3ABN Today - “Book and Personal Testimony” (TDY016083)

I want to spend my wanna spend [Music] lord [Music] hila hard on us then [Music] wanna spare and they people hello and welcome once again to 3abn today we're having a wonderful day here at 3abn and we hope that yours is even better just want to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your continued prayers and financial support of this ministry because it is the mending broken heart channel and we're just so grateful that God has given us this opportunity to work with you as our partners to reach out and touch the lost in the suffering around the world I want to share a scripture with you before I introduce my guest and it is in Revelation 12 and verse 11 and in this scripture the Bible says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony you know there is nothing more powerful than a personal testimony and it brings God so much glory the woman that I want to introduce to you now I met what 10 years ago maybe it was around 2003 2003 so wow that's been even longer Rachel William Smith and wait Rachel we're so glad that you're here we first met in Houston Texas and when I heard your story I was so blown away I told you you've got to write a book yeah you did but we're here today to talk about your story and how it brings glory to God and how it's how your story is affecting so many other people's life impacting their lives for the positive thank you so much for being here today thank you for having me I feel blessed to be here this morning well we are going to before we get into this testimony though we want to have a little music you like music I know so who we have with us today singing are Todd and Lisa Parrish and they're going to sing for us one more voice [Music] to the singing of the people [Music] or by many millions and now the Savior is a door I have also joined the sword [Music] to join [Music] [Applause] [Music] school here it's kiss-up for [Music] maybe just a few the song appraised but my just and with gratitude I'll worship Christ Mike wonderful and precious is his man [Music] to sing I see [Music] [Music] [Applause] wise to speak his good [Music] here's a call [Music] switch gears on [Music] well amen and amen we were just sitting here singing along with Lisa and Todd and we want to thank them so much for their dedication to the and for dedicating their gifts or the glory of God well if you joined us just a few moments late our special guest today is Rachel Williams Smith and boy has she got a story to tell just let's just go back and talk about your childhood you were brought up in a Christian home in a Seventh day Adventist Christian home but somewhere along the line something happened that instead of following and dependence upon the Lord there was a little tweak and they kind of got I'll just say there was almost like a detour it was a harder path let's put it that way tell us about growing up sure I think my my early life as in from 1 to about 5 was normal seventh-day Adventist growing up except my father was in the military so the first place I remember being is actually in Spain and then we came back to the Huntsville Alabama area and my brothers went to the elementary the Adventist elementary school there and I was looking forward to being able to go as well but my parents had been doing a lot of reading Bible spirit of prophecy health books and a lot of writings by people who were somewhat dissatisfied with the church and over time over the months that occurred Pat began passing after I've about the time I turned 6 I mean 5 a lot of changes began to come into our lives so the first thing was diet I think you know and we actually went to a better diet All Things Considered so we we were regular vegetarians we basically turned vegan I don't remember if that term was around back then but that's what we became and vegan means that you're eating no animal products whatsoever exactly gets rid of the eggs neoplastic and then we also let go of sugar and things like that so I had already developed a certain taste you know for how food should be so when we went from the white fluffy biscuits to the the whole wheat biscuits I didn't love that and we went from eggs to something that was supposed to replace like eggs I didn't think it was a replacement but I did it did it make me healthier because I used to get a lot of colds and flu you know stuff like that so I got maneuv my health so it was overall a good change and then the next thing well we're actually traveling a lot going from place to place visiting with other people who had probably you could say dissatisfaction with the church and just learning from them the next thing that I remember though I remember the travels but they were just what they were but the next thing was my address I remember mom came into my room one day and she said you know did you know that Jesus where is the dress did not address Jesus was a garment down to the foot and she said would you like to be like Jesus and so of course I mean I wanted to be I was six at this time of course I want to be like Jesus so I said yes and also that we were she showed me a quote we should wear a dresses two to three inches from the floor so that was the next thing and I actually have a picture of me at 6 with one of the first homemade long dresses that my mom did for me this quote was written back in the 1890s probably right exactly exactly so and well at first my mom sewed a border around whatever you know like an extension on whatever it clothes I had and I thought that looked