Join hosts Matt Edmundson and Sadaf Beynon on "What's the Story?" as they explore tales of faith and resilience with guest Tamala Anderson, an inspiring author and founder of Pursuing Christ Ministries. Discover Tamala's journey through personal trials and her unwavering faith that led to a transformative ministry. Subscribe for more uplifting stories and visit Crowd Church for a digital sanctuary to explore the Christian faith.

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Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

1:41 Introduction of Tamala Anderson

4:22 Tamala's Background and Faith Journey

7:07 Facing Unexpected Challenges

11:31 Navigating Early Days of Single Parenthood

16:09 Impact on Children and Family Dynamics

21:33 Health Challenges and Miraculous Recovery

28:42 Transformation Through Faith

34:01 Tamala's Ministry and Writing

38:56 Key Message and Encouragement

41:42 Conclusion and Farewell

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Key Takeaways:

1. Embrace Faith During Hardships: Tamala emphasises the importance of seeking a deeper connection with God during life's challenges. She shares how her faith was transformed through personal trials, highlighting that turning to God can provide strength and guidance when facing adversity.

2. The Power of Forgiveness: Tamala discusses the significance of forgiveness, even when deeply hurt. She acknowledges the difficulty of forgiving those who have wronged us but stresses that it is essential for healing and moving forward. This process often requires divine assistance, as it can be beyond human capability alone.

3. God's Faithfulness and Our Role: Tamala underscores that while God is always present and faithful, individuals must actively seek Him. She points out that God asks us to take steps towards Him through prayer, waiting, and being still. This active pursuit allows us to experience His presence and guidance more profoundly.

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Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of

what's the Story podcast. I'm your host, Sadaf

Beynon, and today I have the privilege of talking

to Tamala Anderson. Tamala is a passionate

author, speaker and founder of Pursuing Christ

Ministries. She is dedicated to helping others

find hope and strength in their faith during

life's toughest challenges. Her own journey of

heartbreak and healing has only deepened her

connection with God, inspiring her to write

devotionals and lead empowering women's events.

With a love for sharing her testimony, Tamla's

desire is to bring encouragement, wisdom and a

big dose of faith to every life she touches.

Welcome to the show, Tamla. It's great to have

you.

Thank you so much. I'm excited about this

opportunity.

I know the pleasure is ours, Tamil. I'm really

looking forward to getting into your story. So

why don't you start off, Tell us a bit about your

background and how you came to faith in Jesus.

So my background is I live in the United States

and I have three adult children. I have one

beautiful grandson, and I work full time as a

nurse practitioner in Oncology, caring for cancer

patients. I grew up in probably one of the most

traditional settings you could think of. Very

rural community, farming community. And was one

of four girls that grew up on the farm. I was the

number two girl. My dad never got any boys, so

all of us had to learn to do everything on the

farm that a boy could do. And it served me years

later in my life to show a lot of tenacity and

how to figure things out. Out. But in, in

addition to that was also the faith was at the

forefront of everything. We went to church every

Sunday morning, We prayed before every meal. I

even remember spending time at my grandparents

home who were, whose families were immigrants

from Germany. And they would do devotions every

morning in English and in German. So if you're at

grandma and grandpa's house, you were doing all

of that. So faith was not something that I

unfamiliar with at any point in my life. It was

very much the substance of how I grew up. It

wasn't until years later when hardship happened,

that I really had to find the Lord in a new way

and just really had to learn how to rely on him

and find him completely different than I had ever

found him before.

Yeah. Can you describe what that shift was like

for you, going from a traditional, you know,

Christian setting to something where you were

more reliant, as you said, on the Lord?

Absolutely. So I, like I said, was very

traditional in how I grew up. I had gotten

married shortly after finishing college. My

husband and I had three children. Years into our

marriage, we had decided that we wanted to do

some fostering. We just really felt like we kind

of had the parenting thing down and we wanted to

share that with kids that were less fortunate.

And so we spent some years doing foster care.

