Truth Talk with Wendi

In Episode 3 of Truth Talk with Wendi Rees, titled A Different Kind of Spiritual Journey, Wendi opens up about a path of faith that does not always follow the expected rules. She shares personal experiences, hard questions, and moments of awakening that challenged what she was taught and ultimately reshaped her relationship with God.This episode explores what it looks like to seek truth beyond tradition, to wrestle with doubt, and to stay rooted in faith while pursuing deeper spiritual understanding. With honesty and vulnerability, Wendi invites listeners who feel stuck, curious, or quietly questioning to know they are not alone and that sometimes the most meaningful growth comes from taking a different road.

Truth Talk with Wendi is back after a much-anticipated hiatus—renewed, refreshed, and ready to go deeper than ever. In this special return episode, Wendi welcomes her brother Brandon to the mic for an honest, openhearted conversation that mixes real-life insight with faith, laughter, and truth.Together they dive into what’s been happening behind the scenes, what’s changed, and what’s next for the journey ahead. It’s raw, it’s real, and it’s the perfect relaunch to remind listeners why Truth Talk matters.Wendi's book "The Christian's Guide to Psychedelics: Finding Hope and Healing Through God's Creation" : https://www.amazon.com/Christians-Guide-Psychedelics-Finding-Creation/dp/B0FQLY14H9

www.thrivingforwardblog.com; https://Facebook.com/groups/advocateswithattitude; "Predators" written by Anna Salter with trigger warning  https://www.amazon.com/Predators-Pedophiles-Rapists-Other-Offenders/dp/0465071732; www.recoveringgrace.org  Trigger Warning: Some listeners may find the content of this episode disturbing because of trauma or bad experiences in their lives. Some stories may trigger emotionally disturbing memories.  Andrew J. Bauman — porn recovery resources and support Anne Blythe — betrayal trauma support Sarah McDugal — support for momma’s surviving post-abuse Sheila Gregiore — Biblical sex teaching Gretchen Baskerville— Biblical divorce support Emily:   It was pretty tumultuous. My parents’ marriage was never good. Not even from the beginning. And I would say as I approached about the age of eight, is when I started to spot my dad's narcissism and I started to realize even when he was playing with me, he was really more self-absorbed with himself and everything was really about him and I started to say things to my mom, like, “I really don’t think Dad loves me.” As an eight-year-old I could pick up on that stuff. And then life really started to fall apart when I was about 10.  My father had addictions going on, and I found pornography on his computer. One time, my mom and I watched him pick up prostitutes. While I was in my mom's car, we could see the road ahead, my father's vehicle and we would watch prostitutes get in his car.  He was engaged in quite a bit of behavior and the stress really started to affect me and then at about age 11 or 12, his sex addiction turned toward me and the abuse started. I was molested when I was 12. It didn't go beyond molestation, but I was definitely targeted and groomed for at least 10 years. All throughout my teenage years and into my early 20s, I always felt preyed upon, and I always knew that it was wrong even before I knew what sex was, and I know you've talked about this.  When you didn't even know what sex was and yet you knew something was wrong, and I was feeling used and violated. And like I said, preyed upon, and I knew it was wrong. Even though I didn't know all the words and the definitions of exactly what was going on, and I really didn't understand it. I was in my mid-20s and in counseling at that point, but yeah, that abuse started pretty early on. As a result, my little 10-year-old body didn't know what to do with all of this. I developed a severe, life-threatening autoimmune disease called Crohn's disease. And so, in the middle of all this abuse as a teenager, I was also living in and out of hospitals just barely staying alive. I think my lowest weight was 73 pounds when I was 16. You know, so I really looked like a holocaust victim. You could see every single bone in my body. I was just absolutely deathly ill. There was a brief separation that was mutually agreed upon for my sake, because the tension in the home was so severe, me and my mom knew that it was making me sicker. And so, there was an unusually made decision with a counselor that my father would temporarily be out of the home, which lasted less than a year and it would just be so they could continue counseling, and so I would be a little bit removed from that situation. But he finally just got to the point, had a couple of counselors fire him because they knew he wasn't willing to do any of the work. And others just flat out wouldn't take him because they would do one interview with him and they would tell my mom he's not going to take them on as a client because he's not willing. He's not willing to do anything. So, I guess after one year he finally just got fed up and came home one night and said, I have found an apartment and I'm leaving tomorrow. And that was it. He took a shower and went to bed, got up the next morning and he was gone, was not a fight. 