really tacky and I told her that so she tried to apply rickrack around it and I said that doesn't work so she ended up making start making my clothes and I didn't know but from then until I was you know nearly 17 all my clothes were were the things she made pretty much but the next change is the one that really changed our lives and that was my father decided that we were not going he was not going to return my brother's to the elementary school and he wasn't gonna allow me to start school so instead he was gonna homeschool us and I remember he brought three little wooden desks and put them in the living room of our home we lived 1908 right rohde I still remember the dress and there we are the first day of school where I'm supposed to be at what was Ana night Elementary School at the time I'm supposed to be there and instead I'm sitting in my living room learning scriptures and passages from The Ellen White writings and I was so sad because I want to be with you know with other kids at school but the reason why that was a big change is because we ended up being reported someone reported us to the authorities and so was homeschooling not it was not like open yeah and this was prior to when you have all of these options for homeschooling joining with homeschool networks and all of that kind of thing the parents can do now this was not this before any of that was established so it wasn't structured it was kind of left up to your parents to try to decide what to do and what to teach it they began trying to use books as over the years that homeschooling happened we used books from the Mennonites they have there's a rod and staff publishers company back then and we also tried some books from Wildwood which is a self-supporting 7th Avenue School they had a school we use some of their books from them and that's what we started out with I remember that trying to do some of their program and then after a while of course as that time went on it was just kind of put a book in front of you and you're you read or try to do some of the work so it evolved over the time but at the time when the homeschooling happened what made it so significant is that we got someone reported us and the authorities came after us they threatened my parents to either put us back in school or they were gonna take us away and my father said no I have another option and he took us away out of society so that is what began our flight out of society as we would call it now you call it going off the grid yeah we first went to Arkansas we're there for time and then we ended up in Ardmore Tennessee just on the Tennessee side I believe or anyway right on the border of our Tennessee in Alabama stayed out there on farm and then we ended up we're there for I don't know close to a year did some homeschooling there with another family and then we ended up going to Monte Santo State Park in Huntsville Alabama and we lived there in a bus for a year yeah and so that was a very kind of nomadic life and then from there my parents bought 50 acres in Tennessee up on a hill and it was very isolated there was no electricity running water there was one Redditt road that led you in and so our indoor plumbing no indoor plumbing no media no we could just stop with no it was an old house and we eventually added a addition onto the house and but we stayed initially in our bus living in our bus it was a challenge getting the bus up on the hill Wood was able to do that and we're we're basically living as if it were in the 19th century because of how our lifestyle was set up we grew our food we made our own clothes we took care of all medical needs we had school at home and we had Church at home we tried to be as independent as possible so for a young child it may have been more difficult for your brothers actually because they knew a little bit more but how did did you feel content growing up did you feel that there had to be something more or did you feel isolated what were your feelings as a young child well when I was really small I think living in a bus when we were living in the state park and stuff to everyday I often was lonely you know maybe sometimes bored but I entertained myself very well I spent a lot of time in nature pursuing the micro things of nature like little ants and watching this you know birds and trees and my mom my mom kept us really busy with learning about nature and things like that so while I was lonely I usually wasn't bored and I knew and then when we moved out onto the hill as we called it I knew I felt the isolation but I don't think at that age by the time we moved out there I was nine and actually have a picture of me there when we first moved out about nine years old and I I to me it was the way life was even though I knew it wasn't normal life for other people it was normal life for us so in in many ways I mean you know some people are sitting here listening and thinking oh this is idyllic you know to think about you're living out in nature there there were a lot of good things yes you know we believe I know a lot of people who homeschool their children now and of course it has grown so much and in homeschooling can be very good yeah but for you all your parents took it to an extreme you were completely isolated from society yeah I I don't think that that was sometimes things evolved and I don't think that that was the intent necessarily but it there was the whole idea of separation from the world because it all came down to two things you know Jesus is coming there's a time of trouble preceding it we need to