Vision Week - Part B

It's Vision Week on Connect with Skip Heitzig. And on this broadcast, we will hear a conversation with Lenya Heitzig. I think that we are both in our DNA, we're high risk for the Gospel, and with great risk comes great reward.

And honestly, I think we're indestructible until God's done with us. Stand by to hear from Lenya about her recent trip to Ukraine, her thoughts on church growth, and her legacy goals. But first, let's listen to this resource offer. What is the purpose that God created man for? Listen to this from Skip Heitzig about God's ultimate purpose. God's creation of man was so that his reflection would be in man, but the ultimate purpose is that God might interact with man and woman.

Fellowship, intimacy, to be conversant with, at ease with, to interact with. Fulfilling purpose requires clarity of vision. You'll want to order our vision resource package for this month, which also includes a full color magazine about the vision that drives Skip's ministry. You'll also receive an audio copy of Skip clearly outlining his philosophy of ministry in the past, present, and future. Receive your vision package when you make a donation of $50 or more to Connect with Skip. Give your gift by calling 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com.

That's 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com. Now, let's go into the studio for this conversation between Chip Lusko and Lenya Heitzig. Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig. This is Chip Lusko in studio. Hey, it's Vision Week, and we're in studio today, and I'm glad to have along with me Lenya Heitzig right here. That's right, my brother from another mother.

That's right. We have a lot to talk about, Lenya. You've had a busy year. Let's look back, look around, then look forward.

First, let's talk about the major event for Reload Love in 2023. So incredible. Our Love Bomb, we did nutrient-dense meals working with kids around the world, and we packed over a half a million meals, which is just astounding to me. And about 270,000 of those went to Ukraine, 270,000 have just arrived in Uganda. So a team of gals and I went to Ukraine to be a part of delivering those meals. And of course, it's a horrific situation with Russia. While we were there, we were in bomb shelters frequently because there were daily bomb raids. So, you know, the stakes are high, but the body of Christ, they're so impressive. We worked with this guy named Mikala, and during the war at the beginning, the concern is in Eastern Bloc countries, instead of having foster care system as we know it, where you have foster parents who take at-risk kids, they put their kids in orphanages.

And that's always been kind of a thing that's hard for me to understand. I kept thinking, where are all the parents of these kids? Well, the parents are alive, whether they're drug addicted, abusive, whatever it is, the children go into an orphanage. It's not the best system, and I don't know if ours is better, but in these orphanages, we were able to deliver food to these kids.

And not only that, come alongside and encourage the parents. So Mikala, he worked for Zelensky and he worked for the president prior to this, trying to make a more robust system, maybe where you wouldn't need orphanages. The day we got there, I don't know if our listeners would have known this, Russia was coming into the schools and kidnapping Ukrainian kids. They would take these kids from the schools back into Russia and then indoctrinate them like Daniel, Mishek, you know, and Abendigo.

They would teach them the language, they would try and get them to take the passports, to want to be in Mother Russia, to join the army, to be taken care of. And so a lot of parents, grandparents couldn't find their kids. And so Mikala has gone in and delivered about 300 kids from Russia. And the day we got there, he had just come back across the border with another kid. And so he, working with Nick McKinley of Deliver Fund, they had a computer program that they wanted us to fund with Reload Love, so that as the kids were being taken out of the country to protect them from the orphanages, they had a high risk, a possibility of landing into sex trafficking. So they were put in this database. So if they were supposed to be in Budapest, and they were in Souvlakia, we could track them and say, what is Jane Doe doing there and get her to safety. So that's one of the things we did, as well as the meals, as well as delivering to some of the villages. Well, Linda, you've never been shy about going to difficult places at awkward times.

I think if you go into Iran, in Miramar, I recall being on the border of Syria with you during the recent refugee crisis. How do you break the news to Skip? Do you know what, Skip started it, okay, because he's been with Franklin Graham forever. If you remember during Black Hawk Down and Somalia, he was there when that happened.

So he's been to a lot of these places. And when Nate was young, I prayed for him. Now Nate's grown and Skip can pray for me. So I think that we are both, in our DNA, we're high risk for the gospel, and with great risk comes great reward. And honestly, I think we're indestructible until God's done with us. And so why not, you know, go into all the world and not let God worry about if I make it to the bunker or where I'm supposed to be when and look at we're still going, we're in our 60s.

Absolutely. So you mentioned Franklin Graham. You recently attended several of his crusades.

