The Beautiful Story of Missionary Maggie

Welcome to Truth Talk Live.

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Seek your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. I'm humbled to be with you today, and I'm honored to be with you today to talk to a woman of God who. Is with me, and I might ask you this question, listeners out there. How many churches have you planted?

How many How many people have you led to the Lord? How many countries have you been to to share the gospel of Jesus Christ? Today, you're going to hear a remarkable story of one of my spiritual heroes.

Someone who is a woman of God who loves Jesus, who, on the way into the studio, she said her favorite two words of all time are follow me. And she wasn't talking about her either. I can tell you that right now. We're calling her today Maggie, Missionary Maggie. And she is with us and our normal host on Mondays is our amazing Man of God friend, Utah missionary Russ, who is not feeling so well today, but he'll be back on next time.

But we're grateful for Russ East and what God's doing through him and the Truth Network all across the Wasatch front. What does that do?

Well, maybe find out what that is. Maybe get on an airplane instead of just going skiing to Utah. Go to Utah and share Jesus with all the people out there that need him one of the least Christian areas in the entire United States of America, where the Truth Network is beaming bright on 50,000 watts. And we just got a new transmitter, thanks to all your prayers, that's like a band-aid. We're still trying to get our technical up there.

But anyway, missionary Maggie, it is such an honor. Speak right on that mic. Put it on your chin. Good to have you here on Truth Talk Live. How are you?

I'm doing awesome. How are you doing? Thanks for brightening up our day. I am super excited because I love to tell people about Jesus.

Well, you love to do that. And you've been in how many countries doing that?

Well, I never counted the phone. I've been in Siberia and Belarus and Moscow and Kiev, Ukraine and East Asia, South Asia. Oh, my soul. Lot a lot of places. You've got a passport that's got all kinds of stamps on it.

Missionary Maggie, I want to, you're on today. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you to my buddy Perry for bringing in here, all the people that have supported you. Our church has supported you. We have so much going on, so much common DNA spiritually.

Let me ask you, I love it out of the gate. I love asking this question, my guest. Who is? MISTINARY MAGGY. Will I am a person that you never would dream could end up serving Jesus.

because um I have a terrible past. And Um I always want God to use my past. to be able to draw people to Jesus and let them know. That it doesn't matter what you did before and who you were, because I'm a brand new baby in Jesus Christ. And you can go and tell Him.

Tell about him anywhere in the entire world. Yeah, and before you really became Missionary Maggie, there were a lot of missionaries pursuing you. There were people praying for you. How do you describe that life Because people hear you, they see you, they hear the amazing stories. I mean, I got I gotta, I'm not gonna get through any of these points here.

I mean, Brother Perry hands me this sheet of, you know, my brother Hudsbeth hands me this sheet of things of all these biographical, amazing. Spiritual, just things God's used you to do, and you give Him all the glory. I'm not going to get through all this. And people hear you speak and they go to your studies, and you've been all over the world, and you've helped plant churches, and you've helped bring people to Christ, men and women, you've encouraged pastors in all these different language groups and people groups, and you've been kicked out of countries for the gospel. But a lot of them don't know about who you were.

Before Christ. Can you talk a little bit about that and about, you know, for those hearing, Maybe they think, I can't be used, you know. Oh, oh, can they be used? Let's go there. That's my joy is because my.

Mother died when I was six. And I'm summoning it all up. And so they split us all up and sent us everywhere. And I ended up coming back and living across the street with this family. But she was a believer.

She was a strong believer. And so they took me to church. Every single time it was open. Of course, I was a little kid, six years old. And time I was eight years old, my daddy remarried and I had to go back home.

So that is the only time. that it was ever like in a a real home where people really love you for They just love you. Strong Christians.

So when I moved back home, and I'm not blaming my mother or my father, my daddy got killed later at a train wreck, but the point is. If nobody else in your family And especially in your young age, if they don't go to church and you know, it doesn't matter and they're not concerned with it. You lose all that You know, there's no more Bible school, there's no nothing. And so the the older I got, the worse I got. And I just wanted to get away from home.

Wanted to go in the Air Force as soon as I got out of high school because I said I'm going to go to get away from home and I don't ever want to come back. But what were those days like in home? Like, you know, you were in this. godly family that loved you, took you to church. Then you tra you know, go back to live with your dad and you know, who had remarried.

And so there were some I guess some sticky stuff, some kind of rough, kind of rebel without a cost stuff going on in those tough teenage years between teenage college and when you're looking at going to the Air Force. Yeah, I remember when I was in the Seventh grade? And my daddy was always busy on the railroad and I just wanted him just one time to pay attention to me. I just wanted somebody to love me so bad. And I'm talking the real kind of love.

I'm not talking Sexual love or just say, I love you. I mean real love. And so I went to school and I made up a story and I told him I was pregnant. When I was in seventh grade. because I had a plan and I knew they'd pull my daddy off the railroad.

And call him in and tell him, you know, I was so I was not pregnant. You just wanted your dad's attention. And uh I thought it was a great plan and I didn't care about my reputation and then the next day they this was a long time ago. It's a long, long time ago.

So they were so upset and called my father to come in and I went in the principal's office the next day and he didn't show. You said it was busy. And so from That time on I just said It just got worse. And then I started drinking with a bunch of guys because why did I start drinking with the guys? Because they paid attention to me.

only just cheap attention, like, Oh, hey, come on, they wearing the leather jackets, you come on, we'll take you we'll drop you off, or we'll do this and it just got worse and worse.

So I'd gone in the Air Force and then when I got in the air force, Yeah. I was here a couple years and then I got stuck in the all-mill squadron. In California everybody drank. um just the majority of them. I was with all men.

Language probably wasn't so pleasant either, I imagine. No, it was bad. I never met a saved person when I was in the Air Force. And then I was so miserable so I tried to kill myself. And then I got stuck in one of those um, like a psycho ward or whatever for two months and all the people from Vietnam were coming in, they were all shell-shocked, and we just sat there and stared at each other.

