third. Her upcoming book explores living the abundant Christian life Jesus promised—finding peace, purpose, and strength regardless of external circumstances.
Ready to discover your unique spiritual gifts and calling? Visit shelivesabundantly.com for Lena's resources and join her journey toward purposeful Christian living. What unexpected detour might become your divine destination?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Free audio post production by Alphoniccom.
Top internet marketing producerand multiple award-winning
marketeer, she transitioned toChristian speaking and ministry.
She runs an inspirational blogand is working on a Christian
(00:37):
book.
As the director of EvangelismOutreach at her Los Angeles
church, lena teaches in-personevangelism classes and leads an
outreach ministry.
She also belongs to a prisonministry that travels to maximum
(01:00):
security prisons in Mexico toshare God's love with inmates.
She is married to Don Lena'sbonus mom to his three sons.
One son, with severe autism,nearly died from a swallowing
disorder a few years ago from aswallowing disorder a few years
(01:24):
ago, deeply impacting Lena'sresolve to live intentionally
for the Lord.
Lena, thank you so much forcoming on the show today.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Sure thing.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I'm so excited.
Thank you for having me.
It's an honor, absolutely.
As I always ask my guests, Ialways open with an icebreaker
question, and today's icebreakerquestion is what's your
favorite book and why does itresonate with you?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
no-transcript and enjoy the Christian life and not
just be so stressed out all thetime.
So this particular book that Iwas telling this person about is
called Growing Slow and iswritten by a wonderful woman by
(02:53):
the name of Jennifer Dukes Leeand she talks about what it
looks like to trust God'spurpose or trust God's process
rather well, purpose and processand just kind of allow yourself
to to do things a little slow,not like super slow, but, you
know, not rushing and stressingthrough life and not feel like
(03:14):
you always have deadlines tomeet, and you know just, uh,
just kind of take things alittle bit slower and the
rewards that you reap from that.
It's a really great book.
It's just very well written andit greatly impacted my life and
just helped me see that I was,you know, definitely one of
those people that stress toomuch and try to you know.
(03:39):
Just, you know you always feellike there's so many things to
do, right, and you just can'tkeep up with everything.
So that's the book that givesyou a good perspective.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
So that would probably be the one, yeah, okay,
how did you go from a contentcreator to speaking about God?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Wow, you know how can I answer that question in a
nutshell?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And you, don't have to answer in a nutshell, you can
give the long version of it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Okay, sure, well, you know, I've always kind of had
an entrepreneurial spirit andalways been very creative, very
artistic.
You know, I'm actually from thecountry of Norway, hence the
accent, and I grew up in the wayup in the north of Norway,
above the Arctic Circle.
And you know, even as a littlegirl, I love to create and teach
(04:36):
and just, you know, anythingthat I could do to just express
myself creatively orartistically, I would do it.
And I had this dream aboutbecoming an actress.
I wanted to move to Californiaas soon as I was old enough,
because, you know, that littlehometown that I grew up in, my
(04:58):
hometown in the north of Norway,was very, you know, very quiet
nothing ever really happenedthere Beautiful, but you know, I
thought boring and I wanted toget out and explore the world.
And actually, when I was 12years old, I told my grandma
that I wanted to move toCalifornia as soon as I was old
(05:20):
enough to become an actress.
And I remember she, you knowshe looked at me and she just
she's.
I remember her exact words.
She said why do you want tomove to America?
It's so dangerous there.
So of course she had never beenoutside the borders of Norway.
But long story short.
You know, when I was old enoughI think I was about 22, I moved
(05:43):
to California and, yeah, Ididn't listen to my grandma, I
wanted to do my own thing.
So I moved to California, toLos Angeles more specifically,
and I doubled in acting for awhile.
I graduated from college with adegree in theater and then I
guess you could say that's whenI officially became a content
(06:04):
creator, because you were askingabout, specifically, content
creation.
So then I became a contentcreator.
After that, in the context ofbeing a internet marketer, I
decided I was going to, you know, move away from acting and
start my online business.
I wanted to see if I couldfigure out how to make money
(06:25):
online and after some trial anderror, yeah, I got started with
an internet marketing companyand I would market coaching
packages, informational products, conferences, and I became very
good at it and started trainingothers to do the same, and I
(06:52):
became the top female produceractually with that company, very
successful.
I felt like I was on top of theworld.
But I didn't realize it at thattime, Dorsey.
I realized it later, lookingback, that I drifted away from
God in the process.
(07:12):
Now I became a Christianshortly after coming to
California.
The year after I came toCalifornia I arrived in the
summer of 1995.
So it's going to be 30 yearsnext year, 30 years since I came
to California.
The following year I gave my.
I came to California.
The following year.
I gave my life to the Lord.
I became a Christian.
It was very difficult to be aChristian in Hollywood.
(07:32):
A lot of temptations in thefilm industry, a lot of just,
mostly just expectations frompeople to compromise your
convictions, to being willing todo whatever it took, you know,
just to achieve fame and fortune.
So that was one of the reasons.
You know just kind ofbacktracking a little bit, that
was one of the reasons why Ifelt that God was calling me to
(07:52):
move out of the acting world anddo something different.
And that was when I startedlooking at ways that I could
build an online business, learnto market online.
It became very successful and,yeah, I trained other people to
market, spoke at events aroundthe country, even around the
(08:14):
world, and coached clients andreceived many awards.
And yeah, it was like I feltlike I really made it.
You know, all my dreams hadcome true.
I finally made something ofmyself.
All my dreams had come true.
(08:35):
I finally made something ofmyself, but what I was getting
at was that I didn't see it atthe time was that I had become
very lukewarm in my faith, whichis the same know also part of
the reason he showed me I neededto walk away from it, to put
him back on that as number onein my life.
And the same thing happeningwith marketing.
As I became very successful andwas making really good money and
(08:56):
traveling and bought my dreamhome and, by the way, I was also
married at the time.
As I was experiencing all thissuccess, my relationship with
God suffered.
I became very obsessed with mybusiness, just as I had been
with acting.
I became very obsessed withsuccess.
(09:21):
I became very materialistic andprideful success.
I became very materialistic andprideful and again God was
speaking to my heart aboutgetting my priorities straight.
He was very clearly speaking tome about how he wasn't number
one in my life anymore.
And then, in an unexpected turnof events, the company that I
(09:45):
represented it was a directsales company that I marketed
for it suddenly collapsedUnexpectedly, practically
overnight.
It was just the biggest shockand, as a result, I lost almost
all my customers and clients andincome sources, and this was in
2013.
(10:06):
And you know, in the midst ofit all, I actually I lost my
marriage, so I went through adivorce, on top of losing my
business.
While I was in this very darkand difficult season, that's
when God really started speakingto me in my heart about how I
(10:27):
needed to stop allowing myselfto get sidetracked and start
using my gifts and passions forthe kingdom.
So that is when I started toreally become convinced that
this experience that I havecreate content, writing,
teaching, speaking and so on Ineed to take this and start
(10:51):
using it for God's glory.
Not that you can't do that withmarketing, but I wanted to more
specifically focus on teachingwomen in the things of God and
also get back to sharing myfaith, because that is something
that I was very passionateabout as a new Christian.
But as I became very obsessedwith success, I kind of drifted
away from that.
(11:11):
It was no longer a priority forme to share my faith with
people.
I was just talking to peopleabout marketing instead of you
know Jesus.
So I felt like that wassomething else that God was
putting on my heart that youknow.
You need to get back to that.
You know you need to get backto that.
You know I gifted you in thisarea and I want you to use your
gifts, you know, for me.
(11:31):
So that is, you know kind ofhow that transition happened.
I, you know, from being a yeah,an internet marketer, a content
creator in the internetmarketing world, you know,
starting instead to createcontent, talks, written
(11:55):
information, trainings,different types of content for,
you know, christians andspecifically women who are
looking to grow in theirrelationship with the Lord.
Yeah, I know that was a longanswer, but you said I could
just make it long.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
That's what I did.
How did you get connected withthe?
You said in your bio and onyour site you mentioned that you
ministered to the prisons inMexico.
How did you get connected withthat and what is that like?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yes, so in addition to the local outreach ministry
that I lead at my church here inLos Angeles, I'm the director
of evangelism outreach, so Iteach and train people on how to
share their faith and we have aprogram where we reach out to
people in the community.
We can maybe get back to thatlater if there's time.
It's pretty extraordinary howGod has used that program to
(12:52):
actually double the size of ourchurch in two years just from
sharing God's love with thepeople in our community.
It's just extraordinary.
But so in addition to that,there's another ministry that is
very close to my heart and thatis a prison ministry, and that
prison ministry is somethingthat I got involved with.
