October 1, 2025 • 24 mins
In this powerful conversation, Terri Matthews Woodall opens up about the resilience and faith that shaped her journey—from childhood moments of rallying kids to Vacation Bible School for a Barbie doll, to life-changing encounters where obedience to God brought the miraculous. Terri shares candid lessons on honesty, leadership, and trust, revealing how her early experiences prepared her to build businesses, steward relationships, and walk boldly in her calling.
Her story is a reminder that even when the world counts us out, God always counts us in.
Subscribe, so you never miss an episode
Connect with Terri:
Website: https://terrimatthews.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terri/
Connect with Theresa:
Website: https://theresabruno.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theresa.harper.bruno/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/423kFJyListen on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/44ftNuA
Her story is a reminder that even when the world counts us out, God always counts us in.
Subscribe, so you never miss an episode
Connect with Terri:
Website: https://terrimatthews.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terri/
Connect with Theresa:
Website: https://theresabruno.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theresa.harper.bruno/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/423kFJyListen on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/44ftNuA
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is not a good story, but it's a good story.
So my grandmother used to put me on a church bus.
My grandmother would send me my father's mother would send
me to a Christian camp, like during the summer vacation
Bible school, that's what it was called. And so they
would pick me up and I was motivated. Interesting enough,
(00:30):
I didn't think about this story until not too long
ago with something else. But they would have a Barbie doll. Well,
Barbie doll was like luxury for me. So they'd have
a Barbie doll. Like if you could refer or bring
somebody to vacation Bible study, you would get these tally marks.
And so interesting that God would use that for me
(00:51):
because I was hustling. I mean, like one thing. Now,
this is before all of the things that I knew.
And I will say my parents went through these moments.
But keep in mind, I have two brilliant parents. They
just went through some things early on, some challenges early on,
and life took them in a crazy, chaotic direction which
would leave me in the position that I was in.
(01:14):
But I had some good grandparents that were surrounded by me.
I had a good auntie that was you know, surrounded
around me. I didn't have them all the time. They
weren't always readily available. Unfortunately my grandparents did pass away.
But my point is I can see, even looking back,
the hand in favor of God, and He's placed all
along my life, my entire life, my entire life, the
(01:36):
thing that I was missing, whatever it was that I
was missing, he would put somebody in position or place
like that for me. And so that's the story. But
the thing is vacation Bible study. I would go they
have these Barbie dolls, and I would literally be hustling people,
these young folks, you know, like and I picked that
(01:56):
up from my dad, right like, Hey, you know you
want to go to vacation, but you're gonna learn about this.
You know you're gonna learn about Jesus. But I would
talk about all the fun activity things to bring them in,
because just saying Jesus to some of the inner city
kids were like, I don't know about all that I mean.
And so the thing is is that I would figure
out the things that would draw them in, and I
(02:19):
would still say about Jesus, but we're gonna do all
of these other things. So I would speak to the
things that were of interest to them and know that
they would find God there. Now, I will tell you
I really wanted that barbie. So this is also where
God showed me that there had been a seed that
was planted in me. I gave myself one more tally
(02:44):
mark than what I deserve to win that barbie. So
twofold one, I learned that I was evangelist by DNA.
And the other thing is is that there was an
issue in my heart to get what I needed to
get and I to be very mindful to not do
anything that God could see or anyone else that would
(03:06):
not be right. And He showed me that early on
in my life because I was like, oh, I'm gonna
give myself another tally Mark, and my intentions were good.
My intentions were I'm gonna go find that other person.
But I wanted to win that barbie. So I knew
that I was competitive in nature. I knew that I
did believe what I believed, right. I wasn't just bringing
(03:27):
them because of the Barbie. I really wanted them to
know Jesus. But I recognized that, oh my gosh, they
could care less about Jesus, you know what I mean?
And I don't have all the eloquent words, but they
care about all the activities and the food we get.
So I'm gonna go that route and then bring them in.
And I was in elementary school. That was your first business,
(03:49):
that was that was my first business.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
He showed some extremely good sales and marketing skills.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I definitely had. They call it on the job training.
I call on the streets training. So you didn't get
the barbie. I did get the barbie. You did get
the barbie. Okay, I did get the barbie, but I
gave myself one more telling mark. So even though I
had known what I had done, I was determined to
find out bringing another person so I could actually fulfill.
(04:20):
But what God showed me was that still wasn't the
right way.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
That was to me that you would give that lesson
so young, you know, because that's that's a pivotal lesson
in business, in life and relationships.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I'm still honesty lesson. Yeah, we all are. It's like you,
it's you're not hurting anybody, right. It goes down to
telling little lies or it's not, you know, fabricating. We
find fancy ways to say it. But remember the Bible
teaches us that the devil is the father of lies, right,
(04:56):
and so to your point, it was very interesting me.
It was very interesting because I was in elementary and
I could there's so many life lessons in that moment. Right.
It was the commitment to go to vacation Bible School.
It was the commitment to go and tap all the
neighborhood kids. My goal was to get them to come.
(05:18):
I didn't want them to know Jesus, but I wanted
also that Barbie Doll right, And at the end of
the day, I'm like, I'm really I was neckonnect with somebody.
