The Name She Never Wanted to Say Changed Her Life with Mandy Adendorff

Mandy Adendorff grew up Orthodox Jewish in Johannesburg and strongly anti-Christian—until one desperate moment changed everything. After unexpectedly crying out the name of Jesus, Mandy encountered a presence that transformed her life and began a ripple effect of faith, healing, and family breakthrough. She shares how God guided her through dreams, brought her to the U.S. through the Green Card Lottery, and eventually led her to help launch a student-led Jesus club in a public high school. Mandy also shares the heart behind Uncommon Courage, helping teens move from anxiety and fear into identity, hope, purpose, and discipleship.

Mandy's contact info:

Website - https://www.mandyadendorff.com

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Transcript

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Welcome And Meet Mandy

SPEAKER_01 0:16

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 Mandy Endorf to the show. So excited to have her here today. If you guys can't see her and you're just on audio, you would see some just beautiful paintings behind her. And I know that she's going to share so much beauty with us today. So, Mandy, thank you for being here today. Cannot wait to hear more about you. And before we get into your story and what you're up to these days, could you just share a little bit about yourself?

From Orthodox Judaism To Jesus

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Sure, absolutely. Well, thank you, uh, Kristen, for having me on this podcast. Super excited to be sharing with you today and the viewers. Well, I'll just share very briefly how I came to know the Lord. How's that? So actually, I was born in South Africa and I've been in the States now for 28 years. My accent has not left me. Yeah. So anyway, I'm Jewish, was born into an Orthodox Jewish family, and just the Lord found me is really all I can say because I was, you know, I was anti-Christian. I was not just, you know, going on with my own life. I was actually anti-Christian. I don't know why and how I picked that up, but I did. Okay. Uh, when I was in high school. And the way that I came to know the Lord was completely supernatural. He really found me. I used to pray, even though I was anti-Christian. I used to pray to God. I was kind of agnostic. I was an agnostic Jew. So I didn't believe, I didn't really know who God was. So I didn't really believe he was a person. I wasn't sure if he was a person. But I used to pray every night because Johannesburg, where I grew up, was very, very violent, a very violent city. And it was so bad. When I was living there, the woman was raped every 13 seconds in the country. It was so extreme. And I know that it's still pretty violent there now. But when I was 16 years old, this was about 15, 16, that that's what the stats were. And so I used to pray before I used to go to sleep at night. I used to live in a small little house with my parents, super protective. And I used to pray to this God that I didn't know. And I would just say something like, Please protect me. And I just used to do that in case there was a God. Because I figured if there was a God, at least I'm trying my, you know, you know, trying to get trying to get myself safe. Anyway, one of those nights I was praying and I don't know how this happened, but out of my mouth I said, Jesus. Jesus just came. It was it was like I was crying out for God. And it was as if there was a spontaneity like from the inside of me. I just said Jesus. And as I said, Jesus, I could feel his presence. And you know, I've never felt the presence of the Lord in my life. You know, I'd never stepped in church, I'd never heard a worship song, I'd never experienced that. And so I just felt his presence. And it was so interesting because it was so beautiful. But at the same time, I was shocked I said the name Jesus. And I almost wanted to take it back because I felt really unfaithful to my family and to what I believed. And it was just, it was like a jolt. But there was such a sweetness in my room. I was in my bedroom, and so I just remember saying Jesus again. And more of his presence came. And I just kept saying, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And the more I said his name, the more I knew he was real, and the more freedom came to me, the more his presence came into my room. And I just started experiencing Jesus, you know, and and I just remember crying, saying, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and remembering going to sleep that night and waking up the next morning and saying, Lord or God, I don't know what I call them. But I said, I believe in Jesus, but I will never tell a soul. This is my secret for the rest of my life. And I did keep it a secret for a while. And then uh a little bit into my journey, maybe a year or two, I told my sister who she had secretly been going to a youth group, and she had given her life to Jesus, but she was too afraid to tell me because she knew how anti-Christian I was. So it was such a miraculous thing that God touched both myself and my sister. And so we had a secret walk with Jesus together. We didn't tell our parents, we just used to pray together. We never went to church, of course, or any of that, but we just used to have this little relationship with God together. And then eventually we told our parents a long story, I won't go into all of that. But you know, they were very gracious, but heartbroken, but gracious to us. You know, we were older at that point. I was about 18. Okay. And yeah, then the journey began, you know, then it was out, and then it was fun. We we began to go to church, you know, and and know what it was like to actually have some some of that community. It was beautiful. And so that the journey started there. So that's that's my story. That's I'm that's where it all started, you know, back in South Africa.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

So I'm I'm curious, as you said, uh, do you have two like one sister as a one sister, only one sister, yeah. And is she older? Yes, she was two years older than me. She is two years old. Now, was she praying for your family after she?

SPEAKER_00 5:47

I don't necessarily think so. I think it was very recent for her.

