WHOA That's Good Podcast - How I Listened When God Told Me Something Difficult to Hear | Sadie Robertson Huff & Dee Cekanor

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

Sadie gets an update on the wild ride of Dee Cekanor (née Kisser), former Paralympic swimmer, podcast host, and newlywed, over the past year. Dee and Sadie dive into the details of Dee’s retirement from competitive swimming and her recent marriage, as well as a totally mind-blowing story of God’s presence that spans five years and nearly 3,000 miles. Dee explores the difficulty and trust required to listen to God’s voice, even when he may be telling you something hard to hear. Sadie is awed by the depth and breadth of God’s plans. https://drinkag1.com/whoa — Get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase! Get a 4-week trial, free postage, and a digital scale at https://www.stamps.com/whoa https://give.cru.org/good or text GOOD to 71326 — Get a free copy of Sadie and Christian's new book "How to Put Love First" with your monthly gift! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up? What's good? Sam happy Wednesday everybody. I hope you're having a great week, but per usual, it's about to get so much better and I can assure you of that because who we have on the podcast today has actually been on before. It's her second time and she's coming out again because I love her so much. I'm so encouraged by her life and I've been so inspired by watching what God's doing from afar

in her life that I was like, you need to come back on and we need to talk about all these crazy things. So welcome back to the podcast. Dee, you know what Dee? I just realized I don't even know your new last name. That's so true. I honestly, I'm still getting used to it because I feel like I have this new identity. It's like a secret agent life or something. No, for real. I was like D and dot dot dot. You're married. I am. What is your new last name? So my new last name is Sikainer. I used to be kisser, but now it's Sikainer. So. Hey, that's cool. That is actually kind of agent style to D Sikainer. Yeah, I went from like DK to DC to like who knows what. I love that. I love that.

Well, welcome back to the podcast. Lots changed obviously since we talked last. First things first, you are married. So congratulations to you and Kevin. Thank you so much. Let me just say to the people out there, I truly love these two people. I haven't had much time to spend with them, but when they came for LO conference, we got to have brunch and we loved y'all even more.

And it was, I don't know, I hope you don't mind me sharing this, but y'all were kind of talking about, and y'all talk about this all the time, just being different. And you were talking about how like southern people respond differently And sometimes it can be like annoying how people respond and the way people look which I can't even imagine on on that level in some ways and but it was Funny because I said do you know what I'm just gonna be real with you I don't know what people are looking because y'all are like different I think people are looking because y'all are like the coolest two people ever.

Y'all style is always swag. Y'all have a walk about y'all. Y'all are so cute. I was like, you might be right. They might be looking for one reason, but they might be staring a little longer because y'all are two of the coolest people ever. So that's just fact.

That's funny, because that conversation actually, it, I don't want to say convicted me, but it like kind of like course corrected some things. Cause I think like anyone who is living with a difference, like it can get really easy and you don't really realize how easy it is to just like get upset about things or just kind of dwell on things that maybe you shouldn't be dwelling on like, oh, why is everyone staring at me me and it can get a little like negative and that's,

I think that conversation that we had was such a reminder of like why it's so important to have good people in your life to speak truth and like into your situation. Because yeah, that's such a great reminder that you know people are probably looking at you because you do have the light of Christ and you and everyone's attracted to the light and so even if they don't realize what they're looking at and yeah who cares if you're a little bit different it just you leave a bigger you leave a bigger impact. It is a cool thing when you flip it and be like you know what I'm the light of the world God has called me to be a light and if people are gonna look and like give them something worth looking at, right? And the only thing that is worth people's all is the glory of God, right?

So glorify God with your life. But you guys live that to the fullest. You and Kevin, it's amazing. But, you know, people love a good, how'd you meet story? I do. And this podcast, we love a good, how you met. So tell us how you and Kevin met and got to this point being married. So we met when we were younger. I would say little, but we're still little. So I'll just use the word younger. How many minutes in are we before the

first short joke comes out? You're the queen of short jokes. You just, you slide it in so effortlessly. If you weren't listening to the first podcast we had, Dee hit me with the short joke, the very first ambassador call we were on, and I got so awkward. And now I just, I love it so much. It's hilarious. It was a defining moment for us for sure. But anyways, we met when we were younger and we met through an organization called Little People of America.

And basically what that is, it's like a one week conference every summer for people with dwarfism to come and you can play sports, you get to meet your friends, there's dances, there's events, there's like expo so you can meet doctors, parents get to meet and basically it's like a week where you get to be around people who look like you and growing up like that is so important for young kids like who are navigating a world where they just don't look like everyone else and they get to all of a sudden just be around people where they don't have to think about their difference they just are looking at people who look like them so yeah we love LPA but but we met, went in,

I would say probably 2007. So, quite a long time ago, but we weren't friends then. Like we knew of each other. We'd seen each other, but we'd never talked. Like we couldn't remember ever having a conversation. And then in, kinda started like growing up and stuff, and then you get Instagram, and then you like add each other online, and you kinda see like, oh, you're at a puberty now, like, oh, you're actually kind of cute.

