Alissa Brinkman + Neighborhood Ministry

[00:00:03] Welcome to the Ask About My Faith Podcast, where our hope is to inspire everyday faith conversations.

[00:00:09] I'm Jess.

[00:00:10] And I'm Abbey. Today we'd like you to meet Alissa Brinkman. She is a wife, mother of four, and a passionate advocate for holistic health.

[00:00:20] Alissa's dedication to nourishing body, mind, and spirit reflects her deep faith and desire to see others thrive with their purpose.

[00:00:29] Her journey hasn't always been easy, though. Here in part one of her story, Alissa shares her path from childhood struggles to discovering a profound peace in young adults ministry.

[00:00:43] She'll share the impact of neighborhood outreach and how managing finances allowed her family to share their faith in a really unique way.

[00:00:52] Join us as Alissa reveals the moments that set her on a life of purpose and impact.

[00:01:04] Alissa, welcome to the podcast. We're so glad you're with us.

[00:01:08] Guys, I'm so happy to be here.

[00:01:10] I feel like this is a day I've been waiting for, actually, for a long time, just because I love you.

[00:01:15] That's awesome. I love you so much.

[00:01:18] Well, will you share with our listeners a little bit about yourself, primarily how you came to know the Lord?

[00:01:26] Yeah, for sure.

[00:01:28] So I am right now, so I'm married to my husband, Jordan.

[00:01:32] We've been together for 12 years.

[00:01:35] We have four children.

[00:01:37] Our kids are 10, 8, and then our twins are 6.

[00:01:41] We live in the beautiful state of Minnesota, and we absolutely love it here.

[00:01:47] We were a homeschool family, actually, for four years, and we just recently switched to a packed charter school that we're going to,

[00:01:54] and it's just been a super cool time for our family.

[00:01:58] So a little bit of a different season.

[00:02:00] So I'm going to rewind and share a little bit of my story.

[00:02:04] So growing up, I grew up in a home where my dad, I want to say he was agnostic.

[00:02:09] Is that a thing where it's like you know there's a God, but you don't have faith in a God?

[00:02:15] Is that right?

[00:02:15] Is that?

[00:02:17] Okay.

[00:02:17] I was like, I know it's not atheist, right?

[00:02:19] Because atheists are like—

[00:02:20] I think so.

[00:02:21] You know what?

[00:02:21] I'm going to say yes.

[00:02:22] I'm sure there's someone else who's smarter than us.

[00:02:24] Yeah, I don't know.

[00:02:26] Okay, so that's the word we're going to go for.

[00:02:28] My dad was really hurt from the church,

[00:02:31] and so that was kind of a theme for him in his life.

[00:02:35] I know that there was even a time I remember him getting really angry at one point seeing a Bible in our house,

[00:02:40] and so my mom did give her life to the Lord later on in her life,

[00:02:45] and so it was really awesome because she did end up bringing us to church when we were kiddos.

[00:02:52] And I would say that fast forward to age 13,

[00:02:55] my dad actually gave his life to the Lord at that point in time,

[00:02:58] which was so awesome.

[00:03:01] I remember thinking, okay, things are about to get really cool.

[00:03:05] And I would say that there were some things that changed in my dad,

[00:03:10] but I would say there was a lot of things that didn't.

[00:03:12] And I think at that age, I kind of interpreted Christianity as,

[00:03:17] okay, this is a label.

[00:03:19] This isn't really like a whole lifestyle change thing,

[00:03:24] which was disappointing.

[00:03:27] And so it was challenging for me to kind of interpret my own faith and what that looked like at that time.

[00:03:34] I did have kind of a theme, an overarching theme in my childhood too,

[00:03:40] of just sexual abuse,

[00:03:42] kind of starting around age five and then through into my adolescent years.

[00:03:47] Wow.

[00:03:48] And so that was really challenging because I feel like with that came this huge lie

[00:03:55] that if anyone ever really loved me or tried to love me,

[00:03:59] it was because they were going to use me or they were going to hurt me.

[00:04:02] And so it was so hard to have any kind of really deep bonds with friends.

[00:04:07] So middle school and high school were actually really hard.

[00:04:10] They were kind of dark for me.

[00:04:12] I got into high school and there was a group of bullies that were just kind of gave me a really hard time.

[00:04:19] It was actually a time in, I think I was in ninth grade.

[00:04:24] And I woke up on a Saturday morning and my dad was yelling my name like really loud.

[00:04:30] And I had a friend that had slept over.