There was one time in particular I was actually

in my last semester of grad school. So life was a

little crazy. Going to grad school and our kids

and doing some fostering here and there. We

didn't have a long term placement at that time,

but we had been asked to take a placement on

Monday and this was a Friday. And so my husband

and I talked and we had actually done respite for

this child. So we figured it was something we

could fit into our crazy life. And he was a cool

kid. So we were, was. We were excited to get him

and have him part of the family. And so that was

going to happen on Monday, Saturday morning. My

husband worked for the Boy Scouts and my boys

were in the boy Scouts and they were doing an

activity and so they all went off to do their

activity. And my daughter was in competitive

dance. And so we were down at the studio and they

needed parents help to get ready for the event.

And I got home and the boys got home, My husband

wasn't home yet and I had a ton of homework

because I was still in grad school and the kids

wanted to go do their fun activities for the day.

So I let them go and my husband came home and

justifiably so, he was upset with me because I

had let the kids go do stuff before they had

their chores done. And we got into, you know,

what would be traditionally a marriage squabble

that nobody would think anything of. And he

proceeded to say, I'm leaving, I don't want to be

married anymore. Never once had this been part of

our discussion. Never once had it been anything

had ever come up. Never said that. We rarely

fought. It was just a total blindside, total

shock. And so for a few weeks I did this whole

thing of this is going to blow over and this

isn't really going to happen. And when it really

did happen, I just had to find the Lord. And I

was like, how does this happen? This isn't the

way my life is supposed to be. And I would say

that I am very privileged in how I had grown up.

I hadn't had a lot of the hardships in life and

so I didn't know how to. How do you do this when

it's hard? I soon became a single mom. Not only

did my husband leave the marriage, but he pretty

much checked out of the kids lives, had to finish

grad school, had a ton of debt, just a lot of

things that hit me all at once. And I had been

going to a church that was the denomination that

I had grown up in, but I just really wasn't being

fed there. And I knew a girl who I used to work

with, who was just a soul on fire. And I'm like,

you know, what if she goes to this other church

and gets like that? That's what I really need

right now. I just, I knew from my roots that if I

was going to get through this, I needed to find

the Lord in a way that I had never found him

before. So I started going to this other church

and it was probably the third time I had went to

this church. It wasn't a really big church, but

had walked in, they were having a special

service, there was a traveling evangelist that

was there and I walked in and the pastor of the

church recognized me and remembered my name. And

I was really impressed by that, because it was

like only the third time I had been there. And

then the traveling evangelist that night had this

message. Like, I figured he had been walking with

me the last several weeks because his message was

so directed at me. And his message was, there's

evil in this world, but God always wins. And I

had been sitting there, and I was thinking, you

know, I think I'm going to stay afterwards and

see if they'll pray for me. I just really feel

like I need a pastor to pray for me. And through

these several weeks, I had not had any of that.

And the guest pastor gets done speaking, and he

hands the microphone to the regular pastor, and

all he knows about me is my name. He might know

that I'm finishing NP school and have kids, but

nothing about my hardships. And he takes the

microphone, and he walks over to me, and he says,

I don't know what's going on in your life,

Tamala, but the Lord has laid you on my heart.

And I feel like you need prayer. And it was this

incredible aha moment. It was the first prophetic

thing that I had ever witnessed in my life where

I knew that God saw me. God saw me in all of the

crying, all of the tears, all of the heartache,

the brokenness. And he was. He was recognizing to

me that he saw that and that he was going to be

there for me. And that totally was the start of

what revolutionized my faith into what it is

today.

Yeah, no doubt. And, I mean, it's incredible, as

you say, how the Holy Spirit was present, was

moving and drawing you in. That's. That's great.

And, you know, I'm really curious. Thanks for

sharing that, by the way. I'm really curious. How

did, like, just going back to your early days of.

After your husband broke the news to you, and I

think you were in denial. Is that what you. When

you were hoping that it would all just.

Yeah.

And I guess my question is, how did you navigate

those early days when you realize, actually, this

is a reality and the impact it's going to have on

your kids and you as now a single mom?

