The Battlecry That Rose After the Call That Changed Everything with Debra McNinch

When your child says, “Mom, I’m transgender,” everything can change in an instant. In this powerful episode of Hope Unlocked, Kristin Kurtz talks with Debra McNinch about faith, grief, prodigal children, LGBTQ family journeys, spiritual warfare, prayer, and learning to stand on Jesus when life feels shaken. Debra shares her heart behind Battlecry Moms, a Christian support community for parents navigating estrangement, addiction, identity struggles, and hard family dynamics. This episode offers Christian encouragement, biblical hope, prayer strategy, healing, and faith for parents walking through difficult seasons.

Debra's contact info:

Website - www.debramcninch.com

Debra's book:

Battlecry: Waging the Spiritual Battle for Your Prodigal

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Transcript

Welcome To Hope Unlocked

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Welcome to the Hope Unlock Podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Kurtz, and I'm also the founder of New Wings Coaching. I help and empower wild-hearted and adventurous women of faith feeling caged and stuck, unlock their true purpose and potential, break free from limitations, and thrive with confidence, courage, and hope. If you're curious to learn more about coaching with me, head to newwingscoaching.net and be sure to explore the show notes for ways to connect with me further. Get ready to dive in as we uncover empowering keys and insights in this episode. So tune in and let's unlock hope together. Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me welcome Deborah McNint to the show. I'm so excited to have her here today. We've had a chance to get to know each other a little better before I hit record, and I cannot wait for her to share her story and this mission and movement that she's helping to lead in this world for such a time as this. So, Deborah, before we get started, would you just share a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Hello, and thank you so much for having me on today. And I think, like you said, we had a great conversation. I think we're probably soul sisters. I wish I still lived close to you because that would be super fun. I think it would get along well. Oh my gosh. You guys have a lot of fun. But I am a wife, I'm a mom, and I always like to say I'm the uh child of the king, the king, the king, um, which is the most important thing you should know about me. I'm also the feeder of butters, the neighborhood stray cat, which really is, I used to call him not our cat, but now he kind of is our cat. So he kind of is our cat. Um, and recently in the last year, we decided to get two puppies because obviously we're crazy. And so I'm the I'm a puppy mom as well. So that is a little bit about me. Um we've moved um nine times, my husband and my family and I. And um, we have lived all over this great United States, and I've been so blessed to see different parts of the country and just meet so many different people along the way. And so I have lived just an amazing life, and I'm so thankful to God that he has allowed the things he's allowed us to do.

Moving Often And Learning To Adapt

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Well, since you said you've lived in nine states, we we have to know, at least I have to know, what's been your favorite state so far?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

You know, I have um I'm from Kansas originally, and so I've lived a couple of different places in Kansas, but I would say my ultimate favorite ever was Kentucky. Yeah. Um I loved Kentucky. Kentucky is beautiful, the people are so kind. Um, and I just I loved it. That's probably the top one. I live in Indiana currently, and that's probably a close second. Um and I always coming in hot on third because that's I'm a Midwest girl for sure. So I have I have just loved everywhere we've lived.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Oh, I love that. So what what what led you to move um, you know, multiple times?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

So my husband works in the ethanol industry, and we have moved um just with his position and his job to different places.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Okay. And was it was it challenging for you? I'm just curious because I moved a lot as a child and it was really challenging for me personally.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, it was challenging. You know, this I always say this last move just about killed me. It was it was almost like this has to be it because or close to it, because it's it was really hard physically, it was hard emotionally this time. Um, and I don't know how many more moves. I think I have one more in me, uh maybe for retirement. And that's about it when it comes to moving. But it is hard, and it was hard for the kids, I think, when they were young. There was definitely probably advantages to bringing them up um in the gypsy state that we were always in. But I think there were probably a lot of disadvantages that they would tell you as well, and things they missed because they did move and they were drifters. But I think the good part about moving for our family was that, you know, I felt like my kids could always fit in anywhere we went. And I feel like that's true today, that they can fit in and they adapt well because they kind of had to because of our life. And so I feel like that's an advantage. Um, and so it was hard. There was a lot of hard with it, but now I can have friends in just so many different places, and I'm so blessed to be able to call people friends in Minnesota and Iowa and Illinois and Western Kansas and all over. So God is good and he always knows what he's doing.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

He sure does. And sometimes, you know, I like to say he knows what he's doing, but for us sometimes it it doesn't really make sense on paper, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Right, right. Right. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

So where like where are you now? Um, I know you said you're in Indiana. Um, you've come, you've come through. Like one of the things that I've been really focusing on this week is you have to go through to get to breakthrough. So with that being said, um, I love, I asked you what was on your on your shirt because I love words and you are wearing a very strong, powerful word on your shirt. Um, so I'd love for you to tell us a little bit more about um kind of what led you to the point of of what you're doing now. Um, but then also where is he taking you?

