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A Trauma Informed Devotional: Mark and Jennifer Sowersby EP 207

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Content provided by DSW Ministries. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by DSW Ministries or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.
In this episode, host Diana updates listeners on her trauma therapy before welcoming returning guest Mark Sowersby along with his wife, Jennifer. The couple discusses their new book, 'Letters to the Weary,' a 21-day devotional aimed at helping readers find rest and support through God's word. They share their personal journey of marriage and healing, offering insights for dealing with trauma within faith. Additionally, Mark talks about their award-winning short film based on his life and his involvement with the TCT Network’s show 'Ask the Pastor.' The episode concludes with a heartfelt prayer for listeners. 00:00 Introduction and Host's Update 02:23 Introducing Today's Guest: Mark Sowersby 03:46 Mark and Jennifer's New Book: Letters to the Weary 05:22 Mark and Jennifer's Personal Stories 11:29 Navigating Marriage and Healing Together 16:50 Writing and Publishing Letters to the Weary 19:07 Interactive Devotional Experience 20:07 Connecting with God Through Devotion 21:14 Personal Reflections and Genuine Writing 24:18 Film Project: Forgiving The Nightmare 26:01 Future Plans and Community Engagement 30:41 Final Thoughts and Prayer

https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Weary-Mark-Sowersby/dp/1951475399

Bio:

Mark and Jennifer have been married for over 20 years and have four beautiful children. Mark is a Lead Pastor and graduate of Northpoint Bible College. He is the author of Forgiving the Nightmare and has shared his testimony across the country in churches, seminars, and a variety of media platforms, including The 700 Club, Fox Digital, TCT Ask The Pastor, CTN, God TV, Cornerstone Network, and over 350 podcasts across the globe.

https://forgivingthenightmare.com/

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Transcript:

Mark and Jennifer Sowersby

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help.

Now here is Diana.

Hey everyone. Welcome to the podcast. So excited that you're here with me today.

We have a great show for you today.

I hope you're doing well.

A little update on my trauma therapy that I mentioned to you. I don't remember which episode that was, but I'm on like session five.

And things are going well. We are still in the [00:01:00] process of me telling my story. we haven't done a whole lot of unpacking. Mostly touching base with me as to how am I feeling, while I'm sharing with her all these things that I went through. Now I'm being more detailed

telling her my life story then when I was telling my story on the podcast, and even when I tell my story in my Mending the Soul groups. There's a reason of course for that so she has a complete picture and

able to pick the correct treatment plan to help me. So, uh, today I got a bill from my insurance company, for a hundred dollars. And up to this point, my invoices have been zero, which I'm assuming mental health with my insurance has been covered a hundred percent. So I was kinda like, what's going on?

I sure hope that I don't owe a hundred bucks every time I go see her, because I would not be able to afford that. [00:02:00] So I will be investigating about why I got an invoice, but again, don't be afraid to reach out to a trauma therapist, somebody that is licensed where you live, the state you live in, the country you live in.

If you need help, send me a message. I'll do my best to help you find something in your area. So,

Now onto our podcast and our guest today.

I'm really excited because I have a returning guest today, a friend of the podcast, Mark S owersby. He's been on the show twice so far. And I really want you to go back and listen to his previous episodes because he is probably in my top five guests that I've had on the show in the last five years, the life of my podcast.

That's why he's back on because he is excellent and, Mark is bringing his wife, [00:03:00] Jennifer, today, which will be fun. Mark was on the show on season one and that was episode 11. So he tells his story, I guess as much as you can tell your story on a podcast in an hour. and he's had this book, Forgiving The Nightmare is excellent.

That is about his story. He's been on a lot of very prominent podcasts and he even has a movie about his life that he has film this past year. The second time, he was part of our Bible series. How can I trust the Bible when I've been abused? So please go back and listen to those.

They are excellent. You'll be blessed. He is on the show again because him and his wife have written another book just as recently called Letters to the Weary. Of course I am wanting to know all [00:04:00] about it. But let me read you a little bit of the synopsis on the back of this book.

Life is filled with moments of confusion, doubt, and uncertainty.

These struggles combined with everyday life can feel impossible to overcome. Do you find yourself feeling weak and tired at the end of each day instead of fulfilled? Do you complain more than express gratitude? Have you lost hope that things can actually change? Letters to the weary is a devotional that will inspire and encourage you to find a place of rest, support and understanding.

Understanding your situation is not enough. We want to show you a way out. Letters to the weary is filled with testimonies, scripture, and encouragement bringing the reader to a [00:05:00] place of peace. It has been said that habits can be broken in 21 days. That may or may not be true, but we do believe if you wholeheartedly

commit to prayer and pursuing God for 21 days, our life will be forever changed. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? I'm always looking for really good devotional.

So Mark, individual bio is Mark Sowersby is a speaker, writer, pastor. In 2019, pastor Mark went through a time of great healing. He began speaking about the nightmare of abuse and years of suffering he experienced in his childhood, and how condemnation, shame, and guilt were replaced with forgiveness, joy, and life in abundance.

He now speaks about his story and testimony of healing, forgiveness, and freedom. Through his ministry Forgiving the Nightmare. So on his website, he is got a lot [00:06:00] of videos, his video testimonies on there. I'll let you watch that. But

you really are in for a treat. You're gonna love Mark. I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Mark and Jennifer S

Alright, we have back to the show today, Mark Sowersby, and for the first time we have his lovely wife, Jennifer, on the show. Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you. It's to be so much good to be with you.

Yeah, this is number three. I mean, you're just like a friend of the podcast, a regular here on the show, Mark.

Well, it's always a blessing to be with you and be able to share.

The testimonies and stories and the victories of the Lord with you and your audience. So thank you so much for having me on, and I'm really excited that my wife could join me. Uh, I'm really great. That's really a blessing. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, this is gonna be fun. [00:07:00] And of course we all know about Forgiving the Nightmare and your story.

Mark, we heard your story and then you were back. That was episode 11 was your story. That was season one. Wow. Thank you for being on my first season when I was starting out. I'm on year number five now, and then you run episode 100, you did our Bible series.

How can I trust the Bible?

Yes. Amen. I remember that. Yep. That was a great series.

So you're back on the show to talk about your new book, Letters to the Weary.

That sounds awesome. There it is. Yeah. There's a picture. There you go. There you go. Gotta get the angle right. Letters to the, we, our new book, A 21 day devotional.

It's, we're really excited about it. I wrote it with my wife Jennifer, and, we're really blessed to be able to have this, just published and released. Oh, just a few, about a month ago. [00:08:00] It's brand new right out there. It's. It's a little different from the first book I wrote, and that was testimonial with some scripture references and kind of a how to and a hold on to God.

And this is just, I got to put my pastor hat on and kind of share a little bit. So Jen and I were really excited to be able to write this devotional together. What do you think, Hon?

Yes, it was a good time to be able to do it together and to collaborate and I'm honored to write something like this with my husband.