Prayed In By Family Intercession

SPEAKER_00 5:50

You know, we still can't remember the timing, but it was so recent, the two of us. But actually, we did so. If you want to know about who was praying for us, that's a very interesting story because that's right. My uncle got saved in a Billy Graham crusade about 20 years before I got saved. Before I was born, he got saved. Uh, Billy Graham came to South Africa, he went to the stadium. I don't know why who invited him, ended up giving his life to Jesus, and the family completely cut him off. And so he ended up going to another part of South Africa, and he prayed us in. He prayed the family in. And both my parents gave their life to the Lord eventually as well. My my grandmother gave her life to the Lord, my cousin. I mean, God just started moving in our family, and you know, it started with one man praying for many, many years before there was a breakthrough. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

And even like backing it up a little bit, I think of like Billy Graham's yes too, right? So Billy Graham had a yes that brought him to South Africa that oh, right? It's it's true, it's amazing. It's through one person's yes that there's this ripple effect. I remember somebody asking me, Do you know who Billy Graham's intercessor is? And I was like, I'm sorry, I don't. But there's the key.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

So he had an intercessor that continued to pray him on his journey. That is so incredible. And I think that is just you know, testimony as well to you know, God's timing, even though it was like 20 years and it was praying you in before you were even born. And the faithfulness of one man's yes, but the faithfulness of one man to continue praying over the family, even though he didn't see anything, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Wow. And how long was it before your parents got saved?

SPEAKER_00 7:45

A few years, not that long. About five to eight years, they got saved. My my sister got miraculously healed. Uh she had an eye, it wasn't a serious problem, but she had an eye problem. And she went to a Benny Hen conference. He was in South Africa at that point, and she got miraculously healed, came home. At that point, my parents knew we were Christians. And when my father saw her healed, he said he'd come to church with her because he wanted to take her to the doctor that morning and she said, I just want to go to church.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

And so he needed to see healing. And so God knows our language, you know. So he just touched us all, and my mom came to know the Lord a little bit later. So my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

That's so amazing. Thank you for sharing that. Um, so you're you're in the United States. What brought you to the United States

Green Card Lottery And Connecticut

SPEAKER_01 8:32

then?

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Oh, another miracle. Just miracles, everything's miracles, you know. You invite him in and then you just start seeing things that you could never make possible in your own strength, you know. So actually in South Africa, it was very hard to live there. There was a lot of violence, and financially it was rough. It was very rough. My husband, who's pretty educated, had a pretty good job, still hard to live, just hard to f to survive, you know. And we ended up winning the Green Card Lottery, which I don't know if you've heard of that, but I'm sure many viewers haven't heard of that. So a green card lottery is something that the American government still does, but not so much anymore. Back in 20, 2000, sorry, to no 1997, gosh. Oh, okay. 1997, I think we won it or 1996. And basically, it is the American government gives green cards for free to people from third world countries on a lottery basis. So you could enter this thing to put your name in, and then they will do a whole lot of background checks and choose who they want to invite in. And they don't do a lot, but there's a certain amount they will do. And I actually I know it was closed for a while, but there's such a tiny percentage of people that actually get in. Um, so yeah, so funny story because my husband really wanted to do it, and I was like, no, I don't think so. I'm so close to my family, I can't leave Africa, like this is my home and everything. But I said, okay, just try it because I thought we will never win any lottery. Like, forget it. You can try it. Okay. So he tried it, but I did not want to win this thing. And a couple of months later, there was a pamphlet, like a letter stuck in our gate because we didn't have a mailbox. A long story. We did not have a mailbox. The mailman used to stick something like in the little gate, like roll up a thing and just hopefully it's stuck. And so I thought, see, you see this thing. Literally, it could have got blown away. So I pulled it, read it in the kitchen, and it said, Welcome, you have or something, you have your name has been pulled from the green card lottery. And I looked at that, yeah, I saw the trash can. My eyes saw the trash can, and it was just a split second, a split second temptation of no one will ever know. But of course, I couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Uh couldn't do it, of course. Yeah, but it was definitely a thought that just like threw over my head.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

But God didn't you have a choice.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And uh anyway, long story, we won that. And so we ended up they don't give you any money or anything, of course. It's just this green card. We ended up being able to come, and then the Lord just helped us. He really assisted us in getting here and settling in Connecticut with our babies. We had babies at that point. So you did have babies too? Yeah, two babies. We came with our babies. So, what what led you to Connecticut? Like what the first job my husband could get. Okay. Is what and we had never even heard of Connecticut. Well, my husband had, I had not. Yeah, it's so strange so far. It's a different name, right? It's like I always wonder. Yeah, it's freezing. We weren't with the sun.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Yeah, and you get you get winters, like pretty nasty winters too, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

What was your first winter like?

SPEAKER_00 11:55

It was super intense. We arrived on the 1st of January 1998. Oh, you did. Yeah, it was cold. It was a I cried for two days just from the from the cold. And I thought to myself, I just can't understand how the most civilized people in the world live in this temperature. Because from my mindset, living from in Africa, you see American television and everything, and I just couldn't understand it. But it I love it now. We love Connecticut, we love the cold. We I mean we do. We love we love the tepid, beautiful temperatures. So wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

So, like, what was your first year like here? Just adjusting transition. I can I can only imagine, you know, leaving behind family and you know, your your native land. Like, what was that like for you?

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Um, you know, it was great. Uh it was actually great. It was an adventure for both of us, you know. We were young married. So yeah, I think my husband took a little bit more strain than I did because I was with the kids, you know, enjoying, you know, meeting mothers and people, and he was trying to work and figure out how to do that in the States. Everything's different, you know. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

What do you love most about living here?

