WEBVTT
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Hey, welcome everybody once again to Flying Leaves.
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It's great to have you here once again.
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This is Rick Berg, your host, and excited to have another one of our young adults on our podcast as we think about living faith in a restless world.
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And today I've got with me Augusta.
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Welcome.
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Thanks so much for having me.
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I'm excited to be here.
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It's so good to have you here, Augusta.
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And I just want to get right into your story and you know need to take it back because, you know, getting to know you a little bit, I realized that a big part of your story happened when you were actually a quite a young girl, seven years of age.
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Can you tell us a little bit about that event and that experience?
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Yeah, so when I was when I was seven years old, me and my family, we would go to Lake Ontario a lot in the summers.
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And one summer, right about the beginning, it was June 30th.
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My family had taken the boat out, and my dad was water skiing, and I was kneeling on the front end of the boat, not holding on to anything.
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I don't know why.
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The front part of the boat?
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Yeah, the front of the boat, the bow of the boat.
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Yeah.
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And it was like a stormy day, so the water was quite rough.
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And when they had slammed on the brakes because my dad had fallen into the water, I went over the end of the boat and I went underneath the boat.
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I had hit my head, and the boat propeller had amputated my left leg.
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So it was 95% amputated.
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Which looking back, I was very lucky because it could have cut like my head, it could have cut my body, it could have cut anywhere.
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So yeah, I was in the water and I had swam back into the water.
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I had swam back to the boat to my mom, and I had told her that my leg was gone.
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And I didn't know that it was still partially attached.
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So we were in kind of the middle of nowhere and we had pulled up to someone's dock, and we were on the dock.
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My dad had tied off my leg while we were waiting for the ambulance.
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And because it was a stormy day, it had taken like over an hour for the paramedics to get there.
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So I was slowly bleeding out and dying.
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And I had lost like three times my blood volume while that was happening.
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Do you remember anything about being on that dock there at all?
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The main thing I remember is there was we were on someone's dock, and the people were there also helping us, which would have been very traumatic for them as well.
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I do remember, like, as I was in shock.
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And I just remember that it was like this reminder in my head over and over again because it was like all I could see was just like bright, like it was just like super bright in my eyes.
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And I had just remembered that I couldn't close my eyes.
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Like I knew that if I had closed my eyes, I would die.
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And so I was just like fighting to stay awake.
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I obviously exhausted to keep my eyes open.
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And so it was just this constant reminder.
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And I remember telling my mom that actually, like a few years ago, that I still to this day like remember, that's like the main thing I remember was that I couldn't close my eyes.
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But I don't remember if anyone had ever told me that before that if you're like in shock, you should never close your eyes.
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But I now knowing it was God the whole time there with me and keeping me alive.
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So you were taken then to a hospital close by, or yeah, I was airlifted to Sick Kids Hospital.
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And another miracle, it just so happened that when we got there, all the specialized top doctors were there for a conference.
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And so they were able to take me into surgery and rush me into surgery, and they didn't know if I would live.
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Like my family had no idea if I would survive, but they were actually able to reattach my leg.
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And it was actually one of the first amputated reattached legs.
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They limbs, they didn't know if it would work, they didn't know if they would have to like take it off later on.
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So I spent like around over a month in the hospital.
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It was a very hard time for me and my family.
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It was very rough, but at the same time, like he gave me so much strength during that time as well.
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Like I was able to slowly recover.
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And yeah, they didn't know if the reattachment would work.
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They thought that if I could walk again, it would take about a year.
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And so for about like the first month, I was in a wheelchair when I got out of the hospital.
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So I went everywhere in a wheelchair.
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I hated being in the wheelchair.
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I would try to get out and move myself as much as I could.
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And then it was like two months later where I took my first steps.
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Okay, let me go stop right there.
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So at that point in your life, did you come from any type of faith background, or did you guys go to church?
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Because I mean you you just went through something pretty traumatic.
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And so, how did you manage to keep going or have an attitude of hopefulness, even in your life?
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Well, I didn't grow up in a Christian house.
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Like I I knew nothing about Jesus, nothing about the gospel.
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We would go to church, but that was only for Christmas Eve.
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So there was no actual like faith behind it.
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My parents, neither of them grew up in a religious house either.
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Actually, like the biggest thing that got me through that time was the movie Soul Surfer.
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I would watch that like I watched that too much.
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I would watch it like every single day for a month.
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When I was in the hospital, like maybe just to just mention what that show was about.
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Soul Surfer is if you haven't watched it, it's about a girl and she's like a pro surfer in Hawaii.
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And she was surfing one day and a shark came and bit off her arm.
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And she's like she is a believer, like she has a super strong faith in Jesus.
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And so when she went through that trial, like she overcame and just it's a movie a lot about like overcoming a trauma, but also her faith was really inspiring in Jesus because like he gave her a lot of strength through that too.
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And so that was like a big part of her recovery, and she was able to surf again.
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And yeah, it was just a story about that, was like her testimony as well.
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And so when I would watch that, I remember talking to my mom and I was like, Do you think God is real?
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Like, do you think he had saved me?
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Like, how is this just luck that I don't even just like survive but also get to keep my leg?
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So that was like I don't know that that movie really helped me a lot.
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And I remember kind of thinking about it a little bit, but I don't know.