(13:15):
Let me see, I think it'sprobably about six years now
that I've been part of thatministry, and that ministry I
got connected through the churchthat I was attending at the
time.
I lived in a different part ofLA at the time, so I had a
different church not where Iattend now who told me about
(13:45):
this ministry and I was like,wow, that sounds fascinating,
interesting and super scary.
So let me try it out.
I love new challenges and Ilove stepping outside of my
comfort zone, and that was justanother opportunity to try
something new and see how itwent, and of course, it was
pretty intimidating.
The first time it was quite asurreal experience to walk into
(14:11):
a maximum security prison in thedesert of Mexico.
You know there's like nothingout there and you walk in and
there's, you know, all theseinmates with shackles on their
hands and feet and tattoos.
You know gang related tattoosall over their heads and faces
and arms.
And you know, and then we sharethe gospel with them.
(14:34):
Sharing the gospel with thesemen.
It's part of a vision ministry.
We actually we do a vision teston the inmates ministry.
We actually we do a vision teston the inmates.
We are trained to do that to,you know, to test their eyesight
, to see if they need glasses,which most of the men do.
They don't really have accessto eyeglasses.
(14:55):
They have very little like.
I mean, not even like the barenecessities.
It's really it just gives yousome perspective to go and see
how these men live.
It's like it teaches you to begrateful about little things.
But yeah, so they don't haveeyeglasses.
Many of them need it.
So we are trained to do visiontests on them and then we
provide them with freeeyeglasses and we use that
(15:20):
little act of kindness to sharethe gospel with them, to talk to
them about God's love, and theyare so open.
It is absolutely incrediblethat the openness that we are
met by in these maximum securityprisons.
I'm going again in the middle ofDecember and really looking
(15:41):
forward to that because Ihaven't been able to go for a
little while because of thelocal ministry that I lead and
just obligations that I havewith the kids here at home.
But I'm really looking forwardto going back and you know it
just empowers you to see howGod's at work in these prisons
because I mean, people aregetting saved right and left.
This is a ministry that goesback.
(16:03):
I think it's about two decadesnow, so long before I started.
They go this ministry.
I don't go every month but theministry, this vision ministry,
is called Into Focus Vision.
The ministry group, the team,travels actually every single
month to the prison.
So you can imagine you know allthese years of doing that and
(16:26):
just you know God workingthrough this team and to share
the gospel with these men whohave so much time you know to
read.
I mean we give them Bibles, ofcourse, christian tracts.
There are so many of these menthat have gotten saved as a
result of this ministry, workingin the prisons now for two
(16:47):
decades.
And then these inmates go aheadand pass it on, so they share
the gospel with other inmatesand even with the guards.
So the gospel is spreading likewildfire in these prisons and
it's just extraordinary to seeWow, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
In these prisons and it's just extraordinary to see.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Wow, that's awesome and yeah, I think it really
strengthens you so much in yourfaith to see God do stuff like
that in dark places, to shineHis light in the dark corners
and see men who are.
You know, many of them arenever going to get out.
(17:28):
They are there for life butthey have hope because they have
Jesus.
So you talk to them and you seethat they have true joy.
In spite of the hard, hard lifethat they lead and in spite of
the fact that they are maybenever going to get out of that
(17:49):
facility.
They have a sense of purposeand joy and many of them get
involved.
They have in prison ministry,they have church in the prison,
Some of the men sing, they haveBible studies.
So it's amazing to see that youcan be in such hopeless
circumstances and still havehope, and these men do, the ones
(18:14):
that have gotten to know theLord.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Why are you so passionate about ministering to
women?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yes, you know that is a great question Ministering to
women.
Well, I think that as women, wereally often we struggle to
understand our identity in Jesusand feel that we are enough.
You know, we just always wearso many hats.
(18:45):
We're always needed somewhere.
There's always, you know,something to do for someone
right, and I feel that teachingwomen how they can grow in their
relationship with the Lord isone of the most important things
that I can do as a Christianwoman myself.
(19:05):
I feel that there is justreally nothing more worthwhile.
I feel that the experiences andgifts and passions that God has
given me for speaking andteaching and writing, that I
feel that he's expecting me toput them to good use and to not
waste any more time chasingafter things that really aren't
(19:30):
important, eternally speaking,and that's what I did for many
years of my life and so, yeah,so it just makes sense to help
other women and I am passionateabout it also because it's so
meaningful.
It fills my life with purpose,just like sharing the Lord,
(19:52):
talking to people about Jesus,sharing the gospel same thing.
It just gives me so much joyand satisfaction, so much joy
and satisfaction, and to knowthat I am finally focusing on
something that has eternal valueand that, you know, maybe, you
know, with God's help, I'mmaking a little bit of a
(20:13):
difference.
So, yeah, that's why I'mpassionate about teaching women,
helping them grow.
You know, like I myself, youknow, many years ago, when I was
, you know, new in California,struggling to kind of, you know,
find my place, didn't know manypeople, I was always well, I
(20:34):
was a new Christian and I wasalways, you know, looking for
resources and looking for, youknow, like a strong Christian
woman that I could follow andlearn from.
And I didn't really have it.
Back then we didn't even havethe internet, you know this was,
you know, pre internet.
So I know how important that is, you know, to have like a
strong woman leader that you canfollow and learn from.
And I think that's what we'resupposed to do with our
(20:54):
experiences is to pass them on,you know, to others.
And, yeah, you know to othersand, yeah, you know, help others
to make things a little easierfor them by sharing what we have
gone through, good or bad.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
How would you encourage someone, whether male
or female, to you know tellothers about seizures or witness
to someone you know aboutseizures, but without becoming
too pushy or too governmental?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, you know, a lot of times we have kind of a fear
about that.
We think that we have to knowall the Bible verses and know
how to present the gospel, youknow from beginning to end, and
we think it's this scary youknow scary experience and for
(21:48):
sure it's going to go wrong andwe're going to get rejected, and
so we don't do it.
You know we have these fearsand I think that you know a lot
of the time that's the enemy.
He wants to put fears in ourmind, make us think that it's so
difficult and to keep us fromdoing it.
And I like to look at myselfnot so much of an evangelist, as
(22:11):
a seed sower, and this is whatI always tell my team when we go
out and do outreach.
We have this program that werun that I mentioned earlier.
Every Saturday morning we goout and talk with actually
anywhere from 200 to 350families that line up on the
sidewalk outside of our churchhere in Downey, california every
(22:34):
Saturday morning to receivefood items from the church's
food bank and what my outreachteam and I do is that we go and
strike up conversations withthese families that are waiting
in line.
Some of them stand there forhours and we go on and talk with
them while they're waiting inline for their food items from
the food bank, and just chatwith them.
(22:57):
And so I have a team that Ilead.
We do this Saturday morning and, as we mentioned earlier, I
also teach evangelism classes,and so what I always tell the
attendees or my team members isthat when you just look at
(23:17):
yourself as a seed sower, ittakes almost all the pressure
off.
If you picture a person being,you know, on the scale from like
zero to 10, say, zero is thehardcore atheist, right, who
just doesn't want to hear aboutGod at all, completely closed.
(23:38):
And then a person who said a 10is the passionate Christian who
sold out for the Lord and justloves Jesus, right.
So if you picture the peopleyou talk to being anywhere on
the spectrum right from betweena zero to a 10, okay, let's say
a person is a number two.
Don't feel pressure to try totake that person from two to 10.
(24:03):
That's very, very unlikely thatthat's going to happen.
Praise God if it happens, butdon't expect it.
Just focus on taking them onestep closer to God.
Maybe your task is just to takethe person from a two to a
three, or maybe from a seven toan eight.
You know, a little bit closerto Jesus, help them open up a
(24:25):
little bit more, because Goduses a number of people a lot of
the time to save someone andyou know it's not up to us to
save people anyway.
You know we can't make ithappen.
That is God that saves people.
So if you don't think so muchabout closing, you know, oh, I
(24:46):
have to get them from zero to 10, from being a hardcore atheist
to being sold out for the Lord,and get them to pray and receive
Jesus.
You know, if you don't thinklike that and you just think,
okay, you know what I'm justgoing to love on them, I'm just
going to.
You know, listen to them.
Listening is such a big part ofit.
You know, when you're willingto listen and people notice that
(25:06):
you truly care about them, theyopen up and you start, you know
, building that relationship,and then maybe you don't, maybe
you don't even get to say thatmuch the first time you talk,
but next time now they're goingto be like super open because
you show that you were open tolisten to them.
So now, next time, they'regoing to be open to listen to
you, right, sometimes it maytake several conversations.