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Oh my goodness, I love everything. I'm a I'm a full-blooded American at this point. I am, yes. I became we became citizens a while ago, but we love the people. That is the thing that we love the most. The people, just the belief system that we can do anything is very American. It's obviously biblical that in Christ we can do all things, but it really is lived out a lot in America, and we love that. We loved that our kids could could get that when they were young growing up here. And the and the peace. The peace, the peace is amazing. I know that it's never perfect. There's never, you know, there's all stuff, but it is amazing to not have to look over your shoulder or wake up in the middle of the night and check the windows or whatever, because it's freedom, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

It's so good. Well, tell us, tell us where you're at now. Like, what are you up to these days? Like I said, you guys, if you can you might want to hop on to YouTube so you can see some of the beauty behind her. But tell us, tell us what the Lord has called you into.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Well, fast forward 28 years, I guess, since lots of people.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yeah, you can even back it up to how did you come into it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Well, I mean, I'll just share basically I'm an artist. So I've been doing that ever since from the time I was little. I've just been in

Dreams As Practical Guidance

SPEAKER_00 15:04

that's just what God put inside me. And I'm a minister, you know, I preach, been doing itinerant ministry for since Africa days. And but I can share this with you. There's obviously a lot going on. But when I was really praying and asking the Lord, what should I share on this podcast? I thought, I would love to share about how God has led me through dreams, through night dreams. Because when you live a journey, and I think all of us, all of the viewers, like we all live a journey where we don't know what tomorrow brings, right? And a lot of times we don't really know the fullness of what God has called us to. And so we really have to rely on his spirit. And so dreams have been a huge thing for me. And God has spoken to me through dreams for many years, but I have had a pivotal moment probably about 12 or 13 years ago with dreams, and I can tell you the story. Should I tell you the story? Okay, it's a cool story, but it really helped me to really take notice of what God was speaking to me in the night. And what happened was I had was doing a promotion for my art. And so in those days, I used postcards. I didn't really use the internet, and so I had all these postcards printed. It was time sensitive, and I had to get these postcards out to all of the clients, but I couldn't find my address book. My I had like a little address book, couldn't find it. And I asked the Lord, please help me find this because if I don't mail these tomorrow, I can't do the promotion. And he didn't help me find it. And so I went to bed kind of frustrated because God always used to help me, like I used to always mail, you know, used to help me.

unknown 16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

I'm sure many viewers you you know what that means, and you ask God and he shows you. And so I went to bed really discouraged. But before going to bed, I read an a magazine article about dreams. And in the article, it was it was a Christian magazine, but it was bashing dreams, saying, you know, God doesn't speak through dreams anymore, or you shouldn't be overly, you know, listening to what God is saying through dreams because He is He doesn't really do that anymore. And it put such it just really felt dark and sad to me because I started believing it. I started thinking, oh my gosh, maybe everything, maybe everything is just, you know, when you go through those discouraging moments and you get everything. Yes, right, exactly. And I had been going through so I went through this discouraging moment and I started thinking to myself, wow, like what if all of the dreams I've had and what if all of the direction of my life has been false? And so I started, you know, I had that doubt. Anyway, I went to sleep that night.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

In the night, I dreamt that I looked under my bed and I pulled out a basket and I lifted up a blanket, and in the basket was my book with all my contacts. So I drank it in the middle of the night and I was I woke up immediately and thought, oh my gosh, I want to turn on the light and see what's under my bed. But I didn't do that because my husband had to wake up early the next morning. So I waited. You're very patient. I know, I know, I really I was I really wanted it. But I woke up early the next morning and I I pulled my there was a basket underneath. I knew it was there, there was a basket, pulled off the blanket, and in the basket was my book. And it was so incredible because I know I didn't put it there. My my room had been remodeled by my two daughters, and they had taken things out and put things back, and I would never put my business book in that little blanket basket. And so I sat there on the floor and I said, Lord, yes, first of all, thank you. This is amazing. Second of all, why didn't you let me find it when I asked you? Because I went through so much pain, and immediately the Holy Spirit said to me, Because I wanted you to know how important it is that I give you the dreams, and I want you to understand that the dreams are not airy fairy, they are very practical, practical steps that I'm giving you for life. Because remember, he showed me a business book that was to sell art that was concrete. And the article that I was reading the night before was saying it's all airy fairy, there's nothing to and I tell you, from that moment, I took my dream life so seriously, have been writing my dreams down, hearing the Lord speak through them, and he's used them hugely. You just leading my my where I am right now, just leading to what I do right now is through a lot of dreams, which I would never have gone in certain directions if I hadn't had certain dreams after that whole experience.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Thank you for sharing. I I I love I love dreams. I'm a huge dreamer. That's awesome. I actually like talk in my sleep, and I have an app that catches what I say. Even a couple of nights ago, I was talking about like new patterns and you know, just waking up and you know, you know, talking about it with the Lord. Like, what does this mean? And having, you know, like for you, probably when you have these dreams, you know, somebody might be listening in today and saying, Oh my gosh, I dream a lot too, but I've never considered to talk to the Lord about the dreams. Like, how do you process your dreams?

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Wow, that's such a great question. I first of

How To Test Dream Interpretation

SPEAKER_00 20:30

all, what I've learned is that the Lord who gives the dream will interpret the dream. He is so faithful. So, you know, what I've learned is even if I don't understand immediately, if I press into the Lord and I honor the dream by writing it down, by asking the Lord about it, he will show me. And sometimes it's taken years. Sometimes I look back and I think, wow, God showed me that before it happened. I didn't really realize it at the time, but I see it now. And so I would say to honor the dream that God gives you, the dreams he gives you, and I act on them actually physically, like in the natural world, like I will do what my dreams have taught, what the Lord has taught me through dreams, but I would always caution people to not just act on a dream unless you know it's the Lord that's giving you the interpretation. And sometimes you do need to have people around you before you do that. Because, you know, you can the Lord directs our lives through dreams. I mean, if you look in the Bible like He directed so many of the people, we would not even have the Bible the way we have it if they would not have listened. I mean, God would have done other things, I'm sure. But yeah, so really just having counselors around us if we're going to start acting on the dreams, but absolutely honoring them and expecting God to speak.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yes. What what would you say? You know, obviously the the address book is wild and amazing. Like I always say you can't make this stuff up, right? Yeah, like you wouldn't be able to make this stuff up. What would you say has been maybe one of the most instrumental dreams that you've had in your walk with the Lord since you've been paying attention? Because I think we really need to pay more attention.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Just even when we're awake, too, first of all. We need to be paying attention to what God's showing us. But since you've been paying attention to your dreams and interpreting with the Lord, what would you say is maybe one of the most wild Well, I I dreamed this was a few years quite a few years ago, in in about, I don't know when it was.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

