The Unfolding

From the time Michelle Lewis was a little girl she had a dream. Her greatest desire in life was to be a wife and a mother. She wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and do the thing she was passionate about- having and nurturing children. But health issues made pregnancy impossible. Letting go of that dream led to depression and grief. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” What do you do when God calls you to let go of a dream but hold on to him?

The fall-out from the pandemic includes a post-pandemic mental health crisis. Some polls show about half of American families have at least one person who has had serious problems with depression, anxiety or stress. Those issues are made even worse when we suffer through them alone. When Tony Mansmith was young, there was a perfect storm of circumstances that left him feeling isolated. The sadness he felt grew into depression by the time he was a young teenager, but for the most part that struggle remained a secret. While Tony’s story is extremely hopeful, it does include elements of self-harm, abuse, and suicide.

One week after high school graduation, Jan Rozga’s son David smoked a legal synthetic drug he had purchased at the mall. Within minutes David had taken his life. Every hope for the future was shattered. From that moment until now, God has been writing Jan’s survival story, helping her learn to have hope and to believe that she could live again. Jan is the author of Raw Survival. She and her husband Mike facilitate GriefShare support groups, and worked to get the David Mitchell Rozga Act signed into law. Jan’s passion is to tell others of the healing power of Jesus and to raise awareness of the dangers of synthetic drugs.

When the police knocked on Pastor Monte Gannon’s door, he never could have imagined it was the start of something beautiful. Everything his church-owned was packed in a trailer that had been stolen and burned to the ground. As Monte prayed, he remembered two things- desperate people do desperate things, and God can take what was meant for evil and turn it for good. In a video that went viral, Monte reached out to whoever was responsible for the crime saying, “You are valuable. God has hope for you. You are invited to Meadows Church.” He had no idea how his words would come true.

Julie Dennison experienced some hard things as a child. Like many of us, she didn’t know a healthy way to deal with trauma. As an adult, opioid drugs became Julie's go-to coping mechanism. What at first seemed to be a way to numb the pain, soon turned into an addiction that controlled her life and devastated her closest relationships. There seemed to be no way out.

Angels play a big part in the Christmas story. But they also appear all throughout scripture as messengers, serving on assignment for God, and sometimes even protecting people from danger. While we don’t worship angels, God clearly uses them to carry out his plan and scripture indicates He is still using angels among us today. In our annual episode of angel stories, we asked you to share your angel encounters. It’s a glimpse into God’s unfolding story and just how big and beyond-our-imagination it really is. This is part 2 of the 2021 edition of The Unfolding Angel Stories.

Psalm 91:11 says, “He has put his angels in charge of you. They will watch over you wherever you go.” Do people still encounter angels today? In this special, annual edition of The Unfolding podcast, we asked about modern-day angel encounters. This collection of angel stories reminds us that the same God who sent angels the first Christmas, is directing angels around us today.

John Karakian has never really thought of himself as an evangelist. He’s just a guy who really loves his dog and his neighbors. John and Buddy met thousands of people as they walked the streets of suburban Detroit for twelve years. John had no idea that God could use something as simple as a chocolate lab to connect searching people with genuine hope. Hundreds of people came to the Christmas program at John's church, all because of Buddy.

You can’t read the Christmas story without bumping into angels. Zechariah, Mary, Joseph and the shepherds all encountered them. Do people still encounter angels today? That’s the question we asked, and the stories we share will fill you with wonder and hope.

Growing up in the U.S.S.R., Dmitri and Anya Poliakoff had never heard the story of the Bible. From the time they were young, they had been told there is no God. They were restoration artists who studied some of the greatest painters in the history of art. Many of those paintings depicted the story of Jesus. The truth was right in front of them, but Dmitri and Anya had no idea. One small, smuggled Bible changed everything. Dmitri and Anya now lead A.D. Ventures Ministries, an association of more than 400 churches and mission groups across Russia.