S2S Sisters: "From the World and Into His Kingdom" by Christina Baer

Our prayer is that you will be filled with the knowledge of His will, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. Good afternoon, all of you. We're very excited about another session of Strength to Strength Sisters, and this is a platform to encourage growing in faithfulness in God's kingdom and advancing it through biblical teaching, testimonies of faithful women, and thought-provoking discussions.

And our prayer is that God will receive all the honor. My name is Linda Ament, and I have been married to Darren for nearly 16 years. We have eight children, ranging in ages from almost 15 through 10 months.

They are Jackson, Natalie, Miles, Alexis, Stuart, Cassidy, Chloe, and Leo. We live in northern Alberta, where it is not as warm today as we wish it was, but I am very busy being a mom of eight, as well as all that comes with that. So we're finishing our third year of homeschooling this year.

Our lives are very full with these things, as well as pursuing or purging and working towards moving to a new church plant in southern Alberta, if the Lord leads us that way. I was raised in a conservative Mennonite culture, though we have left that, and we are on a very challenging journey learning what it means to truly follow Christ.

So, and through doing historic faith courses, I've been richly blessed to learn many wonderful truths, biblical truths, and to learn how to have an obedient, love-faith relationship with Christ. I am passionate about biblical truth, about people knowing that, living it with Christ's power. And I very much aspire, even though I feel like I'm still so unlearned, I aspire to teach these truths to our children, Darren and I both do, as well as others.

So we want to welcome Christina Baer this afternoon to share her testimony. I have been very blessed to have known Christina for about 10 years. She is married to my next younger brother, I got to add that in, my younger brother, Sam. And Christina has taught me many, many things, including I had to add this to what muffin tops are.

And so going from having basically nothing in common with Christina to being very close sisters in Christ has been very rich and sweet for me. So after her testimony, there will be a time given for questions and answers.

Sam and Christina and their three children. So we would love to have you hear from you, whether you want to share inspiration, your own testimony, or you have a question. Please feel free to share that after her talk. We'll give a time for that.

So right now, I would like if we could bow our heads and pray for Christina before she speaks. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you this afternoon.

O God, we are so thankful that you hear us, that you care about us. We know that you do. You are our Father. When we make you Lord of our lives, it is very rich and it is very sweet.

We want to lift up Christina here today as she shares her testimony, help her feel calm and inspired. O God, give her your words, fill her with your Spirit that she can speak with your power. We want you to receive all the honor and all the glory.

We thank you very much for this platform, Lord. We thank you for each dear lady that is listening. And we just ask that you would, through you, we can be encouraged and drawn together and blessed today as we hear Christina's testimony.

Thank you again for hearing us. Thank you for your mercy and your love towards us. Thank you for being with us. And thank you that you will be with Christina as she shares. All this we pray in your Son's name. Amen.

Amen. So go ahead, Christina. Thank you, Linda.

So I'm Christina Baer. I'm 37 years old. I'm married to Sam Baer, and we have three children. Elliot, he's five. Autumn is three, and Ivan has recently turned one.

I would say growing up, I had what I considered a regular childhood according to the world standards. I used to play with the neighborhood kids. I rode my bike all the time. My grandparents had a cabin in BC, so we would spend a lot of time in the summers there, swimming and hanging out and sunbathing and all that kind of stuff.

My parents were separated when I was eight years old, so that was normal. I had a lot of friends that didn't have their parents that were together. Though that was very hard, it was just part of life. It was normal to go to my dad's some weekends and then be at my mom's during the week and that sort of thing.

I have one younger sister. She's four years younger. Her name is Lisa. And growing up, or my dad would profess that he's a Catholic. My mom went to Catholic school growing up, and my grandma, her mom is Catholic as well. But my mom never spoke about God, and he wasn't part of our home. My dad did read me Bible stories when I was a small child going to bed at night. So I knew the common stories. Daniel and the Lion's Den, Samson was definitely one that I remember. And I knew that there was a man named Jesus that walked on this earth. Whether he was the Son of God or not, I wasn't sure.

I remember this would have been when I was a little bit older, after my dad wasn't at home anymore. I used to lie in bed at night wondering, well, if there's a God, then who created God? And I was a pretty logical child, and I just couldn't wrap my head around that. And I didn't have anyone to ask or anyone to talk to about it. So in my own little mind, I just figured, well, there couldn't be a God because then who would have made God? So that's kind of where that ended.

