Donna Lind - Faith Moving Forward

Donna Lind, an inspirational speaker and life coach, shares her upbringing and early experiences with faith. She grew up in Chicago with her grandparents, who were strong believers and taught her about God. They attended a Lutheran church and she has fond memories of Sunday mornings and family dinners. At the age of seven, Donna attended a Pentecostal tent revival and had a powerful encounter with God, where she gave her heart to the Lord and experienced a prophetic moment. This event marked the beginning of her journey in ministry. Today's episode is brought to you from The Russell, a historic East Nashville church transformed into a one-of-a-kind boutique hotel. The Russell's mission is to give back to the Nashville community through their Rooms for Rooms program by donating a portion of your stay to local organizations who provide a safe haven for those experiencing homelessness in the Nashville community. Visit www.RussellNashville.com to book your stay today. Hello, my name is Kevin and I'm with my co-host Beth, and you are listening to the Faith Moving Forward podcast. Proverbs 29.7 says, Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice. Anyone that has been around Donna Lind, whether hearing her speak at an event or talking with her in person, you know about her passion for Jesus and her heartfelt words and advice. Donna is an inspirational speaker, a life coach, an author, and Beth and I are blessed to call her our friend and have been anticipating her being on the podcast today. So, Donna, thanks so much for hanging out with us today. Oh my gosh, Kevin, you make me cry, that was beautiful, are you sure that's my intro? Thank you, Kevin and Beth, it is an honor and such a joy for me to be sitting here with you today via our electronic devices, and I'm just thrilled, so thank you for having me. Oh, you're so welcome, it's our pleasure, truly. So we know about the amazing ministry you have now, but we also know that behind every amazing ministry is an incredible journey of ups and downs that make you into what you are today. So, could you bring us back to your growing up years and how it was for Donna Lind? Yes, absolutely. I grew up on the south side of Chicago, anybody out there from Chicago, hey, hey. I was born into a family of, my mom was 18 when she had me, and my dad was 21 fresh out of the Marine Corps, and so really, you know, it's like a lot of kids raising kids. And we lived with my grandparents, my dad's parents, in a little brick bungalow in Chicago, in a little town of Roseland in Chicago, and my grandparents were the closest to God that I can express of anyone I have ever met in my lifetime. They were Jesus with hands and, their hands and feet, they were just served like Jesus all day, every day, because, yeah, it wasn't, because I got to grow up with them until I was like five. My parents and I lived with them four or five, and that meant that every day we sat down at the kitchen table in the morning, and when I was old enough to read, I read the verse from The Daily Devotion, The Daily Bread, and they taught me how to read the Bible verses and how to find scripture in the Bible, and we prayed together, and they took me to church with them every Sunday. Sunday school, my grandmother served as a Sunday school teacher, so I'd go to class with her. My grandfather was a deacon and a head usher, and so I would, then in between Sunday school and church time, I'd help him fill up the communion cups and get everything ready for service. So I really learned. Yeah, I learned. You had some bad influence right away. Yeah, I did. I was very blessed, and I learned how to serve. I learned how to give my offering in tithes. I learned how to help others. They, every Sunday, you guys will get a kick out of this, so this was, of course, in the early 60s, and every Sunday on our way to church, grandpa and grandma would get the big old Buick. I wish I could tell you what the model was, but all I remember, it was like emerald green, and it had these big fins, kind of like the Batman mobile, and you could feel like a whole, yeah, you could feel like a whole army of people in there. So we would stop, and grandpa would stop. He drove, and we'd pick up all the widow ladies in the neighborhood on the way to church. There'd be about half a dozen of them in the back seat, because that's how big the back seats were back then. I'd sit in between grandma and grandpa in the front seat, and that's what we would do. They just taught me how to love like Jesus, to take care of the widows, the sick, the shut-ins, and we'd really just go around everywhere serving, and so I guess my ministry really began as a toddler with my grandparents like that. Yeah, it really did, didn't it? Interesting. Wow, so what kind of a church did you go to back then? Well, you guys will relate to this, because we lived in a Swedish, Roseland was a Swedish neighborhood. My grandpa, yes, and my grandfather was Swedish, and it was a Lutheran church, and I know up north that there's a lot of Lutheran churches, because we have a lot of Swedish immigrants that migrated here to the Midwest, so that's where I grew up, and so I don't know, Jeepers, it must have been sixth grade, fifth, sixth grade