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I would talk to my mom about it a little bit, but no one in my family really believed in Jesus, which is like crazy that even after such like a traumatic incident happens, we didn't really think about it that much.
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And a lot of people in our lives had said that they like had prayed for us or that God had saved me.
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So there's definitely people that could see that.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And so let's fast forward just a little bit as you're going into junior high and high school.
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Your mom had uh an experience with the Lord that seemed to be important for you and for your progression into the faith.
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Yeah, it was around, I think I was in grade 11 or 10.
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It was during COVID, or it was actually around COVID was when my mom like that was when we saw like the shift in the world, and kind of just saw that it wasn't like the greatest, and that there was probably, I don't know, a lot of dark things at that time.
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And so it wasn't until like a few years later after COVID that my mom had decided she wanted us to start going to church.
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And I think that she had found God, she had been saved, and that's her own story to tell.
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But she had an encounter with Jesus and she was saved, and then she had decided that she wanted us to start going to church because she believed in God and knew that there was something good, yeah.
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So, yeah, that was in high school when I started going to church.
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We started going to Rock Point Church.
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I was not, I did not really have any interest in going to church at that time.
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I was just wanted to hang out with my friends.
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I didn't want to spend my Sundays there.
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So for the first little bit, I just only went because my family had wanted me to go.
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And so when did when did finally the kind the the faith kind of catch you?
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I would say it was when I was in grade 12, so like two years ago now.
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Yeah, we had moved churches because it just wasn't working for us, and we started going to redemption.
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And around that time when we started going, I was really enjoying the sermons and I met a lot of really amazing people, and just like this curiosity just started to grow inside me.
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I was just curious because again, like I knew nothing about the gospel, so I would go to church, but I didn't really know what they would be talking about or anything like that.
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And so it was like around Christmas time where I had watched the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told.
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Yeah, it's really good.
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So I started watching that because I was just this like hunger honestly was just like growing inside of me and this curiosity.
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So I had started watching that and it started to make things make a lot more sense.
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And yeah, I just remember when I had finished the movie, I prayed the prayer to Jesus.
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I just got on my knees and I didn't know what to say, but I I just prayed to him and I was just like pretty much just like Jesus, like, if you're real, like I pray that you would reveal yourself to me and that I would be able to believe in my heart that you're real because I struggled a lot with like actually believing that he was real.
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And then it was just one day in church, we were sitting there and I just was overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit.
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Like he had just encountered me, and it was just the most overpowering like feeling of just like love, and like I can't even explain it.
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It was just really amazing, and it just like clicked in my brain that I was like, of course, God is real.
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It was just like this flip had switched in my head, and I was just like, What have I been doing?
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Like, of course there's a God, of course he's real, and so it's kind of just been since that day on that I have been following him.
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I got a Bible and I just started reading it, and yeah, so he's grown me so much, and especially this past year as well, has been really amazing.
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You know, it's interesting.
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So you you kind of gave your life to Christ in that grade 12 year.
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But so often I think what happens often is that once God comes into her life, I think the devil actually wants to work a little bit hard because it's like I'm gonna lose this person if I don't get on her.
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And so a fascinating story is in grade 12, after you became a believer and you had the teachings of God's word, reading the Bible, but there's always other teachings that come into play, aren't there?
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And you experienced that at high school.
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Could you just share this?
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Because it's important for us to understand this in this world.
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Yeah, for sure.
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Well, I had gone to the same church or to the same school since I was in grade four, Rundel Academy.
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So it's not a Christian school at all.
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There was like very few believers that went there.
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And I actually remember telling my mom that, like, if I had been saved earlier, if I had been a believer, even like a year earlier, I probably would have switched schools because that school environment was quite toxic, especially like as a Christian at that time, especially because I was quite new to the faith.
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Yeah, it was kind of hard.
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A lot of my teachers were super just like anti-religion, anti-God.
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I remember in social class one time, we were in our church, and my social teacher had written 666 on the whiteboard.
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This is the joke.
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Yeah, it was it was he was super aggressive about it, which made social quite brutal because a lot of times it was just like funny jokes about God or making fun of God or mocking him.
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And my English teacher, we were doing something about like medieval writing time, something like that.
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And she had said, like, put your hand up if you're a Christian, and me and two other people put their hands up.
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And she was like, I have read the Bible so many times.
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Like, it's just so funny to me how people like think it's real.
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And she had told us still like one of the strangest things someone has ever said to me before, but she had told us to go in our room and turn the lights off, and we just need to think evil thoughts to make good stories for this paper assignment she wanted us to do.
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She's like, Go in your room in the dark, conjure up dark things, and she was like giggling about it.
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And then my Spanish teacher, this was all also when I was in grade 12.
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Like this, I hadn't really recognized until grade 12.
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Like, there might have been other teachers that were super against God as well, but I don't know, it was grade 12.
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It was very strange.
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It was like this whole like shift.
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And then my Spanish teacher one day, she wanted to do tarot cards, the tea reading things where you like drink the tea and see what's on the bottom of the cup, and then palm reading, and she was playing like witchcraft music.
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So there was definitely a lot of darkness happening when I was in my final year of school.
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I was very happy to be done high school when I left.
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So when you came out of that environment, then thankfully, you entered into another community.
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Tell us a little bit about the importance of that.
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Now, was that prior to your baptism?
