Building Trust Layer by Layer: Virginia Heslinga

In this podcast episode, Virginia Heslinga recounts a life-altering event from her childhood: a devastating house fire that led to loss and trauma. 

Despite this, Virginia's journey is a testament to faith and resilience. 

She reflects on an experience where an angelic presence aided her during the fire and explores how this shaped her belief in God's protective nature. 

Through decades of teaching and mentoring, Virginia gradually learned about trust, healing, and the importance of community, ultimately finding peace and purpose in her faith and service to others.

https://amityfoundation.org/eng/

Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/sky-toes/the-summit

License code: YEMOID7DEYZIE4N3

Consider subscribing to this podcast, YouTube and Substack- all with the same name: Just Talkin' About Jesus!

https://www.youtube.com/@JustTalkinAboutJesus

https://jan-johnson.com/

https://justtalkingaboutjesus.com/

https://janjohnsonauthor.substack.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@JustTalkinAboutJesus

Thanks for listening!

If you have a story to tell, check out the form on my website- justtalkingaboutjesus.com.

I'd love to connect with you!

No, really.... hit me up!

Transcript

Virginia: So here they were, two teachers working full time that had a three room apartment and this big community outhouse for showers and bathrooms. And when in the evening one of the people on our team needed to go to the bathroom, they got a lantern and took us out to, you know,

as we needed. And when we got ready to eat our meal,

it was just floored me like Bible times that they came out with a big bowl of water that they'd heated in the stovetop that they had and a towel and we could rinse our hands.

And it was just,

I find it extremely valuable to realize that in the 21st century people live so differently and yet with grace and wonderful hospitality. And I really saw that in rural China.

Foreign.

Jan: Welcome my friends to episode 84.

If you're new here, welcome. I'm Jan Johnson, your host.

I'm glad you're joining us and I hope that by the end of this show you feel encouraged and strengthened and if so, please like and subscribe.

That way you will get the new episodes right into your inbox.

Virginia Hesslinge is an educator, mentor, author, presenter, researcher, friend, wife, mother, grandmother,

traveler, and a child of God.

She looks forward to putting value in each day with gratitude, relationships and creativity.

Dr. Virginia Hesslinger has written curriculum stories and plays used in churches and schools.

And in her 50 plus years teaching pre kindergarten through graduate school students in the USA and other countries,

Mexico, Istanbul, China,

she has tried to exemplify the love of Jesus.

Her theme song for facing the new and unknown is Amy Grant's Anywhere with Jesus I Can Safely Go.

Heartache is part of the human experience. And Virginia's first memoir, Grace Interlaced reveals God can put a life back together even when it seems to have been damaged beyond repair.

At age 12, a devastating house fire and death caused Virginia to disconnect from emotions, lose trust in crucial relationships relationships and build a wall around her heart.

Only God's timely interventions had power to break through the wall that she thought had protected her.

Jan: Welcome everyone to this episode of Just Talking About Jesus. I have Virginia Hesslinga with me today. Welcome Virginia.

Virginia: Thank you, Dan. It's good to be able to talk with you.

Jan: I kind of met up with Virginia on an author circle group just trying to figure out how to promote her work and the different things. But when I kind of looked into her story, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Yeah, this is a person we need to share.

I think the reason why is because when a person experiences a whole bunch of things, you, you learn so much about who God is. Right, right.

And I think too, just the older you are,

the more you,

the more you've figured out one of the defining things that happened to you was being in a fire that destroyed your house. Tell us about that and kind of how God worked your character through that experience.

Virginia: Well, we put it in the place and time.

It was 1965, I was 12 years old.

My parents were heading up a Red Cross meeting to raise money from the county for the Red Cross.

So I was babysitting for my two brothers and the pastor's son. Pastor was away at a convention. So I had the two year old and a seven year old and a nine year old and me.

And I was being hassled by the toddler that needed a lot of extra attention and by my brothers. And I finally settled down into watching. I think it was Ben Casey,

if anybody remembers. Ben Casey in the 60s came right after Dr. Kildare.