[00:04:32] So we were like both like getting up and I'm like, oh my gosh, like what's happening?

[00:04:36] And I run downstairs and he had opened the front door.

[00:04:40] Yeah.

[00:04:40] To get the newspaper.

[00:04:42] So it was like 530 in the morning.

[00:04:44] And on the front door was this huge,

[00:04:47] like provocative name that had been written on our front door.

[00:04:51] And he was super upset.

[00:04:53] And we started looking around and we realized like, wow, like really terrible things happened.

[00:04:59] And I was like, okay, this is the moment where my dad's going to realize like this is how,

[00:05:05] this is really hard for me.

[00:05:07] And this is like stuff I'm going through at school.

[00:05:09] And he's going to like step in and he's going to be happy to like acknowledge that.

[00:05:15] And he, man, he was like so mad.

[00:05:17] He's like, this is your fault.

[00:05:20] And you need to like figure this out, clean this up.

[00:05:23] Oh my gosh.

[00:05:24] And I think that that moment is the moment I've kind of pinpointed as like, if I had any hope of things getting better, it like left that day.

[00:05:34] And after that, the rest of high school was kind of like waking up.

[00:05:40] I felt like I had the flu every day.

[00:05:42] Just like that whole body just hurt.

[00:05:44] And as an adult looking back now, it's like, okay, clearly I had severe depression.

[00:05:49] But I got really good at doing the fake smile and like the, hey, good.

[00:05:53] I'm good.

[00:05:54] I'm fine.

[00:05:55] Everything's fine.

[00:05:56] I'm not going to get too close to anybody.

[00:05:58] I'm not going to show my cards to anybody.

[00:06:00] I'm going to get through this and it's going to just hopefully one day get better.

[00:06:05] And so kind of just tried to get through high school as fast as I could.

[00:06:11] And that kind of brings me to this like really awesome moment.

[00:06:14] So in June 2012, I would have been 19 years old at the time.

[00:06:19] My family was going through a hard time.

[00:06:21] My brother got a really like a devastating diagnosis.

[00:06:25] He's 21.

[00:06:26] He was 21 at the time.

[00:06:28] And he went through chemotherapy that whole summer.

[00:06:32] And that was like super tough on the family.

[00:06:36] I was in college.

[00:06:37] I was working three jobs.

[00:06:38] I was just trying to stay really busy and wanted to spend time with my brother as much

[00:06:43] as I could.

[00:06:44] He was actually getting off of drugs for the first time in his life.

[00:06:48] And he came to me one day and he's like, I need to make new friends.

[00:06:52] I need to like all my friends do drugs and I need to get with friends that don't do drugs.

[00:06:57] Where do I go?

[00:06:59] And he's like, I'm going to go to church.

[00:07:01] And so he started going to church on like a Wednesday night.

[00:07:05] They had this young adults ministry going on.

[00:07:08] And every time he would come home from it, he was like different person.

[00:07:12] And I'm like, what is going on?

[00:07:13] This is like so unreal.

[00:07:16] And he kept inviting me back to come with him.

[00:07:18] And I was like, oh, I'm too busy, whatever.

[00:07:21] And finally, it was like, I think I got off of work early one night.

[00:07:24] I'm like, I'm just going to go and surprise him.

[00:07:26] I'm going to support him and just like, you know, be the nice sister that I am.

[00:07:32] It's for him.

[00:07:33] Yeah, it's all for him.

[00:07:34] I didn't need any help, guys.

[00:07:36] It was just for him.

[00:07:37] I walked in the auditorium and there was like a worship band playing.

[00:07:41] And I just was standing in a seat by a seat.

[00:07:44] And I was like, there is this moment.

[00:07:47] I can't tell you what the pastor was saying or even what song was playing or anything.

[00:07:51] But there was this moment of this like peace and like this joy that came over me that I had never felt before in my life.

[00:07:59] And I just remember like, yeah, at first I had looked around and all these people were like putting their arms up and doing all this stuff.

[00:08:07] And I'm like, this is different.

[00:08:10] Here I am.

[00:08:11] I started like putting my arms up and I'm just, I feel like tears just coming down my face.

[00:08:15] I've never cried in front of anybody before.

[00:08:18] And I'm like, what's happening?

[00:08:19] Like, this is amazing.

[00:08:21] And it was just like the goodness of God.

[00:08:24] He just like sent the Holy Spirit down and just like wrecked me in all the best ways.