So, Jennifer, tell us about your story, your background. 'cause we haven't met you on the podcast before.

Well, I came to know the Lord when I was five years old. My kindergarten teacher led me to the Lord and I've been following Jesus ever since. And he's kept me from things. I don't have the testimony where I did things and then I , you know, recovered from them.

I have the testimony that God kept me from ever doing them.

Absolutely. [00:09:00] Some people feel bad that they don't have this, well, I did drugs or I was a rebel or something. I really appreciate the stories that, I lived a faithful Christian walk my whole life.

That means that it is possible.

It is, it is, it is possible. Like that God can use you and, you can live a holy life. Now how did you and Mark meet?

I was the three to five year olds coordinator at church. And he was the children's pastor when I was old enough to meet. We've known each other for a long time, but he is seven years older than I am.

So when he realized who I was, I was an adult by that point, and he was like, oh. We were friends. And then when I was in my twenties, I went off to finish college and he realized he missed me. And he was praying about [00:10:00] who the Lord would lead to him to marry. And he's like, God, I need this type of person.

I need that type of person. And he said he felt like the Lord was saying, Hey, McFly, there's a girl down in Florida. She'd be the right one. Right. I knew Jen so long that, you know, I, I knew her parents and when I first got saved her, uh, mom and dad were involved as youth group leaders and like anything else, you go over people's houses for cookouts and pizza parties.

And, and Jen was there, but she was always the kid, you know, she was just the kid of the youth leaders, youth directors, youth helpers, and never really on the radar. And when I finished Bible college, I came back and Jen was our three to 5-year-old director, but she was as, as I say, she was all grown up.

You know, she was all grown up and, but really she wasn't like, I never saw her that way until one day in the prayer, prayer closet, the Lord said, Hey, McFly, uh, you know, she's right in front of you, you know? So, uh, we. We started a relationship, and I remember when I went to the lead pastor of the church, I, when [00:11:00] Jen and I were getting serious and we started to date, I, I went into the senior pastor's office just to kind of let him know.

And I, and I said to him, Hey Pastor, I want you to know Jen and I are gonna date. And he started to laugh and he said, you are the last two to know this. Everybody has known this. The whole church knew that you two were gonna date, you're the last two. So, uh, we started to date and then. The rest, as they say, is history with four kids.

And we're getting ready to celebrate 22 years of marriage. Wow. Amen. I love that story. And, I know your story really well, Mark, and the suffering and the abuse that you went through. I know Jennifer had to be, a huge, huge support through all of

the recovery and raising a family. So tell us, Jennifer, what was it like, supporting him in that way with his past and such?

I think we just, we just live life and I'm naturally, I think I'm a nurturer, so I think I, helped in that way. But, God had [00:12:00] already done a huge amount of healing before we were together because he's seven years older than me.

When we got together, I was 25, so he was, almost 33 by the time we got married. So God had already done a lot in his life. Even when you're healed of things, there's still scars. Like after you've had surgery. Like I had carpal tunnel surgery, many years ago. And even though the site healed for over a year, I couldn't put weight on that wrist without pain because the scar tissue was there.

And I think the same thing happens when you're healed. Emotionally or from other things, you know, traumas that have happened to you, you still have scars. That doesn't mean you're not healed. It just means that there's scar tissue there and. So we had to walk through that. Amen. Amen. I think that's a good way to put it.

Yeah. You know what, you don't know what you don't know, you know? So, of course a lot of my [00:13:00] trauma and hurts, pains, wounds, I brought to the altar. I dealt with my counselor coaches, pastors and friends, but that I've never married, I never had that closeness of a wife, the intimacy of a marriage.

You know that connection that you have. So I didn't know what I was gonna carry in there because I didn't know what marriage was like, and I didn't know how to, prepare myself or warn her or say here. I, we just kind of grew into this marriage together. We both brought our baggage in. My baggage was obviously loud and big, but we both carried our pain as people do.

And what we learned is we had to go to the altar of God. Uh, we had to go and lay our, our marriage down, our hopes down our family down. We laid all those moments, and it didn't mean that it was always easy. There were moments of tears and prayers and challenges and trials and blessings, but as we learned to trust the Lord, you'll hear me say all and each other and each other

because we had to communicate.

I mean, there were, we had to have some frank conversations about things and [00:14:00] mm-hmm. You know, where we, where I expressed where I was hurt in our relationship in the beginning

and, and then that left its own scars. Not that I was hurt because he did something wrong, just the pain of going through feeling like I had done something wrong because I happened to touch one of his scars, you know, where it brought pain to him.

So he handled it the way he did and then I handled it the way I did. 'cause again, neither one of us had been married before. Neither one of us had, dealt with things together. So we've had to deal with things, by communicating and working through things and god has the victory. Amen. Amen.

And that's true. You know, like I, I'll have to say, if you come to our church, I'll pray for couples at our altar. I'll say, Lord, help us grow closer to you so we can grow closer to each other. And I would say those early [00:15:00] years of marriage, as many early years of marriage as you're trying to figure it out.

Uh, you could have, uh, perfect backgrounds or you could have broken backgrounds, but you're trying to figure it out. Uh, time, money, communication, family, uh, re intimacy, intimacy, responsibility, all those things that, uh, you're trying to figure out. And, and just like anybody else, we had our ups and downs, but we had the altar to hold onto.

We had the word of God to guide us and we had friends that would hug us and love us through it. But 22 years we've done pretty good.

When there were times where it was difficult, that's when you run to God, because he's the one who fixes everything.

He's the ultimate healer. So when I didn't understand what was going on or when we were having, um, troubles and learning to communicate and learning to walk, navigate through these things, that's when I would spend time with God and I would just cry out to him.

Amen. And that's why I'm [00:16:00] so glad now that we've been able to. You'll come together and, and work together and parent together and have a home together and a ministry together. And it's blessing that my wife has beside me. So that's what's really excited that we published this book together. These 21 Devotions.

Uh, we both poured ourselves into 'em. Jen wrote some independently. I wrote some independently. Most of them we collaborated on. She knew a better word than I knew. I thought it about this way, she thought it about that way. And it was just a wonderful collaboration of a a 21 day devotional to pour everything that we're talking about you into these pages, to talk about communication and, and trust and ups and downs and lefts and rights, and, and how all God gets the glory.

And that's what we wanted to give in this, uh, new, our new book called Letters to the Weary. So I see that it's on Amazon. Did you self-publish this or do you have the same publishers Forgiving Nightmare? We publish. Yeah. Yep. We work with the same [00:17:00] publisher. He is, uh, our publisher's been a blessing to us.

He is really helped us hold, holds our hand. He is been my friend. He has been my writing coach. He is just kind of been everything to help me write these books , and him and his, team has been behind me a hundred percent. They were amazing. So you have testimony, scripture, encouragement. Can you give us an example of one of them?

