Journey in Hope | Interview 2 | Feat. Stephanie McCook

In this interview we speak to Stephanie who tells us her story of hope! Stephanie reminds us of the goodness of God regardless of how difficult life gets. Loss of jobs, the threat of poverty and the effects of suffering on family members, despite all this, Stephanie reminds us of the unwavering hope that can be found in God and the resolute role of every follower of Jesus, regardless of how dire things get.

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Music by
Acoustic Tropical Travel
Yevhenlokhmatov

Transcript

Welcome to another podcast and video from Hope2Families.

Each message you hear will be a personal story of one individual that through difficulties in life, found hope.

That hope that they found isn't a person, and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Stephanie, so good to have you.

So good to be here.

Genuinely, it's so good.

I've been so excited from the day that I knocked your front door and you opened it, and you come out grinning with the kids.

I just thought, wow, this girl just shines Jesus.

Folks, let me just say this.

Welcome back to another Journey in Hope video.

I hope you were blessed.

I know we've had a couple of contacts already in relation to Holly's video, and two ladies have really been challenged by the Lord, and that is tremendous.

And one of them has really encountered the presence of the Lord.

So that is tremendous.

Stephanie, we want you to relax.

Looks behind the camera.

I'm sitting here.

Just relax.

I want you just to take us back, Stephanie, to your childhood.

Just growing up and what that was like for you.

Take your time.

There is no rush.

Just go with the Holy Spirit.

So I grew up with a Christian mom.

I went to church regularly.

My mom was a Bible class leader.

She was a BB officer, GB officer.

There was nothing in the church she didn't do.

And I very quickly fell in love with worship music.

Music has always been a passion of mine.

And I fell into the worship team at church and just loved worship, loved it so, so much.

So I had a lovely Christian upbringing, but my dad wasn't, he was an atheist.

He didn't believe.

And very early into my childhood, sort of around P6-7, my dad took kidney failure.

So he was on kidney dialysis, traveling four times a week up to Antrim to get dialysis, which eventually moved into our home.

And this carried on for 10 years.

10 years, several failed attempts at going to Edinburgh for a transplant, only to be sent home.

And he took septicemia on several occasions, operations that went wrong that nearly took his life.

And he had a heart attack.

Honestly, he experienced so much.

He could write a book on his medical experience.

And our childhood consisted quite often, of us going to school, getting changed in the car, grabbing a chippy and heading to the hospital for months on end.

And my mum did the job with two parents.

And it was really difficult.

So I didn't have the childhood that everyone else had.

I didn't get to go out and experience.

I didn't get to go out and do things with my friends at the weekend.

We were very closed in.

It was our family and our family only.

So that was incredibly, incredibly difficult.

We seen things as children we probably shouldn't have been exposed to in terms of medical.

I remember going into hospitals where dad would have been, have tubes everywhere.

And he'd have been really ill or he'd have been violently sick.

I even remember him taking us on holiday just for a weekend away, just me and my brother and him being so violently ill in the hotel.

We had to come home.

We couldn't go on a family holiday without sending the dialysis machine ahead of us on the plane.

Our spare bedroom became a medical room, a sterile room.

And this is all while my mom had fibromyalgia.

But what, she's an incredible and incredible lady.

She just kept going and she kept doing all the things she needed to do as a parent.

But my dad did eventually get transplant in 2015, praise the Lord.

After he found Christ.

So he found Christ.

Yeah.

Can you fill us in just a map?

Yeah.

Because you said initially he was an atheist.

Yeah, sure.

Share that with us.

And so his sister eventually went forward for the test.

Wendy went forward for the test to see if she was able to give him McKinley.

And years ago when we first tried that avenue, medicine, it wasn't advanced.

Yeah.

And we were able to now then she was able to have her arteries checked and matched to my dad's and all of a sudden she was a match.

And she said to him, you're on prayer lists all over the country, David.

You know, Christ really loves you and if you just gave your life to him.

And before we knew it, dad found himself at church and found himself on his knees in front of Christ.

Praise God.

And gave his life to Christ.

And ultimately God has kidney and God is healing.

It was just unreal.

Incredible.

And he then started volunteering at church and has a beautiful relationship with Christ now, which I could never have imagined in my childhood.

From a man who used to tell me how on earth did Jonah get swallowed by a whale.