[00:08:29] But so that was kind of that moment for me.

[00:08:32] I was like forever changed.

[00:08:34] I remember after that, I'm like, I am not going back to how I felt before.

[00:08:39] Like whatever this is, like I'm staying here and whatever this life looks like, that's, I'm all in.

[00:08:46] So I just, I asked the Holy Spirit to show me in my life what are things that I needed to change.

[00:08:52] And so I kind of just, he's chipped away at me.

[00:08:56] I changed different relationships in my life.

[00:08:59] He exposed different lies I was believing.

[00:09:02] He healed my body.

[00:09:05] He just ministered to me.

[00:09:07] He guided me through a lot of things.

[00:09:09] And I remember being like, okay, Jesus, I only want to be with you and spend time with you.

[00:09:14] Like no boys allowed.

[00:09:15] Not going to do any focusing on boys.

[00:09:18] And then like three days later, I met Jordan.

[00:09:20] And then you met your husband.

[00:09:22] And it's kind of cool because he had just given his life to the Lord recently.

[00:09:27] And he had dedicated his drive to work every single morning to pray for whoever his wife was going to be.

[00:09:34] That the Lord would speak to her and just like come into her life.

[00:09:39] And I was like, little did he know, he was just praying for my salvation.

[00:09:43] And I was like, you're a piece of my testimony because he might have been the only person doing that, you know?

[00:09:50] And the Lord's just used him to just minister to me.

[00:09:55] And I tell him just he loves me unconditionally, like in the most human form.

[00:09:59] And yeah, he's an awesome guy.

[00:10:02] So I feel so blessed.

[00:10:04] God's always doing something new.

[00:10:06] You guys are the best partnership.

[00:10:08] Yeah.

[00:10:09] Yeah, we're a good team.

[00:10:10] So when you had your experience at the church in the back of the like worship experience, did you end up engaging with that church to kind of figure out like, who is God?

[00:10:22] Who is Jesus?

[00:10:23] How do I hear Holy Spirit?

[00:10:25] Or did your brother kind of walk with you through the beginning of your faith journey?

[00:10:31] Yeah, that's a good question.

[00:10:32] It was a little bit of both.

[00:10:33] So I did start going to that church because I hadn't really been plugged into a church at that time.

[00:10:38] And it was really precious.

[00:10:40] My brother had really given his life to the Lord just a few weeks before me.

[00:10:43] But just to see him come in and just stand in the gap at different moments where, you know, maybe I was walking through a deliverance or I didn't really have a lot of friends yet that were Christians.

[00:10:54] He would just be like, I'm going to pray for you.

[00:10:57] And he was just an awesome guy like that.

[00:11:00] We could just go and read the Bible together and encourage each other.

[00:11:04] And it was just a beautiful time.

[00:11:10] That's really cool.

[00:11:11] It's fun when your family is a big part of how you came to know the Lord.

[00:11:15] There's something kind of special about that, right?

[00:11:18] For sure.

[00:11:19] Very, very sweet.

[00:11:20] Well, Alyssa, what was sharing your faith like when you were a new Christian?

[00:11:27] Was that—did it come naturally to you?

[00:11:32] Was it really—did you not share your faith for a super long time?

[00:11:34] What did that look like?

[00:11:36] That's so good.

[00:11:37] So, I would say it was a little rocky.

[00:11:40] I was like so excited, so on fire.

[00:11:43] Fair enough.

[00:11:44] And I was like, everyone needs to do exactly what I'm doing.

[00:11:49] So much so that kind of one of my first experiences was a friend of mine, he, you know, he did it.

[00:11:57] It was a different religion, I'll say.

[00:11:58] And I just beat him over the head with the Bible every time we interacted, and it did not work.

[00:12:05] And that was a good learning lesson for me.

[00:12:07] And I was like, oh, this is how I probably should not do this.

[00:12:14] Yeah, that's interesting, I guess, because you didn't really have a whole lot of exposure.

[00:12:20] I mean, you did.

[00:12:21] You went to church, but like you didn't have anyone share their faith with you necessarily other than, you know, the event that you went to with your brother.

[00:12:28] And so, I mean, it kind of makes sense that if you weren't shown, that you just kind of did what you thought of like, this is amazing.

[00:12:37] You need this.

[00:12:39] For sure.

[00:12:40] God has been very gracious in like, refining me in that way, for sure.

[00:12:44] I just, I was lacking in just the love piece, like loving first, listening first, and sharing.