And I remember they made me go to counseling. This is what I want people to hear. And they made me go to counseling for two solid months every day. Yeah. Nobody never told you about Jesus.

I knew about Jesus when I was little, but that's different when you're a little child. It's not the real facing temptation. And I told him, oh no, I said, I just want somebody that really loves me. And the member of the council said, oh, you'll be fine when you go back. And they made the chaplain, it was mandatory the chaplain had to interview you before you left or like have a meeting.

And Yeah, remember he just told me, he said, you just find your church somewhere and go, and everything will be fine. And then it just got worse and I just kept drinking and I just wanted to die. Yeah. And when you don't have anything inside of you to live for, there was no hope. And that's why the ministry I know has just Just done absolutely fantastic, especially in the last five or ten or twelve years because.

All we do is love them. We pour Jesus into them and spend time with them.

Now, we got to take a break. I want to take, this is called, this is like they use it in judo, right? This is taking that negative momentum and turning into amazing positive. Wait till you hear, friends, the force that she has been for Christ and how God's used that lack of fathering. And losing your mom at age six, just the thought of that.

To leverage all that into reaching so many for Christ, and so many are saved and leading. And other missionaries have come out of your ministry. It's missionary Maggie. We got her the whole hour, and I really hope you'll download the podcast if you have to pop in and out. But stay tuned and go tell your friends to tune in and listen and share this because you are about to be blown away by how God has used her.

She's been a blessing to me. We are on Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Epperson. If you're live and you're hearing this and you want to call and ask your question, you can. 866-34-TRUTH.

We'll be right back with what happened after the Air Force. How do you go from the lowest of low with all the father wounds to bringing the heavenly father's love into the lives of so many all over the world from Siberia to East Asia? We'll be right back. Truth Talk Life. Don't touch that dial.

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I mean, there's some tears flowing in here as you talk about your testimony. See, See, I have the, you know, every testimony is broken up in three parts, as you know. You know, and this is a very important thing. I'm going to do a whole show on how to share your testimony sometime. Before Christ, what was your life like?

How you met Christ. Which is, you know, some of us have a Damascus Road kind of experience.

Sometimes we don't even remember exactly when. We just know something was different after that, right?

Sometimes it's at a Christian camp, which we're big on here. And then the third part is. After Christ, what have you done?

So I have this like Hebrews 11 hall of faith type biography of missionary Maggie, who's very humble, and she would not say that about herself. Going getting kicked out of countries, going to Siberia. I mean, who's got Siberia on their hit list? Hey, let's go there. Hey, mom, I'm going to the mission field.

I'm going to Siberia to plant churches. You know, quit asking kids where they're going to college, by the way. Ask them where they're going to go plant churches, right? How many churches have you been a part of planting? Chinese believers, true story, because I've talked to missionaries from over there and other underground believers who've told me that if you're a Chinese believer and you're not planting a church within a year after you've been saved, Then they call you infertile.

They say, we need to go get a spiritual checkup on you. There's something wrong with you. But in America, we just sit, you know, we don't share our faith. We're not, you know, so this is a wake-up call, not to shame anyone. But Maggie.

The missionary. Missionary Maggie. There you were, losing your mom at age six, kind of fluttering around, trying to find yourself. You had a little bit of love from that Christian family that took you in. Then you went back to your dad who remarried, but it wasn't such.

Your dad's so. Caught up in his work, not giving you any affection. You're looking for love in all the wrong places. And this is a good admonition to Christian dads. Pay attention, your kids love on them.

Spent down. I'm especially convicted. Just spending TIME, right? Talk about that, how important that is. Looking back.

What would it, I mean, what would you, if you could say to your dad when you were 11 years old, When you go to the principal and you cop a pregnancy Uh plea. Just to get your dad to come to the school to hug his daughter. And you never even showed up. No, and all I wanted him to do was just put his arms around me. And just, I love you.

That's all. Wow. It could have taken one minute for me. I'm not blaming him. I'm just.

Yeah. Well, dad, your daughters are not asking you to be Mr. Shrink. Mr. Ted Talker and all that.

They're just saying, love us, be with us, hang out with us, take us to get ice cream. Put the phone down, which I'm convicted of, because I'm so often got my daughter right there and I'm looking at all my stuff. And just pay attention, right, to that important thing. And there you were, a young person, impressionable. And the only people that paid you attention were the guys in leather coats saying, hey, come out and come out and drink and hang out.

Then you go to the Air Force. And then what happened? when you hit your lowest low and then all of a sudden Jesus Christ changed your life. Take us into that kind of time frame.

Somewhere in the Air Force college and all that, before. Before you became. Missionary Maggie. Right. Like what brought me to it, right?

Yes.

Well, because it just got worse after I left the Air Force because I went in lost and came out lost and still had no hope and no love. And it wasn't the Air Force fault. And then I just drank worse. My daddy got me a big job at the railroad, and I made lots of money, blew it on, liquor. And it just got worse and How hard do you describe worse?

I mean, what words do you use for it?

So then. Long story short, I met my husband at a, but they have to hear this at a drinking party. And the third day he asked me to marry him. Oh, wow. I was wild back then.

So. I was like, okay, I think I really thought I loved him. Of course, not even knowing what love meant. Sure, sure. And that marriage.

in the first year before I had gotten pregnant, didn't know it later. Um Mm-hmm. He probably left me four or five times and I left him. And I remember he'd take a big liquor bottle and he'd put a big sign on his side and said, Because of this, our marriage is finished. We were both lost.

And uh I really want this to help people that have struggled so much with alcohol because I know there's tons of them. And I drank more than him, but there I know why people drink. I know why they do because when you drink, and especially when you can get enough to get drunk, you drown your sorrows. You don't have to think about anything. You're just thone drunk and you're like, okay.

I can deal with life another day and you wake up in the morning and start again. Just masking all the pain from going even going back as early as six when you lost your mom. Cover it up. And then my what happened after that, my daddy got killed at Thanksgiving and we got married in June. And, you know, that was the one person that I You know, I wish it could have been different, like wish.