(25:27):
So when you do that, whenyou're just willing to listen,
show love and compassion andjust focus on yeah, maybe just
getting them a little bit closerto Jesus than they were before,
then it's not very difficult atall.
And you know, when I dotrainings at my church, I also
(25:49):
teach on how to go from thenatural to the spiritual.
That's a way to do it.
It may sound complicated, oryou know like if you've never
done it before, or you know likeif you've never done it before,
but you basically it's a waythat you can transition from
talking about natural topics,which not natural would be
anything that is not spiritual.
Right, you transition fromnatural topics to spiritual
(26:10):
topics.
You don't usually walk up tosomebody like you know a
stranger and just start talkingto them about Jesus right away.
You know some people can dothat and do a good job at it.
That's not how I do it.
That's not what I teach my team.
I teach it more like it's justa natural part of the
conversation.
As you progress, you go fromtalking about natural that is,
(26:30):
non-spiritual topics to talkingabout spiritual topics and it's
just a natural part of, you know, of the conversation.
It's really not difficult atall, and when you listen and you
pay attention and you just kindof pray internally and like
keep your spiritual antenna up,you know God will show you like,
he will like steer theconversation in a way that, oh,
(26:53):
wow, it seems natural to youknow to talk about God here.
So let me introduce the topicof God, for example.
Just to give you a quickexample, if I'm talking with
somebody and they tell me, oh, Iwas, let's say, you know, I was
raised in Mexico, okay, we'retalking about just non-spiritual
things and they tell me they'refrom Mexico and I'm like, aha,
(27:15):
okay, now I can easilytransition to a spiritual
question.
I go from asking them where theywere raised the answer is
Mexico to asking them what themain religion is in Mexico.
Now I'm asking a spiritualquestion.
I go from a natural question toa spiritual question.
So I ask them yeah, is that orwhat is the main religion in
(27:38):
Mexico?
And they say, let's say theysay Catholicism.
Then I'll ask them the questionoh, is that your background as
well?
Are you a Catholic?
You see how easy that is.
Now, suddenly we're talkingabout spiritual things and from
there now, the door is wide openand it's not pushy at all.
(28:00):
It's not pushy at all.
It's not pushy at all.
So, yeah, so that's what I tellpeople Just listen carefully,
show compassion for people andjust try to transition from the
natural to the spiritual as Godleads, and don't think too much
(28:24):
about the outcome of theconversation.
You know, just sow those seeds.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So that's kind of the bottom line I would say when
you were talking about you knowthe growth and going you know
from like a 3 to a 4 or 7 to an8,.
I thought about a Bible versethat someone told me one time
it's either Corinthians or 1Corinthians or 2 Corinthians and
(28:48):
it talks about you know wewater, you know we sow, but it's
God that gives the growth.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yes, exactly right, it's very biblical, it's a
biblical way to look at it, forsure.
And, yeah, I think we have toget away from this idea that
it's all up to us, you know, putall this pressure on ourselves.
It's up to me, you know, forthis person to get saved.
No, you know, god will use,like I said earlier, very often,
(29:19):
a number of people to you know,to get a person saved.
And I just, you know, I wassaying this even last Saturday
to one of my team members, as wewere out sharing the gospel.
I said to her I had aconversation with a man who was
very close.
He didn't even want to hearabout church at all, but he was
friendly, he was just very firmand, you know, I just kind of
(29:43):
listened.
I didn't try to argue with him,mostly I just listened because
I realized that he wasn't openand I just tried to be kind and
polite and respectful.
And I said to my team memberafter that conversation, just
kind of, you know, giving her alittle recap of how that
conversation had gone, I saidyou know, my main goal, as I was
(30:07):
talking with this man, wasreally just to give a good
impression of Jesus, you know ofa Christian, or you know of a
Christian as a representative ofJesus, I should say right, and
I wanted him to walk away, justfeeling like he wasn't being
pushed, that I wasn't trying tocram my beliefs down his throat
(30:27):
that's what people sometimeswill say, that we do and I
didn't want him to feel likethat.
I just wanted him to feelrespected so that, even though
he clearly wasn't open at thatmoment to hear about the Lord,
maybe at some point in thefuture he will be and then
hopefully he will have a goodimpression of at least, you know
(30:49):
, he will hopefully have a goodimpression of the Christian that
he spoke to me that morning.
Hopefully, because, again, thatwas just really my goal was to
try to make him feel like, yeah,I was just there to listen and
I wasn't there to try to pushanything on him, and I think
that's very important, as werealize that God has a different
(31:10):
timing, you know, a differenttime for every person.
Not everybody's going to, youknow, go from zero to 10 at that
moment, but just maybe, even ifwe can just be good ambassadors
for Jesus, the way that we comeacross, that will leave the
person with a feeling that.
(31:31):
Oh yeah, you know, theseChristians are actually okay.
You know, they're nice people.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I was wrong about them, so yeah, how do you get
through hard times with yourglory intact?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
all times with your joy intact.
Yes, that is a wonderful,wonderful question.
It's funny that you asked thatbecause I was actually earlier
today.
I was sitting here, I waspolishing an article for my blog
article for my blog and thatarticle is actually titled how
(32:17):
to Spell Joy this Christmas.
How to Spell Joy this ChristmasI don't know if you've heard
this acronym before, dorsey, butJ-O-Y.
It said that it stands for Jesus, others and you, jesus, others,
you.
That spells joy, and if we canreally just try to keep Jesus
(32:38):
first and other people and focusa little less on ourselves, I
think that we are going toexperience joy and we are going
to realize that we can havetremendous joy even when life is
difficult.
When I say to put yourself last, you know, of course I don't
mean to be a doormat, I justmean that you know we naturally
(33:01):
have a tendency to put ourselvesfirst.
You know it's just what we doas humans.
You know because we are, youknow, self-centered.
Just what we do as humans.
You know because we are, youknow, self-centered.
But I can tell you wow, youknow, I could talk about this,
you know, for hours.
Obviously I won't, but I thinkthese days I will say whenever I
have a tough day and I focus on, you know, jesus, just drawing
(33:26):
close to Him.
You know, really just get alonewith God, just try to quiet
myself, you know, stop rushingand running around so much.
It's especially easy to doright now in the holiday season
Everybody's rushing and running.
But I just try to get quiet,quiet with God and just, you
know, seek Him and ponderScripture, not just read it, but
(33:49):
really meditate on it and prayto God to just open up my
spiritual eyes, to understandwhat he's wanting to communicate
with me.
I find that it gives me a lotof joy and I feel this is not
just now difficult things thatI've been through in the past.
The answer is really always,you know, to draw close, closer,
(34:11):
always, you know, to Jesus.
And you know now I am soblessed also to be a bonus mom,
as you said in your introduction, to three wonderful young men,
my husband's three sons.
I mentioned earlier that I wasmarried a number of years ago
and got divorced, and I wasblessed to get remarried now
(34:35):
come four and a half years ago.
So I don't have my ownbiological children, but I get
to be a bonus mom to myhusband's three sons and, as you
also mentioned, one of the boyshas severe autism and he almost
died in the summer of 2021.
(34:58):
I mean, it was a miracle that hesurvived.
He had a debilitatingswallowing disorder and he just
to put it in perspective, helost 80 pounds in six months.
It's a lot of weight and afterhis life was saved at the ER,
this was the third time we tookhim to the ER.
(35:18):
You know, we, by doctor'sorders, we rehabilitated him at
home and his name is Christopher.
My stepson's name isChristopher.
We had actually to quit our jobs, my husband and I, to care for
Christopher full time, and wespent 12 hours a day spoon
(35:45):
feeding Christopher to try totrain his throat to start
working normally again.
And there were many days, for areally long time, when we
thought, you know, wow, this isnot working.
And we thought, you know whatif we have to put him on a
(36:06):
feeding tube for the rest of hislife?
That was the last thing wewanted.
But, you know, we realized hecouldn't live like that.
You know, he couldn't eat, hecouldn't drink.
It would take him, you know, 30minutes to swallow a tiny
spoonful of minced foodsnutrition-rich minced foods that
my husband had spent an hourpreparing chopping just to so
(36:26):
Christopher will get, you know,the nutrients that he needed.
And he had to gain weight.
You know, every hour, every day, centered around to help
Christopher get the strengthback in his throat and train
himself to eat and drink and sohe could start gaining some
weight back.
And you know it was a nightmarebut, to say the least, horrific
(36:47):
.
But it was a nightmare but, tosay the least, horrific.
But you know, god worked amiracle and after nine months of
working with Christopher andhelping him train his throat and
you know every waking moment ofevery day nine months later,
christopher took his first biteof solid food, and that was
(37:08):
actually an Easter Sunday of2021.
