Listen to Denise Venturini-South and Jacob Barr talk about hope and life in Ukraine based on Isaiah 54.
Summary
This is Jacob Barr, and on the Pro-Life Team Podcast, I had the privilege of speaking with Denise Venturini-South, founder of the Isaiah 54 ministry. Denise shared her journey of finding hope in God’s word during a challenging time in her life as a single mother facing foreclosure. Inspired by Isaiah 54, she developed a curriculum to help women in desolate situations find hope. Denise’s ministry extends to the homeless in South Jersey and women and children in Ukraine, particularly affected by the war.
Denise narrated her recent trip to Ukraine, where she spread the Isaiah 54 message across various locations, adapting her approach to meet the immediate needs of the people, whether it was providing food or sharing words of hope. She emphasized the importance of recognizing God’s mercies, even in difficult circumstances like war, and encouraging people to see these as opportunities for a new start in God.
Reflecting on specific verses from Isaiah 54, Denise discussed the concept of barrenness and desolation, offering a perspective of hope and future prosperity despite current hardships. She highlighted the power given to believers through God’s promises and encouraged sharing this message of hope with others.
Denise’s insights are valuable for pregnancy clinic directors working with women in challenging situations, emphasizing the importance of offering hope and the possibility of a new beginning in God. Her experience in Ukraine showcased the transformative power of faith and hope in the midst of despair.
Her concluding prayer encapsulated the essence of her ministry and the podcast’s message: God’s relentless pursuit of bringing people into His family, and the privilege of being part of His work, be it in Ukraine or in one’s neighborhood.
### Hashtags:
#Isaiah54Ministry, #HopeInDesolation, #FaithInAction, #UkraineMission, #SpiritualEmpowerment, #GodsMercy, #NewBeginnings, #ProLifePodcast, #TransformativeFaith, #ChristianOutreach
Transcript
The transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.
Denise Venturini-South :
Hello, thank you for joining us this podcast for pro-life and we are here tonight to discuss this amazing ministry of Isaiah 54 how God is using His word to offer hope in through His word to those who are desolate. And we just invite you to listen to this podcast and then to be praying for the people in it, and to be praying for us as we continue to serve the Lord.
Jacob Barr :
So Denise, I’m excited to have you on the pro-life Team Podcast. Would you introduce yourself as if you were talking to a group of pregnancy clinic executive directors and how you might introduce yourself to a group such as that?
Denise Venturini-South :
Thank you, Jacob, for having me. So my name is Denise Venturini South. I am the founder of the Isaiah 54 ministry, which is a ministry designed to share the hope that’s in God’s word through the Isaiah 54 chapter, and it is specifically designed for women and children that may find themselves in a desperate, desolate situation. I’m also a chaplain for women and children through a ministry here that I’m involved with it with the homeless population in the area where I live in South Jersey. And so working with women that are homeless in Ukraine as well as the homeless here, just really kind of fits in,
Jacob Barr :
Yeah so I’m glad. I’m glad you’re here to Share your story You were telling me earlier about your trip to Ukraine can you, can you tell us, you know, tell us about that trip and what you experienced through that?
Denise Venturini-South :
So the Isaiah 54 ministry is actually a ministry that the Lord gave to me during a time in my life when I was very when I was very low and very distraught because of my situation, my personal family situation being a single mom with having five small children under 12 found myself having to do it all by myself and it was very difficult. And there was a time when I was facing foreclosure and I was so desperate I just cried out to God and said there is no way that I can do this god, i need help. And i went to bed sobbing and just hopeless and the Lord woke me up and whispered in my ear isaiah 54 and I was a new believer at the time and although I was studying the Bible with a group of ladies, Isaiah is not necessarily the book in the Bible that you read, you know, right away. So it was strange to me and i got up and I went to my Bible and I started to read and the first verse of Isaiah 54 said that more are the children of the desolate than that of the married woman. And I immediately knew that God heard my crot. I immediately knew that he heard me and that he was answering me. So for the next two years I just devoured the Chapter 54 of Isaiah. I read it, I studied it, I cross referenced it. What and what I was actually doing was creating a curriculum that I was now able to offer to other women that also might find themselves in a desolate situation, which I did here in South Jersey where I live i was working with youth group with the women’s ministries, sharing this message of hope and then I got involved in an in a my current ministry here working with the homeless and I kind of set aside the Isaiah 54 ministry for a while. But in 2022 early part of 2022 the Lord just started to probe me and prompt me to get this back, to start opening it up and working it again and i really didn’t understand where I said do you want me to do it here in Cape May County again or. But anyway, I just opened it up and I started to reread it i was reading it again in my Bible And then the war broke out in Ukraine and I immediately knew that that’s where God wanted. He wanted me to take this message to the women and children in Ukraine. So I began to pray about how to do that. I began to pray about an open door because obviously you just can’t walk into Ukraine now. So I met with some leaders of the Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Church in the United States. They are a large union from east to West, north to South in the US. They have over 2000 churches in their union, And I was able to meet with some of the leaders at a Ukrainian prayer breakfast in Washington DC And I met with them and I shared with them the burden that God put on my heart. And we met again another time after that breakfast meeting in Washington. And lo and behold, they invited me to go to Ukraine with them and they bought me a ticket and they planned an itinerary for me to travel through Ukraine. And we traveled through, as I said, all of Ukraine from east to West, I’m sorry, from West to east. And even we went a little bit North and South and I visited 13 locations and was able to share the Isaiah 54 message with the women and children in those locations.