Like, oh, that's nice. And like, oh, you take nice photos and like, oh, wow, she's a swimmer. Like, that's cool. So we're kind of like admiring from afar, but never really did anything. And then in COVID, when I wasn't traveling for swimming, so I didn't really have much to do. I was stuck at home, like everyone, and what else do you do, but you just start up conversations with people, I guess. And then Kevin had posted something on his Instagram story that kind of sounded like it was a biblical reference, but at the time, like I had no idea that he was Christian at all or that we had the same faith. And then so I like slid a little reaction, like the little fire emoji, just like showing that I was like, that's kind of cool, but not like committing to any words at all. And then he literally, and then he responded to that. So I always say like, oh, he was like super interested if you respond to a reaction.

And then we just started talking. And then I think I said something like, so I take it you go to church. And he goes, yeah, like Jesus changed my life. Jesus did this blah, blah, blah. And I was like, Oh, that's nice. You're like, Yes. Check, check, check, check. This is real. That's awesome.

Yeah. And so then we just started dating long distance. The borders were closed for about seven, the first seven months of us dating. And then I went off to Tokyo in the September, I guess of 2021. And then after I came back, um, I went to see him in person for the first time with new feelings. And that's always weird because you have talked to somebody for so long, you know them so well, but you like physically have not like been able to touch them or like see them in person. So that was great.

And that just really solidified a lot of things. And then flash forward to this past August and got a ring on my finger and we're doing well. That is amazing. I love y'all's story so much. And there's actually like a lot of wisdom you can pull out from how y'all got together because I think a lot of girls ask the question,

do you think it's okay for a girl to pursue a guy? And I always say like, I think that, yes, sure answer is yes, but I also think that it is so nice for anyone to feel pursued. I think both people should be pursuing each other. But I think that the guy should, you guy should really lead the pursuit of the girl, but I think that the girl should give the guy confidence to pursue. And so I think sliding up to a story in a little fire emoji, that's giving a guy confidence to pursue. So you're not in the leadership

position of fully pursuing Kevin, but you are saying like, hey, I'm kind of interested in what you got going on over there. And I would like to have a conversation started. And then he kind of was able to come back, take it over, you'll have this conversation. So I think it's like, it's a two way thing. You both pursue each other. But I do think, you know, the way God designed things, it's a beautiful thing for a man to lead at pursuit but girls like don't just do nothing like you know give the guy some confidence to pursue let him know you're interested so

yeah I love that and you mentioned you know he's a photographer you're you're a swimmer you are at the time I think maybe once a swimmer always a swimmer you're not necessarily still competing at the level you were. Hello Olympics. But you know, things have changed. But I remember whenever y'all started dating and you tagged him in the first thing and I like clicked on his page and I was like, oh, he's so cool. Oh my gosh. And I was like telling Chris, I was like, I think I'm going to follow him. And Christian said, no, you are not. You're not following this guy. Because it's like one of those moments

where it's like when one of your friends starts dating someone and you follow too soon and then they break up and you're like, oh dang, like now you just follow this random person that you're never gonna have any other interaction with in life. And so he's like, you cannot follow him. So I think he had waited until y'all were like engaged

or even married it, cause I was like, okay, now, now we're in. But he really is so cool. And so are you, y'all do so many great things together. But you mentioned being in Tokyo in the midst of y'all starting dating. We talked about that last time. Give us an update on just retiring on swimming.

I just kind of mentioned once this one, we're always on our butt. What is that transition like going from something your identity was in, in such a huge way to now not doing that any longer? One of the things that Christian and I bonded on whenever we started dating was how many things we love to do together.

We both love sports, we love playing all sports, and doing that together is so fun. We also love cards, and just really any game and any competition we are down for. Another thing that we help each other out by doing is just taking care of our health. He helps me out a lot by this because he is so good at it. And taking care of your health doesn't always

have to be so hard. That's what I learned after dating Christian and that's what we discovered when we started drinking AG1. We love AG1. You guys have heard us talk about it. It's so simple. Every single day you just put one scoop drinking AG1. We love AG1. You guys have heard us talk about it. It's so simple. Every single day you just put one scoop of AG1, like I have right here, into a drink of water.

I like cold water. I just think it tastes better. Mix it up. It feels so good and so healthy going down. And honestly, the first day that I took AG1, I noticed a difference in my focus and my energy and I was like, okay, this stuff is legit. Christian and I don't really like taking a bunch of pills. We don't like making things complicated. That's why for the last few years we've been drinking AG1 just about every day. It's just one

scoop mixed in water once a day, every day, and it makes me feel so great, so energized, focused, and just like I did something great for my body. So super simple. And that is why AG1 had like the biggest draw for us is because it was so simple, such a simple way to stay super healthy, and you can do this wherever you are, because they have travel packs that you can even travel with that are literally the size I can go in my purse. I have them in my purse, we have them in our backpacks,

and just that one dose of AG1 each day has so many vitamins, minerals, pre-improbiotics, and more. It's a powerful, healthy habit that's also so simple. And if you're looking for an easy way to sustain health, IG1 is the best way to get back into it. Like I said, just the simplicity of it is great, but also how much is actually in just one drink. I would never be able to take that many vitamins in a day

if it were up to taking pills. That is just not my thing. And so being able to drink something that I actually really enjoy the taste of is so great for me. If there's one product that I would recommend to elevate your health, that's definitely AG1. And that's why we've been partnering with them for so long.

We have gotten so many friends hooked on this. Since we talk about it on social media a lot, people will text us and they're like, do you really love this? And we really do. We wouldn't talk about it this much if we didn't appreciate it. Christian and I both recommend it just because it's a small way to make a really big difference.