So it was incredible.
And from there he transitionedto solid foods.
Christopher today is healed.
And your question was about joy.
But it's just impossible for meto talk about joy without
mentioning Christopher, becausethese days I have to tell you I
(37:31):
just look over that kid I meanhe's 23 years old now, but you
know he's always going to be akid and I just look over at him
and I'm filled with joy.
It's like I cannot not have joy.
You know, when I gotChristopher in my life and I
think about what, you know, goddid for our family.
And in the same time periodnine months, you know, not only
(37:53):
did Christopher go from you knownot being able to eat to eating
solid foods or eating, you know, from eating minced foods just
barely being able to swallow itand get it down to eating, you
know, a hamburger onResurrection Sunday down to
(38:13):
eating a hamburger onResurrection Sunday.
But he also went from being soweak that he could just barely
sit upright, let alone walk ormove or anything, to walking, to
jogging, to running, toswimming, to lifting light
weights at the gym, to dancing.
He goes to school.
Now he goes to art school.
It's incredible, you know, therecovery that God brought about
(38:34):
in this young man's life, and tosee what God's done.
But yeah, so I think you know mypoint is that everybody's got
hard times.
Sometimes we have excruciatingtimes.
You know those times where wefeel like I don't even know how
I'm going to get through this.
(38:54):
All we can do is cling to God,cling to Scripture, cling to His
promises, you know, and then wecan find this unspeakable joy,
this supernatural peace that theBible speaks about.
Joy and peace both in thesesituations.
And then for me, on top of that, just speaking for myself,
(39:17):
christopher is my joy too, andthe more I can focus on him and
just being there for him,pouring myself into him, just
spending time with him, lookingat him and seeing the miracle
that God's done, the more joy Ialso can have, even when I have
days that are not as good.
(39:37):
Everybody's got bad days, right.
So for anybody who's listeningto this, I would say what are
God done for you?
What memories, what reflections, what experiences in your life
do you have that really justshowed you know God's hand in
(40:03):
your life, and I think when wego through difficult times, we
can think about that.
You know we can think about howGod has been faithful to us in
the past, and the Bible saysthat God is the same today and
tomorrow.
You know he doesn't changeright, and you know if we're
going through something hardright now, well, you know what
God came through for us in thepast, so he's going to come
(40:25):
through for us again.
You know he's faithful, he'snot changing All right, he is
the same always.
So, and I think you know theBible is a great place also to
go to to see how God has workedin the lives of His people.
You know, we read about, youknow Joseph or Abraham or Moses
(40:49):
or Paul or whoever it may be,and we see how God proved
himself to be so faithful intheir lives.
And we, you know.
This is why reading the Bibleempowers us, right.
It just gives us spiritualpower and just gives us the
ability to get through difficulttimes Because, yeah, we open
(41:09):
the pages of Scripture and wesay this is the same God that we
serve today.
He came through for His people.
Then He'll come through for Hispeople.
Now He'll come through for us.
So, yeah, focus on Jesus,others first before yourself,
and that will give you joy anddraw close to God and reflect on
(41:32):
the times that he's comethrough for you.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Amen.
Can you tell us about yourupcoming book the Blundie
Christian Life?
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yes, my upcoming book .
It is simply speaking.
It is about how to live theabundant Christian life that
Jesus promised to those whofollow him.
Now, of course, Jesus said inthe Gospel of John he said I
(42:15):
have come to give you life, lifeabundantly, and by that he
meant spiritual abundance.
He meant that he came to giveus peace, inner peace and
strength and joy and confidenceand purpose.
You know, jesus came to give usall those things.
(42:39):
So what I do in my book, whichI'm working on you know we're
working towards a release datein the early summer of next year
and what I do in the book isthat I, through stories,
illustrations, examples from myown life and my own journey and
stories of people that God's puton my path through life, I talk
(43:00):
about how to have more of thesethings Joy, peace, strength,
confidence and purpose strength,confidence and purpose and
really just kind of try to makeit relatable to the readers so
that they can walk away withsomething both to reflect on and
take action with.
So that's what I do in thisbook, so I'm looking forward to
(43:23):
getting it out there.
But I do have if it's okay to,maybe I could mention that I do
have some resources that areavailable right now for anybody
who might be interested.
On my blog you can go and findmany articles, inspirational
stories.
(43:43):
The link isshelivesabundantlycom.
That's the websiteshelivesabundantlycom.
Not only do I have a blog there, but I also have some
downloadable resources.
I have a outline that takes youthrough how to share your faith
in just a very easy andhands-on way, and this is the
(44:08):
same training material that Iteach when I do evangelism
trainings at my church.
I have a brainstorming log thathelps you discover your calling
well, discover your spiritualgifts as well as your calling
and I have a list of biblicalaffirmations that you can help
(44:30):
to train yourself to think morebiblically.
So these resources areavailable as of right now, so
any listeners can access that ifthey are interested.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah that's great, and I'll have those links on the
show notes as well.
Yeah, very good.
What is an encouragement thatyou would give to my listeners?
Speaker 1 (44:57):
An encouragement.
Well, you know, I believe thatyou know we all have a very
unique purpose in God's plan.
You know we all have a veryunique purpose in God's plan.
Me personally, I was like allover the place, you know, before
I finally found what you know.
I believe that my purpose Well,let me put it like this Okay,
(45:23):
very simply, our purpose is tolove God and love people.
You know, that's what Jesussaid is most important.
That's what we're all called todo as followers of Jesus.
And then, you know, we all havevarious callings in life, and
my callings one is to teach andtrain people in how to share
(45:43):
their faith.
Another calling is to speak towomen about how to grow in their
relationship with God.
I have another calling, whichis to be a bonus mom and play a
role in the lives of myhusband's three sons.
So we have these differentcallings and you know some last
our entire lives.
Other callings are seasonal,but we all have callings and we
(46:09):
have a purpose.
And that is truly one of themost incredible and encouraging
experiences you can have whenyou figure out how you get to
play a role in God's plan.
(46:29):
And God's gifted us in so manydifferent ways.
You know he's gifted you in aparticular area, doris, and me
in a different one.
Maybe we have some of the samegifts, but you know we all have,
you know, different, not allthe same opportunities, but God
has a way for each and every oneof us to use the gifts that he
(46:50):
has blessed us with.
So I would say, if you feeldiscouraged right now, if you
feel that maybe you're notreally tuned into God's plan for
your life, that maybe youhaven't quite discovered it yet,
what His calling or callingsare, you know on your life, I
(47:12):
would say you know, wait nolonger.
You know God wants to use you,your gifts, your experiences,
your passions, your personality,to bless someone else.
And again we're going back tothe acronym joy, right, jesus,
others, you, you are going toexperience tremendous joy as you
(47:35):
get to be used by God to blesssomeone else.
And so, yeah, I would say, takea spiritual gifts test and go
through the process ofdiscovering your calling.
Again, I just mentioned that Ihave a worksheet for this on my
blog and you are going to beamazed.
(47:56):
Do that prayerfully, ask God toopen some doors for you and
you'll see that he's got for allof us.
He's got so much more for usthan we are, even you know, able
to imagine Like we limitourselves.
You know, dorsey, we do thatall the time and God is like, no
, you know, you're going to doso much more.
(48:19):
Are you willing to grow intoyour calling?
Because sometimes we're soafraid, you know.
But if we're willing to justtrust God and take that step, he
will grow us and we'll see that, yeah, with His help, I can do
this.
And then just that feeling ofyou know, strength, that you
know how it strengthens ourfaith, you know, when we see God
work through us to you know,whether it be to share the
(48:41):
gospel with somebody or justserve somebody, do something for
God, you know, to build thekingdom.
It's just that spiritualstrength that he gives us is
just nothing like it.
You know, yeah, so yeah,hopefully that's a good word of
encouragement, god, and start,you know, doing the things you
(49:03):
need to do practically to stepinto your calling and God will
work it out.
God will work it out and hewill use you.
It's always him working throughus, even when we feel like
we're not qualified.
The most important thing is tobe available, to make ourselves
available, not so much abilityas availability.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Well, Lina, thank you so much for coming on the show
today.
We greatly appreciate havingyou.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show today.
We greatly appreciate havingyou.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Thank you so much.
It was wonderful to be on thecall with you, and thank you so
much to the listeners and I justsay God bless you everyone and
we'll talk to you again soon.
Take care.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
Well, guys and girls, thank you so much for coming on
and listening.
Take care.
Well, guys and girls, thank youso much for coming on and
listening.
As I said, I'll have Lena'slinks to her blog and her
website and please go and checkout this interview, share it and
like it.