The Phone Call That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yeah. So my story started probably like a lot of your listeners. Um, you know, like I already said, I was a wife, I was a mom. We were doing all the things, you know, we we brought our kids to church, they went to Christian school, um, they went to Christian college. We did all of those things. And they were all adults, all kind of grown up, already doing their own things in the world. But I was kind of sitting on this make-believe front porch that I built for myself. I call it my Malibu Barbie dream house, where I was sitting on the on the front porch watching the ocean waves and just recanting like how what a wonderful life I had lived, and you know, what a great mom I must have been, because nothing bad happened. And, you know, all of us, we were just, we had a wonderful story. And so that was kind of where my story began. And then last it'll be this summer, we're gonna come up on nine years. And so, about almost nine years ago, I got a phone call from one of my children out of the blue one day, and and he just simply said, Mom, I'm transgender. And I didn't know at the time really what those words meant, honestly. I didn't really know that. We see today. So honestly, I was probably very naive as to what the word even meant. Um, but I did know that my life was going to change. I knew immediately it was the house that I had had built, that that fake Barbie dream house that I was living in. You know, all of a sudden there was a tsunami wave. There's this, there's this famous picture of a tsunami back from it's probably been about 15 years ago now that hit Thailand. And there's this picture of people on the beach. There's thousands of people on a beach, and somebody took a picture from kind of up above, and you can see this wave out in the ocean. And nobody on that beach knew that this wave was coming in. And of course, when it came in, it killed thousands and thousands of people. And I like to say that's kind of what this announcement was for me, that I was just sitting there on that beach that day, just watching the waves. I had no idea that there was going to be a phone call that came in that was going to wipe out my house. And so immediately when that phone call came in, I knew that my life was about to change. And I knew that the hopes and the dreams and the things that I had planned were not going to play out in the way that I had anticipated. And I was now having to decide is my life and my house, did I build it on the rock of Jesus Christ, or is it on shifting sand? And so when those waves took out everything that I that I've had, everything that I thought we built, everything I knew, all that was left is the foundation that I was standing on. And I had to decide is that foundation strong because it's built on Jesus, or is it going to be on shifting sand? And what am I going to do? And so that is the beginning of my story. And I started at the beginning. Um, I I wrote a book about my journey and talked about it. But the what in the book I talk about, one of the first things I did is God told me to write things down because one day I was going to need to share them with people. And so I started kind of journaling at the beginning because I wasn't really a huge journaler, but I started writing things down. And one of the first things that I have written was, this is my battle cry. Love goes to war. And that is what is on my shirt that you referenced. It says battle cry. Love goes to war. And that is where that came from. And that's kind of the beginning of my journey. And so right now, God is still taking me on this journey. I am still walking a path that I did not see coming. But at the beginning, it was dark and it was scary, and there was so much uncertainty. But now I walk that path with my head held high, clinging to the Lord who leads and guides me. And I and I'm not as afraid as I was eight and a half years ago.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Wow. So incredible. Uh just even that, you know, just I'm such a visual person. So when you were talking about that tsunami wave and the people on the beach and just this unexpected wave that was coming, you know, over your life. And I'm just imagining, you know, somebody relating to you in a different way with a different season and a different experience that they've had. Um, take us back to maybe even that first month. Um, what what did that look like? You know, because you think of when there's a a tragedy or a natural disaster that happens, there's usually people that come alongside to help, you know, rescue and and clean up. What did that look like for you? Did you have people? Did you share with people? I mean, family, what it what did it look like for you to get help after?