So if you want to take ownership of your health, start with AG1. Try AG1 and get a free one-year supply of vitamin D3 plus K2 and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase exclusively at drinkag1.com slash woe. Again that's drinkag1.com slash wo to check it out today. Yeah, so that's like, I don't know to say like you retired at 26. Like that's such an odd thing to say, but it really, it really was like for 15 years, just everything that I did. And it was very like, I mean, you're at the pool all the time.

You're competing around the world. You're representing your country. It's an amazing honor. Lots of setbacks, lots of victories, and everything in between was just incredible. And I think I showed this last time when you asked like, what the best piece of advice you've ever received is. I said something that my mom had said to me

about not making your identity what you do. So at the time like I had missed the previous Paralympics and I was super upset about it and she had said, Danielle, you know, you're not Danielle who like the swimmer, you are Danielle who is a child of God who happens to swim. And from that time, I kind of made like a decision with God where I said, okay, God, like, I don't know what's gonna happen in my career. I don't know where you're gonna take me. I don't even know if I'm gonna get faster, but I know that I'm gonna do this wholeheartedly until you tell me to stop.

And it was just this like decision that I made, like being a high-level athlete, you have to be all in or else why are you doing it? Like if you want to pursue the greatest sporting event of all time, like you have to be all in. And I had kind of sat down with the Lord and I just said, like, you know, I will do this until you tell me to stop. And so over the last few years, I guess that would be like eight years since that moment, when I wouldn't make a team,

I still felt like God was telling me to keep going. When I would get injured or like still keep going when I would make a team. I'm like, Oh, okay, maybe it's a good time to retire now because you can leave on top. Still kept going. Went to Tokyo. It was insane on many different levels. Still felt like I was supposed to keep going. And then it actually was the little not this last low conference, but the the previous one, so I guess in 2022, I was sitting, standing in worship, and it was just like all of a sudden I just felt the Lord say like, it's time.

And instantly I knew exactly what He meant. I felt like I had been preparing just to be all in, and then when God tells you it's time to be done like It's it's time to be done And then I just spent that next year just preparing on how to leave like I I didn't feel in the moment Like it's time you're done. You're never getting in the water Like it was just kind of like it's time like at the end of this next season you will be done And that's an amazing thing when you're able to give what you do to God so fully and be like okay

with him saying it's time to be done. And there are moments like, of course, like there are moments where I was like, oh, what do I do? Like I have not had, like I'm 26 years old. I haven't actually worked like a actual job because I've been an athlete for my whole life. Like what do I do? What's next? And he just made it so clear that it was just time to be done. And so I got to spend the last year figuring out kind

of how I wanted to leave and like, you know, just helping out the next generation coming up on the team, enjoying swimming, enjoying the pleasures of getting to push your body in ways that, you know, you're not going to get to do ever again and just really finding that joy. Yeah. So I don't know if that really answers the question, but I guess like, OK, that's good. And answered it so well. I mean, even better because it opened up so many more doors of conversation from there because I'm sitting here thinking about, um, I don't know, just you said something actually

on your podcast. I think Kevin said it, but I want to bring it up and also I want to talk about your podcast in a little bit, but you were talking about goals and like, is it good to have goals? Is it not good? And all these things. And Kevin was talking about how he had this goal. I think it was to run like a thousand miles or something. Yeah.

It was like, I think it added up to a thousand miles in a year. Yeah, like four miles a day, I think if he did it. It was very crazy. Inspiring, my husband does stuff like that too. And I'm like, okay, you're slightly crazy, but inspiring. But I was like, what I loved about it was when he was talking about how, you know, he came to a point where he had to realize like this is not a sustainable goal for me,

because it's actually not healthy. Like I thought this was going to be cool, but it's not healthy because now everything has become second to running. And I think that like culture, there's this pressure to not quit something because quitting equals failure a lot of times in our mind and also like I will say growing up my mom was very big and I 100% stand by this and plan to parent my kids like this too. You don't quit You know you don't quit on your team if you want to no longer do a sport You wait till the end of the season and you cannot pick it up next time, but you don't quit mid-season and stuff like that. However, I think there are exceptions and it's not necessarily quitting. It's actually wisdom and discernment to say, this is no longer good for my life because this has become an idol, this has become an identity, this has become too big of a

priority for me. And I think in that, that's not failure at all. That's actually maturity, you know? But I think that's actually a true maturity to know whenever it's time to be done with something. And so I think one thing that your story teaches me is how do you know when to be done with something? And for you, it was really leaning in and letting the Lord speak.

And a lot of people don't have context for that in their life, they've never tried to do that or don't really know how to do that. And so can you explain practically what the conversation with God looked like? Is it just asking Him and waiting? Did you just kind of feel the sense of like, I continue to ask, was it just kind of like every now and then?

And I know that's kind of a hard question to answer because it's hard to put verbiage behind the Lord speaking to you, but I do think there's so much wisdom in what you just said for people who are like pondering, should I be done with this thing that I put so much time into? And how do I really know, like, how do I like find the confidence to say it's time? Yeah, that's good. I think this is a multi-level answer for this. And I would say it has to start with your identity. Like if you have made what you're doing, especially something that you do for a long time, who you are, and if that's something that you know, like you can't imagine not doing, especially something that you do for a long time, who you are. And if that's something that, you know, like you can't imagine not doing, then that's kind of where you got

to do a little bit of a heart check, I think, and just really think about, okay, like, God, like, am I, is my identity in you first? Or is it in this thing that you brought into my life that you've allowed me to do that you've equipped me to do. And so I would say that it starts with just knowing that, you know, God has entrusted you with an amazing thing, that He has given this to you to steward. The Bible says that we're supposed to work at what we do with all our hearts, work as though you're working for the Lord, all that stuff. But it is not yours forever. And I think that we forget that, you know, God brings many good things into our lives.