But you can't live in the past because Jesus made me brand new. But I can look in the past. And especially when I stay I'm staying with the family now, that the the family, they love their children so much and I see all that love with the kids and the little kids and I'm thinking, gosh But anyway, so when he died and we went to the funeral and I remember my husband and I both I was thinking, Now there's nothing He's dead. I don't I didn't even want to think about him going to hell. I there was no hope.

and well and after that and then I found out I was pregnant. and I didn't know it. And then the doctor told me and he said, well, if you have this child, she'll be brain damaged or dead. And I said, well, that's impossible. I didn't know I was pregnant because I drank all the time.

So I had made a deal with Gone. I made a deal. Alcoholics make deals with God. I knew who God was. I didn't know him myself.

And I said, if you'll let this child live. Then it's it Also so that w we could go to a church somewhere, find a church, go to church. And we would look like a real Christian family. a husband, a wife, and a little baby. And I never drank again.

Never. And three months later, two months later, she was born absolutely perfect. No kidding. No perfect. I want to push your mic a little closer.

Sorry, no, you're doing great. You're doing it.

So that's just part of it. I know it just, so after that. Then a few weeks later he started to tell me that he wanted because it's all in the book, but he wanted to go to church. He kept acting so strange. I said, church?

That's the last place I ever wanted to go. And I said, I don't care.

So I went with him two Sundays. I hated it. Nobody hardly talked to us. We never go to school. Lost people do not go to Sunday school.

You only go to preaching because I didn't want to be there. Wow. You just look good because you walked in there and walked out of there. Good social thing to do. Yeah, and nobody.

Nobody ever came to see us. Huh. Because we were just two trucks. And I've been guilty so many times of things that look at some neighbor and think, oh, yeah, they're on drugs. Don't waste your time.

Uh-mm, uh-mm. No, they're the ones that need it more than you. It makes you think differently when you go to a church, and you've been to many. about hey how are we really touching people You know, I used to love sticking my hand out in the lobby. To some random person I've never seen before.

Hey, glad you're here. Good to see you. Exactly. They don't even care about them. I'm just thinking, I want that.

You probably, you know, Miss Yuri Maggie probably wanted someone just to say, hey. Anybody. Could we come visit you sometime or hire? Are you near the neighborhood? Yeah.

Come get in our small group or come to our Sunday school class or something like that. No, they didn't want people like me. But you're going to church. You made this promise to God: hey, if you'll, you know, I'll get cleaned up, if you'll let this precious child live. And that worked out.

What happened to get you back to the Lord?

Well, so then. I'm condensing this, believe me.

So then my husband just kept acting so strange. This is such a good part of the story. And I thought, what is wrong with him? I'm still pregnant. The baby's gonna come sometime, you know.

So I remember I took the bulletin and I went the next morning and I called the preacher up. I was in a Baptist church. I didn't even know.

South, north, or tell us where geographically. We don't have to tell us exactly, but we'll talk more about that now. What happened to bring. Missionary Maggie to Christ, and then wedgie here, the places she's gone. She's like a modern-day female Apostle Paul.

I mean, how do I, you know, how do I even compare? We're going to talk about her, more of that, and you'll be blessed by these miracle testimonies. More on Truth Talk Live. Download the podcast, everyone, and listen where you can on the Truth app. It's free.

Now I can't tell you y'all. But it's important they hear how my husband got along. Oh my soul. Friends, I can't. I'm just like dialed in.

This has been non-stop since I walked in the door to the Truth Network.

Well, on time to do the show now. I know I'm getting smirks in the audience, but I was in plenty of time. And I had a coffee meeting with some dear brothers in Christ that are part of a men's Bible study, some of my mentors. And we went to five coffee shops. Every one of them was closed because there was a power outage downtown Winston-Salem.

is nuts.

So we finally found one. And we got coffee, and we got the word. And I said, boys, we gotta go. And one of my dear brothers, Jamal, is praying. And I had to stand up and kind of slide out during the prayer.

I hate doing that, but it was so gracious. He was praying for you, he was praying for the show. And then I wheeled in. And I got to meet, and who I've met many times. You've stayed in our home.

You have an amazing story of Christ and how you're spreading the good word all over the world. Missionary Maggie is what we're calling her. And just look up the podcast. It'll basically talk about the powerful story of Missionary Maggie. She's in the show, on the show, in the studio with us right now in person.

Remarkable story of just. the last person you'd ever expect. Alcoholism. Living crazy, living for the devil. And then God did something pretty remarkable to say, and you're married, you got a precious little baby.

But you finally broke down and you called the preacher. You picked up the bulletin. Imagine that. You're breaking all the rules here. I had to borrow 10 cents from my husband.

It was a dime to use a payphone. We had no phone because we'd taken bankruptcy. And I asked him, I said, could you please just leave me 10 cents the next day? I went to a payphone and I called the preacher up. And it was breakfast time.

And I remember he said, who is this? I told him what my name was. And I said, this is exactly what I told him. I said, you need to come and talk to my husband. He's ready to be saved.

He doesn't even know me. We've only been there two weeks. Do you understand? He said, would you mind if I finished my breakfast first? I said, I don't mind at all.

And he said, well, I probably could come tomorrow. Is that good? And I said, yes. And then he asked me, he said, well, what about you? Are you saved?

I said, I know the talk. You remember that? I said, oh, sure, I am. If I was saved, I would have known how to lead him to Jesus. And I said, yes, I'm saved.

So it worked all out. He came the next day. It's long story into that, but it's in the book.

So when I come into the apartment, After I was gone, the preacher did come. and my husband met me at the door and he ended up becoming a biologational preacher before he died. Oh, come on. Yes, both drunks. And so he looked at me and he said, you're never going to believe who came today.

And I said, I don't know. And he said, Nobody's ever come to see us. I said, Oh, who was it? Because I show my expressions, I had to be very careful. And he said, Well, you know that preacher down there at the church?