2014, I dreamt of Jesus. He was a fire captain for sure. He was a fire captain and it

Dreams That Called Her To Teens

SPEAKER_00 22:41

was Jesus. I also know it's Jesus because he reads my thoughts in the dream. So he was Jesus in a firehouse. I was with him and we were talking like friends. It was like a friend. I didn't know it was Jesus at the time. I was just talking to the fire captain. And we were so close. And as we were talking, I saw the lights in the firehouse get brighter and then brighter and brighter. And so I stopped listening to him because I was distracted and I looked at the lights. And he he he saw he read my mind and he said to me, Oh, that is happening in all the firehouses. And as he said that, I knew it was Jesus, and the shock of knowing it was Jesus woke me up. And so every time I dream of Jesus, when I see it's Jesus, I get shocked and I wake up. And so I woke up, went back to sleep, and then I dreamt of, I can't remember actually the whole sequence of it, but I dreamt of my a word, like just speaking, your daughters will start a church. And then I woke up the next morning, I was like, wow, my girls were in college. I was like, oh, I need to tell them. That's so crazy. And so on my way back from somewhere, they called my daughter called me and she said, Mom, we are starting a prayer movement in our college. Isn't that crazy? It was so crazy. And then I and then I ended up starting a supernatural school called Firehouse because of that whole thing. So it was very instrumental. Yeah, that dream. It was it led both my life and encouraged the girls with what they were doing. And that was like that was that was like I don't know, 2014, we started a school in 2016. But recently, I will tell you in 2020, I had three incredibly significant dreams about the youth. And I think I'd shared this with you originally, Kristen. I don't know if you remember this, but anyway. No, no, I think I sent you, I sent we were talking on email stuff. Um I think I sent that to you. But so what happened was I have been in adult ministry for years, although I started in youth ministry, and I I love the youth, but I've never thought I'd go back into youth ministry. And then in 2020, I had three dreams in December. And all three dreams were about high schoolers. And I will tell you that each of those dreams have been fulfilled. So the first dream, I dreamed that I was in a Christian school, and all the kids were organized into clubs, and there was a word like was written in the sky, intercede. And I saw the leaders, I saw the president, I saw the high school principal, I saw a whole bunch of leaders, different different types of leaders, and all of them were worried, and they were all saying, intercede for these high schools. That was just after, it was just after COVID. No, it was just before COVID. No, it was after COVID. About six months about after. It was after COVID, yeah. And so I thought, okay, God, we must just intercede for these high schoolers. So I started praying for them. So a few days later, when I have a second dream, in the second dream, I dreamt that I so I have created a coffee table book about animals, about prophetic things about animals. Just like how we can, just it's this cool thing. I won't go into that, but it's all about the class about that. Yeah, yeah. It's all about animals. This horse says one of them. But it's like I painted all these paintings of animals, and then the Lord gave me prophetic things. So I wrote, did this big coffee table book on that. So I dreamt, I was holding the coffee book, and I said, We have adapted everything in this book for high school students. That was the dream. Yeah. I was like, oh, that's interesting. Okay. Next dream. A couple of weeks later, I have another dream. The final dream. I was standing at the end of like this treadmill thing. Like, you know, the luggage, the baggage that comes out of what do you call those things? The luggage baggage collection. Yeah. Right. So I was standing at the end. Yes. And there were just so many teenagers, not baggage, just teenagers coming out of this thing. And they were all standing and they just kept going round and round like zombies. And I was standing at the end of the thing and put putting my hand out and put and they put out their hand to me and I would just pull them off. And as I pulled them off, I said discipled, discipled, just constant. And they were just like to eternity. There were so many of them. And so I knew God was calling me to high school ministry from those three dreams. And so I'll just tell you very briefly that in since 2020, we're now in 2026.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