There are many, there's a, I think Ecclesiastes says like there's a time, like there's a season for everything. Right? And there's so many seasons. There's good seasons, there's bad seasons, there's sad seasons, there's, you know, changing seasons, everything. And we forget, I think, that when we're holding

something so tightly, that there is actually more good things to come. And there are more seasons to walk into. There are more things to learn. There's always more things that we can be doing. And if we get stuck just doing one thing, we're going to miss out, I think, on a whole lot more that God wants to do in and through us because we are just, we're so much more than just one thing. Right? Like, yeah, like we have so many talents and even if you don't think you have talents, like I'm sure you have many that you don't even realize and that then comes into

asking God, okay, what, what do I do? And for some people who've been doing this thing for a long time, it's bringing that really to the Lord and just saying, all right, this was pretty amazing. It hurt sometimes, but it was amazing. Now, like God almost like a challenge, like God, how can you top this? Or like, how can you do like, can you do one better? Because you know that he just wants to be invited into the journey with you. He wants to, you know, show you you, he wants to blow your mind.

And I thought going to Tokyo, that was pretty mind blowing. But what I think this season's now that I'm gonna be walking into, now that I have actual free time to do these new things that I'm passionate about, they're gonna be amazing too in their own way. Yeah, that's so true.

And I think like not comparing what God did to the last thing, like Christine Cain's message of passion was so good. And it was about that verse, like, behold, I'm doing a new thing. And, you know, I think like a lot of times whenever, well in the past, and I've heard that verse and like, it's normally like, oh man, something bad happened. He's doing a new thing.

I'm walking into that new thing. But basically she was saying the context of that verse was like, I'm doing a new thing. Don't compare what I'm doing now to what I did back then. Because you might think it's less than what I did back then, but it's not less than, it's just different. And it's what it's needed for now. And I think, you know, for you, you're looking at Tokyo and from a world standpoint people might say you peaked

but you're going no that was just a part of the journey like Tokyo was just a part of the ride and I look at that for me too like you know I got to do some really cool things in my life and I look back at that and shoot if I peaked at Dancing with the Stars that would have been at 17 years old that would have stunk for me. I got so much more life after that. And honestly I did fear, I remember an insecure thought I had at one point was like man like this is such like a high life right now, you know, what's, what is next, you know? But man, God really does go from glory to glory. And that doesn't mean that, that life goes from glory to glory, but he does in the midst

of life. And so no matter what you're walking into, that doesn't mean it's going to be as big as the last thing from like a world perspective, but it could have just as much significance. And I look at my life now and man, I thought that was a high life. This is so much better. Like I'm a mom to the two most amazing girls in the world and a wife to Christian and I have the best family and I get to do this podcast and all these things I love so much and it is in no way less than, it is more than, it is incredible, but it is totally different and both to be appreciated.

And so I love that we're talking about this and I love that you said, you know, don't get so wrapped up in one thing as like your identity because I haven't had, and this is just like something that's kind of been on my heart lately because a lot of people, I don't know, kind of question sometimes what this podcast is in the sense of we have all kinds of guests on this podcast, like all kinds of different people and people will be like, oh, I can't believe you had this person on, this Christian podcast and all this stuff. And I always think like, this is not a Christian podcast. I am a Christian and I have a podcast. And so everything I do is going to be to honor and glorify God and to bring people to him and to know him.

And right now I'm doing that through the avenue of podcasting. But this podcast isn't defined to this like it's a Christian podcast. The only Christian people can be on it as a Christian. I'm going to be friends with all types of people and I'm going to hopefully share the love of the Lord and share the light. And I think so many times we do, like we try to just put boxes around everything and like categorize and this and that. And then you miss out on fullness when you do that.

I'm not saying, you know, conform to the world, anything like that. I'm saying be fully who you are and don't box God in. He's so much bigger. Yeah, absolutely. And what does it say? We're called to be the light of the world and there's not just Christians in this world. You can walk out your door and you can know that for a fact.

And so it's figuring out what God has entrusted you with in the time that you're in and shining your light in that way and using different mediums like technology is amazing. Like I love it. God, it has its pros and cons, but to be able to bring people in to share messages, to share wisdom, it's beautiful. And that's just like that's a way to be the light of the world. So it's awesome. So true. Beautiful and that's just like that's a way to be the light of the world. So it's also true Y'all with the new year starting it can be hard to predict all it's gonna happen We can't predict what's gonna happen the trends that are gonna come the trends that are gonna go all the things

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a four week trial, plus free postage and a free digital skill. There's no long-term commitments or contracts. Just go to Samps.com, click the microphone at the top of the page and enter the code WOAT. Speaking of the light and podcasting, you guys started a podcast and just everyone listening to this podcast, I highly encourage you to go listen to their podcast as well. It's so encouraging, easy to listen to because as you can already hear Dee is an incredible speaker and communicator and Kevin is as well. And so talk to me about just the process of starting.