info@endabuse.com; www.endabuse.com; Southspring.org; www.chrismlegg.com; www.alethiacounseling.com; https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0670785938/;  https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+wounded+heart+dan+allender&gclid;  https://www.christianbook.com/wounded-adult-victims-childhood-sexual-abuse/dan-allender/9781600063077/; https://www.denisonforum.org/biblical-living/struggling-with-mental-illness-consider-these-7-ideas/; https://julieroys.com/john-macarthur-church-supported-convicted-abuser-pedophile/; https://julieroys.com/john-macarthur-covered-up-pastor-sexual-abuse-witnesses-say/;@BethMooreLPM; @reachjulieroys Hey guys! Welcome to another episode of Truth Talk with Wendi. I cannot tell you how excited I am today to have our special guest. This is Chris Legg. He is not only my very good friend, he is my counselor, my sanity, the one who Jim sends me to when he's heard enough.  "Have you talked to Chris about this yet?" No, I'll put that on the list. It's been an interesting journey. But you have many many hats. These are the hats you play to me although you have played more hats than that. But I think it's very interesting because he is also the pastor at South Spring Baptist Church. which is a great church here and it used to be First Baptist South, which is when I first met you, and you and I talked,  when I got into ministry through No Hungry Children, and very supportive, very onboard.  You have had the same heart and I think God used that to bring us together.  But what was amazing for me was just in getting to know you. And the fact that you were a Baptist preacher, this is really not a Baptist preacher. Multiple times I said, you need to stop telling people that because even though it's the same denomination, you are a very, very different Baptist, and God has really used you to heal a big wound for me. I have been seeing you for many, many years as a counselor and you've been instrumental in the ministry that I've done. Chris Legg:  I think it's fascinating, by the way, I was thinking on the way here, I’d love to hear Ben Shapiro Co-host his therapist on his podcast, like, I want to get his counselor on their podcast.  Wendi: We're talking about triggers.  And there may be some triggers that they might hear in our conversation today.  And that's kind of what triggered this episode is what was recently in the news. There's been a lot of information that has come out in regards to John MacArthur and his alleged cover up of sexual abuse within his church. So the first the first story or article that I read, it was not triggering to me and I don't know why it did not trigger me the same, but the second one,  that's why I came and talk to you about it because I thought my head was gonna pop off and I felt so horrible that I reacted that way and was so down on myself because I thought I needed to be further along than this.

Romans 8:1, 1 Peter 3:3,4, Galatians 1:15,16, 1 Timothy 1:15, Ephesians 4:24, Philippians 4:8, Romans 12:19, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Deuteronomy 31:8  www.endabuse.com https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Fathers-Heart-Womans-Unconditional-ebook/dp/B07DB9WNPP https://www.amazon.com/God-Made-All-Me-Children/dp/1942572301    TRIGGER WARNING: Some Listeners may find the content of this episode disturbing because of trauma or bad experiences in their lives.  Some stories may trigger some emotionally disturbing memories. Well, it finally ended because my parents sat us down on December 30, 1983. It was a couple of months before I turned 14. We were told that we were moving to Texas to start another church. So that's what we thought initially. It wasn't very long after that, on our way out to Texas, that the truth came out.  Being the oldest, I'm the one who kind of figured it out of course. Because of the abuse that I had been going through for the last several years, I had matured way faster than I probably should have. I was more attuned to even looking for things because I was now starting to question things on my own. And so my dad and my mom, who had been married my whole life. There was also another couple in our church that had been married for however long and they had been in our church a couple of years. She was an elementary teacher in our school. He was my volleyball and softball coach and eighth-grade teacher.  They were married and they divorced at the same time, my parents divorced. And I was very close to these people and I would stay with them when my parents would travel. I was devastated. You know, we were moving and I wanted to live with them and stay with my friends. And of course, that was not an option. But what I found out quickly on the way to Texas was that they had all been swapping partners. And so my dad and mom got divorced, and he married the woman and my mom married her husband.  So, my stepmom and my stepdad had been married to each other. And so it was like, okay, hold on. Wait, what? Okay, I can't wear shirts with writing on them or swim with boys, but I've got stuff going on in my house that nobody knows about, and I'm keeping the secret that no one knows about and now you're getting divorced! That’s the Big " Word and was just, overwhelming. And, of course, I never was allowed to question anything. But you know, it was always, “because I said so”, was the answer to any question that was uncomfortable. And so it was very, very difficult for me because I could tell that these were not going to be easy conversations. So basically I just said to my dad, I really don't think that mom is going to be happy with how nice you're being to her, referring to this other woman. And that's when he said to me, Well, your mom is not going to care because she ran off with Mr. so and so. And I immediately knew that she must have found out about what was happening with my dad because that's what he told me would happen if she found out so now my biggest fear has come to light. He allowed me to believe that. He really allowed me to feel like this was my fault. So my mom left him and he's now the victim too. This woman who he's now bringing in, is coming in to save the day because now we don't have a mom. And so she's coming in to save the day and at 14, I didn't need anybody to save the day, I just needed some stability, and I just wanted to be with my dad.