He came. I said, Really? And I just kind of turned my head because I didn't know the outcome. And he said, Yeah. And he said, you know what?

He said he talked to me about Jesus. And he said, he told me that he loves me. And then he died on the cross. just for me and he said and you know what he got down on his knees with me And we prayed and he said, I ask him in my heart. And I said, really?

And he said, yeah. And he stood up and he was so happy and I gave him a big hug. And remember, I'm lost. I'm lost. You remember, I am lost at this part of the story.

And I said, wow. And I said, well, that's great. And then I'm thinking, okay. And then he said, I just have one question. And he pulled this little card out.

He had it on him when he died. And it was a little three by five card. And he said, I wrote this down, and he said, when he said, the Sundays I've been at church, and he said, the first Sunday he preached out of this book. book and it's called the Old Testament. And he said the second son he preached out of this book is called the New Testament.

And this was his comment. He said, So we have to go and buy a Bible. He said, But we need two of them. I looked at him and I said, I hate to tell you this. I said, But they're both in the same book.

And I remember he said, First time he said, Praise God, he told me God had start taking care of me. And then I was thinking, Now I'm not going to have no on fire, you know, fanatic uh-uh. I don't want any of this. I just want you just not drinking and being a little you know. That's how he got saved.

Oh my soul. And then you ne you came along not too long after that. Two and a half years. Wow. Yeah, because I was too proud.

I just kept thinking. I wondered what he had so bad. And the baby, when she was born, she came out beautiful. We had another little girl, and she came out just fine. I hated being in church.

I hated it. I didn't want to be there. And I'm just like a lot of you that are listening to me. I went only, only because I was his wife. Yeah.

And because then he was Sunday school superintendent, and because he was somebody important in the church, they'd automatically sue him.

Well, that's Mrs. She saved. I hated it. Well, what ha but what happened? How did the how did the Hound of Heaven Get a hold of Maggie.

That's what I want to know. Yes, because I would like to go to his Sunday school class because he was a good teacher. He really wasn't. I always sat on the front row. Because I won the sword drill.

Anybody knows what that is when I was little? Knew that woman, and I knew verses and where they weren't. And I always sat up front so the preacher could see me in the class. And he was talking about Pharaoh when he hardened his heart. And he asked me, he said, Here, how many times did Pharaoh harden his heart?

And I said, I'm women, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you, I look it up, whatever, four or five or six or something. He said, Okay. He said, Now how many times did God harden his heart? And you know, never in my life. I never I never read it, I never heard it and I I looked it up, it's in there.

And I don't know, two or three times or whatever. And he looked at me and he took his glasses off way down on the end of his nose and he said, if that ever happens to you. He said, you'll never have another chance as long as you live. Shoo. And I, because I had told him, I said, I knew what we're saved.

And I told him right in front of everybody in class, I said, I know I'm saved. And I said, I'm not ready to give up my cigarettes and I like my life just like it is. I said that in front of everybody. But then we went down, we went down to church. like into preaching.

I sat there, don't remember one word the preacher said.

So people say, oh, it was, you know, this. I don't remember nothing. And then I noticed the preacher was walking down to come off the platform. I ran down there. He said, I knocked a woman's hat off.

And I don't know what else I did. I would have knocked down anybody. I don't care if I would have won ten miles. And I was right there when he came off of the platform. And I looked at him and I said, You're not going to believe this?

I said, But I'm lost. And I said I wanna be saved. In just like in two minutes, he got down. We prayed and asked Jesus in my heart, and I told him to take away the desire to smoke so I'd never smoke again, and that was it. But it was the point that you can't get saved.

until you know you're lost. I literally. God spared my life so many times I should have been dead and that was it. And then it just totally changed my life. Wow.

And then then not to I mean there's a lot that happens. You know, the the the new the new the new Maggie, well, you were born again. You weren't just. Given behavior modification, God didn't just make a good woman better. He made a dead woman alive, which is what the gospel does: the transformation power of the gospel from alcoholism.

To all that, you know, to profane living and all that, to save you like that, to save your husband, you're in a church. And then you made the mistake after being challenged by one of my mentors, man of God, to go on a mission, a short-term mission trip. And that changed everything in your life. Absolutely, because people, it's when I'd moved to another state, and I remember. when he told me they had these short-term trips.

And I told him, I said, I never, nobody never asked me before, could I go on one? And I said, but I said, I don't have any kind of, nothing. And I said, all I know how to do, I worked in the store. And I said, I don't have any college. And he said, absolutely, you can go.

And it went. And I just thought I'd go and I s I prayed and saved my money and people gave and after that I got there God God called me to go and I'm like, Oh, no, no, you don't understand and I made this list of so stupid, stupid, stupid of what my security was. And my s all I had for security was my stupid job.

Okay. I'm talking about his work just for a grocery store. We're not talking some big business. But you're looking at your life, like, what's really important just to your priorities in life, and your job is right up there above everything.

Well, because I was a widow and I had to take care of myself, but then I said I'd have to leave my kids, I'd have to leave my grandkids, and had an old junkie car. And I said, no, I can't do that. And this is like 1998. 1998, exactly. Back in there.

And so I can say his name, hopefully, the Pastor Courts, who's been a huge impact on my life. And he's with Jesus right now, celebrating. And he's already connected with your husband, who he had a huge impact on. And now, through both of them, look at you. Wow.

So you made, you went to something changed.

Something clicked. When you got radically saved. By that pastor and through the teaching of your husband in Sunday school when you fought it for so long, but something radically changed when you set foot in, I believe it was the Ukraine for that short-term missions trip. First trip. And I imagine some of my my regular offenders were there, Brother Perry.

And Brother Dennis Lennon, and who I call Daddy Warbucks, you know, and some other men of God, Alan, and yeah, oh my soul, and Brother Scott, you know, Brother Reid and some other guys that really championed that. But tell us what happened because this set you off to do some things after that that people would read and say, no way, not one, no way, no, which is why I'm glad you're writing a book, by the way. But tell us what happened from that trip that triggered. in you and set you off. To give up, to give up everything, right.