Tell us about those. Yes, we were in Vietnam this year in February. And of course, you know, it's a communist country.

We say that until you're in that country and you see the communism and what it does to the people. It was packed. Franklin's ministry, just so you guys know, we always think, how is God going to get a message to so-and-so in these outlying places?

Franklin's message is throughout Southeast Asia. He has incredible audiences. It's just like burgeoning and so many people coming to Christ.

So it's phenomenal. As we speak, we're heading to London. He was there last year. We were at a crusade he did in Blackpool and Liverpool area. And now we're going to be in London with him sharing the gospel. So it's a privilege to come alongside such a stellar ministry.

And this is no tourist trip. Skip is a part of the staff there, correct? Yes. Skip is the chaplain when they travel. So he gets up each morning and gives a devo to the team. Also, you know, if anything, crisis is happening with the team. Skip's there to work through people in crisis. Also to support Franklin, you know, that someone is there. It isn't always easy having the buck stop with you and to have someone who's your ride or die. And they're right there with you in the trenches.

So it's a blessing for both Franklin and Skip. And your reload love teammate, Jennifer Santiago, is preparing to go to Africa. Yeah, Uganda. So many conflicts in the world. So Sudan is a really rough place. And in the Nuba Mountains, which are largely Christians, they keep pummeling.

They even do these barrel bombs. They open planes and the bombs are in barrels and throw them out on Christian villages. And so hundreds of thousands, maybe a million people have fled. So there are lots of children in Uganda being safe haven from Sudan. So we're taking 270,000 of those meals to Pastor Moses and in and around the region he is.

We've built playgrounds with them. We also have helped him with children's programs for the Bible. So anyway, Jen's about to go with her daughter, Noelle. So a second generation is going to be traveling with her.

And I cannot wait to hear what the Lord's doing there. That's interesting. You know, the Barna Research Group recently put out a statistic that I want your take on. It says that half of American Christians cannot define the Great Commission. That to me is mind boggling, don't you think? Okay, it's pretty simple.

Go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Well, part of Go is not clear to you. Yeah, exactly.

So you know what? Anymore, I wonder when people say they don't understand or there's confusion. It's not a matter of the mind, but the heart. And I think people are just less willing to go and less willing to risk and less willing to be uncomfortable, less willing to see other people as important as themselves.

And so I'm going to flip that right back around and say, I think it's a matter of the heart, not the head. So we're baby boomers. You were raised Gen X. Yeah. I've lost a lot of generations. So it's generation whatever, I guess. But you had your finger on the pulse, your kids around you.

My kids were around you a lot. But we're hearing this drumbeat of now deconstruction and de-churching and where did the church go wrong? A lot of that hand ringing is going on, especially in the youth ranks. And in my opinion, I'd like to know if you agree with this, but a comment on the fact that it seems like maybe it's not the church's fault. Okay, you know what I think it is? They're a bunch of whiners.

I really do. That generation doesn't take the blame themselves. They lay the blame around them. And so instead of a learning moment, they implode, look, Jesus said the sower went out and sowed some seeds. 75% of those didn't make it. Okay, so if some of these people that are leaving the church didn't make it, you didn't make it. You know, Jesus said some were snatched, some were, you know, scorched, some were crowded out by weeds. And of those seeds, the kingdom, we're talking kingdom parables, this is Jesus preaching. Only about 25% responded to Jesus, not just a megachurch or the church of, you know, 2023. Of that 25%, only some of them, you know, bore fruit, some, you know, 30, some 60, some 100 fold. So when you look at those odds, biblically, for Jesus Christ in his day, I don't think those have changed.

Now, the odds are also for us, because look at Christianity has become this religion from Christ, even with only 25% responding, and continues to do so. The way is narrow. Wide is the way that leads to destruction. And so I would just cautionary to these people who are disparaging that saying, what, where are you? Are you on the narrow path?

Are you a part of that 25%? Have you received the word? Are you bearing fruit? And bearing fruit isn't criticizing. Bearing fruit is very obvious. You know, love, peace, joy, patience, long suffering, you know, the perpetuation of the gospel. And so instead of looking at someone else's situation, I would say, where is your fruit?

That's correct. You know, I've never bought into the 80% of Americans believing in God's number. Remember that moment when Jesus looked around, and everybody had left him and accepted his close friends, the inner circle.

And he said, will you leave me also? So people, I think, are astonished that the band members and the authors are leaving Christianity for a whatever lifestyle. I say, well, bad fruit. I don't say, oh, that's my fault.