And please like my website andmy podcast as well, and listen
(50:07):
to previous episodes.
And until next time, god bless.
Free audio post production by Alphoniccom.
Top internet marketing producerand multiple award-winning
marketeer, she transitioned toChristian speaking and ministry.
She runs an inspirational blogand is working on a Christian
(00:37):
book.
As the director of EvangelismOutreach at her Los Angeles
church, lena teaches in-personevangelism classes and leads an
outreach ministry.
She also belongs to a prisonministry that travels to maximum
(01:00):
security prisons in Mexico toshare God's love with inmates.
She is married to Don Lena'sbonus mom to his three sons.
One son, with severe autism,nearly died from a swallowing
disorder a few years ago from aswallowing disorder a few years
(01:24):
ago, deeply impacting Lena'sresolve to live intentionally
for the Lord.
Lena, thank you so much forcoming on the show today.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Sure thing.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I'm so excited.
Thank you for having me.
It's an honor, absolutely.
As I always ask my guests, Ialways open with an icebreaker
question, and today's icebreakerquestion is what's your
favorite book and why does itresonate with you?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
no-transcript and enjoy the Christian life and not
just be so stressed out all thetime.
So this particular book that Iwas telling this person about is
called Growing Slow and iswritten by a wonderful woman by
(02:53):
the name of Jennifer Dukes Leeand she talks about what it
looks like to trust God'spurpose or trust God's process
rather well, purpose and processand just kind of allow yourself
to to do things a little slow,not like super slow, but, you
know, not rushing and stressingthrough life and not feel like
(03:14):
you always have deadlines tomeet, and you know just, uh,
just kind of take things alittle bit slower and the
rewards that you reap from that.
It's a really great book.
It's just very well written andit greatly impacted my life and
just helped me see that I was,you know, definitely one of
those people that stress toomuch and try to you know.
(03:39):
Just, you know you always feellike there's so many things to
do, right, and you just can'tkeep up with everything.
So that's the book that givesyou a good perspective.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
So that would probably be the one, yeah, okay,
how did you go from a contentcreator to speaking about God?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Wow, you know how can I answer that question in a
nutshell?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And you, don't have to answer in a nutshell, you can
give the long version of it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Okay, sure, well, you know, I've always kind of had
an entrepreneurial spirit andalways been very creative, very
artistic.
You know, I'm actually from thecountry of Norway, hence the
accent, and I grew up in the wayup in the north of Norway,
above the Arctic Circle.
And you know, even as a littlegirl, I love to create and teach
(04:36):
and just, you know, anythingthat I could do to just express
myself creatively orartistically, I would do it.
And I had this dream aboutbecoming an actress.
I wanted to move to Californiaas soon as I was old enough,
because, you know, that littlehometown that I grew up in, my
(04:58):
hometown in the north of Norway,was very, you know, very quiet
nothing ever really happenedthere Beautiful, but you know, I
thought boring and I wanted toget out and explore the world.
And actually, when I was 12years old, I told my grandma
that I wanted to move toCalifornia as soon as I was old
(05:20):
enough to become an actress.
And I remember she, you knowshe looked at me and she just
she's.
I remember her exact words.
She said why do you want tomove to America?
It's so dangerous there.
So of course she had never beenoutside the borders of Norway.
But long story short.
You know, when I was old enoughI think I was about 22, I moved
(05:43):
to California and, yeah, Ididn't listen to my grandma, I
wanted to do my own thing.
So I moved to California, toLos Angeles more specifically,
and I doubled in acting for awhile.
I graduated from college with adegree in theater and then I
guess you could say that's whenI officially became a content
(06:04):
creator, because you were askingabout, specifically, content
creation.
So then I became a contentcreator.
After that, in the context ofbeing a internet marketer, I
decided I was going to, you know, move away from acting and
start my online business.
I wanted to see if I couldfigure out how to make money
(06:25):
online and after some trial anderror, yeah, I got started with
an internet marketing companyand I would market coaching
packages, informational products, conferences, and I became very
good at it and started trainingothers to do the same, and I
(06:52):
became the top female produceractually with that company, very
successful.
I felt like I was on top of theworld.
But I didn't realize it at thattime, Dorsey.
I realized it later, lookingback, that I drifted away from
God in the process.
(07:12):
Now I became a Christianshortly after coming to
California.
The year after I came toCalifornia I arrived in the
summer of 1995.
So it's going to be 30 yearsnext year, 30 years since I came
to California.
The following year I gave my.
I came to California.
The following year.
I gave my life to the Lord.
I became a Christian.
It was very difficult to be aChristian in Hollywood.
(07:32):
A lot of temptations in thefilm industry, a lot of just,
mostly just expectations frompeople to compromise your
convictions, to being willing todo whatever it took, you know,
just to achieve fame and fortune.
So that was one of the reasons.
You know just kind ofbacktracking a little bit, that
was one of the reasons why Ifelt that God was calling me to
(07:52):
move out of the acting world anddo something different.
And that was when I startedlooking at ways that I could
build an online business, learnto market online.
It became very successful and,yeah, I trained other people to
market, spoke at events aroundthe country, even around the
(08:14):
world, and coached clients andreceived many awards.
And yeah, it was like I feltlike I really made it.
You know, all my dreams hadcome true.
I finally made something ofmyself.
All my dreams had come true.
(08:35):
I finally made something ofmyself, but what I was getting
at was that I didn't see it atthe time was that I had become
very lukewarm in my faith, whichis the same know also part of
the reason he showed me I neededto walk away from it, to put
him back on that as number onein my life.
And the same thing happeningwith marketing.
As I became very successful andwas making really good money and
(08:56):
traveling and bought my dreamhome and, by the way, I was also
married at the time.
As I was experiencing all thissuccess, my relationship with
God suffered.
I became very obsessed with mybusiness, just as I had been
with acting.
I became very obsessed withsuccess.
(09:21):
I became very materialistic andprideful success.
I became very materialistic andprideful and again God was
speaking to my heart aboutgetting my priorities straight.
He was very clearly speaking tome about how he wasn't number
one in my life anymore.
And then, in an unexpected turnof events, the company that I
(09:45):
represented it was a directsales company that I marketed
for it suddenly collapsedUnexpectedly, practically
overnight.
It was just the biggest shockand, as a result, I lost almost
all my customers and clients andincome sources, and this was in
2013.
(10:06):
And you know, in the midst ofit all, I actually I lost my
marriage, so I went through adivorce, on top of losing my
business.
While I was in this very darkand difficult season, that's
when God really started speakingto me in my heart about how I
(10:27):
needed to stop allowing myselfto get sidetracked and start
using my gifts and passions forthe kingdom.
So that is when I started toreally become convinced that
this experience that I havecreate content, writing,
teaching, speaking and so on Ineed to take this and start
(10:51):
using it for God's glory.
Not that you can't do that withmarketing, but I wanted to more
specifically focus on teachingwomen in the things of God and
also get back to sharing myfaith, because that is something
that I was very passionateabout as a new Christian.
But as I became very obsessedwith success, I kind of drifted
away from that.
(11:11):
It was no longer a priority forme to share my faith with
people.
I was just talking to peopleabout marketing instead of you
know Jesus.
So I felt like that wassomething else that God was
putting on my heart that youknow.
You need to get back to that.
You know you need to get backto that.
You know I gifted you in thisarea and I want you to use your
gifts, you know, for me.
(11:31):
So that is, you know kind ofhow that transition happened.
I, you know, from being a yeah,an internet marketer, a content
creator in the internetmarketing world, you know,
starting instead to createcontent, talks, written
(11:55):
information, trainings,different types of content for,
you know, christians andspecifically women who are
looking to grow in theirrelationship with the Lord.
Yeah, I know that was a longanswer, but you said I could
just make it long.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
That's what I did.
How did you get connected withthe?
You said in your bio and onyour site you mentioned that you
ministered to the prisons inMexico.
How did you get connected withthat and what is that like?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yes, so in addition to the local outreach ministry
that I lead at my church here inLos Angeles, I'm the director
of evangelism outreach, so Iteach and train people on how to
share their faith and we have aprogram where we reach out to
people in the community.
We can maybe get back to thatlater if there's time.
It's pretty extraordinary howGod has used that program to
(12:52):
actually double the size of ourchurch in two years just from
sharing God's love with thepeople in our community.
It's just extraordinary.
But so in addition to that,there's another ministry that is
very close to my heart and thatis a prison ministry, and that
prison ministry is somethingthat I got involved with.
(13:15):
Let me see, I think it'sprobably about six years now
that I've been part of thatministry, and that ministry I
got connected through the churchthat I was attending at the
time.