[00:12:55] I didn't really understand what it looks like to look for an invite.

[00:12:59] But you know what?

[00:13:00] It's okay, because maybe I planted a seed, and I can just be okay with that.

[00:13:09] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:13:11] So what does sharing your faith look like nowadays?

[00:13:16] Oh, boy.

[00:13:17] Yeah, that's really good.

[00:13:18] So a lot of different avenues.

[00:13:22] My husband and I, we try to be really intentional with our workplace, with our coworkers.

[00:13:29] Yeah.

[00:13:30] That looks, so how that looks.

[00:13:32] So I work in the health, in the health field.

[00:13:34] I'm in holistic wellness.

[00:13:36] So a lot of people that come to me, they've been to like every doctor there is.

[00:13:41] All the doctors have told them, like, yep, nope, there's nothing else.

[00:13:45] Like, be comfortable, do what you can.

[00:13:47] And so usually people are pretty weary.

[00:13:50] They're pretty skeptical.

[00:13:52] They're very hesitant, kind of just hard around the edges.

[00:13:56] That's my typical client.

[00:13:58] And so I really had to utilize working with the Holy Spirit to just come alongside someone and be able to minister to them in a way that's going to just open them up for what God has.

[00:14:12] So before I meet with someone, I will ask the Holy Spirit to use me.

[00:14:17] And I just thank Him because it's like, this is your child.

[00:14:21] This is a child of God and this is someone that He wants to help and He wants to heal.

[00:14:28] And if He's going to use me to just show me how to do that.

[00:14:31] And sometimes that looks like praying for people.

[00:14:33] Some people just need hands over them and they need to be prayed for.

[00:14:38] And so in my work, I would say it can look different and colorful in that way.

[00:14:42] And I'm always open to whatever that looks like.

[00:14:46] Excuse me.

[00:14:47] And then I would say our little neighborhood ministry is what I'll call it.

[00:14:52] It's funny because when we go to church and we sign our kids in on like the kiosk thing, there's like 13 kid names.

[00:14:59] Because my kids will run around the neighborhood before Sunday school and like ask all the neighbors, like, come to church with us.

[00:15:08] And so it's turned into like this little ministry that we've been able to have our kids be part of.

[00:15:13] And it's like so much fun.

[00:15:19] I can't wait to come back to that.

[00:15:20] I want to go kind of back to your work stuff, though, because we recently interviewed someone named Yegor.

[00:15:29] Fantastic, super fun person.

[00:15:32] One of his things is he's like, he prays with people at work all the time.

[00:15:37] But there's different approaches and I'm curious.

[00:15:39] Do you ask them if you can pray for them?

[00:15:42] It might be a little more sensitive, I feel like, in your line of work than in his.

[00:15:47] But like, do you ask first to pray with them?

[00:15:51] Is it something that you just say, hey, we need to pray and you dive in?

[00:15:55] What does that look like for you and your clients?

[00:15:58] Yeah, great question.

[00:16:00] So I usually always ask if I can pray.

[00:16:03] I would say, I don't know that anyone's ever said no.

[00:16:06] But just in, like you said, the sensitivity, the nature of the things that we're talking about, the things we're doing.

[00:16:12] I always ask for permission.

[00:16:13] But there's usually a time where it's like, hey, we've done all these things.

[00:16:18] We've taken these supplements.

[00:16:20] We've done these modalities.

[00:16:22] We got to talk about the spiritual thing.

[00:16:25] Like, it's just, it's really cool to see somebody have a plateau and then actually really be open to, hey, this actually might be a spiritual issue.

[00:16:36] Maybe I'm not the one to walk through someone with that, but to be able to have that conversation with someone and say, hey, like, who do you have that we can talk about this with?

[00:16:44] Because I think this is actually a really big block for your healing.

[00:16:48] I tend to always be quick to ask questions and be really slow to offer anything first.

[00:16:55] Just like I said, a lot of my clients are a little harder around the edges with trust.

[00:17:02] And so we always just go slow and I always ask first.

[00:17:07] So, yeah.

[00:17:11] Yeah.

[00:17:11] Yeah.

[00:17:12] I know you have a story of a woman that you did get to pray with.

[00:17:17] And I wonder if she had that plateau because she did end up seeing some pretty big change.

[00:17:24] Can you share that story with our listeners?

[00:17:26] For sure.

[00:17:27] Oh, man.

[00:17:28] Okay.

[00:17:28] I'm going to try not to say her name, but I just love her.

[00:17:31] Okay.

