Newsletter | June 2022

When school lets out for the summer, many families hit the road. Though you may leave the textbooks behind, summer is no time to let your family’s spiritual growth coast.

No matter your destination, pack up the car and take the growing Revive Our Hearts Podcast Family on the road! You’ll find something for women in every season—from tweens to grandmoms. And guys, don’t tune out. We’ve got a few recommendations for you too!

TRIP: Roadtrip with the Family

PLAYLIST: Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

Check out new documentary-style episodes on women like Susanna Wesley, Sabina Wurmbrand, and Pandita Ramabai. Your family will love these (true!) stories of Christian women who impacted their world for Christ.

Love it? Check out the booklet that inspired the episodes: (Un)remarkable: Ten Ordinary Women Who Impacted Their World for Christ.

TRIP: Girls’ Weekend at the Cabin

PLAYLIST: The Deep Well with Erin Davis Season 5: “Eclipses”

Join Erin Davis and cohost Laura Booz to gain a fresh perspective on the Light’s unique ability to push back the darkness.

Love it? Want to find a way to get excited about studying the Old Testament? You’ll enjoy the “7 Feasts” season of The Deep Well!

TRIP: Guys’ Backpacking Trip

PLAYLIST: Revive Our Hearts: “Staying in the Race with Purpose, with Robert Wolgemuth”

Men of every age will want to tune in to hear wisdom from Nancy’s husband, Robert Wolgemuth, as he encourages men to think of their life as a race—one that God wants you to finish strong.

TRIP: Mother-Daughter Day Out

PLAYLIST: True Girl Season 5: “Faith Lessons from the Barnyard”

Learn about God’s character and power through His creation! Dannah Gresh and Staci Rudolph take you on a tour of Dannah’s barnyard.

Love it? Download all five seasons!

TRIP: Running Kids to Summer Activities

PLAYLIST: Expect Something Beautiful with Laura Booz Some road trips are as short as a drive to the local coffee shop— just enough time to fit in an episode of Expect Something Beautiful. Laura’s engaging style will leave you with a nugget of truth to savor the whole ride home.

Use the QR codes below to find each of the podcast series or episodes, and have a great ride!

How was your trip? Tell us how you like our podcasts by leaving a rating or review wherever you listen. When you do, you help new audiences find them!

Randy’s eyes sparkled with anticipation. The man had assured him that if they wanted to go, funds were available. But when he proposed the mission trip to his wife, Tricia shot it down with an emphatic “no.”

A New Intimacy

As Randy sat dejectedly listening to Nancy on the radio sharing about an upcoming True Woman Conference, he was convicted. Instead of being mad at Tricia, he thought, “Why don't I help her grow in her faith?” He arranged for childcare and a close friend to attend True Woman with Tricia, still having no idea it would make such a difference in their lives.

At that conference, Tricia’s spirit was freed. The change was immediately noticeable to Randy. In the first fifteen years of their marriage, they didn’t have many deep discussions about their sin or salvation. But now Tricia was freely telling him that what she had brushed off as “that’s just my personality” was really sin she had excused for years. It brought a new closeness to their relationship.

A Lifelong Struggle

Tricia had also struggled with reading comprehension since childhood, so she didn’t desire to dig into Scripture. She didn’t feel comfortable attending Bible studies for fear of someone asking her a question she couldn’t understand the answer to. After the conference, however, her devotional life grew richer.

She also started listening to Revive Our Hearts as she cleaned their church. God continued to work in her heart, and her faith grew stronger.

A Second Chance

Two years passed before Randy and Tricia had another opportunity to travel to Africa. Tricia was still terrified, but she felt the nudge to go.

In God’s providence, the 2012 True Woman Conference fell one week before they left. God used that time to assure Tricia He was with her. She would need that. 

A Fearful Night

Her first night in Africa, Tricia huddled in bed petrified of the smells, the sounds, the creatures scurrying around the room. She gathered her son in her arms and prayed, “Lord, we’re scared. Fill our hearts with peace.” Every day was filled with new challenges. But because Tricia couldn’t control anything, her dependence and trust in Christ became more and more real.

Their Most Harrowing Journey Yet

Since that time, Randy and Tricia have visited Africa four times. Tricia has even co-led a few Bible studies. But in 2021, God called them on their most harrowing journey yet: Randy was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer.

Because she served as Randy’s caregiver, Tricia was unable to attend Revive ’21 in person, but she registered for the online experience. After a year of riding through the worst storm of her life, Tricia longed to be “grounded” in Christ. Once again, God’s timing was perfect. She could see how He had used each trip to Africa and every ROH conference to prepare them for this journey.

As Tricia scooted closer to Randy, he looked at his wife and marveled at her tender heart and strength. What a blessed man he was to have her by his side on this journey. In this past year, they had exchanged some of the hardest discussions about life and death, sin, shame, forgiveness and redemption, the character and sovereignty of God. It seemed as though God had been preparing them all along for this moment in time.

Heaven rules.” I can’t recall a time when I didn’t know and believe this theological truth at some level, thanks to parents who taught and lived it out in our home as I was growing up. But increasingly, throughout my adulthood and even more so in recent years, this way of viewing the complexities and crises of life in this broken world has captured my heart. It has become a lens through which I see and process, well, everything. Rarely does a day go by when I don’t speak of it or share it in some fashion with someone else, some person who’s gasping for air amid the churning white water of their own worries or questions or fears or difficulties. No more than a few minutes before writing this, in fact, I had occasion to remind a dear friend of this reassuring truth in a phone conversation.

“Heaven rules,” to me, is not some nebulous adage confined to the unseen realms beyond time and space. It reminds us that our God in heaven is actively controlling and working through every single happening, event, and circumstance taking place on the earth, and He is doing it to accomplish His good, eternal, redemptive purposes.

He is doing it despite whatever you may hear concerning the state of our world while watching or scrolling through the news of the day. He is doing it despite whatever pops up as you check your email or social-media feeds after you emerge from a long meeting.

He is doing it despite the nervousness that’s ticking under your wristwatch while you’re perched in yet another doctor’s office or hospital waiting room, listening for your name to be called.

Heaven is still ruling. Heaven is always ruling.

I realize it doesn’t always seem that way. It may appear, at times, that just the opposite is true. On any given news day, it can feel like our world is spinning out of control, that evildoers are winning the day, and that God is helpless (or unwilling) to do anything about it. On a more personal level, it may seem that God is dismissive toward your situation, sluggish to act, even coldly unconcerned about matters weighing heavily on your mind and heart, difficulties that distract and distress you and sabotage your joy.

But for those who “know their God” (Dan. 11:32), not even the most dreaded, drastic, or deathly occurrences can steal their hope and confidence in Him. All will be well, even though at the moment nothing seems to be well. This truth is unshakable, despite any and all indications to the contrary. Even when storms are raging within and around us, you and I can sleep in peace each night, and each morning we can awaken to renewed comfort and courage because of this immutable, irrefutable reality.

Because Heaven rules.