I think a lot of people have dreams of doing something like that but don't just start. Yeah so I'm gonna shout out Kevin first because he has such a radio voice like that was one of them. He does! It's so true that was one of the first things that it like kind of besides his like jawline and stuff that was pretty attractive but his face or not his face his voice. I'm getting all distracted now. His face too.'s face dude. It's fair. Yeah, literally. But so we would send each other voice messages and the very first voice message he sent me, like I just heard his voice and I don't know what it is like when your your senses

are heightened and like you can't see someone but it's just hearing it and I was like, oh wow, like I could listen to that voice for a lot longer than just today. So he has a good podcast voice. But yeah, so we kind of had like, we both, I guess I could start by saying that when we started dating, we both didn't know that we would ever marry another little person before, like before meeting each other. And that was just the whole thing that we were working through like individually, like I had my thoughts about like, you know, I didn't grow up being around other little people. So like when I thought about comfort, when I thought about protection, I thought about my family who are all

tall and I didn't equate, you know, that type of stuff to be coming from someone who would look like me. And he had his own reasons as well. But we both realized that, you know, and the Bible says two are better than one, that what God has done in his life, what God has done in my life, we have a lot of fun together. And we have a lot of different perspectives. Like I'm all about this little light, shiny light, make the world brighter, all that stuff. He always says, make a difference with your difference. When you combine shining your light and making a difference with your difference, they just is powerful.

When we were dating and stuff, we know, dreaming up what we could do. And we had thought about a podcast and then we just didn't live in the same place. So it was kind of hard to do something like that, but it was always on our hearts. I think his heart more for sure. I was a little bit like, I'm doing a lot of stuff right now. Like, I don't think I have the time. But then at LO conference this year. So if you guys are getting anything from this podcast, go to LO conference,

because apparently I've gotten a lot of revelations about a lot of things at these places. It's so cool. But God just kind of said, hey, I think it's the time, like you guys can start this and you spoke to us, both at the same time, we had only been married for like two weeks at the time.

So it was like, oh yeah, we're hitting the ground running, this is awesome. And so we wrote down some notes, prayed on it, sought some counsel, sought some wisdom, and then over the last month just kind of sat down and started it. So our podcast is called A Little More Light, pun intended. And the idea behind it is that we just really, truly believe that we are meant to live our lives in the light and Jesus has gifted each of us with a unique light and I can't shine yours You can't shine mine, but when we shine them the world gets brighter And we shine our light not by hiding it and hiding it when things are tough hiding it when you know We face setbacks.

We shine our light all the time. So the highs, the lows, the in-betweens. And we just truly believe that. And so we just started a podcast. I think everyone's doing it these days, but everybody has something cool to say. And so it's awesome. Yeah. It's so true. That's what I always tell people when they're like, should I start a podcast? There's so many. I'm like, there can never be enough. Like it's just conversations and people are gonna listen to the conversations that they're interested in listening to.

So of course you should, you know? Absolutely. And people want to hear different people's perspectives. Your podcast is not gonna be like my podcast. My podcast is not gonna be like your podcast because we're two different people with two different voices. And so all of them are needed and welcomed and beautiful. And you and Kevin bring such a great perspective that not many people have in the world.

And I love how you said, like, we truly believe this. And that even goes without saying because when you see people who truly believe something, they live like it and you guys live like it. Um, I can't believe I went to the kind of touristy end to bring this up because this is kind of the whole reason we got back on to do another podcast. But the story was Shane that recently happened. Not, um, I want you to go ahead and like kind of retell the first part of the story because a lot of people who are listening now, we have so many new listeners.

So tell the story about what happened with this man and kind of full circle years later. because when you said God wants to blow your mind earlier this is a prime example of God blowing your mind and I can't wait for the listeners to hear this story. Yeah all right buckle up everyone put your coffee cups down or stop your cars if you're listening in the car because it's actually wild. Yeah, one more sip. So I was living in Montreal. This was in 2018 and I was walking home one night by myself and there was a homeless man who was outside of this McDonald's and as soon as he saw me he started yelling at me. He had was definitely pumped up on a lot of drugs. He had tattoos all over his face. He was

a really scary guy and he just started yelling. He started swearing at me. He started laughing at me, making fun of me. And I had never experienced something so intense like that. I had experienced photos. I have experienced, you know, people making comments, like rude, rude things. But I had never experienced being verbally, like, assaulted in the street was pretty much what it felt like. but I had never experienced being verbally assaulted in the street was pretty much what it felt like. And I remember I just put my head down and I said,

you know what, I'm just gonna ignore it, people are staring, it's okay, I'm gonna walk home. And as I'm walking home, I started crying and I was like, hey, God, I'm just gonna get in my apartment, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. I get upstairs, I sit on my couch and I just broke down because you cannot prepare for somebody to treat you that way. I think like that is a hard thing to even like nobody deserves that and nobody can prepare themselves for that.

And I was devastated. And I remember looking up at my ceiling and I started praying. It was more like yelling, but I had said like, God, like, what the heck? Like, you made me this way. Like, you decided for some reason that I was going to look this way. This was not my decision. This was not my choice. You gave me this life. So you have to come down and fix this because this is not okay. And I just didn't know what to do. Like I was just, I was broken, I was sad, and I thought that maybe the Lord would just give me some peace and I would go to bed that night. But as I was sitting there and my tears stopped, I just felt this little like voice kind of like one of those light bulb God moments that just like ding and I felt like he was telling me to go out there and buy him dinner. And I heard that and I was like, okay, like that's funny.