Yeah, all these questions.

You know, in fact now, you know, he's just so happy and healthy and he's had no repercussions since.

That's incredible.

Hallelujah.

That's amazing, Stephanie.

So that's your childhood and everything about that.

Do you want to take us up sort of into maybe your teenage years and how you sort of faced life and faced challenges yourself and how you went down maybe avenues that you regret?

Oh, yes.

And so, as I say, my teenage years with my dad's illness were difficult.

And you always felt, I always felt quite responsible and quite mature, although now looking back, I definitely wasn't.

And I wanted to navigate life by myself, you know, I didn't want to put any burdens on my mum, as she had enough to deal with.

My parents' marriage then subsequently, they separated in my later part of my teens.

And my way of coping was to go out at the weekend and get drunk.

And alcohol was a quick fix.

I was never a heavy, heavy drinker because I'm tiny.

But for those few hours or that night, I was numb.

And I could feel happiness or what I thought was happiness.

It was just fill and avoid.

And I realized I was having more fun out partying with my friends than I was on a Sunday in church.

And very quickly, I just thought, I don't want this life anymore.

I don't want Christ.

I don't want the church.

I don't want this.

It's too boring.

It's not for me anymore.

And we all know from secondary education has changed now in the schools in Northern Ireland.

And we were in just at Key Stage 3 to the Big Bang Theory.

And I thought, fine, I'm taking that.

It's more logical.

And Christ has done nothing for me.

My life's been miserable.

My dad's been sick.

My mom's been sick.

This is not fair.

And my childhood has been stolen.

How can there be a God?

And I turned my back and I never went back to church for years.

I refused to go back.

Can I ask you, because I know worship is a big thing in your life, Stephanie.

During that period of time, even though you've made that conscious decision, was there ever any moments when any worship songs would have come back?

Were you ever in any nightclubs where God did speak?

Or was there anything ever happened?

Absolutely.

So my mom would still play worship music in the house.

And initially I would get very angry and very defensive and turn that off.

It's rubbish, but it would convict me.

I could feel it stirring something in my heart.

It always did.

And when I was out and about, I could feel myself humming songs from church and hymns, and then catching myself on and thinking, stop it.

You don't need to listen to that anymore.

But I know that was God.

Now, as an adult and as a mom and a little wife, I can feel that was God saying, come on, I'm still here.

I'm exactly where you left me.

Just come back.

Remember how you used to love this.

Remember how you used to find me in these moments.

And I can fill that void.

But at that time, I just wanted to dismiss all of it, completely dismiss it.

Incredible, incredible.

Is there anything else you want to fill us in, even for people that are listening?

Because you highlighted some things, and I think it's really important because, as you know, we're just been in an area today where there's a big heroin problem, big drink problem.

And you used that word numb.

So you had some pain, Stephanie.

Yes.

Like deep down.

Is there anything that you would say in relation to that sort of part, and pain and the numb feeling that you felt, or trying to numb that with the drink?

Is there anything for anybody watching?

It's a quick fix.

Yeah.

You know, it only lasts for the night.

But you wake up in the morning, and you're worse than you were the night before.

And it becomes a spiral, a downward spiral.

You need another one to compensate for that.

And coming from a family who has had alcoholism, and we've lost members of our family to alcoholism, I should have known better.

But when you go into that pattern of, I feel good tonight, but I'll feel rubbish in the morning.

So first thing tomorrow morning, I'll go back out and I'll do the same thing again.

Very quickly, it becomes something you get addicted to.

You get addicted to that feeling, to that thrill, to that lifestyle.

Ultimately, you're just numbing it for the evening.

Your pain will always be there in the morning if you do not address it, which I didn't do, I just refused to address it.

It's incredible.

The other thing I wanted to ask you, Stephanie, just in relation to we're Christians now, obviously, and our series is Journey in Hope, and we know that the hope is found in Christ.

Did you feel there was a vacuum or a void there from the Christian church?

What I'm trying to get across is, right now in society, I'm finding that there seems to be a vacuum or a void, and sometimes people feel isolated that the church isn't reaching out, or the church isn't trying to reach that brokenness.

Did you feel that, or how, or was there anyone in church that came along and reached out to you?

So I talk quite openly now that my church probably didn't support my family in the way that I needed.