You know, it's really interesting. One of the

things that I always say is, scripture tells us

that God is collecting our tears in a vessel. And

I'm like, he's going to have one really big one,

because there were a lot of tears during that

time. I didn't know you could cry that much, in

all honesty. So it was with grieving. I will say

that, you know, anybody who goes through a loss

like that even though it isn't a physical death,

there is a full grieving process that you go

through. There's rejection. There's a lot of

mixed emotions in that. And I remember, you know,

just I talked to God all the time. I mean, me and

Jesus got to know each other really well. And,

you know, it's really interesting. I spent so

much time searching him out and spending time

with him and relying on him, that years later,

when life got a little bit easier and I found

myself not doing that as much, I was like, oh, my

gosh, I miss Jesus. I'm not talking to him like I

used to. And, you know, I think that that's part

of where Paul writes in the New Testament, that,

you know, we have to rejoice in our suffering

because our suffering really does draw us near to

him and really takes us to places that we

wouldn't go if we wouldn't be in those times of

suffering and heartache.

No, you're right. And I agree that when you. When

you've been walking with the Lord closely and you

have that regular communion with him, when you

don't have it, you do feel it and you do miss it.

And I think breakup, it is like those breakups

can be like a death. It is, you know, as you say,

it's not physical, but all your hopes and dreams

and everything is wrapped up in that and what

could be and so on and so forth. So, yeah, I can

understand the whole grieving process that would

have gone with that.

Well, and I think the thing is remembering that

the traditional nature of what I grew up in,

divorce was very taboo in my family. So while

divorce is very prevalent, for me, it was a very

taboo thing. Like, my family was not overly

accepting of this, and there was a lot to deal

with in that. So there was shame, there was

rejection, there was a lot of need for

forgiveness. You know, I was just reading earlier

today about Jesus teaching his disciples to pray

and the Lord's Prayer and, you know, forgive us

as we forgive our debtors. And, you know, we want

God to forgive us. We have to figure out how to

forgive others. And that is a mighty, mighty task

when somebody has hurt you so deeply. And, you

know, even in my reflection today, as I was

looking at that, I was like, wow, have I come a

long way in that forgiveness process? You know,

when you're hurt like that, the last thing you

want to think about or even consider is

forgiveness. You know, I tell my ex in the few

conversations that we have had over the years

that, you know, I Used to wish ill on him. I

wanted horrible things to happen to him. And I

think that, you know, being honest, that we go

through those phases, even though we're Christian

and that's not very Christ, like, it's the flesh

in us. And to get to the point of finding that

forgiveness. And yeah, that's part of the

grieving process, is finding that forgiveness and

part of the healing process. But we can

oftentimes only do that with the help of the

Lord, because it sometimes is way bigger than

anything we can do in our flesh and humanness.

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. It is a

process. You talked about shame and rejection and

the need for forgiveness. Was that in the context

of your parents, your family?

It was a little of all of that, you know, as the.

As things unfolded, I began to discover that my

ex had actually. So from the days that we were

early on, we had been married for 20. My divorce

was final less than a week before my 20th wedding

anniversary. And we dated for about three and a

half years before we got married. And my ex

always needed downtime. I am not a person that

needs a lot of downtime. And so I think it's

important in marriage that you recognize what

your partner needs. And so he was very nocturnal.

Ever since the early days of marriage when things

were blissful, he always stayed up later. He

needed that downtime. That downtime turned into

an opportunity for him to be online. He had met a

woman online. He had also started drinking. He

was doing closet drinking. In the 23 years that I

met that I was together with him, I can tell you

that I never saw him completely drunk, but he

drank to maintain and to function. And, you know,

it. It just. So then all of a sudden, I find out

there's another woman. And then there's the whole

rejection. What did I do wrong? What was I so bad

about all of those things? And by no means am I

saying I was per. Perfect in marriage. I think if

any of us are honest with ourselves, we know that

none of us are perfect in that. In that walk. But

I truly would have done anything to resurrect and

save my marriage at that point, because I truly

believe that I had a covenant with God. I had

made a promise before God that I was going to do

this. So there was rejection in the. In my

spouse, shame from my family. You know, I felt

horrible that I had made a promise before God and

I was not keeping it. And there was no way that I

could change that. My partner had decided he

wanted out. And so I Had to work through a whole

lot of things about this is not what I am

supposed to do as a Christian. I am not supposed

to be divorced. I am not supposed to do these

things. And, you know, it was a whole process. It

was a lot. Yeah.