I used to also think, this would have been more when I was an adult, that religion was for weak-minded people, people that just couldn't get through life by themselves, and they had to rely on an unforeseen God. Now I know that we are all weak, and we all need Christ in our life.

That's what I thought. Denominations also really confused me. If the Bible was true, why were there so many different denominations? It was something that I didn't really think about too much, but it was something that didn't bother me about religion as well.

Yeah. In high school, I went to public school, of course. In high school, I became depressed, and I struggled with that throughout my whole life, really, after high school. And I remember one time my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I told her that all I want is to be happy.

So since a teenager, I've been searching for joy.

I tried finding joy through different means. I have a tattoo on my wrist that was supposed to remind me to be strong mentally. I tried meditation, positive affirmations, working out. Things worked for a little while, but nothing ever lasted.

I sort of had the mentality, "I'll be happy when." I'll be happy when I'm married. I'll be happy when I have children. I'll be happy when I have more money. So I kept reaching these milestones, but then it was like, "Oh, then I'll be happy when something else comes along."

Yeah. I thought that I was a good person. I thought I lived a pretty normal life. In high school, we used to go down the alleys and smoke weed on our lunch breaks and go back to school, and that was just normal. All my friends did that, and I was still a good person, and I was friendly to people. Sometimes I helped volunteer as well. So I wasn't—yeah, I thought I was a good person. I was definitely a selfish person. I lived for myself.

But yeah, it wasn't until actually the Holy Spirit abided with me that I realized what an awful person I really was. And some of the things I didn't even think I had issues with, I did have issues with.

So I worked, of course. I was raised by a single mother. I was taught that I need to work and make my own money. Even when I get married, it was important for women to work and to provide for themselves.

So I worked. My last job was at an oil and gas company. I worked there for eight years. I worked downtown Calgary. Oh, I should have mentioned that I'm from Calgary, Alberta as well. Worked there. I started as a receptionist and kind of just worked my way up as far as you can with not going to college or anything like that.

And I had a lot of fun there. That company, we worked really hard, but we also played hard. There was a lot of money that we spent on doing things like going on ski trips and flying around the world to conferences and all sorts of things that I just can't even imagine the money that we wasted. But anyways, it was a very ungodly work environment. Now that I think about it in my situation now, the men were chauvinistic, and they would comment on how you looked and things like that, and we would go to inappropriate places, and it was quite something. But it was normal to me.

When I was 27, I met Sam, my husband, and we had a lot of fun together. He used to come on these work trips with me, and a lot of it was paid for. We partied a lot. We drank all the time. We did drugs, and we lived for ourselves.

We wasted so much money, so much time, but we didn't know, or I didn't know what else was the point of life. You just live, and you make money, and you spend it, and you just go about your life.

He asked me to marry him on top of the Eiffel Tower, and he gave me a beautiful diamond engagement ring. And that was so incredibly special to me because I was waiting to get married. I was longing for this big diamond ring, and I finally got it. It was picturesque and story-like because it was on top of the Eiffel Tower, and I just thought our lives were so wonderful, and they were just going to go up from there. Our desire in life was to make money and be rich and just have this fancy life that was appealing to the world.

At the beginning of our relationship, Sam showed me photos of his family. He sat down with me one day and said, "Well, I want to tell you about my family." He says, "My family is Mennonite. I was a Mennonite, and here's photos of them." So they were women wearing pink dresses and head coverings, and I looked at the photos and shook my head and smiled and, "Okay." And again, like I said, this is when we were dating. And I went home, and I freaked out. I had no idea what this was, and I googled, "What is a Mennonite?" And I was looking it up, and I was talking to my friend who I worked with, and I was kind of brought all my problems to her, and I was kind of freaking out.

And she's like, "It's okay. It's not a big deal. I had a Mennonite woman that watched us when we were children. There's nothing to worry about." And so, okay, I got over that. And I met his family for the first time at a wedding reception. His youngest brother was getting married or had got married, and they were having a reception. So the first time I met any of his family, it was all of them. And they were so welcoming and so loving and so kind. I felt so welcome there. It was just amazing. Of course, I was worried about what I was going to wear.

So I found one of my mom's long skirts. It covered my knees. It was skin tight, but it covered my knees, so I thought I was being modest. I had big high heels on and everything. But yeah, that was me being modest back then.

And they were wonderful people.