Because we were there for two or two and a half weeks. But when I was there I got to talk to alcoholic and he got saved.

So then when this alcoholic got saved, I'm thinking to myself, Wow. you know, I got I got to talk to him about Jesus. That's my favorite thing to talk about. But I'm not limited by being in a store or in an office. And I kept thinking, I said, God, I sure would like to do this all the time.

And then I said, I'm not I'm not mission material. That's the devil. That's nobody but the devil. Let me tell you, God can use anybody. And he just kept on for three days.

And I said, I can't take it anymore. And I said, that's it. I just give it up.

Next to being saved, that was the greatest day of my entire life. Wow. Because I don't care who it is, if I had a million-dollar job or a. two hundred dollar a week job, giving up your security when it's the wrong security? That's what's first placed in your life.

What is it about bringing people to Jesus, bringing Jesus to people? That just changed your life just to see all that. Because it's just what you love to do. It's just It just comes out because I want them to have what I have. And a lot of people will lie and won't tell you the truth for a while.

But that's why I love talking to people like that. If they they're not like in a miracle or if they're not honest, all I gotta do is tell them how Jesus changed my life. Hmm. I'm not going to mess with him. Like, I want to tell you what he did for me.

I don't deserve to be sitting here today. And did he love me that much? He loves him just as much. Wow. And the greatest miracle is that God can raise someone from the dead spiritually.

Spiritually. But then you went on an absolute, just. Craze, just a mission. That set off an explosion in your life to all these countries. And you saw miracles like the Holy Ghost working, stuff that us Baptists ain't supposed to be even talking about.

You saw that happen, huh? God just blesses you over and over. I've got to see things in my lifetime. Otherwise, I'd still be here working in just a store doing nothing. I don't mean doing nothing.

Never have the opportunity. Sure. And people call, God calls people to work in stores, to lead people to Christ there, to let their life shine there. You did? I did.

And you did that there, but no satisfaction. You answered the call. to go And we're going to talk about what happened when you went. And from Europe to Eastern Europe to Siberia, back to Ukraine, to Moscow, all the way to Eastern Asia. And what God's doing right now, it's still going on.

She's trying to leave the studio early so she can go in Souls for Christ. I don't know what we're going to do with this lady. Unbelievable. More Truth Talk Live. We come back with Missionary Maggie.

Don't touch that dial. We'll be right back. And be sure you download this podcast. You understand Andy is The harvest truly is plentiful. The laborers are few and with me today on this program is a laborer.

And this might be the story you need to hear wherever you are. To wake up and go share the gospel. And Have done with rid yourself of cozy, comfortable, laxadaisical, passive Western Christianity that just sits in sponges and go somewhere where you walk in the room. And you're sharing the gospel with people who've never heard. You've talked to people who've never heard the gospel, haven't you?

Absolutely. Missionary Maggie. Absolutely. Wow. Now, so.

I'm looking at this rap sheet here, which is your test, you know, all the things that we haven't even gotten any. We've gotten maybe a fifth of these, okay?

So I'm thinking you probably, I'm just kind of spitballing here. You probably got your PhD of ministries, you probably got your doctorate of divinity. You probably have multiple doctorates and D D's in systematic theology. In church planning and all those things, strategic church growth and all that, to be able to go to all these countries. You've been to.

All over the world sharing the gospel. God's used you to bring. Tens of thousands to Christ.

So was I right about the degree? I mean, did Elise get that right? No, degrees are jokes. What?

So you didn't go to all that stuff? None of them. But how did he Okay. Because God, when he called the fisherman, think about it, he said, come here, Peter. Let me see.

Okay. Wait a minute. First of all. Can you read Peter? Uh, Peter, let's see.

How much schooling do you have? Oh, not too much, uh uh. Do you know how to write? No.

Sorry, Peter. Can't use you. That's why I love the verse. That's what our people are. And he said he came to use the unwashed of the world.

The uneducated. Uneducated, that's the one. Yes.

The weak to confound the strong. And think about that fisherman who denied him, who was unlearned. But then fast forward to Acts 4, and it's like he stands up before the entire Supreme Court of all of Israel, and they don't know what to do with him. And all they know is he'd been with Jesus. Yes.

And that's all people need, too.

So you're one lady. Who goes on one short-term missions trip? You're a widow, so you could be just drowning in your sorrows. Oh, my husband's dead. Woe is me, I'm done.

And yet, now you have three kids, you have seven grandkids, but suddenly you start going to these foreign countries. I mean all over the world, from Siberia. Russia, Ukraine. Asia, all over Asia. And what happens?

It's the same thing you just see You just see God work. And when you realize it's not you, all he asked me to do. What's good? And when I go, He does the rest. Do you know what all the people in all those different countries all told me the same thing?

I remember working with a Muslim company. family when I was in Moscow and they said, You just love us so much What do you think they're looking for? They want somebody to take the time and sit down and spend time and tell them how Jesus changed your life and what they could have because they need that. They're hungry for it. What is a an example?

That's a great example. What's another example? As you think about all these years, you know, decades, you know, going on nearly three decades of just serving Christ, just going overseas. I mean, your passport has got to be stamped by all kinds of places. What's a story?

Where you saw the power of the gospel at work that comes to your mind. that really Jarred you and almost like just shell-shocked you to think, wow, this thing is so much bigger. Than me and anyone else. Tell us maybe a story about that where you just saw and just. It just rocked your world.

Well, there's so many, but right off I would think about Siberia. That was the first place I'd ever been. But I was in my Russian was not good then. But I worked on it. God help me.

I love Russian. Wow. So you speak how many languages? uh Russian, Hindu, and English. That's it.

Goodness gracious.

Well, that's three more than me.

Well, my Hindu is not good, but I love Russian. God help me. My wife would say I speak English, but I don't always get home from the store with what she asked me to get, so then she questions that. But we'll keep moving.

