Ok so last weekend I had my friend from that
rock band crazy guy with the dread locks that was pretty amazing. He was here. Brian Welch and um I love that guy a lot and
it wasn't just what God used him to do and I think challenged us and stretched us in
his amazing story of faith but then also behind the scenes like Brian and I just got to pray
with a lot of people all weekend and his love for people and the way he just wants to see
their lives changed. It was pretty inspirational honestly to watch
that. And that was an incredible God story but this
weekend so we have this young lady I can say young lady cause I not young. Nor am I a lady. So she is just incredibly talented and I was
watching I don't know for the third or fourth time an interview from NBC Nightly News today
and I just showed my wife and I'm at breakfast and I was tearing up at how God is alive in this
young girl through her gifts and her talents through her heart, through her personality
and just this story that God is developing and I don't want to spoil it I just want her
to tell it and so your gonna welcome in just a moment but here's the thing because Mandy
lost her hearing so what we do when we welcome someone who doesn't have hearing we don't
do this because we look like clapping monkey's. So what we do is this. Did anybody know that? And then we just look like Pentecostals. And that is close enough right? So that's what we do. We're gonna welcome Mandy here in just a minute
and she's also with her translator who's going to be on stage with us. So everybody join me in welcoming Mandy Harvey. There she is. Ok. She gets it. Oh I love it! That's so good. Welcome. Have a seat. In the hot seat now. You're used to being in front of crowds. Well...yeah. But not normally sitting in front of them
Normally I'm just jamming . Yes...why don't you tell us a little about
who you are and what you do. I don't think everybody has that awareness. Well I was born on a cold, chilly morning
January 2nd. You remember the temperature? Well it was in Ohio. I assume it was cold. That's a good guess. Umm...no I grew up with a passion for music. I wanted to become a music educator. I never wanted to perform. Never wanted to be in this situation where
I had people staring at me. Umm...first presentation I ever gave I threw
up on the whole front row from nerves. So good luck. Splash zone. Uhhh...but yeah no I wanted to be a choral
director, college level. I love jazz and so that kind of grew and I
wanted to become a vocal jazz teacher. That was what I wanted. I went to Colorado State University for vocal
music education and in the first nine months or so lost my residual hearing in both ears
and was dropped from the music program. So I knew what I wanted. I had a very clear direct path. And then within a year I had no idea who I
was anymore. I had nothing that I wanted to do with my
life and just kind of had to start all the way over. Wow...so you're whole life leads up to a moment
where its all taken away from you. Yeah...it wasn't a great time. No...tell us about that. Like...emotionally how does that hit you? At first when I was losing my hearing I was
very...doubtful. That this was actually happening. I liked the idea of living in this false reality
where it was just a hearing problem that was temporary or a bad ear infection or a perforated
ear drum that would improve with time. But it really just didn't get better and I
wanted to continue being a music major. It was the only thing I ever wanted to do. And so I couldn't separate my identity from
my dream. And that was a huge problem for me because
I lost my dream thus losing my identity. And I shattered. I woke up in February going to class for the
first time you know of the new semester for an exam and I had no idea that that was going
to be the last day that I was a music major. I had no idea and it just hit. And you're a preachers daughter. Yeah. So we'll pray for you. Um....but you have faith. Like your whole life you had faith. I honestly I don't think I would have survived
it if I hadn't. Because you lose everything. And I didn't know who I was and I didn't know
how to communicate with people. I didn't want to look at people. I didn't want to leave my room. And so I shut myself off from the world. And the only thing that I couldn't shut myself
away from was God and communication there. I certainly tried. I got angry enough that I stopped talking
to Him but I never lost my faith. I just became bitter. Let's talk about that because I think most
of us can relate to getting mad at God. Is that true? Yeah...ok. I think we've all had those moments and its
usually because God's will for my life is different that my own in some area. So how did you and God hash that out? It was an interesting series that took a really
long time. I initially started talking to him a lot and
I would have begged and borrowed, stolen. I would have done anything to stop this crazy
train that I just couldn't derail. And I was asking Him why? Why me? I mean there's so many things that happen
in life and why do so many bad things happen to good people? I consider myself a relatively good person. I haven't really done anything at that point
in time I hadn't even gone out on a first date. I hadn't experienced life yet. And I was a very quiet, shy church mouse. You remind me a lot of Brian Welch from Korn. It's the hair right? That's what it is. She's really funny. I started trying to find any passage in the
Bible that could tell me a little clue into well this happened so you start flipping around
and you're like "Job" and you're like lets skip past that 'cause I don't want that to