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Or it was no, that was the revival Bible study.
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I started going after my baptism.
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Okay, okay.
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But like even before my baptism, I had met like one of my best friends now.
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Like she's a super strong believer.
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And I've I after I graduated, I had met so many other believers, which was really like really helpful because like before then, no one, none of my friends, or like even my like extended family, no one's a believer.
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So it really helped me grow in my faith being around other believers as well.
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And then yeah, going to revival Bible study has helped me in my faith journey so much, genuinely, just like the people there who are all just so on fire for the Lord, and everyone just just striving to be as Christ-like as possible, and everyone can lean on each other and just talk to each other and just have really good conversations about God.
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And so that has helped me grow my faith so much, as well as just like spending like one on one time with Jesus too.
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Like I have I feel like the past like seven months, he has grown me so much, like it's been really amazing.
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Yeah, so you're one of the things that you did was your mission trip too.
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Was that was that important or what happened?
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Yeah, I went to El Salvador in June, this June.
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Yeah, a lot of I had decided it was because so I met McKenna at Center Street Young Adults and we had become super good friends.
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She introduced me to revival Bible study, and then she was talking to me about this mission trip to El Salvador that she wanted to go on, and I was like, we should go together, like I really want to go on a mission trip, and this was like all around the winter time.
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So then we attended, we went to like all the meeting stuff, all the fundraising, and yeah, so we went to El Salvador in June and we went for eight days and we built 20 houses in eight days.
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Wow.
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It's through the organization shelter, it's like a Christian organization, and yeah, so we were able to provide.
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Well, the Lord provided a lot of houses for the people there.
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It was one of the most like amazing experiences of my life, especially because like it's quite a Christ Christian country there now.
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And a lot of the families and the people, like materially, they had absolutely nothing, but they were some of the happiest, most loving people I've ever met in my life.
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And so it also just gave like such a good perspective, too.
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And just to see that Jesus was working there, and yeah, it was really a good trip and definitely helped me and my faith a lot too.
00:18:30.690 --> 00:18:32.210
So let's fast forward.
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Leg almost no longer part of your life.
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How is it now?
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Now it's really good.
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It's almost as if I have a normal leg.
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I mean, there's I can do pretty much anything, like there's a lot of things I can do.
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Um a lot of I still play the same sports I used to play, everything like that.
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Yeah, like obviously, sometimes it can cause me pain if I do like a lot of walking and stuff like that.
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But for the most part, I've actually never felt stronger.
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And a big part of it has been actually my job because I teach Pilates, so I teach math Pilates and reform Pilates, and I love it, like it's so much fun, but it's also helped me so much as like a way of physio as well for myself because I've done like physio pretty much my whole life for my leg to recover, and I've never really found it that helpful.
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And it was like when I started doing Pilates, it I'm like it just strengthened me so much.
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Like I used to have super bad back pain, hip pain, foot pain, and it got really bad, and then I started doing a lot more of that, and that just helped me strengthen everything so much more, and so now I don't have pain and I can like do what I love and teach it to others.
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Wow, yeah.
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So, final question people listening to the podcast today, perhaps they've gone through some traumatic experience earlier in their life, yeah.
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And maybe they're having a hard time recognizing that God was in some of this difficult stuff.
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It seems to me that you recognize God back then and you come to that place where you can say, Yes.
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Wasn't fair, didn't want that.
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Yeah, nobody wants something difficult to happen.
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But those people who are maybe doubting and saying, Well, that was God who did that, or you know, something about the faith that I don't like because of the experience I've been through.
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What would you say to those people from your from your experience?
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Yeah, I think it's hard because like before I was a believer, I looking back was like I don't understand why this like had to happen to me.
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But like obviously now as a believer, I look back and I just see how he was there the whole entire time for me.
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And truly, like I feel so blessed because he has like done so much in my life and I could not be here, but he gave me a chance to live, and not only that, like I have found him too.
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And I feel like if my accent hadn't happened, I may not be I may not be a believer.
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I feel like sometimes for people it can take something like very hard for them to come to Jesus.
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It's not always easy.
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I don't know.
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I would say honestly, like when bad things happen to us or people we love and it's just not fair, we sometimes just don't understand why this is happening.
00:21:39.009 --> 00:21:45.330
But honestly, just remembering that he has a plan for us, no matter what it is, and it may not be what we want to.
00:21:45.810 --> 00:21:47.890
Like he doesn't promise us an easy life.
00:21:48.050 --> 00:22:17.170
And I feel like I don't know, when you find Jesus, there's like so much peace in that as well, because you know that his plan is good, and sometimes we don't understand why he does the things he does, or why something's terrible has happened to us that's not fair, or someone we love, but just that he he had that happen for a reason, and so there's a reason for everything, and honestly, even if it's something bad, something good will come out of it too.
00:22:17.330 --> 00:22:19.170
I think is the biggest thing.
00:22:20.930 --> 00:22:30.130
I love that, I love that, and we're so excited that you are uh sharing your gifts as one of the youth leaders here at St.
00:22:30.370 --> 00:22:36.850
Peter's, and so we we thank you for for serving and engaging our young people.
00:22:37.009 --> 00:22:40.210
You're still young, but there's people younger than you with it.
00:22:40.450 --> 00:22:42.289
So we just thank you so much for that.