And my hurt came not from God, which I can recognize now.

My pain came from the building, from the church, but I blamed God ultimately.

When my parents divorced very quickly, my mom was removed from all positions and we were asked to move seats in the building because we weren't a good example.

I wasn't allowed to leave worship, even though I wasn't responsible for my parents' divorce, it was between two individuals, two adults.

So I felt like I was being punished or something that I didn't have anything to do with.

And I feel like at that time, the building, the church building, pushed me into that group of friends and led me to them because they were offering me this fun, this love, this support.

I wasn't getting that in the church building.

Thankfully, I'm in a different position obviously now where I have a loving church.

And yes, there was individuals, lovely, lovely people who did try.

They did try and to reach out and say, God still got you, God can bring you through this.

But at that point in time, the hurt was with the church and I didn't want anything to do with it.

It was trauma, church trauma.

And I know so many people I've been in contact with recently who that's where their trauma is, it's with the building, not with God.

But it's easy to blame God, isn't it?

Yeah, Stephanie, that's really, really good point there.

Folks, I want to say this just as we talk about this.

We believe here in the Hope2Families Center, God is a God of restoration.

God is the God of second chances, third chances and fourth chances.

And I'm always reminded in Galatians, let you who are spiritual among you restore such a one.

And we've got to always try to journey with people and reach them as to where they are, Stephanie, at that particular moment.

Stephanie, do you want to relate maybe how you found the love of your life?

Now, not the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the love of your life.

But I'm talking about your earthly love here right now.

Do you want to share a wee bit about that with us?

So I hadn't been to church at that point for about four years.

As I say, didn't want anything to do with it.

And one of my friends actually, I had been doing a degree in drama and theater because I love the theater, I love the arts, and I love music in Balamani.

And one of my friends says, Stephanie, I'm really depressed and I feel really awful at the minute and I need to go to church and I need someone to come with me because I'm scared to go by myself.

And I said, absolutely not.

I'm not setting foot in a church.

You will not catch me in that building.

You can go yourself.

And he persisted and he says, Stephanie, please, I know how you feel, but just come and sit with me.

That's all I'm asking you to do.

And the whole morning, that Sunday morning, I kept drafting messages to him saying, I'm not coming, I can't come, I'm sick, but I couldn't find any real reason to send him the message.

So before I knew it, I was on the train to Balamani, and I met him on the train.

And as I walked into this church, I felt so ill.

I mean, really sick.

And I felt angry before I'd even got up the steps, and my whole body was shaking, and I couldn't identify how I was feeling.

It was the strangest feeling.

And as I went up the steps, this lovely big man, who's unfortunately not with us anymore, he's gone to be with the Lord, greeted me at the door with this big, massive bear hug.

And he held me and he says, you're so welcome here, God bless you.

People were shaking my hands everywhere and hugging me and coming up and wanting to know who I was, where I was from.

It was a bizarre experience.

I'd never had that in my church.

Nobody ever did that.

And then all of a sudden, this beautiful man walked straight by me down the rows to the front seat.

And he turned and he knew the guy I was with, the guy who my friend, and he came and sat beside us.

And I had recognized him.

He was doing music in the same place as I was, same degree.

And I'd always had a little bit of a crush, but never gone anywhere near him because I was too scared.

And he came and sat beside me in church and he just started to talk.

And before I knew it, the service was over and the lovely individual I'd come with had to go on.

And I had no way home, no way home in Balamani.

And Brent stayed with me the rest of the day, pretending he had no wallet with him.

So I couldn't get the train home.

We just spent the day.

And I just fell head over heels for the man in a church of all places at that time.

The very place that you didn't want to be.

In church.

Brilliant.

Yeah, so that's where I met Brent.

God's got a real good sense of humor.

He is so funny.

Before we come into more of the marriage and the family and the kids and stuff, can you take us just to that journey where Christ then captivated your heart?

Can you share that with us?

So I had been with Brent for about five months and he had been quite persistent about coming to church.

His family were very big in the church, had a music ministry.

Wonderful, wonderful family.

Really godly family.

And I was really into them all the time.

There was something about them.

I wanted to be in their company.

I wanted to spend time with them.

But Brent had his own trauma with church as I had I.

And I find myself five months into our relationship.

I was 18, I was pregnant.

