When life changes in an instant, can God still use your story?

A breast cancer diagnosis can leave you wondering if life will ever feel normal again. If you've walked through loss, illness, disappointment, or a season where you can't see God's purpose, this conversation will remind you that your story isn't over. Barb Demorest shares how God met her in one of the hardest seasons of her life and transformed her pain into a ministry that's bringing hope to women around the world.

Meet Barb Demorest

Barb Demorest is the founder of Knitted Knockers, a nonprofit organization that provides free, hand-knit breast prosthetics to women recovering from mastectomies. After her own breast cancer journey, Barb discovered firsthand how a simple act of kindness restored her dignity and confidence. Today, Knitted Knockers has mobilized thousands of volunteers across the world to serve breast cancer survivors with compassion, practical support, and the love of Jesus.

In This Episode, You'll Discover…

• How God can bring purpose out of painful seasons you never would have chosen.
• What to do when you're asking, "Does God still have a plan for my life?"
• Why small acts of kindness can change someone's life forever.
• How serving others often becomes the pathway to your own healing.
• Why God loves using ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.

How This Episode Will Encourage You

If you've been wondering whether God can still use your life after heartbreak, disappointment, or suffering, this conversation is for you. Barb's story is a beautiful reminder that God doesn't waste our pain—and He often uses the very places we feel weakest to bring hope to someone else.

Resources + Links

• Knitted Knockers — knittedknockers.org

Books Mentioned:

• Yes, You! Bible Study by Willow Weston

Learn more about Collide: wecollide.net

Enjoy the episode? Please rate and review the Collide Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

So I whipped out that sock and I put this in my bra. Not a prosthetic bra. I put this beautiful knitted knocker in there, and I peeled off my jacket and I re engaged with life.

I walked out of that bathroom and Barb was back. It was Barb. Not Barb with breast cancer. It was Barb.

Welcome to the Collide Podcast. We're a growing community of everyday chicks colliding with Jesus in our mess, our pain, our joy, and our stories.

We value showing up as we truly are, so that's what you'll find here. Walls and masks being torn down so that we can allow Jesus to meet us where we truly are and hear about other women doing the same.

We can't wait to collide with you.

Hey, guys, this is Willow, and I'm so excited that we get to bring you this podcast. We've been dreaming about this for quite some time, and we've heard from many of you that you've been dreaming about it as well.

We are new at this, and we've been learning a ton, and so we're gonna come out of the gate asking for a little bit of grace for our sound issues. The first few podcasts that we've recorded, we've realized aren't as best as they could be, and we've already made some changes.

So we just ask that you would give us grace and know that we have way better sound. Coming to you in a few more recordings. So thanks for joining us. We can't wait to collide with you. Welcome to the We Collide Podcast.

I'm Willow Weston, the founder and director, and I'm so excited today to interview an inspiring woman that you guys will all grow to love. She has an amazing story of allowing God to use her pain to bless others.

Others.

Barb Demorest is the founder of Knitted Knockers, a nonprofit that makes soft, comfortable, knit prosthetics for breast cancer survivors. And, Barb, I'm so excited to hang out with you today and hear your story because your story has inspired me and so many others.

So welcome to our podcast.

Oh, Willow, the pleasure is mine.

I am just really, really excited to be able to share not only about knitted knockers, but the God story, the God aspect of how he took just such a simple idea to show his love and caring to not only me, but to many, many others. And so it's exciting to be able to share about what he. He can do.

Yeah, that's awesome. I'm so excited for people to hear your story.

You have Shared with me before that, maybe seven or eight years ago, you prayed a pretty prolific prayer that you feel like God answered in an unexpected way. Can you share with us what that prayer was?

Sure. It was just so people don't have to do the math. I'm going to tell them right now. I'm 67 years old.

Spring chicken.

Yes. Right, Right.

So it was about eight years ago when I was getting asked the question at work, when are you going to retire and what are you going to do? And I was like, retire? I don't know what I would do without work. And my kids are grown and. And my husband's still working.

I mean, I was just kind of at a loss, but I was also feeling empty spiritually. I was just feeling pretty dull. And so I prayed to God and I said, God, what do you have for me for this next season of life?