So all of a sudden the baby started crying so loudly. So I rushed up the stairs and as I'm going up the stairs, all the lights went out, the TV went off, everything was gone.

And I went into the room and I just, I. I don't even have a consciousness of praying, but I saw a wall of fire because my drapes in my room were on fire.

And that's where the toddler was in the crib and. And he can read more about it in Grace Interlace. But when we got out of the house and I got down and I realized it was just the nine year old brother and the toddler, I pushed the toddler into his.

I said hold him. And I went back in.

And for people that don't believe in angels,

this would be a hard part to take. But I tell you, there was a young man that came in and he went up the stairs with me and I had to put a wet washcloth over my face.

I had learned from,

actually, I think it was the TV show Fury that when you went into a fire, if you put something wet over your face, you could get farther in the smoke.

And the young man didn't realize until a long time afterwards he never had anything over his face. And I would have stayed and probably died trying to get my younger brother.

But the young man took me down the stairs and outside and I turned to my brother and the toddler and I didn't know what to do.

I took them down off the porch and I turned to look back and see if the young man had gone back in and he wasn't anywhere around.

And I went to the neighbors and There were somebody called the fire department again after me. We lived in Union, New Jersey, and Union and Elizabeth came right together. And because I had called the fire department early and the responder didn't know which.

Couldn't tell from the address which town to call,

they didn't call anybody right away. They were trying to figure out from a map.

So this is back before 9 11,

you know, 1965.

And so there were a lot of confusion. And when they finally came, we had multiple fire departments and multiple police. And I was lost in the crowd. And I saw them take my parents and the brother and the toddler away.

And I was sitting against a neighbor's house.

That's the picture that's on the book cover.

And I just remember thinking,

God, I'll do anything if you just make sure that my younger brother survives. You know, I'll go to the worst place on earth and work for the rest of my life.

And yet I,

you know,

I never thought that God wasn't there,

but that prayer wasn't answered.

So there was a lot of trauma after that in my family and in me. And I was reading an article yesterday that I hadn't realized that hyper independence and wanting to solve things yourself comes frequently from people that have experienced trauma.

That it's not that they're trying to be standalone and they're not trying to be, you know, I'm Mr.

Able to do everything. It's just that they.

The trauma has caused them to figure I have to take care of everything on my own,

but as a Christian,

because I became a Christian, a believer at an early age,

and I knew the stories of the fiery furnace and I knew the miracles of the Bible.

I just.

I existed knowing that God was there, but everything kind of shut down for years.

Jan: Yeah, well, that's trauma.

I mean, that is trauma, you know, to do that. And you lost your brother.

I mean,

you had to have felt responsible for that as well.

Virginia: Yes. There is a scene in the book and the people that have commented to me,

it's what the first thing that my father said to me when he. I was taken by a policeman to a neighbor's house.

And people that had been taken to the hospital showed up later in another police car.

And.

Yeah, the thing that my father says to me that kind of set the tone for the next 40 years for being in charge.

Jan: Wow, that had been terrifying. I mean, just.

Jan: Even.

Jan: Just as a kid,

to be in that. Even if it was just you, it would be terrifying to know what to do and to get out and how to reach your parents and how to,

you know, what. What to do next and how to just process all of that.

Virginia: Definitely, yeah. And I, you know, you shut down and you go on, and I was a good girl, and I went to church and I was in youth group, and I did all those things,

and I don't think that I really wrestled with it much until my 30s, when a wonderful friend had a brain tumor. And I just got so aggravated.

To God,

you know, just not speaking to you.

Now I'm married to a pastor, so if you can imagine, it's a little hard to be a pastor's wife. And when people would call on me at something and say, will you say grace?

I said, why don't you ask? So. And so I knew that God was there. I knew that he knew all my thoughts, but actually, it was almost two years that I went through not wanting to.

I thought, okay, you can read my thoughts. He can read them. I'm not talking to him. And.

And so that was in my 30s, you know, that was,

yeah, God is gracious and forgiving and carries us through all our ridiculousness. But I always knew he was there. Always.

Jan: Isn't it great that God has broad shoulders.