when we moved to a suburb of Chicago then. Okay, yeah, my dad was a good Lutheran. A Swedish Lutheran in his childhood growing up, so I totally got a great picture with that. Did it bring back the fragrance of Swedish cardamom coffee cake for Sunday mornings with coffee? Completely, yeah, happy memories, and some really God-loving, God-fearing people. Yeah. Yes, yes, super blessed with them, and they were my influence all my life until they went to Glory Land, but my parents were awesome too, but it's something about just being in my grandma and grandpa's home and growing up with them, the influence they had on my life was tremendous. Wow, so what were the years you spent with them? I'm trying to think if I was either four or five, somewhere between four and five we lived with them, and then what happened, then, Kevin, after that is when we moved to a little house of our own, they were only a few blocks away, so I would go and spend Friday and Saturday night with them and then get up, of course, Sunday morning and go to Sunday school and church with them, and then my mom and dad would come and pick myself, and then at one point my little sister was born, and they would come and pick us up at Sunday dinner time, because we always had Sunday dinner, which was really lunch, but yeah. Was it the traditional roast? Yeah, it would be. Grandma had one of those. That's like mandatory, I think. Absolutely, she would set the timer on the new electric stove that was from 1960, I think it was, yellow and white, yes, and she set the timer. We'd put that roast in the oven before we left in the morning and come home, and all the fixings and mom and dad would be home. It smelled amazing when you walked in that door. Yes, for sure. Beautiful, happy memories, looking back. That sounds like my childhood. It does, mine too. Does it? Yes. Yeah. Then we'd put the roast in the roasting pan, potatoes, and put it in the oven right before you walk out the door to church. Yeah, that's right. Well, Grandma, we'd set the table. She was so organized. That's where I got my organizational skills from, but she was so organized. We would always set the table for dinner the night before, and then we'd also put our breakfast dishes on there, so we'd eat the breakfast, take the breakfast dishes off, and it was all set for our noontime supper then. Oh, sweet. So, at what age then did you accept the Lord or ask Jesus into your heart? Well, I was seven years old, Kevin and Beth, and by that time we had moved, like I said, just a few miles away, but it was a Pentecostal tent revival, a little different than my Lutheran upbringing at that point. Wow. Yes, crazy story goes with that. So, our neighbors that lived across the street from us, their last name was the Forsmans, and Mr. and Mrs. Forsmans, they had a couple boys that I went to school with, and Mr. Forsmans' cousin was Conway Twitty, if you remember Conway Twitty back in the day. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so now listen to this. So, Conway Twitty used to come over to his cousin's, the Forsmans' house, which was our across-the-street neighbors, and he would bring with him Johnny Cash, Chris Christopherson, and some of the other guys back then. You are kidding. No, and so, because of all those connections, their pastor was the young evangelist, James Robertson. Yep, we know about James Robertson for sure. Okay, so I was seven years old, and Mr. and Mrs. Forsmans came across the street to my parents' house and said that there was going to be a tent revival, and there was a young evangelist that was coming, and they wanted to know if they could bring me with. And, of course, my mom and dad, my mom grew up Catholic, my dad grew up Lutheran, they have no idea what a Pentecostal tent revival is. Uh-oh. But, Mrs. Forsmans, yes, exactly, Mrs. Forsmans said, well, we're going to have like a Vacation Bible School, too, for the kids while we're there at nighttime, because it was going to be a nighttime revival, and so there'll be stuff for the kids to do, too. And so, my mom and dad are like, okay, fine, let her go. So, I went, and it was, I just loved it. I was a little girl sitting there amongst all these adults, and while the other kids went to do the Vacation Bible School part, I didn't want to leave that atmosphere. I didn't understand what it was, but I just knew I loved it, and I felt the presence of God. And so, when they were giving the altar call and the invitation, I was the only kid there. I ran up and ran to the front, and they prayed over me. So, I truly gave my heart to the Lord, and next thing I know, I'm out in the Spirit, laid down on the ground. Yes. That's seven, that's awesome. Yes, and I opened my eyes, and there was just a circle of people, the saints there of the church, I would say, and they were just all praying over me and prophesying over me. And just, they were just speaking life into me and speaking and prophesying about how God was going to use me. And they kept talking about a spirit of joy that was going to be upon me and how I would just be able to bring joy to the people. Wow. I don't remember. Yeah. I don't remember all of that. That's true. Yeah, isn't it? Oh, well, I don't know about that. Yeah. That is so you. So, every