[00:17:32] So she came to me and she had been on like this healing journey for like 20 something years.

[00:17:39] Okay.

[00:17:39] Like natural healing journey.

[00:17:41] Like she's seen all these other people and she's one of those people that if you tell her to do something, she's going to do it perfectly.

[00:17:47] And she's going to be like your perfect client, right?

[00:17:50] Like very compliant.

[00:17:51] And, um, but man, she came to me and she was like so weary and she was like, I am broken.

[00:17:59] And this is my last, last ditch effort because somebody at the church had recommended me to her.

[00:18:05] And so I was like, okay, um, sensitive thing here.

[00:18:10] You know, she's in her seventies.

[00:18:12] She's alone.

[00:18:13] She's walked through a divorce.

[00:18:15] Um, a lot of heavy stuff with just her adult children.

[00:18:18] She felt alone with none of her friends, understanding her wanting to heal her body naturally.

[00:18:24] So just like very lonely.

[00:18:25] Um, and so we got to a place in our appointments where we spent more time praying because that's really what she needed.

[00:18:34] Um, more than she needed me to like tell her what supplements to take or what not to do, uh, with her diet.

[00:18:41] Um, none of that was really carried any weight when it came to just, man,

[00:18:46] this lady needs to be covered.

[00:18:49] And so when we started doing that, a huge shift happened with her health.

[00:18:54] She started emailing me every week and she was like, my pain is like leaving my body.

[00:18:59] I'm sleeping better.

[00:19:01] She's like the buzzing in my body's going away.

[00:19:04] I mean, it was just like the coolest thing.

[00:19:05] And I was just such a testimony to you just implementing the Holy Spirit in anything, but especially your health.

[00:19:15] You're just, you're going to be able to get to the level you need to get at.

[00:19:18] Right.

[00:19:18] Cause he'll show us.

[00:19:24] Do you happen to have any insight about how her faith journey progressed through the time that she was working with you or maybe not, but I'm really curious about that too.

[00:19:37] Yeah.

[00:19:37] Yeah.

[00:19:38] So she, she struggled and she openly would talk about this.

[00:19:41] Um, she struggled with a lot of insecurity, um, and a lot of lies, you know, a lot of fear, um, just because of all the years that she has spent doing all these things and not getting better.

[00:19:53] I think there was just a lot of like, why wouldn't God have helped me yet?

[00:19:58] Or why am I still suffering?

[00:20:00] Or why hasn't anyone, why isn't anyone helping me the way that I think they should be helping me?

[00:20:05] That's so real.

[00:20:05] Yeah.

[00:20:06] Yeah.

[00:20:07] And so I think, um, for her to have someone just sit across from her and be like, okay, this is what I'm seeing.

[00:20:17] And I love you too much to prioritize anything else.

[00:20:22] It was like, she felt seen, she felt heard and she felt loved.

[00:20:27] And it was like the, uh, if you want to call it the magic potion to get her to, uh, where she needed to go.

[00:20:35] Um, it gave her this like confidence of like, okay, someone's in my corner.

[00:20:39] Someone's covering me.

[00:20:40] Um, kind of like that standing in the gap thing, which is like such an honor to do for people.

[00:20:46] Um, no kidding.

[00:20:50] Yeah.

[00:20:51] Wow.

[00:20:52] Well, um, if we were to jump to one of your most recent times of sharing your faith, I'm actually really curious about it.

[00:21:00] It sounds like it was on quite a platform, um, with millions of listeners or viewers.

[00:21:06] Can you share that story with us to wrap up our, uh, part one of our conversation?

[00:21:12] For sure.

[00:21:13] So yeah, really interesting, right?

[00:21:16] Kind of something.

[00:21:17] It was funny the other day.

[00:21:19] Someone's like, what's something interesting about you that no one else knows?

[00:21:21] And I was like kind of struggling.

[00:21:23] And then it was funny because this question that we just talked about, I was like, oh yeah, that's kind of cool.

[00:21:29] Let's talk about that.

[00:21:30] Um, so my husband, long story short, uh, when he was nine years old, the Lord put on his heart that he, um, needed to be really obedient with his finances so that he could just sow into God's kingdom.

[00:21:44] And so when we got married, we did the whole Dave Ramsey.

[00:21:50] Um, what is it called?

[00:21:52] The Financial Peace University.

[00:21:54] So we got on the same page about finances.

[00:21:56] We kind of like linked up.

[00:21:58] We were like, let's do this thing.