Nope. Of course, I do want to make the gospel as accessible and available as possible. But I don't feel responsible for people's personal journey. Accessible, but the truth is, Chip, if any mind come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. It's a high cost of discipleship to follow Christ.

And you and I have to keep making that decision on the daily, whether I'm going to get up and have my quiet time, whether I'm going to be faithful, whether I'm going to continue to give. And so the cost of discipleship is heavy. Linda, you've been involved in so many mission trips from day one in your Christian experience. What is the value you think of sending young people on long or even short-term mission trips? I think it's partly the recipe of success for people understanding a proper worldview, don't you? I think it's partly the recipe of success for the Heitzig-Lusko kids. You know, we had amazing youth leaders back in the day that valued mission trips.

And now that mission trip may be Puerto Vallarta or Cancun, or it doesn't have to be far, but it is different. And to give them an opportunity, first of all, to see how good they have it and how difficult other cultures and places do have it. But then also that they get to, so to speak, use the things of the kingdom and see the validity of them. That when I pray, people are impacted. When I preach, people get saved. When we love, lives are changed. And so I think our kids got to be in the lab, so to speak, and put the ingredients together and go, oh my goodness, you know, H2O, it makes water. Look at that. And so I think it's incredibly valuable for the kids to, you know, get out of their heads, get out of the the classroom, and out into the real world. One of the malls.

Yes. Because, you know, I remember taking my kids to Juarez, Manila, Panama, et cetera, and they didn't need me preaching about worldview. They saw it firsthand, and they got it.

And it doesn't even have to be outside of Western culture. I remember being with Levi and Nathan. Levi was leading the trip, Nathan was on it, and we were in Scotland and England. And seeing those kids, boy, that's some hard soil. You go to post-Christian places rather than a pre-Christian place and watch your kids minister. It's an amazing thing. Well, Linda, you are a major multitasker, if I ever met one.

We've talked about reload love, which has seen phenomenal growth around campus here and around the world. Now let's talk about sheology and make sure we understand what that word means to you. Okay, if anthropology is the study of man, sheology is the study of a woman. It's a kind of a play on things, but I like to say it's the art of being female. And we were she, just a kind of a ministry name, and we flipped the switch to sheology.

And I don't think it came at a better time, Chip, with the gender fluidity and the hundreds of now genders or sexual orientations that are out there. We can't even find senators and congressmen who can define what a woman is. What a great era to say sheology is the study of what a godly woman is. And we always say that there's the art of being female.

And I think that the Bible just elevates that. It is such a privilege to be a woman, number one. I get to bear children. I get to create human beings in my womb.

What an amazing thing. And then I get to nurture them, to feed them, and to care for them. Ladies, you hold the future in your hands. The people who are going to be the world changers are the ones coming out of your home, out of your womb. And so what a world we live in that's robbing women, that you can have birthing people? No, there are birthing women. Women give birth to children. So I'm sorry, I'm really going off on it on a tangent there, but there's just such an attack on womanhood. So Proverbs 31, this beautiful, you know, Proverbs that speaks about the gorgeous life of a woman that her husband will rise up and call her blessed, and her children, and that, you know, as a result of her life, that the husband can serve in the gates. And, you know, she's no law flower. This gal's out there with real estate, shopping in fields, and selling them in merchant ships, and creating a beautiful, you know, a business where she's making fabric and selling purple. And so, theology is to really elevate the amazing giftedness women have for this world. You know, there's an old Joni Mitchell song that says, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.

Paved paradise, put up a parking lot. And it seems to me the church is recovering from the body blow that COVID became. There's a resurgence of energy, and attendance, and vitality, and even zeal. And people are realizing what they lost during that period of time. Well, first theology, the Word of God does the work of God and the women of God.

We follow very much the template of what Skip has. I've had the privilege of writing about 13 Bible studies. And so being able to work with women, and we see them coming back robustly to women's ministry. I was telling you before the show, Chip, last semester, we were studying the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and having this time of worship, and wonder, and afterglow, whatever you want to call it. The women were so hungry for the things of God, and to see the gifts of prophecy, and healing, and holiness being manifest, and that it was just like rain pouring down from heaven.

And some of the younger gals, you know, made this comment to me, and I don't mean it in any negative term. They said, it's like God really speaks today, like He's alive. And I know He speaks in His Word.

His Word is living and powerful. But to be in an afterglow where you get to experience the voice of God through His people as He gives them the gifts of mercy, and helps, and teaching, it's an amazing thing. And I think the women are hungry for it. And it was a lot of the younger gals, the college and high school girls were coming. And you can already see, they're out preaching the gospel now.