All three of them have been fulfilled. Well, and are starting to be fulfilled. So the first one is I didn't realize that God had called me to start a Jesus club in a high school. But there were clubs in that first dream that were all organized into clubs. And at that time, if you remember, the kids weren't meeting, they weren't socializing. Anyway, so the Lord supernaturally, by his power and grace, connected me with an another young man who's a youth pastor in the region that I live in. And we were able to help to start a Jesus club in the local public high school, which we minister in every week, which we've been doing for two years. So it's been going for two years, and we minister to these kids. These kids are getting saved. It's like a little church in the middle of a high school. It's just unbelievable. Public high school? Public high school. And there's a legal way to do it. I got trained, there's legal things you have to do to be able to do it. And so we're doing that. And then at the like last, was it last? Oh my gosh, it was last year, beginning of last year, the Lord said it's time to write the book now. That's the one dream that hasn't been fulfilled because now we're discipling these kids and stuff, but now you need to write this book. So I was like, okay, okay. Got to do this in teen language. I was very nervous to actually go back into teen ministry as an, you know, because I don't know anything about that generation. But what I did learn. You have to? What's that? No, you don't. You have to. You really don't. And I learned that. I learned that you don't need to know a thing about them because they just want love, they just want truth. That's what they're hungry for. And so I just adapted this book to that book, to the original. It took me so it took me like four months. It was so the animal book? Yeah, it just was the grace of God. So the animal book was a big book, and it was all for adults, and it was a very prophetic language. So and I I this is the book. It's called Uncommon Courage. It's probably that an eagle on there. It's a it's an owl. It's an owl. And it's called Uncommon Courage from Anxiety and Fear to Hope and Purpose, A Guide for the Rising Generation. And this book is like an old-fashioned tract, but nobody would ever know it. Because basically, it's got paintings, like it's full color. There's paintings, and then there's like these little devotionals where they have to walk themselves through things. Like this one's called Brave. It's all about the qualities of these animals and it's prophetic. And the thing that I the thing the Lord just said to me, you need to be like a coach in this book. And you need to coach them to know how loved and special they are before you talk about God. Like they need to know who they are, and that there's actually that they've been born for a reason. And so I the beginning animals are all about, you know, you're brave. And I do mention God, but not Jesus at the beginning. I just say you're, you know, you've been created for a purpose, those things. With and then I start talking about Jesus. I introduce Jesus. And then introduce just what it what does it really mean that he gave his life for you and all of those things. And then in the middle of the book, I lead them to salvation, or like the book leads. Like if they well, they want to, they read the prayer and they they receive Jesus. And then after that, the book disciples them. It starts talking about the real issues that they have to struggle with, like identity, uh what it's like, you know, in this in the culture, like how do they choose this and that, what's right, what's wrong. The Holy Spirit, does Holy Spirit living inside of me, you know, just going into some of those supernatural things.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

That that's laid in the book. So anyway, so the great thing is the high school kids love it. We've been giving these, you know, to that we're not allowed to hand them to the kids because we're not allowed to do that legally, but they're allowed, they're allowed to come and take them. You can't, you can't give them to them. No, you can't, but you can put them on a table and tell them they can take them. So we do that. And recently we it was actually quite funny. So they'll always come and take them in, which is great, and they give them to their friends and they read them. But recently we did an outreach for Easter this year, and a bunch of kids gave their lives to the Lord. It was incredible. And then at the end, and I painted, I did like a live painting, and then at the end I said, you know, guys, I've made I've written this book, and um, it's $18.50, but you can have them for free today. Just take one. And I'm telling you, it was like crack. Those kids, they were jumping up, and like these were the new kids, they would take two and run back. And then other and I was just sitting there, thank you, Lord. You oh my god. So great. So basically, yeah, it's it's the Lord's just teaching me how to the language of the teens and how to get them to want something. Basically, you've just got to let them, you've got to let them want it. You've got to let them initiate it, really.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

And you know, you he's led you to do it this way. He's given you the blueprint. Yeah. I mentioned from a couple of nights ago, the pattern.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The pen. Wow, that's right. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

100% there is a different language per se with kids. I mean, I have 18 and 21-year-old boys, and some of the things I'm like, what are you saying? But there's a there's a common language that we can use to, you know, being loving. And I just love what you're doing here. So have you had any teachers or like administrators who've also taken the book as well?

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Uh no. We do, we have to, you have to have a teacher in the school that has a classroom and that's there. Like you can't just do it without

Starting A Legal Jesus Club

SPEAKER_00 32:34

the teacher. And we don't do it on our own. So we there's a student that starts the club. So um if anyone, I'm just gonna say if anybody's interested in starting a Jesus club or it just a Christian club, we call it a couple we called ours the 99 because he left the 99 for the one. If if you feel that, just go to my website and just email me because it's the kind of thing I'm not in good, you know, I will share personally like how to do this, but there are there's there's a legal way to start a Christian club in your high school. Really, the every there should be a Christian club in every single high school because it is legal. That you have to have a student that starts it. I recommend a youth pastor finding out if there's someone who's willing to start it, and then you can help them with the legal work. It's simple. If there's an adult helping, it's so simple. And then they get to choose if they want a guest to come in. And so the young lady who started the club chose to have myself and the youth pastor come in every week. And so we we welcome the school. The the the administrator likes us. We bring pizza in every Wednesday. The kids know it's pizza day, they love it, they'll smell it, they'll come for the pizza, find you in the process.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Thank gosh. I love this.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

What so you mentioned people going to your website?