SPEAKER_01 11:28

That's a great question. Um, at the beginning, it started immediately. I heard Satan whisper in my ear and not tell anyone. They will judge you, they will think you were a horrible mom. They will know that you were a horrible mom. This was all, you know, you you thought you did a great job, you didn't. You were, you know, it was all about these whys that Satan was just whispering to me. And he was like, you can't tell anyone. And, you know, I believed maybe that was truth. Maybe I did need to keep it to myself. And so I did for quite a while, as long as I could. There were some friends that I called um pretty early on um that have that are still standing with me that looked at me and said, you know what, this is nothing. It's okay. We love you, we love your family, you know, it's gonna be okay. And I promised myself at the beginning, in those first minutes after I hung up that phone call that day, I promised myself three things. And I promised myself that God was a God of miracles and that nothing was too hard for him, and I would never forget that. And I promised myself that I would start a support group with moms, moms like me, that had children that were choosing a different path than we thought they were gonna choose. And I would tell my story every chance I got, even if I misspoke, even if I cried the whole time, even if I used the wrong verb. I know we talked about that before and we were laughing about how I'm like, I am not the most eloquent speaker. And so God, um, you know, he knew what he was doing, I guess, when he called me to to speak about this, but he also knew that I was probably gonna use the wrong, you know, verb. But here we are. I'm gonna do the best I can do today with my C that I got in English, you know. Um and so um, but that that was one of the things that I promised myself at the beginning. And and God was so faithful to meet me in those first moments and just confirm that that he loved me and that he still had this, and that getting through this wasn't like something just a walk through, but it was going to be a learning experience. And you know when it says, you know, in Psalms, you know, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we walk through it. We don't stop in it. We're gonna get to the other side. And I, this was going to be an opportunity for me to keep my eyes on Jesus and learn about Jesus and our Father God in ways that I never would have had I not been faced with the things that I'm now faced with. And for that, I'm very thankful that now I know different parts of his personality, different names that I can call him that maybe I didn't know, you know, eight years ago. And so I know God uses all things for good. And I had to make that choice at the beginning. He spoke to me that I needed to keep my eyes on him, and that's what I intended to complete until the very end. And I see the redemption I'm praying and believing for. I I would keep my eyes on Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Amen. Did you have, um, I'm just thinking, like, did you have, you know, I'm thinking of keeping your eyes on Jesus, kind of that perspective, like a focal point verse that really you you really leaned into, maybe a chapter in the Bible, maybe um a person in the Bible that you you really looked to in the beginning, but also now too.

Pursuing The Lost With Scripture

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yeah. I turned to the word. And I would, I would have considered myself a avid Bible reader up to this point. But really, when this happened, I really turned to God and his word. And I turned to digging into scripture and I turned to um just looking for what he had to say. And honestly, you know, if I was truthful about it at the beginning, I was sort of looking for a loophole because I know what I believed and I know what I'd always been told. Um, and I really was just trying to figure out, you know, if God loved me, if God still loved my child, you know, am I going to hell? If I love my kid, is my kid going to hell if it doesn't change? You know, there were just all of these questions. And so I turned to scripture to dig in, to really see for myself with my own eyes what God was saying. Um, and there were just so many stories that, you know, everything related to it was like just a fresh anointing of my eyes to see him in all of the pages of scripture in places that I never would have seen him before. And I have a couple of uh stories that really have stuck out to me over the years. And one of them is, you know, when David and his men in 1 Samuel chapter 30, um, you know, they had been out fighting and they had come home from the battle. And when they got home, they they had learned that their wives and their children had been stolen from the by the enemy and they were gone. And when the men found this, they all fell to the ground and just wailed and cried because of the great loss that they had suffered. And finally, David had kind of pulled himself together and he said, I'm gonna seek the Lord. And so he sought the Lord in this in this matter, and the Lord said to pursue them. And so David got his men together and they started out to go back to get the children and to get the wives back from the land of the enemy. And they got kind of halfway, and 200 of them said, You know what, I am too tired to go on. And David, he just said, You guys stay here. But he and the rest of the men are going on, and we're gonna get the wives and the kids. And they did that and they brought everyone home, not one had been harmed, and they they saved all of the wives and kids. And I feel like from the very beginning, that was a message that the Lord had spoken to me that it's time to pursue the lost. It's time to pursue our children, and we are gonna go on, and there's gonna be people that are gonna start with me that are gonna be too tired to continue. But I am going on and I'm gonna get my kid back, and I'm gonna get your kid back, and I'm not stopping till every single name that has been written on Battlecry, the the the group I started for moms, every single name is gonna come home, and we're not gonna stop. And so that's one of the many scriptures from the very beginning that the Lord put on my heart.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Oh my gosh. You like I feel a fire on this. Like you're like warrior, warrior mama, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yes, yes. And I won't stop.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Yeah. I mean, there's there's such a that's that's that's one of the things, right? So I I I often look at you know the path that he has us on. It's it's challenging, the narrow road, right? And there's no U-turns on it. Right. I mean, you you could, you could try. And I think that's where you have a choice. We we're given a choice. We can go back and we can just relent and not do anything about what he's called us to step into and to lead others into. And you're like, I'm I'm charging on, and you're coming with me.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

So tell us about this group. Um, I love that he gave you this directive early on, and you were like, Yes, I will take on this mantle. We are going there. Um, what did that look like for you to start the group? Was there any like fear, trepidation? Had you led a group before? Like, what did this look like?