00:22:42.450 --> 00:22:48.529
So uh usually what we do is we bring our guests back in a few months down the road.
00:22:48.850 --> 00:22:53.890
Okay, and because we like to hear the faith story, like where is God taking you in the next three or four months?
00:22:54.050 --> 00:23:01.970
Because God is on the move in our lives, and sometimes it's not necessarily good things that always happen, but some tough times too.
00:23:02.130 --> 00:23:07.009
But the faith is filled with valleys and mountains and everything in between.
00:23:07.170 --> 00:23:11.490
So we're gonna have you on in a few months and see where God has taken you and what's happened in your life.
00:23:11.650 --> 00:23:14.450
So again, just want to thank you for being with us today.
00:23:14.850 --> 00:23:16.289
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
00:23:16.450 --> 00:23:18.690
I'm really glad I could share my story.
00:23:18.930 --> 00:23:22.610
And yeah, I look forward to coming back and talking again.
00:23:23.009 --> 00:23:25.009
So, again, thank you for being here with us today.
00:23:25.090 --> 00:23:27.009
And again, pass on these powerful stories.
00:23:27.170 --> 00:23:32.130
A powerful story, Augusta Gain, looking back at her life and seeing the grace and the love of God always there.
00:23:32.210 --> 00:23:34.769
So, again, this is Rick Berg from Flying Leaves.
00:23:34.850 --> 00:23:38.370
And until we meet again next time, God bless, and we'll talk to you soon.
00:23:38.529 --> 00:23:39.810
Take care, everybody.
00:01:20.930 --> 00:01:23.890
Hey, welcome everybody once again to Flying Leaves.
00:01:23.969 --> 00:01:25.730
It's great to have you here once again.
00:01:25.890 --> 00:01:34.450
This is Rick Berg, your host, and excited to have another one of our young adults on our podcast as we think about living faith in a restless world.
00:01:34.530 --> 00:01:36.849
And today I've got with me Augusta.
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Welcome.
00:01:37.810 --> 00:01:38.930
Thanks so much for having me.
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I'm excited to be here.
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It's so good to have you here, Augusta.
00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:57.890
And I just want to get right into your story and you know need to take it back because, you know, getting to know you a little bit, I realized that a big part of your story happened when you were actually a quite a young girl, seven years of age.
00:01:58.050 --> 00:02:01.329
Can you tell us a little bit about that event and that experience?
00:02:01.810 --> 00:02:11.090
Yeah, so when I was when I was seven years old, me and my family, we would go to Lake Ontario a lot in the summers.
00:02:11.409 --> 00:02:17.090
And one summer, right about the beginning, it was June 30th.
00:02:17.490 --> 00:02:24.930
My family had taken the boat out, and my dad was water skiing, and I was kneeling on the front end of the boat, not holding on to anything.
00:02:25.090 --> 00:02:25.650
I don't know why.
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The front part of the boat?
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Yeah, the front of the boat, the bow of the boat.
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Yeah.
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And it was like a stormy day, so the water was quite rough.
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And when they had slammed on the brakes because my dad had fallen into the water, I went over the end of the boat and I went underneath the boat.
00:02:42.689 --> 00:02:48.370
I had hit my head, and the boat propeller had amputated my left leg.
00:02:48.610 --> 00:02:51.329
So it was 95% amputated.
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Which looking back, I was very lucky because it could have cut like my head, it could have cut my body, it could have cut anywhere.
00:03:00.689 --> 00:03:05.569
So yeah, I was in the water and I had swam back into the water.
00:03:06.210 --> 00:03:11.889
I had swam back to the boat to my mom, and I had told her that my leg was gone.
00:03:12.370 --> 00:03:16.050
And I didn't know that it was still partially attached.
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So we were in kind of the middle of nowhere and we had pulled up to someone's dock, and we were on the dock.
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My dad had tied off my leg while we were waiting for the ambulance.
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And because it was a stormy day, it had taken like over an hour for the paramedics to get there.
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So I was slowly bleeding out and dying.
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And I had lost like three times my blood volume while that was happening.
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Do you remember anything about being on that dock there at all?
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The main thing I remember is there was we were on someone's dock, and the people were there also helping us, which would have been very traumatic for them as well.
00:04:01.009 --> 00:04:03.730
I do remember, like, as I was in shock.
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And I just remember that it was like this reminder in my head over and over again because it was like all I could see was just like bright, like it was just like super bright in my eyes.
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And I had just remembered that I couldn't close my eyes.
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Like I knew that if I had closed my eyes, I would die.
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And so I was just like fighting to stay awake.
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I obviously exhausted to keep my eyes open.
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And so it was just this constant reminder.
00:04:31.410 --> 00:04:40.290
And I remember telling my mom that actually, like a few years ago, that I still to this day like remember, that's like the main thing I remember was that I couldn't close my eyes.
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But I don't remember if anyone had ever told me that before that if you're like in shock, you should never close your eyes.
00:04:46.050 --> 00:04:51.089
But I now knowing it was God the whole time there with me and keeping me alive.
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So you were taken then to a hospital close by, or yeah, I was airlifted to Sick Kids Hospital.
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And another miracle, it just so happened that when we got there, all the specialized top doctors were there for a conference.
00:05:07.490 --> 00:05:14.050
And so they were able to take me into surgery and rush me into surgery, and they didn't know if I would live.