Jacob Barr :
Wow. So what is your. Yeah, tell us what that was like to share the Isaiah 54 mission with people there in Ukraine.
Denise Venturini-South :
It was an honor because the Lord put it on my heart, so I was confident that it was going to be successful and success is not calculated in monetary, you know, numbers or anything like success is that people were listening, people were hearing, they were making the connection. I met with a group of widows in a small a small town outside of Kiev and run by a chaplain, a former Air Force, Ukrainian Air Force commander. He is retired and he is a chaplain. And his ministry is to take care of widows and orphans. I met with 130 of them and in a small meeting room, and I was able to share the Isaiah 54 message with them. And they were just overwhelmed with joy, knowing that God does hear them, that God does see them. And the promises that Isaiah 54 holds, that He will teach all of their children that they will not be ashamed of their past, that they will not be burdened by their past that they will overcome the promises that are in Isaiah 54 for the desolate are just so overwhelmingly joyful. And they just ate it up it was wonderful.
Jacob Barr :
So would you like to read a portion or all of Isaiah 54 maybe in or maybe read a portion and then reflect on it that might be an interesting way to explore how this is impacted impacted you and how you have brought this impact to others.
Denise Venturini-South :
Yes, I certainly can, and I will use the Bible that I read from when the Lord gave me the first message. It’s pretty tear stained, so, but it is certainly very precious to me. Yeah so i have all the dates in my Bible of every time that I read. I went back to Isaiah 54 and I read from it, but i will begin. So Isaiah 54 verse one, sing, oh Baron, you who have not borne and break forth into singing and cry aloud you who have not labored for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman, says the Lord. He goes on to say, Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwelling, and do not spare lengthen your cord and strengthen your stake, For you shall explain to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nation, and make the desolate cities inhabit.
Jacob Barr :
So Denise, can we go back to that?
Denise Venturini-South :
This was first.
Jacob Barr :
One where you said because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband. Can you expand on what you found that demean? Who is the desolate woman yes.
Denise Venturini-South :
So we know in context. We know in context that this was written for the Jewish people that were sent out into exile. But how we can apply it to our life is that the children of the married are the children that are that are connected to God. The desolate are those who are outside of God’s family. But God is saying here that I’m bringing you in. I’m offering you this opportunity to come in to become a part of the family, and I’m making a way to do that through this war. This war is opening up a door of opportunity for all of those who hear his message to come in to become a part of the family. But we need to give that message we need to offer that, provide that invitation. And the women that heard this message responded immediately to the to the call of salvation. So they have this very deep history of Orthodox coming out of Orthodox Christianity. And a lot of them are steeped even though they may not be practicing it, they’re very steeped in it. So sometimes that that’s a hindrance to them to step out in faith and to receive something different. But i was just overwhelmed with joy to see how the Lord used this message, you know, to bring people to himself.
Jacob Barr :
So what about the barren woman? It starts off seeing barren woman, you who never bore a child. Is it? Is the woman who is desolate is she is she someone outside the church who’s had children or is it referring to women who may not have had children? Maybe that desolate is different than barren.