So I became a young mom and I couldn't, there was no way I could see god's hand in it.

I remember our pastor saying, I have a vision of this family in church.

And I thought, oh, you have no idea.

I will never bring my child to church to be hurt the way I've been hurt.

And Matthew was born in October of 2014.

And the following June, 2015, it took me that long, 2015.

I eventually agreed to go to a tent mission at Brent's church outside.

And there was a guest speaker telling his testimony of how he'd come through 12 years of heroin abuse and the most horrendous things had happened to the man.

It was awful.

And he was telling his testimony.

And I thought, how on earth could you love God through all of that?

And yet I don't even love God through the very simple things that had happened in my life.

And he said, someone just needs to look at their feet because God's given you a reason to keep going.

And I looked down and Matthew was in the carrier seat in front of me.

And he did an altar call.

And I just remember, I don't actually remember at what point my hand just flew up.

And I was like, I want that.

I want what these people have.

I want to experience Christ.

I don't want to put my head on the pillow tonight and not know where I'm going to be tomorrow morning.

What if I don't wake?

What chance has this child got?

And I just remember being really burdened by this.

So I made the altar call and very quickly I experienced the Holy Spirit, which was so new to me.

They prayed for me and one minute I was on my feet and the next minute I was on the floor and everything, all the hurt and all the anxiety and the anger and the trauma just bubbled out.

And I just remember wailing, but it wasn't painful.

It was relief.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's how I met Christ.

That's how I met Christ, but I always say I became a Christian in 2015.

But as we'll chat about later, I didn't meet Christ until a lot later on because I do feel there's a very big difference between becoming a Christian and meeting Christ.

Like having a Christ encounter.

Exactly.

Yeah, and I've been trying to say that it's only five years ago, Stephanie, and a lot of folk know this.

And I grew up in the Brethren assemblies, you know, and made a profession and thought I was doing all the stuff, Stephanie.

But it was only five years ago, five years ago, where I had a Christ encounter.

And it was outside Bushmills in the car on my own where Christ really came to me and I had an encounter.

So Stephanie, it's so good to hear, but just between Matthew, we're gonna come to Matthew later on as well.

You got pregnant at 18, you know, and this is why we're real.

Yeah.

This is why we're real.

We want people to know that we're not big highfalutin, like some of the only Christians.

We are real people.

Yeah.

Can you take us just now through marriage?

Yeah.

And maybe you can bring us up, and then we'll maybe speak about we Matthew as well.

But, and then your experience, that Christ encounter experience, but maybe through marriage, and you can take us right up to the COVID era here now.

Okay, so you can bring us right up to date with that.

So, I didn't get married then to 2017.

Yeah.

Actually, we had had Jack then following that.

I found out I was pregnant quite quickly after I met Christ.

And we had Jack, and married life was, our life in general was really difficult.

I mean, I got pregnant at 18.

I was only a child myself.

Neither of us really ever aspired to be parents.

We never wanted to be parents.

We never really had that plan or that vision.

And we were just thrown into parenthood, and we both were so young.

We didn't really have anything behind us, no degrees, no opportunities.

We were struggling to get jobs, get money, and our marriage was really strained.

By the time we entered our marriage, we had done it for the benefit of our family, truthfully, because our families wanted us to be married and have a family unit, and we agreed to it.

And yes, we loved each other, of course we did, but there was so much strain, so much pressure of being young parents and trying to have a home so young when we should have been doing things that most of our people going to uni, having that lifestyle, taking a gap year, going and traveling.

We didn't have any of that.

And my husband's career, he's a musician.

So his career would take him away for periods of time.

He would be maybe home a week and then away for two and then home for three days and away for another week.

And I felt sometimes in my flesh that I was a lone parent.

I was on my own all the time.

He was living this amazing lifestyle, best hotels, best cruise ships.

This was amazing.

How could he possibly want to come home and be a parent and take over all of these responsibilities?

And he was tired when he came home, but to me in my flesh, I used to think there's no way you can be tired.

There's no way you could be anywhere near as tired as I am.

And I do more than you.

And you know, that self-righteous thing comes on and without me, you wouldn't be able to do what you do.

And our marriage quickly became a problem and a hindrance to both of us.

And we would avoid each other and we would spend as little time as we possibly could.