Lots of grace, mad at him, and he's just going, okay, okay, I'll just wait for you. I'm right here when you get ready.

Virginia: Like our kids having tantrums.

Jan: You know, it just. That's just what. Another one of those amazing characteristics of him that it just like, okay, all right. Still here. You know, it's.

And then, you know, I had a similar situation happen years ago, but it took like,

oh, my gosh, I was well into my 40s before God finally went, okay, you want to talk about this now? You know,

and see where I was at the time? You know, so it just.

So I guess that's one of our lessons, isn't it? You know, that just to see that it's.

God can answer no.

You know,

he might do a wait or a no,

and he might do a yes, you know, but it's not always going to be a yes.

Virginia: That's right. And I feel like I'm a slow learner. I've told people that even though I'm a believer and I follow the Lord,

I am a slow learner because I have to learn those lessons about trust and waiting over and over again.

Jan: Don't we all?

But, you know, each of those things, though,

I think they're repeat things because it's a different.

It's a different aspect that we Learn from each of those.

You know,

each time, it's like. It's not like we didn't actually learn to trust in that situation, but it's also like a broader. There's always, like,

more to the elements of it. Right.

Virginia: There is deep, deeper layers. It's like CS Lewis going deeper in.

Jan: Yeah, yeah.

Deeper and deeper layers. But how do you think that that whole incident enriched your character?

You know, the character of who. Who you are or how you.

Virginia: Well, like I said, I think because of what happened in my family after it,

I didn't really trust marriage because my parents were strong Christians. But everything fell apart after my brother died.

And I didn't trust parenting because I saw what happened after the traumatic event affected all of us.

And I think that somebody asked me a question recently.

When you were brave, they asked when you were brave. And I said, I'm not a brave person,

but because I am teachable.

When God brought my husband into my life,

you know, I did follow lots of leading and testing, and so I took the step to get married. Even though I wasn't sure about marriage and having children,

I wasn't sure about parenting, but I took the step to have children and traveling far away to be part of a project in China.

You know, I never imagined going so far away. But I'm learning about trusting even now.

And so it affected my character that I just learned to depend on God rather than trying to do it all myself.

Jan: Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think as we go along, when we depend on God and we see where he's at, you know, then it's just easy.

It's easy to go, oh, well, you were here then,

and you will still be there.

I just interviewed a gal.

About her book with the idea that you're thinking back to the things in your life, those milestones and things.

All the overreaching thing is if you're journaling and thinking back to those milestones, just like Joshua did, you know, we're going to create an altar here to remember these things where God was.

Those are those moments that help us build on trusting God. Because you were here,

you were here, and you were here in that situation.

So now I'm in this situation. So you're gonna be there again.

Virginia: Yeah. That's part of the layering of learning. Yeah.

Jan: Yeah.

Jan: And I think those are the things that we can share with other people, you know, to say, well, that God was here for me, he'll be the same. God is going to be there for you in whatever way.

Virginia: And I think the other Thing that affected my character is although I was wanting to be very self sufficient and I was,

people were shocked at the story. Even people in my family that never knew anything past the funeral, they didn't know what went on in the house afterwards. They didn't know any of that.

And I was very self contained.

And yet my career for over 50 years has been teaching all different grade levels in different countries.

So as far as speaking and leading,

I've had to do that a lot and I love it.

But it was very different from my character. That was. I'll keep it all inside.

Jan: Yeah, yeah, well, because God gifted you in that area too, so he gave you the confidence to do that area. But I think we can departmentalize things.

You know, and like that. So tell us about you. You worked in China and just all kinds of things. What was that journey like for you?

Virginia: Well, that was another learning time because we had moved from New Jersey to Massachusetts and so. And looking for another teaching position. I didn't find something right away and I was very frustrated because I thought, if God led us here, then why can't I find something?

And so I said to my husband, it's cold here. I don't have a job I like, I've got to find something. And I really don't like the cold. I don't know what it's like where you live, but like this morning it was in the low 20s here and as cold as Virginia gets,

but in Massachusetts it's below zero and there's lots of snow and cold. And so in the summer,

it was at a coffee time at church, I heard some people talking and they said, oh, I had a great summer last year, but I could never do it again.