I don't even know if they were honest either. That
wasn't my point. I'm going to give myself this time.
Oh I brought that person. I'm gonna you know, you're
missing a tally mark. And I remember I can clearly
(05:40):
see myself in that space, and I got that tally mark.
I felt convicted, and then I tried to go and
make it up to make sure that I really had
the number that I said I had. So there was
so much that God showed me that Listen, if you
try to get more outside of me, your nature would
(06:02):
be to do things in a way that's not honest
or honoring. And so you got to know that there
is something in you because remember what's the Bible saying
we're all born into sin. We don't know what it
is that we're gonna struggle through. The thing is is that?
Then what I say is some people send a scene
on the outside, others is on the inside. We don't
(06:23):
know a cross we have to bear. Remember, a liar
and a murder is the same thing to God. And
so what I would say is there are some things
that was something on the inside that God could see.
Had that wrong seed been watered in my life, what
would I have done? And still we have to be
mindful because if it's part of our nature for God
(06:45):
to show us that, we got to know that that's
a thing either a we're gonna be delivered from, be
a thorn in our side, or something we're gonna have
to always be surrendering and submitting to God. And it
may not as be as you know this Barbie doll anymore,
but what else could it be? What other goal in
a sense do you have? You got to think I
deal with investors and their money. They believe me about
(07:09):
things that in a sense that I a product I
might be pitching right because I built businesses and sold
businesses right, and so there's a level of trust. I
am super mindful of that. I'm super mindful that they
trust me with their hard earned money, and I don't
ever want to get behind anything or manipulate them in
a way just because we need the money of their
(07:32):
investment in order for this thing to get to the
next level. I won't oversell anything. And so at the
end of the day, if they ask me, I want
to be honest, and they're very much informed of all
the risks, and if they don't get, they don't give.
And I can tell you not all people that are
in that position do that. If they have a friend
willing to write a five hundred thousand dollars check or
a half a million, I mean a million dollar check.
(07:54):
You know. I've had friends that have been willing to
do that because they trust me. And so I don't
over exaggerate, over enhance those types of things because I'm
not trying to gain something off of someone else. I
want them to be honest and informed. But I'm saying
that because we can do that in anything, we can
do it in relationships. Yep, we can do that in
we can do that with anything that God has given us.
(08:17):
So I'm grateful in a sense he showed me that,
and that's how I know early on that God had
an intention. He also was calling me to steward souls. Right.
And I am not a conventional traditional Christian, if you will, right,
And what do I mean by that? I believe in Father, Son,
Holy Spirit. Right, I'm not Can I get behind a pulpit, yes,
(08:41):
but I'm boots on the ground, you know, running into
the neighborhoods deal. And I don't look like where I've
come from. So what happens is is that I show
up and oftentimes people who have met me in my
life are like their mouths are open, They're like, wait what.
They look at me on the outside and go this
woman has no idea what it's like to be hungry.
(09:03):
Oh that she doesn't know what it's like to go
through anything. They see a car I drive, or house
I live in, or whatever the situation and experience I've had.
And then when I speak, the Lord annoints my words.
He allows me as he allows me to open up
and share a portion of my story. And I am
on the other side of their breakthrough, not because of me,
(09:25):
but because if Jesus did it for me, he can
do it for you. And the amount of experiences that
I've had. Right, It's like again, if you looked at
my younger self, my younger self would have said, God
doesn't love me. How in the world could he give
me this and expect for me to succeed? How the
(09:48):
world could he give me this and expect for me
to love him and follow him. I didn't even have
a fighting chance. I came into a situation that I
had no control. Wasn't like he gave me a good
life and then I had to this opportunity. Oh but
he did give me a good life, Oh he did.
He gave me tenacity and resilience in the truth that
(10:08):
only could be built in me through my experiences that
only could be built in me. Because in the midnight hour,
he showed up at the diagnosis, He showed up at
the opportunity for me to die. He became the bridge
to life for me. Right Like I know that I
know and I'm confident in Christ and not what he
can just do for me, but what he could do
(10:28):
for others because of the fact of what He's done,
and then he's also used my hands to lay on
people and heal them. I don't know when you've ever
talked about that story about the man that was hit
by an eighteen Willard. Oh, we haven't talked about that story.
Tell me, Oh, So this is another example of knowing
(10:49):
that I know right. So when you ask me, I
think we always sometimes have to be reaffirmed, you know,
sometimes it's like, God, did I really hear you? Do?
I know these things? And another little moment in my
young adult life, I had my daughter, who's my middle
daughter now, was in middle school. I believe in entering
high school. And I want to give you some of
(11:10):
these details because I think it's so important, and as
your listeners are listening today, I want you to understand
that every minute is intentional by God. We think of circumstance,
but every minute, every second, every decision is intentional by God.
So I was called to speak in a place in Hershey, Pennsylvania,
(11:34):
and it was for a women's conference, and there was
an early lunch for the speakers, and they wanted us
to get there and it was optional, and it happened
to be not too far from my in laws. I
like to call them my in loves because I love
my laws, my mother in love and father in love.
And I sat with them a little longer, and I
(11:55):
remember looking at the clock and I was like, I'm
just going to say a little while longer. I'm enjoy
the time. You know, I'm going to miss the lunch.