Proverbs 22:6  Ephesians 6:4b  Deuteronomy 6:5-9  Trigger Warning! Some listeners may find the content disturbing because of bad experiences in their lives.  Some stories may trigger emotionally disturbing memories.      Info@endabuse.com I am so excited today to talk to you about something that is very near and dear to my heart, and that is being a parent.  Being a mom or you might be a dad watching, you qualify.   We're talking about one of the hardest jobs in the whole world, but also one of the most rewarding.   Parenting in 2021 is not for the faint of heart.  There is so much going on in our world.  I wonder sometimes if I had an opportunity to go back and knew what my kids would be growing up in if I would have wanted to bring them into this craziness.  You wonder how in the world they're going to get through it, but we know from scripture that God numbers our days. He knows our birthday.  He knows our death date. Every single child that we have, God put them in this world, at this time for a specific purpose.  So, I rest in that because there are so many hard things when you're parenting, and so many of us have a deep desire for our children to love and like us. Unfortunately, that is not always a thing that can be accomplished, nor is it possible for them.   Loving us is obviously something that if we teach them about true love, which comes from God, then they can love us, even when they don't like us. Our goal when they are little seems to be just to protect them at all costs.  We would never send them out into the streets and play with a ball.  We would never just send them with a stranger.  There are so many things that you think about.  What does that mean to protect them at all costs? What if it really did cost you something. For instance, in my own personal life, I had two father figures that molested me. Well, one of them, my stepfather, I did not realize the degree that his sickness was until I had already allowed him to form a relationship with my children.  The reason is that what happened with him was so much less than what had happened before with my dad.   When I confronted him, actually when my mom confronted him, it stopped immediately. Well, other information came out, many, many years later that brought grave concern to me. I had to remove him from their life.  Well, that cost me quite a bit!   What it cost me more than anything was a relationship with my mom because that was not something that she wanted to hear. And that was very painful for her to hear after years of having a relationship with my kids.   My exact words to her were, “You can have a relationship with them, but he is no longer welcome to be around them, whether at your home or ours.” It was very difficult for me as well because my kids didn't understand it. And my mom was very upset with me. But here's what I told, not just her, but myself to allow myself the freedom to make this choice and have no regrets about it. I asked myself, what if one day in the future, fast forward five years, 10 years, what if one of my boys came to me with tears in his eyes, trying to drum up the courage to tell me that he did something to them?  I just want to leave you with a couple of scriptures that the Bible tells us are so important, as we are raising our kids at every stage.  Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way you should go and even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Another one is Ephesians 6:4b, “Bring them up with discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.” If you don't already have a relationship with God, if you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior, I would invite you to reach out to us.

Wendi opens her heart and shares real and raw experiences from her childhood and how God has used those things for her good and His glory. I was born into a Baptist preacher family, so I literally grew up with a man, that wasn't just my dad, but he was also my pastor. So this man for me was the closest thing to God that I knew,  that I trusted, and he actually wanted to be perceived as that. He didn't just make me think that, he made a whole entire congregation of people fall for that, and it worked. What we learned at church, and what I experienced at home, were two different things. Those worlds collided, one day, and my life changed forever. I had noticed that my parents had been fighting a little bit, and my dad would slam the door, which was totally out of character for him and my mom would go visit her parents in Jacksonville, Florida, and we lived in Atlanta. Those visits became more and more frequent, and one of those visits,  it was my turn as the oldest (I have four siblings), and each time that my mom would leave, we would literally take turns sleeping in the big bed with Dad. And this had been happening for a long time. It was nothing new, but on this particular night, something very new happened and at the moment, I could not have even described to you. See, I was only 11 years old. My dad was not just the pastor of our church, we had a church school and the kids in my church went and so he was the superintendent of that school as well. And that is where we were educated, and where we were taught things that we were allowed to know. Well, those were not environments where anything regarding sex or anything sexual was ever, ever said. My Dad controlled all of that. So, we were not even allowed to learn about our own bodies, health class was not as it is today. And so the things that were happening that night where my dad crossed the line and changed my life forever.  Those things I could not have even explained to someone. I remember saying, "You never get spankings, so you must be perfect" and I remember him laughing and saying, "Well, I get my spankings from God, they're not literal spankings but my discipline comes from the Lord." So he knew that God was watching what he did. But all I knew was that I never saw him say he was wrong, admit he was wrong, and so nothing that he ever did in my head was wrong. What was happening felt very wrong. So I felt like it must be me. Something's wrong with me. And my dad was a master manipulator. He controlled everything around him. And I was no exception. He used my fear of him and my desperate longing to belong to this family that was all I knew, to control me and to keep me quiet because he told me if I told anybody about what was happening, that my mom would leave, and that our family would break up. Well, that was all I needed to hear.  My family meant everything to me. This continued and continued, and got more frequent. And one day, my dad sat us down and told us that we were moving to Texas. He was starting a church, and my mom was going to go to Florida, again, and she would be with us in Texas in a couple of weeks. Well, that's not exactly what happened. He said he resigned the church. In January, we took off two days later, never to return. And on the way to Texas, I found out what was really going on.