be my reality. Um...but I started landing in Romans and there's
a wonderful verse that does not seem wonderful when you are going through something that
hard at the time where it's rejoice in your suffering, suffering leads to perseverance,
perseverance character, character hope, and hope does not fail. I was like woah yeah lets rejoice in our sufferings
here. Romans 5. I have also read Romans. I would hope so. Yeah...otherwise we could switch jobs and
I'll interview you. Except I can't sing jazz. Oh...well you know. To each their own. I think I will stick with my day job. Well...yeah probably. So Romans 5 fantastic. Right so I started reading that and one of
the pamphlets came out from when I was a freshman in high school. I went to CIY and it was all about what do
you do during difficult situations and so I am reading my ninth grade year old selfs version of what I would do in a bad situation and so it asks you what is your biggest fear. My biggest fear is always been losing my hearing
so it was losing my hearing. So I am looking at my hand writing oh this
is gonna be a fun response. And then I keep going and its like how I would
handle this. I would trust in God. I would continue to pray and all these like
really positive like "This is no problem. Things happen." And I was just like you stupid little girl! And I lit that sucker on fire. I was so angry I was like well here it is
and I am not that person. I am not the person who's just going to wake
up bright eyed and bushy tailed being like "It's ok. Jesus has got it. My life is fine. Bring it on world." No I was shattered and I was angry. I was like why would I have one gift. This is all I ever thought of myself was one
thing that I could accomplish. One thing I was good at. And it had been very clear. I had started singing when I was four. It was the only thing I was good at. And I had such a passion and all these ducks
seemed to line up. And this was exactly where I needed to be. Do you know how rare it is to have that feeling
where your dream feels like you're exactly what you are suppose to do? It's like this is it. That's very rare. This is where I am suppose to be. Nope. You're like ughh. Why? So then I prayed until I could not pray anymore. The thought of praying anymore made me sick. I had just prayed to exhaustion. And then I just stopped talking altogether. That's where I got to. I couldn't think of anything else. He had heard it all. What did the church do? 'Cause people often respond awkwardly when
you are going through hard times. Did that ever happen to you in terms of support
but then it didn't really work? I had a lot of people in my life. I was going to church at school at the time
and their intentions were very good. I would like to say their intentions were
very good. Um...it was me and another gentleman and he
had lost his wife in childbirth and his kid was two years old and she was dieing of cancer. So we were the two people who the church were
praying for at the time and so they did a lot of prayer circles and so they would surround
me and they would put their hands on me and pray. And pray that God would change us and that
everything would be fine. That there would be this miraculous movement
and I would be able to just be able to hear again and my life would return back to normal. And then when it didn't happen they blamed
us for not having enough faith. And I still can't hear and his daughter still
died. And where did that leave us? We were the black sheep that they didn't want
to talk about anymore because we hadn't moved mountains that we were suppose to move and
they couldn't move mountains for us. They couldn't manipulate God to make it work
for them. That's heavy stuff. I want to pause for a second because you have
to tell us how to say "Amen." Like when they are resonating with your story
what should they do? Amen. That's amen? It's a plant and then you got a fist with
your thumb up. Amen. Amen. Ok...at least that's the version I know. Ok. Good. That's all I know. You knew "Thank you." Oh that's right. Thank you. Yeah...just don't do this. So many people...so many people "Thank you!" Umm...ok. Well thank you too! You're welcome! Ok...we can edit that out right? This is Real Life. Sorry. Oh no. Trust me after last week. We're both lucky to be here. So, no Brian was amazing but this story is
so raw and so real and the way you are telling it I think we can all identify with that feeling
of it didn't work out like I wanted it to and some how we feel like that's God's job is to make life work out the way we want it to. And He doesn't agree with that. I wouldn't imagine that it would make any
sense if He did. I mean He's the God of everything and this
is such a tiny blip. My life while it's important to me is such
a tiny little in everything. I mean in all the history and moving through
time and the big picture that's coming. Jesus coming back. Mandy's little world might not be top of you
know concern to make everything work out. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. It's not in the book of Revelation. Well...your story. But Jesus' return is so I hear what you're
saying but at the same time God cares about each of us so much. Absolutely. But it's like how do you reconcile that God
loves me, He's crazy about me and He still lets me struggle and suffer? I feel it's the nature of free will. I can't stop the fact that I have a connective
tissue disorder. I genetically have one and that's not out
of malice thats you know this person married this person and this person married this person. It's the nature that it is. We are humans. We are separated from God. This is not heaven. This is not suppose to be perfect. It's not suppose to be happy, happy, happy