So that made me feel good. And it was funny. For a little while, every time I would go visit them, I used to always get a little bit nervous before I saw them. And then as soon as I saw them, I was just always so felt so warm and welcome there. It was just absolutely beautiful. That was definitely because Christ was there.

So Sam and I got to a point of our life where we wanted to stop partying. It was a waste of time. It was a waste of money. We were married now, and we wanted to move on with our life.

But it was a little bit hard. Luckily, once I became pregnant with our first child, then that was the end of that. There was no going back. Forward was the way.

So our first child, Elliot, was born. Very shortly after that, we went to a town up in northern Alberta, Fort McMurray. We went there for business. Sam had his own business. We went there to make money. It did not go well. We were there for about six months, and it was terrible. It was a very stressful time financially anyways. Sam and I have a very good marriage, and we've always had a very good marriage, so I'm thankful for that. But it was not good financially. It was very stressful.

When we come back home, we decided that we were going to move to Cochrane, Alberta. It's a large town just outside of Calgary. So we moved there. We were here for about a year, and Sam is still working on his business. And sometimes we're okay, and other times it was not okay, and it was stressful. And it was definitely a point of tension in our marriage was our finances.

And then I became pregnant with Autumn. And then one time I had—and at this point, there's something going on in Sam's life. God was drawing him back to himself, but I didn't know this was happening. And Sam suggested going to church one day, and I just kind of, "No, I don't really want to go to church." And so Sam said, "Okay." And he left it alone for a little bit. And then it was either right after I had Autumn, our second child, or right before Sam suggested going to church again. It was probably right after we had Autumn.

And he said it would be a good way for us to make friends. We haven't been able to make friends here in Cochrane. We don't have any of our old friends anymore, and we would meet nice people. And I thought about that. Yeah, nice people go to church. Yes, we could make some really nice people going there. So we wrote a list of some churches that were here in our town, and we decided on one. So that Sunday, we got all dressed up, and we went to church. And I figured that this would be a good way also to teach my children to sit quietly, not realizing that you should teach them at home, that kind of stuff, not when you get to church.

But anyway, that's what I was thinking when we first got there. Of course, they had a little preschool, though, so then our children weren't even with us. Autumn was three weeks old, I think, when we first went there. So of course, she stayed with us. But Elliot went to preschool, which was great. He had little friends to play with for an hour while we were in church, and people were so friendly there and welcoming, and it was a really pleasant atmosphere.

The first Sunday was about salvation, and there was something in the message that really spoke to me. And after that whole week afterwards, I kept thinking about it, and I kept wanting to go back to church. And that actually really surprised me. I was a little embarrassed by it. I didn't even say anything to Sam. But every day I thought about it, and I was looking forward to going back. So on Saturday, I said, "So Sam, are we going to go to church tomorrow?" And Sam goes, "Oh yeah, I kind of forgot about it, but yeah, let's go to church tomorrow." So we go to church again, and that message was on grace. They actually had a woman doing a one-woman skit on the life of John Newton.

And at the end, the pastor was praying, and he was praying about joy. And I couldn't help it. I cried. And after the prayer, Sam opens his eyes, and he sees that I'm crying, and he's just shocked and blown away. And I had no idea that the message spoke to Sam at this time.

John Newton was raised in the faith, and then he walked away. I guess I didn't really clarify that Sam used to be a Mennonite, and then he walked away from his faith. And then when he met me, he wasn't really sure if there was a God. He kind of tried to just deny that he existed.

So anyways, his story, he felt related to John Newton's because he was raised in the faith. He walked away. John Newton was a wretched man. And then because of God's grace, he was saved. And Sam says, "If someone that horrible can be saved, then I too have a chance." So we go home after that message.

We have lunch together, and we put our children down for naps. And we go and we sit down at our dining room table, and Sam goes, "Okay, why were you crying? Tell me about it." So we talk about it, and I don't know exactly everything that we said, but we laughed and we cried, and we gave our lives to Jesus Christ right then and there together. And it changed my life, and everything was wonderful. There was so much peace and so much joy in our home. It was a different home.

Shortly after that, we went through a big financial struggle, and it was so different than it ever had been before. We just got through it, and it was okay. We didn't fight about it, and it was just so beautiful. The way we were with our children changed. Just it was amazing.

I've never felt such pure joy before. The joy that I had been longing for my whole life, I had finally found. Even at times in my life where I was happy and you think you're happy, this joy far exceeded that.

