Buried Not Broken: Mia Godfrey’s Journey From Communist Romania To Healing

In this episode of Couple O’ Nukes, I sit down with Mia Godfrey for a powerful conversation about faith, trauma recovery, addiction, grief, and God’s ability to redeem even the most painful parts of our lives. Mia Godfrey shares her story of growing up as the youngest of ten children in communist Romania, where survival, hardship, poverty, and fear shaped much of her early life. Through her testimony, we discuss what it means to grow up with faith around you, but still have to personally encounter God through pain, healing, and surrender. 

Ms. Godfrey opens up about childhood abuse, bullying, violence, and the early alcohol use that became a way to numb trauma before she even understood what addiction was. We talk about the difference between simply knowing Scripture and knowing God personally, as well as the shame, secrecy, and generational pain that often surround addiction and abuse. I also reflect on the phrase “hurt people hurt people,” while highlighting the deeper truth that healed people can help heal people. 

We also discuss Ms. Godfrey’s journey to the United States, the loss of her first husband, the passing of her sister, and how those seasons led her toward writing her memoir, Buried Not Broken: A Memoir of Survival, Sisterhood, and Starting Over. Her story shows how writing, counseling, accountability, Christian community, and obedience to God can become part of a long-term healing process. Together, we explore how God can use the very things we once tried to hide as tools to reach people who are still hurting in silence. 

Toward the end of the conversation, Ms. Godfrey shares Proverbs 3:5 and discusses her current work as a certified life coach, Bible counselor, EME practitioner, author, and retreat leader. We talk about women’s retreats, purpose, evangelism, and the power of one conversation to plant seeds that only God can grow.

https://miagodfrey.com/

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*Couple O' Nukes LLC and Mr. Whiskey are not licensed medical entities, nor do they take responsibility for any advice or information put forth by guests. Take all advice at your own risk.

Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple O' Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and I have a few favorite subjects that I'd like to address on the podcast, uh, one being the faith, of course. I run Radiating Faith Ministry, and it's always great to talk to other people about their journey of faith. I have found great reassurance and strength in hearing other people's testimonies and having biblical community in that relationship because sometimes when we're down and we can't see our friends in faith really give us a refreshing perspective that maybe the word just isn't given to us in the moment, or we're just too blinded to see. So I, I think it's always beautiful to have conversations of faith. And then, of course, covering, uh, addiction and recovery and just mental health, all of those topics together. I mean, they all overlap, and they're talked about a lot on the podcast, and I think we always say, "We're recovering loudly so others don't die quietly." Podcasting allows us to reach some people who may never seek counseling or church community or go to AA or go to an in-person thing in their life. They might just be scrolling on their phone and find this conversation. So I'm so excited to be here today to host this episode. Ms. Mia Godfrey, so great to have you here, and we're gonna get into your life story and what you do to hopefully make an impact and cultivate some life lessons to help other people today. So can you please tell us a little bit about yourself before we get into it? Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, so I'm Mia Godfrey, and I'm originally from Romania. I grew up, uh, under the communist regime, and I'm the youngest of 10 children. So, um, my family used to work extremely hard to put food on the table. That was the main objective of them working so hard. It was more like survivor. So everybody who we grew up with had the same concept. Look, you're working just to try to find food, and it makes it extremely easy for, uh, least people in the community where we lived to do other things for them to have an income. And for the majority was having a moonshine distillery somewhere hid in the back of their house. At least that's what we did. Mm. So from that- Turned out where when I faced adversity on my own and when I lost my father when I was 18 years old, that was the only thing I knew how to turn to, just alcohol. So from there, um, I came to the United States when I was 27 years old. I met my first husband, uh, and he passed away in 2015. Mm. And for every single loss, um, it was one of those things you mentioned, you highlight a lot, mental health. It was one of those things to try to figure