Well, I'll tell you what I have, which, like the format. So, so we wanted to write it like a letter and Yes, what happened is I wanted somebody able to go in and read it and have enough of the day, you know, and somebody said, why 21 days? Why not 30 days? Why not 90 days? Why not 365 days? And I can just tell you Jen and I, the church we grew up in, it was very common for

in January, people would do a 21 Day Daniel Fast. It was kind of a tradition. It was just something that our church we grew up in, they would celebrate, the New Year by con doing a Daniel Fast. There's a book called The Daniel [00:18:00] Fast has to do with dieting and things like that. So whenever I thought about fasting or devotion, I always thought 21 days.

It is one of those things that got caught in my head. So, because that was in my spirit, in my head, we wrote this 21 day devotion, but we wanted 'em to be independently. We wanted 'em to standalone. Like, uh, the reader is reading a letter in my first book, forgive the Nightmare. We talked about the trauma. We talked about the hard times.

We talked about the big picture, the, but I wanted to say, okay, you've laid your trauma at the altar, you've given it to Jesus. Now what. Now how do I wake up Monday and Tuesday, and now what do I do? And we hope to put in the pages. Of letters to the weary. The next part, what do I do Now? I've given the big part to Jesus.

I've walked in victory. I've claimed it. I've confessed it. I believe it. I stand on the word, but now I gotta get up Monday and go to work. So we hope this, uh, this devotion in which again is filled with scriptures and testimonies and as you heard, real, real trials and ups and downs and victories that have poured [00:19:00] out of the.

The valley and out of the grace of God, we've tried to pour into this book and let God, uh, be blessed and honored by it.

I hope that when you read it, it feels like you're sitting down reading a letter from a friend and, and that's pointing to Christ and that's why we put the entire scripture in. We don't just put the references is what we write,

we fill out the entire scripture and that way ultimately you're pointed to the Bible, which. God's word and it is amazing. If you're not reading the Bible, you should be.

A spot, they're asked questions or reflections. Mm-hmm. And we, we put something in our devotion called the big question. So every, after every one of them, after every 21 of these devotions we have the big question. We left space in the book to journal, to write, to put your thoughts down. So again, we wanted to be interactive.

We just didn't want it to stand on the shelf. We [00:20:00] picture people a big old cup of coffee, the word of God, and our devotion, and they go in their prayer closet and, and serve the Lord that way.

Yeah, I think that it's a, a smaller book, then you can actually finish it and, get the process starting of connecting with God.

Maybe you don't know where to start with reading the Bible or prayer. You're a new Christian, or you've been away from the Lord because of, of course, trauma and abuse. You know, we're on the couch with God. We, don't understand why he allowed this to happen. This looks like it'd be a great transition into connecting with the Lord, just a short 21 days.

With some of my background, not only the trauma of abuse, but the trauma of academia being a dyslexic, you know? Yeah. In both of my books, I thought, well, what would I wanna read? I wouldn't wanna read this. 607. Now my wife may wanna read the big books, but I read

something you could [00:21:00] read in a plane. I think I would've been too intimidated if somebody handed me this. For me, I wanted to be able to read it, digested it, and then move forward. So I tell people my books aren't huge.

They're not big books, but they're full reads. Right. Uh, so that's how I always identify 'em. We really hope that it pierces the heart. We hope the scriptures fill the soul and confession of praise comes out of one's mouth.

And they're written to be something you can do even when life is crazy busy.

Yeah. So I, I'm a mom, the other thing, and so we wrote it in between life, so. We wrote it, you know, I would work on it when I was dropping the kids off at school. I'd be sitting in the car and, on the computer or, in between making dinner. And so it was written with life going on around us.

And so I hope that, he ministers to each person who reads it. Both of my books. I've always wanted to be really genuine. I. Really genuine [00:22:00] to the reader. And we tried to be genuine in this book. We tried to be as genuine and forgiven the nightmare just to say, look, we're real people.

We love an awesome God. We got ups and downs, lefts and rights. We got bills we're trying to pay. Uh, we got cars that are trying to fix. Life isn't always beautiful and there's hard days and tough days, but God is always good. And we wanted to share that in. In our books, and we wanna share that in this devotional letters to the weary.

Again, hopes it challenges you, makes you think, it makes you praise. We wrote it not only for the individual, but we think it would work good in a group too. Yeah, A bible study, a a men's group, a women's group, a grieving group, uh, a counseling group, a so we figure it has, it covers a wide variety of topics.

Anywhere from hearing God's voice to knowing you're loved, when you're having sleepless moments, when you're feeling like you just wanna blend in and hide just all different, topics. When you're not sure you wanna follow God, there's even a topic [00:23:00] on that. Yeah. When you're not sure where you wanna go.

But God is faithful and he loves us and he is there for us. He's there. 24 7, 365. It says in the Psalms, where can I go from your presence? If I made my bed, in the depths, who are there if I, up to the heavens are there. So no matter where you go, God is there.

Yes. Like I love that scripture.

We, we've been in the pits before, haven't we? Yep. Yeah, we have. We have. Yeah. But once you get out of the pit, it's an amazing view when you're out of it. Yeah. It is amazing when you get out. But it's nice to look back and see. When I was in the pit, God was still there with me, even though I couldn't sense him there.

Yep. Yeah. Yep. Even though I walked through the valley, I shadow death. I shall fear no evil. Yes. Yeah. Amen to that.

Now Amazon, is that the main place that we can find the book or is there other spots? Well, that's probably the easiest and [00:24:00] biggest place to find the book on Amazon, but it is on Barnes and you can go barn, Walmart. You can go to any search engine where they sell books. You go to our website and you can, connect there with the books. But really, if you want worldwide distribution and you want everybody to find it, Amazon is king in that world.

I hear you're this big movie star now. You have a short film about your life, Mark. Let's hear about that. Yeah, well, thanks. It's a great project. I don't know if I'm a big movie star, I might be big, but I'm not a movie star. So, what happened was a few years ago I connected with a great young

director and he and I got ahold of my book and, we started to discuss what to do. Well, it's a full book and in that there's so many twists and turns, ups and downs. It's about a life. It's about victory, it's about challenges. So we kind of had to take a snapshot of one scene of the whole book.

And, uh, we made a 20 minute movie and. We had a set and he had a cast and [00:25:00] we had the lights and we had the DP director of, we had it all. We had editors and, and, this young director, he was just ready to go. Tru Vine, studios, Tru Vine Pictures, a great young guy named Henry Kay. And he has just been my partner and my blessing.

So, so it took us about a year to make it from the moment we filmed it till I went through editing and sound and all the things that needed to be done. And then we started putting in film festivals. And, before you'd know it, we were nominated for many film festivals, all Christian film festivals, and there's one called The Crown, a Crown Film Festivals, which they tell Crown.