How did your kids handle it? Or how did you walk

through the process with them?

You know, it's interesting because I have two

boys and a girl, and each one of them kind of had

their own way of working through it. My daughter

spent a lot of time in the youth group, and there

was a youth advisor that really kind of took her

under her wing. And I just would say to anybody

who's working with youth, you have no idea the

power that you have in a child's life. I mean, it

is just unbelievable how you can change the

roadmap of what happens in their life by the

guidance that you give them, the support that you

give them those types of things. My middle son,

who is the closest to his father, spent a lot of

time in counseling. He actually counseled for

several years. It wasn't initially that he did a

lot of counseling. It was years later. And I

think it was very wise of him in that he said, if

I don't ever deal with these things, they will

continue to haunt me. And I have the risk of

running this. This same family history. The

interesting part is I came from the traditional

family. My ex did not. My ex came from

generations upon generations of divorce and

alcoholism. And from the early days of us

meeting, that was the thing that he was committed

to. He wanted to break that curse. He wanted to

fall away from that. He wanted to be different

than the rest of his family. And he almost did

it. You know, he was almost there. And so my

middle son just really found that it was in the

counseling that he really needed to work through

the things if he wanted to get to a place of

total healing himself. So I was very proud of him

for that. My oldest son, you know, initially

seemed to do better and then later on had more

trouble. Just as far as, again, that you thing.

It wasn't until years later that I found out his

boy Scout leader, they'd go on campouts, and my

son loved to do camp outs, and he was high school

age at this point, loved camp. But what I didn't

know until years later, after he had graduated

from high school, is that at camp outs, when the

rest of the boys and leaders would go to bed, the

main scoutmaster would put on a pot of coffee,

and they would sit up for hours talking and just

really Provided a role model and support for him.

My oldest son had a couple other things that

happened in his life that at that critical time

also that were kind of devastating to him. Some

related to sports, some related to. He always

wanted to go into the military, and he had signed

up to go into the military and then found out he

was colorblind. So all of the jobs he wanted to

do in the military, he couldn't do. So it was a

bunch of disappointments at once, which then led

him down some bad tracks and some bad trails. And

I smile because he has now graduated with a

degree in engineering and is back on track. So

God will truly turn things around, and the

prayers of a mother or even a father can abound

for much. So God truly just answered a lot in

turning his life around and bringing him to a

place where he could be back on track.

Listening to you speak, I'm really struck by how

you would have just, I guess the load you would

have been carrying at that time to hear that

news, to navigate everything that came

afterwards, and then the whole process of having

to support yourself, your kids, and your foster

child as well.

At that point, did you not go through placement?

I was like, I can't do that as a single person

and going through what we were going through.

But, yeah, it was a tremendous amount. I would

say that my parenting style changed dramatically.

I went from being the traditional family with my

husband and I, because we were. We were really

falling into what I had had grown up in. You

know, the kids were, you know, Sunday school,

confirmation, you know, church every Sunday. You

know, it was very, very traditional, Praying

before your meals, all of those kinds of things.