separate from the world and prepare for Jesus coming separation and preparation were the themes of what we did and so to the further out you move the more isolated you are the better because that separates you from worldly influence and then if the setting is rugged if the situation is harsh and I probably need to Mitch at some point some of the daily living conditions especially during the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter it was it could be very harsh but all of those things then become a matter of preparation for the time of trouble because when the time of trouble comes you're not going to have conveniences anyway you know so there was a logic to it it wasn't an intent to be extreme but rather the evolution of circumstances that can lead you there and I think that can that can happen with a lot of people except that for most people it probably happens more conceptually and not circumstantially not many people are are willing or able to make as clean and thorough a break as my parents did yes and in a sense I admire and respect that because they just went all out for what they believed it does and changed the fact that the extremeness of it has its own impact which is not good but at the same time you can understand the motive yes understand what the objective was what they were doing yeah now here's a question I hope it doesn't seem too personal it's okay with your parents did did they teach you to really have a personal intimate relationship with the Lord what was theirs one of total dependence upon the Lord or were they more the the type who laid down the rules that that you know making salvation and the interaction with God nothing more than rules which which way did they go I think that's an excellent question and I think it leads to a principle that a lot of people tend not to understand when we're dealing with balanced and imbalanced religion the fact of the matter is what you focus on and emphasize is more important than whatever you say is more important so yes we were encouraged to have a personal relationship with Christ I remember my father's favorite verse was If any man be in Christ he's a new creature old things are passed away behold all things have become new and he used to particularly he used to talk about having a personal relationship and my mother backed that up however on a daily basis what was emphasized and focused on was so rule-based so much about every detail of the law that the effect was you didn't focus on a personal relationship with Jesus you cannot emphasize and focus on two different things at the same time and our lifestyle was all about you know inches and by this time we were wearing bonnets I should mention everything was was and and just to give the illustration of what I'm saying about the rules first it started with first Corinthians 11 the way we read that interpreted that Paul actually speaks of it as a custom if you read through those verses at the end he kind of for those who don't know what first Corinthians 11 is yes first Corinthians 11 talks about a woman covering her hair when she prays a prophesize in public and and then of course the Bible says pray without ceasing so we combined those two verses basically a woman should always keep her hair covered in public but if you read that passage I think a dance around verse 10 or 11 from the one through about ten or eleven it emphasizes he kind of ends it with saying that it he doesn't there's no other custom he kind of ends the discussion with it putting it in the category of a custom but we took it as a law if it was written down it was a law so why upon it well we read a quote in one of the testimony volumes that says the small bonnet exposing the face and head show a lack of modesty we combine that with first Corinthians 11 then what we have to do is wear the large bonnet so we basically warp on it's like like our Amish or like the Mennonites where I'm Amish where the large ones not the little cap in the back of your head and it came from the way we would put scripture together interpret it and then all base it on if it says it and you do it very literal very absolute interpretation of the Bible and there's nothing wrong with interpreting the scripture literally but I think that we always have to allow a relationship with God a daily relationship with God to help us to understand how our daily lives should be worked out and what some of these things should end up being so well and you know it's it's interesting because imbalanced religion will focus in on a handful of scripture to the exclusion of others like where Christ said we are in the world but not of the world so you you can I can think of a dozen scriptures that would say okay this was not necessary to be so isolated away from the world and it I mean there's always when people are imbalanced they always have just that handful of pet Scripture that they're holding on to making rules that you said but what kind of effects do you feel that how old were you when you finally got off the hill let me ask that I was 16 and what brought you off of the hill so my father ended up leaving he left as in leaving the family as in right I found out just before he left that he was going he told me that he wouldn't be back I knew he was going he and my older brother were going to Houston Texas to build houses so I knew that into in that area but they were supposed to be gone for a few months in return because we needed funds it was you know we were poor and it was always a struggle to have money and to be able to make