What did you do? The other person asked and they said, oh, I worked for a NGO in China,

Amity Foundation. And you go and you help teachers of English practice speaking and understanding. And then they can help, but it's only in remote areas and it was so hot I thought I was in Miami.

So I went over and I said, excuse me, I just heard your conversation.

Where can I sign up?

I love to be warm for an entire plumber.

So yeah, that's. It wasn't a really selfless thing to do. I just said, I'm getting away from everything. I don't know what God is doing to my life because he hasn't given me and I'm just leaving the country.

Jan: But you know, he places that person in earshot to, to give you that little prompting and whatever and then you just go you know, and it was.

Virginia: The best thing for my face. The.

And again, this is a long time afterwards because. And I've seen a lot of changes in China because when I first won, it was 2004,

and the president of China then was very excited about American English and opening to the world.

Well,

last time I was there in 2017,

it was very different.

So I'm doing a series called did you eat?

Because in northern and central China they've had famine for such a long time that one of the questions, like we say, how are you? They'll just come up, did you eat?

And so the first book in 2004 is China Sweet and Sour.

And the other one comes out the 12th of December. That's China spicy and salty.

And hopefully by next summer I'll have China sharp and zesty.

Jan: Do you have recipes in there too?

Virginia: The first book has recipes, yes. Not the second one.

Jan: What's the, what's the theme of those, of each of them?

Virginia: Well, in each of them it starts with a problem and an embarrassing problem, a tough problem. But again, the theme is God provides.

When we are ready to think, what can I possibly do?

Calm down and God will provide. And I'll give you one example and the one that's coming out on the 12th.

The nurse that was on my team,

we got to Shanghai airport and we'd been flying,

traveling for hours and hours from Boston.

She left her carry on bag that had her glasses and her medicine in it in the airport.

And we didn't realize till we transferred to the domestic airport and flew to Beijing that it was gone.

So we figured we would get some help from the translator that was coming to be our guide.

But we didn't know when we would be able to get the medicine and glasses that she needed.

So we went out for our first full day in Beijing and when we came back to the place where we were staying in Beijing,

the man at the desk said, your bag is here.

And we said.

He said, your bag. It came and he brought it around and there was a note with it.

Well, the person that had been teaching me some Chinese in Massachusetts,

this had to be got, had a cousin that was traveling home to see his family in Shanghai.

And this little pink suitcase stood out to him in the airport on a chair by itself.

And he went over to look at it and he saw the name on it.

And my Chinese teacher had given him my name and the name of everybody on my team.

And he thought, this is from one of these people that my cousin knew. And he picked up the case.

And he called his cousin and he said, your friend Virginia, where is she staying?

And so she told him where we were staying.

And he had it, you know, shipped day delivery to where we were staying.

Now,

how many thousands of people go through Shanghai airport?

And it was the same international, you know, from Los Angeles to Shanghai, but still there were thousands of. There is no. So that was the very first. The end of our first full day in Beijing.

And I said to the team,

you know, when anything else comes up, we have to remember this because God is here and he's going to get us through anything that comes up. But there was a lot that came up,

so it was a good lesson to learn repeatedly.

Jan: Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah, I mean, that's a totally. Just.

Virginia: It's a miracle.

Jan: It's just. It is a total miracle, you know, to have that happen. And I just love how God orchestrates things. It could be,

you know, like, oh, God,

you know, and. And all the pieces all line up the way they're supposed to, you know.

Virginia: And then you look at something like the fire, and I think, you know, some prayers, you pray and they're answered immediately in a positive way. And other prayers, you pray, they're not answered in a positive way or they're not answered for years, and we don't know why.

But God is always there, at least in my head and my heart.

Jan: Yeah, absolutely. Was there anything that, you know, years, in retrospect that you were thankful for from the fire?

Virginia: I think.

Because of the way it ended up many decades later.

I was grateful that relationships could be healed before people like my father died,

that we actually had an opportunity to have a conversation and talk about things he would never talk about before.