Show me my purpose and give me a passion. Surely you have something for me. And it was. It was that prayer that was life changing, I must say.

So what happened shortly after praying that prayer?

Well, it was seven years ago when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, I never expected that that would be the answer to that prayer. And just to make it clear, I do not believe God gave me breast cancer. But.

But I do believe strongly that he can use every circumstance in our life.

And through that experience with hearing those awful words that I have breast cancer, so much beauty and joy came into my life and passion and purpose. It's just still just stunning to me.

You described that moment where you heard these words that no woman wants to hear, that you have cancer. Can you tell us what that was like in that moment to hear those words?

Well, just a little funny aside to that, where I actually heard those words was walking through the grocery store and my phone rang, and the doctor said to me that it is malignant and that they would refer me to a surgeon. And I was stunned because up to that point, I felt like, oh, it'll be fine. It'll just be fine.

So for me, it was stunning because I've always been healthy. But the worst part for me was the fear, the fear of losing my hair, having to have a mastectomy.

I was hopeful that those wouldn't happen due to complications and such. I mean, I did have to have a mastectomy, and I still. Still thought it would be okay because I could be immediately reconstructed.

But that didn't happen due to complications. Still, I was still okay with it until I made a phone call. And this phone call was to the Local cancer support group.

And the voice on the other end of the line when I asked, what can I put on this phone? What can I wear to get back to life to look normal after my mastectomy?

And that voice said to me, oh, honey, I am so sorry, but you can't put anything on that scar for at least six weeks. For me, that was the low point. That was the point. First time that I cried through the whole thing.

I know it's different for everybody, but that was it. I wanted to get back to life. I wanted to appear normal. I. I did not want people to look at me differently and, and the averted glance.

And it was just, it was. That was the tough. That was the low point for me.

And you kind of describe in your story that it was at that point that the Lord collided with you.

And right smack dab in the midst of that feeling of wanting there to be some sort of relief or, or something that would make those glances go away, what happened?

Well, as part of this process, I was disappointed in myself that it affected me that much. I thought it shouldn't matter that much. Losing a breast shouldn't be that big of a deal. But when I looked in the mirror, what I saw was not pretty.

And so emotionally it was. It was challenging and difficult for me. It was later when I was in at my doctor's office and I was.

I picked up a brochure for the traditional breast prosthetics to figure out what I could do, what I could order.

And my doctor in the exam room, he saw me holding that brochure and he said to me, he said, you know, most women are not satisfied with that as a solution because the traditional breast prosthetics can be hot and heavy and sticky and they're very expensive. And I said to him, I said, well, what am I going to do? And this man, he said to me, he said, do you knit? And I was like, stunned.

I was like, well, yeah, why? And he said, well, I've never seen one, but I've heard there's such a thing as a knitted knocker. Now, this was God moment. In hindsight, it was.

God used this man, this male breast surgeon to bring this to my attention. And so he didn't have one to show me. He had never even seen one himself. So I went home and I called my dear friend Phyllis.

Now, Phyllis is an avid knitter. I knit. But I wasn't in any shape to knit one for myself at that point. And I said, phyllis, have you ever heard of a Knitted knocker.

And she said, no, but I'll find out. Now I'm going to step back a little bit. Phyllis and I had developed relationship through the years.

We met with a group of ladies that are in the same season of life. We invested in each other to learn and grow together as women. And so it was very natural for me to turn to my friends friend there at that point.

So Phyllis was all over it. She said, I'll find out.

Well, it was the next week when I ventured out into public for the first time and I went to church and I put on this loose fitting jacket and stuck a sock in my bra and I went to church and I was very self conscious. I just knew everybody was looking at me and I just wanted to melt into the background.

Well, here comes Phyllis tripping into church with a Victoria's Secret thing.

That's awesome.

And my friend Phyllis, she handed it to my husband and says, here, Denny, give this to Barb and don't look in the bag. So he found me and he gave that bag to me. And I knew right away what had to be in that bag.

So I went into the bathroom and into the bathroom stall and I took out the most beautiful knitted knocker. It was soft and it was light and it was beautiful and I could get a hug with it without feeling self conscious.

