Dan Turner & Sherrie Turner - Christian Hope Association - OvercomersTV.Live #642

0:00Celebrate what Jesus is doing throughout the nation and rise up to answer his call on your life. To serve the poor, heal the broken, free the captives and bring joy to those in need. Find hope, encouragement and motivation through Overcomers TV. This inspiring network features everyday people and ministries across America who are putting God's love and action. Tune in to Overcomers TV on your favorite app or streaming platform. It's time to overcome. Welcome to another interview on Overcomers TV live. I'm Pastor Chuck Rees, show host executive producer. I'm very excited to have Dan and Sherry Turner with us today. Two different Turner households, Dan Turner and Sherry Turner.

1:00We've got a couple of organizations going on through Christian Hope Association, Project Hope and new way ministries as well. Good to see both of you guys. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having us. Good, I clarify that okay at the beginning there. We got a lot going on under the umbrella. I'm always a lady's first kind of guy so trying to bring that back. Let's maybe have Sherry do a little quick intro overview and maybe some of your faith journey and you're getting involved in the role and involvement and maybe Dan can chime in a little bit too. What do you think? Sounds good. Yeah. So I would say that God has been woven in and out of my entire life. Grow up at a church town but definitely wasn't a Christian home but it was church. I attended a Christian school from kindergarten through eighth grade. However my childhood was filled with significant trauma, emotional, physical, sexual abuse.

2:04And I had two questions for God. Where were you and how old was I when the abuse began? In 19 I became suicidal. Fortunately I was able to get in with a great counselor. Godly woman who walked with me for eight years and six of those years included a survivor's group. Now that's where healing began to take place in my life. It's interesting because God was even though he was present and I loved him so much I struggled with trust. I married, I had children, I experienced divorce through infidelity, became a single mom, I went back to school and somewhere in those years I walked away from Christ. When I finally came to the end of myself, there was Jesus ready to lift me up out of the muck in the mire of my life.

3:04He became the one that I could no longer live without. He redeemed me. He set me free. He showed me that he had never abandoned me. Actually one of the profound moments in my life came in 2022 where God answered that first question. I actually had resolved in my life that I would never know the answers to those two questions. In the 22 God answered that question where he was and throughout my childhood. It's a very significant story. We don't have time for me to go into all the detail but he showed me how he had been with that little girl all those years. In 2024, he decided to answer my second question. Again, I had resolved these questions. I expected that. If I ever was to know the answer would happen maybe the other side of it. Yeah. Right.

4:04How old was Ivan M.B.s. began. So through a conversation with my father, I learned that the trauma had begun when I was just six months old. Wow. And while those answers didn't change what had happened, they did change the way I understood my story. Yeah. God had never left me. He had never abandoned me. And today he truly is my life's source. He is my everything. Straight up. Yeah. He's pretty awesome. I have now been remarried to an amazing man for 18 years. Yeah. My son is a senior pastor of a church. My daughter is a worship leader married to another pastor at the same church and both are raising families of their own. Yeah. When I look at my life, I don't see a story about what happened to me. I see a story about what God has done through it all. Hmm. That's good. Yeah. Good. And Dan, your turn. It's hard to follow Sherry because she always gives an amazing story.

5:08So for the viewers, listeners, Sherry and I didn't even know each other up to about six months ago. So the turner thing is that we laugh about that, but there's zero relationship, even though we've sure got to know each other's story in quite a bit. So Sherry has a unique story. I think my story is not really that unusual. I grew up in a small town. My experience with church was knowing maybe for Christmas, a little maybe for Easter every once in a while. I did a lot of praying God when I was a young man, mostly because I was negotiating, doing a lot of negotiating with God. You know, hey, help me with this football game and I promised I'll do this. But it wasn't really until I was after college going through after college where I met my wife to be that I probably had the biggest influence on me, changing my life.

6:13And I would say the most unique change was having kids. You know, I think as a lot of us go through like, we don't want a parent like our parents did. We all say that, but we don't really do it. I said that. I feel like I really try to make a commitment to that. And I think my wife, I know my wife made a huge impact on that one. And I took a class, I can give a little plug in on this class. Yeah, for sure. I mean, we did a class called Growing Kids God's Way. And that was an awesome influence on myself, my wife, and our relationship with each other and also with God. It was more about just building that relationship with God and your spouse and then your kids kind of fell into that as well. And that's where it really showed me the importance of having a great relationship with God, you know, and having a strong relationship with my wife and, you know, being a good dad as well.