Denise Venturini-South :
So the word boring, the word Baron here actually in the Hebrew does mean women that have not had children. So this is women that not had any children. So what the Lord is saying is the women who have not had any children because being barren back in this day in Isaiah’s time was shameful. They you know it brought a very negative stigma that you might have done something or you were sinful or God didn’t love you or your family. So it was not a good position to be in. But what God is saying is you who are barren and have not borne, you should be singing because more are the children of the desolate. The desolate are women that have children and yet have no future. We can take it as those who are outside of the church, but in contextually he’s saying that it is because of the women that have children but they have no future they’re desolate. More of more are they than the women that have children and are married.
Jacob Barr :
It sounds like so a desolate woman would probably be someone who is essentially living without hope. And then the married woman probably has hope because of a foundation and structure to for their for her children to essentially have a pathway towards Jesus perhaps it sounds like that. Yeah it’s like being with hope versus without hope. I was listening to a podcast by Jordan Peterson this last week and he was talking about how when he was very young and broke, he did not feel like he was in poverty because he had hope. And he also knew people that had just as little money as he did or no money and they did not have hope and he felt like they were actually in poverty because poverty wasn’t a monetary state, it was more of a state towards looking towards the future he didn’t feel like he was in poverty because he had great hope for where he was able to go into the future and I feel like that really resonates here. Being without hope is can change everything compared to being with hope and having children in one circumstance with hope can be very can be wonderful naturally and then without hope can be very overwhelming and sad and yeah, it seems like yeah, I feel like yeah and then the barren woman also feels like there’s a lack of hope based on how the culture may have been treating barren women. And so it feels like there’s like this called calling a call to speak hope into the hopeless here and comparing it to those who have hope almost. Yeah absolutely.
Denise Venturini-South :
That’s why I knew when the Lord you know pierced my heart prompted me to go to Ukraine to bring this message of Isaiah 54 to the women and children in Ukraine. I just immediately said how do I do that god show me how to do that and he did he was very faithful he opened the door and i mean I had an escort you know the pastors of the church escorted me into Ukraine so it was it was such a blessing.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, but change did you experience people having during those conversations? How would you know what was it like in the beginning, the middle and the end?
Denise Venturini-South :
Well, i I’d like to just isolate certain locations because each location was different. Different population of women and different circumstances. So there was a church in Poultova which is on the which is on the east side of the Di Nitro River very close to where the war the you know the action is happening. They are they are they were. They are a small church and the city actually gave the church a bank that had was closed because of the war. They received fourteen hundred women and children in one day and the group that I was traveling with which were it was 3-3 pastors and three pastors from America and one pastor from the from the union in Keith. So there were four and myself and when we arrived at the church they were so busy addressing the needs of the people. I immediately just jumped in and started. I got on the food line and just started to hand out food or whatever was there. I don’t even think they noticed who I was or that I was there. I was just another set of hands. But i immediately just began to sense that this is what God wanted me to do right now. He wanted me to hand out food, like these people were not in a place where they could hear anything right now. They just came from their homes most of them were without anything, just the clothes on their back and just needed water they needed something to eat, they needed clean clothing some of them were wet because it had rained and they walked so far. So they weren’t there to hear a message they were there. My place was just to give them food and to serve, which I was very happy to do. And we stayed there for about four hours and we continued to minister in that respect. In that way, the man who the pastors i were with, they also started to serve. They were, they were doing other unloading trucks and whatever. And then we left so I didn’t even have an opportunity to serve the women there with the Isaiah 54 ministry, but I was able to share in some way so each location was different, but each location gave me the opportunity to give hope, whether it was in the form of a meal that God sees you, God cares about you he’s providing this food for you. He’s giving you this warm place to sleep tonight, clean clothes or to be able to sit down and share a meal. And now let’s open the Bible and talk which is which is what I did with most of the locations.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, that’s beautiful how? Yeah, Serving God comes in so many creative forms based on what someone might need and.
Denise Venturini-South :
Yes, yes yeah so.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, tell me tell us more tell us another story.