So I whipped out that sock and I put this in my bra, not a prosthetic bra. I put this beautiful knitted knocker in there and. And I peeled off my jacket and I reengaged with life.

I walked out of that bathroom and Barb was back. It was Barb. Not Barb with breast cancer. It was Barb. And that gift of dignity and comfort made by a caring friend literally changed my life.

So it was then that I went and I thought, we need to provide these to our doctor's offices.

That's amazing. That's amazing when you think about Phyllis, because it sounds like we all need more Phyllis's in our lives.

What would you say for those listening today was the profound thing that Phyllis did that impacted you in the midst of your pain?

She cared and she used what she had, her gift and talents to give me a very practical gift. We all know people going through trials in their life and we all want to help, but we go, how can I help? What can I do?

She did what she could, but she had also invested in me during her life. And so I would encourage anybody out there to take the time and the energy to invest in somebody else's life. You may think all I can do is knit.

Well, guess what? That gift of knitting from Phyllis changed my life for the better. And so we never know how those relationships are going to be used in the future.

So Phyllis gave me the gift of friendship. She gave me the gift of caring and love in a very practical way at a difficult time of my life. And I knew who to call.

Right.

How would I know who to call if I didn't know Phyllis, if I hadn't met her?

Yeah. So you're in church, you had a Victoria's Secret bag, and you put this knitted knocker inside your bra and marched out and was like you.

You describe yourself as Barb was back.

And that was the beginning of the Lord showing you what was next in your life, almost answering this prayer that you had prayed, what, a year prior or something like this?

Yes, it might have been six months prior that I started praying that prayer.

And I don't know that I recognized that as the answer at that point, but I knew instantaneously before I left church that day that, oh, my goodness, we need to provide these to the doctor's offices so that women that are going through this difficult time in their life can have these and take them home. And we could be Phyllis's for other people that may not have that friend that knows how to knit. So that was the start of. Of that.

That new passion and purpose in my life. God planted it right then. And I went back to my doctor's office, and I said, if we provide these to you, would you hand them out?

He said, we would love to do that. Absolutely love to do it. And I said, how many do you need?

And he said, well, there's 50,000 mastectomies a year done in the United States, and 90% of the women will wear a prosthetic, at least for a while.

And.

It's not only the women who have had mastectomies that can use these. He said, women that have had lumpectomies and radiation that can shrink a breast, there's going to be a huge demand. So I went back to Phyllis.

I said, phyllis, get knitting.

And what was her response?

She started knitting, and, you know, I think she's made over 600 of them now just herself.

Right.

But I also. I think it's amazing the way God uses these little, seemingly insignificant parts of our lives to weave this beautiful pattern.

It was a few years prior that I had joined a knitting club. I was just a casual knitter. My mom had taught me when I was young, but I Started going this knitting club at this local yarn shop on my day off.

And I loved meeting these ladies. They were not my church friends, they were not my bowling friends, they were not my family friends. It was a whole different world of ladies.

They really expanded my horizons. Maybe not all in the best way, but anyway, I had met these ladies. So fast forward these years later and I go, we need more knitters.

So I went back to that yarn shop and re engaged with those ladies. They're still there. I had not been there for a while and I said, I've had breast cancer. These are great. Would you help me make them?

And they were like, sure. So they started knitting them. And so we started out of my laundry room stuffing knockers and taking them to the doctor's office.

And then we realized this is too good to keep for just us. And so we expanded from there. So that's a whole nother story.

Barb, tell us, what has God done with your passion and how has he taken knitted knockers from that initial, you going back to Phyllis and you going to the knitting store and you're bringing these to your local doctor's office. What has God done since then to now? How would you describe this?

Well, it has been absolutely phenomenal. It's been way beyond any of my expectations.

In fact, if I'd probably seen the scope of this in the beginning, I would have been too afraid to go forward to it with it because I couldn't do it. It was bigger than me. What has happened. But that's what's so cool, is that, you know, God. Nothing's too big for God.

So at that time, we were providing to our local doctor's offices, several of them. We decided that this is really great.

And with 50,000 mastectomies done a year, there's this huge demand out there, but it's too much for any one group to do. So I thought we need to inspire, inspire and equip people to provide to their own communities.