7:14I learned a lot. And that really, I would say, is where my faith journey kind of took off. And just the importance of getting involved in church and I've not been great about joining every men's group out there, but trying to get involved and doing some of that. Yeah. So yeah, that's kind of my story. Yeah, men's ministry, I know God doesn't have favorites or show partiality, but I think men's ministry is pretty important because if the men are healthy, you know, the ripple effects both good or bad, right? Good. Well, as even part of Sherry's story, you know, infidelity will rip apart a family and a house altogether, but if he maybe if he was an immense group and had that accountability and, you know, because the tempter doesn't give up, you know, even after the 40 days Jesus and the wilderness after, you know, fasting and those three temptations, I believe the text says he departed to come back in a more opportune time.

8:15So, you know, he's coming back, you know, it doesn't give up. So, but out of the misery becomes a ministry, the mess becomes a message and just loved out of our God, Sherry's statement that he's awesome is an understatement because he's awesome and he's the only one who could take broken pieces and make a beautiful mosaic if you step back over time and see how he can still take all the brokenness and do something awesome with it. Yeah. So, which leads to, you know, again, the calling in ministry, we have a show called Answer and a Call. It's our television series documentary and a lot of times we do these as introductions to get to know a ministry and the executive directors, but there's staff and there's board members and there's volunteers and there's donors. A lot goes into an organization, but it's the executive director and interim executive director of project hope and new way ministries at cast vision and kind of keeps people organized.

9:16So, maybe you started again with you Sherry, talk a little bit about your role, your involvement with the ministry and then Dan, you can talk a little bit more about yours. Yeah. So, I oversee the entire organization. So, like I said, Christian Hope Association is an umbrella to two ministries and I would say how I got involved is pretty, it's pretty easy answer. God got me involved. Yeah. My life took an unexpected turn in December of last year and shortly afterward in January of 26th, the executive director position opened up. Yeah. A friend of mine told me about it and I actually said, no, no, thank you. I was preparing for a major surgery and honestly, I thought I was through an organizational ministry. A couple months later, my husband saw that same job posting and he said, this is your name, written all over it, you have to apply and I said nope.

10:17Then one early morning in March, I woke up knowing that I was supposed to apply. Yeah. I wasn't a big dramatic moment, I just knew. So I obeyed. I walked through the process and was hired March 27 and today I can tell you, I honestly, I believe I'm honestly where I'm supposed to be. So I didn't go looking for this position. God let me hear. God leads. He's gentle too. Right, Dan? Absolutely. And patient. Yes. Yes. Love is patient, love is kind. If God is love, He's both of those and that should be our goal to be patient. Yeah. That's great. Is there a way for me? Yeah. All right. Well, again, my story is probably not as great a series. So I volunteered here. I worked for a state agency and at the time I went through COVID. We were furloughed on Mondays and I had a good friend at the time who was the executive

11:19director here in the way ministry and ran the food bank part of under project. And so I called my friend down and said, hey, Dan, I got Mondays free. Can you use me? And he said sure. So anyways, I started volunteering and my first job was at the food bank. So project hope, I should explain this up front. So we operate the food bank here locally within the London area and then we also have community assistance program. We help people with some minor financial assistance such as utilities and payments and stuff kind of during some of their struggles. So I came to the food bank to help out. My first job was sorting potatoes, the good from the bad. And I moved up to sorting and stocking shelves to our model is a drive-through model where we actually take a menu up to people that drive through our parking lot. We fill the menu. Somebody had to carry the boxes of food out to the car. So they elected me to do that.

12:20I got my time talking with people and I got my physical exercise in there all at the same time. And I did that for five years and the person who was the director at the time went back into the tech world in an opportunity. And they asked me if I would fill in this interim director for a while until Sherry who was pretty new. She got comfortable in that position. And so anyways, guys, watch me with this opportunity to come in here and work at Project Tote for several months now. And it's been super rewarding. I really enjoyed it. I went from just taking the food out there, not knowing where any of the food came from. It just magically appeared. And I would take it out to people and have a great conversation to now trying to schedule all of the volunteers to go out and find food and resources for people.