it so I knew he was going but it was just one of the normal you know slightly at that time becoming increasingly more normal for my father and brother to go find work come back but he told me he wasn't coming back and he didn't explain why it was I was shocked I was confused my mother did not know I knew she didn't know because she went over to you know kiss him goodbye and and then everything that rolled out after that maybe you know I could see the shock on her face the way he reacted to her the things he said and that's the first time she realized he wasn't coming back either people always ask me why and over the years we did stay in contact over the years he never explained that but he said enough he said he thought that we'd be okay and the way I understand it now it was probably a matter of Jesus didn't come because we had a very clear timeline in our house and you were doing some days we worked out there that picture you saw was me at about 9:00 and when we moved out there I remember being taught that Jesus was going to come within the next five years okay yeah we had clear dates so it was like what the people went through during the great disappointment is that your father made all of these radical Changez and he got out there and then it was like okay see that's the problem with date setting because in Bible's Jesus himself said no one knows the date or the L that even him only the Father in heaven true and we acknowledge that nobody knows the day or the hour but that doesn't mean you can't know the month or year yeah okay you know so we know relatively when he's coming as we wind up the prophecies as we look at the timeline we can interpret this and know that he's coming right within this timeframe might be off by two or three years but we know he's coming we don't know the day or the hour but we know and Jesus didn't come his children were getting older my father's children were getting older as and I and my brothers and I think at my older brother was 19 my oldest brother the other one was 18 I was 16 I think there was this sense of what next there was no plan B they actually went out all out with this and then what do you do now and I'm not sure how it hooked up with my father's inward thinking but what did what did your mother do because certainly without your father and your older brother you could not sustain that lifestyle right everything was so manual if I were to just detail the process of just you know being able to heat the house it's all of this work that involves you know gathering kindling and tearing up paper and chopping wood and leg fires in each of the rooms and you know same thing if I mentioned just simple thing like getting making being able to pour yourself a glass of soy milk you know the process was all manual everything you have to do you know soak the beans overnight grind them up milk out the the the milk from the the beans in a cheesecloth bag and water boil it on the stove but in order to do that you have to have lit a fire and gathered the wood and done all the things for that and then when you finish doing that and it finally you boil it and it finally cools then you can't just go put what's left over in the refrigerator because there's no refrigerator you know so you'd have to can it you know that kind of thing so there was everything was so manual and no we couldn't sustain this life without the help of my father and brothers so we actually wrote a lady who lived in Norton Washington and we asked if we could come out there she had been she was also in a lot of the reforms she had started wearing a bonnet too but she lived in a suburban neighborhood and so not knowing where else to go we have to go somewhere it's like can we just come there for a little bit and figure out what to do and she did yeah welcomed us she invited us to come so we ended up taking a Greyhound bus and traveling from Tennessee all the way out to our teen Washington it was like almost a three-day bus trip and where that must have been just a wake-up call just being around it while on the bus it was actually there was that I remember we had a six-hour layover in Chicago at night like we got there at midnight from midnight to 6:00 a.m. and this was the old bus terminal that they had in Chicago which was known for being a reputable place it was not a good place to be and I actually a number of things almost happened to me that night because I didn't know what I was facing I didn't know what I was dealing with I didn't know how to interpret the reactions and actions of people when we lived on the hill we would go you know into the community we would go to various churches and visit sometimes so we'd had that contact but it wasn't daily contact I didn't have friends I didn't grow up around a lot of people so a lot of social skills yeah were in being not just as far as being polite you know people usually when we think of social skills it is that's a matter of interpretation but it's not just about being polite and charming it's about discernment and knowing who to avoid and in being able to read people to some degree yes there was so much that happened I found out about some of it one lady on the bus actually befriended us and told me the next day how pickpocketer almost nabbed me I know there was a man that I realized I realized myself he was actually trying to get me to go down a certain hallway and I happen to notice just before I turn down that hall that there was nothing down that hall except a exit sign and a door and I realized you know he I could tell there was