This pure joy, it's the way that we're supposed to be. It's a gift from Jesus Christ, and it is amazing, and it's beautiful.

So from there, I went and bought my first Bible. I was so proud of my Bible, and I started reading it, of course, because now this is my life, and I want to know about it. So I'm reading it. Of course, I'm reading the New Testament first.

And actually, I should talk about our church experience a little bit. Sam and I dove into church, the church that we were going to. We volunteered there. We were part of small groups. We had friends there. We really invested a lot of time into that place. We went faithfully every single Sunday, and I helped volunteer with the events. Sam was even the grounds and building maintenance lead or something like that.

And things were good. Things were going really well. So I'm reading my Bible, of course. And one day I asked Sam, "Well, how do you know what teachings of Jesus to take literally?" And he goes, "Well, what do you mean?" I said, "Well, I'm reading these things, and this is not what I'm seeing. So how do you know? And why would Christ come and say all this stuff and have it recorded and written down for us if he didn't really mean it? That didn't make any sense to me."

So from there, we started making changes to our lives, things like jewelry. Jewelry went first. My engagement and my wedding ring, I held on to for a little bit longer, but eventually that went as well. Makeup. Makeup was pretty easy for me to leave. I didn't really wear a lot. And then at this point, I was a stay-at-home mom with little children, so there was no point of me putting makeup on. It took me a little bit longer to stop curling my eyelashes and coloring my eyebrows, but I don't wear any makeup now.

Entertainment was another thing. Slowly, we just kind of felt like TV's probably not the best. I would watch movies that we used to watch, and it would disgust me, the gore in it or the language in it. And the spirit really was working inside of me, and there were things that just weren't appealing.

So we slowly started cutting all this stuff out of our life. I stopped doing yoga. I was convicted that yoga is not an appropriate thing for a Christian woman to be doing. And it was so interesting starting to dress more modestly as well.

It was so interesting. There were so many times where Sam and I would get the same convictions at the same time. For example, entertainment, watching sports or shows and things like that. I was starting to gain this conviction, and one day I spoke to Sam about it, and he said, "No way. I've been thinking the same thing." And that happened over and over again. And I just praise God that our journeys have lined up, and we are able to just keep walking this together, and it's glorious.

So I praise God for that. Some of these changes were easy. Some of them were harder. I also want to just say that you don't need to be convicted to make these changes. We do things for the glory of God.

For example, the dressing. It was only last summer that I stopped wearing pants. I really held on to wearing pants. I wear dresses or skirts now. And that was difficult for me. I don't know why. I started wearing more modest pants, a little bit baggier, looser. But I don't know. But I wasn't convicted. It doesn't say in the Bible that a woman should wear a skirt or a dress, but it is more modest, yes.

So I can't really see my shape and my form, but I knew that it would be honoring to God if I were to wear it. So I changed, and I stopped wearing them. Stopped wearing pants. I donated them all, and I was done with it.

And just recently, actually, something I kind of have still struggling with a little bit, but recently I was listening to something, a message, and he spoke about how we are women. And God created me to be a woman, and I want to take ownership of that. And I love that I'm a woman. So why wouldn't I dress like a woman? When women dress up for weddings or for dates, things like that, they wear dresses. So why wouldn't I wear one every day? So that's really helped me with making that change.

Again, excuse me. I do it for the glory of God, and I think I glorify him by looking the part that he created me for. Head covering was another difficult thing for me. I wore a head covering the first time. Well, first I'll say Sam mentioned a head covering to me kind of sort of at the beginning of our Christian lives because he grew up with women, his mother and his sisters and other women that wore head coverings. So he mentioned that, and I did not want to hear it. So that was the end of that conversation.

And then we would read it, and we would decide that, well, maybe it's just the hair, long hair is the covering. And I didn't think about it too much because I knew in my heart that I was supposed to wear a head covering. So I just wouldn't really think about it. And it got to the point where I'm like, "Okay, I've been making a lot of changes. I'm ready to learn about the head covering." So actually, Finney Caruvala from Followers of the Way has a three-part series on the head covering. So I listened to them. It happened to be a weekend when Sam was out of town working for a week when he was working out of town.

And I listened to them, and I gained a conviction that I need to wear a head covering. So that Sunday, I had a scarf. I just wore it around my shoulders, and I went to church, and I sat down, and I sat up on the balcony too. So I wasn't even in the whole crowd. And the message started, and I put my scarf up, and I was so nervous and so I don't know. I had way too much fear of man. So I think I even put the scarf down before the service was finished. And Sam came home, and I said, "You have to listen to these messages." So we listened to them together again.