SPEAKER_01 18:57

At the beginning, I knew that I was gonna need support and I was going to need to find other moms going through similar veins. And so I had found a group actually on social media that was a very large group dedicated to moms that had um children walking alternative paths. And I got in the group, and it wasn't, you know, five minutes later that I realized I was in a group that was very affirming of the decisions that these kids were making. And so I knew that um that probably was not going to be the stance in the direction that I was gonna go with what the Lord was calling me to do. But I stayed in the group because I needed to see with my own eyes that there were other people going through this, that I was not alone. But then at the same time, I knew God was calling me to form a group of moms that um just a place, just you know, you know, at the beginning I remembered thinking, well, that's gonna be kind of depressing, God. All of these moms are gonna be sitting around and crying all the time. This doesn't sound like fun at all. But um, I I realized uh very soon, God's like, no, this is gonna be a place of hope and joy. And we're gonna wait with anticipation of uh to just wait and see what I'm gonna do. And so I I joined, um, I found a way to build a network. I knew that it was not gonna be a message for Facebook or any of the big platforms. I needed to build my own platform and I did that. And I was super scared at the beginning because I am not very tech. Um, I am, you know, 50 some years old, and I do not have room to learn new skills. So I always joke and say, you know, I am full of if I have to learn something new, something has to leave. My brain is full. Sure. And and technology is not my strong point. So I I was like, Lord, I don't have any idea how you could have called me to this. I can barely send an email without needing to get someone in here to help me. But he was so faithful to walk us through every step. And I was able to start this group and we launched it's been in May, it will be five years. So five years. Congratulations. And yes, thank you. And it is just it spreads by word of mouth. It's I don't have a million-dollar marketing team behind me. I just have, you know, the moms and they share with people. And I I do podcasts and I share when I go places, and and everybody knows a mom. Everyone knows someone that can use this group. And we have over 1,600 moms as of today, and it grows every single day. Uh parents that have kids, and we have all kinds of prodigal situations in our group. Maybe you have LGBTQ, maybe you have a child addicted to drugs and alcohol, maybe you have a child in prison, maybe you're walking through estrangement right now with your family. Whatever it is, there is a group for you within Battlecry. It's called Battlecry Moms. Um, and we would love to have you just join and be a part of our network. And I promise you, it is the most like faith-filled, joy-filled, hope-filled group you will ever meet and be a part of. These women are amazing. And we pray hard that mostly we believe. We believe what we're praying for, that God is going to answer in our sense of family home.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

So beautiful. What a what a beautiful space to, you know, just to set the table for these women who maybe haven't found a place that um, you know, because you're you're all praying, and you're I think of um James 1 2, you know, consider. It all joy, right? All consider it all joy. Um, because there is a propensity to, you know, when the enemy comes at you, I'm sure still does, because let's be real, you know, it's it's it's a battle, especially when we are um taking ground for the kingdom and to have other women that you can like link arms with, right? Like a warrior battle buddy, right? Right. So thank you for your guest. I can only imagine, you know, just the when we were talking before this, I was just seeing like confetti in all of heaven is cheering you on.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Well, thank you. I I have good days and bad days, just like everyone. And um, some days you just it's neat, it's just great. It's so that someone speaks that to you, just remind you that um even in the hard days that it you've got to go on and God is noticing. And so thank you for that.

Victories, Prodigals, And Real Hope

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Yeah, you're welcome. I would love to hear. Um I love you know, testimonials are one of my favorite things, but um, maybe if I I'm sure you probably can't disclose names or anything, but would you be open to sharing maybe a testimonial or two from a woman, a mama who stepped into your group and you know, maybe what you've seen from her stepping in and you know, some fruit from that, from your yes ultimately.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Yes, we have had, we call them victories. And within our you know, within our group, we celebrate um big victories, but we also celebrate small victories. So things that the regular world would overlook, we celebrate and we we thank God for. So maybe somebody got a phone call from their child and they haven't for a while. That's a victory. You know, maybe somebody's kid came home for Christmas and went to church with them to services. That is a huge victory. You know, maybe, you know, someone was practicing a lifestyle that's outside of God's will and now they've come back. That's a huge victory. And those are things that have happened all within our group. We had victories all the time. We have had um prodigals come home. We have had um kids that have wandered away, that are estranged, that are now talking back to their parents. Um and those are all things that we celebrate. And we celebrate and we thank God because it's Him that is that's turning their hearts, that is softening the scales on their eyes that they would fall off, that they would see Him. And we that they know the truth. Our kids, most of our kids, I would say, 99.9% grew up in the church. You know, we raised our kids in the church. We they went to youth group, they went to Christian school, they went to Christian college. I like to say we put the quarters on the slot machine. We did all of the things that you're supposed to do, but when we pulled that lever down somehow, we didn't get this Christian jackpot that everybody else seems to have gotten. And, you know, so we celebrate when kids come back, when they when they take one step back home. Those are things that we throw the confetti for that we celebrate. And it happens every day. We celebrate anything, anything that's happened, any any big thing, any little thing, we are all full of joy for one another. And there's no jealousy in that. You know, somebody else's kid comes home. I am just as excited for that family that they got the answer to their prayer as I will be the day that I get the answer to mine.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Amen. Oh, I just love your heart. Thank you for keeping, you know, like one of my favorite phrases, and I have to speak it to myself every day is keep going. Um, so thank you for your keeping going. Is that a keep going? Yes, thank you for keeping going.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