time all the time. We're broken. That's being human and we had a lot of discussions
my family about what you do. How do you trust God? Why would this happen? And I remember a very specific conversation
that my dad and I had when we were sitting in the parking lot at CSU and he was just
talking and talking and talking and he was doing the thing that he's suppose to do as
a dad. He's suppose to try to buck you up and say
anything and anything that would make you like calm a little bit or maybe not ugly cry
anymore. Anything that he could say to quiet the situation
just a little bit. And it was the first time that I had stopped
trying to pretend that this was going to be ok and I just stopped and I was "Dad, I don't
hardly remember what you sound like anymore. And I can't hear you anymore" and it was heart
breaking but it was real. And I was this in never going to be the same. I don't need it to be the same I just need
to know what do I do from here. And we talked about it and God is un-able
to be evil. He's not doing this out of malice. He's not sitting up there laughing "lets see
what she can handle today." That's not how it works. Why would he do that? That's not in His nature. But we have responsibilities of how we're
suppose to deal with these situations. So I can look at it as God's a bully with
a stick and He's beating me down which I don't believe or I can say no matter what happens
in this broken world He's holding my hand and He's never gonna let it go. And we're going to walk this path together
regardless of where it goes. Amen. So what's the sign for when a man cries on
stage? You or a normal person? I know a tear but you were gushing. What did you call me? Wolf eyes? Yeah you have wolf eyes. Wolf eyes...ok. Arooo! I had to break the tension...sorry. Because it's bad when the guy on stage interviewing
cries so. But it's just I think we're all connecting
with your story in such a real way and so here's what I am thinking like what you were
saying how we pray for God to change our circumstance and often times God gets the most glory when
we praise Him and we're faithful through our circumstance. Absolutely. Why aren't we praying for strength to deal
with the situation or wisdom to know that this isn't forever. That this is not the end. This is not heaven. Why can't we pray for community that we can
rise together through this situation no matter what happens that we know we are not alone. It's like we challenge ourselves pass the
idea of just thinking that God's a genie that oh well I really want an egg McMuffin. God...right here. Nope, He's not listening. Or maybe He cares too much to grant that prayer. Yeah...He cares. But it's just like you know you are trying
manipulate God to do things you want to do on your time and that's not how it works. So true. Ok, so your story actually what's amazing
is that it gets better with tragedy. It does improve. Yeah...because your story could have been
amazing if it had gone according to your plan. I think my life would have been awesome. I never would have sung in front of people. I never would have performed probably still
would have thrown up on people if I had to give a presentation. Absolutely. So now, I mean you lose your hearing and then
just talk to us a little bit about the doors that God's opened since then. Well, tell me this how in the world do you
sing if you can't hear. Uh...well it's a God given gift. No...it is. I was born with a lot of interesting gifts
that really didn't seem important until they really were. I have near perfect pitch. A lot of people would say that I have perfect
pitch but I feel like that seems arrogant so I say I have near perfect pitch. I have an amazing memory for music. I can remember songs that sang when I was
four. Every bit of it. I remember all of the aspects of the song. Not just the melody line. I remember when I was learning music in high
school which is why I wanted to be a choral teacher I was just really good at memorizing
music. I would listen through sixteen part choral
music after listening to it once I understood why all the pieces fit and after listening
to it twice I had every section memorized. And so it was just like I used to be able
to process that information really well. Now I don't have that benefit of being able
to listen so I rely on my muscle memory of feeling the movements. Those when people do they know like alright
this is a half step when they go up and you can feel it as you sing it you trust yourself. So I use my near perfect pitch mixed in with
muscle memory mixed in with visual tuners so I sing into a visual tuner that gets me
to "C" and then from "C" I do my scales and make sure I get back to "C". And then any song I start is like ok, my first
starting note is going to be here. Modulate to my starting note. Remember what the song
is and then just sing it and then stop worrying about the rest of it. My plan is to only sing when there are a lot
of other people singing. Your plan should be to sing when there's only
me in the room. When did you figure out you could sing again
because your dreams are crushed, your you know mad at God but you work through that
and you pray through that season and people are praying for you to get healed that doesn't
happen and then some how you decide to keep singing. Well I mean I stopped, I stopped for a long
time. In my life stopping for a year and a half
of just not doing music that's a long time. And I went on with life. I went to a community college and started
taking ASL classes and got immersed in the deaf culture and then from there I started