It's okay. My daughter was coming with me. She didn't
go to very many speaking engagements, but this was one
I was excited to bring her on. And interesting enough,
this is my child that's on fire for God right now.
(12:16):
She's the one I'm telling you in Alabama that's expecting
her baby. She's she can defend her faith and she
has called to her generation glory, thank you. So what's
interesting is, Teresa, I'm leaving my in laws. And again
this still ties back to my younger days because you
have to have a level of resilience. God builds specific
(12:39):
things in you that doesn't cause you to shrink back. Right,
So the thing is I leave I always turn left.
I turned right to the point to where I hit
my brakes in the middle of the street. My daughter
looks at me and says, what are you doing. I said,
I'm going the wrong way now, The only thing is
if I would turn left, it would bring me one
(13:00):
exit closer to where I was going. If I turned right,
which was the direction that I turned, it takes me
one exit further away from when I'm going. I'm still
gonna end up in the right direction, but I'm just
one exit down further. And so she was like, Okay,
we'll turn around. I said, I'm just gonna go straight.
Like I literally hit my brakes. I get on the freeway. Bam,
there's an accident in front of me. Had I gone
(13:22):
the left, the direction to the left, I would have
bypassed the accident. So, again, intentional, by God, I pull over.
There is a man that was changing his tire where
the side mirror hit his head. Okay, while he was driving,
his brain matters on the ground. Oh my gosh, I'm
digging in the back of my car. I'm running across
(13:44):
the street Highway eighty one. If anybody knows it, in Pennsylvania,
it's like Trucker's territory. Trucks are flying all by. I'm
trying to slow all of the trucks down. He's on
the right hand side of the freeway. I'm not even
on the shoulder. I'm on the left hand side. Okay,
so I'm running back and forth. There's a nurse that's there.
The only people that are in this section of the
(14:06):
accident is myself and my daughter, this nurse, a husband
and wife taking their son for a college visit, and
the actual trucker who hit the man, and the man himself.
That's it. Everything else has paused. Everybody else is ahead
of the accident. Everybody else is stuck behind the accident.
I'm running back and forth. There's blood coming out. I'm
across this man's body with the nurse. The nurse, I said, oh,
(14:29):
you're a nurse, and she's like, no, no, I work
in geriatrics, right. So the Lord leads me to pray
for this man, and with her we get up. I'm
trying to The trucker is like gray, he's about to
pass out because he's thinking this man is dying. It's
all these things that are happening. I'm in a fast
forward story. The bottom line is this. This is why
obedience is so important for anybody who is listening. Don't
(14:54):
ever second guess. If you're hearing from God, if you
have entrusted him with your life, you have prayer. Just
ask God, you don't all the time have to be
on your knees. Hey, am my Lord, what are you
calling me to do? What am I supposed to do?
That's a prayer. Prayer is communication and I learned that
early on because I didn't always know to go on
my knees as a kid. I just be talking to God,
(15:15):
you know what I'm saying. So the thing is is
that in this the Lord asked me to lay over
this man with my body. He's bleeding to death, like literally,
and so I end up laying over this man. My
hands are in blood. I don't know what he has.
I mean, he could have been HIV positive, anything, right,
(15:36):
So I'm laying I'm praying. I'm like, okay, it doesn't
seem to be working right. And so the thing is,
the Holy Spirit says, reach in his pocket and call
him out by name. So you want me in front
of this group of people to dig in this man's wallet?
This laying on the side, I mean, can you imagine
(15:58):
a man's laying down and I'm digging in his his pockets?
You understand what I'm saying, Like, get his backpocket a second,
and you gotta imagine some of the stuff God asked
us to do. You guys gotta think through this. I
don't be honest, I'm like, no wonder. Elijah was like
the Kings were like, what do you mean march around?
We didn't ask God for water, and you're telling my
soldiers to march around, you know, seven times and do
(16:20):
all this crazy stuff. So I'm digging, you know, and
at the moment, I'm not thinking about all the things
that God could ask us to do. This sometimes doesn't
make any sense. I'm just doing it. So I'm digging
to try to find this man's wallet, and you don't
have a lot of time to think. But something in
the back of my mind was like these people are
about like what is this lady doing? So I pull
out his wallet, and the Lord gives me the words
(16:43):
to say to call this man out by name. It
was almost like Elazareuths situation. So I'm literally call saying
whatever the Lord is leading me to say, positioning my
body in a way that God was asking me to
position my body. When I tell you, when God tells
you to do something right, it doesn't always look right,
(17:05):
doesn't seem right, and it makes no sense. And I
have no idea what God was doing, so I continue
to pray. I now have the man's name. His wallet
is still in my hand, and I am overlaying this
man so to the point that when the police and
the corner show up, Teresa, they're like, ma'am, they think
I'm distraught. I'm the wife, you know, and they're like
(17:27):
asking me questions, ma'am are you married? And I'm like no.
Holy Spirit's like, keep your head down, and I'm like praying,
and the cops are asking me, does anybody know who
this man is. I'm literally still laying over the man,
covering his body, and my hand goes up with the
man's wallet, hand to the cop. I didn't even turn around.