And in fact, we got to the stage where I think for about a year, we physically never were in the house at the same time as each other because we couldn't be in the home without Roy over the silliest of things.

Just because we both were holding so much hurt, but we never communicated.

Communication was non-existent in our marriage.

And it drove us to the point where just before COVID hit, we had made a conscious decision to separate.

Mm-hmm.

Which was awful.

Absolutely awful.

But it's very real, Stephanie.

Yeah, it is.

Sure, and you were sharing it with me, or at least I know this in part.

Times were tough, like you were, I was food in the house, you were sharing a little bit with me.

How bad did things get, actually, Stephanie?

Things got awful.

I mean, when COVID hit, everyone was in the same situation.

Businesses closed, but for my husband being self-employed, that meant nothing.

Overnight, we went from a really comfortable lifestyle to absolutely nothing.

The government were giving grants, of course, and that's great, but it didn't cover the basic bills.

And they were three or four months apart from money coming into the house.

I had been doing a degree in midwifery at the time and was traveling back and forward from Mount and Galvan Hospital.

And then the abortion law passed here in Northern Ireland, and I was in an ethical dilemma.

Do I continue in this and be going against the biblical principle and be going against Christ, or do I leave?

And I took the decision to leave, meaning my bursary was cut off.

We had nothing.

And we went down to the very last 10 pound.

And I remember going to the shop with the 10 pound and buying bread, milk and eggs.

That's all we could afford.

I knew if we had milk and eggs, we could make scrambled egg and we had toast.

That was all.

And we got in a few days, a few weeks in, and then realized that Brent and I had gone two, three days without any food.

And what we had, we were dividing up between the kids and cutting it into tiny pieces to make it look like more on their plate.

And we were in desperation.

Not only was our marriage in ruins, but we had nothing to provide for our family.

And we were too full of pride to ask for help.

We didn't want to ask for help because then to us, we'd failed as parents.

We'd failed in the marriage.

We had absolutely nothing, nothing at all.

Stephanie, thanks for your honesty.

It's incredible.

And I think this will resonate with a lot of folk because I think a lot of folk, even in Christian circles and in church settings, can play at marriage as well.

And it looks good on a Sunday.

Absolutely.

But what happens during the week, it's just not the same.

Stephanie, Journey in Hope.

We're going back to Journey in Hope because I know you shine hope and hope is Jesus.

Can you take us, before we come to Matthew and finish off with Matthew, can you take us to when you had the Christ encounter?

Absolutely.

So during lockdown, as I say, we didn't have anything to eat.

And I remember one day we had had a horrendous Roy, and he's comfortable with me talking about this, of course.

And I just said, we have nothing.

We are stuck here with each other.

We're miserable.

Our life is miserable.

Honestly, the kids have nowhere to go.

We're gonna lose our house.

The rent was due.

We had no money to pay the rent.

And I thought, what are we gonna do?

We're gonna be living in the car, the car we can't afford.

And I said, you know what?

I have one option.

One thing we haven't tried yet is why don't we just pray?

And I remember him looking at me and thinking, are you for real?

And I was like, I know.

I feel the same way.

Because if God was gonna show up, he'd have done it by now.

And you were hearing people posting on Facebook and Instagram, which is obviously a great avenue, but a curse in itself.

Oh, God's providing so much.

It's amazing, and life's incredible.

And real, reality is that's 1% of people's lives.

I thought, right, we'll try it.

So we stood at the kitchen counter, and I can visualize it.

And we held hands and we prayed.

And I remember as we finished praying, I caught him looking.

We looked at each other at the same moment.

And for the first time, just over a year, I said, I love you.

Wow.

And he says, I love you too.

And I remember standing there thinking, no, I do love you.

I love you so much.

Why did I not know I loved you?

And he was like, no, I love you.

I'm so sorry.

And it was a moment of realization when I thought we've gone two years of hating each other.

Incredible.

I didn't hate you at all.

I loved you.

I just forgot to put Christ in our marriage.

Yes, on a Sunday, we held hands in church and we smiled at people on the way out and we went, God bless you.

And then went into the car and ride the whole way home or had separate car drives the whole way home.

But I loved this man so much.

And not only at that point was our marriage restored, but we went for the walk.

We were allowed our five miles from our home, staying for a walk.