And the next Sunday, I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to do a head covering again, and I'm going to wrap a scarf around my head." So we tied it on around my bun.

I didn't have a lot of options. It was actually a leopard print scarf. And we went to church, and oh, I was getting comments. "Oh, that looks so good." And so I'm like, "Well, that's not really the point. People are just thinking that this is the fashion statement, and it's not. I'm wearing a head covering."

But that was very difficult. No one that I knew or saw in our town wore a head covering. I was the only one. But I did it for the glory of the Lord, and that's why I wear one.

I'm okay with my head covering now. It was really hard at first to wear it around my mom, my sister. I would wear it sometimes and not other times. And I did really struggle with it. I actually got to a point where I had to repent recently, maybe not that recent now, and ask God for his forgiveness. If he asked me to do something like cover my head, then why wouldn't I? The joy and the love and the peace and this amazing life that he gives me, why could I not put a head covering on?

So back to Sam and I, Sam started feeling really bothered about the teachings at the church, how they just weren't quite there, or there were certain things that they were teaching that weren't like non-resistance, for example. They had a message on Remembrance Day, and Sam was very bothered by that because they were glorifying these soldiers.

But anyway, and then I soon started realizing that these messages are just kind of shallow, and they're not going deep. And there were no teachings on how we can be saved from sin or living a godly life or being holy or anything like that. It was just about Jesus loves you, and life is wonderful. But Sam likes to say that they always refer to themselves as sinners on their way to heaven.

Yeah. So I wasn't feeling fulfilled with the messages either. We ended up going home after Sunday messages and listening to messages ourselves so that we could just feel fulfilled and feel enlightened.

We were planning the year's events for the church, and I kind of had one foot out the door at this time. And they were talking about how they can attract the world into their church, and it just blew me away.

Jesus says, or yeah, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." And that really bothered me. This church was very worldly. So we decided that we needed to leave. This happened right before COVID, so not many people actually even really realized that we had left the church for a little bit. We tried having a home church for well, we still do, I suppose. Yeah.

That was up and down. We had people come. We had people leave. We've had, yeah, a nice-sized group and then just the two of us sometimes. But we found that finding people that want to have an obedient, love, faith relationship with Christ was very hard to find.

So we were alone most of the time. We would pray for fellowship. We just prayed that people would come to us. And God answered our prayers, of course. And he sent us Bryant and Lynelle Martin. Lynelle is a man here on Strength to Strength, sisters, and Bryant is part of the Strength to Strength team as well.

And what a blessing. So this was during COVID, and Zoom was a big thing. And they started Zooming with us once a week. There is a two-hour time difference. They're two hours ahead of us. So we'd always do it in the evenings. And they used to take their time out of their busy lives once a week to meet with us and listen to us and talk to us. And we were on the call probably two hours at a time. And poor Lynelle, she was pregnant for most of the time, and they'd be going to bed at 11:00 or midnight. And that time was so wonderful. I like to call them our lifeline. I don't know what we would have done without them.

They listened to our ups and our downs and our woes and would rejoice with us. And it's probably funny to think back at all those calls and see how much we've grown and see how far we've come. And anyways, so thank you, Lynelle and Bryant.

And God answers more prayers. We also had fellowship with Jonathan and Mary Beth Heisey during and Joe Kurtz and, of course, Linda and Darren as well. So yeah, like I said, God answered prayer. He answered it in a unique way. We connected with all these people through Zoom, but we had fellowship.

So praise the Lord. Another thing that completely changed my life and my direction of travel, my Christian walk, is David Brousseau's book, The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside Down. I highly recommend reading it. It was wonderful. It gave me the perspective that we are part of a different kingdom. Jesus Christ came here not just to save us from our sins and die on the cross, yes, as a part of it, but he came to bring heaven to earth now. And that made a huge difference in my life and Sam's life. I kept reading it and running to him. "You need to hear this. You need to hear this." Actually, forgive me. I didn't read it.

I'd listened to it the first time. We bought a stack of them. We were going to hand them out to all our friends. People were going to read them and get this amazing realization, and everyone were going to be kingdom Christians. And no one really had the, I don't know, excitement about it like we did. Anyways, the work that God has been doing in our life is amazing. The things that we've been changing, simplicity of life, the things that we spend our money on. It was funny. We just desire to be rich. That was our goal. And now that doesn't matter.