And I ended up doing some moonlighting. I had a

bunch of college debt. I had a lot that I took

on, and so I worked a lot of hours. So we became

much more of a team. And so it really changed the

dynamic. The kids had to rely on each other very

differently. Fact that I can say that my kids are

okay is a tremendous blessing to me because it

doesn't always work out that way when you don't

have a parent around as much as I was absent. But

I lived in crisis mode a lot. You know, years

later, it was probably six, seven years later, I

was like, I'm not sure how to function if I don't

have a crisis coming up. Because a year after the

divorce, my daughter actually had to have hope

and heart surgery. She was born with a congenital

heart definition effect. And so we knew from 9

months of age that at some point she would have

to have her heart valve replaced. And so not

knowing where that was. And so a year later, end

up having that challenge. So it was just crisis

after crisis. A few years after that. I was born

with a congenital hip defect, and I was working

all these hours and trying to provide, and it got

to a point where I couldn't walk anymore. And so

I needed to have hip surgery. And I'm like, I

can't take time off work. I got kids to, you

know, I got kids, kids to support. And one of the

miracles that God did so, so found a doctor that

was about four hours away that could do this

surgery with a new technique. And one of our CL

nurses in the clinic had actually done this and

was back at work in two weeks. So I was like, two

weeks? I can do two weeks. I can take two weeks

off. I've got enough money that I can make at two

weeks. So drove four hours away, I had this

surgery, came home. Being a nurse with my

background, I knew that hips were solid and I was

just determined as ever. I just got to get this

to the point that I can be back at work in two

weeks. So I was out walking. It was beautiful

day, and a week out, I was walking up to a mile

at a time. And I almost didn't make it home. At

one point, it started hurting. And I have a

really good friend who is a orthopedic PA

physician's assistant. And I call up Kelly, and

I'm like, hey, Kelly, what do you think is going

on? And she's like, oh, you probably just pushed

it to hard, give it a rest a day or two. So I

rested for a couple days and it didn't get

better. And it progressed to kind of get worse,

actually. And so I ended up needing to go to see

the surgeon. And living in a rural community, I

had to drive about 100 miles to the doctor that a

few days later. And the doctor told me that the

components in the hip replacement had moved and I

was going to need to have a second replacement

surgery. So I got back and my friend Kelly would

come over and have me sign releases of

information so that I could release my films, my

X ray films over to her to take a look at it. And

actually, what had happened was there was an

intraoperative fracture that the surgeon never

told me about and told me he banded it because

the bone was soft, but did not tell me that there

was a fracture and did not put me on

restrictions. So now it was going to be four

weeks after that that I was going to have a

second hip replacement. And remember, I was only

going to do two weeks. So I had a second hip

replacement four weeks after this. And then I got

home and I started having problems with the

incision. And two weeks later, I ended up having

another surgery. So in three weeks I had. Or in

six weeks, I had three surgeries for this hip.

And I was only supposed to be off for two weeks.

This was not part of the plan. I was running out

of every kind money imaginable. And so then they

were talking about a fourth surgery. And I said,

you people are done. You people are done. And I

don't know in the UK if you're familiar with the

Mayo Clinic, but it is the renowned medical

facility in the United States. And I said, I'm

going to Mayo. I'm done. You guys are not cutting

on me anymore. And the first miracle that

happened is when I was going to go to request my

referral to Mayo Clinic. My girlfriend Kelly, I

messaged her and I'm like, hey, this is what I'm

asking for. Do you know who I should ask for?

Well, ironically, Kelly was at the Mayo Clinic at

an orthopedic conference and was able to find out

who the best hip surgeons were. Years later, when

I had seen a different orthopedic doctor, it was

kind of funny because he said, you know, the

surgeon's like, world renowned. And I'm like,

yeah, I do. So in the meantime, I had to wait. So

the referral process to get to Mayo Clinic is

extensive. So it was several weeks before I was

able to get an appointment with them. In the

meantime, I continued with some treatments. I was

on crutches. I couldn't bear any weight on my

hip. But at this point, I had been home for about

six, seven weeks, probably closer to eight weeks.

And I was absolutely miserable. I am not a

homebody. I've had a lot of pain. I've had a lot

of misery. And I just had to get back to church.

I didn't care what it took, but I had to get to

church. So it was a Wednesday night service, and

I didn't even know how I was going to get from

the parking lot into the church. But I'm like, I

gotta get there. And so I managed to get into the

church, and I sat down and pastor's wife came

over to me before service, and she's like, you

know, I want to pray for you, but I want to wait

till after service when pastor can pray for you

too. And so service finishes and pastor and his

wife come over and they start praying on me. And

they barely started praying. And Pastor said,

wait, there's just not enough power here. And he

grabbed a couple of other people and said, you

know, come over here. And you've got to lay hands

on her, too. We need. We need more power to pray

for this. So they're all praying over me. And,

you know, one of the things that I'm anticipating

is that my friend Kelly has told me there's going

to be another surgery. They're going to have to

get this infected joint out, all of this stuff.