SPEAKER_00 33:53

What is your website?mandyaddendorf.com. Okay. Could you spell out your name if somebody yes, yes, yes. It's no, no, that's good. It's M-A-N-D-Y Mandy and Addendorf, A D as in Dog. I'm just gonna spell it like this because nobody gets the accent. A D as in Dog, E, N as in Nancy, D as in Dog, O R If, as in Frank, if as in Frank, Edendorf.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Okay, sounds good. Dot com.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Dot com.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Okay. If you didn't catch that, go to the show notes. I'll have information that she must definitely reach out to her. Because I mean, if you look at our world right now, there's a lot of tolerance for some things, but not for others. So what would you say to somebody who, you know, maybe if even a teenager is listening in today, like, you know, think back to how you were as a teenager. And, you know, maybe some people would have been, you know, made fun of if you brought something like this to school. What would you say to that one who's like, oh, I'm really getting stirred. I think this would be great. Or even maybe a parent who's like, oh, I I could totally see my child doing this, but they need some, like a superdose of hope and courage, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Yes, 100%. Well, just you mentioned that gives me goosebumps because God is calling teenagers right now to rise up in their schools, the high school students, because the students are so hungry for this. So if you're listening and you're a teenager, or if you're a a parent, I want to say that there are kids in that school that are crying out for something like this. Because what we've found is the people who come to these Jesus clubs, sometimes they don't come because they want to come, they come for the pizza, they come for whatever, they come for just a friend invites them. But when they just see hope, and and I'm just gonna tell you, can I just tell you if you're a teenager, you don't have to know anything hardly. You just you really don't have to know anything. Say it again. I think that's a good thing. You do not need to know anything. All you need to have is a relationship with Jesus. That's all you need because you know what, they calm, and some of our most successful Wednesday clubs have been where nothing really has happened, but maybe one person shared a story that made everyone cry that you know, like I lost my pet or whatever, or like this horrible thing happened, or usually they like to share their stories, and community is built, and then we pray. It can be so simple, and suddenly there's this introduction, you're introducing into someone a classmate or someone in the school, you introduct you're introducing into their minds, wow, people pray to Jesus, Jesus can be real. Now, the thing is that is not normal for a lot of teenagers. A lot of teenagers grow up and they they think of Jesus as a curse word, which is me. I used to think of Jesus as a curse word. That's the only context I have. Right. And so when you see people and you realize, wow, this could be real. It it gets questions cycling in in the mind. And you know, we have one special young lady who comes, she's such a precious girl. And when I have she's come for quite a few months, and I thought that she must come from a Christian home because she's always talking and she has so much insight. And recently she said, you know, this is my church. And we were like, Oh, really? And she said, Yes, you know, because my parents don't know the Lord, and and I've really, this has been so helpful. I have really come to know Jesus. And you know, to think that in this very simple little gathering for maybe 45 minutes to an hour once a week, this young lady has met Jesus through so much, nobody has had anything profound. And so it's just the it's just people coming together who believe. So if you're a teenager and you have maybe two friends that could meet, just three of you, that's enough. That's all you need. Because if just think of what's the worst can happen. You know what the worst is that can happen? The three of you can meet at your club and nobody turns up and you can talk about your problems and pray about them. You can pray for the school together, you can put them a little worship song and worship, like you don't have to make it spectacular, but and that is enough because you're a light in your school, because you you are the light of Jesus right in your school. But if something does happen, like one person joins you that doesn't know Jesus, that person is gonna have a changed life because you took the risk thinking, wow, maybe God could be calling me at my age to be a light in my high school. So good.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Yeah, and it goes back to that, you know, like for the one.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Yeah, for the one. I love that you shared about that young gal. I was gonna ask you if there was, you know, in your time doing this, you know, maybe a really significant, unbelievable testimony that you've seen come out of your yes.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

Yes, out of my yes. Yes. Well, I mean, there's so much. One of the most phenomenal things is just to, I mean, are you talking about a testimony in a student?

SPEAKER_01 39:18

Either in a student for you, for for anything that you've seen come through your yes, because I think sometimes we don't even take the time to think about. Like I call it reminded to remember, taking a moment to draw out, you know, maybe these last few years of of your yes and how, you know, whether it's impacted you in a way that you never expected, or a student or the community in in at large, even.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Yeah. Yeah. Well, definitely, as far as the students go, I don't even know the impact. It's it's great. I mean, we don't have a ton. I mean, we have maybe 15 to 20 kids, which is amazing. We sometimes only have six or seven on a really low day. We love everything we can get. We as you know, but whatever we get is beautiful because Jesus is doing something and and God is doing beautiful work. A lot of the testimonies are super personal. I don't think anyone's gonna listen to this podcast, but I wouldn't even mention some of them. But they are really precious and beautiful. As far as me, I'm just gonna say I never thought this would be super rewarding personally for me. And also the area isn't so great that I drive into. I mean, it's fine. I think I was such a baby thinking, oh good. It came from this house, yeah. I know, and you know, that's that's that's a whole nother thing. But 100% from Johannesburg. I know, but you know, you get soft, right? Yeah, we we get we get squishy here and like well, I'm not used to like thinking that I could be driving through a maybe dangerous part of town. No, you know, for me personally, this is the most rewarding ministry I've done in a long time. Yeah, because to see a teenager's life transformed, knowing that it is because of your yes, of course it's Jesus in you and through you. Yeah, it's so you feel empowered to know that God can use you in such a powerful way. And it's not like you have to be anything special to do it, you just have to say yes. I mean, that's basically what you have to do.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Somebody needs to hear you.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

You don't have okay, you froze, by the way. But I'm gonna keep talking. Okay, yeah. So you don't have to be anything special to do this, you just have to say yes. Because you don't need a special gift or talent, you don't have to even speak well. In fact, but I am gonna say one of the beautiful things was the girl who said yes, the young girl that said yes to do this, she started out and she's just graduated now as a senior. She graduated this year. And I have seen the growth and the confidence in this young woman. Unbelievable, what God has done in these two years of her life. And when you put yourself out there and you say yes to God, God is He becomes the greater partner. You know, you end up doing a tiny bit and he ends up doing a whole lot. And when you see what he does in your life, it's mind-blowing. And then you realize, wow, actually, when I say yes, I think I'm I it's so scary. But then you see God come in and then you realize, wow, he's given me so much. You know, he's grown me so much, he's empowered me so much. So now this girl gets released to go to college, and she's she's light years ahead of what she would have been spiritually and I mean, she's an amazing woman anyway. She always was, but you know, it's just wonderful to see that.