I really think about what we spend our money on because if we don't buy this, well, then we can give more away, for example. Or does Christ really care that my home is decorated to a certain way or to look like a Pinterest home and things like that? I've been learning that you die to yourself every day. You bear your cross. I'm obedient to Jesus' words. And with all these things, I've had such joy and such peace. He helps me with the things that I've been struggling with. I didn't realize that I was an angry person until I met the Lord. He helps me with that. He gives me patience.

The difference I see in my children, the difference from the time we raised Elliot, our first child, to our third one, Ivan, is such a different home. It's beautiful, and I'm so thankful for it.

Yeah. I'm able to live in the power of the Spirit and have strength through Christ. I wanted to read something. I wanted to read John 15 and verses 9 to 14.

"As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you."

I used to walk in darkness, so lost without knowing it, not knowing the purpose of life, longing for something to fill an empty void in my life. Then one day, my husband suggests we go to church to make friends.

And it changed my life forever. Little did I know that I would find Jesus Christ, my King, my Savior, and my friend.

One time, I asked Sam, "Why me? Why not just fight me and my Christian? Why do I have these convictions? Why do I think it's important to wear a head covering? Why do I want to make all these changes? I don't see anyone else doing these things." And Sam goes, "If you knew how many people were praying for you, you didn't even have a chance."

So I just want to thank everybody that prayed for me and that prayed for Sam while he was lost. Sorry. We owe everything to you. Thank you so much for your prayers. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. If you know someone that's lost or someone that has walked away from the faith, don't ever stop praying for them.

My sister and my mom are lost. My sister, she's the type of person that jokes about if she would walk into a church, she would light on fire. And my mom just doesn't really talk about God too much, although I can see God working in her life the last few years. So amen to that. Praise the Lord. But if anyone today feels inclined to pray for my mother and my sister, I'd be so grateful for that.

Our plan for the future is to move to Calgary. We want to move back to the city. There's three other families, Lord willing, are planning to move with us. We believe that there are more ministry opportunities there, and there's lots of work to be done. I just want to spread the gospel and show people the life that we're supposed to live.

So yeah, thank you.

Thank you for Christina for that. That was very exciting to hear. And it made me think of some verses in Psalms that I want to share. Psalm 66, I read this chapter this morning, and it just amazed me at what a testimony it is.

Psalm 66, verse 5, "Come and see the works of God. He is awesome in his doing towards the sons of men." Down to verse 8, "O bless our God, you peoples, and make the voice of his praise to be heard, who keeps our soul among the living and does not allow our feet to be moved. For you, O God, have tested us. You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net. You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you brought us out to rich fulfillment." Verse 16, "Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what he has done for my soul."

And I say this with Christina. "I cried to him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But certainly, God has heard me. He has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God who has not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me." And I just think of the just reminds me of the boundless mercy of God.

And it has been very strengthening to my faith to watch Christina's journey. To God be the glory. And I know she would say the same thing, just what God can do in a person's life. And also a challenge to us to never stop praying for lost people, for those who we know are lost and need to follow Christ and need to find joy.

So I want to open it up now for questions and/or inspirations from our listeners. Please turn on your video if you want to speak. And you may also submit a question through the chat feature on the bottom of your Zoom screen, as well as you may ask the question over the phone.

So if you have a question, feel free to share that.

For some, it might feel easier to personally message her with questions too. And I think you can do that. Sure. On the where is your where would someone find your messaging? Is that on the Strength to Strength WhatsApp group? Yes. And we also have Telegram as well. Okay.

So sometimes that's easier for people. But if someone has something to share, feel free to go ahead.

Hello. Good morning. This is Michelle Smith from Australia. I thought I'd like to firstly thank you, Christina, for sharing your message. And I just pray that it will reach many, many people. In your message, you talk about changes that you made with your head covering.

I wonder if there are other changes that are not so obvious, things that God might have worked in your heart, in your life, things like forgiveness or bitterness or other struggles you went through that you might also share with us. That's all right. Thank you.

Thanks, Michelle.

Yeah. I would say, well, I did mention anger.

I've learned a lot about that and being patient.