So I'm thankful. And I had prayed for forgiveness, and forgiveness is. I read a book by Desmond Tutu and his daughter on forgiven.

And the decision is you can work on forgiving in your head, and it might take a long time to get to your heart.

So that made a lot of sense to me. And slowly I saw over the years that with this, I will forgive.

I need to think forgiving. I need to ask Jesus to help me and, you know, be loving.

Yeah. I'm very thankful that I learned that. Forgiveness is a discipline that you can start in your head and it'll move to your heart,

and God honors that. I really believe it.

Jan: Yeah. Yeah. The whole topic right there,

forgiveness, you know, it's just that.

Yeah.

But ultimately it's not about freeing the other person's, about freeing yourself,

you know, yes, definitely. Once you totally can forgive the person, it's just like,

okay, yeah, now I don't have to think about him anymore. If I do, it's going to be some long ago distance, something that I don't have, anything. And, and it's also trusting that God's going to deal with that person in whatever way needs to be done with them, you know,

and it's not us to be the one that thinks of all those things. Then I could.

Virginia: Personalities are different, I'm sure. You know, I mean, it took me years before I would pray for forgiveness for,

you know, for feeling that in my heart. And then it just,

I, I guess it's another miracle when some people can forgive, you know, in minutes or hours.

But there's some traumas that I think it takes a really long time and it takes talking with Jesus and walking with Jesus before we learn those lessons and again to learn them over and over.

Jan: Yeah,

well, I mean, and if you use Jesus example on the cross is, you know, forgiving his enemies, but he was also God,

you know,

and he also could, you know,

say that at the moment just because he knew the big picture and he knew whatever, you know.

Virginia: Yeah.

Jan: I had an administrator that did me wrong for, had a long, long, long, long, many years of working through that. And that's the only, only one in my life that I just have had such a hard time getting over.

But I think I'm there.

I think I'm finally there.

It's years, you know, it can be years.

Virginia: The timing is different for every person.

And God knows our hearts and knows us better than we know ourselves.

I just encourage people to,

you know, talk to him about that.

Jan: Yeah, yeah. And over and over and over again because he doesn't care if we keep coming back with the same.

Virginia: Now mainly I've written these memoirs on life experiences, but I did write a historical novel called Wounded Dove and it's based on everything. True. But it came out as a historical novel because I changed all the names.

I didn't want anybody to sue me. And I condensed the timeline a little bit and, and I told it in first person. So that's why it had to be,

you know, historical novel.

But the person in there that overcomes so much, she got polio in the polio epidemic in Massachusetts in the early 1900s. She overcomes so much and yet she's naive and trusts somebody that she,

anybody would have trusted.

And it takes the love of a sibling to rescue her from a very terrible situation.

And that's another thing that you can overcome a lot and yet be susceptible to making a mistake in another area. And God, he provided that sister that went right to directly confronting the problem.

So I think God has provided people in my life from childhood and that fire time even, and even before that, the people that guided me to faith.

God has always provided people to come to me and talk to me and be a support to me when I really needed to work through something.

Jan: Yeah, yeah. Well, and the flip side, he's provided you for other people.

Virginia: I hope so.

Jan: Yeah, as well. So tell me a little bit more about things in China. What exactly did you do while you were in China?

Virginia: Well, Amity usually sends people to remote areas because you're doing it as a volunteer.

You,

all they have to do is give you a place to stay and your meals.

And it can be very different from situation to situation.

So you work with the teachers,

you don't have to be a teacher. So for instance, they would like every team to have a nurse. Well, I was fortunate to have a friend who was an RN who had mentored and taught nurses.

So she did health lessons in English.

And then my husband went a couple of times with me and he did conversational English and he would do social studies and geography. Although you have to be very careful, there are certain things you can't say.

And everything is supervised.

And it was very nerve wracking when he went with me because when he got his visa, they put a bright yellow card in his passport that said this man is not to preach anywhere in China.

So even like having public prayer, he wasn't supposed to do anything like that. It was very interesting.

So we all helped work with teachers. And as a teacher and as having a doctorate in education,

I tried to give teachers strategies that have been used globally.