And we get done praying. And one of the women

says to me, God said, there's not going to be any

more surgeries. And, you know, I'm still in this

infancy of depending on God. And I'm like, yeah,

I'd really like to believe that, but I'm a nurse

and I know better. I know what my orthopedic

friends have said. And so I can say that I

honestly didn't entirely believe her. And I can

tell you that I got to Mayo Clinic and I saw this

surgeon, and he looked at my stuff, and he looked

over things, had me walk. And he's like, you

know, I think we just watch it and see what

happens. And I got done with the visit, and I

call my friend Kelly, and I'm like, hey, Kelly,

they're not taking it out. And she goes, that's a

miracle. And a year later, I went back to the

doctor, the same doctor, and he looked at my

stuff, and he looked at me, and he looked at my

stuff again, and he goes, looks like you beat the

odds. And I'm like, no, no, my God did. So not

only was it the divorce, it was my daughter's

surgery, it was my medical stuff. It was just a

lot in about a 6, 7 period of time. Period of

time. But I learned no matter what was happening,

like the enemy could throw anything at me. And

God always found a way out. And it has totally

reformed who I am as a person. Like the person

that I was before my divorce. I always say, like,

the kids drop and break a plate. And I'd be like,

what are you doing? You need to be more careful.

Now I'm like, it's a broken plate. Just clean it

up. It's totally rewired me and refined me. You

know, in scripture talks about the refining in

us. Evidently, I was extra stubborn, and it took

a lot to refine me to get to me this point. But

God has totally refined me in all of those

things. And now, even today, yeah, all of us have

things that happen in our lives. But I'm like,

God's got it. God has shown me consistently, over

and over and over again that he's got it. He will

find a way. He brings you through it.

I love how you're talking about the

transformation that comes out of that obedience

to the Lord as well.

Oh, the first time I ever spoke, it's kind of

funny when God puts words in your mouth that you

weren't planning on saying. But I had told my

story and then I said, would I ever choose to go

through this again? Absolutely not. Would I ever

choose to be the person I was before this?

Absolutely not. And you know it. The re ref. The

reforming is beautiful. If. If while we go

through it, it's not fun, it's hard, but what

happens on the other side is amazing.

You know, I've never heard of a strong person

who's got a straightforward past because that's.

That's the Lord, the way the Lord works, isn't

it? Tell me a bit more about what you've learned

about God in this whole process.

You know, I've learned that he is faithful. I've

learned that it takes an effort on our behalf.

You know, some people are like, you know, you

don't have to do anything to, you know, God is

just there. But that's not entirely true. God

asks us to wait on Him. He asks us to call on

Him. He asks us to pray. He asks us to be still

before Him. He asks us to, you know, knock and

I'll open the door. He's asking us to make a step

towards Him. He is there and he's ready to

interact in anybody's life, life. But we have to

make the movement towards Him. We have to make

the conscious decision to seek him and to be

available to Him. And the more you draw into

that, the more you see him in everything around

you.

So true. We are called to be obedient and to live

for Him.

I think the interesting thing is, you know, I've

grown so much in the last 12 years in my faith,

and yet the more I grow in my faith, the more I

realize how much farther. Like, I feel like I'm

just at the tip of the iceberg. And I was so far

away from that years ago. Go. So the abundance of

what you can learn and grow and discover in the

Lord is just absolutely never ending. It just

goes on and on.

And it's such a gift, isn't it? It's like you.

You're not going to arrive, but it's it's a good

place to be because there's always so much to

learn and be encouraged by.