I doubt it, but okay. And then I heard it again and this time I was a little bit more persistent and he said, go out there and buy him dinner. And when the Lord speaks, it's hard to ignore. Like you just, you might think like, you know, okay, like, yeah, you said that, like, I'll get to it. But when he wants you to do something and when it's right from God, like, it's a hard thing to shake and I just really couldn't shake it.

And so I put my boots back on, went back outside and I started praying and I said, okay, Lord, I'm going to go and do this. I don't want to do this. I don't wanna do this. He's scary. Like, did you not just see what happened 30 minutes ago? But if this is you, he's gonna be outside the McDonald's. If it's not you, I'll just go home and pretend this didn't happen.

But also if this is you, like, you have to give me the words to say because I have no idea what to say right now. And so I stopped praying and turned the corner and he's standing there at the street corner again. I was like, okay, well, guess I got to do this. And so I walked right up to him and I remember looking at him and he's like smiling at me and laughing and I just stuck out my hand and I said, hey, my name's Danielle, can I buy you dinner? And his jaw like dropped to the floor. He was just absolutely in shock. And he looked at me and he said,

you know, you would do that for me. And I said, you know what, yeah, like I forgive you. I'll buy you anything you want. And he immediately just started apologizing. He was so remorseful. He was saying things like, you know, the drugs that I'm on. Like, I am so sorry that I said those things. Like, this is just really tough for me. And I said, you know, I forgive you. Like, let's go eat. And so we went into the McDonald's. He picked out what he wanted. And for 15 minutes

about, we just talked about life. And he told me that he was from the same place that I came from. So I actually looked this up, Montreal, and where I live is for Americans, you guys do miles. So it's 2,952 miles away. And he's from the same place that I was from. And so I thought that was kind of cool. It was like, oh, hey, God, that's neat.

So I just got to preach up passion and I preach the importance of knowing the Bible. The Bible has changed my life and it's so important that when you read the story, you share the story so that the story is not forgotten. The Bible has been such a great resource for me so many times in my life and that is why I love our partners at CREW

and their mission to share Jesus and the word all over the world. Crew has missionaries in nearly every country on earth and they're seeing so many people give their lives to Jesus but for many of these new Christians there's one really big problem they're missing out on and that is that there's not a Bible in their own language. For many of us taking in God's Word is easy. You pick it up on your phone. It's all it's on your phone. You have probably 12 Bibles at your house. Your parents have Bibles. Your friends have Bibles. There's Bibles everywhere. But for many Christians around the world and many people around the world, that's not the

case. They don't have access to one. But for only $24 a month, you can help crew provide Bibles for three people each and every month. When you sign up to provide three Bibles with a monthly gift of $24, as a thank you, crew will provide meals to 12 hungry individuals through the humanitarian aid ministry. Plus, you'll receive a free copy of Christian and I's new book, How to Put Love First. If you haven't heard of it, it's a 90-day challenge about putting God first in your life. Lots of you have already signed up to partner with crew, and I just want to say thank you so much for that. You're already just so awesome in doing so many awesome things, but crew has a lot more work to be done and a lot more of the word to partner with crew and I just want to say thank you so much for that. You're already just so awesome and doing so many awesome things, but crew has a lot more work to be done and a lot more of the work to share with other people, so we need continued help to do that.

So simply text GOOD G-O-O-D to 71326 to help today. Just imagine how much this monthly gift can change someone's life. So text GOOD to 71326, that's G-O-O-D to 71326 to help mail or visit give.crew-c-r-u-dot-org-o-r-g slash good. Message and data rates may apply available to U.S. addresses only. And then he told me about his wife, he told me about his kids, that he hadn't seen them in a few years, that he was really trying to get back to things. And so he, yeah, told me about that. And then I felt this nudge that I should pray for him. And so I asked him if I could pray and he said, yeah, you know, like I know I knew about

God a long time ago, that would be great. So I stuck my hand out on him, this little four-one dwarf and this guy with tattoos all over his face And I just prayed for him and then when I left like I felt so close to him that I could have for sure given him a hug Like it was it was unreal how the Lord just Transformed a situation from somebody yelling at me 30 minutes earlier to now feeling so close to this guy and his name Shane and he's my friend and all this stuff and it was incredible like it was one of those like memorial stone moments where like they bring God says you know like bring I think it's in your I think it's Joshua I think it is

Joshua yeah and they look back and see like where I brought you and it's for for the last five years it has been one of those moments for me that I always think about like when God tells you something he shows up on the other side and I think I can look at my swimming career and thank that event that God allowed me to go through and just knowing that when he tells me something that he's going to come through. So incredible story, incredible moment. And I recently, I guess in October of this year, I moved back home. So got married, retired from swimming, finished school, all these seasons of change is life change. And I was about to give a message at our church, the church that I grew up in.

My church does this really cool thing. They do this thing called community dinner, where for the last 20 years they have a free dinner for people in the community who are either unhoused, homeless, low income, and they have in 20 years only ever missed two Sundays. One was for power outage and one was last weekend when a sprinkler burst because it's so cold outside. Oh wow. So it's incredible, an incredible ministry and so I was asked to come and give the message that day. So I went to this thing and I have a heart for the homeless I think. Like I have a heart for people who have just had it a little harder than others. And so I was super excited to go.