out, um, how to survive it, how to survive it. But through all of it, I've seen God's grace. Now I wanna go back to being raised in communist Romania, which, I mean, let's talk a little bit about that, and then leaving the country. Oftentimes, at least, you know, in my knowledge, those are the kinds of countries that don't really want people to leave, correct? So how, how do you- Yeah ... leave the country? Uh, you know, you know, talking about around 27 years old, so still a young woman trying to figure out life. I mean, what kind of opportunity allowed that to happen? So you are correct. Leaving the country, Romania is a very prideful country, and, um, they invest in their people as far as academics. Like, kids start learning English in, um, uh... Like, they, in kindergarten, before they turn six, they're already learning two languages. So we're a very prideful country, and they do not want us to leave, and if you do, it's very rare that they will accept you back. So I lost my citizenship, which I didn't know, in 2012. Um, so I marry my husband. The way we met, I was a manager at a children's home, so he came on a mission trip, and, um, from there was history. Eight months later, um, we got married, and when I came here to the United States, everything was a shock. It was so extremely hard for me to, uh, get used to it. Like, you find absolutely everything your heart desires here. Hmm. Um, of course, I didn't have a driving license, so I had to, um, get my driving license. I got a job. So there's so many opportunities here in the United States that I would have never found in Romania. So I found an amazing job, which I've been there 17 years. Um, the part that I miss the most was the closeness of the family, because once I came here, I did not have that, but it, it was all worth it within God's timing. Hmm. And you talked about being the youngest of 10 siblings, correct? Yes. Yeah, that's, that's a lot. Yes. And is that common in Romanian culture? Is every family a pretty big family? My generation was extremely common, because during the communist regime, absolutely every family that I knew and every friend that I had, they had anywhere between eight to 12 siblings. Actually, one was 16. Wow. So because, uh- It was encouraged. Mm-hmm. And, um, also the government was paying more for every single child, but you also, you know, abortion was not legal, but- Mm ... my, uh, family, my mom was a strong Christian woman. She was a woman of faith. She was known as the prayer warrior in our neighborhood, in our church, and abortion would have never been a option. So, um, yeah, everyone I knew in my generation, they had a lot of siblings. Now, how do religion and communist mix in Romania? Because a lot of people would say the two sound apart, but I know there are some people who f- who believe that Christianity can be communist or vice versa. So how does that mixture work in Romania? So in Romania, one religion was encouraged, was Greek Orthodox. Mm. 87% of the country was Greek Orthodox. Anything outside of that, it was not accepted. It was not- Mm ... uh, approved by the government. So I remember my family, um, we were, it was called Brethren. I don't even know how to explain what it was. I know it was not Baptist. But we had to wear head cover, we had to wear long dresses, long sleeves, um, no jewelry, no makeup. So I'm really not sure. Um, the closest that I knew in Romania back then, it was Pentecostal. Mm. That it was as far as the rules. So I remember there were times that we couldn't go to church because we knew where the security was, or the police at the time. And only my mom and my older sister used to sneak out to go to church, and the kids would have stayed home. However, a few times a week, my mom used to open the door for other people in the, in our neighborhood to come, and they used to read the Bible and pray together and sing together and worship the best that they could because they couldn't have gone to church that week due to the security being increased. So from a communist perspective, uh, no, being a Christian was considered Greek Orthodox. If you were- Mm ... anything besides that, it was not allowed. Okay. Okay. Yeah, interesting. And so you had a pretty strong foundation of faith, but when your father passed away, did that make you question everything with the faith? So in my book, um, I put that I started drinking at a very early age. Um- Mm ... but I was hiding it. So I kinda do the best, did the best I could to play a double life. So I was acting like I was that good Christian, but every time I had a chance... I, I remember I was 13 years old and I came home from school, and I went to my father moonshine stash, and I got drunk, and then I went to bed. And for many, many years I was hiding that because I was so ashamed I'm gonna bring, um, embarrassment to my family. And I didn't wanna disappoint my mom. I didn't wanna