So you were in Siberia.

Okay, and the people, you know, had asked me when I go and speak or help these people in the invalid home.

So they use the word invalid home. Remember, this is Siberia, and in the winter is mine is 30. And I'm like an invalid home, and so I'm thinking. This is why just Jesus Oh, it was so beautiful. I thought, well, now, wait a minute.

You want me to go and spend time?

So I'm telling him all the way out it took an hour and a half to get there. You want me to go talk to these old crippled up people laying in the bed half dead? And I said, God, you missed it all. Remember, this was my first long trip, you know, living there, got it? And I said, Don't you remember, God, I was a drunk.

And I said, I mean, and look at the drugs I took. And I said, Why are you why you want me to go here when I should be out here talking to these alcoholics? Russia's full of drunks. Same way with Ukraine. And I said, You want me to go here?

Invalid Home is what it's called, Dome Invalid.

So I get in there. And it was had three hundred rooms, but most most of the people were not. They were like forty, fifty, thirty, whatever. But there were these men there. They're just all rejects.

And that's what I was, was a reject. That's how I felt. All that time when you don't have Jesus. You never fit in. You're just, your whole life's a disaster.

And a lot of these guys that were there. They had lost their their their bodies from, you know, when Chernobyl was there and so it was cut off from on the top of their legs. And so they lived on skateboards. And at the beginning, they didn't want me getting near them, and I went there to teach Bible, and I would go to their rooms and just stay for hours. It was very hard emotionally.

When it was freezing cold, and I would go in there once they started warming up to me. Not figuratively warm enough. And they were on their skateboards and had these like these little blocks. and they held on to the blocks and they did it like this every time and rolled up to the door. with minus 30 outside, and they all just looked up at me.

It's hard enough to look at anybody when you're full height and there they're just crippled and mashed for life just because of chair and noble. But they wouldn't come to the Bible studies before and I knew right then, I knew and I thought, God, I'm so sorry. I thought you, I kept thinking I would use what I thought you'd want me to use because of Russia because I was a drunk. You know, yeah, I got experience on this. I could tell you what God did.

But you put me somewhere Where people are so hurting for love. And I can guarantee you, I would stake my whole life on it. When you. pour into somebody like that. It is so rewarding.

That's what once you experience that. There's no tournament back. Wow. And then you and then you look at even fast forward, you go to Eastern Asia and these Asian countries that they're not thirty below, they're like 130 degrees, and it's blazing hot, and it's spicy food, and you're trying to learn the language. And I hate it.

But the numbers you told me. Thousands are coming to Jesus. Yes.

Talk about that. What that's like. I met this one person when I got there, this one guy, and he's like, you know, they call him the man of peace, you know. And he had been looking and looking for, you know, he had no hope. He was just like everybody else.

So when, after he accepted Jesus, nine months later, he became the one I poured into. and I studied with him for three years because I knew he was going to be the Paul. Because, like right now, I'm sitting here and he's there. You can't be in the same place all the time. But we have studied and studied and studied and started groups.

But we spend months and months with the group. The average group is nine months, eight to nine months, before we let them accept Jesus. because there are a lot of them are different face and you just can't. If you're not strong, you're not going to be able to take persecution over there. Major spiritual warfare.

These countries are hostile to the gospel. It's huge. And we had a woman killed three months ago. And because she was out teaching a Bible study. teaching a Bible st the crime of teaching a Bible study, w that was her crime, and they killed her.

Yes.

And her husband was doing another Bible study and he came back and he didn't know it. She was fifty-one years old. Fifty-one years old. Sure. And I know she's I know she's with Jesus.

And she took some with her to the Lord too. Missionary Maggie, let me ask you this: put this in perspective for our listeners. Yeah. our problems here in America. You know, we got issues.

You know, everyone has problems. You know, and our prayer request sessions at our Sunday school classes are filled with.

Well, you know, such and such hurt his hip or such and such kind of you know, fender bender. Or this and that. About people who are gonna go to heaven and die, you know, die and go to heaven one day. But talk about the plight of the believers you're with every day. in Asia and these other countries that are Brutally persecuted, like this lady, just for leading a Bible study, 51 years old, they kill her.

Yes.

All the ones that we've had, they've been so persecuted. And a lot of them you wouldn't believe how terribly they end up mang mangled up and mashed up. But it's the same with every single one of them.

Well, I've told them over and over, I'm like their mom because I'm older than them, and you know, that's my position, and they're my children, because we got to lead them to Jesus. But I've told them. Like even after this last time. when that woman was killed and we were just all devastated, I said, I said, I just want you to know, if you're afraid. to ever go out again and talk about Jesus.

And I said, I don't want you to think that we're forcing you to do that. And they looked right at me and they said, Mom, you read to us in the Bible that Jesus said, go. We'll never stop. Phew. Wow.

And that's the kind of love that they carry with them, and that's what drives them. How can you go willingly go, knowingly go into these countries that are hostile to Christians, like literally execute Christians? Kill them. They make them go away. They cut their heads off.

They burn them at the stake. How could you go to these countries, Missionary Maggie, knowing that? I'll never stop. You got grandkids. Yes, I do, and I love every one of them.

But I told them before I left for the field years ago, I said it wasn't my decision. I said God called me. I said, I just didn't pick up one day and said, okay, you know, I think I'll just do this for a while. It's when the call comes and it doesn't make me any better than anybody else. I have to live with it if I told them no.

And there's nothing more rewarding. What would you say to our listeners? We're almost out of time here. What would you challenge our listeners out there just in the final 20 seconds of the show? And we're going to try to do some bonus coverage here after the show.

Keep the tape rolling for the podcast. But tell us, real quick, for those that are just with us right now. To realize if you just pour your life into somebody else. Ask God to show you somebody out there that's so desperate and needs Jesus. And when you get focused on that, The other things go away.

Wow. You're the one that gets the reward. Man, that's something. Thank you for blessing us today. Bonus coverage.