something wrong with this guy and so I escaped past him ran to the ladies room and stayed there until I could finally get away from him and go back to my mother and after that well when we left on the hill we did a lot of exploring we explored the woods and you know so exploring was something that I was used to so I was exploring the bus station but it wasn't the kind of place where you could just do that and do it safely so you actually not in the body that long dress like a billboard saying I'm his greatness so you end up at this woman's home in Washington yes how did you start going to school were you still homeschooled what was the transition when we arrived there I didn't know what I was going to do but one thing that had been happening in my life I had home school had kind of evolved into just being at home reading books even my brothers weren't weren't attending home school anymore and so I was just by myself and I couldn't learn so I had begun to really pray when I was I just want to back up for a moment and say when I was about 14 I did accept Jesus as my own personal individual Savior it doesn't mean that I wasn't confused by some of the legalistic black-and-white thinking I was but I did the Lord found a way to reach me and I surrendered my life to him and one of the things I began to do after that point there were things that happened that made me question sometimes are we really is this the way it's supposed to be do you everyone tell me something different God that kind of thing and so I began to pray to go to school two things I want to learn and I wanted a safe place to grow in my relationship with God and know for myself what he wanted me to do and I knew I couldn't change at home I couldn't alter anything and so I began to pray about that and so when I knew that we were leaving I said to myself I'm not coming back until I go to school I just knew God was answering my prayer I didn't know how but I knew he was answering my prayer so when we got there when she picked us up at the bus station I asked her in the car as soon as we got our luggage in the car I said to her do you know someplace where I could go to school and I was explaining that I couldn't go to a regular public school or even a regular Adventist Academy because the difference between me and regular kids was just too great but I said I heard of a school that is small and it's out in the country and they they work on a farm and they wear dresses and and I want to go to a place like that and she said well you left where those kind of places are there's one back in Tennessee I think it was cave springs or something that used to exist but at that time she said you left where those schools are there's nothing out here and I was like oh no god I thought you were answering my prayer you know I was but I just continued to pray lord please bless me there's a place to go and then she mentioned well there is someone there is a school in Canada she's I think it's called Mountain View and I think they're kind of like that and she said maybe there's a girl that I know that will come to prayer meeting on Wednesday night we can ask her about that so from that first Wednesday night after I arrived in Washington I was on I mean that's what I was trying to do was find out could I go to fountain view because I knew that had to be the place God prepared for me I knew it because I've been asking him and I knew he was answering my prayer there was just no other way I could have left home except for the circumstances and I couldn't have controlled the circumstances he did so I that he was opening the door for me to go to school so did you go to fountain yeah I just want to mention one thing though because you asked me about adjusting to the normal life the the first week or two I was there I didn't want to go out the house and talk about in this lady's house I didn't want to leave the house because it was strange walking out and other there's houses around and people could be looking out the window at me I mean just to be able to have somebody look at you and you didn't you didn't allow you didn't provide for that or you didn't allow it just as happy that seemed like a violation of privacy and everything else it was something I wasn't used to so I stayed in how in the indoors as much as possible and she finally pushed me out one day and told me go mow the lawn so then I'm trying to mow the lawn and I look up and I see a car coming and I fled I bolted and hid behind the house I mean just you know that's interesting cuz they never have heard that before and it makes so much sense that makes so much sense we could hear where we lived on the hill we could hear a car as much as two miles away approaching we and we knew from the sound of the car who it would be if it was someone that frequented the hill we knew who it was and if it was a stranger we knew I mean they couldn't just see us anyway from the road and if we were out sometimes we would be out exploring you know we would hide you know you don't allow yourself to be seen unless you choose to be so that's so to have this car just come driving by casually that was terrifying and I I ran and I hid and and then I of course I looked and I don't see any cars coming so I go back out go back to pushing the lawnmower this was early one Sunday morning and and I happened to glance over my shoulder and I saw I caught a glimpse of a car coming toward me from behind I ran and hit again behind the house came back out went back to mowing the lawn and I look up and here's another car coming