00:05:14.129 --> 00:05:21.089
Like my family had no idea if I would survive, but they were actually able to reattach my leg.
00:05:22.050 --> 00:05:25.250
And it was actually one of the first amputated reattached legs.
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They limbs, they didn't know if it would work, they didn't know if they would have to like take it off later on.
00:05:31.170 --> 00:05:35.650
So I spent like around over a month in the hospital.
00:05:35.970 --> 00:05:38.689
It was a very hard time for me and my family.
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It was very rough, but at the same time, like he gave me so much strength during that time as well.
00:05:44.050 --> 00:05:48.050
Like I was able to slowly recover.
00:05:49.490 --> 00:05:53.490
And yeah, they didn't know if the reattachment would work.
00:05:53.569 --> 00:05:57.090
They thought that if I could walk again, it would take about a year.
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And so for about like the first month, I was in a wheelchair when I got out of the hospital.
00:06:02.689 --> 00:06:04.210
So I went everywhere in a wheelchair.
00:06:04.370 --> 00:06:05.970
I hated being in the wheelchair.
00:06:06.449 --> 00:06:10.370
I would try to get out and move myself as much as I could.
00:06:10.449 --> 00:06:13.890
And then it was like two months later where I took my first steps.
00:06:14.610 --> 00:06:16.129
Okay, let me go stop right there.
00:06:16.530 --> 00:06:25.250
So at that point in your life, did you come from any type of faith background, or did you guys go to church?
00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:30.850
Because I mean you you just went through something pretty traumatic.
00:06:31.410 --> 00:06:38.930
And so, how did you manage to keep going or have an attitude of hopefulness, even in your life?
00:06:39.330 --> 00:06:41.569
Well, I didn't grow up in a Christian house.
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Like I I knew nothing about Jesus, nothing about the gospel.
00:06:45.090 --> 00:06:47.890
We would go to church, but that was only for Christmas Eve.
00:06:48.050 --> 00:06:50.210
So there was no actual like faith behind it.
00:06:50.370 --> 00:06:53.890
My parents, neither of them grew up in a religious house either.
00:06:54.129 --> 00:06:58.610
Actually, like the biggest thing that got me through that time was the movie Soul Surfer.
00:06:59.170 --> 00:07:01.890
I would watch that like I watched that too much.
00:07:01.970 --> 00:07:04.210
I would watch it like every single day for a month.
00:07:04.449 --> 00:07:09.009
When I was in the hospital, like maybe just to just mention what that show was about.
00:07:09.650 --> 00:07:15.410
Soul Surfer is if you haven't watched it, it's about a girl and she's like a pro surfer in Hawaii.
00:07:15.650 --> 00:07:19.330
And she was surfing one day and a shark came and bit off her arm.
00:07:19.890 --> 00:07:24.290
And she's like she is a believer, like she has a super strong faith in Jesus.
00:07:24.449 --> 00:07:40.129
And so when she went through that trial, like she overcame and just it's a movie a lot about like overcoming a trauma, but also her faith was really inspiring in Jesus because like he gave her a lot of strength through that too.
00:07:40.210 --> 00:07:45.330
And so that was like a big part of her recovery, and she was able to surf again.
00:07:46.210 --> 00:07:50.770
And yeah, it was just a story about that, was like her testimony as well.
00:07:50.930 --> 00:07:56.930
And so when I would watch that, I remember talking to my mom and I was like, Do you think God is real?
00:07:57.009 --> 00:07:58.449
Like, do you think he had saved me?
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Like, how is this just luck that I don't even just like survive but also get to keep my leg?
00:08:07.090 --> 00:08:12.930
So that was like I don't know that that movie really helped me a lot.
00:08:13.170 --> 00:08:16.610
And I remember kind of thinking about it a little bit, but I don't know.
00:08:16.689 --> 00:08:29.250
I would talk to my mom about it a little bit, but no one in my family really believed in Jesus, which is like crazy that even after such like a traumatic incident happens, we didn't really think about it that much.
00:08:29.410 --> 00:08:35.490
And a lot of people in our lives had said that they like had prayed for us or that God had saved me.
00:08:35.569 --> 00:08:38.210
So there's definitely people that could see that.
00:08:38.610 --> 00:08:39.490
Yeah, yeah.
00:08:39.730 --> 00:08:46.289
And so let's fast forward just a little bit as you're going into junior high and high school.
00:08:47.409 --> 00:08:55.169
Your mom had uh an experience with the Lord that seemed to be important for you and for your progression into the faith.
00:08:55.809 --> 00:09:00.210
Yeah, it was around, I think I was in grade 11 or 10.
00:09:00.610 --> 00:09:18.929
It was during COVID, or it was actually around COVID was when my mom like that was when we saw like the shift in the world, and kind of just saw that it wasn't like the greatest, and that there was probably, I don't know, a lot of dark things at that time.
00:09:19.409 --> 00:09:26.049
And so it wasn't until like a few years later after COVID that my mom had decided she wanted us to start going to church.
00:09:26.370 --> 00:09:33.009
And I think that she had found God, she had been saved, and that's her own story to tell.
00:09:33.330 --> 00:09:44.850
But she had an encounter with Jesus and she was saved, and then she had decided that she wanted us to start going to church because she believed in God and knew that there was something good, yeah.