True Talk Live. A special visit. We don't know. How many more times will we want to talk to Missionary Maggie? But I'm fascinated by the fact that every person That you minister to.

And every new believer, you write them, their name down. Why do you do that? Why is that so important? Because God wrote my name down. Wow.

In the Lamb's Book of Life, I used to put their first name, not the last name, but the time they were saved and the date, and it took so long I had to leave the date off. I mean the time. I'm sorry, so I'm going to be like 11 o'clock at night.

So now it would be like your first name. and the date you were saved and I have everyone because They're that important to God. What's the biggest transformation you've seen Maybe someone who was full-blown antagonistic to the gospel. that God changed their heart over time through your gospel ministry and through the others' gospel ministry that God used you. Who comes to mind, or what's a cool conversion story?

Just to give our listeners a little. Dose of that. Yes.

Well, I can tell you like where I'm at now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh it takes a long Term. Before I don't I don't I do not bel I do not like forced evangelism. I don't like it at all.

I don't mean that the wrong way. But because you've got to understand what you're doing and they got to understand what you're doing. And I don't want you to just say yes, okay, and then you're empty inside and walk off. But when This will always stay fresh in my mind. single person that I got to see face to face when we led them to Jesus, even my my main partner, I remember the day I asked him.

You know, did he want to ask Jesus in his heart? It had been over eight or nine months, and I said, Now I think it's time. I said, I think you're ready. And I remember we were praying and very simple, you know, you know how to invite Jesus in your heart. We prayed and he, you know, I finished, said Amen, and I looked up at him and he was crying and he said, Immediately he said I'm like his mom.

Oh, mom. He said, I want to do it again. I never heard that in my whole life. I said Then I first thought, Oh God, I have failed you. I said.

Don't tell me there was something I forgot to tell him about Jesus. If he doesn't know after all this time. And I said, but you've already done it. I said, he's here in your heart. He's still crying.

And he said, I know. But he said it felt so wonderful. And that's the picture and that's the same thing that our guys have done when I have been with them, the same identical thing. One of them begged me seven times because I believe with all my heart that they were in such darkness Yeah. Evil darkness because with all the idols and everything else.

And then when all that's gone and they come in this beautiful light, they're like, oh my gosh. And he said, I just want it again. I want that feeling. Shh. Peter 5:8 says, The devil prowls about like a roaring lion.

What spiritual warfare have you seen? In all these years on the field. And you talked a little bit about it there with the blocking, you know, the hard. Hard soil toward the gospel. But what spiritual warfare are you seeing?

Well, usually like Are you talking about how they tried to kill them or what?

Well, yeah, just how have you seen the devil at work, like in these countries? We see spiritual warfare differently over here. Yes.

Mainly, it's just in our passivity. You know, he just wants us to share the gospel. Yes.

You know, and so we just kind of. Because of the, first of all, I have to say, because of the hatred for Jesus. I tell you right now, that is the greatest proof of God's word more than anywhere in the entire world, the country that I'm at now, because they hate the name of Jesus. You can say God all you want, and you don't draw any attention. But you say Jesus, and all heads turn.

And I have told. I told our people there And I mean this, and I don't mean it in the wrong way. I said if they ever Took me in and said that they were going to chop my head off. I'm just using this figuratively. You know, just like you hear in the Bible, you know, but if you'll just admit you know, you know, you don't, you know, Jesus is not your whatever, we'll let you live.

Deny your faith and you can live. And that's a real scenario in other countries. Yes.

And I have told all of them, and I said, I will look right at them and I said, I will tell you. I said, let me tell you something. You just proved to me. Jesus is real. Because you don't hate me.

You hate who I stand for. And it would be with honor. It would be with absolute honor because you wouldn't keep me away from him. I would be with him. Wow.

And I mean that. I don't mean that in a. They just live it out, the hatred for Jesus. It's hatred. And I've seen them over and over try to kill some of our people.

And all of their families, if somebody gets saved in their family, you know, their big families, then all the other people in the family, they're very mean to them. Do you understand? They're very mean. Yes, ma'am. Yeah.

And so at our Wednesday in the Word, we had an Indian missionary come, and at the end, he told us to pray for them. And he spoke of a Martyrs. Prayer commitment that all the church planting Indian missionaries had to to sign and pray before they could go out because a bunch of 'em wouldn't come back. The martyrs' prayer. I just hadn't heard of that before.

But it talked about showing me how graphic and real that is. Oh, yes.

Well, I haven't heard of that, but I'll tell you something beautiful.

So I was teaching the guys one night, and it was, you know, what's so exciting? Teaching the Bible when they never heard your story. I mean, we know the stories. And, you know, like I'm telling you, it was so it was when Stephen, when he was martyred.

So if you've never heard the story... Right? And there were seven or eight of them, and my Hindi is not great, and I was doing an English Hindi, and so I'm reading it. about where, remember, they go and, you know, You know, Jesus stands for Stephen. You know the story.

And then of course he's still, you know, they stoned him to death. And I looked at them and I was telling them how Jesus was standing in honor of them. And you know what it was how he was so proud of Stephen.

So we're all sitting there at the table, and I noticed one by one, especially our last guy, just got beat up. I remember he stood first, and then there were seven more of them, and each one of them just stood. And I'm sitting there thinking, Y'all don't usually do me like this because they're so respectful of me. I mean, like, I'm their mom. They would never get up if it wasn't, you know, don't stand up in front of me.

And I called our leader back, and I said, Come back here in a minute, because my Hindi's not great. And I said, What is going on? I said, Why are all them standing? And they were crying. And then he told me when I read the story.

That at the end sentence that they thought I asked them, Would you go and be martyred now? Oh, wow. And they stood.

So they thought you were asking them, and they stood up as a badge of honor. Wow. And everyone understood. And that's something. We see it so differently here, but that's so encouraging.

convicting What's it like for you to see someone that you've brought to Christ and discipled? Go out and do the same thing. And to hear about the hundreds and even in some cases, thousands of folks that have come to Christ through their ministry. What's that like for you, Missionary Maggie? Yes, no greater joy because that's who you pour your life into.