Denise Venturini-South :
In Rule 5 it says, For your maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, and he is called the God of the whole earth. For the Lord has called you like a woman, forsaken and grieved in spirit like a youthful wife when you were refused, says God, For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercy I will gather you with a little wrath i hid my face, but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the Lord. So this is, this is the we hear the word mercy here. Often God is repeating that, and we need to recognize what are God’s mercies. They are they just when he gives us what we’re asking for? Or are the mercies that he’s taken us out of a lifestyle that is not pleasing to him, even though that may have come through war and He’s brought us now to a place of repentance is that God’s mercy? So I had the opportunity to understand that Ukraine, prior to the 2014 occupation, they were living a life very much like the Israelites we see in the Book of Judges, Where they knew what was right, they knew what was pleasing to God, but they did what was good in their own eyes. They ended up in trouble. God sent a deliverer. They stayed that way for a while and then they went right back to living the way they wanted to. And this had been Ukraine’s history for some time, not all of Ukraine, but the majority of it. And i was sharing a conversation with one of the pastors, not that came with us, but while I was with the with the breakfast team in Washington that some of the Ukrainian people expected this to happen because they not forsake God, forsook God but they started to live their own life and this war has given them the opportunity to it was God’s mercy because it’s given them the opportunity to repent and to turn back to the way that they know is pleasing to God to live. And that is why they are building in the midst of the war. So the war is all around them. Russia is dropping bombs and missiles all throughout Ukraine. But yet they are building because they know that God is going to deliver them from this. It it’s because they are repenting. They recognize what they how they lived, was displeasing to God. They are repenting and they know that God will deliver them. So that is a mercy as we see in those verses six seven and eight, that is a mercy that God is offering to them. It’s very important that we recognize that.
Jacob Barr :
It’s on your experience with these people and women in Ukraine. How might you provide insight for pregnancy clinic directors who are working to serve women and children and men and young families, mostly women in hard situations? You know, how might you draw insight or wisdom from what you’ve experienced that might be helpful to appraisal Clinic director working to serve women and the other family members in these hard situations.
Denise Venturini-South :
So my first encounter with the Ukrainian people started in Poland when the Lord put on my heart to go to Ukraine with the Isaiah 54 ministry. He allowed me to go to Poland first to Warsaw and to minister to actually there were thirty eight hundred women and children at a rest at a refugee center in Warsaw and I went there and I ministered to them through the Isaiah 54 ministry and after the time of conference it I broke it down into three days the material after that time of conference I continued to stay in Warsaw and I continued to minister at the center but I was doing more one-on-one with the women. So as they were sharing with me their stories, a lot of them were talking about their circumstances, that they are without their husbands, they are without their families, they’re without their fathers, their brothers most of the men have stayed back in Ukraine, and they don’t know if they’re alive they don’t know anything about them they’ve had no word from them. So they are in a very desperate place they’re in a foreign country. They are without family, without community, without direction. So bringing this message that God sees them, that God hears them, and that God is giving mercy to them by bringing them here with an opportunity to start their life new in Him, is just, yeah, it’s just like a breath of fresh air. So a lot of the women were pregnant when they fled Ukraine, and abortion was an option for them to relieve them from what they were told is a Now this is another burden you have. Some of them did succumb to that, but others who did not and made their way to the refugee center were met with pro-life services. So there was Nadia’s ministry, which is Save A Life International. And there was also other pro-life ministries there as well, reaching out to the women and the children that were there, giving them the hope that it’s going to be OK. But how is it going to be OK is not an easy answer because they Poland received so many people at one time. It was virtually, it was really impossible, you know, to fulfill that it’s going to be OK yeah, you’re going to be fed and you’re going to be clothed but beyond that there’s really not much we can do to offer you so having these pro-life services there, these women and men that were providing these services was so life saving for these people, giving them the opportunity to feel safe enough to go on with their pregnancy, to have the babies and just know that they they’re a blessing from God and God will help he’ll work it out.
Jacob Barr :
It’s so rich when it comes to having that yeah. That fresh start or that fresh beginning in a new direction or that breath of fresh air and yeah essentially letting encouraging someone to let go of a hardship and take on a new direction it you know it’s probably yeah changes yeah probably is considered risky but yeah just the benefits of being able to.