SPEAKER_01 42:37

Wow. Well, thank you for your yes.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

I do want to make sure that we capture like your art. Tell us a little bit of like how like tell us all about

Prophetic Art And The Elephant Dream

SPEAKER_01 42:49

it, because I I just have such a special love of like art, prophetic art.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

People who are able to, you know. I I've often said, I'm like, gosh, you know, I have visions, like I'm constantly thinking in pictures and dreaming in pictures and talking in pictures. It would be really cool if I had that talent to be able to get it. I just don't yet. Maybe someday. But tell us, tell us about you have this beautiful horse behind you. Like tell us more about this. And are people able to like buy art from you, like from around the world? What does this look like?

SPEAKER_00 43:25

Yeah, and people can go to my website and my art is there. Most of my art, my current art is there. But you know, I I'll just I mean there's so much to tell you. I'll just tell you this. I started paint, I've always painted since I was a kid. You know, my daddy was an artist. The first time I painted Jesus, God, you know, I just felt like I just want to paint Jesus laughing with a child. I painted this painting, and then I was actually an instructor in a gallery at a time, at the time, and it was very, it was in Mystic, Connecticut, a really fancy town, an affluent place. And I entered this into a contest and it didn't get into the contest, like not a contest, like just a show, but it didn't get in. And I remember feeling so much shame over that piece of art and thinking, oh, it's a terrible painting. I shouldn't have entered it. And I actually brought it home and I just kind of put it like hid it. I'll, you know, if you have any artists on this call on the listening, you know what it's like when you do a painting and you feel ashamed about it, you hide it. I hid it. I like to turn it around. And it just so happened that my pastor was visiting at some point and he was talking to me about my art, and I said, Oh, I'll show you one. That I did. It's kind of okay. And I showed him, and he said, Oh my gosh, that's unbelievable. That's incredible. And then a few weeks later, he said to the church, Mandy, we'd love Mandy to showcase a painting that she did. So I had to, I brought it to church. I was so scared to do it. I brought it to me to the front. He prayed over me, released me. That painting hangs in, well, hangs in their home, but hung in their church for years of Jesus with his child laughing with his child. And from that, that empowered me to believe in what God had given me. Really. And that was in the early 2000s, like 2001 or something. And then since then, God's just been, I just started painting my dreams. And then with the animals, with the book, the Lord just said, Don't you don't spiritualize this, just paint what you want to paint. So if you want to, like I just, the one time I was like, you know what? I wonder what it would look like to paint a whole black canvas and just put an eye in it and make it a bear. It's just crazy thoughts. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna paint a bear. So I paint the bear, and then the Lord started downloading prophetic stuff to me. And so it started happening where God just said, Don't over-spiritualize this. Yeah, just paint for fun. Just paint the thing you want to paint. And so these animals, I just started painting animals. I had this passion for animals, and he started touching those animals and just, I mean, touching me. They just give me prophetic stuff. And that's why I wrote that original book for adults, which is out of print right now, unfortunately. But it's out of print? It's out of print. I need to get more print. Can you make it reprinted? My mom's been saying that forever. Please, can you make that book again? I do need to do it again. When will you do that? I will, I'm hoping for Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving, I'm hoping I will do that. I have to have enough. It's because it's super expensive to do the reprint. So I have to make sure like it's a good selling time. So probably Thanksgiving. But I will show you. Do you have time for one more thing from a absolutely for the art? Okay, I'll tell you this art dream that was actually. If you have an art artist on this call, this is super encouraging for you. So God had called me to start this supernatural school. Okay, it started with that. And I remember thinking, okay, I really want to do this, but I'm gonna stop, I'm not gonna be able to paint as much. And I remember crying, like actually weeping heavy tears, just think, oh God, I just so I want to do this. I'm just grieving because I don't want to lose the art and the time to paint. And in the grief, I immediately said, So I got happy because I remembered, oh, God, God always gives me more than I give him. And I started remembering, wow, if you give something to him, you know he's gonna resurrect it in a resurrected form. Like he always does. Like you cannot, God doesn't steal from us, you know. So when he asks us to lay something down, he's always gonna raise it up in a powerful way. So I started getting happy and I was like, okay. And then soon after that, I had a dream. And in the dream, I will not share the whole dream. It's it's I'm gonna do that. It's in my book, I'm gonna print that book. But in the dream, I felt the power of God in the dream on an elephant. It's my first, this was my first animal that I did. I felt the power of God on the elephant. It was crazy. Anyway, the next day, uh two days later, I was preaching. Okay, and when I went to preach, it was a Sunday morning in this church. I felt the power from the dream of the elephant. I know it's crazy. No, I just felt this power of the glory. I don't even know how to say it. There was glory on the elephant. It sounds so crazy. The vision that you had of the bit it was it was a it was a dream, it was a night dream. I dreamt it. I felt the presence of God in the dream. I mean, the dream, the meaning of the dream was phenomenal. Because okay, I'm gonna share it with you. It'll take two minutes. Yeah, I'm gonna share it because it sounds so weird if I have to, you have to. It sounds so weird. I love it. So I dreamt that I saw the most glorious elephant. It was wild, it was scary, but it was beautiful, and it was in the wild. And I remember just the awe. It was I felt the awe of God looking at the elephant. It wasn't God, but it was a creature he made. And then immediately in the dream, I was in another scene, and there was an elephant. And it was the same elephant, but it was captured and it was in a circus, and it was tied down with little strings. It had like strings, it was just tied down. And I remember going up to the elephant and feeling on my skin, of my face, its skin, because I put my face on its skin and I started to cry and weep for this elephant because it had lost its glory. And I cried on this elephant, and then all these intercessors came around the elephant. We were all crying for the elephant. Anyway, that was the dream. I woke up and I couldn't shake the dream. I knew I saw the awe of God on that dream and the glory of God on the elephant, but the elephant had lost it. And I was asking God what it was, and the Lord started downloading stuff, and he told me it was me, part of it was me. It was just I'd I'd I'd become what people wanted me to become. I'd lost the freedom that he had given me, just a whole bunch of stuff. Anyway, when I preached that Sunday, two days later, I felt the glory come back on my life. It was just so amazing. It was from the dream, it was like a supernatural glory. I could not have created that myself. And then on the Monday, which was the next day, I painted the elephant. And here's the crazy thing. I painted the most beautiful elephant. It was probably one of the most beautiful paintings at that point that I'd ever painted. It took me a day. It was so easy, it was so quick, it was huge, it was so beautiful, and I knew I was painting in that same supernatural power that I'd experienced in the dream. And then I realized God was teaching me how to paint quickly. And so I started the supernatural school and I was able to paint. And the whole book that I created was within the first three years of that school. I was painting during like the time that I was able to have open, but I was putting out artwork that was so beautiful and so quick and so spirit-led. And it was just the grace of God. Yeah. And it was the impartation through a dream, which was so incredible because I mean, there was just no no one taught me that in art school. I mean, I went to art school. Right.