13:24It's been challenging, but exciting. Yeah. And the needs, especially in the economy and the way things have been going in place and I guess, it could be overwhelming at times. Sometimes it needs a great, but God is greater. Again, back to He's awesome. He owns it all. And he redistributes. We had one of our great quotes I've heard. I've heard a lot of this stuff. But God is the source. People are His resources. So God works through people. And that's why we do the show, which I had to raise awareness of different organizations that are being the hands and feet that are on the front lines. People may or may not know about, but out of sight out of mind, those are some of the challenges. But in the process of meeting those needs, we always like to, and when times appropriate to share the gospel message, there's a time and a place for everything. Sometimes the people are so hungry that can hear a word you're saying. And there's discipleship we're called to make disciples.

14:24So maybe you guys can talk a little bit about your approaches to evangelism, slash discipleship through the lens or through the projects and programs you guys. Yeah, so I'll take the new way and if things. And I would say that the gospel isn't simply something that we teach in one class. It is woven throughout our entire program. One example is making sense of your work where women begin identifying the lies that they believed about themselves and replacing those lies with truth about their worth, their identity, and who God created them to be. Side note is they don't have to be a Christian to come be part of our transitional housing, but they are exposed to the gospel. And ministry happens here every single day. Our case managers, our staff, we all walk alongside these moms and their children.

15:25We listen, we encourage, we speak truth. We actually love them very well. And these relationships create opportunities to talk about Jesus naturally and authentically, even outside of the classroom. In our children's ministry, we have the privilege of introducing many of our kids to Jesus. My hope is that someday, as adults, part of their testimony will be, I first learned about Jesus when my mom and I lived in a new way. Our program is unique. It is transformational because Christ is our foundation. Our ladies come to us from all over the United States because they are ready to make transformational life changes and we get to work with them through that journey. Oh, sorry. That's cool. Yeah, that's awesome. It is a journey. Actually, one of the ministries I've launched was journey in Christ ministries.

16:27A lot of journey churches pop it up and we're all on a journey, but the journey is to get into Christ and Christ in you, right? Yeah. It's inviting him in. And the whole world is maybe has spiritual indigestion with all the religions of the world, so to speak. Yeah. And then, you know, he's our hope. So this leads to project hope. You're turned in. Yeah. So Sherry has a great story on that one. Maybe she shared. I'll turn her remember. About coming to project hope and during some of her time of need and just that the resources were available. And hers is not a unique story. It's really fun. It's fun. It's sad. It's a great opportunity to hear people's stories and stuff when they come in. How do we share the gospel? It's more probably with just building relationships. We do that with our volunteers. We're supported by the vast majority of churches here within our area.

17:30We get a lot of volunteers from different churches and stuff. And so people listen to, I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus and stuff. And what do they have opportunities to do that? It's right here at Project Toast. And so we are blessed to have a lot of great volunteers. Some of them come from a Christian background. Some of them don't. We have several volunteers that show up that similar to a story that Sherry was. You know, in your time of need, you were there to help me. We have one of our volunteers who grew up basically the resources from the food bank. I got him through his childhood. And he showed up in his 20s one day and said, you know, I really want to give back to the organization that helped me through my childhood. And you guys are always there. My mom struggled financially for a whole life. And you guys provided it. It's food. You provided it to some different financial support. And he's been a volunteer here for a several months now.

18:31He's not a Christian. And that's a great opportunity because he is working alongside a great Christian man. And we have opportunities. We've got people involved, the people who drive through the line and wait. Just building that, having that relationship with him. And we've got his, like, prompted us to ask, like, would you be willing to be a volunteer here? We've got several volunteers that have come through our food line. Again, you know, they're walk with the Lord. I'm not even sure where they're at when they came through the food line. But here they are volunteering now. So we have a lot of opportunities like that when people come in and ask for some financial support. They have the opportunity to pray with them and just give it to God. You know, they'll have people come with a lot of stories and a lot of hurt and brokenness, which it's a struggle, right? To hear so many going through those and knowing that I can't, I can't help.