See my English too. My makeup work. Yes, it's all good.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Um yes, if there are any English teachers listening to this, I apologize. Don't listen to it.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

But we are out here speaking because he's called us to do it. And right, um, I just want to like one thing that I really love, um, you know, just in people I've come across, you know, even in my own walk, with um people are giving their yes to things that maybe, you know, maybe you don't feel qualified to do something. And I I love seeing an overcomer, like an underdog overcomer step in and take the reins. Um and it sounds like you have like within your group, you have subgroups. Um, so because of your yes, have there been others who've stepped up to the plate that maybe felt like, oh my gosh, I can't do this. I don't know what I'm doing. And you've seen like your yes for leadership spark um, you know, other women to step up to the plate to lead as well.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Absolutely. And I know at the beginning of my journey, I actually would pray things like, God, if you could just get me in touch with telegram, you know, if you could just get me in touch with, you know, you name the famous pastor, because if I could tell them my story and if they could pray, I mean, I know you're listening to their prayers, you know, more than little old me. And God finally one day had enough of that nonsense and said, You don't know, you don't know, you don't know how powerful your prayers are.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

And I didn't, I really didn't. And so, as part of Battle Cry, you know, that is just a that is just a testament that God has worked in me and reminded me. It's kind of like when you when the angel came to Gideon in the Old Testament and he he greeted him with, you know, greetings, mighty warrior, you know. And Gideon's like, You talking to me? You know, and it was kind of like that. I am not a mighty warrior. And that is kind of how I like to lead the group. I want to empower everybody to raise up and know that they have a Gideon spirit in them and that their prayers are powerful and they don't need Billy Graham to pray their kids home. They need you on your knees in your prayer closet, calling out to the Lord. And that is one thing I try to do is just to see within each person. Like, I think you're a leader. I know that you're going through a hard thing, but this group needs a leader. Why don't you help step up and lead these moms in that place of pain? We're not, we're not leading from this place of like it's done and finished. We're, you know, our pain, we lead from that promise of God that He's gonna get us through. And it's beautiful to see the women stepping up and to help me lead this group.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Yes. And I it sounds like you you did something new today as well. Just even today.

Going Live And Praying At Noon

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Just today. We we you know, I have gone live. There's a feature within our group where you can go live, you know, and and talk to the people, any anybody in your group. And I've done it a handful of times. I I've always been a little camera shy, which is kind of funny that I do these podcasts all the time, but it is not my comfort zone really to be on camera and to talk and to do these things. And so I have done it um some, but this year, the Lord really spoke to me at the beginning in January and said, This year, I want you to go deeper within the group, not just focus on expanding and always, you know, getting new members, which we always will do. We always are open. We always want to reach every mom that needs a needs a friend to come in with us. But I also want you to connect with the women in the group. And so the one way to do that was to um go live. But now there's a feature where I can invite somebody in on my life with me to talk. And we did that for the first time today. And we're just every week, we're gonna have a different mom come on and just share what's on her heart, share her story with everybody and what she's going through, and then just share what God is speaking to her in this hour and then pray with us. We pray at, we set our our our little timers on our phones. It goes off at 12 central time every single day. So if you're listening to this, if you have a prodigal or if you don't have a prodigal, set your alarm on your phone to go off at 12 central time, wherever that is for you. That's 1 p.m. in my time zone. And we just bow our heads for just a two-minute prayer of just reminding God that you know that we believe the prodigals are coming home and and to just lifting up the the ones that are unsaved. And it's a powerful time that thousands of women across this world are praying at the exact same time every single day. And so we're gonna go live. We go live at one and 12th central in our group to pray um once in a while. And that's what we're gonna do now with a different wall every week. So beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Well, what like I love that you said it's it's uncomfortable. I you don't love that it's uncomfortable, but I love that you said it's uncomfortable for you to do these things, right? Um, a lot of the times that I feel like, at least in my walk, whenever I've done something that's super uncomfortable, there's somebody on the other side that it's like it gives them permission to do the uncomfortable thing. Have you noticed that too?