disappoint my siblings. And I remember my father, my father was also, he, he battle with alcohol addiction all his life. And I remember there were times he used to come home, and he used to hit my mom because he always used to say she's stealing his alcohol. I did not have courage to confess until I was in my 30s to tell my mom. I remember I broke down because those images, I will never be able to rele- erase out of my mind. Mm. I saw my sib- siblings being beat. I see my mom because the alcohol was disappearing, and my mom was protecting... She thought she was protecting my brothers, but they were innocent in all of it. So because I, I've lived for so many years, yes, I had a foundation. Yes, I knew the Bible. I knew... I, I had memorized, like, pages and pages and pages because under the communist regime, um, we had to memorize absolutely everything. Even in school, everything we did at school for one day, we used to write it down, memorize it, and then erase it 'cause we didn't had enough notebooks. Um, so Bible was something that my mom was getting us to memorize daily. So before we went to bed, we used to recite different psalms and proverbs, and so I knew the Bible. I had the foundation, but I did not knew God at a personal level because I wanted to portray and keep this image that I'm such a good Christian. But the truth was I was so broken that when my father passed, I remember I was sitting at the, at the, um, c- side of the, where they were fixing to put him down in the ground at his- Mm ... at his funeral, and all my siblings are crying. My mom was crying. And I remember I was just standing there, and I was just so numb. Because that day, I end up stealing some pills from a lady's purse, and I took them with alcohol. And I was just standing there, and it took me many, many years to forgive myself that I couldn't even be at my father's funeral- Wow ... sober. So that's when I said, "I cannot live here anymore," because I didn't wanna bring shame to my family. And, um, I decide to leave home. So I actually left home when I wa- was 18 years old, and a part of that was because I didn't know how to walk away from my addiction. I didn't even know- Mm ... that was an addiction. Right. And I was trying to find ways, how can I still drink without humiliating my family? Wow. Now, obviously you've done a lot of work in recovery, so it's easier to look back now. Like you said, at that time you didn't even know it was an addiction. So looking back, I mean, you mentioned drinking as young as, like, 13. Why did you start drinking? Obviously one factor is it was easily accessible, so that made it a lot more likely because it was right there in, in your home. But w- what happened? Was it just curiosity? One day you're like, "Hey, let me try this stuff." Or was it, "I had a bad day. Let me see if this helps"? Why were you drinking and going to bed at such a young age? So, um, we experienced a lot of abuse as children. Mm. Um, and most of them was, um, at school or in the community. Uh, I remember the first day of first grade, we, my sister and I were so excited because we thought we're gonna make friends. But the first day, we got kicked and punched, and I remember, like- Wow ... uh, there were kids, they were pushing my face in the gravel, and they were stepping on my head. That, I remember I was this... Even there, there are times that even now I have nightmares where I get up and I taste the blood. So those beatings happened until I was about 14 years old. And a- as a six-year-old when I went to school, I did not understood why that was happening. I didn't. And then the teachers used to beat us, and I remember one of the teacher, um, used to hit us with switches on our hands until we have busted veins, and it, they were, like, bloody, and there's nothing my family could have done because that would have been more punishment for the rest of my family. Mm. One teacher one time, I remember, grabbed me by the head and slammed it in a black- a blackboard until it, it cracked, and there was no consequences. So how I started, I remember one time my father, I came home and I, I was just, just broken as a six-year-old, seven years old. And, um, my father was in the back, and he was making moonshine, and he used to always give me to try some. And I tried, and what I l- learned even as a seven, eight-year-old, um, yeah, I, I was getting numb. I realized that, oh, okay, maybe the pain is not that great. So that's, that's how young I was when I started trying it. But by the time I was for- 13, I already knew. It became such a habit. So I remember one time when I got drunk. I was 13 years old. I was at school, and I saw... We were at recess, and, um, I saw a girl being, being thrown, and I don't know if we need bo- need to take this out if it's not appropriate, but somebody got thrown from the third floor, a girl. Wow. And she fell in front of us, and that