And they don't know this when they go to college,

if they go to college. And in the remote rural areas, there's people that teach that have never been to college.

When they go to college, they study English. That's their major.

And they know it a lot better than we all do.

But speaking and comprehending and listening,

that's a real struggle. And they were trying to improve that. Yeah, so that's what Amity. Amity does a lot of things. They have a deaf ministry. Because in China,

just like in the book Wounded Dove in the early 1900s, in this country, if you have a disability,

there's nothing for you. Your family can take care of you.

So they have a ministry. Amity has to down syndrome people to teach them job skills. They have deaf ministry,

they have emergency like when there's earthquakes and they have doctors that go as volunteers and teachers that go as volunteers.

It's a great program, but it's changed in the past few years because of how the government has changed past few years.

Jan: That had been interesting. Just, just being in another country is interesting anyway. I think even being in different parts of the country of the United States is interesting.

Virginia: My first teaching experience in another country was in Mexico and then I did a program at a college in Istanbul. But the longest I have eight different years of visiting China.

So.

And I just found it wonder the remote areas are so different than the big cities that a lot of tourists see.

So it's challenging, but it was wonderful.

Jan: What were some stories maybe of people that you met,

Chinese people that you met?

Just some of the traditions or even things that you encountered that,

that were interesting or challenging.

Virginia: Well, we were all very proud that we'd learned to use chopsticks. Well, quite.

And we weren't sure if we would ever be invited to any of our students homes because that's not required. You can just live in a,

a dormitory or sometimes they'll put you up in a hotel or the student dormitory or. But this one teacher that invited me early on to her family's home.

It was such a big deal in this remote area where we would probably be the only Americans that they would ever meet that her parents. I sat down at the table and they came out very proudly with a fork and a spoon.

And you know, they have very little and they had gone out to buy that so that I would be comfortable at their house.

And there's so many details of hospitality that they take seriously.

It really is very heartwarming and can almost put you to shame to think of people with very little doing their best to make you feel comfortable even with something that simple.

Jan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Boy, that, that makes you feel like, you know, validated or just, you know, it does make you feel important, doesn't it?

Virginia: Yeah. And then the other thing you see lifestyles like two teachers, a couple invited us to their home and they lived in a walled area. Most of the things where we were there were like mud brick and, and there was bathroom facility for the entire compound, all the apartments.

So here they were two teachers working full time that had a three room apartment and this big community outhouse for showers and bathrooms. And when in the evening one of the people on our team needed to go to the bathroom, they got a lantern and took us out to,

you know, as we needed.

And when we got ready to eat our meal,

it was just floored me, like Bible times, that they came out with a big bowl of water that they'd heated in the stovetop that they had and a towel,

and we could rinse our hands. And it was just.

I find it extremely valuable to realize that in the 21st century, people live so differently and yet with grace and wonderful hospitality. And I really saw that in rural China.

Jan: Yeah,

yeah.

And. Yeah, because it does bridge a gap. And it also,

you know, if they're providing hospitality for you, they're feeling like they can.

You know, I mean, like, there's a cultural.

Like there's not. What am I going to say? Like a wall between being able to take that gap from I'm just going to learn from you to I'm going to invite you into my life.

Virginia: Yes. And it was wonderful,

the supervision. Every school has a communist supervisor.

And I was teaching holidays, and in teaching holidays, I thought when I sat next to him at the first meal where he was present at the meal,

I said to my translator, I want to tell him what I'm teaching. She said, okay.

So I said to him, excuse me, I'm teaching holidays.

So if you come into my classroom and you see Jesus or Moses on the board,

I want you to know they connect to our holidays.

I thought I may as well just say it out because they always.

Somebody that listens or watches and.

Yeah. So each of the times that we went.

That's always interesting in a country where, you know that everything is being supervised. Yeah.

Jan: Did it make you fearful?

Virginia: I wasn't fearful as much as challenged.

Like,

the first time that I went was right after we got into the war with shock and awe that Bush had the shock and awe. And so Abu Grav had happened.

It was in the news. I went there in June to China, and I think that was in the news in April.