SPEAKER_01 31:52

It's like team, you're it. Yes, 100%. 100%. And I, you know, I kind of try I like to tell my story through humor. I you probably have noticed that, you know, but it I think it's just if if you are always just being who you are, I'm not trying to be anybody else. I'm not trying to portray anybody else. You know, I think if you come across as who you are and who God has called you to be an authentic, that's going to lead to others to want to do the same thing. And I hope um that's what the the other moms think. They they look and say, Well, she came on with no makeup and her hair uncombed today. I can do it too. And that is kind of where we're at. So I love that.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Yes. I I people people will be like, Oh, there's Kristen doing a Facebook live again. She just got out of like the gym and she's a hot mess. And I'm like, Yes, it's the real it's real in raw time, you know? It's real. But if she can do it, I could do it. Exactly. Well, what like what is on the horizon like for your group? What do you feel like is another like big stretch that he's going to be leading you into, maybe even the next, you know, by the end of the year? Do you have kind of a vision on that?

The Vision Ahead For Battlecry

SPEAKER_01 33:01

You know, my vision, two things. First, I will say the the vision for my group and the ultimate goal is to close it down and to be out of the job because all the prodigals are home. And so I will lead with that. That by the end of the year, I decree and declare every kid is coming home and that that group will be closed and never have to be opened again. Um, but we wait for God's timing for that. And so as we look to him and what he has for us, we're gonna also start very soon to have um pastors and preachers and authors and leaders and different people in our world are going to be able to zoom in with me and just kind of have a moment with our moms and talk to them and encourage them and just tell them that it's gonna be okay, that God is gonna, he's not left you, that that his he loves our kids, that his eyes are on them, and that they're gonna get tired of the pig pen filth that they live in. And they are gonna wake up and they are gonna remember their father and they are gonna take that step to come back home. And so by the end of the year, I really I'm gonna be excited to see how many people I could look at and be like, oh wow, that person was live in my group. I can't, you know, that's craziness. And so that those are the things I look forward to that he's gonna do with us and within the next little bit.

How To Connect And Join

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Yeah. Well, you know, speaking of that, it sounds like, you know, you have people in mind that um, you know, whether you have them in mind already, but if you're listening in today and you maybe you're one of those people who could, you know, really bless Deborah and her group, um, definitely reach out to her for sure. Um, and then if you know somebody, um, I'm a huge connector. I've realized that I didn't know that people aren't like connectors. Um, you have to kind of like ask them to connect. So if you know of somebody and you're listening in, um, and you know of somebody that might be a good fit to come on and bless her group, definitely, you know, make that connection for sure. Um, I still have questions for you, but I want to make sure that we kind of pause there for a second to be sure to add your contact information. So, what would be the best way for somebody to get a hold of you should they either be wanting to be, you know, sharing in your group or have somebody that they wanted to connect you to?