I just hand it up. He's like, ma'am, he's tapping
(17:49):
me over the shoulder. Are you the wife? I said, no, sir,
and Holy Spirit continues to tell me to pray. The
mt is saying, ma'am, they've now checked him, his corate
and ottery. He's dead, and they think I'm distraught. Are
you the wife? No? Are you the girlfriend? No? They're
telling you, ma'am, we need you to get up, and
I'm like, Holy Spirit says, no, you continue to pray.
(18:11):
They're already checked his carotid artery. They're saying, he's gone. Ma'am,
we need you to get back. My daughter is now
standing at the one clock hour of his head. I'm
laying The nurses moved out of the way. She been moved.
I didne scared her to death after laying in all
this bloods. I'm sure she's thinking about blood and body
fluids and everything she learned in nurse in school. Like, ma'am,
you have no gloves. What's going on here? Right? Like
(18:34):
you know, all of the things and out and dug
in a man's wallet who's laying on the side. And
I'm like, she probably think I'm stealing credit cards and
cash out the man's way whatever. So I mean, it
doesn't make sense to the world, right, And so I
am continuing to lay over this body. And it gets
to the point where the NT use a stern voice, ma'am,
(18:54):
we have asked you to move. You need to move.
Holy Spirit stay and right, I'm like, oh Lord, am
I here in the hole. I got to be here.
And so because they about to take me on a
paddy wagon, okay, So and I got a conference to
get to like, you know, I'm still laying over this man,
(19:15):
and in all honesty, I continued until the Holy Spirit
told me to get up. The corner had showed up,
and when I finally got the okay to get up,
he started to walk back over. But he didn't even
have to tell me to get up, because at that
time the Holy Spirit said to get up. They took
a white sheet and shook it, and it was like
slow motion. You could see the white sheet go up
(19:37):
and come over the man's body. I walked around his
head to stand at the one o'clock hour, because I
was at the nine o'clock hour over his body, right,
and so they had shaken the sheet. I was standing
with my daughter. I laid her head into my shoulder
because this was a lot to see as a young
(19:57):
girl in middle school, right, like, this man is bleeding
and her mom's now covered in blood and all the things,
and she's just like standing there. And they shook the
sheet and they pulled it over him and literally under
the sheet. I wish I had one so you could see.
You could see it go. The man starts breathing under
(20:18):
the sheet. They pulled the sheet back by the way
the coroners arrived. They pulled the sheet back and they said,
we have a pulse in they're screaming. So they go
to intubate this man. They're working on him on the ground.
They're trying to get him in the ambulance. Myself and
the group of people I described, we stood in the
middle of the freeway and as led by the lord,
(20:39):
I said, please, let's come around. Let's begin to pray.
We stood in a circle, all those people I mentioned earlier,
and we begin to pray. A helicopter landed before us
right the state highway. State patrolman comes, takes his hat
off and says, ma'am, I don't know what you've done
or what you're doing, he said, but he said it
looks like prayer. He said, whatever it is you're doing,
(21:01):
keep doing it. Because he said, for that helicopter to
leave the hospital, he said, it takes five thousand dollars
just to send the helicopter. They're not putting anybody in
a helicopter that they don't think is going to make
it right. And at the end of the day, he said,
whatever you do, do it. He said, if that ambulance,
because now they've moved his body from the ground. They're
(21:22):
in the ambulance getting them stabilized. He said, if that,
and we're in the middle of the freeway, okay, So
he said, if that they would have to drive past us.
He said, if that ambulance goes past you and he
goes to that helicopter, that man's gonna make it. It's
just too expensive. And he was very honest, like for
them to bring a helicopter for somebody who's not going
to make it. We're standing there and you hear the
(21:45):
we're in prayer, we're NonStop, and you hear the ambulance go,
you know, because it's letting us know we're coming by,
and we cheer. And when I look, when I turn around,
just how you see these books. There was an overpass,
so there was tons of people glory mita God, tons
(22:06):
of people like hanging on the fence watching what was happening.
They got to see God in action. They at that moment,
I had no idea all those people were up there,
including my father in law. He was trying to wakes
up story later that there was something going on. It
looked like somebody was praying out there in the middle
(22:27):
of the freeway. There was an accident, and I said, Dad,
that was me. So my point in saying this is
that one my daughter. So I'm now getting in the car.
Everything you know, the guy takes off. I'm in the car,
I'm covered in blood. I have praise and worship, musing,
(22:47):
blasting for thirty minutes until I arrived. I get to her,
she and my daughter just she's in the car and
bust out in tears. She said, mom, oh my God,
here is something after that, and I'm like singing, and
like I said, you know what, look at how the
world counted this man out. Look at how the world
(23:09):
said he's dead, he's gone. And evidence of all of
that was all around him, evidence because he had no heartbeat.
You re mind you the corner showed up. Okay, I said,
but yep. God asked me to be in prayer, and
I had to be obedient to what he had called.