Denise Venturini-South :
I tried to use the analogy of a diamond. So when you, when you mine for diamonds and you pull them out of the ground, they’re really quite ugly they’re just rocks and they’re rough and they’re jagged and they’re brown and black and they’re not very attractive. And then they get this rock and they put it in a tumbler Well, a large machine. And I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m getting that. And they bounce it around until all of those rough edges fall off. And then they take the rock and they put it into another machine and that machine again tumbles them by a little bit more gently. And then again the process continues until finally, after quite some time, the diamond that as we know as a diamond appears shiny and beautiful and sparkling and clear. And i just try to tell them that you know this right now, Your life right now is at the first stage you’re that rock, you’re that rough rock that needs to get into that tumbler and that tumbler might be the war that tumbler might, be you know, being at the refugee center or being without hope, but stay in the tumbler because you’re going to keep going into the next one and the next one. And that’s the Isaiah 54 ministry is what it’s like a pathway that leads you through each one of those stages. So I’d like to just to go back and reference from verse nine. It says, for this is like the waters of Noah. For I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth. And so I have sworn that I would not be angry with you or rebuke you any more. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed. But my kindness will not depart from you. My covenant of peace will not be removed, says the Lord who has mercy on you. And then he goes on to say, Oh, you afflicted one you who is tossed with Tempest and not comforted. Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems. I will lay your foundation with sapphires. I will make your walls like rubies. I’m sorry. I will make your pinnacles like rubies, and your gates of crystal, and all your walls will be of precious stones. And here, verse 13, All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. And that was the verse I accentuated when I was talking to a woman who was in a crisis pregnancy, who was maybe faced with the opportunity of choosing abortion or choosing something else, even that this is what the God says, that great is the peace of your children. And i just pray that they would accept that as truth.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah make. I like the diamond analogy even more because it feels like he was talking about all these, yeah, these jewels and making things out of jewels and, you know, out of the storm.
Denise Venturini-South :
Yes, yes yeah, absolutely.
Jacob Barr :
Wow well, this is, you know what a delight this to reflect on how God’s Word speaks to, speaks hope Into Darkness or speaks hope into difficult situations.
Denise Venturini-South :
Yes, yes.
Jacob Barr :
Well, yeah.
Denise Venturini-South :
Well, i visited another location and I visited another location in Laviz which is actually we are working to create the life station there. They’ve just received another 55 refugees right out of Bach mood and they are also taking on a lot of older people that. So the older people were not able to make the trip across Ukraine when the refugees first started to leave. They chose to stay and they’ve been living, you know, with the bombs falling on their head all this time. But now we know that in the Donansk region where Bakmoud is, there’s nothing left, nothing, there’s just the dirt on the ground. And most of them had to leave but Ukraine was able to transport them more easily, so it was less difficult for them being old to leave they had ambulances and they had larger vehicles that they were able to transport the people to safety. And a lot of them went as far West as Laviv or Loosk or some other areas there on the border of Poland. And so I was ministering to the older women who were there and they actually were encouraging me because I was, I think I was just tired by the end of the trip and I started to become weary and they were encouraging me. I remember one older woman now I don’t speak Ukrainian or Russian, so there was either an interpreter or we were just understanding each other through, you know, motions and she took my face in her hands and she said to me, everything’s going to be OK God is with us and I said yes, That is the whole message of Isaiah 54 that God is with us and that God loves us and he’s not going to leave us. And he understands our trial, our burden. And we can apply this now specifically to, you know, women in pregnancy, you know, crisis that God is with us from the beginning he’s there with you. He made that precious baby and he’s there with you. And he’s going to stay with you through the process and he’s going to give you a hope and a future you and your child and your family and this is the promise that he gives us in Isaiah 54 so the end of Isaiah 54 it even empowers us now. So now God is saying not only am I going to remember you, not only am I going to give you mercy or this situation is actually mercy. And not only am I going to rebuild you, but now I’m going to give you power. And we know that we’ve been given authority, right the same authority that God gave Jesus is the same authority that Jesus gives believers. So now after we’ve established that they are born again believers, this is wonderful news to share with the people is that in righteousness you shall be established, and you shall be far from oppression, and you shall not fear, and from terror it shall not come near you. Indeed they shall assemble, but not because of me. And whoever assembles against you shall fall. Behold, I have created the blacksmith, who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth an instrument for his work, But no weapon forged against you shall prosper. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord power. So the whole message from just verse one through you know through verse 18 is just, yeah, it’s just an amazing story how God has this whole thing planned so as you.
Jacob Barr :
Reflect on those final verses. How does that what is your thoughts on spiritual warfare and these weapons that are being described what are your thoughts on that?