00:09:45.330 --> 00:09:49.330
So, yeah, that was in high school when I started going to church.
00:09:49.490 --> 00:09:51.889
We started going to Rock Point Church.
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I was not, I did not really have any interest in going to church at that time.
00:09:56.529 --> 00:09:58.610
I was just wanted to hang out with my friends.
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I didn't want to spend my Sundays there.
00:10:01.729 --> 00:10:07.169
So for the first little bit, I just only went because my family had wanted me to go.
00:10:08.849 --> 00:10:14.129
And so when did when did finally the kind the the faith kind of catch you?
00:10:16.449 --> 00:10:22.689
I would say it was when I was in grade 12, so like two years ago now.
00:10:24.209 --> 00:10:29.969
Yeah, we had moved churches because it just wasn't working for us, and we started going to redemption.
00:10:31.009 --> 00:10:43.889
And around that time when we started going, I was really enjoying the sermons and I met a lot of really amazing people, and just like this curiosity just started to grow inside me.
00:10:44.769 --> 00:10:53.490
I was just curious because again, like I knew nothing about the gospel, so I would go to church, but I didn't really know what they would be talking about or anything like that.
00:10:53.649 --> 00:10:59.889
And so it was like around Christmas time where I had watched the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told.
00:11:00.529 --> 00:11:01.569
Yeah, it's really good.
00:11:01.649 --> 00:11:09.009
So I started watching that because I was just this like hunger honestly was just like growing inside of me and this curiosity.
00:11:09.089 --> 00:11:14.049
So I had started watching that and it started to make things make a lot more sense.
00:11:14.689 --> 00:11:20.129
And yeah, I just remember when I had finished the movie, I prayed the prayer to Jesus.
00:11:20.289 --> 00:11:38.529
I just got on my knees and I didn't know what to say, but I I just prayed to him and I was just like pretty much just like Jesus, like, if you're real, like I pray that you would reveal yourself to me and that I would be able to believe in my heart that you're real because I struggled a lot with like actually believing that he was real.
00:11:39.329 --> 00:11:45.729
And then it was just one day in church, we were sitting there and I just was overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit.
00:11:45.809 --> 00:11:53.729
Like he had just encountered me, and it was just the most overpowering like feeling of just like love, and like I can't even explain it.
00:11:53.809 --> 00:11:59.569
It was just really amazing, and it just like clicked in my brain that I was like, of course, God is real.
00:11:59.649 --> 00:12:04.049
It was just like this flip had switched in my head, and I was just like, What have I been doing?
00:12:04.209 --> 00:12:12.449
Like, of course there's a God, of course he's real, and so it's kind of just been since that day on that I have been following him.
00:12:12.769 --> 00:12:23.809
I got a Bible and I just started reading it, and yeah, so he's grown me so much, and especially this past year as well, has been really amazing.
00:12:24.209 --> 00:12:25.569
You know, it's interesting.
00:12:25.889 --> 00:12:30.929
So you you kind of gave your life to Christ in that grade 12 year.
00:12:31.490 --> 00:12:48.370
But so often I think what happens often is that once God comes into her life, I think the devil actually wants to work a little bit hard because it's like I'm gonna lose this person if I don't get on her.
00:12:48.769 --> 00:13:00.209
And so a fascinating story is in grade 12, after you became a believer and you had the teachings of God's word, reading the Bible, but there's always other teachings that come into play, aren't there?
00:13:00.289 --> 00:13:02.049
And you experienced that at high school.
00:13:02.209 --> 00:13:03.329
Could you just share this?
00:13:03.409 --> 00:13:06.049
Because it's important for us to understand this in this world.
00:13:06.370 --> 00:13:07.329
Yeah, for sure.
00:13:07.649 --> 00:13:13.250
Well, I had gone to the same church or to the same school since I was in grade four, Rundel Academy.
00:13:13.329 --> 00:13:15.969
So it's not a Christian school at all.
00:13:16.289 --> 00:13:19.409
There was like very few believers that went there.
00:13:19.569 --> 00:13:35.329
And I actually remember telling my mom that, like, if I had been saved earlier, if I had been a believer, even like a year earlier, I probably would have switched schools because that school environment was quite toxic, especially like as a Christian at that time, especially because I was quite new to the faith.
00:13:36.209 --> 00:13:37.569
Yeah, it was kind of hard.
00:13:37.649 --> 00:13:44.129
A lot of my teachers were super just like anti-religion, anti-God.
00:13:44.289 --> 00:13:50.689
I remember in social class one time, we were in our church, and my social teacher had written 666 on the whiteboard.
00:13:51.889 --> 00:13:52.769
This is the joke.
00:13:53.009 --> 00:14:04.610
Yeah, it was it was he was super aggressive about it, which made social quite brutal because a lot of times it was just like funny jokes about God or making fun of God or mocking him.
00:14:05.009 --> 00:14:11.569
And my English teacher, we were doing something about like medieval writing time, something like that.
00:14:11.729 --> 00:14:17.490
And she had said, like, put your hand up if you're a Christian, and me and two other people put their hands up.
00:14:17.649 --> 00:14:20.370
And she was like, I have read the Bible so many times.
00:14:20.529 --> 00:14:24.529
Like, it's just so funny to me how people like think it's real.