SPEAKER_01 50:46

Right. Yeah. I mean, so you didn't have like, you know, for me, I'd probably have to have a book to look at to be like, okay, let me look at the this picture over here to help me, you know, paint. But you literally were just, it was like Holy Spirit. I I like to call it like a holy ghost writer for writing a book, but it was like a Holy Ghost painter.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

Yes, like literally you can see what it wasn't like, okay, so I wanted to share this because a lot of people think, oh, good, like your hand moves and it just you just see these things. Yeah, sometimes that does happen, but like with this, it's more like the Lord gave me this intelligence. Like in my not just my brain, but like I knew instinctually, like what like I was free, like there was a freedom. And I actually believe that artists have that. God gives when he gives the art gift, and I do believe we're all artists in different ways, but anyway, like he we know what to do. We just are constrained. That dream took the constraints off. And I think that's with any type of creativity, like whether it's speaking or the sciences or anything, business. We constrain ourselves, we don't realize we're doing it, and then the Holy Spirit gives us freedom, and we can actually function in the design of God, and we can actually be the person God made us to be, and function supernaturally, but really it is supernatural, but it's really the natural that God has given us. That we just He draws it out of us, you know.

SPEAKER_01 52:13

Yeah, it's a great partnership, right? Yes. And so do you still have your supernatural school as well?

SPEAKER_00 52:20

No, we still have the gatherings. So two years ago we paused the school and we just went to gatherings, just community gatherings, just worship and and words and stuff and supernatural things, just not the school. And I don't know if we'll start the school up again. We still are functioning, we just don't function as a school anymore. We did it for eight years, and we're eight glorious years. Yeah, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

What a journey you've been on. I love it. Thank you for sharing your heart with us today. Um as we wrap up, I would love to keep going longer, but as we wrap up, I would love for you to just kind of think of that one person who's listening in today. Do you have any words of encouragement or you know, any additional keys or wisdom that you'd like to speak over this person today?

SPEAKER_00 53:06

Yes, yes. So I just want to say I just got the word he knows. And I just want to say he knows,

He Knows Your Name And Future

SPEAKER_00 53:14

he knows your name, yeah, he knows your future, and he knows what you don't know. And so many times we think we know, and so we get into a rut in our lives where we limit our lives, or we think this will never work, or this is over, or there's just darkness in my life, or I can't do this, or I can't do that. And I just want to say that God is asking for you to give him your nose, not your actual nose, but what you think you know about yourself, the the the conclusions you've drawn about your life. He he's asking and inviting you, can you give him those conclusions and say, Father, I'm giving you what I think my life and my story looks like. Can you give me in exchange what you know and then trust him? Because the Bible says that when you delight yourself in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart. And what delight is often what I'm just saying, delight is not just like, oh wow, I love the Lord, but delight is truly trusting him that he knows and and delighting in that, and and he will make your path straight for you and he will direct your life. And so, you know, I just I just I will settle with that because uh there is a purpose to your life, and there are seasons where we go through where we actually feel like we don't have a purpose or we don't know what our purpose is, but to understand that we are designed, you are designed by the Father with great purpose. And there are seasons where you don't know what that is, but that's okay because he knows, and in those seasons, it's okay to just rest in his knowing. So I just yeah, I just want to share that over you and just encourage you to trust him and rest in him in this season, and he's gonna direct your path. I mean, it's interesting how I talked about dreams and how God directs us when we're sleeping. When we are the weakest, when we have no power, he directs us, and so sometimes when we feel feel powerless, we feel like we've lost, we're lost, we have no direction. But sometimes when we're in the most powerless moments, when we trust him, he actually will begin to move the ship. So that's a word for someone. So good.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

Wow, Mandy, you're amazing. Such a blessing to have you on today. Thank you. Thank you so much for being a brave voice who's setting so many free. Keep going. I'm 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 so much. I will be back with another episode next week.

SPEAKER_02 56:14

Bye.