SPEAKER_01 35:21

The best way, the easiest thing to remember would be to go to my personal website, which is www.debramac.com. And from there, you can send me a message. Um you can also find a link to Battlecry Moms if you if you're a mom and you're wanting to join our group. There's also a Battlecry Dads. It's very small. There's not a lot of dads that are on there because dads are not joiners, like moms are joiners. But if you're a dad and you're listening to this podcast, there's a there is a place for you. And we would love to have you. But you can connect all of those things, connect contacting me. Um you can read. I read, um, I have merch. I have lots of battle cry shirts and things that we sell um off my website, my book. You can get there, you can get at Amazon, all the places. But um, my website is the best place probably to connect with me and see what's going on. I try to to blog about just whatever the Lord is taught, you know, teaching me each week, each each time that he teaches me something, I try to share that with others. And so it's a great place just to come and see what God is doing.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Yeah. Okay, so let's let's catch this for a moment. You wrote a book. You write, you write in a blog. You and I, like English maybe isn't our you know, our thing. Right? Okay. Tell us about this. Tell us about the prompting, how how you got to having a book and a blog.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Probably my story really started about 20 years ago. And I don't always share this, but I will I'll share this part today. Um it started back when I started having prophetic dreams. And I grew up a good little Southern Baptist girl. And we didn't, I didn't meet, I always say I didn't meet the crazy Pentecostals till I was an adult. Um and and I did know there was a whole different world out there. It's a whole new world. It was, let me tell you, it was a whole new world. Um, I have great roots because of my upbringing, and I have great wings because of the people that I've met um over the years. But I started kind of having some dreams. And one night, you know, gosh, probably almost 20 years ago now, I I saw myself standing on a stage talking about a book I had written. And at the time, you know, I thought, well, I'm not a writer or a speaker, so that's craziness. And and I can't imagine how God would ever do anything like that. And so I never told anybody really about that dream. And I carried it in my heart for years and years and years. And I would go places and people would come up to me and say, like, God took me to tell you you're gonna write a book. And so I just always assumed this book that I was going to write obviously was going to be the book about how to be the best mom ever. And people would want to be me because you know, I had raised these perfect little evangelical missionaries and that were serving God and it was gonna be just this great thing. And after the phone call that day, actually, I think one of the very, very first thoughts that came to my mind was, are you kidding me? Is this no, this is not what I am going to write about. This is not what I'm going to talk about. And God was like, surprise, it is. Um, but I tell that story because sometimes when we get in our pain, any of us, no matter what that pain looks like in your life, if you you question God and you start saying, God, where are you? Where are you? How could you have let this happen? But if you really stop and think about it, I know in my story, I can look back and I can say, you know, 20 years ago, God, you knew. You knew what was gonna happen, and you have been preparing me all of these years for this assignment that I had no idea that was gonna be on my radar one day. And so I know that he's in it. He's in it, even if I don't understand it, and even if it's never gonna make sense to me on this earth, I know that God was in it, and and I'm so thankful for that. And that's kind of the beginning of I knew that I was going to write a book um one day. And then after this all kind of transpired and I realized this is what I was gonna be writing about, I I kind of kept saying no. I said no a lot of times until I finally had to say yes. And I started investigating what it looks like to write a book and all the things I did and shot for a publisher and you know, all of the all of the things. And I I always joke that I'm probably the first author in the history of writing a book that tried to talk the publisher out of publishing the book. That's how bad I did not want to write a book. Like I uh the whole time I was like, if you don't want to do this, we can just call it right now.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

Yeah, you're like giving them permission to let you eject.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Just tell me no, you know, it's all okay. I'm gonna be okay. Yeah. But that's how I wrote, I wrote a book. And it came out of those journal entries. When God told me to write things down that I would be sharing them with people one day, that's where the book came out of. It came out of the cries of my heart, it came out of the bathroom floor, my tears of pain. It came out of the missed Christmases when you know everybody else was having dinner and I had nothing. You know, it came out of of those lonely seasons of what does this look like? How can I still be the bright light of Christ in a dark world when I feel like my light has gone out? And it just came out of pain and out of out of the purpose that God had brought me to, that I never asked for, that I'm so thankful he knew more and has given it to me. It's a gift. This pain is a gift, it's it's the beautiful unfolding. And I know my story's not over, and I believe, you know, that God, it says in Revelation that our prayers go out before him and they go to these bowls in heaven. And I know that every prayer that someone is praying right now for whatever situation they are in, that God knows that and he just has that. He's holding it in his bowl, and at the right time, that he knows, he knows already when that's gonna be. That prayer is gonna come up before him, and he's gonna be like, today is the day that that prayer is gonna get answered. And so that's what that the battle cry is about. It is about the journey of what he has taught me in this hard place. I talk about hard things, I talk about pain, I talk about being jealous of all of my friends that were becoming grandparents, and that now is off the table for me, you know, and all of those things. And I question God like, how could you be in their happiness with babies being born? And how could you be in my bathroom four tears at the same time? And it was just all about God just meeting me right where I was at. And I know there's other people out there going through the same thing, hard things, and nobody was really talking about it. And I knew that God was calling me to tell my story.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

Tell us the name of the book.

SPEAKER_01 42:33

It's called Battle Cry. Love Goes to War.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

I love love, I love Love Goes to War. Yeah, love goes to war. Like just sit with that for a minute, you guys. Listen, just let him show you what that might even mean for you, whether it's somebody in your family or maybe somebody you know at work, or you know, the world is challenging. And I was in Exodus this morning, and if you guys know Exodus 14, 14, um, I'm gonna totally forget. I have to, I'm gonna just pull it up right now because I don't want to forget exactly how it goes. But um, it's just so powerful. Um one moment here. Pause as we look up the verse. Um The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent. That's one of the versions, and that's the ESV. But um, I love um, let's see, there's one. The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still. And then there's another one, the Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. Like, so if you want to go into that that verse, find find a version that really speaks to you. I like the the one where it says, be still. We don't need to run frantically in these moments. I actually have personally have been praying in my own husband. I got saved a year after we got married. And I used to call him an unbeliever, and now I call him a pre-believer. So I flipped the we flipped it to speaking the positive opposite of what maybe the world would say is like you're speaking unbeliever. And I I just kind of was like, huh, I don't I don't really think that's helpful, right? Right, so we could try and declare what will be. Exactly. Like he's he's on his way, he's just not there yet. I and I I have my own crazy testimony. It's like, you know what? If God could get a hold of me, he can get a hold of anybody, including my own husband. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 44:37