19:32I mean, I can help, I can do what I can, but really just give it to God and let God work through those and give that people some hope and Christ that really that's who they need to turn to. Yeah. So we do celebrate recovery in the four corners area. Addiction rates are crazy across the country around the world even, but the navigation it is. And so celebrate recovery is a Christ center 12 separate recovery group. And we've been, you know, every other week's a testimony. And we heard this one line where the guy said, I used to be a hopeless dope dealer. Now I'm a dope-less hope dealer. That's great. Yeah. So that's been, it's like been catching on and like, you know what? So we called our rally. We're having a rally in October 17th called Hope Dealers United. So we're dealing hope, right? And there's a lot of people that are bankrupt. They're just out of faith, out of hope and, you know, because of circumstances in life and back to even Sherry's story, you know,

20:34at some point sometimes you think, God's mad at me. What did I do? You know, to deserve this. You know, there's a lot of things that the enemy will use to get you to, you know, to think that he's left you or you're abandoned, all that stuff. Which again, when you start plugging in praying and all that, that's just a restoration of your spirit is to know that God is faithful. And he's the hope giver. He's the source of our hope. So yeah, we could probably do a whole show just on that word. But you guys can borrow that line too. I will. I will. The deal in hope. Because everybody's dealing something, whatever they're, everybody has to have a cause nowadays. Social media. If you don't have a cause or something you're passionate about, you're like promoting something, right? Everybody's teaching out something. So we talk about this to get involved. I don't share you one that mentioned anything else on that. But we can piggyback into getting involved. You know, prayer support, financial support, volunteer opportunities, pray, give, go, time,

21:35treasure talents. Do we want to jump into that? Yeah. Pretty much you said it. It's serve given pray, right? Serve with your time. Volunteer. A mom. Teach the life skills class. Learn about the ministry. Tell others we have opportunities to where people can serve with our kids. Serve with your talents. Whatever God is equipped you to do, they're probably maybe a way that you can use your gift here. Yeah. Give to your treasure financial support, food, furniture, clothing, diapers, wipes, personal hygiene items, household goods, or items on our wish list. New way is 100% donation driven. So there's no government funding that goes into this ministry. I never want to put prayer last because it's something that just sounds spiritual, right?

22:38It's the most important thing we need. We genuinely need prayer. Prayer for our moms and their children. Many of them come to us so broken, so traumatized. We have sex trafficking victims that come to our way. Women that are homeless, women that have struggled with domestic violence in their life. And so there's a lot of brokenness that come through our doors. And we need prayer that God divinely intervenes in their world, in their life. Pray for our staff because there are the ones that get to walk with them in that journey of severe brokenness, many times severe brokenness, too, wholeness through Christ. We need wisdom. We need protection. We need provision. And we also want to keep praying that God brings the people He wants to be here in this ministry, whether it's staff, whether it's our moms, the kids that need to be here, volunteers,

23:41are always praying that God brings the people here that He wants to serve or be part of this ministry. Yeah, that's good. That's good. And when I piggyback on that. Yeah, absolutely. You know, we in this community, we're blessed with a million volunteers. It's a bad problem to have, but I have to turn people away sometimes because we have so many people that want to volunteer. There might not be the case in other communities who are listening to this. And I would say the big thing, the thing that we need the most is just people that want to give the opportunity to build relationships with people. You know, I can encourage everybody to go to church and build a church community. It's hard to walk into a church your first time by yourself. It's way easier to just have a conversation with somebody in a street corner, sitting in a parking lot, sitting in your office and stuff, and then invite them. It's just easier to get them there and just small wins on building community, building

24:43that relationship with Jesus and stuff. And I would just offer that out. You know, the giving, obviously, that's a huge part of what we, that's a great way that we can serve. But I just think of that communities that unlike the Lyndon community where they struggle with volunteers and stuff, or if you can just take the time to build that hospitality part of it in and just build relationships with people. That's really how you can get involved, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And that's what we start with, because you know, there are lots of Christian organizations out there and I love them all. I, you know, my job, I get to see what people are doing for the Lord. And I hope that's contagious to others to say, hey, you know, I can do what this person is doing. Not everybody's a pastor or a preacher and a pulpit, you know, that word minister means meeting

25:47needs, physical needs, spiritual needs, and emotional needs, which, to your point, on relationship, you know, people are lonely and people need to, you know, know someone cares and that they love them. And, you know, if we're the hands and feet of Jesus, that's, that's, that's, we're busy about our Father's business, right? We talked about that before we went live. We're busy, because, you know, we're praying and God showing us step by step what to do next, what to do next. And just so that we pray about it, Lord, even praying for, maybe you're the answer to the prayer or even just intercessory prayer, but, you know, we just can't run after every good idea because it sounds good, you know, and that's, that was the idea behind answering the call. You know, God has a calling on, on people and you guys said, yes, here I am and you said yes, even when you weren't looking for it, Jerry. And Dan, you know, this, you know, the corporate ladder. One thing leads to the next and if you're good at it, you're faithful, God gives promotion.