And by doing that, we could perhaps meet the need out there. And so we created a website, knittedknockers.org and God provided this amazing video guy and this amazing web guy, which is a whole story.

If we have time for it later, maybe I'll share that. It's such a cool miracle.

But anyway, we created this great website, created some good videos on how to make great knitted knockers, and posted the the pattern for free. And we also at the same time set it up so women could order their free knitted knockers online.

They could choose their color, their size, whether they need single or a pair, and we would send them to them for free. Well, that can only be done because of the multitude of people providing these.

So we set out to really network these knitters from all over the country. All these yarn shops out there have little groups already, just like the one I had joined. And they love to do charity projects.

They'll make chemo caps or lap robes for hospice care, all kinds of preemie caps, all kinds of projects. So here was another one. So we reached out to all these different groups. Well, we were excited when we reached a million downloads of the pattern.

I mean.

A million downloads?

Yeah.

Before you keep going, you have to tell us how did that feel to go from receiving this news, having your friend knit? You won providing a few for a doctor's office. Now you have a million downloads.

Oh, it's just incredible. And. And that didn't happen overnight. But what God did is he started providing publicity and promotion. We didn't have any money. We're all volunteer.

And we wanted to send these out free because we felt like it was very important that women knew that they were receiving these as gift because people care. Not because we're trying to make money, not because it's a superior product.

Even though it is a superior product in many ways, many find them that to be that it's because we care. So we were offering these free. Well, we didn't have any money. We didn't have enough knitters. We didn't have any publicity.

We didn't have money to pay for that. How does all that happen? Well, I'll tell you how it happens. It's a God thing.

It was not long after we were up and running where women were ordering their knitted knockers and we were locally knitting, and we were getting groups going to knit around the country, and we were starting to give away maybe 200amonth. It was very exciting to do that. And we ended up. I got a call. I got a call from a radio station, and this guy said we would. We've heard about you.

And it was in Seattle. We're in Bellingham, Washington, and this was in Seattle, about 100 miles away.

And he says, once a month or so, we have a group that gets together of media people, and we like to share with them different things going on in the communities. And we were wondering if you'd like to come down and talk to us for about 30 minutes.

And I said, sure, because I have learned to walk through every window or door that opens And I've also learned to not fret about those that close. But this was one that opened. So, okay, never done a radio interview before. Never done this, but sure, I'll come down.

So I grabbed another girlfriend that was part of the same group as Phyllis. Her name's Linda. And I said, linda, would you come down with me? And she said, sure. And she's not a knitter or anything.

And on the way down to that meeting, she said to me, barb, do you have a PowerPoint? And I go, no. Well, what are you going to do? You're going to meet with all these media people and there's no PowerPoint?

Oh, no, I don't have a PowerPoint. And then when we walk in there, there's these big famous charities doing their presentations, and I'm the last one on the list, right?

So we're listening to these guys, and they're just beautiful presentations. And at the break, before we go on, Linda says, what do you want me to do? And I said, well, we've got all these little knitted knockers.

Let's put them out on the table. And we've got some brochures. So put those out there. Okay. So I got up there, and I had nothing except for God. And I just started talking.

The guys around that table were talking the TV stations, the magazines, the radio stations, all those. One guy, I remember, he leaned back in his chair and he just goes. And he throws his pencil like it doesn't get any better.

And as I just kept talking and these people reacted. When I was all done, Linda says to me, barb, don't ever get a. Don't ever get a PowerPoint. Don't ever. Because they weren't looking at the PowerPoint.

They were listening to what you were saying. And so God used that time. And they called me afterwards and they said, have you ever applied for the Seattle Seahawks Charity of the Month award?

And I go, no. What's that? And they said, well, we've admitted you for that. And I go, whoa, that's cool. We got it.

God gave us the promotion of being this charity of the month for an NFL football team.

Wow.

Little knitted knockers. How does that happen? You know, that's just such a huge God thing.

And so that came with a little bit of money, which was awesome, but it also came with all this amazing promotion. And as part of that, there were. Gosh, I forget. I think it was about 100 radio spots that went out all across the Northwest from that.