night that that revival was on, I went there with the Forsman, and I ran to the front altars every single night. You got saved multiple times, huh? Yeah, I did, of course. You got to make sure, right? I did, too. Yeah, I just couldn't get enough of Jesus. You know, it was really so powerful for me, and it was a different, it was so alive, you know? And so, that was the day that I actually gave my heart to the Lord in that way. I mean, I know that I grew up, you know, as a little girl before seven and just loved Jesus. First song is, Jesus Loves Me, and that's the light of mine. But something about that experience really touched my heart. The first time, you probably really sensed the sweetness of the presence of the Lord, and you knew you wanted to live in that. I love that. How cool that they prophesied over you. That's really neat. One thing our church does that I love is, we don't have membership classes, but we have something similar to that. And at the end of membership class, our pastors go to the front, and everyone in that membership class goes, and they pray and prophesy. I love that. Yeah, and then our baptisms are the same, which I think is so awesome. Every time someone's baptized, they have two people in the tank, and someone will get baptized, and then when they bring them up, they prophesy over them, each person. And usually they're just in tears, and they're just kind of reading their mail and giving them hope in the future. Yeah, I love it. Amazing. That's the way it should be. Yeah, absolutely. So, you're saved at seven. When did you start kind of maybe feeling like an unction, or a pull towards ministry, or at least leadership? Or did it just kind of happen? How'd that all work out? Well, I was the born leader, my mom and dad always said. Maybe just because I was the bossy big sister. But yeah, there was a lot of things that happened during my childhood that just led me to be an encourager with things. And so, my parents divorced at the age of 12, when I was 12. That was a really hard time when you're a kid going through that. And then my sister Tammy, it was myself, my sister Tammy, she was three years younger than me, and then my little brother Tim, and he was seven years younger than me. And my sister Tammy died suddenly at the age of 14 from a cerebral brain hemorrhage, an aneurysm, they called it. So, yeah, that was a life changer for all of us. And it's something that you really just don't ever understand or get through. But I see the sovereignty of God and the grace of God in how He turns bad into good. And during that time, I just had a growing in my spirit of what was already planted of somebody who had a gift of mercy and compassion and that encouragement gift and just being the helper and the fixer and all of that. And even as a little girl, people would come to me and would look for advice. As a little kid, it's so funny when I look back, thinking, I'm like, why were adults asking me questions like that when I was so little? But I realized that it was God speaking through me, you know? So all those different things were to do with healing and with the heart and just watching people. And it was, I believe, training ground to what God would use me for later on in the plans that He had for me in my calling. So she was 14 when this took place. My sister was 14. I was 17. And so, yeah, it just really shifted all of our roles in our family and in life. And it's the focus, you know, kind of changes for people when you go through something like that. And so I really started noticing then people who were hurt and people who were broken, people who were sick. It was like God just would illuminate people to me as a young teenage girl then and just see people who needed help all around. And I think that that was, you know, when I was a kid, too, but not being used. Well, maybe it was ministry then. My mom used to call me the Pied Piper. She said I was always gathering the kids in the neighborhood and they'd follow me around. And then, you know, I would be teaching stories, Bible stories to them or putting on inspirational plays for the neighborhood and so forth. Always bringing home any of the broken kids, the orphan-hearted kids, the animals, stray animals. That was my thing. And it just carried on into adulthood. And then, you know, then God began to birth ministry in me with that for healing the sick and brokenhearted and just going through years of my first marriage was an abusive marriage. So, during that time, he just would start pointing out people, other people that were abused that I could just tell and he would show me. So, I could just give an encouraging word to them or minister to them in some way. It's pretty incredible how he does that stuff. Yeah. So, probably from experiencing the divorce with your parents and then the loss with your sister and then going through a divorce yourself, an abusive marriage, it probably really made your heart just, and with the love of Jesus, planted in there so beautifully with your grandparents in the very beginning, made you just really lean into the Lord then. And he carried you through all this. Yes, absolutely, Beth. You know, God gave me a dream when I was around 19 or 20 years old. I did not understand it then because I