image stayed for me for many, many years. And, uh, I knew what happened. We've seen what happened. But we knew if we say anything, my family will pay the price. And I remember my sister and I, we promised we'll take it to the grave. And that day when I got home, I got so drunk, because I was like, "That's the only way to forget and get that image out of my head-" Right my mind. Um, but I've learned later on that, that, that was not a solution. It was just numbing the pain in the moment. But it was never, um, it was never something... Alcohol was not something that could erase those type of, um, trauma For sure. In fact, you know, this is a really reflective conversation because a lot of people talk about being bullied at school nowadays, getting called a mean name and stuff, and, and what you're talking about is on a whole different level. And I, I guess I can't understand it, so maybe if you could explain, like, why were the teachers and, you know, uh, adult figures so abusive to children? W- and it sounds like it wasn't even just children being disobedient. It felt like it was just a display of power. So now when... Now because I, I found healing, I found forgiveness, now when I can look back, I'm seeing that there were so many broken people. Mm. There were so many- Yeah ... and none of them knew how to fix it, and that's the only thing they knew from the generation before them. Like, my father ran away from home when he was 14 because he was tied with ropes and, um, f- they kept him... His family kept him inside for three days, tied with ropes. Like, that- that's the only love he knew. So all through my life, my father never said the words "I love you." He didn't know how because that was the only example he had. So then I'm looking back to my teachers, and they were all so extremely aggressive, but that's the only thing they knew from the generation betw- before them. And there were no consequences because they were in the authority, and you had to obey everybody who was in authority. Now everything changed. Um, the school where I used to get all the beatings and the abuse, they tore it down a few years ago, and they put a- Mm ... children's park on it. So it's almost like they're erasing the history what happened there. Wow. We also had a military base, like, two blocks away from my parents' house, and that's where our president was assassinated in, uh, 1989. That, um, in December, and that is when the communist regime ended. So they were assassinated two blocks on that mili- military base. And I remember as children, we heard those guns. We saw the helicopters. We... So what happened now? They completely tore down military base. To the ground. There's no... If you Google, you can find the videos with assassination. You could find the videos that it was a military base now there. But now you go, it's just the most beautiful mall we've ever seen. Wow. It's, it's fascinating what, what is on that land now. And beside it, they did one of the, not one of, the biggest soccer stadium in the close proximity, like close to Bucharest, which the- Mm which is the capital. That is the biggest, um, soccer field which does the Romanian sport. So every single thing that we experience, you can only find if you really go on a rabbit hole and really track it and Google it. It's still out there, but most of those things are slowly getting erased. Right. And I, I think it speaks a lot to just really thinking about everywhere we are has at one point been war grounds. It has been a place of death and abuse at some point. So it, it, it is kind of uncanny. I think it does speak a bit to redemption and new creation, uh, seeing these good things come to replace them. Although sometimes, like you said, it almost feels like they're trying to bury history, and there's a lot of that around the world, not just, you know, communist Romania- Yeah but around the world. One thing you mentioned that I wanna, you know, share a common quote is they say that hurt people hurt people. And you talk about seeing broken people taking that out, generational abuse. Uh, you know, I've been a, a victim of parents who had traumatic childhoods and took it out on their children. I've seen it in a lot of homes of addiction, of foster care, of different parental and teaching situations. I've seen a lot of people who get into the military who are hurt take out their rank and their power on people. But I like to say, I, I heard someone once say that hurt people hurt people, but healed people heal people. And I, I really like that saying because I think that's a good way of replacing the, the hurt with the healing. Uh, it does allow you to heal other people who are hurt because it gives you that perspective and that insight, and that's why we're having this conversation like this- Yeah ... you know, to talk about the healing. And so let's focus on that for a bit. How did you get rid of the