[00:21:59] Let's do money God's way and just see what happens.

[00:22:03] Um, we just felt like the Lord was putting stuff on our hearts.

[00:22:06] And at the time we were like totally broke.

[00:22:08] Like we didn't even have our house yet.

[00:22:10] We were living with my parents.

[00:22:11] And so we were having a baby and it was like, I wasn't working, you know, like, but the Lord was just like putting things on our hearts.

[00:22:17] So we made a list of everything.

[00:22:19] Whenever we felt like he was sharing something with us, we actually printed off pictures and put them onto our refrigerator.

[00:22:26] So that we could just constantly be reminded of like what we need to be praying over and why we're walking in this obedience.

[00:22:32] Right.

[00:22:33] It's not always easy to say no.

[00:22:35] Um, so fast forward, we were like, Hey, Lord's called us to be completely debt free, um, to change our family line, the family tree, um, break off things.

[00:22:49] And we want to do that by the time we're 30.

[00:22:53] Awesome.

[00:22:53] So we started this journey, like I said, one income, um, nothing special.

[00:22:58] I promise we didn't like getting big inheritance or anything like that.

[00:23:01] Um, and we, um, at 30 years old, we were able to pay our entire house off.

[00:23:07] Um, and we were fully debt free and we got invited to go down to the Dave Ramsey show.

[00:23:13] And we did like a 10 minute live interview on his show, which was like so wild and so cool.

[00:23:20] Wow.

[00:23:20] Um, and we just got to share about what it looks like to just be obedient with your finances.

[00:23:26] Um, we talked about tithing.

[00:23:28] We shared about that, which was really cool because we had a few friends that listened to our testimony and they maybe didn't realize what the Bible had said about tithing.

[00:23:38] And they started tithing after that.

[00:23:39] And so it's been cool to see what God's doing in their life as a result of that.

[00:23:43] Okay.

[00:23:43] Um, so yeah, that's kind of our fun story.

[00:23:47] That's 10 minutes.

[00:23:49] I wouldn't have, I guess I didn't realize.

[00:23:51] I can't say I just jump on Dave Ramsey and watch very often, but so cool.

[00:23:55] 10 minutes to share your story and how you got where you were.

[00:23:58] And with God and the calling that he put in Jordan's heart at nine years old.

[00:24:04] Yes.

[00:24:05] For him to share that, for you guys to be able to share that.

[00:24:07] What a cool thing.

[00:24:07] I was just going to say all of our kids were part of it too, which was super fun.

[00:24:11] If you watch the video, it's, uh, they all came up at the end and Dave Ramsey invited them to just like be part of the debt-free scream.

[00:24:18] And they all screamed together.

[00:24:20] We're debt-free.

[00:24:21] It was so, it was really epic.

[00:24:22] I just, I just feel like it was one of those, um, core memories for them.

[00:24:30] Yes, for sure.

[00:24:32] Yeah.

[00:24:33] No.

[00:24:34] And then like getting to share that with your friends and family on social media is a cool way to share your testimony too.

[00:24:41] Oh, for sure.

[00:24:42] It was so awesome.

[00:24:43] It was so fun to see, um, just how it was able to bless other people and encourage people.

[00:24:48] So Alyssa, in part two, you're going to share a lot about how you're able to steward relationships.

[00:24:54] In your neighborhood.

[00:24:56] And to wrap up part two, uh, hearing about Dave Ramsey, can you share about the importance of really stewarding your finances well and how that ties into radical generosity for your family?

[00:25:11] Uh, yeah.

[00:25:12] So when we are able to be obedient with little, um, we're able to also be given more.

[00:25:20] And so I think it's such a great, um, outline to just show as a testimony of, um, even when things are hard and it can be a struggle to say no, um, to just be able to, um, just focus on God's goodness and his promises that he has for us.

[00:25:36] Um, and ultimately really to lead us down this road of, um, crazy generosity because being in the kingdom of God, we get to do that.

[00:25:45] And it's really, that's where the fun and giving comes into play.

[00:25:49] And so, uh, working towards that and just working to be a blessing to other people.

[00:25:55] Thank you for listening to the Ask But My Faith podcast.

[00:25:58] We'd love your support in continuing to bring you encouraging and inspiring stories.

[00:26:03] Please subscribe, rate, interview wherever you're listening.

[00:26:06] And you can learn more about us and donate at askbutmyfaith.com.

[00:26:11] God bless you this week as you go out and share your faith.