I lived in a different part ofLA at the time, so I had a
different church not where Iattend now who told me about
(13:45):
this ministry and I was like,wow, that sounds fascinating,
interesting and super scary.
So let me try it out.
I love new challenges and Ilove stepping outside of my
comfort zone, and that was justanother opportunity to try
something new and see how itwent, and of course, it was
pretty intimidating.
The first time it was quite asurreal experience to walk into
(14:11):
a maximum security prison in thedesert of Mexico.
You know there's like nothingout there and you walk in and
there's, you know, all theseinmates with shackles on their
hands and feet and tattoos.
You know gang related tattoosall over their heads and faces
and arms.
And you know, and then we sharethe gospel with them.
(14:34):
Sharing the gospel with thesemen.
It's part of a vision ministry.
We actually we do a vision teston the inmates ministry.
We actually we do a vision teston the inmates.
We are trained to do that to,you know, to test their eyesight
, to see if they need glasses,which most of the men do.
They don't really have accessto eyeglasses.
(14:55):
They have very little like.
I mean, not even like the barenecessities.
It's really it just gives yousome perspective to go and see
how these men live.
It's like it teaches you to begrateful about little things.
But yeah, so they don't haveeyeglasses.
Many of them need it.
So we are trained to do visiontests on them and then we
provide them with freeeyeglasses and we use that
(15:20):
little act of kindness to sharethe gospel with them, to talk to
them about God's love, and theyare so open.
It is absolutely incrediblethat the openness that we are
met by in these maximum securityprisons.
I'm going again in the middle ofDecember and really looking
(15:41):
forward to that because Ihaven't been able to go for a
little while because of thelocal ministry that I lead and
just obligations that I havewith the kids here at home.
But I'm really looking forwardto going back and you know it
just empowers you to see howGod's at work in these prisons
because I mean, people aregetting saved right and left.
This is a ministry that goesback.
(16:03):
I think it's about two decadesnow, so long before I started.
They go this ministry.
I don't go every month but theministry, this vision ministry,
is called Into Focus Vision.
The ministry group, the team,travels actually every single
month to the prison.
So you can imagine you know allthese years of doing that and
(16:26):
just you know God workingthrough this team and to share
the gospel with these men whohave so much time you know to
read.
I mean we give them Bibles, ofcourse, christian tracts.
There are so many of these menthat have gotten saved as a
result of this ministry, workingin the prisons now for two
(16:47):
decades.
And then these inmates go aheadand pass it on, so they share
the gospel with other inmatesand even with the guards.
So the gospel is spreading likewildfire in these prisons and
it's just extraordinary to seeWow, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
In these prisons and it's just extraordinary to see.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Wow, that's awesome and yeah, I think it really
strengthens you so much in yourfaith to see God do stuff like
that in dark places, to shineHis light in the dark corners
and see men who are.
You know, many of them arenever going to get out.
(17:28):
They are there for life butthey have hope because they have
Jesus.
So you talk to them and you seethat they have true joy.
In spite of the hard, hard lifethat they lead and in spite of
the fact that they are maybenever going to get out of that
(17:49):
facility.
They have a sense of purposeand joy and many of them get
involved.
They have in prison ministry,they have church in the prison,
Some of the men sing, they haveBible studies.
So it's amazing to see that youcan be in such hopeless
circumstances and still havehope, and these men do, the ones
(18:14):
that have gotten to know theLord.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Why are you so passionate about ministering to
women?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yes, you know that is a great question Ministering to
women.
Well, I think that as women, wereally often we struggle to
understand our identity in Jesusand feel that we are enough.
You know, we just always wearso many hats.
(18:45):
We're always needed somewhere.
There's always, you know,something to do for someone
right, and I feel that teachingwomen how they can grow in their
relationship with the Lord isone of the most important things
that I can do as a Christianwoman myself.
(19:05):
I feel that there is justreally nothing more worthwhile.
I feel that the experiences andgifts and passions that God has
given me for speaking andteaching and writing, that I
feel that he's expecting me toput them to good use and to not
waste any more time chasingafter things that really aren't
(19:30):
important, eternally speaking,and that's what I did for many
years of my life and so, yeah,so it just makes sense to help
other women and I am passionateabout it also because it's so
meaningful.
It fills my life with purpose,just like sharing the Lord,
(19:52):
talking to people about Jesus,sharing the gospel same thing.
It just gives me so much joyand satisfaction, so much joy
and satisfaction, and to knowthat I am finally focusing on
something that has eternal valueand that, you know, maybe, you
know, with God's help, I'mmaking a little bit of a
(20:13):
difference.
So, yeah, that's why I'mpassionate about teaching women,
helping them grow.
You know, like I myself, youknow, many years ago, when I was
, you know, new in California,struggling to kind of, you know,
find my place, didn't know manypeople, I was always well, I
(20:34):
was a new Christian and I wasalways, you know, looking for
resources and looking for, youknow, like a strong Christian
woman that I could follow andlearn from.
And I didn't really have it.
Back then we didn't even havethe internet, you know this was,
you know, pre internet.
So I know how important that is, you know, to have like a
strong woman leader that you canfollow and learn from.
And I think that's what we'resupposed to do with our
(20:54):
experiences is to pass them on,you know, to others.
And, yeah, you know to othersand, yeah, you know, help others
to make things a little easierfor them by sharing what we have
gone through, good or bad.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
How would you encourage someone, whether male
or female, to you know tellothers about seizures or witness
to someone you know aboutseizures, but without becoming
too pushy or too governmental?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, you know, a lot of times we have kind of a fear
about that.
We think that we have to knowall the Bible verses and know
how to present the gospel, youknow from beginning to end, and
we think it's this scary youknow scary experience and for
(21:48):
sure it's going to go wrong andwe're going to get rejected, and
so we don't do it.
You know we have these fearsand I think that you know a lot
of the time that's the enemy.
He wants to put fears in ourmind, make us think that it's so
difficult and to keep us fromdoing it.
And I like to look at myselfnot so much of an evangelist, as
(22:11):
a seed sower, and this is whatI always tell my team when we go
out and do outreach.
We have this program that werun that I mentioned earlier.
Every Saturday morning we goout and talk with actually
anywhere from 200 to 350families that line up on the
sidewalk outside of our churchhere in Downey, california every
(22:34):
Saturday morning to receivefood items from the church's
food bank and what my outreachteam and I do is that we go and
strike up conversations withthese families that are waiting
in line.
Some of them stand there forhours and we go on and talk with
them while they're waiting inline for their food items from
the food bank, and just chatwith them.
(22:57):
And so I have a team that Ilead.
We do this Saturday morning and, as we mentioned earlier, I
also teach evangelism classes,and so what I always tell the
attendees or my team members isthat when you just look at
(23:17):
yourself as a seed sower, ittakes almost all the pressure
off.
If you picture a person being,you know, on the scale from like
zero to 10, say, zero is thehardcore atheist, right, who
just doesn't want to hear aboutGod at all, completely closed.
(23:38):
And then a person who said a 10is the passionate Christian who
sold out for the Lord and justloves Jesus, right.
So if you picture the peopleyou talk to being anywhere on
the spectrum right from betweena zero to a 10, okay, let's say
a person is a number two.
Don't feel pressure to try totake that person from two to 10.
(24:03):
That's very, very unlikely thatthat's going to happen.
Praise God if it happens, butdon't expect it.
Just focus on taking them onestep closer to God.
Maybe your task is just to takethe person from a two to a
three, or maybe from a seven toan eight.
You know, a little bit closerto Jesus, help them open up a
(24:25):
little bit more, because Goduses a number of people a lot of
the time to save someone andyou know it's not up to us to
save people anyway.
You know we can't make ithappen.
That is God that saves people.
So if you don't think so muchabout closing, you know, oh, I
(24:46):
have to get them from zero to 10, from being a hardcore atheist
to being sold out for the Lord,and get them to pray and receive
Jesus.
You know, if you don't thinklike that and you just think,
okay, you know what I'm justgoing to love on them, I'm just
going to.
You know, listen to them.
Listening is such a big part ofit.
You know, when you're willingto listen and people notice that
(25:06):
you truly care about them, theyopen up and you start, you know
, building that relationship,and then maybe you don't, maybe
you don't even get to say thatmuch the first time you talk,
but next time now they're goingto be like super open because
you show that you were open tolisten to them.
So now, next time, they'regoing to be open to listen to
you, right, sometimes it maytake several conversations.
(25:27):
So when you do that, whenyou're just willing to listen,
show love and compassion andjust focus on yeah, maybe just
getting them a little bit closerto Jesus than they were before,
then it's not very difficult atall.