(23:29):
And you got to see that when the world gives
up on you, God has not. All these people got
to witness the hand of God. Imagine how had I
been afraid? Imagine had I said, Well, I'm worried about
what people think about me, what they're gonna say. Why
am I digging in this man's whatever the situation is. So,
(23:51):
I said, I was happy to see at I said,
you at an early age, because you didn't grow up
like I grew up. So you got to see something
and experience some things that no one can ever take
away from you. You were there every moment of that
entire situation. You got to see them try to pull
me off of this man. You got to see them
pronounce him dead on the scene. You got to see
(24:12):
me continue to pray. You knew what I was doing right,
and so at the end of the day, you also
seeing God count him in when everybody else counted him out,
I said, and that has been the story of your
mother's life. Everybody has counted me out, yet God counted
me in. Next week, Terry shares Jaden's autism diagnosis and
(24:37):
how it reshaped her calling.
This is not a good story, but it's a good story.
So my grandmother used to put me on a church bus.
My grandmother would send me my father's mother would send
me to a Christian camp, like during the summer vacation
Bible school, that's what it was called. And so they
would pick me up and I was motivated. Interesting enough,
(00:30):
I didn't think about this story until not too long
ago with something else. But they would have a Barbie doll. Well,
Barbie doll was like luxury for me. So they'd have
a Barbie doll. Like if you could refer or bring
somebody to vacation Bible study, you would get these tally marks.
And so interesting that God would use that for me
(00:51):
because I was hustling. I mean, like one thing. Now,
this is before all of the things that I knew.
And I will say my parents went through these moments.
But keep in mind, I have two brilliant parents. They
just went through some things early on, some challenges early on,
and life took them in a crazy, chaotic direction which
would leave me in the position that I was in.
(01:14):
But I had some good grandparents that were surrounded by me.
I had a good auntie that was you know, surrounded
around me. I didn't have them all the time. They
weren't always readily available. Unfortunately my grandparents did pass away.
But my point is I can see, even looking back,
the hand in favor of God, and He's placed all
along my life, my entire life, my entire life, the
(01:36):
thing that I was missing, whatever it was that I
was missing, he would put somebody in position or place
like that for me. And so that's the story. But
the thing is vacation Bible study. I would go they
have these Barbie dolls, and I would literally be hustling people,
these young folks, you know, like and I picked that
(01:56):
up from my dad, right like, Hey, you know you
want to go to vacation, but you're gonna learn about this.
You know you're gonna learn about Jesus. But I would
talk about all the fun activity things to bring them in,
because just saying Jesus to some of the inner city
kids were like, I don't know about all that I mean.
And so the thing is is that I would figure
out the things that would draw them in, and I
(02:19):
would still say about Jesus, but we're gonna do all
of these other things. So I would speak to the
things that were of interest to them and know that
they would find God there. Now, I will tell you
I really wanted that barbie. So this is also where
God showed me that there had been a seed that
was planted in me. I gave myself one more tally
(02:44):
mark than what I deserve to win that barbie. So
twofold one, I learned that I was evangelist by DNA.
And the other thing is is that there was an
issue in my heart to get what I needed to
get and I to be very mindful to not do
anything that God could see or anyone else that would
(03:06):
not be right. And He showed me that early on
in my life because I was like, oh, I'm gonna
give myself another tally Mark, and my intentions were good.
My intentions were I'm gonna go find that other person.
But I wanted to win that barbie. So I knew
that I was competitive in nature. I knew that I
did believe what I believed, right. I wasn't just bringing
(03:27):
them because of the Barbie. I really wanted them to
know Jesus. But I recognized that, oh my gosh, they
could care less about Jesus, you know what I mean?
And I don't have all the eloquent words, but they
care about all the activities and the food we get.
So I'm gonna go that route and then bring them in.
And I was in elementary school. That was your first business,
(03:49):
that was that was my first business.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
He showed some extremely good sales and marketing skills.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I definitely had. They call it on the job training.
I call on the streets training. So you didn't get
the barbie. I did get the barbie. You did get
the barbie. Okay, I did get the barbie, but I
gave myself one more telling mark. So even though I
had known what I had done, I was determined to
find out bringing another person so I could actually fulfill.
(04:20):
But what God showed me was that still wasn't the
right way.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
That was to me that you would give that lesson
so young, you know, because that's that's a pivotal lesson
in business, in life and relationships.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I'm still honesty lesson. Yeah, we all are. It's like you,
it's you're not hurting anybody, right. It goes down to
telling little lies or it's not, you know, fabricating. We
find fancy ways to say it. But remember the Bible
teaches us that the devil is the father of lies, right,
(04:56):
and so to your point, it was very interesting me.
It was very interesting because I was in elementary and
I could there's so many life lessons in that moment. Right.
It was the commitment to go to vacation Bible School.
It was the commitment to go and tap all the
neighborhood kids. My goal was to get them to come.
(05:18):
I didn't want them to know Jesus, but I wanted
also that Barbie Doll right, And at the end of
the day, I'm like, I'm really I was neckonnect with somebody.
I don't even know if they were honest either. That
wasn't my point. I'm going to give myself this time.
Oh I brought that person. I'm gonna you know, you're
missing a tally mark. And I remember I can clearly
(05:40):
see myself in that space, and I got that tally mark.
I felt convicted, and then I tried to go and
make it up to make sure that I really had
the number that I said I had. So there was
so much that God showed me that Listen, if you
try to get more outside of me, your nature would
(06:02):
be to do things in a way that's not honest
or honoring. And so you got to know that there
is something in you because remember what's the Bible saying
we're all born into sin. We don't know what it
is that we're gonna struggle through. The thing is is that?