00:14:24.769 --> 00:14:41.649
And she had told us still like one of the strangest things someone has ever said to me before, but she had told us to go in our room and turn the lights off, and we just need to think evil thoughts to make good stories for this paper assignment she wanted us to do.
00:14:41.809 --> 00:14:48.209
She's like, Go in your room in the dark, conjure up dark things, and she was like giggling about it.
00:14:48.370 --> 00:14:52.370
And then my Spanish teacher, this was all also when I was in grade 12.
00:14:52.449 --> 00:14:55.329
Like this, I hadn't really recognized until grade 12.
00:14:55.490 --> 00:15:02.449
Like, there might have been other teachers that were super against God as well, but I don't know, it was grade 12.
00:15:02.529 --> 00:15:03.250
It was very strange.
00:15:03.329 --> 00:15:04.849
It was like this whole like shift.
00:15:05.089 --> 00:15:19.809
And then my Spanish teacher one day, she wanted to do tarot cards, the tea reading things where you like drink the tea and see what's on the bottom of the cup, and then palm reading, and she was playing like witchcraft music.
00:15:20.049 --> 00:15:25.729
So there was definitely a lot of darkness happening when I was in my final year of school.
00:15:25.889 --> 00:15:29.490
I was very happy to be done high school when I left.
00:15:29.729 --> 00:15:36.209
So when you came out of that environment, then thankfully, you entered into another community.
00:15:36.929 --> 00:15:39.729
Tell us a little bit about the importance of that.
00:15:41.169 --> 00:15:43.569
Now, was that prior to your baptism?
00:15:43.649 --> 00:15:47.889
Or it was no, that was the revival Bible study.
00:15:47.969 --> 00:15:49.729
I started going after my baptism.
00:15:49.969 --> 00:15:50.849
Okay, okay.
00:15:51.169 --> 00:15:55.809
But like even before my baptism, I had met like one of my best friends now.
00:15:55.889 --> 00:15:57.729
Like she's a super strong believer.
00:15:57.889 --> 00:16:12.289
And I've I after I graduated, I had met so many other believers, which was really like really helpful because like before then, no one, none of my friends, or like even my like extended family, no one's a believer.
00:16:12.610 --> 00:16:17.649
So it really helped me grow in my faith being around other believers as well.
00:16:17.809 --> 00:16:41.250
And then yeah, going to revival Bible study has helped me in my faith journey so much, genuinely, just like the people there who are all just so on fire for the Lord, and everyone just just striving to be as Christ-like as possible, and everyone can lean on each other and just talk to each other and just have really good conversations about God.
00:16:41.490 --> 00:16:49.089
And so that has helped me grow my faith so much, as well as just like spending like one on one time with Jesus too.
00:16:49.169 --> 00:16:57.009
Like I have I feel like the past like seven months, he has grown me so much, like it's been really amazing.
00:16:58.049 --> 00:17:03.729
Yeah, so you're one of the things that you did was your mission trip too.
00:17:04.210 --> 00:17:06.610
Was that was that important or what happened?
00:17:07.809 --> 00:17:11.329
Yeah, I went to El Salvador in June, this June.
00:17:12.289 --> 00:17:20.370
Yeah, a lot of I had decided it was because so I met McKenna at Center Street Young Adults and we had become super good friends.
00:17:20.450 --> 00:17:33.970
She introduced me to revival Bible study, and then she was talking to me about this mission trip to El Salvador that she wanted to go on, and I was like, we should go together, like I really want to go on a mission trip, and this was like all around the winter time.
00:17:34.210 --> 00:17:47.569
So then we attended, we went to like all the meeting stuff, all the fundraising, and yeah, so we went to El Salvador in June and we went for eight days and we built 20 houses in eight days.
00:17:47.730 --> 00:17:48.210
Wow.
00:17:48.370 --> 00:17:56.610
It's through the organization shelter, it's like a Christian organization, and yeah, so we were able to provide.
00:17:57.250 --> 00:18:00.370
Well, the Lord provided a lot of houses for the people there.
00:18:00.610 --> 00:18:08.849
It was one of the most like amazing experiences of my life, especially because like it's quite a Christ Christian country there now.
00:18:09.650 --> 00:18:19.009
And a lot of the families and the people, like materially, they had absolutely nothing, but they were some of the happiest, most loving people I've ever met in my life.
00:18:19.170 --> 00:18:22.529
And so it also just gave like such a good perspective, too.
00:18:22.769 --> 00:18:30.450
And just to see that Jesus was working there, and yeah, it was really a good trip and definitely helped me and my faith a lot too.
00:18:30.690 --> 00:18:32.210
So let's fast forward.
00:18:32.529 --> 00:18:36.289
Leg almost no longer part of your life.
00:18:36.850 --> 00:18:38.050
How is it now?
00:18:38.370 --> 00:18:40.610
Now it's really good.
00:18:41.170 --> 00:18:43.170
It's almost as if I have a normal leg.
00:18:43.410 --> 00:18:48.930
I mean, there's I can do pretty much anything, like there's a lot of things I can do.
00:18:49.009 --> 00:18:53.890
Um a lot of I still play the same sports I used to play, everything like that.
00:18:54.930 --> 00:19:01.890
Yeah, like obviously, sometimes it can cause me pain if I do like a lot of walking and stuff like that.