And I remember I got there and I was standing in the back and talking to my parents. And I was just, this was like five minutes before I was about to go on stage. And all of a sudden, Shane walks in. Shane walks in. And the first thing that I thought when I saw him was that's my friend. And

it was just this this mind-blowing thing like I had I had not seen him for five years and all of a sudden the first time I'm giving a message at my home church that I grew up in, this guy from 2,952 miles away walks in the door of a church that I spent my life going to. But I met him in Montreal and I never thought I would see him again. Like, what? Don't you cannot tell me that God is not real and I was bawling. I started crying.

He sees me. He looks shocked. I go up to him and I'm like, what the heck? And he looks at me and he says, you know, I don't remember much about my past life, but I know that you prayed for me. And I'm like, whole like waterworks, like crying. And he gets better and better.

He brings his wife over, the wife that he had told me about that he hadn't seen. He has reconciled with his wife over, the wife that he had told me about, that he hadn't seen. He has reconciled with his wife. He brings his two children over that he now has a relationship with, introduces me to his son, and I got to look his son in the eye, and I got to say, you know,

your dad worked so hard to get back to where you are. Like I knew him five years ago, but your dad's pretty amazing. And he was just, like, he just looked at his dad with so much pride and then they introduced me to their new little baby and they called her they call her their redemption and reconciliation baby so not only is Shane alive I thought he had died like you just don't know what would happen to somebody who's in a state like that. And he just was there. And it was, it was amazing. It was, it was insane. And then he, um, they got, I'm so, so speechless

about it because it was just such like, you cannot tell me God is not real from doing something like that. And I had to go up and give my little preach, and so I had to pull on my years of swimming and compartmentalizing all your emotions and drying your tears. And I went up there and I gave him a little message and it worked out fine. But it's just insane how it's a story that I never thought that I would ever get to know the end of. But God was so kind, so kind to give me a glimpse of how He sees things from beginning to end. Like I had seen that happen in my life and I had seen God restore things,

but I have never seen something that profoundly before until Shane just walked through the door and yeah. It's the most unbelievable, incredible God story. So Dee sent me a voice memo. I think it was that night or I don't know if it was around the time, but it was like late at night. I'm laying in bed and I get like a couple of voice memos from Dee and we don't text all the time.

So I was like, what is this? I press play and I'm my jaw is like on the floor. I'm like Christian, are you listening to this? This is the most insane story I've ever heard. And it's just, it's incredible. It's a story that you got to share. And I said to Dee, you got to come on the podcast and you got to share that story because how you just said, you can't tell me God's not real. I mean, I just did this message at pass passion. And then I posted this clip on social media and I was like, I might not be able to convince you that God is real and that and try to prove to you God's not real.

But you're like, no, like I 100 percent know God is real because that night I heard God say, go buy this man dinner. And so when the world's like, how do you know God's real? How do you know God is real? Well, I mean, the Bible, yes, but also like what I have seen and you can't deny it, you know? And so what I think is so cool too is that God already like he didn't have to show you the other side of it.

Like he already kind of, you know, gave you a piece about it that night when you, you know, obeyed what he said to go give him dinner, which by the way is totally counter than anything I know you would have wanted to do. And he goes against all human flesh of like, you just got screamed at by this man that it's kind of scary and he was on drugs and it was nuts. And you went down and you gave him dinner and then like God already answered that by him being, you know, sorry in that moment and be like, I'm really sorry and acknowledging where he's at having dinner with him.

Like it already was a good story. It already was like a redemption story in and of itself for you. And then last time you were on this podcast, you even told it like the redemption story it was. And I cried then I was like, God's so good. This is so amazing. And then God's like, no, you think that was right?

And that was just the seed that was planted. Wait till I water this for a little bit. Wait till you see what actually is gonna happen. Which just makes me think about how like, prayer is so powerful. And we always say like, it's like a seed. It's like a seed. But like, this is what it practically looks like.

That was a seed of prayer, of prayer for this person to see what God was gonna do. And then five years later, because it takes time to harvest. It takes time for the work to be done. Who knows how much work this guy put into being where he's at, but Lord knows it was a lot because he was on drugs and that's very hard to get off of. He had to go and reconcile with his wife, which so much forgiveness has to be had. His wife had to forgive him for all the things that he had done. So they both chose that. And then that he gets to be the father to his kids. And

then he's not only doing all that, but he's also bringing his family to church and leading his family to know the Lord and love Lord and go to a place where they're going to be fed, not only food, but fed the word that you happen to be preaching of all people 2000 miles away from when you met this guy five years ago. I mean, just to kind of like repeat everything you just said, that's insane. That's just like, it's just God. It's something only God can do. And I love what you just said when we went out for a second, but I want you to say it again, like what that kind of helped you see in your own life on like a big scale

because you were kind of going through so much, so many changes whenever Shane walked in the room that night and what did it kind of tell you about how God works? Yeah, well it was again, it was something that you know, I don't think I was ever, I know I'm not ever entitled to know the end of someone's story. And it was just the biggest flex on God's part of letting me see the end of someone that you would never, like, think about, that you'd cross paths across the country that you're living in. And, you know, I'm going right now just through a big, big changes in life.