to feel like a human again and I found a sense of belonging. I found a community. I found people who had like stories and that
gave me confidence to be a normal person you know not just a person who hides in their
dorm room and lives off of a scoop of peanut butter and thinks to themselves its twenty-three
steps to go to the bathroom...na. You know that's where I was. So I had to get out of that depression at
least enough to step out the door first. And that was based off of my faith and family. That's a sermon. Helping me. Right there that's a sermon. Just take the next step. God...because God has plans for you but you
got to take a step. Right. And so you take that step of faith and you
just get out and you start learning sign language. Yeah...something dad says all the time is
that if you stay in your room you know what the results are going to be. Nothing happens. What happens if you crack the door open? You've already changed your potential outcome. But I was sitting downstairs dad was dealing
with depression at the same time. He was dealing with the death of his father
and that was something that we kind of bonded with. The way that we used to communicate when I
was a kind was we would play guitar together. And so my parents were thinking of different
ways to kind of get me back into being a little bit of who I was. Not necessarily throwing me back into music. That was never the intention. But it was just playing guitar together. It was something we had done and so we decided
to play guitar together and I was watching him and I could feel the rhythm of the guitar
and I was trying to keep pace with him and then there was a suggestion that I should
learn a song and my younger sister picked the song that she had heard on the radio which
was One Republic - Come Home. Which is not a difficult song to sing. So I charted it out. It's in "C" and great key especially if that's
what I am doing everyday. And I set it up and used a guitar tuner to
find my starting notes and then hum different ones and then wait for the green light to
pop up. Now I have a cool visual tuner that shows
me each thing that I am doing. And I painstakingly learned the song. Took me hours and hours and hours. Didn't think I was going to remember it. Went sat down with him expecting it to be
garbage. Like completely wrong but he's my dad so its not like he's gonna be like "Woah
- run away" like he would be like. That's your dad face. Yeah. If it hurts him...hmmm. He's thinking, he's thinking. Hmm. And then I asked him "Well, how did that
go?" Because I kind of wanted it to be a close
that chapter moment. It's just like alright, we tried it lets move
on. Let's stop talking about music. I'm moving on with my life and he was just
like "Yeah, you sang that right. Yeah...you sang that right." I didn't fully believe him so we recorded
it on a little home recorder just us and showed it to my vocal coach that I had used to go
to and she was like "Oh, that's nice. You recorded that before you went to CSU."
and I was like "No, I recorded this last week." She was like "What?!" Come back we got to do a voice lesson and
she was "Hey, what do you want to sing?" So I'm not gonna go to lessons and sing opera
and stuff that I didn't want to do anymore. If I'm going to put that much work in it might
as well be something I want to do. So I was like I want to sing jazz. She connected me with Jay's and I started
singing there which was a completely weird experience. Like a jazz night club? Yeah...it was like a jazz lounge whatever
that means. There was a piano and some people eating dinner. Nice. And I was clutching onto the piano for dear
life and I sang one song...My Funny Valentine. And I did it accurately but I threw up right
before I did it. Left, threw up again. Remind me not to feed you tomorrow. I'm ok now. I've got the control. I've got the control. Nice. But that kind of led its way. I never intended to do music again. I was content with just not having it be completely
gone from my life. I would have been fine learning percussion
or cowbell just being connected. Always need more cowbell. Yeah, there's never enough. So ok we talked about dreams being shattered
and then this moment where you realize you can again and now you're pursuing that, how
have you seen God open doors? It's weird. I stood up, I sang my funny valentine and
then as I left I was driving home and I was like I can't analyze myself anymore. I can't remember how I sang it to care how
I sang it. And then my fear of public speaking and fear
of singing in front of people went away in an instant. It was the weirdest thing. I was like, "Well, you know I lived through
my biggest fear, what can you do?" You're not gonna like it? Awe. That's not going to crush me. So I mean there so many different things just
about my personality that changed. I'm not horribly shy probably to the she-grin
of many people. I haven't noticed any shyness. Yeah...well I used to be really shy but now
I can talk to people and I've found that this whole experience of going through the worst
case scenario and having to start over from scratch has really taught me a lot about understanding
people and being able to see people and understand that everybody has their own story. Everybody else has their own pain and that
pain is valid and to empathize with them and the way that I get to bring people joy and
encouragement was always what I wanted to do in the first place. So I can see God working in my life even in
the small things. I never expected to one day sing at the Kennedy
Center or to have three, four albums. I am writing a book. I never expected to do any of that stuff and