That's $10,000 worth of promo that we didn't pay for. It just went out from that. So that was the beginning of a whole bunch of God promotion things.

Since then, we've been on the Today show, we've been in People magazine, we've been 60 second docs has done a thing for us. Inside magazine has done stuff. Those things don't happen because Barb Demare has had breast cancer and is really good at attention.

Does those things happen because God's hand is on it? And so I have a lot to share on between there and here too.

Yes, a very important moment for knitted knockers was when I got a phone call from Dear Abby. Now she's the advice columnist in the newspaper.

And she said, we got a wonderful letter saying that we would do millions of women a great service if we would let them know about knitted knockers. By the way, over a million women living in the United States have had a mastectomy and not been reconstructed.

So that's a lot of women that could use these. So anyway, she said, if we run this letter, can you handle the volume that would come out of that? And I said, well, how much would you expect?

He says, well, we have 100 million readers. And I was like, 100 billion readers. I didn't know there were that many people that read the newspaper.

Me neither. Me neither.

But at that point, I thought, we have a network of about 5,000 knitters registered with us, making them.

And it was that morning when I got up, and we're west Coast. And of course, it started running first on the east coast three hours ahead of time.

And that morning I got up and I started looking at my email, and here were all these emails saying, I'm trying to access your website and have trouble, or I'm blah, blah, blah. So I look at my website, our website, and I go, oh, my gosh, it's slow. What's going on? So I called my web guy and I said, what's going on?

And he says, I don't know, but I'll check out. He says, oh, my gosh, you've been slammed. There's tons of requests coming up. It's bogging down. He said, I'll open up some more pipelines.

And then I called him at nine in the morning I said, I'm not getting any more email, it just stopped. And he says, I don't know, I'll check on it. Well, who knew that Gmail says you can limit you to 2,000 emails a day?

And we reached that at 9:00am oh, my God, the reach was huge. Now, once again, this is a God thing. Dear Abby, you just don't. She just doesn't call you out of the book.

She's never called me Barb, Abby, give me a call.

So anyway, I just was, like, stunned. And he says, the good news is we're not losing any of that information. It's. It's just that it's bottlenecked.

So out of that came the most traumatic, difficult part of this knitted knocker story. The journey we got had 10,000 orders come in from that. Well, we, at that time, we had a group of about 25 women that would meet locally and.

And we would stuff the knitted knockers that knitters from around the country would knit and send to us, and we would use those to fill those orders. Well, we were sending out maybe 200, 200amonth. All of a sudden we have 10,000 orders.

And it was like, oh, my goodness, how are we going to do this in a timely manner? And I'll never forget this one younger woman, she says to me, she says, barb, we can't do this. It's impossible. All you have is a bunch of old ladies.

We can't do this. And I thought at that point, I go, she's right. It's impossible. We can't do it. And I went home and I cried and I whined to my son.

My son's a pastor in California of a small church. I called him and I said, tom, I said, we can't do this. This is impossible. I'm in over my head. I don't know what to do.

And my son, he says to me, mom, God does his greatest work with nobody, using nothing. That's when he does his greatest work. Because that's the other thing this young woman had said, you have nobody.

And that's the word that I just, I have nobody. And God. And Tom said to me, God uses the nobodies. And it was at that time that he shared with me the story of Gideon.

So I went in my Bible and I looked it up again for myself and Gideon. As you probably recall, God chose Gideon to go in and do battle against the Midianite. Now, the Midianites were big, powerful, strong people.

And Gideon says, God, why would you choose me. I'm a nobody. I am the least of the least. And you know, why would you choose me? And I've only got 30,000 men.

And God says, you're right, you have too many, we only need 300. So he pared it down to 300 and then he says, now go in the strength you have. Am I not leading you?

And so I looked at that and I go, go in the strength you have. What strengths do I have? I have Crystal, whose husband has dementia.

She's got a hard life by her own admission, but she has a passion and a purpose beyond belief. And she answers the emails and she comes in every week and helps with all of her might. I have Sue.

Sue, who is a domestic violence retired domestic violence phone person who handles all of our phone stuff and talks about to people as they go through difficult times and want to share their story. I have Ann.