And one of the first questions that a student asked instead of, what do Americans think about Abu Ghraib?

And I said, we think it's terrible.

And why would your American soldiers act that way? And I said, well, do you think that every soldier in every country always acts the way they're supposed to act?

Well, he didn't say anything else.

Then somebody else said, well, what do you think of the whole war?

And I said, you know, our president didn't call me and ask me what I thought of the war.

Does your president call people and ask them what they think of going to war?

But I didn't have to answer that. Amity says you can just say, look, I don't want to talk about anything political. I'm an English teacher. But I felt like if we were the only Americans that they were going to meet,

that I should try to be as open as I could. So.

Jan: Yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah.

So I guess that telling them about Jesus on the wall or whatever, you know, I suppose your husband found little other ways to be able to share the gospel without preaching?

Virginia: Well, I think by watching us, you know, one of the translators that was with us, we met as a team every morning to go over our lessons and to pray.

And the first time that I looked up from prayer and his eyes were wide open and he said, you know, I've heard about prayer, but I never heard anybody pray.

So,

I mean, his grandparents, he said, had been Taoists, but his parents immediately weren't anything. And there's very few people that we met that had familiarity with a lot of. Except for Christians.

Jan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think there's a lot to be said for being watched. I mean, maybe some good things happen.

Virginia: Yes,

that's another responsibility.

Yes.

In the, in the book that's coming out,

one of the people on our team, China, doesn't allow this anymore. But in 2006, one of the teachers could only go if she could take her 10 year old son because she had nobody to watch him at home.

And so he got the visa. And I said, well, if he gets a visa, God will work it out. Well, it was a plus in many ways, but it was a challenge in many other ways because kids just say whatever.

So, yeah, that was an adventure that we hadn't imagined.

Jan: Oh, wow. Well, this has really been interesting. Boy, I think we could go for hours and hours on all of your things, but we can all go to your books too, to find out,

find out more. So where can people find you?

Virginia: Well, any place books are sold. So Barnes and Noble, Amazon,

if you go to my website,

time to create e I m e number two.

Create.info that has probably places that you can click on right there to buy books too.

Jan: Yeah, okay, perfect. What do you have a favorite scripture that you just love.

Virginia: By grace you saved through faith. Yes.

God's grace and faith is what carries me through.

Jan: Foundational, huh? Yeah.

Virginia: Yes.

Jan: Yeah, for sure. Okay. Thank you so much, Virginia. This has really been a pleasure.

Virginia: Thank you, Jan. I'm really glad that we got to talk.

Jan: Several things stand out to me.

Jan: One, it's okay to get mad at.

Jan: God when he doesn't answer our prayers. The way we think he should.

Jan: Should.

Jan: He's got pretty broad shoulders and he'll wait for us to come back to him.

2.

Did you catch that? At the beginning,

God sent an angel to help her get her siblings out of the house.

Jan: Whew.

Jan: What a testimony.

Jan: 3.

Jan: Because of her trauma, Virginia shied away from thinking she could ever marry or have children.

And yet she took the steps in faith and saw that she could trust God despite what she had witnessed in her past.

And four,

she learned to depend on God instead of herself.

I'm sure there are places in your life where you've experienced one or more of these above this.

This is why we believe.

Because over and over and over again we see God's goodness, His provision, his unfailing love, his faithfulness.

Friend, if you are not keeping a journal of the milestones in your life, do it.

Ask for a journal for Christmas.

This one thing kept over time, recording those God winks, those times when you were all in a muddle and God came through.

Even the times you see God working in others,

they they all can strengthen you and others as you share those times with them.

Hey,

if you're enjoying this podcast, think of two friends or relatives that you could share the link with that will help it grow.

I'll leave you with these scriptures,

for it is by grace that you have been saved, and that not of ourselves.

It is the grace of God.

Ephesians 2, 8, 9 and last lamentations 3:22, 24 through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not they are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness.

Jan: The Lord is my portion, says my soul.

Jan: Therefore I hope in him. That's all for this episode and I.

Jan: Look forward to being with you again next week.