And when you pour it into somebody and you see God turn them into a brand new person on fire, they are the most dedicated, powerful. Passionate, passionate. leaders I have ever seen. We had to keep the tape rolling. But go back and listen to the early part of the show where this young lady here Her mom tragically passed away when you were six years old.

But a family was committed. To taking you to church, the family that took you in. And you went every week, and the seeds of the gospel were planted in that moment. I love seeing when my daughter and son-in-law bring the grandkids to church. I love it.

Sometimes they're there. We're not. It's kind of a rebuke to me, but it's encouraging to see them there. Like the seeds were planted there. And then the story, you told the whole story earlier on in this podcast about how you drifted.

So I want everyone to listen to your story. And the whole thing's going to be in this new book. Wild then free. Then. And remember, it's then, T-H-E-N.

Okay. I'm saying that because. To explain that, I was wild before. I was so wild. Whatever you just read it, you'll know.

But the next word is then, but I was not free when I was wild. And then once Jesus set me free, I can be as wild as I want for him. And I don't mean that in the wrong way. I can just, wherever, wherever you want me to go, Jesus, I'm here. Do this, do that, no boundary.

How much final question how much have you sacrificed to be I'm I'm full-time missionary, all over the world like you're doing.

Well, I miss my children. But you know, they're all believers, and so I know we're all going to be in heaven. And grandkids, too. You see that? Yes, I'm sorry, yes, and I have a great-grandchild now, and I hope my s grandson's listening.

So, yes, but they belong to Jesus, but there is nothing nothing more important than get to tell other people about Jesus. What does great-grandma say? Grandma says to those kids, say they're listening to this when they're able to download podcasts from themselves on the Truth Podcast Network and download the Truth app, all that, Shameless plug there. What do you say to them when they're listening to this? Maybe they're listening to this 10 years from now.

Maybe you're in heaven when they're hearing this. What do you say to them? No, because I asked God, could I live to 100?

Okay, well, I'm claiming that, but that's okay. Come to all of our funerals and say a good word, please. And share Jesus with a bunch of people there because that's the only thing worth talking about at a funeral. You're going to put the fun in funeral, I can tell you that right now.

So, Missionary Maggie, what do you say, though? Like your legacy, like kind of what's on your tombstone, and what you want your grandkids, great-grandkids to know about you. As a kind of parting thought, you know, like what you would say to them. It's a great question. Give your love away.

It's Jesus' love. And they're so hungry, just go and he'll find them. Amen. Wow. And she's saying that with tears in her eyes.

What a blessing. I'm going to have to listen to this to process all this. It'll take me days, weeks, probably. Wild and Free is Missionary Maggie's book, and that's coming out when. We're hoping, what month is this?

We're hoping August. August or September. The next few months of this recording. Oh, yes.

Which, if you hear this, is the best of sometime whenever. Then you can get it. But the name is: the book is Wild Then Free Missionary Maggie. Reach out to us if you can't find it. And then we may want to talk to you about doing your own podcast to tell these miracle stories because this is worth sharing, right?

Like, this is a great way.

Well, you said, give the love away because it's his love. Yes.

And the world is starving. And it's not physical love they're starving for, and it's not the food. They want somebody just to put their arms around them and say they care and love them. Yeah, and someone who grew up. without a father visibly there.

And then losing your father in that tragic accident. You have seen The love of the Father. How has the love of the Father changed you? Ugh. Because he loves me unconditionally, because my past is so terrible.

And that's another thing. It was so terrible, but that's past. It doesn't bother me. I don't care if you put a whole book and listed every single thing in it I've done. I'm brand new.

I'm free. That's the old. It's covered. It's taken care of. I don't have to live with my past.

I share it because I want to reach out and help other people because I know there's people out there that either think about it. They want to commit suicide or drugs overdose and what happened to them or what could have happened. I know I have been there and they just cover it up because they're so empty inside and want to be loved. That's why I wrote the book.

Well, thank you for blessing us with that. Thank you for blessing us with being with us today. Truthnetwork.com. Be sure you download, you know, obviously, subscribe to all of our wonderful podcasts. We've got Nikita Koloff, The Man-Up Show.

We've got The Christian Car Guy Show. We got Peter Rosenberg, amazing Hope for the Caregiver. We've got Hope in the Morning, a wonderful show by a Christian sister, Emily, who directs people to the throne of the Father. She's lost so many family members in the morning, but pointing people to the joy of Christ even in that tough time. We've got all these great podcasts.

Cyril from India. Who I told you about during the break, he's launching a new podcast called Miracles Still Happen Today. And what God's doing through him.

So be sure they're all there, friends, and you got to meet Missionary Maggie.

So one of these days. When we grow up here at the Truth Network, we want to have a podcast with you on there, and we want to promote this book. When it's out, you've got to promise to come back. And we will debut. We'll give you a national platform.

I mean, the ratings are crazy on the Truth Network. We will give you all kinds of airtime and exposure to promote Wild and Free because who knows who could be set free. Absolutely, just like me with my past. Wow. Because not many people can keep up with my past.

Yeah. I know that. Interesting. You know, the interesting thing, besides the. In the gospel In the New Testament.

The most Narrative, the most words letters taken up in the New Testament. Second to the passion of Christ, which is in all the Gospels, right? than most narrative in the New Testament, you'll never believe what it is. It is the testimony of the murderous villainous Legalistic, Pharisaical. Yes.

who God radically transformed on that road to Damascus. But his testimony is all throughout. All the bad stuff he did. I mean, imagine going to bed at night saying, How many with the image of the Christians you murdered? and how God used him To write half the New Testament from prison.

You know about the fellowship with sufferings, you've seen it firsthand. To go on and to influence us today, like he has. And now, you're, you know, what he started, you're finishing, Missionary Maggie. Thank you for being on. God bless you.

Thank you. We sure appreciate you. Oh. not pleasure. Yeah.