Stephanie Josiah - Homeschooling Mom, Poet, Guest Speaker, and Author of "The Pregimony of Stephanie Josiah" (a high-risk pregnancy testimony) and "BITTER: When Church Leaves That Not Too Pleasant Aftertaste" is a quirky, young, stay-at-home mom and wife.
Mission Statement:
To love her family well and to uplift the church and unchurched body with words of encouragement.
Her heart:
"I have been through the fire time and time again, anywhere from everyday kinds of situations: deep depression and emotional/spiritual abuse... to less common situations: a high-risk pregnancy (complicated by Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome) and the eventual loss of our three year old son, Ishmael Jr... But I would waste my breath if I didn't use the lessons I've learned (good experiences and bad) to honor God and to tell others what He has put on my heart to share." - Steph Josiah
Topics that she speaks on:
+ The testimony from her high-risk pregnancy
(speaking on "The Pregimony of Stephanie Josiah")
+ Spiritual abuse and a warning to the church
(speaking on "BITTER: When Church Leaves That Not Too
Pleasant Aftertaste")
+ Not that TV Mom
(speaking on life experiences juggling: raising four
children, one with special needs, while homeschooling,
squeezing in time to do ministry work and even some
exercise!)
+ Bullying
+ Discrimination (ethnic and religious)
+ Depression
+ Prayer
+ Family Dysfunction
+ Etc.
Audio Sample: WGTS Breakaway Interview with Dr. Terry, visit
http://audio.wgts919.com/breakaway/stephaniejosiah092912.mp3
Calling Testimony
Stephanie was raised in the church and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior at the young age of five and has since had many amazing moments in her walk of faith. But the turning point, the moment where she received her calling to evangelism/sharing occurred when she went on a Christian youth retreat called Crosspoint.
She was never a part of the popular crowd in school or in church, and was teased pretty mercilessly whenever she was around her peers. When she left home for the Crosspoint trip, she was trying her best to just keep up with the activities and blend in with the sea of faces. The other girls from her youth group made it very clear that they wanted no part of her hanging around them, so she spent the first whole day pushing through activities and hanging out in the dorm room for some forced alone time. On the second day, with tears in her eyes, she decided to use the time to speak very honestly with God.
"God, I'm here are you there? I mean, I know you're there but are you listening to me? The other girls hate my guts and want nothing to do with me. I'm so alone! I came out here and I only know my group, I know you're up there, but man, I hope you're paying attention to me here... nobody else is." Somewhere during the one-sided discussion with God, she became bored with hearing her own voice and she decided to look at the clouds that passed by the window. Each cloud that passed slowly, she guessed at what it looked like. After a few guesses, another cloud formation caught her eye. The head of a camel, random as that is, was staring her right in the face. She smiled at the thought, "Wow, this is the clearest image I've seen in the clouds EVER. A God thing? Maybe." Suddenly, the camel stuck a bright red tongue out at her. (Typical if a person is used to imagining things like that, but not for her.) There was no sun peeking through the clouds, no explanation for the color red, just red poking through the mouth of the camel. She burst into happy tears and began to laugh uncontrollably.
It was a God thing! Stephanie found out that day that God was listening to her, that she had His full attention. Imagine that, just some awkward, unwanted teenager... snotting on herself in a room by her little lonesome and God was cracking a smile on her face because she needed it. In that moment of realizing that God wasn't just her Father He was also her friend, she asked Him to make it crystal clear what He wanted her to do with her life. The answer came in the form of that night's worship sermon.
A few hours passed, with a Bible in hand and her schedule swinging from her neck, she raced to the worship service and sat in the row with her youth group. Music was hype, the theme of Crosspoint was "XLR8" (Accelerate - teens are all into shortening things, so I guess the adults felt like going along with the flow) and just as everyone settled from jumping up and down to DC Talk... a clip from Titanic played. The clip was the scene where the ship had already gone down and people were crying out as they struggled for life in the water. Off in the distance the lifeboats' passengers were safe and were arguing about going back to get others. By the time they agreed to save as many people as they could from the water, most of them had already frozen to death. The scene faded to black and there was silence in the room. The camp pastor came out onto the stage and started to speak to the students about evangelism. He said that whenever people don't share the message of Christ with others, it is the same exact thing as sitting safe and dry in their lifeboats; not going back for anyone and not caring that there are people dying every day without knowing that there is a God that loves them.
Stephanie got the message/ the calling loud and clear. Ever since, there hasn't been a situation, good or bad, that didn't have a meaning or a lesson that was worth sharing with others. God has filled her life with so many experiences and she doesn't want to waste a single one if it means that even the slightest detail could bring another person into the knowledge that Jesus loves them and has not forgotten them!
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