26:50But a couple minutes left. I want to close in prayer, but is there anything else the Lord put on, either of your hearts to share with us before we do? Just that we're grateful for this opportunity. And like I said, we take in women from all over the United States of America. So if you know someone who is ready to make the transformational life change in their life, we walk with these women and their kids for two to four years. It's, it's a unique setting here. And we want to be the last transitional housing unit that they ever have to live in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I would share too, you know, people who come in here, the brokenness and stuff. And just to put their mind at ease, like, hey, we're in this together, right? We're building it. And the neat part about this, this broadcast, right, is it's not just limited to this little

27:53tiny community. It's, it's worldwide. And so I just appreciate the fact that we can talk to Christians around the world and, and just share in that, share in that home. And it gives me a little bit of, I don't know, these are my conscious that that it's not just me trying to work on this. There's thousands of people, millions of people around the world that are praying and praying for each other and stuff and just for that support. That's, that's great. Really appreciate that. And that's kind of our tagline. It's Matthew 516 in the sermon on the mountain. He says, you know, let your light, so shine before man, that they see your good works and glorify your father and heaven. And sometimes, you know, we do need to rate race funds to do the work. But, you know, we're trying to give God glory and God moves in the hearts of those who can give to give and to be a part of it. Yeah, let's pray. Ladies first, I love saying that.

28:56Holy Spirit, we just thank you for this time together with Pastor Chuck and the his ministry to be part of this has been pretty special. Just pray that you will bless it. Pray that he was able to continue to reach people around the world to know more about you because Lord, you are our life's source. You are our everything. And you are just, you're the best. Lord, words fall short of how amazing and awesome you truly are. We just thank you Lord for the ministries that are out there throughout our country and the world. Lord, I pray that you bless them, grow them, strengthen them, mold them, shape them, transform them, making them more like you, less like this world in Jesus name. And Heavenly Father, thank you for just working on me throughout the years.

29:58And I know it's been a big project for you. And I just continue. Well, thank you for that. And so many people around the world, Lord, that you have the opportunity to work on them just as you have with me. And there's so many opportunities out there, Lord, that if we, if we just take a moment and see how we can, we can be involved in our community, how Lord we can serve you. And just follow those needs, whether it's praying, serving, giving. We just follow, we just follow up when you prompt us, Lord, that we hear you prompting. And we just, we just praise your name for all of the work that you've, you've done here and the continual work that you just continue to do. Amen. And to thank you Lord for time together, we're two or three are gathered in your name. You're in the midst. And I know Lord that you are inspiring us to be your hands your feet.

30:59And we just pray for the board, the staff, previous staff, volunteers and donors, Lord, that have contributed to your causes to share the gospel and make disciples in word and deed. So I thank you Lord for our partnership and helping us with the tools and technology to get the word out. Others can listen in, be inspired, be encouraged, say, Lord, what would you have me do today? And how would you like to use me? So we pray others would ask you that, because I know you're loving and quick to answer those prayers. And as Dan said, I think I'm a big, I was the bigger project out of the three of us. So thanks for never giving up on me, either. You're awesome. And Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I was the biggest project. I would say sometimes a woman likes herself a project. They pick those fixed ruppers and it's called codependency, by the way, that's a real thing. So if you're picking those broken, the birds with the broken wings, anyway, that's all other stuff.

32:01But anyway, we're all, you know, it's a scratch and dent sale, I say at this point, God's working, you know, it's a fixed rougher. It's a good fixed rougher. But I think we're all fixed around here. Yeah. And every day we're looking a little bit more and more like Christ, which is awesome. I see Jesus all over you guys, you're just finger prints. Keep up to God working for those listening to the podcast again, new way ministries, 3603549930. Christianhopeassociation.org will get you the boat. Organizations do that. Dan, turn it in, turn executive director and Sherry, turn it in executive director of the whole deal. The project code 3603544673. I think I got that right while it was flying across. But, uh, it's correct. Yeah, we got project code one more time. It's along the bottom now for those on video 3603544673. You're pointing cameras to top left corner. You're watching that'll bring you right to their website. And until our next interview on Overcomers TV live, may you and your families be blessed. Thanks guys, appreciate you.

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