it never, it wasn't in my character to do any of that stuff. But its very comfortable now and I am happy
to do it. I am happy to put in thousands of hours of
work to sound clear when I am talking just for the benefit of somebody else that maybe
it will help them through. I imagine as you're inspiring us you've inspired
thousands and thousands of people just by being you and that's God at work in us right? Because the story could have been you prayed
and God was like "Oh, sorry here's your hearing back." Ok, thanks. Oopsie daisy! Yeah...must have fallen asleep at the wheel. But that's not the story. The story is you had to persevere through
serious trial. You had to check your heart at the door and
just fall on your face before God and then how he used your trial and tragedy to glorify
him and inspire others. That's the story of faith. That's the story, the God story in there to
me. Yeah...well I feel like I trust God a lot
more now. You would think that it would be the other
way around you know but regardless of what happens in my life I know that I have a certain
amount that I can give and I don't want to have any of that stuff left over why I die. Get it all out. Praise God in any form I can if that means
cowbell it means cowbell. Here you go Lord...bing, bing, bing. Just for you. Romans 8...did you get that far when you were
reading Romans? Did you make it to chapter 8? I did. I didn't initially. I mean I had read Romans 8 before but I didn't
at the time. When you read Romans 5 that's rough. Oh yeah. So I just went and set it down and opened
it up again and read it again and went "Nope, still sucks." Close it. Open it up. Nope...still don't like it. Closed it and then later I was like you know
what I do have my character has changed. I am more willing to persevere now if I fall
I know I can get back up. I know that I can keep going forward. So I have read further now. But go for it. Well I mean this is a preacher verse so I
am sure your dad's shared it with you at some point. Just how we know in all things that God works
for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Yes. And the all things obviously includes very
bad things at times. Absolutely. But I think we all see that through your story
today. Well I hope...if one person, it sounds very
trite. But if one person can say alright let's be
honest with myself. This is really difficult. This is what I am struggling with. I am keeping it to myself. I can't get passed this. If me trudging through the muck to find a
path out of it is beneficial so that they can find maybe their first step then it was
all worth it. It was all worth it. And I hope that when those horrible things
happen which they will. This is earth. We are human. We're kind of design to crumble when those
bad things happen. Very inspiring. Well your going to break. Get ready for it. No, but when they happen that if you can believe
and trust and have faith that God's holding your hand the whole time it makes things a
lot easier to just not be alone. Amen. Any last thing you would tell us just as you
encourage the body at large? Oh gosh...I don't know. I would say that we're all in this together. The loneliness was the thing that got me and
I really do feel like it's ok to cry. It's ok to mourn. It's ok to be sad whenever your dealing with
a tough situation people are constantly telling you to buck up or to smile through it or it'll
get better and at that moment that doesn't seem possible. It's ok to feel sad about things that don't
work out. It's not ok to let that cripple you and just
leave you there for the rest of your life. You have so many gifts past just one. So many opportunities to change the world
for the better. Don't allow yourself to be your biggest obstacle. Amen. Is that jazz hands? No...you go. Because you don't like jazz hands. We've had this conversation. I'm not a fan. Not a fan. Not a fan of jazz hands sure 'cause your a
jazz singer. Alright, we have to end there. I think the right way to end this would be
for you to sing. I would love to. That would be ok? If that's ok with you? Well of course. Well I'm taller than you. You don't have much you can do about it. Well...we're, we're close. See I guess when you are deaf you can insult
the pastor. It's ok. Yes! You get a pass. Well thank you. But the rest of you don't you dare. This was really powerful. I'm going to pray and then Mandy is going
to just bless us with a song. So I think you got to get ready with the band. I just stand here. You know what you're doing. Ok. Awesome. Alright. Let's hear it for Mandy Harvey. Alright lets pray. Lord thank you so much for Mandy's amazing
story for how we are able to see you through her despite the obstacles and the trials,
the pain. I thank you for the way she's able to bring
that to life in such a real way. That is such a powerful thing and for her
encouragement for us to just take the next step to trust you no matter what so help us to
do that Lord but the thing we say all the time is to get right with you we've got to
get real with you and I pray that would happen this weekend across all of our campuses that
there would be somebody that just says you know I'm sick of pretending and I'm going
to take that next step and I'm gonna get right with God because I'm going to get real with
God. I'm going to let him know how I'm feeling
and I just thank you that you're never closer to us than when we need you the most Lord
and so we give you glory and we pray in this moment as we just receive this gift in song
that it would really touch us deeply and draw us closer to you we pray in Jesus name amen.