And each step of the way it's, it's absolutely

amazing. One of the things that about six years

ago I actually moved across the state and what I

didn't know at the time was why I was moving. I

was at work one day and I just said, I have to

move. And I called my daughter, she was at

college and she was like, I think mom's lost her

mind is what she told my son. Because I decided

that instant I had never thought about it before

and I had to give a 90 day notice before I could

move. 60 days into the 90 day notice, my son

broke up with his girlfriend and didn't have a

place to live and was in a really bad place. And

that was the place that I was moving to. So. But

I had sold a house and I had a little extra cash

and there was a church in the town that I moved

to that was doing a tour to Israel. And it was

always on my bucket list. And so after all of

these years of hardship, it was kind of my little

reward to be able to do a trip to Israel. And so

it was Jordan for four days and then Israel for

14 days. And I always said if I got to Israel I

was going to get re baptized. That was going to

be my thing. And if they didn't tell us on the

itinerary what day or where they were going to do

baptisms. And it was actually about the third day

that we were there that they did baptisms and

they did it on the Jordanian side. So the

Jordanian side is very primitive, whereas the

Israeli side is much more commercialized and

beautiful. And so it was actually on the

Jordanian side and it was an incredibly emotional

day for me. As a matter of fact, the group that I

was with, some of them were crying with me

because it just meant so much to me. But one of

the things they asked me is, you know, why do you

want to get re baptized? And I'm like, because

God keeps showing up in my life over and over and

over and I just want to dedicate my life back to

him. And that night I got back to the hotel and

I, you know, you lose track of time when you do

one of those red eye flights. And you know, and

I, one of the things that I told myself I was

going to do is I was going to journal every day

because I wanted to make note of everything that

I was feeling in those days so that I could

remember it Forever. Because I didn't know if I'd

ever get back to Israel. And I went to journal

that night and I sat down and I went to write the

date, the date. Remember we didn't have the

itinerary of what day baptisms were going to be.

It would have been my wedding anniversary. It was

like God gave me a brand new start. Like, here's

your new life. I have wiped away the past and you

get to move forward.

That's just incredible the way the Lord works.

Oh, he does such amazing things.

He sure does. He sure does. So, Tamala, tell me

about a little bit about you, your ministry now

that's come out as a result of all of this, right?

Yes. So it's very exciting. I actually, in the

midst of my hard days, I started seeking the Lord

wherever I could. But one of the things that I

started doing was I'd send my friend, like little

things that I read that were encouragements.

Well, eventually this led to writing devotions.

And I can't tell you that I ever sat down and

decided I was going to start writing a devotion.

It just started happening. And then I started

sharing it with more people and then more people.

And pretty soon I'm sending these texts out to

like 100 people a day. And one day my aunt, who

is a very strong Christian, said to me, you need

to publish. I was like, are you crazy? I am a

nurse. I am not a writer. But isn't that what God

does? He takes you, like completely out of what

you're trained in so that you know that it is his

hand on things. So the first book that I released

a couple years ago is a 30 day devotional college

called Starting the Journey. And the intent of it

is a three day, a three book series. And so it's

Starting the Journey. The next one that I'm

working on right now is Continuing the Journey,

which is a 90 day devotional. And then the third

one will be a 365 because I have enough devotions

for all of it that I primitively wrote over the

years. But God really laid on my heart a

different book that he wanted me to write before

I finished the devotional series. And so in

September, I released a book that is called

Overcoming When It Hurts. And you know, hurt is

one of those things that all of us experience in

our lives. Certainly there's people that have

hurt to much greater extents than others. But one

of the fallacies in our world is that sometimes

we think that when we become a Christian that

we're not going to have hurt and pain. We think

that if we just follow the Lord that nothing is

going to hurt. And that is just not true. And so

I take a look at six people in the Bible who have

suffered and had pain and how their lives have

changed as a result of it. How they found the

Lord in their hurt and pain and then how we can

apply that to our, our lives. So I look at

Hannah. Hannah's my girl. I mean, when you cry so

hard, that gut wrenching cry like Eli thought he

was Dr. She was drunk, she was crying so hard. I

think all of us have had that moment at one time

in our lives. And so it's overcoming or it's,

it's when it hurts. And you don't understand why

It's Joseph when it hurts. And it wasn't supposed

to because Joseph was born with this promise. He

was going to be spent. He wasn't expected to have

all this hurt and pain in his life. And then it's

Job when it hurts. And it's almost more than you

can bear because God never gives us more than we

can bear. But sometimes we feel like we're really

close to that edge. And then it's Paul when it

hurts and you've transformed your life and you're

stepping out in your faith and then it's Mary

when it hurts and you're obedient. And then it's

Jesus when it hurts. And you knew it would. Jesus

came knowing that it was going to hurt, knowing

that he was going to have the hurt and pain that

each of us will face. And yet he still came.