Then what I say is some people send a scene
on the outside, others is on the inside. We don't
(06:23):
know a cross we have to bear. Remember, a liar
and a murder is the same thing to God. And
so what I would say is there are some things
that was something on the inside that God could see.
Had that wrong seed been watered in my life, what
would I have done? And still we have to be
mindful because if it's part of our nature for God
(06:45):
to show us that, we got to know that that's
a thing either a we're gonna be delivered from, be
a thorn in our side, or something we're gonna have
to always be surrendering and submitting to God. And it
may not as be as you know this Barbie doll anymore,
but what else could it be? What other goal in
a sense do you have? You got to think I
deal with investors and their money. They believe me about
(07:09):
things that in a sense that I a product I
might be pitching right because I built businesses and sold
businesses right, and so there's a level of trust. I
am super mindful of that. I'm super mindful that they
trust me with their hard earned money, and I don't
ever want to get behind anything or manipulate them in
a way just because we need the money of their
(07:32):
investment in order for this thing to get to the
next level. I won't oversell anything. And so at the
end of the day, if they ask me, I want
to be honest, and they're very much informed of all
the risks, and if they don't get, they don't give.
And I can tell you not all people that are
in that position do that. If they have a friend
willing to write a five hundred thousand dollars check or
a half a million, I mean a million dollar check.
(07:54):
You know. I've had friends that have been willing to
do that because they trust me. And so I don't
over exaggerate, over enhance those types of things because I'm
not trying to gain something off of someone else. I
want them to be honest and informed. But I'm saying
that because we can do that in anything, we can
do it in relationships. Yep, we can do that in
we can do that with anything that God has given us.
(08:17):
So I'm grateful in a sense he showed me that,
and that's how I know early on that God had
an intention. He also was calling me to steward souls. Right.
And I am not a conventional traditional Christian, if you will, right,
And what do I mean by that? I believe in Father, Son,
Holy Spirit. Right, I'm not Can I get behind a pulpit, yes,
(08:41):
but I'm boots on the ground, you know, running into
the neighborhoods deal. And I don't look like where I've
come from. So what happens is is that I show
up and oftentimes people who have met me in my
life are like their mouths are open, They're like, wait what.
They look at me on the outside and go this
woman has no idea what it's like to be hungry.
(09:03):
Oh that she doesn't know what it's like to go
through anything. They see a car I drive, or house
I live in, or whatever the situation and experience I've had.
And then when I speak, the Lord annoints my words.
He allows me as he allows me to open up
and share a portion of my story. And I am
on the other side of their breakthrough, not because of me,
(09:25):
but because if Jesus did it for me, he can
do it for you. And the amount of experiences that
I've had. Right, It's like again, if you looked at
my younger self, my younger self would have said, God
doesn't love me. How in the world could he give
me this and expect for me to succeed? How the
(09:48):
world could he give me this and expect for me
to love him and follow him. I didn't even have
a fighting chance. I came into a situation that I
had no control. Wasn't like he gave me a good
life and then I had to this opportunity. Oh but
he did give me a good life, Oh he did.
He gave me tenacity and resilience in the truth that
(10:08):
only could be built in me through my experiences that
only could be built in me. Because in the midnight hour,
he showed up at the diagnosis, He showed up at
the opportunity for me to die. He became the bridge
to life for me. Right Like I know that I
know and I'm confident in Christ and not what he
can just do for me, but what he could do
(10:28):
for others because of the fact of what He's done,
and then he's also used my hands to lay on
people and heal them. I don't know when you've ever
talked about that story about the man that was hit
by an eighteen Willard. Oh, we haven't talked about that story.
Tell me, Oh, So this is another example of knowing
(10:49):
that I know right. So when you ask me, I
think we always sometimes have to be reaffirmed, you know,
sometimes it's like, God, did I really hear you? Do?
I know these things? And another little moment in my
young adult life, I had my daughter, who's my middle
daughter now, was in middle school. I believe in entering
high school. And I want to give you some of
(11:10):
these details because I think it's so important, and as
your listeners are listening today, I want you to understand
that every minute is intentional by God. We think of circumstance,
but every minute, every second, every decision is intentional by God.
So I was called to speak in a place in Hershey, Pennsylvania,
(11:34):
and it was for a women's conference, and there was
an early lunch for the speakers, and they wanted us
to get there and it was optional, and it happened
to be not too far from my in laws. I
like to call them my in loves because I love
my laws, my mother in love and father in love.
And I sat with them a little longer, and I
(11:55):
remember looking at the clock and I was like, I'm
just going to say a little while longer. I'm enjoy
the time. You know, I'm going to miss the lunch.
It's okay. My daughter was coming with me. She didn't
go to very many speaking engagements, but this was one
I was excited to bring her on. And interesting enough,
this is my child that's on fire for God right now.
(12:16):
She's the one I'm telling you in Alabama that's expecting
her baby. She's she can defend her faith and she
has called to her generation glory, thank you. So what's
interesting is, Teresa, I'm leaving my in laws. And again
this still ties back to my younger days because you
have to have a level of resilience. God builds specific
(12:39):
things in you that doesn't cause you to shrink back. Right,
So the thing is I leave I always turn left.