and my impulse was to run but at that moment I realized I'll never get the lawn mowed if I keep running so I didn't and I call that my first real adjustment how long were you there before you went to school I I think it was just a month or two I don't remember it wasn't long weeks not not a long time I think it was just a matter of weeks it might have been four to six weeks and then I did get accepted to found view and I actually have a picture among the pictures I brought today I have a picture of me in my bonnet and long dress holding a Bible in my hand and growing up in the hill we didn't have a lot of pictures that was something we didn't you know photography all of that is like idolatry when you're looking when you taking pictures of people fortunately there were people who came up to visit us and they took pictures so you had so I have some this one I actually was the first picture I think I went and sought for because I had to have a picture for my application and there I am and I'm 16 going on 17 and I wanted to make sure they knew I was a Christian so I'm holding my five and I got accepted to fountain view so was when you were there was let me ask you this because I know a little bit about her when did you find I was teaching one Sun righteousness by faith let me go back up I was teaching unrighteousness by faith and I was telling people that as far as living a sanctified lifestyle you know I could put my hair back in a bun scrub my face and wear long skirts and I can say that because I always do wear long skirts you know I mean just by choice it's not this is not a statement of anything I just enjoy long skirts but I've told people you can clean yourself all up on the outside but if you don't have that personal relationship right that's not sanctification you know it's from the inside it's what God does yes and of course the writings to which you have referred date back to the 19th century and are to be taken or understood in that way I mean because they also said you're not to dress to set yourself out so far apart in other words when did it hit you how old were you when you finally started realizing that rules without relationship isn't what it was all about but that it was relationship it was depending on God how old are you well it was actually a step by step process for me to get there I was you know it wasn't that long ago a decade or so ago before I really understood the rules versus relationship oh wow but what I had to be what I needed to break free from a totally rule based thinking yes because when you have that mindset it's all about what is written to the you know we used to say to the lawn to the testimony if they speak not according to this word there is no light in them and that is true and every jot every tittle was what mattered to us if it said it it was black and white you do it and there was no degrees there was no degrees of anything it was all a matter of you know to take off my bonnet would be just as bad as to commit murder or jacked it morally or anything else there was no degree of anything and if you offend in one point you're guilty of all so that type of thinking made it so that unless I was living in that isolated lifestyle you know in a setting that was prepared for us to be able to function like this then you're giving up everything and how do you function when you have to leave an environment like that that's my you know and that's why I wanted to go to a place where I could at least possibly transition but I didn't know whether I could take off my bonnet or shorten my dress or do anything other than and we kept New Moon's in these days as well so here I am taking off time from school because it's the new moon or the feast day then I have to keep the Sabbath type thing so all of that was a mat on the table like do I give up anything God and it was actually the principal of that school she had gone through an experience a year before where she actually had shortened her dress to just below the Li the knee and allowed the girls at the school to do the same thing and she understood well my challenge was self righteousness and law based thinking and all that she was the one that was able to help me learn something new which was principals praise God and I had never understood that there are broad underlying truths that don't change even though laws and rules that govern every day can change with time and circumstance principles do not okay so we got it fast for it because I just noticed how much time we have you've written a book and I'm so glad that you have you've got your PhD now in communication yes you have written a book entitled born yesterday and the subtitle says the true story of a girl born in the 20th century but raised in the 19th why other than me telling you to do this what well for what purpose or what did you hope to achieve by writing the book that's an excellent question I think I knew for from probably that after I got to college and some time after that that I had an unusual story and I remember finally learning about Oprah Winfrey and and I thought wow this could you know if I wrote her about my life maybe I could get on his show I remember actually thinking that and then I realized it dawned I'm actually is about 30 it wasn't when I was in college was later on I was about 30 when it first occurred to me maybe I should write Oprah Winfrey see if I could get on a show and my motivation was I needed I was just trying to find some way to make some money you know at this point I was divorced you were married and divorced what