Mm-hmm. Crown Sports. And which they tell me is, uh. Kind of one of the most prestigious, or one of the most, recognized one in the Christian circles. And we were nominated for the best short film, at the beginning of this month. And we walked away with a bronze. So they give a bronze of silver and a gold, and.

And we won the bronze in the best short film category for the Crown's awards. And so we're [00:26:00] excited about what God's doing with that. We hope to do a feature film, that's our prayer, that Lord, we could do a 90 minute, two hour feature film where we get to tell the whole story. But for Forgiving The Nightmare Short film, we call it Forgiving Nightmare film.

You can actually go online. There's a website called Forgiving the Nightmare Film, and you can find a little, blurb or a little preview of the film there. And on your website you can see a clip of the film as well. Yeah, you can see a clip [email protected]. But, again, it's 20 minutes long.

We don't have the whole thing online yet because we're still in festival season. And so when that's done, we'll be releasing it online, but. Yeah we're excited that we walked away with that bronze award and now people are saying, let your people call my people. We don't know what God's gonna do next, but we believe it's all in God's hands.

Well, that sounds really exciting. It probably cost a lot of money to do that. Well, there was a budget for it. You're right. And I have to be honest, when you say make films,

I wrote the story. It was about my life. But really my [00:27:00] director and his team put it together. I have to, tip my hat. Yes, it was my story. Yes. He gave me room to collaborate, but it was really his eye and his art that, brought this film together. There was a budget, I think we did ours for about, 14 to $17,000.

It was a commitment to doing it, but most films are done for much more than that, so. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we're, we, were blessed to have a good team, a lot of volunteers, but we were given free access to a hospital area. The main scene is being filmed in like a hospital room and it's so hard to find hospital space, because they're always being used and you find when they're very costly to rent for the day.

But God just gave us favor with a school and they, allowed us to film at this place. So a lot of stories where God just gave us favor. We're blessed. It's out there. We hope to continue to, move forward to see what God's gonna do with it.

Ultimately, our prayer is [00:28:00] to make a feature film. I thought about Matt Damon playing me. What do you think?

I was just gonna say if I, you had somebody in mind, who would you want to play you?

Well, I think it's, first I thought about Arnold Schwartzenegger. What do you think? Me and Arnold? Matt Dammon, Mark Walberg.

Yeah. Mark. Mark. I dunno. But no, I'm just happy to have our story told. Who could play my wife? What supermodel will play her, so? Yes. When it comes out where we can all watch the film, that's gonna be a great day.

Has anybody come up to you yet and given you any feedback from the festivals? Yeah, yeah, this really changed my life, or. We've heard how people have been touched by it. We've heard how people have been ministered to it. We've heard how people have said they have felt the Holy Spirit through it and in it.

Mm. Uh, we've heard a lot of great comments. Again, we are in this film festival season, but from what I understand [00:29:00] is the plan right now is to release it on probably YouTube or something of that way. Probably, late summer, early fall. When the seasons are over. So we'll kind of release it that way.

So keep looking for us and we'll keep, continue to promote it. I'm sure when it's released on YouTube or one of these social networks, we'll be able to promote a lot of it and let people know it's out. We do wanna bring lots of eyeballs to it because we believe the story. The story's not about abuse.

The story's about forgiveness. The story's about how to overcome that trauma, and we tried to tell that in Forgiving The Nightmare. And we try to share that in Letters To The Weary. We don't wanna just talk about the pain, we wanna talk the victory, right? We wanna be honest, right Jen? We've always wanted to be honest, but we also wanna say, listen.

We got a hold of Jesus. As much as those early years , were trials sometimes and learning to communicate and learning to walk through. I think today we could say, we're about ready to have a 20-year-old, Jennifer. Wow. You are gonna be a mom [00:30:00] of a 20-year-old. Our daughter's

Just 17, 12, 15, 17 and 20. They're all teenagers. Woo. We have, two of them driving. So, we talk about the early years where I brought in my mess. She brought in her life and, but there's so many victories today, where God has moved.

And, my wife is now teaching a women's group. She's counseling with women. She's writing, these books. So I've just seen God bless my wife and help her grow. And I know that I'm growing and together the Holy Spirit's moving us forward with Forgiving the nightmare film, Forgiving Nightmare Books, and all the different expressions that God lets us do.

Yeah. Amen. So you've shared so much today, much about your relationship, your marriage, and the stuff the Lord's blessed you with to minister to others. Anything you want to leave our listeners with, if you both want to, give your last piece of love and [00:31:00] advice to them.

Well, Jesus says to come to him, all you who are weary and heavy burdened and he will give you rest and that's why we wrote this book. So you have a chance to pause and take some time and come to the father who loves you. With an everlasting love. Amen. And spend time with him. Amen. Pain, trauma loves to isolate people. Loves to, make us feel we're all alone.

We're no good, we're bad. No one will ever understand. And like my wife said, God wants us to come to him and to have that moment of Selah where we just pause and we hope that when you pause, you pause with the word of God. And if either of our writings, our ministry letters to the weary, Forgiving the nightmare can help you in that journey.

Let us just come to the Lord no matter who we are. Let's come and let God touch us and heal us, and we love God. And thank you so much for having us on. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yes, this has been great. And [00:32:00] having you, Jennifer. On the third time that Mark's been here. You guys are always welcome to come back.

If you do another book, another movie, you can just come on and I'll definitely, look forward to that. You guys are gonna probably do more stuff down the pike for sure.

However the Lord leads. We're really blessed. Hey, I just want you to know on Mondays you can find me on the TCT network.

I'm on a part of, I'm on a show called Ask the Pastor. So, you may have it in your market. But if not, you can go, always go online, on Facebook, on Instagram, go to TCT and it's a wonderful network. They have a program called Ask the Pastor, and at 2:30, every Monday, I'm a part of a panel. I'm not the host, I'm just one of the voices of the panel.

But if anybody wants to catch me, see my ugly mug, uh, you know, just turn to, to ask the pastor on TCT Network.

Oh, and we can ask questions? [00:33:00] You can, you can. You can do it in

and stump the pastor?

I think some people think it's called that, but it's really called Ask the Pastor. Oh, absolutely. I'll put everything in the show notes for you listeners.

And I don't remember if I asked you this before, Mark. Can you say a short prayer for our listeners before you go? I would be honored. I'd be honored to.

Father. God, we just thank you so much for your goodness and grace. Lord, we thank you that you love us, that you're still the lifter of our head. You're still the lover of our soul Lord, and the empty tube still matters and the cross where you died

for our sin still has power. But Father your word still goes forth and it wants to heal, deliver and set free. So I pray for everyone, with a heavy heart today. Lord, I pray the lie of the enemy that isolates and robs from them their dignity, their value. Lord, I just pray that those words fall short and Father, we hear the word of God.

It reminds us that we are delivered, made [00:34:00] new and set free. And Father, I thank you for our host today. I pray you bless her. I pray you bless this show. I pray, Lord God, that you go before us and touch us. In Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

Thank you guys. Love you guys. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You could connect with [email protected] where you'll find our blog, along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week.