I turned right to the point to where I hit
my brakes in the middle of the street. My daughter
looks at me and says, what are you doing. I said,
I'm going the wrong way now, The only thing is
if I would turn left, it would bring me one
(13:00):
exit closer to where I was going. If I turned right,
which was the direction that I turned, it takes me
one exit further away from when I'm going. I'm still
gonna end up in the right direction, but I'm just
one exit down further. And so she was like, Okay,
we'll turn around. I said, I'm just gonna go straight.
Like I literally hit my brakes. I get on the freeway. Bam,
there's an accident in front of me. Had I gone
(13:22):
the left, the direction to the left, I would have
bypassed the accident. So, again, intentional, by God, I pull over.
There is a man that was changing his tire where
the side mirror hit his head. Okay, while he was driving,
his brain matters on the ground. Oh my gosh, I'm
digging in the back of my car. I'm running across
(13:44):
the street Highway eighty one. If anybody knows it, in Pennsylvania,
it's like Trucker's territory. Trucks are flying all by. I'm
trying to slow all of the trucks down. He's on
the right hand side of the freeway. I'm not even
on the shoulder. I'm on the left hand side. Okay,
so I'm running back and forth. There's a nurse that's there.
The only people that are in this section of the
(14:06):
accident is myself and my daughter, this nurse, a husband
and wife taking their son for a college visit, and
the actual trucker who hit the man, and the man himself.
That's it. Everything else has paused. Everybody else is ahead
of the accident. Everybody else is stuck behind the accident.
I'm running back and forth. There's blood coming out. I'm
across this man's body with the nurse. The nurse, I said, oh,
(14:29):
you're a nurse, and she's like, no, no, I work
in geriatrics, right. So the Lord leads me to pray
for this man, and with her we get up. I'm
trying to The trucker is like gray, he's about to
pass out because he's thinking this man is dying. It's
all these things that are happening. I'm in a fast
forward story. The bottom line is this. This is why
obedience is so important for anybody who is listening. Don't
(14:54):
ever second guess. If you're hearing from God, if you
have entrusted him with your life, you have prayer. Just
ask God, you don't all the time have to be
on your knees. Hey, am my Lord, what are you
calling me to do? What am I supposed to do?
That's a prayer. Prayer is communication and I learned that
early on because I didn't always know to go on
my knees as a kid. I just be talking to God,
(15:15):
you know what I'm saying. So the thing is is
that in this the Lord asked me to lay over
this man with my body. He's bleeding to death, like literally,
and so I end up laying over this man. My
hands are in blood. I don't know what he has.
I mean, he could have been HIV positive, anything, right,
(15:36):
So I'm laying I'm praying. I'm like, okay, it doesn't
seem to be working right. And so the thing is,
the Holy Spirit says, reach in his pocket and call
him out by name. So you want me in front
of this group of people to dig in this man's wallet?
This laying on the side, I mean, can you imagine
(15:58):
a man's laying down and I'm digging in his his pockets?
You understand what I'm saying, Like, get his backpocket a second,
and you gotta imagine some of the stuff God asked
us to do. You guys gotta think through this. I
don't be honest, I'm like, no wonder. Elijah was like
the Kings were like, what do you mean march around?
We didn't ask God for water, and you're telling my
soldiers to march around, you know, seven times and do
(16:20):
all this crazy stuff. So I'm digging, you know, and
at the moment, I'm not thinking about all the things
that God could ask us to do. This sometimes doesn't
make any sense. I'm just doing it. So I'm digging
to try to find this man's wallet, and you don't
have a lot of time to think. But something in
the back of my mind was like these people are
about like what is this lady doing? So I pull
out his wallet, and the Lord gives me the words
(16:43):
to say to call this man out by name. It
was almost like Elazareuths situation. So I'm literally call saying
whatever the Lord is leading me to say, positioning my
body in a way that God was asking me to
position my body. When I tell you, when God tells
you to do something right, it doesn't always look right,
(17:05):
doesn't seem right, and it makes no sense. And I
have no idea what God was doing, so I continue
to pray. I now have the man's name. His wallet
is still in my hand, and I am overlaying this
man so to the point that when the police and
the corner show up, Teresa, they're like, ma'am, they think
I'm distraught. I'm the wife, you know, and they're like
(17:27):
asking me questions, ma'am are you married? And I'm like no.
Holy Spirit's like, keep your head down, and I'm like praying,
and the cops are asking me, does anybody know who
this man is. I'm literally still laying over the man,
covering his body, and my hand goes up with the
man's wallet, hand to the cop. I didn't even turn around.
I just hand it up. He's like, ma'am, he's tapping
(17:49):
me over the shoulder. Are you the wife? I said, no, sir,
and Holy Spirit continues to tell me to pray. The
mt is saying, ma'am, they've now checked him, his corate
and ottery. He's dead, and they think I'm distraught. Are
you the wife? No? Are you the girlfriend? No? They're
telling you, ma'am, we need you to get up, and
I'm like, Holy Spirit says, no, you continue to pray.
(18:11):
They're already checked his carotid artery. They're saying, he's gone. Ma'am,
we need you to get back. My daughter is now
standing at the one clock hour of his head. I'm
laying The nurses moved out of the way. She been moved.