Well, and my my story's like that as well. My husband was not a believer for many, many years of our marriage. And we would argue things like, you know, he'd be like, Oh, everybody believes in the same God. It's just the number two guy that we all argue over. And I'd be like, Jesus is not the number two guy. You know, I would get so mad at him for the things that he would say. But I got a hold of him in a in a crazy way one weekend as well. When life has never been the same, and it can happen to anybody. And that's why you have to pray, but you have to believe what you're praying.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Yes. And it's all like there's a timing thing to it too, right? And sometimes I don't understand his timing, but it's his timing, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:17

Yeah, there's a uh an illustration I'd like to say. Like if you were, if you were you had a bow and arrow, you know, and you were shooting to a target, yeah, and you were pulling back that bow, you know, if I if I pulled it just a little, just a little once back and I let it go, it would just go a little bit in front of me, the arrow went. And if I if I pulled it back just a little bit farther, it would go even just a little bit farther up in front of me. But the more I pull that bow back, the more pain that is involved, my shoulders hurt. You know, I've got a cramp. It's gonna hurt. But God keeps telling you, pull it back a little farther, pull it back a little farther. And at the right time, when that arrow is released, it is gonna land exactly where God has it to land. And it is going to accomplish everything that he has for it to accomplish. And he could answer it today, and that arrow could go halfway, and maybe 50 people would be saved because of that. But if you can wait, if we can all just hold on, that arrow will land exactly where it's supposed to land, and thousands and thousands of people and generationally might be changed because it will wait. And so hold on, hold on. I know it hurts, I know it's you got a cramp right now. But I do know that God is gonna answer and it's gonna land exactly at his timing.

Final Encouragement And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Amen. Amen. Well, you are a gift, Deborah. Thank you so much for coming on here today. Um you know, as I I hate to even have to close. I feel like we'll have to have you back again soon with more testimony. Um as we close today, I would just love for you to just, you know, think of that one who's listening in today. Do you have anything else that you would like to maybe like encouragement over them, words of wisdom? And then would you pray us over? Pray us out today and over. Pray us out.

SPEAKER_01 47:05

Yes, yes, yes. Uh, if you're listening today and whatever you're going through, if it's a spouse or a child or a mom or dad that doesn't know the Lord and you're holding on, um, my motto is no one fights alone. Just know that you are not alone, that there are other people praying and believing with you. Don't believe the lie of the enemy. Don't believe Saint Wayne whispers in your ear that you're all alone. Don't believe him when he says don't tell anybody, because it says a revelation we'll overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. And so speak it out and tell somebody and get people on this path, thank you, to pray and believe that you're prodigal. And I'm so thankful just to have this opportunity to talk about the goodness of God. And so um, as we pray, Lord, I just thank you. I thank you today for this platform and I thank you for our conversation. And if there's anybody listening that um has a child that is wondering, Lord, I pray that they would connect with Battle Pray. I pray that you would whisper in their ear that they are not alone and that Satan will not have their child. And so bring them to us, connect them to our ministry more until we can fight together. Lord, we believe and we fight together. So we know that you are answering. We believe that you are answering. And um, God, we wait, we wait with anticipation as to what you're gonna do. We thank you, Lord, that you are going after our kids, that the scales on their eyes are gonna fall off. They're gonna fall off or then they're gonna wake up one day and they're gonna be just driving down the street and they're gonna see a stop sign and they're gonna say they're just gonna know in their spirit that they need to stop in their sin and that they need to come home. And so, Lord, help us to prepare our homes now for that day of their online. Well, help us to prepare and ready ourselves for when they come home. Lord, we praise you, we look to you, and we thank you for all that you're doing. It's in Jesus' name. Amen.

Anchoring Verse And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 49:08

Amen. Deborah, thank you so much. Oh my gosh. Um, well, I am gonna close with the hope unlocked anchoring verse. It's may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. And that's Romans 15, 13. So thank you again, Deborah. Like I said, we'll have to have you back on here. I think we've got some more things to dig into. So um, thank you, listeners. I will be back with another episode next week. Take care.