hadn't really been exposed as much except for when I was at that experience when I got saved. I hadn't been exposed to the gifts, the spiritual gifts. You know, those are not always taught in all the churches, especially in liturgical churches and stuff. So, he gave me this dream. I can see it vividly today. And I was just standing in a place where there was, I don't even know how many people, but there was all these people surrounding me and waiting in line for prayer. And I was praying for people and laying hands on people, and people were getting healed and they were getting delivered and set free. I mean, I would have people put their hands on their heart, and then I'd put my hands on their hands, and then God would just show me straight into their heart what kind of pain and shame and guilt they were dealing with. And then I would just minister and prophesy to them. And I had that dream then, not really understanding what all that meant, but it never left me. And then, yeah. That was that new pain. Yeah, exactly. And then when I was 19, 20 years old, when I started getting really sick, physically sick, and to make it short, I had over a dozen different operations and spent many of those years in and out of the hospital with surgeries and procedures. And I had rare heart disorders and curable diseases that they said I never would be healed from, but got near-death experiences. And during that time of sickness, and that was also the time that I was in this abusive marriage, that God just gave me a special gift to minister to others that were sick while I was in the hospital. And yeah, and it's crazy when I think about it, but what would happen is the people that back then, you always shared a room with, you know, two, three people in the hospital bed, you know, you'd have like three beds in a hospital room. And I would just get up out of my bed and I'd go over to try to comfort and to pray with whoever was in the beds next to me and just minister to them and just, you know, put my hands on them and pray over them. And God would just give them peace and just release that joy to them. And it was just a gift that is only God. And I, you know, through the years when I was in Mayo Clinic and written up in all these medical journals, actually, believe it or not, these doctors would sit on my bed and they would weep because they'd say, I don't know what else we can do. We've tried everything. And I would end up, Holy Spirit would give me a word of knowledge for these doctors and these nurses and the medical teams. And I would just begin to pray and prophesy over these doctors and encourage them. And yeah, just amazing. People would come in my hospital room and they would tell stories later how they came to see me book God, how God used the gift that he gave me to help encourage them. So, you know, looking back, God just kept on using what the enemy meant for harm in my own sickness to help others, which encouraged me. So I had no idea what I was doing, but you know, God, Holy Spirit, yeah, and Holy Spirit was my teacher. And I just, you know, during that time, I just immersed myself in his word and just soaked up everything. And the places that he took me to was everything to do with prayer, healing, deliverance, gifts of the Holy Spirit, and prophetic ministry. And that is what the focus was on. And that's what he filled me with. And that's what would bubble out whenever he'd take me, wherever he'd take me. I love your heart, Donna. I love that no matter what you were going through personally, you always let Holy Spirit minister to you for another. You know, the whole sowing and reaping. You're sowing so much into everyone around you. I'm sure that's how a lot of your healing and deliverance came because of all that you were pouring into everyone around you. I love your heart. That was always others' focus. Beautiful. Thank you. Well, it's all glory to God. I can't take any credit. There's no reason I'm here today other than God and, you know, just what he has done through my life, what he has delivered, set me from and healed me from. That's for another story for another day. But, you know, none of it's wasted. Training ground and battleground get us to the next level and next season of what he wants to do. And it's been, wow, what a journey. I'm so thankful for the good and the bad. Yeah, so you were in your mid-20s when all that started, right? Yeah, I was. I was in my early 20s when I, well, it was actually like 20 when I had my first surgery and then it continued on for the next, until I was about 39, 40 years old. I was chronically sick and in and out of all these hospitals. But I still, during that time is when God called me into ministry and he started me in kid ministry. Got to start somewhere, so he started me as a, yeah. So I taught children, I, you know, superintendents and, you know, all of the different things that you do when you're in kids ministry and church for kids and vacation Bible school and then youth. And during that time though, incredible because he took what started off as a very small little farm, farm town kids church. They called it Sunday school back then. And he gave me a vision for a community vacation Bible school and enlisted some of my other friends that were