It's incredible. Well, Lindy, as a mother and grandmother, you must share my concern as a father and grandfather. What kind of world are we going to leave our grandchildren and our legacy on down the line concerning clarity of the gospel? Well, thankfully, you know, just my own, you know, point of view, my testimony is Katie was coming this whole last semester, seeing my 10, 11 year old granddaughter in an afterglow, listening to the gifts of the Spirit. She was laying hands on people as people were coming forward and say, yes, I have bitterness in my heart. I want God to uproot it. I want to see, you know, yes, I feel a call.

God's calling me and laying hands and saying, go into the world, you know, to preach the gospel, this great commission. And so Katie and a lot of her contemporaries were there. And so I would just say, maybe some of the things that we think as older women are just for older women aren't. Why can't they come in, you know, sneak in behind the door? It's not like, you know, kids are just made to be seen and not heard.

We should be bringing them to everything. Like you said, when we went on vacation, our kids went and preached the gospel. You don't have to wait for them to grow up to do this.

They can do it now. And I remember one beautiful thing about your Lenya is I believe her purse had tracks inviting kids to church for Christmas. And she was very young. And she was out preaching the gospel till she drew her last breath. And so do not hold back, moms and dads.

Let your kids out and let them experience all that they have in Christ, because out of the mouth of babes. Well, you've brought up a very important word, legacy. And you're living, you're creating a body of work, 12 books, Bible studies. What is your legacy going to be? What would you hope it would be?

That's really good Chip. I love loving my people well. And I'll start with my husband, that I want to love him so well, and to enable him to run the race that he has, because I'm there making that possible. That I'm doing the things that I can do so he can run harder and faster.

And when two are together, a three-fold cord. But also with my children, I'm very intentional, and you are too. I watch you with your kids and your grandkids, that I'm very intentional of nurturing them, that they're important.

I tease Skip and I go, sometimes I feel like the expendable heightsig. I'm the one that can drop them off, pick them up, go do this, go do that. But I'm investing in their lives.

And I look at my time, my talent, all that I have is an ability to invest in that group as well. And then as a pastor's wife, you know, Kay Smith always used to say, it's Chuck's job to teach the flock, it's my job to love the flock. And I want to be able to love the flock well by doing the things that I can do that maybe are an art of being female.

Maybe I look at the body of Christ differently than a man does. But so I just want to love my people well. You know, the greatest of these is love, right?

Love God, love others. And so I'm okay if going down with that is she loved God and she loved the people in her life really well. Well, in closing, you brought up Proverbs 31. And I really think through some of those concepts and principles of a Proverbs 31 woman.

Could you tell us what kind of woman that is? I think that she's relevant. That she has not lost her relevancy.

As a matter of fact, in a world gone sideways, she's probably more relevant than ever. Because, you know, when you leave the family table, I've even used this as an example. You know, people are eating fast food, you go away to college, and you're on your own watching Netflix, you're binging and eating. You are not being enriched. Just having a meal around a table is an amazing thing.

Kids who just do that, they test higher, they're less sexually promiscuous. So anyway, there's so many things that just if we create those kind of environments enrich people. But beyond that, she sells her things to afar. You know, for me, reload love where you make jewelry out of, you know, spent bullet casings to help kids impacted by terror. I think this is a woman who sees what she can do to make money, whether it's a side hustle or whatever it is, and that she's investing it back into the world, you know, seeding it into other places.

It talks about the other things. I don't know, does she shop at Trader Joe's? She used to plant a garden. She's probably eating organic.

I mean, I think she's as relevant as she may be at Whole Foods. I think she made tapestry. I think that knitting is having a comeback.

Go figure. So there's so many things that she did that we can kind of repurpose and reinvent and see ourselves in her. That's so good. One thing I want to applaud is it from the very beginning when Women at Calvary began back in the 80s to today, it's always been firmly knit on the Word of God. That's right.

It's never ever deviated one inch, and I think that's really been the key to its success. Well, it's good to have you here, Lenny, today for Vision Week. This is Chip Lusfeld, Lenny Heitzig in studio. Vision Week continues tomorrow with Nate Heitzig right here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. On our next broadcast, Nate Heitzig will step into the studio and give his thoughts on the post-COVID church, deconstruction of the faith, and his perspective on core principles of a healthy church. That is next time on Connect with Skip. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.