Ann is this 80 year old woman who didn't have any passion and purpose and was grieving just terrible when she came to us because she had lost her husband of so many years and now she's bright and cheerful as she's bringing her talents and skills to help others. And I went on and on and on on that list and I go, go in the strength you have. Yeah, we may be old, but God can still use us.

So we went forward with that and I stopped whining and I'll be doggone if in those three months we got 10,000 knitted knockers put out and out of. It wasn't easy. And it wasn't easy for Gideon either. After Gideon went and did battle on behalf of all these tribes of people, he still got rejected.

His people were his warriors were tired and they were hungry and they were thirsty and they went into the village and said, give us something to eat. And they go, nah, move on. They got tired, they got hungry, they got thirsty, they deserved something. But they were rejected and they moved on.

And you know what? It's not to say that we won't get tired and hungry and exhausted, but we keep on keeping on. And later on we receive criticism.

You never step out and do anything without somebody criticizing. And Gideon, he went to the next place and they said, well, we kind of are upset with you because you didn't invite us to be part of this project.

We would have come and fought with you. So we're not happy with you either. And so it's like, come on, you know what? But God is the one that got the glory for all of that.

And we got Tired, we got exhausted. But to God be the glory, we are so excited that today, now we give away a thousand knitted knockers every single month.

We have over 200 state suppliers around the country that provide these free to their own communities. We are in 30 international countries which. There's your segue to the Rwanda thing. But anyway, God has taken that to make us stronger.

We refined our systems and our processes. God brought great people to us and oh my gosh, I just get pumped. You talk about passion and purpose.

You got it, Barb, you got it.

When I think about this word go in the strength you have, I think about women listening today who feel like they want purpose, they want passion, and yet they don't feel like they have much strength. What do you want to say to them?

I want to say that if we open ourselves and ask that question, pray that prayer to God, he will answer it and nothing is too small.

One of the things that I have questioned through these years, these last seven years of doing knitted knockers, is why, God, why would you choose a simple thing like a breast prosthetic that's hand knit by women to bring this message to so many, to bring passion and purpose to the thousands that are making them, as well as this message of love and caring to women. Why would you care about a woman's breast that much? I mean, there's so many big things in this world.

I don't know that I actually know the answer to that, but I do know that God loves us so much that he does care about how we feel and he does know that we need to be needed. That's built into us. And I think we will search and feel empty until we find that purpose that we have.

And I think we're going to find it by reaching out to others. When it was no longer all about me, when I started looking out to others, is when my life changed for the better.

And I mentioned Ann when she came to us. She sat down and we didn't say a word while we were there, all laughing, having a good time, knitting and stuffing and everything.

She just sat there crocheting. And when she left, I followed her out and I said, ann, it was so nice to have you here today. I'm so glad you came.

And she looked at me and she said, I have been just grieving terrible since I lost my husband. And she says nothing has helped. I've tried grief counseling, I've tried support groups, but nothing has helped like this has.

Knowing I can still make a difference in somebody's Else life. Now what can she do? She can crochet a simple little thing that has brought her passion and purpose.

And you multiply that times the thousands out there and I don't know what you can do.

But if somebody had said to me years ago that my mom teaching me how to knit at 13 and those scarves that I had made would bring a passion and purpose in my life, that God could use that to change not only my life but many others, I would have poo pooed them. I just wouldn't have believed it. So I don't think we should rule out anything with God.

All things are possible and God uses the nobodies and the little things to make this huge difference.

Definitely. I mean, we just released, as you know, because your story is in it, our first Bible study called yes, you.

And the whole premise is this idea of women beginning to believe that God can use their lives to do amazing things. And in fact, it's what inspired us to invite you to come and share your story because we see God using you to do amazing things.

And I think women often struggle with, can God really use me? What gifts do I have? What's special about me? I feel weak, I feel insecure. I'm going through a hard time in my life.

I'm too old, I'm too young, all of these things.

And it is so cool to hear how God is using you and these women knitting these knitted knockers to then bless and share God's love with women who need it. And I'm curious because you're describing Ann, you're describing the sense of purpose that she's experiencing.

What are the stories coming in on the other end of the women who are getting these knitted knockers? What are they coming back to you guys with that is making you realize you truly are being used by God to bless you, these women.