One big thing is being a servant, I would say. Actually, I was going to say this with regards to meeting Sam's family. I used to really feel sorry for the women. I thought they had to stay at home. They had to take care of their children. They had to cook and they had to clean. And to me, coming from my worldview, I felt sorry for them. But now I realize that God created me to be a woman, and it is a blessing and a joy to stay at home with my children and to serve my husband and to clean my home. I take ownership of it. And God created us with certain women with certain traits that a man doesn't have.

And we are the perfect mothers and wives and housekeepers. And that is something huge that changed my life, actually. I was raised that I should make my own money. My sister still has that mentality that she can do everything. And we can. I did work, and I did raise money. But that's not the point of life. It's so much more fulfilling to be in God's plan for my life, and that's to be at home with my children. And another thing, I used to always think that I don't even know why, but it was, "Why is it bad to stay home with your children? Why would it be better to work and have a boss that tells you what to do and when you can go for lunch and that kind of thing?

And when you need to be at work, when you need to be at home, and if someone else is telling you what to do, why would it be any different?" And raising children is one of the hardest things I've ever done.

And it's the most fulfilling too. So yeah, my heart's definitely changed in that area. I'm here as a servant. It's not, "I deserve this or I deserve that anymore." It's, "Oh, Lord, what will you have me to do?"

Thank you so much, Christina. And God bless you and continue the work for the Lord. Thank you.

So there's two questions that came in on the chat for you, Christina. One is, "What are some other good books for young believers?" And I would maybe put in with books, maybe just other resources, websites, video series, things like that. You mentioned a couple, like The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside Down. What are some other ones that were impactful for you?

Definitely that one, of course. And I've listened to a lot of messages by Followers of the Way. You can find them on podcasts, on their website, or YouTube.

That's been really inspirational for me. And I don't know. Of course, the brothers and the sisters that have been influencing my life, like I was mentioning, which are just people.

I'm not even sure if there's another book that's had that big of an impact. The other book that I'm reading right now, this is a little bit later. It's by David Brousseau again, Secrets of the Kingdom Life. I'm really loving this book right now.

It's teaching me to move my life into just, I don't know, a higher level, I guess, if you will, how important it is for devotional time and to spend time in prayer and reading your Bible and doing all that. I think, honestly, the best thing that someone can do is making sure that prayer is an important aspect of their day, getting up and starting your day with prayer.

And if you can, doing a devotional in the morning or when your children are napping or in the evening, if it works for you. It works best for me if I can do it first thing in the morning. And if not, it has to be during my children's naps.

It just sets the tone for my day. God will reveal things to you in his word. He has to me. If you just read it with an open and honest heart and, of course, with prayer. So the Bible has been a huge resource for me. Read it like a little child. Jesus says what he means.

There are some things that maybe I don't quite understand, some of the letters that might be kind of confusing. But we live here in a town that has a seminary, and people think that it's complicated and you need to be a theologian to understand it, but you don't. You just read it like a little child and take it for what it says.

And then the second comment that came in on the chat says, "What a beautiful story of God's redemption. I am just rejoicing and praising God for his work in Christina's life. I'm wondering if Christina has anything to share on how to tangibly reach out to the unbelievers in our neighborhoods."

Having people in your home. I was one that I didn't want to be handed a track. I didn't want someone to say, "Oh, Jesus died for you," or, "Jesus loved you." That would have done nothing in my life.

But having someone in my home is what we are doing. We like to have people over for dinner or for meals. And we like them in our home because then we control the environment, and we know that God is in our home. So people feel that. And just showing them love. Don't condemn them. Don't tell them what they're doing wrong. Just be loving to them and build a relationship with them. And through that, things might happen. And of course, pray for them. Pray and then act. So pray about them and then have them over for supper. And things will come up. And maybe you're just the person that helps plant that seed, and you don't even see them come to Christ.

But you can do something with where you're at, and then God will grow and make the increase. So that's my suggestion.

It's time-consuming, for sure.

Is there anyone else that wants to share something?

If not, then I am going to go ahead and thank you to those who shared. Then now, were you going to say something? Oh, sorry. There was one more that came in on the chat. It says, "Thank you so much for sharing, Christina. I appreciate your willingness to share."

And I was thinking of two words that describe Sam and Christina, and I think it would be no compromise because it was really exciting to walk alongside them through that time because as God showed them things, they acted on it. And it's so exciting when you see that happening and that change coming from within. It's not somebody forcing it from the outside, but it's coming from the inside because they want to, because they want to be part of God's kingdom, because they want to serve him. And it's just beautiful. And so, Christina, I just want to bless you.