I didne scared her to death after laying in all
this bloods. I'm sure she's thinking about blood and body
fluids and everything she learned in nurse in school. Like, ma'am,
you have no gloves. What's going on here? Right? Like
(18:34):
you know, all of the things and out and dug
in a man's wallet who's laying on the side. And
I'm like, she probably think I'm stealing credit cards and
cash out the man's way whatever. So I mean, it
doesn't make sense to the world, right, And so I
am continuing to lay over this body. And it gets
to the point where the NT use a stern voice, ma'am,
(18:54):
we have asked you to move. You need to move.
Holy Spirit stay and right, I'm like, oh Lord, am
I here in the hole. I got to be here.
And so because they about to take me on a
paddy wagon, okay, So and I got a conference to
get to like, you know, I'm still laying over this man,
(19:15):
and in all honesty, I continued until the Holy Spirit
told me to get up. The corner had showed up,
and when I finally got the okay to get up,
he started to walk back over. But he didn't even
have to tell me to get up, because at that
time the Holy Spirit said to get up. They took
a white sheet and shook it, and it was like
slow motion. You could see the white sheet go up
(19:37):
and come over the man's body. I walked around his
head to stand at the one o'clock hour, because I
was at the nine o'clock hour over his body, right,
and so they had shaken the sheet. I was standing
with my daughter. I laid her head into my shoulder
because this was a lot to see as a young
(19:57):
girl in middle school, right, like, this man is bleeding
and her mom's now covered in blood and all the things,
and she's just like standing there. And they shook the
sheet and they pulled it over him and literally under
the sheet. I wish I had one so you could see.
You could see it go. The man starts breathing under
(20:18):
the sheet. They pulled the sheet back by the way
the coroners arrived. They pulled the sheet back and they said,
we have a pulse in they're screaming. So they go
to intubate this man. They're working on him on the ground.
They're trying to get him in the ambulance. Myself and
the group of people I described, we stood in the
middle of the freeway and as led by the lord,
(20:39):
I said, please, let's come around. Let's begin to pray.
We stood in a circle, all those people I mentioned earlier,
and we begin to pray. A helicopter landed before us
right the state highway. State patrolman comes, takes his hat
off and says, ma'am, I don't know what you've done
or what you're doing, he said, but he said it
looks like prayer. He said, whatever it is you're doing,
(21:01):
keep doing it. Because he said, for that helicopter to
leave the hospital, he said, it takes five thousand dollars
just to send the helicopter. They're not putting anybody in
a helicopter that they don't think is going to make
it right. And at the end of the day, he said,
whatever you do, do it. He said, if that ambulance,
because now they've moved his body from the ground. They're
(21:22):
in the ambulance getting them stabilized. He said, if that,
and we're in the middle of the freeway, okay, So
he said, if that they would have to drive past us.
He said, if that ambulance goes past you and he
goes to that helicopter, that man's gonna make it. It's
just too expensive. And he was very honest, like for
them to bring a helicopter for somebody who's not going
to make it. We're standing there and you hear the
(21:45):
we're in prayer, we're NonStop, and you hear the ambulance go,
you know, because it's letting us know we're coming by,
and we cheer. And when I look, when I turn around,
just how you see these books. There was an overpass,
so there was tons of people glory mita God, tons
(22:06):
of people like hanging on the fence watching what was happening.
They got to see God in action. They at that moment,
I had no idea all those people were up there,
including my father in law. He was trying to wakes
up story later that there was something going on. It
looked like somebody was praying out there in the middle
(22:27):
of the freeway. There was an accident, and I said, Dad,
that was me. So my point in saying this is
that one my daughter. So I'm now getting in the car.
Everything you know, the guy takes off. I'm in the car,
I'm covered in blood. I have praise and worship, musing,
(22:47):
blasting for thirty minutes until I arrived. I get to her,
she and my daughter just she's in the car and
bust out in tears. She said, mom, oh my God,
here is something after that, and I'm like singing, and
like I said, you know what, look at how the
world counted this man out. Look at how the world
(23:09):
said he's dead, he's gone. And evidence of all of
that was all around him, evidence because he had no heartbeat.
You re mind you the corner showed up. Okay, I said,
but yep. God asked me to be in prayer, and
I had to be obedient to what he had called.
(23:29):
And you got to see that when the world gives
up on you, God has not. All these people got
to witness the hand of God. Imagine how had I
been afraid? Imagine had I said, Well, I'm worried about
what people think about me, what they're gonna say. Why
am I digging in this man's whatever the situation is. So,
(23:51):
I said, I was happy to see at I said,
you at an early age, because you didn't grow up
like I grew up. So you got to see something
and experience some things that no one can ever take
away from you. You were there every moment of that
entire situation. You got to see them try to pull
me off of this man. You got to see them
pronounce him dead on the scene. You got to see
(24:12):
me continue to pray. You knew what I was doing right,
and so at the end of the day, you also
seeing God count him in when everybody else counted him out,
I said, and that has been the story of your
mother's life. Everybody has counted me out, yet God counted
me in. Next week, Terry shares Jaden's autism diagnosis and
(24:37):
how it reshaped her calling.
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