addiction, walk away from it? I mean, obviously it was not easy. It was a, a process that, I mean, a journey and a battle that you had since your teenage years. So at what point did you say enough is enough? I actually said that so many times, uh- Mm until- Mm ... I allowed God to actually step in and do the work. So in Romania, the way we grew up, we didn't have access to therapy or counseling or- Right ... or coaching, none of that. I didn't know anybody who went to try to get help to help them with alcohol, because they don't see it as a problem. They see it as, look, we all gotta cope with it the best that we can. So I left home, I went from bad relationship to the worst relationship, that they were all physical abusive, and I've learned through that. Now when I look back, I've learned that I gravitated towards that because that was the only thing that was familiar to me. The abuse and the beating, that was something that I was so comfortable with, that I didn't know anything else. So when I was in my mid, um, mid to early 20s, um, I was in one of these abusive relationship and things got really, really bad and I end up having to leave. And, um, I heard about this Christian college that was taking students. I had no money. I had absolutely nothing, so I literally just went, uh, talked to somebody, see if I can submit, and I moved 800 miles away, where- Mm what I've noticed there, accountability came in place like I've never had before. So I was living at the dorms, and there was no such a thing like if you got drunk, you get kicked out. And I said, "I have no place to go. I will get kicked out." So what I did, I changed one addiction to the other, which it was not easy because it was time and time. I was doing good for a while. I was falling off the wagon. Yeah, get back on it. But I end up getting three jobs. One, I needed to pay for the college somehow. Two, it kept me so busy. I used to get up at 5:00 a.m. and I used to work at the children's home, then go be administrative assistant at the college. Then in the weekends, I used to go clean houses for, uh, reach. And what I've noticed when I was surrounded by somebody and not have that, uh, opportunity to go buy the alcohol, um- I realized that's something that I need to put that boundaries in place. So if I had to go in the city, if I could take a child with me from the children's home, that's what I did. If I had to go to class... So everywhere I went, I make sure I had accountability with people who knew that I was struggling, the kids didn't though, um, to help me accountable. So it was extremely hard. Sometimes my heart is breaking when I hear people, "Well, they're just letting the Satan to use them, and if they wanna stop, they stop." It's, it's not as easy. When we deal in addiction, it could take years and years of, of struggle. But through God's grace, I was able to get clean. But when my first husband passed away in 2015, that was my biggest fear. I was in the United States. Nobody knew. That part of my life was still a secret. Everybody knew me as this person who was involved in church, teaching the kids, ha- uh, do good at the job, but nobody knew anything about my past. Nothing. And everything came about in 2023 when my sister got diagnosed with cancer, that she kinda gave me the freedom and she said, "You gotta forgive yourself, and then all the secrets that we made as children, you need to write them in the book." Which that came with a whole lot of, um, backlash. But, um, that's how I did it. I surrounded myself with the right people, and eventually I, I seeked help in, uh, counseling and therapy. Mm-hmm. Now, your sister's passing, y- she mentioned the book. So when did you have the idea to write, uh, your memoir? So I ha- I did not. She did. Oh, okay. So in 2023, um, so by this time, in 2023, one of my sister, the one that's the closest to me, she got diagnosed with ovarian cancer. And my husband, my second husband, I remarried in 2020, um, he said that if I need to go take care of her, it would be okay, which it's very rare to, to ... I, I will forever be cra- grateful to my husband for saying that. And for 11 months, I traveled to Montana, I am from Tennessee, and to be her caretaker. I maybe came home one weekend out of the month, and then my husband came there maybe one weekend out of the month so we could see each other, but I was her caretaker. So during that time, she said, "You know, we make so many promises as children." And to that point she was the only one that she knew the demons that I was battling all my life, and then my husband knew, 'cause I told him, "Look, we can't have alcohol in the house. This is gonna be a lifelong, um, battle that I have to always be careful and mindful, like, to remove myself from the presence of alcohol if I can." I'm not judging the ones that they do, but I know my, my demons and my struggles. So she encouraged me. She said, "We