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In this episode, host Diana updates listeners on her trauma therapy before welcoming returning guest Mark Sowersby along with his wife, Jennifer. The couple discusses their new book, 'Letters to the Weary,' a 21-day devotional aimed at helping readers find rest and support through God's word. They share their personal journey of marriage and healing, offering insights for dealing with trauma within faith. Additionally, Mark talks about their award-winning short film based on his life and his involvement with the TCT Network’s show 'Ask the Pastor.' The episode concludes with a heartfelt prayer for listeners. 00:00 Introduction and Host's Update 02:23 Introducing Today's Guest: Mark Sowersby 03:46 Mark and Jennifer's New Book: Letters to the Weary 05:22 Mark and Jennifer's Personal Stories 11:29 Navigating Marriage and Healing Together 16:50 Writing and Publishing Letters to the Weary 19:07 Interactive Devotional Experience 20:07 Connecting with God Through Devotion 21:14 Personal Reflections and Genuine Writing 24:18 Film Project: Forgiving The Nightmare 26:01 Future Plans and Community Engagement 30:41 Final Thoughts and Prayer

https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Weary-Mark-Sowersby/dp/1951475399

Bio:

Mark and Jennifer have been married for over 20 years and have four beautiful children. Mark is a Lead Pastor and graduate of Northpoint Bible College. He is the author of Forgiving the Nightmare and has shared his testimony across the country in churches, seminars, and a variety of media platforms, including The 700 Club, Fox Digital, TCT Ask The Pastor, CTN, God TV, Cornerstone Network, and over 350 podcasts across the globe.

https://forgivingthenightmare.com/

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Transcript:

Mark and Jennifer Sowersby

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast, brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help.

Now here is Diana.

Hey everyone. Welcome to the podcast. So excited that you're here with me today.

We have a great show for you today.

I hope you're doing well.

A little update on my trauma therapy that I mentioned to you. I don't remember which episode that was, but I'm on like session five.

And things are going well. We are still in the [00:01:00] process of me telling my story. we haven't done a whole lot of unpacking. Mostly touching base with me as to how am I feeling, while I'm sharing with her all these things that I went through. Now I'm being more detailed

telling her my life story then when I was telling my story on the podcast, and even when I tell my story in my Mending the Soul groups. There's a reason of course for that so she has a complete picture and

able to pick the correct treatment plan to help me. So, uh, today I got a bill from my insurance company, for a hundred dollars. And up to this point, my invoices have been zero, which I'm assuming mental health with my insurance has been covered a hundred percent. So I was kinda like, what's going on?

I sure hope that I don't owe a hundred bucks every time I go see her, because I would not be able to afford that. [00:02:00] So I will be investigating about why I got an invoice, but again, don't be afraid to reach out to a trauma therapist, somebody that is licensed where you live, the state you live in, the country you live in.

If you need help, send me a message. I'll do my best to help you find something in your area. So,

Now onto our podcast and our guest today.

I'm really excited because I have a returning guest today, a friend of the podcast, Mark S owersby. He's been on the show twice so far. And I really want you to go back and listen to his previous episodes because he is probably in my top five guests that I've had on the show in the last five years, the life of my podcast.

That's why he's back on because he is excellent and, Mark is bringing his wife, [00:03:00] Jennifer, today, which will be fun. Mark was on the show on season one and that was episode 11. So he tells his story, I guess as much as you can tell your story on a podcast in an hour. and he's had this book, Forgiving The Nightmare is excellent.

That is about his story. He's been on a lot of very prominent podcasts and he even has a movie about his life that he has film this past year. The second time, he was part of our Bible series. How can I trust the Bible when I've been abused? So please go back and listen to those.

They are excellent. You'll be blessed. He is on the show again because him and his wife have written another book just as recently called Letters to the Weary. Of course I am wanting to know all [00:04:00] about it. But let me read you a little bit of the synopsis on the back of this book.

Life is filled with moments of confusion, doubt, and uncertainty.

These struggles combined with everyday life can feel impossible to overcome. Do you find yourself feeling weak and tired at the end of each day instead of fulfilled? Do you complain more than express gratitude? Have you lost hope that things can actually change? Letters to the weary is a devotional that will inspire and encourage you to find a place of rest, support and understanding.

Understanding your situation is not enough. We want to show you a way out. Letters to the weary is filled with testimonies, scripture, and encouragement bringing the reader to a [00:05:00] place of peace. It has been said that habits can be broken in 21 days. That may or may not be true, but we do believe if you wholeheartedly

commit to prayer and pursuing God for 21 days, our life will be forever changed. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? I'm always looking for really good devotional.

So Mark, individual bio is Mark Sowersby is a speaker, writer, pastor. In 2019, pastor Mark went through a time of great healing. He began speaking about the nightmare of abuse and years of suffering he experienced in his childhood, and how condemnation, shame, and guilt were replaced with forgiveness, joy, and life in abundance.

He now speaks about his story and testimony of healing, forgiveness, and freedom. Through his ministry Forgiving the Nightmare. So on his website, he is got a lot [00:06:00] of videos, his video testimonies on there. I'll let you watch that. But

you really are in for a treat. You're gonna love Mark. I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Mark and Jennifer S

Alright, we have back to the show today, Mark Sowersby, and for the first time we have his lovely wife, Jennifer, on the show. Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you. It's to be so much good to be with you.

Yeah, this is number three. I mean, you're just like a friend of the podcast, a regular here on the show, Mark.

Well, it's always a blessing to be with you and be able to share.

The testimonies and stories and the victories of the Lord with you and your audience. So thank you so much for having me on, and I'm really excited that my wife could join me. Uh, I'm really great. That's really a blessing. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, this is gonna be fun. [00:07:00] And of course we all know about Forgiving the Nightmare and your story.

Mark, we heard your story and then you were back. That was episode 11 was your story. That was season one. Wow. Thank you for being on my first season when I was starting out. I'm on year number five now, and then you run episode 100, you did our Bible series.

How can I trust the Bible?

Yes. Amen. I remember that. Yep. That was a great series.

So you're back on the show to talk about your new book, Letters to the Weary.

That sounds awesome. There it is. Yeah. There's a picture. There you go. There you go. Gotta get the angle right. Letters to the, we, our new book, A 21 day devotional.

It's, we're really excited about it. I wrote it with my wife Jennifer, and, we're really blessed to be able to have this, just published and released. Oh, just a few, about a month ago. [00:08:00] It's brand new right out there. It's. It's a little different from the first book I wrote, and that was testimonial with some scripture references and kind of a how to and a hold on to God.

And this is just, I got to put my pastor hat on and kind of share a little bit. So Jen and I were really excited to be able to write this devotional together. What do you think, Hon?

Yes, it was a good time to be able to do it together and to collaborate and I'm honored to write something like this with my husband.