00:19:02.130 --> 00:19:05.170
But for the most part, I've actually never felt stronger.
00:19:05.490 --> 00:19:27.009
And a big part of it has been actually my job because I teach Pilates, so I teach math Pilates and reform Pilates, and I love it, like it's so much fun, but it's also helped me so much as like a way of physio as well for myself because I've done like physio pretty much my whole life for my leg to recover, and I've never really found it that helpful.
00:19:27.250 --> 00:19:32.529
And it was like when I started doing Pilates, it I'm like it just strengthened me so much.
00:19:32.610 --> 00:19:49.009
Like I used to have super bad back pain, hip pain, foot pain, and it got really bad, and then I started doing a lot more of that, and that just helped me strengthen everything so much more, and so now I don't have pain and I can like do what I love and teach it to others.
00:19:49.250 --> 00:19:50.450
Wow, yeah.
00:19:51.009 --> 00:20:04.289
So, final question people listening to the podcast today, perhaps they've gone through some traumatic experience earlier in their life, yeah.
00:20:05.730 --> 00:20:14.050
And maybe they're having a hard time recognizing that God was in some of this difficult stuff.
00:20:15.730 --> 00:20:20.529
It seems to me that you recognize God back then and you come to that place where you can say, Yes.
00:20:21.330 --> 00:20:22.850
Wasn't fair, didn't want that.
00:20:23.009 --> 00:20:26.529
Yeah, nobody wants something difficult to happen.
00:20:27.170 --> 00:20:37.970
But those people who are maybe doubting and saying, Well, that was God who did that, or you know, something about the faith that I don't like because of the experience I've been through.
00:20:38.130 --> 00:20:41.730
What would you say to those people from your from your experience?
00:20:42.050 --> 00:20:50.610
Yeah, I think it's hard because like before I was a believer, I looking back was like I don't understand why this like had to happen to me.
00:20:52.130 --> 00:20:58.529
But like obviously now as a believer, I look back and I just see how he was there the whole entire time for me.
00:20:58.690 --> 00:21:10.769
And truly, like I feel so blessed because he has like done so much in my life and I could not be here, but he gave me a chance to live, and not only that, like I have found him too.
00:21:11.009 --> 00:21:16.130
And I feel like if my accent hadn't happened, I may not be I may not be a believer.
00:21:16.370 --> 00:21:23.890
I feel like sometimes for people it can take something like very hard for them to come to Jesus.
00:21:24.210 --> 00:21:25.570
It's not always easy.
00:21:25.810 --> 00:21:26.370
I don't know.
00:21:26.450 --> 00:21:38.769
I would say honestly, like when bad things happen to us or people we love and it's just not fair, we sometimes just don't understand why this is happening.
00:21:39.009 --> 00:21:45.330
But honestly, just remembering that he has a plan for us, no matter what it is, and it may not be what we want to.
00:21:45.810 --> 00:21:47.890
Like he doesn't promise us an easy life.
00:21:48.050 --> 00:22:17.170
And I feel like I don't know, when you find Jesus, there's like so much peace in that as well, because you know that his plan is good, and sometimes we don't understand why he does the things he does, or why something's terrible has happened to us that's not fair, or someone we love, but just that he he had that happen for a reason, and so there's a reason for everything, and honestly, even if it's something bad, something good will come out of it too.
00:22:17.330 --> 00:22:19.170
I think is the biggest thing.
00:22:20.930 --> 00:22:30.130
I love that, I love that, and we're so excited that you are uh sharing your gifts as one of the youth leaders here at St.
00:22:30.370 --> 00:22:36.850
Peter's, and so we we thank you for for serving and engaging our young people.
00:22:37.009 --> 00:22:40.210
You're still young, but there's people younger than you with it.
00:22:40.450 --> 00:22:42.289
So we just thank you so much for that.
00:22:42.450 --> 00:22:48.529
So uh usually what we do is we bring our guests back in a few months down the road.
00:22:48.850 --> 00:22:53.890
Okay, and because we like to hear the faith story, like where is God taking you in the next three or four months?
00:22:54.050 --> 00:23:01.970
Because God is on the move in our lives, and sometimes it's not necessarily good things that always happen, but some tough times too.
00:23:02.130 --> 00:23:07.009
But the faith is filled with valleys and mountains and everything in between.
00:23:07.170 --> 00:23:11.490
So we're gonna have you on in a few months and see where God has taken you and what's happened in your life.
00:23:11.650 --> 00:23:14.450
So again, just want to thank you for being with us today.
00:23:14.850 --> 00:23:16.289
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
00:23:16.450 --> 00:23:18.690
I'm really glad I could share my story.
00:23:18.930 --> 00:23:22.610
And yeah, I look forward to coming back and talking again.
00:23:23.009 --> 00:23:25.009
So, again, thank you for being here with us today.
00:23:25.090 --> 00:23:27.009
And again, pass on these powerful stories.
00:23:27.170 --> 00:23:32.130
A powerful story, Augusta Gain, looking back at her life and seeing the grace and the love of God always there.
00:23:32.210 --> 00:23:34.769
So, again, this is Rick Berg from Flying Leaves.
00:23:34.850 --> 00:23:38.370
And until we meet again next time, God bless, and we'll talk to you soon.
00:23:38.529 --> 00:23:39.810
Take care, everybody.