And as I approached my front door, I said, Brent, what's outside our home?

And he says, it's bags.

There were bags upon bags upon bags of food.

Not only that, but when we opened the door and got it in, there was two cards.

And God bless those people.

I still don't know who they are, but I'll forever thankful for them.

With money inside one, enough to cover our rent to the exact penny.

And another one with a voucher for the local supermarket, enough to feed us for a month.

Praise the Lord.

And I just remember opening it and being, but Brent, God's real.

And he went, no, sure we know that.

I says, no, but Brent, he's real.

I mean, look, look what God has done.

Who is this God?

And it was the first time, I think, in my entire Christian walk, I honestly thought, who are you?

Who are you, Jesus?

Who are you that you can do this for me?

In one 24-hour space, you fed my family for months.

You've paid my rent and you've restored my marriage.

And only hours before, I wanted to separate from my husband.

But a couple of hours later, I would have happily run to the nearest church and remarried the man all over again.

I mean, I loved him.

And we ate like kings and queens that night.

And even our little boy, he said, the only thing we better than this, mommy, now is a hot chocolate with marshmallows.

And we didn't have it.

Yeah.

And then we had a knock on the door and my mom was standing.

She says, I was in Asda and I just thought the kids might want hot chocolate and marshmallows.

And there was hot chocolate and marshmallows for the kids.

And for four months, we didn't touch a penny in our bank account.

The Lord provided every meal, every bank payment, every direct debit was paid.

We never touched our accounts until we became at a point where we were financially stable enough.

It was unbelievable.

I'm saying this in the right way because we shouldn't be blown away, but I'm blown away.

Yeah.

Because this is what our God does.

Yes, exactly.

This is what he does.

And I think going back to our journey as well, even just in our own wee family, Stephanie, it's sometimes when you just actually step out and say, do you know what?

We need to try God here in this situation.

And we need to believe that, Stephanie, that is phenomenal.

It's phenomenal, it's phenomenal.

Are we near done, cameraman?

How long have we got?

Have we got five more minutes?

Yeah.

We've fit loads into five minutes.

You've fit loads into five minutes.

Stephanie, it's been phenomenal how Christ done all that in a 24-hour period.

Yeah.

It's incredible.

The morning that I knocked your door a few weeks ago was my first encounter with you.

I'd heard of you.

I feel like Job, I've heard of you by ear, but now my eyes have seen you.

So, and when you opened the door, the kids, the boys, and you just came, and it was like, grinning.

I was like, wow, this lady is special.

So I also now know getting to know you a little bit better and you've been at our women's group and all, and some of the ladies were like, who's Stephanie McCooke?

Like you just brought something to the ladies.

I want to ask you because life with the kids, and especially we, Matthew, I think it's Matthew, isn't it Matthew?

Life with the kids has been tough.

It has, yeah.

So I just want to share because I have the utmost respect.

There's one thing about Luke's mom and my wife, Heather.

Heather reared our boys and I have no qualms now.

I'm hopefully a good daddy, hopefully.

Luke hasn't even turned it.

But Heather's just like, I have so much respect for a mom, for a mother, what they do.

So can you share a little bit, just whatever you feel in relation to Matthew?

Obviously we don't want to jeopardize Matthew in any way, but can you share a wee bit about Matthew's journey?

So Matthew, Matthew was probably exposed at a young age.

Obviously his dad and I, our relationship was, and the only word I could use at the time was probably toxic.

It was.

And he was exposed to a lot of rise and arguments and an environment that was not healthy.

And we can recognize that now.

He wasn't exposed to healthy marriage, healthy family life.

And as he grew up, he was quite an anxious child.

He always has been.

But last year he developed what I could almost call a tick.

So his eyes would involuntarily move, his head would jolt, his neck would crunch into places, and he would tell me all the time he had horrific headaches.

He was getting up in the middle of the night and sleepwalking.

He was seeing things that weren't there.

And he just began to change.

Our little bright, bubbly, confident little man became a shadow of himself.

Lockdown, of course, like with most kids, had an adverse effect on Matthew too.

I mean, he was so scared of going out.

He was terrified of going back to school and nobody would like him anymore.

Most children went through this.

But we took Matthew to the GP and discovered that Matthew had a lump, a mass behind his eye, which was pressing on nerves, causing these involuntary movements.