And you know, when I dotrainings at my church, I also
(25:49):
teach on how to go from thenatural to the spiritual.
That's a way to do it.
It may sound complicated, oryou know like if you've never
done it before, or you know likeif you've never done it before,
but you basically it's a waythat you can transition from
talking about natural topics,which not natural would be
anything that is not spiritual.
Right, you transition fromnatural topics to spiritual
(26:10):
topics.
You don't usually walk up tosomebody like you know a
stranger and just start talkingto them about Jesus right away.
You know some people can dothat and do a good job at it.
That's not how I do it.
That's not what I teach my team.
I teach it more like it's justa natural part of the
conversation.
As you progress, you go fromtalking about natural that is,
(26:30):
non-spiritual topics to talkingabout spiritual topics and it's
just a natural part of, you know, of the conversation.
It's really not difficult atall, and when you listen and you
pay attention and you just kindof pray internally and like
keep your spiritual antenna up,you know God will show you like,
he will like steer theconversation in a way that, oh,
(26:53):
wow, it seems natural to youknow to talk about God here.
So let me introduce the topicof God, for example.
Just to give you a quickexample, if I'm talking with
somebody and they tell me, oh, Iwas, let's say, you know, I was
raised in Mexico, okay, we'retalking about just non-spiritual
things and they tell me they'refrom Mexico and I'm like, aha,
(27:15):
okay, now I can easilytransition to a spiritual
question.
I go from asking them where theywere raised the answer is
Mexico to asking them what themain religion is in Mexico.
Now I'm asking a spiritualquestion.
I go from a natural question toa spiritual question.
So I ask them yeah, is that orwhat is the main religion in
(27:38):
Mexico?
And they say, let's say theysay Catholicism.
Then I'll ask them the questionoh, is that your background as
well?
Are you a Catholic?
You see how easy that is.
Now, suddenly we're talkingabout spiritual things and from
there now, the door is wide openand it's not pushy at all.
(28:00):
It's not pushy at all.
It's not pushy at all.
So, yeah, so that's what I tellpeople Just listen carefully,
show compassion for people andjust try to transition from the
natural to the spiritual as Godleads, and don't think too much
(28:24):
about the outcome of theconversation.
You know, just sow those seeds.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So that's kind of the bottom line I would say when
you were talking about you knowthe growth and going you know
from like a 3 to a 4 or 7 to an8,.
I thought about a Bible versethat someone told me one time
it's either Corinthians or 1Corinthians or 2 Corinthians and
(28:48):
it talks about you know wewater, you know we sow, but it's
God that gives the growth.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yes, exactly right, it's very biblical, it's a
biblical way to look at it, forsure.
And, yeah, I think we have toget away from this idea that
it's all up to us, you know, putall this pressure on ourselves.
It's up to me, you know, forthis person to get saved.
No, you know, god will use,like I said earlier, very often,
(29:19):
a number of people to you know,to get a person saved.
And I just, you know, I wassaying this even last Saturday
to one of my team members, as wewere out sharing the gospel.
I said to her I had aconversation with a man who was
very close.
He didn't even want to hearabout church at all, but he was
friendly, he was just very firmand, you know, I just kind of
(29:43):
listened.
I didn't try to argue with him,mostly I just listened because
I realized that he wasn't openand I just tried to be kind and
polite and respectful.
And I said to my team memberafter that conversation, just
kind of, you know, giving her alittle recap of how that
conversation had gone, I saidyou know, my main goal, as I was
(30:07):
talking with this man, wasreally just to give a good
impression of Jesus, you know ofa Christian, or you know of a
Christian as a representative ofJesus, I should say right, and
I wanted him to walk away, justfeeling like he wasn't being
pushed, that I wasn't trying tocram my beliefs down his throat
(30:27):
that's what people sometimeswill say, that we do and I
didn't want him to feel likethat.
I just wanted him to feelrespected so that, even though
he clearly wasn't open at thatmoment to hear about the Lord,
maybe at some point in thefuture he will be and then
hopefully he will have a goodimpression of at least, you know
(30:49):
, he will hopefully have a goodimpression of the Christian that
he spoke to me that morning.
Hopefully, because, again, thatwas just really my goal was to
try to make him feel like, yeah,I was just there to listen and
I wasn't there to try to pushanything on him, and I think
that's very important, as werealize that God has a different
(31:10):
timing, you know, a differenttime for every person.
Not everybody's going to, youknow, go from zero to 10 at that
moment, but just maybe, even ifwe can just be good ambassadors
for Jesus, the way that we comeacross, that will leave the
person with a feeling that.
(31:31):
Oh yeah, you know, theseChristians are actually okay.
You know, they're nice people.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I was wrong about them, so yeah, how do you get
through hard times with yourglory intact?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
all times with your joy intact.
Yes, that is a wonderful,wonderful question.
It's funny that you asked thatbecause I was actually earlier
today.
I was sitting here, I waspolishing an article for my blog
article for my blog and thatarticle is actually titled how
(32:17):
to Spell Joy this Christmas.
How to Spell Joy this ChristmasI don't know if you've heard
this acronym before, dorsey, butJ-O-Y.
It said that it stands for Jesus, others and you, jesus, others,
you.
That spells joy, and if we canreally just try to keep Jesus
(32:38):
first and other people and focusa little less on ourselves, I
think that we are going toexperience joy and we are going
to realize that we can havetremendous joy even when life is
difficult.
When I say to put yourself last, you know, of course I don't
mean to be a doormat, I justmean that you know we naturally
(33:01):
have a tendency to put ourselvesfirst.
You know it's just what we doas humans.
You know because we are, youknow, self-centered.
Just what we do as humans.
You know because we are, youknow, self-centered.
But I can tell you wow, youknow, I could talk about this,
you know, for hours.
Obviously I won't, but I thinkthese days I will say whenever I
have a tough day and I focus on, you know, jesus, just drawing
(33:26):
close to Him.
You know, really just get alonewith God, just try to quiet
myself, you know, stop rushingand running around so much.
It's especially easy to doright now in the holiday season
Everybody's rushing and running.
But I just try to get quiet,quiet with God and just, you
know, seek Him and ponderScripture, not just read it, but
(33:49):
really meditate on it and prayto God to just open up my
spiritual eyes, to understandwhat he's wanting to communicate
with me.
I find that it gives me a lotof joy and I feel this is not
just now difficult things thatI've been through in the past.
The answer is really always,you know, to draw close, closer,
(34:11):
always, you know, to Jesus.
And you know now I am soblessed also to be a bonus mom,
as you said in your introduction, to three wonderful young men,
my husband's three sons.
I mentioned earlier that I wasmarried a number of years ago
and got divorced, and I wasblessed to get remarried now
(34:35):
come four and a half years ago.
So I don't have my ownbiological children, but I get
to be a bonus mom to myhusband's three sons and, as you
also mentioned, one of the boyshas severe autism and he almost
died in the summer of 2021.
(34:58):
I mean, it was a miracle that hesurvived.
He had a debilitatingswallowing disorder and he just
to put it in perspective, helost 80 pounds in six months.
It's a lot of weight and afterhis life was saved at the ER,
this was the third time we tookhim to the ER.
(35:18):
You know, we, by doctor'sorders, we rehabilitated him at
home and his name is Christopher.
My stepson's name isChristopher.
We had actually to quit our jobs, my husband and I, to care for
Christopher full time, and wespent 12 hours a day spoon
(35:45):
feeding Christopher to try totrain his throat to start
working normally again.
And there were many days, for areally long time, when we
thought, you know, wow, this isnot working.
And we thought, you know whatif we have to put him on a
(36:06):
feeding tube for the rest of hislife?
That was the last thing wewanted.
But, you know, we realized hecouldn't live like that.
You know, he couldn't eat, hecouldn't drink.
It would take him, you know, 30minutes to swallow a tiny
spoonful of minced foodsnutrition-rich minced foods that
my husband had spent an hourpreparing chopping just to so
(36:26):
Christopher will get, you know,the nutrients that he needed.
And he had to gain weight.
You know, every hour, every day, centered around to help
Christopher get the strengthback in his throat and train
himself to eat and drink and sohe could start gaining some
weight back.
And you know it was a nightmarebut, to say the least, horrific
(36:47):
.
But it was a nightmare but, tosay the least, horrific.
But you know, god worked amiracle and after nine months of
working with Christopher andhelping him train his throat and
you know every waking moment ofevery day nine months later,
christopher took his first biteof solid food, and that was
(37:08):
actually an Easter Sunday of2021.
So it was incredible.
And from there he transitionedto solid foods.
Christopher today is healed.