in that because I noticed that all these churches would have like 10 kids, 15 kids, 13 kids, but everybody did something separate, just like big church does, you know? And God showed me how if we all joined together and came together as a body and as a true family of God without denominations and division, the walls would come down and he would grow it for his glory. And within, I was there for 14 years and what started off with like 10 kids in that vacation Bible school, when I stepped down, God had grown that along with the community to we'd have nearly, I think it was almost 300, 280 of us in that last year. And I couldn't even tell you how many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids gave their hearts to the Lord. They'd ride their bicycles and bring their wagons from the nearby farm town and just couldn't get enough. So this was just outside of Chicago in the farm country, just south? Yes. That was the northern suburbs of Chicago. Okay. Where was your parents in this picture? Were they part of your life during this time? Oh, yeah. Were they saved? Yes. By that, yes, they were absolutely. My mom and my stepdad, they ended up, actually, they were part of Willow Creek and Bill Heibel's church in the beginning years and years ago. And then my dad, he always would go to church years later. But you know what? Daddy, like a lot of people, went to church his whole life, but really didn't have a relationship with the Lord. And I remember before when Dad was first getting sick and Stanley and I had moved down here to southern Missouri and sitting with Daddy at the kitchen table one day. And I just said, you know, Dad, I just want to make sure that you're going to go to heaven. We're going to all be together someday. And he said, well, of course I'm going to go to heaven. I'm a good person. And I said, Daddy, that's not how we get to heaven. So I explained to him about the grace of God and how we're saved by God's grace. And I said, do you want to give your heart to Jesus today? And he said, yes. And I got to pray with my daddy at the kitchen table. And he was in his late 60s or maybe right around 70 at that time. And he gave his heart to me. Yes, he gave his heart to the Lord. I'm crying now thinking of it. And my stepmom was washing dishes in the kitchen there. And she heard all that. And she said, do me next. She said, I want to make sure I'm going to heaven with Daddy too. So then I prayed with her and she also received the Lord. And you know, God is just so faithful. Yes, beyond honor. And it's been like that my whole life. He just puts me in places and situations and marketplace ministry and just meet someone in the gas station or Walmart and talk to them and have the honor to lead them to the Lord. And you know, just wrong numbers. I've got dozens of calls, stories of calls like that and telemarketers where they end up. I get pray with them and lead them to Jesus. So it's just amazing what the Lord will do if you let them. Yeah. Boy, isn't that the truth? I wholeheartedly believe that. And it always feels like such an honor when you get to be an instrument used to bring someone to salvation in Jesus Christ. Like such an honor. Yes. Yes. And so there's, you know, it's just been a journey. He took me from kids ministry to youth. And then he started me with women's ministry. And by that time, I was going to Bible school and getting my counseling degree and life coaching certification. And then I started ministering to couples. And then it was always prayer, healing, and deliverance no matter what. So it just became, you know, I worked as a counselor in different churches through the years, staff counselor. And it just became so many lost, hurt, and broken people that are out there, you guys. It's just incredible. And it's heartbreaking because I couldn't reach all of them because there's too many and there's not enough hours in the day. And God actually gave me a dream about that in my 20s too. I'm just remembering about that. I was just in a place and there was like, it was like a unmatch where they have the out in the middle of the field where is that called triage where they're okay. So that's what it was. I was out in the middle of the field and it was like a battle had taken place. And there was all these people and they were just wounded. Yes. Wounded heart, not just physically wounded, but hearts and minds were wounded and hurting. And I was just trying to get to all of them and I couldn't. And then several years back, one of my former pastors told me that the ministry had grown so much that I really needed to stop doing one-on-one with the counseling and one-on-one ministry and start doing group. And so I, because I couldn't reach everyone and then that started growing and it became workshops and going to different places and at the church or wherever God would call me to do. And it was either heart healing workshops where I work with the people to just go through their crisis and trauma that has left them with damaged, you know, hearts and minds that helping them break off those wounds and trauma from the past and the pain from the past, or it's grief workshops because of my life growing up with so much death around me and losing almost all of my loved ones. I just