Oh boy, am I ever glad you asked that. When we first started knitted knockers, my thought was we're going to provide this great physical product to people.

I had no idea that the impact that it would have emotionally on these women that were receiving it, the, the caring factor. When we, when a woman goes online and orders her knitted knocker, there's a section there that's called.

And what we found is that women started sharing their stories with us.

They started telling us about the struggles that they've had, the pain, the emotional scarring, the challenges that they've had with their mastectomies and going through this because we, as a medical profession, I think we handle that very well, the physical part of things. But sometimes that emotional impact is not cared for as much.

Maybe that's not the right word to use, but not as much follow up with a woman's emotional well being. But what we found is that they would share those stories, their pain and their suffering with us because they knew we cared.

Well, we have amazing volunteers.

I had mentioned who that's on the phones, willing to sit there and talk to somebody for 30 minutes as they share their, their grief and their struggles. Crystal, who I had mentioned, she will spend forever answering emails saying, you know, thank you for sharing your story with us and we care.

Our, our hundreds of state providers that are sending these knitted knockers to these women will include little notes about praying for you or hope this blesses you as it has blessed me and you know, or knowing that somebody cares. Some people put little bits of candy in with them. We hear stories all the time from these women that the Nittanaka was great.

But I tell you, that caring note, that message from a complete stranger is what really touched me. So it has opened up the avenue for a very tangible way of showing that we care and, and we love. And I believe that's why God has done this.

It's another way to show God's love.

That's amazing. Well, I could talk to you all day. I do want to end with one question to ask you.

I say all the time that Jesus collides with us in our brokenness and he uses us there too. And I love that God has done that in your life and with cancer. And he has taken that story and brought so much redemption with knitted knockers.

And I'm wondering if you were to encourage women who are listening right now in their kitchens and carpooling on their daily jog, what would you want to say to them as an encouragement when they find themselves doubting that God can use their lives to do amazing things, whether they're suffering or going through a hard season or struggling with doubt. What would you want to say to encourage them today?

I would like to tell them to not be discouraged, that God does have a plan and a purpose for them that is perfectly designed for them. And where they're at, it's not where they want to be, where they should be. Whatever we think we put on ourselves, God will use us where we're at.

And maybe they're in a season where God is preparing them for that next adventure. Just to be open for it though, and to, to look outwards, not look in so much.

I really think that we need to reach out to help others in order to fulfill that purpose in our lives. And I like my own son giving me advice. You know, mom, God uses the nobody.

If we could do it on our own, if we could do it ourselves, we don't need God. And it would be all about us. But it's not. It's about God and what he can do. And he can use us where we're at, and he will.

Yeah. That's amazing. If people want to connect with you, Barb, if they want to find out more about knitted knockers, where. Where do you want to send them?

Well, our website is set up really well to handle up to 10,000 people at one time. Just kidding. Knitted knockers.org on our website. We also have links on how to contact us. And we have a fantastic team.

And if you're listening, in Washington state or anywhere near Bellingham, we meet at our local yarn shop. We can get them connected there. And if you're anyplace else in the country, we probably have a group near you. And there's a directory on our website.

We have about over 500 groups that are meeting around the country.

That's amazing. Well, check it out, everybody. And, Barb, thank you so much for joining us.

We've had women over the years ask us as Kolide to start a podcast, and we've been dragging our feet, and we're finally doing it. And we knew that we wanted to have inspiring women with inspiring stories, and you were top on our list.

We are so excited to have you comment here, and I know that you inspired people today and will continue to, and so thank you.

Well, thank you. Love it.

For you guys listening, if you want to find Kolide, you can find us on Instagram at We Collide and on Facebook as Collide. You can also visit our [email protected] for resources, event information, a blog, and all sorts of other great things.

And also, if you want to read Barb's story more in our yes, you, Bible study, you can check that out at our website store on our website. We would love for you to walk through that study.

And we're hearing lots of stories from women whose lives are being impacted as they begin to believe that God can use them to do amazing things in this world. And he certainly can, because he is colliding with each one of us in our lives and wanting to do amazing things with our lives.

So keep colliding and we'll catch you next week.