You know what? I am so encouraged listening to

you speak and as you're naming the titles and

you're going through all these characters in the

Bible, I'm just so touched that, you know, I can

see you've just been in the scriptures, you've

been a student of the scriptures. And you said

early on when we started, you said you felt seen

by the Lord. Lord, in, in all of your, your

heartache and your hardship and that, that really

comes through.

It is in giving that you receive and it is

pouring out that the blessings come. And I just.

Even in your darkest days, when it's hard to

give, if you are able to pour out and give a

little bit, it's amazing what God does in your

healing.

You're absolutely right. It's. It is incredible

that communion that you can share with him in

times like.

That, especially like it doesn't make sense when

you feel empty and you're supposed to pour out

that you end up filled up. It's. It's just so

amazing because it's when you're emptied out like

that that God can really move and you find him

using you in ways that you never expected.

And you're beaming as you speak, Tama, and, you

know, can really see the Lord's hand in your life.

Well, it has been and an absolutely fun journey,

and I cannot wait to see where he takes this. We

have some other things that are kind of in the

works yet. God is just blessing the Pursuing

Christ Ministries, and we are expanding our team

so that we can do more things. And so there's

just more good things to come.

That's great, Tamla. As you look back on your

journey so far, what is your one message or truth

about God that you hold on to most dearly and

our. Our listeners can take away?

So it was when I was in my dark days and I found

out about how much my ex was drinking, and I

started speaking with some counselors, and there

was a counselor that said something so simple,

and yet it was so incredibly profound. I remember

when he left, I thought, how do people get get

through this? Like, I know people who have had

really hard things in their life, but how do they

get through this? And this counselor said to me,

right now, it feels like this is never going to

end, but it will. And I think that's something so

important. When you turn to the Lord, you can be

assured that it is not going to last forever.

There is not a single place in scripture where

somebody's hurt and pain lasted forever. God

brought them through through when they saw Him.

When they seek him, he always brings you through.

He is faithful. He has promised that to us. He

keeps his promises. So regardless of what it

looks like, and it may look like in your

situation, like, there's no way that this is ever

going to work out. There's no way this is ever

going to end. There is no way. There is no way.

And on this earth, there may be no way, but when

there's God, there is always a way. And. And he

is so faithful.

Tam. I totally agree. And I think to add that he

will. He brings you through. It might not look

how you want it to, but where he brings you,

there is always contentment because he's brought

you through that.

Yeah, I mean, my prayer was to save my marriage.

My marriage did not get saved. But I do also see

how sick my ex has become and what God has spared

me from. And I didn't know that I was going to

end up in ministry.

I love your story. Thank you for sharing that and

sharing your heart and your journey with us. It's

been an honor.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it and I just

pray that it'll inspire somebody else. Especially

those that are in those hard days and struggling

to find where the Lord is and seeing him in their

lives. Just know when you can't see him, he's

still there.

How can our listeners reach out to.

You so you can message us through

pursuingchristministries.org I also have a

speaking website that is Tamala May T A M A L A M

A Y.com My books are under my pen name Tamala May

and they're available on Amazon.

Great. Those links are on the show Notes. Thank

you again. Really appreciate you being here.

Thank you so much. I appreciate this.

For everyone listening, thanks for tuning in

today. I hope Tamila's story has inspired you as

well to seek God more intentionally, hold on to

your convictions and embrace the unique path that

he leading you on. Remember, no matter the

challenge, there's always a way forward. So until

next time. Bye for now.

And just like that, we have reached the end of

another fascinating conversation. Now remember to

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