need to write our story, our memoir." And I say, "But those are a lot of stories that could still hurt my family," because they live in the same house and in the same neighborhood where we experienced all that abuse. And say, yeah, but think of the people that could be encouraged, could be touched, and, and how many people could actually relate to those secrets. So during her, uh, uh, when I was taking care of her, we start putting together some stories. So m- uh, the, maybe the five, five, six, first five or six stories in the book is we were writing them together, but then she passed away. So I came back home and I told my husband, "I, I have no purpose." She was my lifeline. She was the only person in the entire world that knew absolutely everything about me, and she was always the one that was encouraged me to reach out to the Lord. And I said, "I have a relationship with the Lord, but you're my best friend. You knew me. I mean, you've been there with me every time we got beat up or abused in any way." And it was extremely hard, and that's when my husband encouraged me to see a therapist. And she said, "You know, I, I think you should write." And I was like, "I'm not a writer." I said, "You should just do it in your journal." So I started putting those stories in the journal, and I realized the more I was writing, the more healing I was receiving. Like, like me abusing alcohol was something that I carried over 40 years, and I feel like I have- Wow ... to hide that. Because as a woman, I say, "How will people see me if they know that I've been faking it all this time?" I'm not as great as people at work think I am. I'm battling demons every single day and every single night because I'm still battling PTSD from some of the things that we witnessed. Right. And, um, after about three months, my therapist and my husband read it, and they say, "You gotta publish it." So that's how the first book came out. It's called Buried Not Broken: A Memoir of Survival, Sisterhood, and Starting Over. And the reason I named it that is because my mom used to... extremely wise woman, but, um, she always used to say, "Look, we're not broken." I didn't even know we were poor until later in my teenage years when I heard somebody at church, "Hey, we gotta help that family. They're struggling." And I went home, and I told my mom, "I think we need to help them, too." And she says, "Sweetie, they were talking about us." And it broke me. I was like, "I thought we were rich," because my mom was trying to, you know, teach us that. But she was the one who said that under the communist regime, they tried to bury us, but they didn't know that we were seed, and on God's timing, we're gonna bloom. And back then, those thoughts were like, okay. Didn't really make sense to me, but now I understand that for the first time. I see how everything we went through and all the parts of me that I was trying to hide, those are the parts that God is using for me to reach out to women that are struggling in silence. Every single part that I was trying to bury and not let anybody know about it, those are the stories that can help me reach women that I would have never reached otherwise. Yeah, we've had a lot of great conversations on this podcast about those parts of our lives. And, you know, I always like to quote Genesis where, uh, you know, Joseph's brothers discover him and he says, "What you intended for evil, God intended for good for what is being done now, the salvation of many." And I think, uh, also even from the non-faith-based perspective, all we can do is maximize, you know, the life lessons and cultivation benefits from the hardships we've been through. Because we can't change that we've gone through them, but we can take as much as we can out of them to help other people and, and ourselves. And so I think, you know, it's really important, and it does show, uh, perspective a lot. So I think that's amazing that you have that memoir. I wanna talk a little bit about something you mentioned just, uh, on the side there. You said there was backlash. Is that from your family, from other people? What do you mean there was backlash when it came to telling the whole truth in the book? Um, so I'm the youngest of 10. I have six brothers and three sisters. Mm. And every single brother say absolutely not. That cannot come out. Uh, those are secrets that need to stay buried. And their concern is that there will be repercussions on them since they live in the same area. But I assured them, like- It ca- it can be there too many people sticking out now, too many people. I have so many from Romania that reached out and said, "I've been living in fear all my life, all my life, and I thought those would be secrets I'm gonna take to the grave." And, and it makes such a big difference to know that I am not alone, and we can speak freely about that. So my, um ... the majority of my family still