So, Jennifer, tell us about your story, your background. 'cause we haven't met you on the podcast before.

Well, I came to know the Lord when I was five years old. My kindergarten teacher led me to the Lord and I've been following Jesus ever since. And he's kept me from things. I don't have the testimony where I did things and then I , you know, recovered from them.

I have the testimony that God kept me from ever doing them.

Absolutely. [00:09:00] Some people feel bad that they don't have this, well, I did drugs or I was a rebel or something. I really appreciate the stories that, I lived a faithful Christian walk my whole life.

That means that it is possible.

It is, it is, it is possible. Like that God can use you and, you can live a holy life. Now how did you and Mark meet?

I was the three to five year olds coordinator at church. And he was the children's pastor when I was old enough to meet. We've known each other for a long time, but he is seven years older than I am.

So when he realized who I was, I was an adult by that point, and he was like, oh. We were friends. And then when I was in my twenties, I went off to finish college and he realized he missed me. And he was praying about [00:10:00] who the Lord would lead to him to marry. And he's like, God, I need this type of person.

I need that type of person. And he said he felt like the Lord was saying, Hey, McFly, there's a girl down in Florida. She'd be the right one. Right. I knew Jen so long that, you know, I, I knew her parents and when I first got saved her, uh, mom and dad were involved as youth group leaders and like anything else, you go over people's houses for cookouts and pizza parties.

And, and Jen was there, but she was always the kid, you know, she was just the kid of the youth leaders, youth directors, youth helpers, and never really on the radar. And when I finished Bible college, I came back and Jen was our three to 5-year-old director, but she was as, as I say, she was all grown up.

You know, she was all grown up and, but really she wasn't like, I never saw her that way until one day in the prayer, prayer closet, the Lord said, Hey, McFly, uh, you know, she's right in front of you, you know? So, uh, we. We started a relationship, and I remember when I went to the lead pastor of the church, I, when [00:11:00] Jen and I were getting serious and we started to date, I, I went into the senior pastor's office just to kind of let him know.

And I, and I said to him, Hey Pastor, I want you to know Jen and I are gonna date. And he started to laugh and he said, you are the last two to know this. Everybody has known this. The whole church knew that you two were gonna date, you're the last two. So, uh, we started to date and then. The rest, as they say, is history with four kids.

And we're getting ready to celebrate 22 years of marriage. Wow. Amen. I love that story. And, I know your story really well, Mark, and the suffering and the abuse that you went through. I know Jennifer had to be, a huge, huge support through all of

the recovery and raising a family. So tell us, Jennifer, what was it like, supporting him in that way with his past and such?

I think we just, we just live life and I'm naturally, I think I'm a nurturer, so I think I, helped in that way. But, God had [00:12:00] already done a huge amount of healing before we were together because he's seven years older than me.

When we got together, I was 25, so he was, almost 33 by the time we got married. So God had already done a lot in his life. Even when you're healed of things, there's still scars. Like after you've had surgery. Like I had carpal tunnel surgery, many years ago. And even though the site healed for over a year, I couldn't put weight on that wrist without pain because the scar tissue was there.

And I think the same thing happens when you're healed. Emotionally or from other things, you know, traumas that have happened to you, you still have scars. That doesn't mean you're not healed. It just means that there's scar tissue there and. So we had to walk through that. Amen. Amen. I think that's a good way to put it.

Yeah. You know what, you don't know what you don't know, you know? So, of course a lot of my [00:13:00] trauma and hurts, pains, wounds, I brought to the altar. I dealt with my counselor coaches, pastors and friends, but that I've never married, I never had that closeness of a wife, the intimacy of a marriage.

You know that connection that you have. So I didn't know what I was gonna carry in there because I didn't know what marriage was like, and I didn't know how to, prepare myself or warn her or say here. I, we just kind of grew into this marriage together. We both brought our baggage in. My baggage was obviously loud and big, but we both carried our pain as people do.

And what we learned is we had to go to the altar of God. Uh, we had to go and lay our, our marriage down, our hopes down our family down. We laid all those moments, and it didn't mean that it was always easy. There were moments of tears and prayers and challenges and trials and blessings, but as we learned to trust the Lord, you'll hear me say all and each other and each other

because we had to communicate.

I mean, there were, we had to have some frank conversations about things and [00:14:00] mm-hmm. You know, where we, where I expressed where I was hurt in our relationship in the beginning

and, and then that left its own scars. Not that I was hurt because he did something wrong, just the pain of going through feeling like I had done something wrong because I happened to touch one of his scars, you know, where it brought pain to him.

So he handled it the way he did and then I handled it the way I did. 'cause again, neither one of us had been married before. Neither one of us had, dealt with things together. So we've had to deal with things, by communicating and working through things and god has the victory. Amen. Amen.

And that's true. You know, like I, I'll have to say, if you come to our church, I'll pray for couples at our altar. I'll say, Lord, help us grow closer to you so we can grow closer to each other. And I would say those early [00:15:00] years of marriage, as many early years of marriage as you're trying to figure it out.

Uh, you could have, uh, perfect backgrounds or you could have broken backgrounds, but you're trying to figure it out. Uh, time, money, communication, family, uh, re intimacy, intimacy, responsibility, all those things that, uh, you're trying to figure out. And, and just like anybody else, we had our ups and downs, but we had the altar to hold onto.

We had the word of God to guide us and we had friends that would hug us and love us through it. But 22 years we've done pretty good.

When there were times where it was difficult, that's when you run to God, because he's the one who fixes everything.

He's the ultimate healer. So when I didn't understand what was going on or when we were having, um, troubles and learning to communicate and learning to walk, navigate through these things, that's when I would spend time with God and I would just cry out to him.

Amen. And that's why I'm [00:16:00] so glad now that we've been able to. You'll come together and, and work together and parent together and have a home together and a ministry together. And it's blessing that my wife has beside me. So that's what's really excited that we published this book together. These 21 Devotions.

Uh, we both poured ourselves into 'em. Jen wrote some independently. I wrote some independently. Most of them we collaborated on. She knew a better word than I knew. I thought it about this way, she thought it about that way. And it was just a wonderful collaboration of a a 21 day devotional to pour everything that we're talking about you into these pages, to talk about communication and, and trust and ups and downs and lefts and rights, and, and how all God gets the glory.

And that's what we wanted to give in this, uh, new, our new book called Letters to the Weary. So I see that it's on Amazon. Did you self-publish this or do you have the same publishers Forgiving Nightmare? We publish. Yeah. Yep. We work with the same [00:17:00] publisher. He is, uh, our publisher's been a blessing to us.

He is really helped us hold, holds our hand. He is been my friend. He has been my writing coach. He is just kind of been everything to help me write these books , and him and his, team has been behind me a hundred percent. They were amazing. So you have testimony, scripture, encouragement. Can you give us an example of one of them?