have a few left now, but God just gave me the tools to help people through grief and loss. And so that's kind of where I've ended up here in these last several years of just, you know, helping the brokenhearted and the oppressed and the possessed and, you know, helping them get healed and delivered. It's that's free in Jesus name. It's always interesting to hear how God hears people once they start to respond to their calling because it usually doesn't go how we think it will. Yeah. Do you want to know when I was a kid and people would ask me what I'd want to do? Well, one of the things was I'd always line up my stuffed animals and my dolls. And if I could get my siblings, which they would always say no, they're the ones that are closest or my cousins or the neighborhood kids. And I would, what I was doing was I was teaching and preaching to them, not realizing that's what I was doing. But I always wanted to be a Sunday school teacher because that's what my grandma was. And she, grandma and grandpa were my heroes when I was a kid. And so I would do that. But also it was just an encourager. And part of my encouraging, I learned going through a lot of grief, trauma and crisis in my life in my teenage years. And that was to try to make people laugh or bring that joy and encourage them. So I thought I was going to be an entertainer. I thought I was going to be the next Carol Burnett or Lucille Ball. Oh, I don't know. But anyway, so that was just part of my thing and how God has worked even that, the gift of joy into weaving that into the hurting and the broken and the healing and the grief and all of that, you know. So and then just the miracles, the physical manifestation miracles of God that, you know, myself being someone who was chronically ill, to be able to, Holy Spirit, give me a word to see what their affliction is, you know, to call it out and then to be able to lay hands. And, you know, I have seen God open blind eyes, open deaf ears. I've seen, seen and felt broken bones many, many times, crunch up, move around and get back into place and heal broken bones. I've seen cancer, you know, laying people walk and then that's just the physical part. But just to see addictions, afflictions, you know, guilt and shame, just to see people get that guilt and shame, the weight of all that trauma lifted off of them as Jesus would heal their hearts and bodies in his name. Just amazing. Oh, it is amazing. You know, one thing I think about when you're mentioning about joy and laughter, Proverbs 17, 22, a merry heart does good like medicine. And you truly bring that merry heart, that joy, that medicine that the word speaks of. And it is a beautiful gift, a beautiful thing that just flows out of you. You are such a joyful lady. And now in 2024, what is the message that God has put on your heart moving forward? Well, this he told me a little over a year or more ago now, it might even be two years ago. He said it's my legacy season. He very clearly spoke to me and woke me up and I wrote it down in my journal and he said this is my legacy season. He said that I can't let what he's done through me die with me. So you know that I'm a writer and I've been writing since I was a kid. And so all of the different stories that of these miracles, of these amazing healing stories and amazing just God, what he does, you know, the wow moments of his just amazing grace. I've been putting these stories together as I've been in the last year having a chance to try to categorize them and put them in order for these different books to be published. So yeah, I'm in the process of getting those written and published so that God can, you know, get the glory for all that. I've also spent the last few years training up disciples to carry on the prayer and healing ministry when I'm gone and trying to, yeah, I'm just training up many different, this younger generation. That's what it is because, you know, what's going to happen if we don't teach them and train them and share with them, you know? And I love when you put them in books and sharing these testimonies. It seems like in this past 12-month period, boy, have I been hearing the power of testimony and how when people hear another one's testimony, if faith ignites in their heart like, God, did that for them? You know, like, he can do that for me. He can do it for me. Yes, yes, amen. I love that is a God word for sure for you to be putting these testimonies in a book because that is just going to ignite so many more people with their faith story and testimony because of what they heard you share. Amen, thank you. Well, one of the things I do at the end of the healing, the heart healing workshop and the grief workshop is that I open it up for people to share their testimonies of what God did to them to heal them through these workshops and going through the, you know, all the different steps for being healed, delivered, and set free. And wow, that's exactly what happens. So, when I share my testimony, I start off sharing mine, and then that does exactly like you said, Beth. It just encourages and inspires, and it also gives them a little more confidence to stand up. And once one person stands up and shares, then it's like an overflow. So, it ends up after I do these workshops that say the workshop's over at 3, they don't want to leave. They're there till 5, still sharing their testimonies. And it's just amazing how, because we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. So, when they stand up to share, they have overcome. Right. It's almost like in the spirit realm, I see like this ointment, this healing ointment on the heart of a wound or of an instance or a physical sickness. It's almost like I can see in the spirit realm just this wonderful ointment of the Holy Spirit bringing what nothing else can bring, but Holy Spirit in that moment. Amen. It's healing bound. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I love it. Yes. Exactly, and that's one thing for someone to get in front, you know, and teach something or give opinions and thoughts on different topics. But to me, it's so much more powerful when someone stands up in front of you and has a testimony saying, this is what happened to me. This is what I did. These are the mistakes I made, and these are the good choices I made, and so on. It just holds so much weight, and I think it gives people hope because a lot of times you may be looking at your pastor or whoever's speaking in front and thinking, well, easy for them. They got it all together. You know, they've never been through anything, but we… That couldn't be further from the truth, could it? Right. Exactly. So it just is inspiring. It's always been for me. I hear testimonies, and I just love it because I'm just fascinated, and that's kind of what this whole podcast is about. We want people to hear testimonies and be inspired by them that, you know what, maybe I can step out too and step into a calling or a job or a move or just be inspired to make a move for God. Follow the Lord. Yeah. Yes. Yes, amen. There's a scripture in Corinthians that talks about God blesses us and helps us in all of our times of trials or tribulations—I'm paraphrasing here—and hurt and sorrow so that we can go and help others during their times of tribulations and trials and hurt and sorrow. And so we don't go through anything. All the things that I went through—and I didn't even touch on them today—but all of the things that I went through in my life was not to just die with me. It's for me to go out and help others live and for them to be able to get set free and, you know, healed by God's grace and to be delivered from whatever their bondage is that they're in. You know, that's what it's about. We're blessed to be a blessing. Amen? Amen. So you're still speaking. I know you're still speaking at events, and you're still doing workshops too. Is that right? Yeah, doing workshops. You know what, guys? I'm terrible at being my own social media person. So I am behind about a year and a half of posting social media stuff that I have to get on because, yeah, I need my own social media person. But yeah, I've been doing still workshops, speaking events, sharing my testimony, just doing and writing. And I really, in this season two, my pastor, Pastor Bo, he says that I'm a pastor to the pastors because of my years in ministry and the things that God has given me and the gift of prophesying and just speaking life to, you know, like when you said that, you know, we think that pastors have it all together. You know, there's so many that are struggling, and there's so many around the world that, you know, are trying to do God's work, but they're in it alone. There's so many, you know, they lack the people. The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few. And so that's part of what I'm doing at this time, too, in this legacy season, God's got us. Just thankful to share whatever I've learned along the journey. That's awesome. What is your website, Donna? Oh, Kevin, don't make them go there until somebody helps me fix it because I haven't done anything in two years. But it is, DonnaLynn. You do? Oh, it hasn't been touched since everything. When I lost my stay in the man, when he went to become a zookeeper in heaven, I kind of set back from all that social media stuff, so I need to get back to that. But it's DonnaLynn.com, or you can find me on Facebook. Okay, that works. Thank you for spending this time with us, and I know we've just kind of hit the surface. We've kind of done a 40,000-foot view, I think they call it now. We'll have to have you on again and delve into some things. My exact thoughts. We need to dive in deeper next time. Yes, I'd absolutely love that. I can't thank you guys enough for the opportunity for me to just share a little bit of my story. And I can't thank Jesus enough for everything that He's done for me and continues to do for me, and just giving me this extra time to be able to leave that spiritual inheritance, the legacy of God's glory, and all of the stories that He's done in my life. So thank you for the opportunity. Yeah, absolutely. And we will talk to you again very soon. Thank you. Thank you, Donna. Yes, my pleasure. Lord bless you and keep you in China's faith on you. Love you guys. Thank you again. The Lord bless you as well. Thank you. Bye now. Bye-bye. Thanks so much for listening to the Faith Moving Forward podcast. Please consider subscribing to our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you currently listen to.