But to date, GPs and doctors have said there is no real medical cause for it.

And they can do nothing to help our child at the moment.

He got glasses to try and help with his symptoms.

And of course, that added to the anxiety.

Matthew would wake a couple of nights a week with anxiety attacks.

He would cry after being left alone.

He quit everything he loves.

He's a talented little footballer.

And he quit.

And he quit after school activities.

And he wouldn't leave our side.

If we left, he cried.

He became a shadow of himself.

He still is.

We're working on it.

God has been good.

God is working through this.

But we still have no known cause for why Matthew has this illness or has this mass, this lump.

But we have no option now to just trust that God knows why this is happening and that there's a greater plan and purpose for why Matthew's life.

He is a worship warrior.

So I believe this is just a wee step of the enemy, saying, Matthew, I'm gonna shut you down at an early age.

And looking back on my life, I can see how many times the enemy rushed in and stole things from me.

And he's not gonna steal it from my child because he's got two parents who love Jesus, who know Jesus, and who are gonna preach Jesus to that child until their dying breath.

And our children, our children are borrowed to us.

That's what the Bible says.

They're not ours.

They're Jesus'.

We just have to rear them and steward them and give them the right tools and equipment to send them back to do the Lord's work.

And I believe that's what's happening with Matthew now is the enemy has got a grip on him, but he won't keep him for long because Jesus is gonna rescue our child.

He's gonna heal our child, and it'll be all glory to God.

And that'll be Matthew's testimony in a few years time.

He'll sit here and he'll tell you about how God restored his sight and God restored his vision.

That's what's gonna happen.

Hallelujah.

Stephanie, phenomenal.

Praise God.

And I genuinely mean that.

I just wanna say to the folk, listen folks, this is Stephanie McCooke.

You don't mind me giving them your full name.

Get her to your church to share.

Get her to your ladies group.

Families, this is what Hope2Families is all about.

Let's be real.

Let's be honest.

If you've got a family that have it all figured out, will you please contact me and tell me the secret?

Because every family has got something going on.

And the hope is only to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we mean that.

So listen, folks, contact me, contact the Hope Center, come to the Hope Center, drop in Monday, Friday, 11 to 2.

There's loads of things happening tomorrow morning, God willing, we're hoping to start our addiction programs as well.

Stephanie, I just want to say that these folks that will be watching this will be praying for you and your family.

And I mean that you will make friends now that you never knew, but we're brothers and sisters in Christ, so we should all be journeying this road together.

Thank you for coming in today.

Thank you for having me.

Oh, I couldn't wait.

And I know I've been contacting you like every other day, but anyway.

It's been worth the wait.

It's been worth the wait.

Luke, we want to thank Luke as well.

Luke, thank you for coming in, son, and doing this for us.

We appreciate it.

And we just value your support in this.

Coming up, I think our next interview, our next little Journey in Hope is going to be Joanne Scott.

Joanne's going to be joining us, and Joanne has got an amazing story as well.

And she will share how she struggled with her mental health, couldn't leave the house without valium.

And then God came.

God came.

And Joanne actually is a big part of here now, and part of the drop in, and part of the Gospel Bus Ministry.

She goes to Ricky Bell's down at the Tabernacle.

So listen, time's up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Had you a verse?

Yeah, I do want to give the word of God good place here.

Stephanie, you don't, I think you too.

Yeah, go for it Stephanie.

Just the two verses the Lord gave me.

After we had been fed and we were full, I decided I'm gonna commit now.

And the one thing I hadn't done was I hadn't spent enough time in prayer and enough time in the word of the Lord.

I spend my time now in the word, in the word.

That's so important to spend your time in the word and in prayer.

And he sent me this.

Take your time.

It is Matthew 25, 35.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you unified at me.

And then Matthew 6, 26.

Look at the birds of the air.

They do not sow or reap or store away in barns.

And yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they?

And that's just so precious.

Will you do me one favor?

That last verse, will you look in the camera?

Will you read that to someone?

Someone needs to know that, Stephanie.

How valuable they are to the father.

Please, please share that.

Look at the birds of the air.

They do not sow or reap or store away in barns.

And yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not more valuable than they?

God bless you from Stephanie and I.

Bless you, folks.

We love you.

We would love you to get to know Jesus.