Well, I'll tell you what I have, which, like the format. So, so we wanted to write it like a letter and Yes, what happened is I wanted somebody able to go in and read it and have enough of the day, you know, and somebody said, why 21 days? Why not 30 days? Why not 90 days? Why not 365 days? And I can just tell you Jen and I, the church we grew up in, it was very common for

in January, people would do a 21 Day Daniel Fast. It was kind of a tradition. It was just something that our church we grew up in, they would celebrate, the New Year by con doing a Daniel Fast. There's a book called The Daniel [00:18:00] Fast has to do with dieting and things like that. So whenever I thought about fasting or devotion, I always thought 21 days.

It is one of those things that got caught in my head. So, because that was in my spirit, in my head, we wrote this 21 day devotion, but we wanted 'em to be independently. We wanted 'em to standalone. Like, uh, the reader is reading a letter in my first book, forgive the Nightmare. We talked about the trauma. We talked about the hard times.

We talked about the big picture, the, but I wanted to say, okay, you've laid your trauma at the altar, you've given it to Jesus. Now what. Now how do I wake up Monday and Tuesday, and now what do I do? And we hope to put in the pages. Of letters to the weary. The next part, what do I do Now? I've given the big part to Jesus.

I've walked in victory. I've claimed it. I've confessed it. I believe it. I stand on the word, but now I gotta get up Monday and go to work. So we hope this, uh, this devotion in which again is filled with scriptures and testimonies and as you heard, real, real trials and ups and downs and victories that have poured [00:19:00] out of the.

The valley and out of the grace of God, we've tried to pour into this book and let God, uh, be blessed and honored by it.

I hope that when you read it, it feels like you're sitting down reading a letter from a friend and, and that's pointing to Christ and that's why we put the entire scripture in. We don't just put the references is what we write,

we fill out the entire scripture and that way ultimately you're pointed to the Bible, which. God's word and it is amazing. If you're not reading the Bible, you should be.

A spot, they're asked questions or reflections. Mm-hmm. And we, we put something in our devotion called the big question. So every, after every one of them, after every 21 of these devotions we have the big question. We left space in the book to journal, to write, to put your thoughts down. So again, we wanted to be interactive.

We just didn't want it to stand on the shelf. We [00:20:00] picture people a big old cup of coffee, the word of God, and our devotion, and they go in their prayer closet and, and serve the Lord that way.

Yeah, I think that it's a, a smaller book, then you can actually finish it and, get the process starting of connecting with God.

Maybe you don't know where to start with reading the Bible or prayer. You're a new Christian, or you've been away from the Lord because of, of course, trauma and abuse. You know, we're on the couch with God. We, don't understand why he allowed this to happen. This looks like it'd be a great transition into connecting with the Lord, just a short 21 days.

With some of my background, not only the trauma of abuse, but the trauma of academia being a dyslexic, you know? Yeah. In both of my books, I thought, well, what would I wanna read? I wouldn't wanna read this. 607. Now my wife may wanna read the big books, but I read

something you could [00:21:00] read in a plane. I think I would've been too intimidated if somebody handed me this. For me, I wanted to be able to read it, digested it, and then move forward. So I tell people my books aren't huge.

They're not big books, but they're full reads. Right. Uh, so that's how I always identify 'em. We really hope that it pierces the heart. We hope the scriptures fill the soul and confession of praise comes out of one's mouth.

And they're written to be something you can do even when life is crazy busy.

Yeah. So I, I'm a mom, the other thing, and so we wrote it in between life, so. We wrote it, you know, I would work on it when I was dropping the kids off at school. I'd be sitting in the car and, on the computer or, in between making dinner. And so it was written with life going on around us.

And so I hope that, he ministers to each person who reads it. Both of my books. I've always wanted to be really genuine. I. Really genuine [00:22:00] to the reader. And we tried to be genuine in this book. We tried to be as genuine and forgiven the nightmare just to say, look, we're real people.

We love an awesome God. We got ups and downs, lefts and rights. We got bills we're trying to pay. Uh, we got cars that are trying to fix. Life isn't always beautiful and there's hard days and tough days, but God is always good. And we wanted to share that in. In our books, and we wanna share that in this devotional letters to the weary.

Again, hopes it challenges you, makes you think, it makes you praise. We wrote it not only for the individual, but we think it would work good in a group too. Yeah, A bible study, a a men's group, a women's group, a grieving group, uh, a counseling group, a so we figure it has, it covers a wide variety of topics.

Anywhere from hearing God's voice to knowing you're loved, when you're having sleepless moments, when you're feeling like you just wanna blend in and hide just all different, topics. When you're not sure you wanna follow God, there's even a topic [00:23:00] on that. Yeah. When you're not sure where you wanna go.

But God is faithful and he loves us and he is there for us. He's there. 24 7, 365. It says in the Psalms, where can I go from your presence? If I made my bed, in the depths, who are there if I, up to the heavens are there. So no matter where you go, God is there.

Yes. Like I love that scripture.

We, we've been in the pits before, haven't we? Yep. Yeah, we have. We have. Yeah. But once you get out of the pit, it's an amazing view when you're out of it. Yeah. It is amazing when you get out. But it's nice to look back and see. When I was in the pit, God was still there with me, even though I couldn't sense him there.

Yep. Yeah. Yep. Even though I walked through the valley, I shadow death. I shall fear no evil. Yes. Yeah. Amen to that.

Now Amazon, is that the main place that we can find the book or is there other spots? Well, that's probably the easiest and [00:24:00] biggest place to find the book on Amazon, but it is on Barnes and you can go barn, Walmart. You can go to any search engine where they sell books. You go to our website and you can, connect there with the books. But really, if you want worldwide distribution and you want everybody to find it, Amazon is king in that world.

I hear you're this big movie star now. You have a short film about your life, Mark. Let's hear about that. Yeah, well, thanks. It's a great project. I don't know if I'm a big movie star, I might be big, but I'm not a movie star. So, what happened was a few years ago I connected with a great young

director and he and I got ahold of my book and, we started to discuss what to do. Well, it's a full book and in that there's so many twists and turns, ups and downs. It's about a life. It's about victory, it's about challenges. So we kind of had to take a snapshot of one scene of the whole book.

And, uh, we made a 20 minute movie and. We had a set and he had a cast and [00:25:00] we had the lights and we had the DP director of, we had it all. We had editors and, and, this young director, he was just ready to go. Tru Vine, studios, Tru Vine Pictures, a great young guy named Henry Kay. And he has just been my partner and my blessing.

So, so it took us about a year to make it from the moment we filmed it till I went through editing and sound and all the things that needed to be done. And then we started putting in film festivals. And, before you'd know it, we were nominated for many film festivals, all Christian film festivals, and there's one called The Crown, a Crown Film Festivals, which they tell Crown.

Mm-hmm. Crown Sports. And which they tell me is, uh. Kind of one of the most prestigious, or one of the most, recognized one in the Christian circles. And we were nominated for the best short film, at the beginning of this month. And we walked away with a bronze. So they give a bronze of silver and a gold, and.