age did you marry I was 24 when I married and was he also a did he have an imbalanced religion as well he had many challenges in his life related to imbalance he from my viewpoint he was not imbalanced because of how I grew up so anything was much more stable as normal than that but I think we all a lot of us struggle with sure extremes and and with things like that and so he had a lot of things that he was struggling with and I wasn't in a position to understand that to see that to help with that and and the marriage did not last I was married for three just four years on the book we were together for three and I ended up being a single mom with two children and when when I found myself sick oh I had a two and a half month old and a two and a half year old it was a rough time of life and all of the things that happen actually helped me to get to the place where eventually relationship based understanding was able to develop but it was through the pain and heartbreak of life that I began to finally learn because a law and a rule won't help you and even a principal won't fix this for you you have to a relationship with Jesus to get through let me ask you a question Rachel your book is filled with your story you're a great storyteller so these are it's your story of your life you share some principles and lessons along the way but you don't explicate those it's not like right it's it's true is that the reason why is because it wasn't the principles or it wasn't the the black and white that got you through but when you finally got to that point of knowing it's just a principle is that what helped first of all I wanted to one of the reasons why I wrote the book was realizing that there people have been wounded by bad religion extremely religion too much religious maybe they weren't taken in isolation and kept away from people and raised with some of the extremes that I was raised with but the ideological extremes can exist even in everyday normal life and I realized there are people that have been wounded with with religion in this way and some of them have on a relational personal basis turned away from God and I wanted in sharing my story for them to see be able to see the hand of God leading me through all of that back to his heart so that I could perceive his heart I can know his heart and I could be a living testimony of his goodness and of his grace so that was my motivation actually I was saying earlier that originally I wanted to just tell this novel story but then I couldn't answer the question as to why I had no answer for and then what after I told the story and I decided I would never do it until such time as I could answer that question and there was a greater purpose so finally over time as I developed a relationship a relationship based understanding and daily walk with the Lord it was through that he worked in my life to write this story and now I have a purpose that goes beyond just simply the novelty of sharing an unusual background did you find that it was more than cathartic but that it was empowering to write the story yes it was it was I really in a way that I couldn't have expected I had already dealt with an unusual background when I was writing my doctoral dissertation I found out that I could use it as a basis for research unbelievably and so I actually did a study on adjusting from isolated religious culture to the mainstream culture and that process I wrote a lot of the some of the narratives that ended up in my book in my dissertation and that process was very cathartic but what happened when I wrote my book was something I could not have expected it was something beyond catharsis and I'd already gone through that what I had always perceived about my life is that it was a collection of in individual unattached broken interrupted pieces and I actually was going to name the book originally something like the patchwork it wasn't sure it would be the patchwork quilt or patchwork stories and the original version of the book actually starts out saying that my life is a collection of unrelated pieces that's what I wrote it that's when I started out writing it was not until and as everyday as I would write I would ask God to please show me what to write and I would work through this process of weaving out one tale or another and it was a lot of individual pieces and then began to put it together with rough chronological you know order to it it was actually not until I was writing the last chapter that it all really began to come together and I realized that my life had a plot like it had been planned and that was amazing to me that was something I could not have predicted or anything and that was my surprise as I began to finish up this book and I actually had to go back and write about some low points and once I did that and I was almost to the last year I was at the last chapter but couldn't finish it and I had to go back a friend of mine encouraged me go back and write about some of the low points write about some of the things that I really would have preferred not to put in there but he told me you know what no one can appreciate that Joseph ascended to the palace unless they understand he came from the pit unless they know about the prison they can't understand you know the glory of him getting to the second command in Egypt and realized that something God had done I mean you've got to share what God has brought you from and the experiences in life that have happened that have hurt and disappointed and and where you've failed and if you do that God will