Denise Venturini-South :
So my thought is that, you know, my first, my first was to share hope with the women and to offer them the invitation to come into the family of God. Not to be lost anymore, walking out in the wilderness, but to come in. And then after you’re in just to receive all the promises that God has and to allow yourself to be put through that tumbler, to take off all those rough edges. And now he promises what he’s going to do for us and for our children, to make us prosper. Then he gives us the power. And that power now is to be able to stand even in the midst of the war, and to recover and to and to carry on the message of hope to other people, which is what the Lord wants us to make disciples. And I told all the women that I ministered to i most of them i, if I had the opportunity, was take this message of hope now and share it with someone else. Don’t keep it for yourself. Share it with someone else. Even the little children there’s a there’s a children’s ministry that comes along with it. So for the girls, I usually give them the story, share the story of Esther and how God used Esther, who was probably a very happy child, and then her life turned upside down and she was taken into captivity. But it was for a reason, and for the children to try to understand that God has a reason for their captivity as well. And then for the young boys i talked to them about David, how David was chosen as a child to become king, and how David went through trials and he went through a period of being isolated, having to live in the wilderness, even having to hide in caves and to be abandoned by his family and his friends. And then yet God delivered him from them all and not only did He delivered them, but he raised them up to be leaders and just to try to give them that sense that God is with them and he’s going to build something new inside of them through this war. So this was all very important, you know, not only for the women, but for the children to also walk away with this knowledge.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, it’s just God’s remarkable story just provides hope even when things are feeling overwhelming, that’s when hope is Yeah, it changes the outlook, you know, having that hope and absolutely and I and I.
Denise Venturini-South :
Truly believe it.
Jacob Barr :
Did that one of the beautiful things about well the end of the Bible and relevant. Yeah revelation is that ultimately Jesus wins out over sin in every imaginable way and so yeah we know how the story ends And so even though it feels like sometimes we’re way behind or the like you know things are stacked against us ultimately Jesus wins and we and that’s where that you know that’s one of the foundations I think for having hope even in even when things don’t logically makes sense or things are really hard, there’s always hope to be found and God is present and it’s also part of that hope is that God is with us even in the hard times.
Denise Venturini-South :
Oh, he showed up in amazing ways. All throughout, all of the trips that I took, the one into Ukraine and the one to Poland. God showed up in amazing ways all the time. So i tried to point out about those times and ways to the people. There was a young woman who she was 22 and while I was having the conference at the refugee center in Poland, I would spend time walking through the floors of the refugee center inviting the women to come to the to the meeting. And now they’re sleeping on cuts and they’re all. In one large stadium room so there could be hundreds of people there. And so I’m walking between the cots and I’m just handing out a little brochure that I had someone write in Ukrainian or actually they speak Russian, most of the people and you know, just inviting them to the ministry and there was this young girl like 20. I found out she was 22 and she was crying and she said, oh, she said I’m she was on her phone and she says I’m trying to get back into school. She said I’m a medical school major and I’m going to lose my education. And she was so distraught about it. She said I’m trying to do school on my phone, like she got her phone and threw it on the bed. And she says, how can I go to school and do this work on my phone? And i just, I just said to her, God has a plan for you. He doesn’t want to harm you. He wants to help you. I said just surrender this time to him and allow him to make something beautiful of it. I said maybe God is redirecting you into another path or maybe he’s just telling you to hold on and wait a little bit. But I said it’ll be all right. So she didn’t come to the meeting that day. She came to the meeting the next day and she wasn’t crying. So we prayed for her the team of people that I was with, we prayed for her and I haven’t heard from her i don’t know what happened to most of the people, but I don’t have to know god knows.
Jacob Barr :
Well, thank you so much, Denise, for sharing your stories and just encouraging being an encouragement to those who get to hear these stories and really just giving all honor to God is this is. Yeah essentially we’re, you know, I feel like God’s fingerprints and this is really his story where we’re just reflecting how we have seen it or experienced it. Would you. Yeah would you do this the honor of just leading yeah we’ll be closing our podcast and our prayer and yeah, for those who are listening, they can be invited to join in this. Yeah these prayers that you might lift up here.
Denise Venturini-South :
Yeah, yes, I will. Father God, we just thank you and praise you for who you are, that you are a great God. You are all knowing, all present, all loving. And Lord, your greatest desire is for us to know you, for us to be a part of the family of God. So my prayer, Lord, is that you would accomplish that through whatever, whatever, avenue whatever circumstance that you choose, Lord, to draw us near to you that is the mercy that you give, that you will run after us and you will bring us in any way that you can. What a blessing. Lord, how much you love us so, Lord, I am grateful and thankful that you allow us to be a part of this work, whether it’s going to Ukraine or just going across the street, whether it’s giving a cup of cold water or whether it’s providing a meal or presenting a ministry. You invite us in to do the work and we thank you and praise you for that and we give you all the glory and honor until the great day when we see Jesus return, we say Amen and Amen.
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