haven't read the book, and they're afraid to. Um, they're afraid of what I put in there. Uh- Mm ... they asked me to please do not put their names in the book, which I did not. I know they love me, and I know they're trying to protect the best that they can, but they still live in the fear there will be repercussion. Um, also, um, a lot of people did not want me to put about my past relationship, the abusive relationship. And as I changed the names just to try to protect them as much as I can, I felt that that was necessary to put in there that, yes, I'm not able to have kids because the beatings that I received from my fiancé, y- and, and that will be something for the rest of my life that affected me. But I can't get them t- to take ... I'm, I'm not into revenge, but I'm into accountability. Like, that stuff does happen. Um- Mm ... but what I learned from it, like, I had a part also because I knew that that was not a good relationship, and I still got drunk, and I still went out with him, and I still ... So I'm taking ownership as well, but there were some stories that I said that I'm gonna stay true to the facts. So that's something that not everybody was okay with. And we have the second book that's coming out, uh, the end of July, will be for pre-order. Um, that one the same. I'm, I'm nervous. I wanna celebrate, but there is so much rawder, raw, uh- Mm ... stuff in it that it, it's not gonna be easy to put my life, th- to continue to put my life there for everybody to my story, for everybody to see it. Mm. But God put that in my heart, and if it can help one person, um, then I will continue to do it. 100%. We gotta be obedient to the Lord and speak the truth and, uh, not fear the repercussions. But whether they do come or not, we know that, uh, persecution and suffering is part of being someone who speaks the truth and brings to light that which is hidden in the dark. So I appreciate what you're doing, and I know it's not easy to write about that stuff. It's not easy to have the weights of anxiety and, and fear and doubt on you on top of reliving some of those experiences, going through detail moment by moment those experiences. So I completely understand, and I think people don't understand that. People who have never written a memoir or kind of journaled about their life, uh, sometimes they don't grasp the, like you said, the raw depth of it. Uh, not just for others reading it, but for us, especially as the author. Even after healing, sometimes it's more difficult after healing to go back to that place that we don't wanna go back to. Yeah. Uh, so I, I completely agree. And then one thing I wanna have you share, uh, anytime I have a faith-based guest on the podcast, I'd love for them to share one quote of scripture, uh, that is on their heart in the moment. So if you have a quote of scripture that you could share with us, that would be greatly appreciated. Yeah. So, uh, one of the verse that, um, is close to my heart and also my sister before her passing, I always keep it beside my laptop- Mm ... is, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding," Proverbs 3:5. Because there's so many times, um, we're all gonna go through hardship in our life, every single one of us, and, and it's gonna be different. And it's easy in the moment to get depressed or upset and try to ask or, or question God, "Why is this happening?" But if we trust him fully, e- e- even when it looks unfavorable, when we trust him fully, we know that there is a purpose. We have to have that faith that there is a purpose. And for me, I didn't understood that until my sister passing. Now I understand with all my heart that we all have a calling and we all have a purpose, and God can use every single one of us. We just have to be willing to be obedient. So, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." That has been my life verse. And as we get into the end of the episode here, I wanna talk about you being a certified life coach, a Bible counselor, an EME practitioner. Can you talk a little bit about the work you're doing now outside of your book to help people? Yes. So, um, I, uh, actually, the Lord put on my heart to start doing retreats for women. One of my prayers after my sister, uh, w- after I started my healing journey and I started getting certified, um, in everything I could, um- I start praying, "God, please start putting in my path people who are hurting in silence. Start putting in my path people who carrying that weight of life and trauma and tragedy and grief and loss, they feel like they have to carry it alone." And that they're talking and, and, and they bring it to the Lord, but there is such a power in community when we all like, "Look, I've been through something as well." There is such a power in that. So I start retreats for women. So the first retreat will be August 14th to the 16th, and it's called the Reset to Purpose retreat. And