And your question was about joy.
But it's just impossible for meto talk about joy without
mentioning Christopher, becausethese days I have to tell you I
(37:31):
just look over that kid I meanhe's 23 years old now, but you
know he's always going to be akid and I just look over at him
and I'm filled with joy.
It's like I cannot not have joy.
You know, when I gotChristopher in my life and I
think about what, you know, goddid for our family.
And in the same time periodnine months, you know, not only
(37:53):
did Christopher go from you knownot being able to eat to eating
solid foods or eating, you know, from eating minced foods just
barely being able to swallow itand get it down to eating, you
know, a hamburger onResurrection Sunday down to
(38:13):
eating a hamburger onResurrection Sunday.
But he also went from being soweak that he could just barely
sit upright, let alone walk ormove or anything, to walking, to
jogging, to running, toswimming, to lifting light
weights at the gym, to dancing.
He goes to school.
Now he goes to art school.
It's incredible, you know, therecovery that God brought about
(38:34):
in this young man's life, and tosee what God's done.
But yeah, so I think you know mypoint is that everybody's got
hard times.
Sometimes we have excruciatingtimes.
You know those times where wefeel like I don't even know how
I'm going to get through this.
(38:54):
All we can do is cling to God,cling to Scripture, cling to His
promises, you know, and then wecan find this unspeakable joy,
this supernatural peace that theBible speaks about.
Joy and peace both in thesesituations.
And then for me, on top of that, just speaking for myself,
(39:17):
christopher is my joy too, andthe more I can focus on him and
just being there for him,pouring myself into him, just
spending time with him, lookingat him and seeing the miracle
that God's done, the more joy Ialso can have, even when I have
days that are not as good.
(39:37):
Everybody's got bad days, right.
So for anybody who's listeningto this, I would say what are
God done for you?
What memories, what reflections, what experiences in your life
do you have that really justshowed you know God's hand in
(40:03):
your life, and I think when wego through difficult times, we
can think about that.
You know we can think about howGod has been faithful to us in
the past, and the Bible saysthat God is the same today and
tomorrow.
You know he doesn't changeright, and you know if we're
going through something hardright now, well, you know what
God came through for us in thepast, so he's going to come
(40:25):
through for us again.
You know he's faithful, he'snot changing All right, he is
the same always.
So, and I think you know theBible is a great place also to
go to to see how God has workedin the lives of His people.
You know, we read about, youknow Joseph or Abraham or Moses
(40:49):
or Paul or whoever it may be,and we see how God proved
himself to be so faithful intheir lives.
And we, you know.
This is why reading the Bibleempowers us, right.
It just gives us spiritualpower and just gives us the
ability to get through difficulttimes Because, yeah, we open
(41:09):
the pages of Scripture and wesay this is the same God that we
serve today.
He came through for His people.
Then He'll come through for Hispeople.
Now He'll come through for us.
So, yeah, focus on Jesus,others first before yourself,
and that will give you joy anddraw close to God and reflect on
(41:32):
the times that he's comethrough for you.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Amen.
Can you tell us about yourupcoming book the Blundie
Christian Life?
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yes, my upcoming book .
It is simply speaking.
It is about how to live theabundant Christian life that
Jesus promised to those whofollow him.
Now, of course, Jesus said inthe Gospel of John he said I
(42:15):
have come to give you life, lifeabundantly, and by that he
meant spiritual abundance.
He meant that he came to giveus peace, inner peace and
strength and joy and confidenceand purpose.
You know, jesus came to give usall those things.
(42:39):
So what I do in my book, whichI'm working on you know we're
working towards a release datein the early summer of next year
and what I do in the book isthat I, through stories,
illustrations, examples from myown life and my own journey and
stories of people that God's puton my path through life, I talk
(43:00):
about how to have more of thesethings Joy, peace, strength,
confidence and purpose strength,confidence and purpose and
really just kind of try to makeit relatable to the readers so
that they can walk away withsomething both to reflect on and
take action with.
So that's what I do in thisbook, so I'm looking forward to
(43:23):
getting it out there.
But I do have if it's okay to,maybe I could mention that I do
have some resources that areavailable right now for anybody
who might be interested.
On my blog you can go and findmany articles, inspirational
stories.
(43:43):
The link isshelivesabundantlycom.
That's the websiteshelivesabundantlycom.
Not only do I have a blog there, but I also have some
downloadable resources.
I have a outline that takes youthrough how to share your faith
in just a very easy andhands-on way, and this is the
(44:08):
same training material that Iteach when I do evangelism
trainings at my church.
I have a brainstorming log thathelps you discover your calling
well, discover your spiritualgifts as well as your calling
and I have a list of biblicalaffirmations that you can help
(44:30):
to train yourself to think morebiblically.
So these resources areavailable as of right now, so
any listeners can access that ifthey are interested.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah that's great, and I'll have those links on the
show notes as well.
Yeah, very good.
What is an encouragement thatyou would give to my listeners?
Speaker 1 (44:57):
An encouragement.
Well, you know, I believe thatyou know we all have a very
unique purpose in God's plan.
You know we all have a veryunique purpose in God's plan.
Me personally, I was like allover the place, you know, before
I finally found what you know.
I believe that my purpose Well,let me put it like this Okay,
(45:23):
very simply, our purpose is tolove God and love people.
You know, that's what Jesussaid is most important.
That's what we're all called todo as followers of Jesus.
And then, you know, we all havevarious callings in life, and
my callings one is to teach andtrain people in how to share
(45:43):
their faith.
Another calling is to speak towomen about how to grow in their
relationship with God.
I have another calling, whichis to be a bonus mom and play a
role in the lives of myhusband's three sons.
So we have these differentcallings and you know some last
our entire lives.
Other callings are seasonal,but we all have callings and we
(46:09):
have a purpose.
And that is truly one of themost incredible and encouraging
experiences you can have whenyou figure out how you get to
play a role in God's plan.
(46:29):
And God's gifted us in so manydifferent ways.
You know he's gifted you in aparticular area, doris, and me
in a different one.
Maybe we have some of the samegifts, but you know we all have,
you know, different, not allthe same opportunities, but God
has a way for each and every oneof us to use the gifts that he
(46:50):
has blessed us with.
So I would say, if you feeldiscouraged right now, if you
feel that maybe you're notreally tuned into God's plan for
your life, that maybe youhaven't quite discovered it yet,
what His calling or callingsare, you know on your life, I
(47:12):
would say you know, wait nolonger.
You know God wants to use you,your gifts, your experiences,
your passions, your personality,to bless someone else.
And again we're going back tothe acronym joy, right, jesus,
others, you, you are going toexperience tremendous joy as you
(47:35):
get to be used by God to blesssomeone else.
And so, yeah, I would say, takea spiritual gifts test and go
through the process ofdiscovering your calling.
Again, I just mentioned that Ihave a worksheet for this on my
blog and you are going to beamazed.
(47:56):
Do that prayerfully, ask God toopen some doors for you and
you'll see that he's got for allof us.
He's got so much more for usthan we are, even you know, able
to imagine Like we limitourselves.
You know, dorsey, we do thatall the time and God is like, no
, you know, you're going to doso much more.
(48:19):
Are you willing to grow intoyour calling?
Because sometimes we're soafraid, you know.
But if we're willing to justtrust God and take that step, he
will grow us and we'll see that, yeah, with His help, I can do
this.
And then just that feeling ofyou know, strength, that you
know how it strengthens ourfaith, you know, when we see God
work through us to you know,whether it be to share the
(48:41):
gospel with somebody or justserve somebody, do something for
God, you know, to build thekingdom.
It's just that spiritualstrength that he gives us is
just nothing like it.
You know, yeah, so yeah,hopefully that's a good word of
encouragement, god, and start,you know, doing the things you
(49:03):
need to do practically to stepinto your calling and God will
work it out.
God will work it out and hewill use you.
It's always him working throughus, even when we feel like
we're not qualified.
The most important thing is tobe available, to make ourselves
available, not so much abilityas availability.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Well, Lina, thank you so much for coming on the show
today.
We greatly appreciate havingyou.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show today.
We greatly appreciate havingyou.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Thank you so much.
It was wonderful to be on thecall with you, and thank you so
much to the listeners and I justsay God bless you everyone and
we'll talk to you again soon.
Take care.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
Well, guys and girls, thank you so much for coming on
and listening.
Take care.
Well, guys and girls, thank youso much for coming on and
listening.
As I said, I'll have Lena'slinks to her blog and her
website and please go and checkout this interview, share it and
like it.
And please like my website andmy podcast as well, and listen
(50:07):
to previous episodes.
And until next time, god bless.
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.