bless you and his first blessing as soon as I did that as I went to finish the last chapter I mean it began to all fall together in my head and I realized that my life had a plot to it not just a collection of things that have okay so you have you're married you have two you have two children your first married yeah her husband has two - yes so you're the mother of four children yes you've actually worked and received your doctorate yes God has taken you to amazing places but you say in the book that the story continues what's happened to you since you wrote the book and the title of the book is born yesterday what's happened to you since Rachel well most recently about almost a year ago down in January I had a sudden onset of blindness and then challenges of walking and a slow recovery from that it turns out I have multiple sclerosis so bless you and as far as I'm concerned what that's about is teaching me that my strength I can't depend on it but God's strength is there his strength is made perfect in my weakness and that's what he's teaching me every day amen and I know that we're out of nearly out of times but I do know there's a lot more things going on so I think we can expect another wonderful book from you sometime in the near future what we'd like to do Rachel brought a trailer on her book we'd like to show that to you just now if my life were a movie no one would believe it [Music] when I was just six years old my parents began to separate from society as they followed their ever increasingly strict religious views we ended up living on 50 acres in Tennessee of an abandoned hilltop in an old house isolated from other people and without electricity running water television telephones when my brother was horribly burned in the gasoline fire we didn't take him to the hospital we handled all of our own problems at home I was home-schooled we grew our own food we made our own clothes and we lived in this way while we waited for the world to come to an end when I was 16 I found myself forced to live in a world that I was not prepared to live in I ran from passing cars when I was asked to mow a lawn I didn't know anything about shampoo and conditioner or how to style my hair when I finally took off the bonnet and I struggled with school and with regular social cultural norms and I didn't know a lot about guys so I ended up marrying the first man that I dated and when that was shattered on the rocks of divorce I with you heartache confusion pain and the wonderment if I had been abandoned by God but he never abandoned me [Music] born yesterday is a testimony of God's faithful restorative loving care and what I hope for when you read this book I hope you find in its pages a testimony a story that will inspire you to discover in your own life how God always is working together for your good to make you whole to restore [Music] it's a marvelous book and I know you'll enjoy reading it Rachel also comes out to churches and speaks if you'd like to get in touch with her here is the information if you would like to know how to get a copy of the book born yesterday or if you'd like to contact Rachel you can do so by writing to Rachel William Smith post office box 134 Berrien Springs Michigan 4 9 104 that's Rachel William Smith post office box 134 Berrien Springs Michigan 4 9 104 you may also call two six nine five eight eight zero six seven one that's two six nine five eight eight zero six seven one or order the book online at Rachel William Smith calm that's Rachel William Smith calm well I hope you've enjoyed this time as much as I have we've just been sitting and reminiscing this is kind of the Lord's brought this full cycle hesitate it really has I'm sitting here thinking about how back in early 2000 you know 2003 or wherever you really encouraged me you said Rachel you need to journal everyday general your prayers to God and write your story you said people can be blessed by it and I remember you got was just starting you out on this television ministry amen and you know you didn't but you specifically didn't make this a preachy trying to hone in on the lesson why because I realized the Lord actually spoke to me he told me I want each person to get out of this what I want them to every person's experience is different and what they need to connect with in this story is different and so I wanted to leave it open for with God and I just thank God for using a cracked pot a broken vessel because he says we have this treasure this infinite treasure in our earthly vessel and I just feel like it's a privilege to be able to share my story and I know that other people have their own story and I hope my story will unleash their amen well I'll tell you you let his beauty shine through those cracks and it is so true that we overcome by the blood of the lamb in the word of our testimony Rachel I'm so glad that we had this opportunity to sit down and talk again and that you've shared this with our viewers our prayer for you at home is that the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the love of the Father and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit will be with you always [Music] you

Channel: Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

Views: 3,753

Rating: 4.7857141 out of 5

Keywords: 3ABN, Three Angels Broadcasting Network, yt:quality=high, Empowerment Communications, Rachel Williams-Smith, Christian testimony, Born Yesterday, Escaping a life of legalism

Id: YSM-oXUpg8k

Length: 55min 28sec (3328 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 12 2018