And we won the bronze in the best short film category for the Crown's awards. And so we're [00:26:00] excited about what God's doing with that. We hope to do a feature film, that's our prayer, that Lord, we could do a 90 minute, two hour feature film where we get to tell the whole story. But for Forgiving The Nightmare Short film, we call it Forgiving Nightmare film.

You can actually go online. There's a website called Forgiving the Nightmare Film, and you can find a little, blurb or a little preview of the film there. And on your website you can see a clip of the film as well. Yeah, you can see a clip [email protected]. But, again, it's 20 minutes long.

We don't have the whole thing online yet because we're still in festival season. And so when that's done, we'll be releasing it online, but. Yeah we're excited that we walked away with that bronze award and now people are saying, let your people call my people. We don't know what God's gonna do next, but we believe it's all in God's hands.

Well, that sounds really exciting. It probably cost a lot of money to do that. Well, there was a budget for it. You're right. And I have to be honest, when you say make films,

I wrote the story. It was about my life. But really my [00:27:00] director and his team put it together. I have to, tip my hat. Yes, it was my story. Yes. He gave me room to collaborate, but it was really his eye and his art that, brought this film together. There was a budget, I think we did ours for about, 14 to $17,000.

It was a commitment to doing it, but most films are done for much more than that, so. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we're, we, were blessed to have a good team, a lot of volunteers, but we were given free access to a hospital area. The main scene is being filmed in like a hospital room and it's so hard to find hospital space, because they're always being used and you find when they're very costly to rent for the day.

But God just gave us favor with a school and they, allowed us to film at this place. So a lot of stories where God just gave us favor. We're blessed. It's out there. We hope to continue to, move forward to see what God's gonna do with it.

Ultimately, our prayer is [00:28:00] to make a feature film. I thought about Matt Damon playing me. What do you think?

I was just gonna say if I, you had somebody in mind, who would you want to play you?

Well, I think it's, first I thought about Arnold Schwartzenegger. What do you think? Me and Arnold? Matt Dammon, Mark Walberg.

Yeah. Mark. Mark. I dunno. But no, I'm just happy to have our story told. Who could play my wife? What supermodel will play her, so? Yes. When it comes out where we can all watch the film, that's gonna be a great day.

Has anybody come up to you yet and given you any feedback from the festivals? Yeah, yeah, this really changed my life, or. We've heard how people have been touched by it. We've heard how people have been ministered to it. We've heard how people have said they have felt the Holy Spirit through it and in it.

Mm. Uh, we've heard a lot of great comments. Again, we are in this film festival season, but from what I understand [00:29:00] is the plan right now is to release it on probably YouTube or something of that way. Probably, late summer, early fall. When the seasons are over. So we'll kind of release it that way.

So keep looking for us and we'll keep, continue to promote it. I'm sure when it's released on YouTube or one of these social networks, we'll be able to promote a lot of it and let people know it's out. We do wanna bring lots of eyeballs to it because we believe the story. The story's not about abuse.

The story's about forgiveness. The story's about how to overcome that trauma, and we tried to tell that in Forgiving The Nightmare. And we try to share that in Letters To The Weary. We don't wanna just talk about the pain, we wanna talk the victory, right? We wanna be honest, right Jen? We've always wanted to be honest, but we also wanna say, listen.

We got a hold of Jesus. As much as those early years , were trials sometimes and learning to communicate and learning to walk through. I think today we could say, we're about ready to have a 20-year-old, Jennifer. Wow. You are gonna be a mom [00:30:00] of a 20-year-old. Our daughter's

Just 17, 12, 15, 17 and 20. They're all teenagers. Woo. We have, two of them driving. So, we talk about the early years where I brought in my mess. She brought in her life and, but there's so many victories today, where God has moved.

And, my wife is now teaching a women's group. She's counseling with women. She's writing, these books. So I've just seen God bless my wife and help her grow. And I know that I'm growing and together the Holy Spirit's moving us forward with Forgiving the nightmare film, Forgiving Nightmare Books, and all the different expressions that God lets us do.

Yeah. Amen. So you've shared so much today, much about your relationship, your marriage, and the stuff the Lord's blessed you with to minister to others. Anything you want to leave our listeners with, if you both want to, give your last piece of love and [00:31:00] advice to them.

Well, Jesus says to come to him, all you who are weary and heavy burdened and he will give you rest and that's why we wrote this book. So you have a chance to pause and take some time and come to the father who loves you. With an everlasting love. Amen. And spend time with him. Amen. Pain, trauma loves to isolate people. Loves to, make us feel we're all alone.

We're no good, we're bad. No one will ever understand. And like my wife said, God wants us to come to him and to have that moment of Selah where we just pause and we hope that when you pause, you pause with the word of God. And if either of our writings, our ministry letters to the weary, Forgiving the nightmare can help you in that journey.

Let us just come to the Lord no matter who we are. Let's come and let God touch us and heal us, and we love God. And thank you so much for having us on. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yes, this has been great. And [00:32:00] having you, Jennifer. On the third time that Mark's been here. You guys are always welcome to come back.

If you do another book, another movie, you can just come on and I'll definitely, look forward to that. You guys are gonna probably do more stuff down the pike for sure.

However the Lord leads. We're really blessed. Hey, I just want you to know on Mondays you can find me on the TCT network.

I'm on a part of, I'm on a show called Ask the Pastor. So, you may have it in your market. But if not, you can go, always go online, on Facebook, on Instagram, go to TCT and it's a wonderful network. They have a program called Ask the Pastor, and at 2:30, every Monday, I'm a part of a panel. I'm not the host, I'm just one of the voices of the panel.

But if anybody wants to catch me, see my ugly mug, uh, you know, just turn to, to ask the pastor on TCT Network.

Oh, and we can ask questions? [00:33:00] You can, you can. You can do it in

and stump the pastor?

I think some people think it's called that, but it's really called Ask the Pastor. Oh, absolutely. I'll put everything in the show notes for you listeners.

And I don't remember if I asked you this before, Mark. Can you say a short prayer for our listeners before you go? I would be honored. I'd be honored to.

Father. God, we just thank you so much for your goodness and grace. Lord, we thank you that you love us, that you're still the lifter of our head. You're still the lover of our soul Lord, and the empty tube still matters and the cross where you died

for our sin still has power. But Father your word still goes forth and it wants to heal, deliver and set free. So I pray for everyone, with a heavy heart today. Lord, I pray the lie of the enemy that isolates and robs from them their dignity, their value. Lord, I just pray that those words fall short and Father, we hear the word of God.

It reminds us that we are delivered, made [00:34:00] new and set free. And Father, I thank you for our host today. I pray you bless her. I pray you bless this show. I pray, Lord God, that you go before us and touch us. In Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

Thank you guys. Love you guys. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You could connect with [email protected] where you'll find our blog, along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week.

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