the Lord put on my heart to start doing four retreats a year, um, and do some, um, conferences to, uh, like empowerment for women. Of course, gentlemen are welcome to come as well. Um, but I'm some... Uh, I'm sorry. The second book is coming out for pre-orders I think the end of July, and will be... the launch date will be September. And the fourth... Uh, no, I'm sorry. The third book is all about finding your identity and finding God's calling on your life. That's the third one, which, uh, I'm fixing to submit ma- the manuscript. So God is working. God is working in amazing ways since the book. I have clients in different parts of the world, not just here in the United States. And due to, uh, shows like this that people can actually get tune in or scroll and just find little segments to listen to. So thank you so much for having me, because you're truly making an impact. Yeah, and I think that's part of the thing. You know, we talk about God is using all of us, and oftentimes we're like, "How can God use us?" And I, I think of, you know, all the different ways. Everywhere you go, you have an impact and a chance for evangelization. You know, I think about even one time I was at a bar for a happy hour, and I was talking about Hebrew words in the Book of Ezekiel, and a homeless man overheard me and sat down and had me preach to him about the Bible. And I think about what, what a crazy place to, to be talking about the Bible. But that's because everywhere I go- Yeah ... I, I bring it up. You know, my, uh, mentor, Johnny T., he's a Canadian nuclear operator and minister, and every grocery store he goes to, he asks the cashier, "Is there anything I can pray with you about?" You know, like, everywhere we go, we have the chance to evangelize. Not to- Yeah ... you know, force the Bible on people, but to open their eyes to relationships and healing. Uh, I think, you know, that's huge. And so whether it's through writing, whether it's through a podcast, whether it's through in-person connections, we have all these little opportunities to make an impact because our job is to plant the seeds. The, the- Yeah ... watering, the growing, that's God. The conversion is God's. And planting that seed can be as simple as having a conversation, praying for someone. Even, you know, if they don't believe, just them being reassured that you believe, uh, can be enough sometimes. Mm-hmm. And sometimes it's not for them, but actually they're gonna pass that bit of information on to someone else. So we ... I, I talk to people all the time, like being a podcast host- You don't always see who's hearing the word and where they're hearing it. Maybe you see that some person in this country listened to it on their phone, but did they engage with it? We don't know. And what we don't know even more so is how many people did they go tell about? You know, how many people- Yeah ... heard our conversation and, you know, they didn't have their whole family listen to podcasts, but at family dinner they were talking about it, being like, "Hey, this woman was in, you know, communist Romania, and she said something that really sat with me, and I wanna share with all of you." So I think we should never underestimate the power of a single conversation. So everywhere you go, uh, just be talking, not always just about the word, but just by being a kind human being and asking people how they're doing, you can change someone's day. And as someone who has interviewed people who stop suicides just by asking someone where they were going or what they were doing, like, it has the p- it-- the Bible says the tongue has the power of life and death, and it talks a lot about how what you say has consequences, not just for yourself, but we don't realize how it affects other people. So definitely reflect on that. Yeah. We're gonna have your website in the description below where people can get your current book, and then pretty soon your second book, and then a third one. And I'm sure it was one of those things where, you know, you told God, like, "I didn't expect one book, let alone three." You know, God always, uh, kind of assigns us more than we think. So it's- Yes ... definitely a, a great blessing. And now you're guesting on podcasts and everything. So, uh, we never know how God's gonna use us. So as, um, the other day, I interviewed Dr. Bryan Arnold, as he said, "You are someone's-- you are the answer to someone's prayer. It's not up to you how you get used to answer prayers." Yeah. "It's just up to you to be available for God to use you." So surrender yourself to God. Let him use you, whether it's books, podcasts, or whatever it may be. And Ms. Godfrey, thank you for letting God use you to be a part of my life, to be a part of the life of everyone listening to this podcast, and to all the people you're helping now with your impact, and thank you for your time today. Thank you so much for having me.