Like I just got married, so I have a new last name. I'm applying for citizenship to America, so I'm going to be leaving my country. I retired from swimming. I finished school. I moved back home. There's just so many changes happening right now. And I think for Shane to come back into my life at that moment was really God just showing me that he does see things from beginning to end. Even though that things are changing, even though that I'm not doing the same things I was, like we talked about in the beginning about how he's always bringing new things and they're not going to look always like what you just experienced.

But just that reminder of where I had been and just being faithful with obeying what he's asking you to do in prayer and stepping out in faith and shining your light in the way that you can and the way that you're able to. Just how important that is, like you're saying. It's so important. And I think the more that we walk with Jesus, the brighter our light gets. He has given us the responsibility. And then it is a responsibility to be the light of the world.

And so if Jesus has given us that responsibility, then we best better figure out how we're going to shine. That's just it. And the more that we walk with him, like we don't have to shine on our own. We don't have to know how to turn our lights on. Like he's got that figured out. But the more that we walk with him, the brighter our light gets.

And so that when we do come into situations, you know, where we feel unprepared, he gives us the means to do that. And he not only makes our life brighter, but he helps make the people around us like their lives brighter too. And I think what stood out to me so much was the fact that Shane said, he didn't remember my name. Like I remembered his for sure, but he was like, you know, I don't even remember like half the stuff that I did back then, but he remembered that I prayed for him. And I think that's significant. And I think like, you know,

in Ephesians 6, it talks about how we are to wear the armor of God. And it talks about like, you know, you're as Christians, we have to equip ourselves for the fight that's ahead, like in the unforeseen things of the world and the unseen things. But then it says, like, once we put all this armor on, it says, and pray in the spirit at all times. Pray at all times. And so I think that, you know,

I don't want to be someone who's got all this armor on and is ineffective to go into battle if I'm not praying. Because prayer is the thing that changes things. Prayer transformed Shane's life, transformed his family's life, and now his kids are better because of like what God did. And like prayer is our ultimate weapon. Like you talked, a passion, like I listened to your messages,

you talked about like, you know, knowing the word and that is so important. And you know, we can pray that word, we can live out that word, we can use it as a weapon, but like let's not be Christians who have all this pretty nice shiny armor on, but we don't actually get end up getting into the battle. Yeah. Oh girl, come on.

Why don't you just preach? That is so good. I'm sitting here just, I just love it. I mean, we could go on forever and we could do a whole another podcast and we should one day, but we would probably will. Come on on podcast, there's your official invite. Let's do it.

I'm coming, I'm there, send me the date. But what I love to is just even that you ask God that day, out of a lot of anger, like, God, you have to come down and you have to fix this. And I love how God said, okay, you go buy him dinner because you're the light of the world. And you know, God has given us this responsibility and this call on earth.

Like we have his spirit living in us. Like we are the new temple. We're the place that like heaven meets earth. And so when you say God come down and do it, God's gonna be like, all right, I'll show you how, you know, I'm calling you to do it and this is how. And then you obey what he said, his spirit, you know, you use your weapon, you prayed,

you did what you were able to do, you know, you use your weapon, you prayed, you did what you were able to do, you were obedient, and then God did do it. God used that door that you opened to completely change Shane's life, you know? And so did God do it? Yes. But were you a part of it? Yes. You know, it's both, you know?

God is going to do it, but how cool that we get to do it with him. It's such a cool thing. And Dee, you are such an inspiration. I mean, I think about that verse, so it's like, you know, when God was choosing David, and he was telling Samuel, you know, hey, this is the king I've chosen. He said, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And this guy's heart is just so pure. And it's a man after my own heart. And I mean, of course, David messed up just like we all do

because every man is fell on short of the glare of God. But I love how like for you, you know, if you look at, if you think about light, like your light shines so bright and it has nothing to do with the size you are, the position you're in, nothing like that. It's because the light of Jesus, it's so much bigger than the host that it's in. Now, I was thinking about this. This is probably going to be a messy analogy because I just thought about this.

But I think about this sometimes because when you're in a plane, you're looking down. It's like everything is even playing field. Everything's like tiny, that's just how it is. But at night, when you're flying over, you see all these lights. But the cool thing is about the lights is like, mostly all the lights are pretty much the same size because it's the light, you're not really seeing like the house.

So it could be like a mansion or a trailer. It could be like a skyscraper or like a shack. But the light is what you're seeing reflected. And you're seeing, when you see it from above, you're not seeing what the light's in. You're just seeing the light. And so thinking about the way that you shine your light is the way all of us should shine

our light. And it doesn't matter what you look like. It doesn't matter what job you have. It doesn't matter what position you're in. You were given the light of Jesus to shine and it's really just up to you to shine it. That's it. And so thank you for inspiring everyone to do that by living it. Thank you for walking out what you

believe you and Kevin both. It's a beautiful thing to get to be encouraged by y'all to learn from y'all. I'm so glad you started a podcast so I can listen to Kevin's radio voice and you just like preach like you always do. But again everyone listening go follow Dee if you don't already listen to their podcast and yeah this is a great influencer if you're gonna be, listen to their podcast. And yeah, this is a great influencer if you're gonna be following anyone. So Dee, thanks for being on the podcast again. I guess I'll catch you next time

when we're on your podcast. Oh, that's a great segue. And dot, dot, dot. Dot, dot, dot. That was awesome. Oh yeah