Guess Who's Back?

Hey, everyone! Welcome to Season Two of the Everfree podcast with Keith and Megan Peeler. Hey, friends, welcome, Babe. Yeah, we're back. We're back. How long has it been?

Oh, a couple years.

2019 was the last podcast forever free. And we're back, guess who's back? We're back. Good. Again. That's a little m&m reference. Probably not appropriate for all people. But so glad that we're finally getting to do this.  A lot has happened. A lot has happened in the 2-4 years, whatever that's been. I'm not good at math. 2019 we were in Montana. We were getting freed from a role in a church, freed up from that role. Yep. Which meant a lot of transition. And we had to come back from that job in Montana. And that's where we had the beginnings of Everfree time. We've been doing our prayer ministry since 2010. But in 2019, that's what launched us to begin Everfree. And so I thought we'd start off this podcast and this time together, just catching you guys up on what we've been through a little bit, kind of like a where are we now and what's going on? And so where do we even begin? Okay, so Montana didn't work out as we thought it might and hoped. That was a lot of difficult transition for us.

What would you say in 2019? We were finishing our time there. We were praying, we were seeking the Lord. And we were asking him, one how to process all the stuff.

What are you thinking about? Like when you look back on 2019? It's spring coming into summer. The snow is sort of melting in Montana at that point. And we're headed back to Texas at that time. We didn't know where so let's just start with that. What was going on in you like, what were you thinking about all of the life turmoil? We'd moved up from Dallas, we'd sold a lot of stuff. We'd made some significant financial investments and moving, and then boom, that gets pulled out from underneath. And we lived with your mom and dad for nine months.

Well, that's when we got to Texas. I'm not going to talk about a year ago here. I'm talking about like Montana time. Yeah. Like we sold, everything moved there, lost all of our financial supporters, because we were dealing with stuff with the church. We didn't need our fundraising support. We stayed on staff with Novo which we still are today. And in that, like everything was pulled out from underneath us when that freedom happened for that role.

At this year, we like fried better than fired, usually fired. But the Lord has really trained my heart around that to be freed from that.

Yeah, I think I was excited to get back to Texas. So while I was disappointed that Bozeman didn't work out, I'm excited about what God's gonna do with the next chapter. But we had no idea where we were going to land. So I think there was a lot of unknown that was happening. And it was a little scary, especially because we were waiting to sell our house in Bozeman in order to find a new home, and so there was a sense of excitement, but also sadness and just feeling a little confused on why we would get to Bozeman and have it not work out. So, I don't really know what I learned in that, except that God takes us to places for a reason. Yeah. And we go to one place, and he prepares away for another. Yeah. And that's what I've gotten to see in our marriage.

Well, that's true. And I think, as you say that what highlights to me is, you know, in in the Dallas based ministry, I was still primary ministry guy, and you were supportive wife, who does prayer appointments with me, right? Yeah. And then what I saw in you in the transition to Bozeman was you becoming your own leader when I had the role at that church. My attention and energy was going towards that one particular body? Yeah. But you got connected to a number of people and a number of churches, you even shared your testimony. You had this network of women that you were ministering to. You were leaving and doing prayer stuff without me. Yeah, really, for the first time in our marriage. And so I think I'd like to hear you tell everybody about that part of the journey because I know that you didn't expect that. I didn't. I didn't foresee like “Oh, once we do this Megan's gonna go do her own thing.” So how did how did that start for you? We got this neighborhood ministry. Do we take a role to be a missional? Pastor missionary? How do you? How do you live the stuff out every day, that was really our heart and the role that we had taken. So I'm doing that in that body and you’re getting connected to this kind of large women's ministry at this large church there that was not related to it. Well, was relationally related, but it was not the church that I was serving. Yeah. So I think it would be helpful to process through what was that journey like.

I have always known myself to be married to a pastor, and be a supporter of yours, but also be a speech pathologist -- that is my passion. And there was a season in Montana where I couldn't get a job. And that was unheard of. And so I started stepping into ministry opportunities to share my testimony about having my daughter at 23. And what I experienced through that, and people just wanted to hear more of the story.  And in that story, I talked about my own personal journey of healing and deliverance. And then I started walking alongside women that were passionate and excited about that as well. And so then I invited them in.

She’s charismatic, I don't know, if you notice, they just get excited. She is and like, like, this woman attracts people, you know, in mostly the good ways. But I mean, obviously, I'm attracted to her. But I mean, you are, you are, you are attractive. Right? You are bubbly, you're optimistic, you have this testimony of freedom. And even in the midst of what was really traumatic and chaotic. Yeah, there was there was slander about my character. The termination was for this prayer ministry. And so it was a theological difference, even though it wasn't a biblical difference, right.

And so that was traumatic as a couple, you're seeing your husband go through the stress of, you know, meeting with elders and all of the things that happen in a termination process, right. But I mean you remain joyful. For the most part. I mean, we had our moments, don't get me wrong. But even in that I watched you continue to share your freedom journey with women.

And I think what we went through with all of that caused us to lean in even deeper to Everfree. And what we represent and why we do what we do. And so it made it really clear to me that this freedom ministry is crucial to my life, to our marriage. And other people want that too. They just don't know how to get it. And so I feel like the reason I'm able to be vulnerable and authentic and real about my story is because there's a lot of hope in it. Yeah. And so I can share that story with people. And then they're like, Well, how do I get that? Yeah. And so I just found a lot of joy in walking alongside women, and sharing my passion of freedom with them and walking with them. And so I had lots of opportunity to do that, because I couldn't find a job.

And we needed a lot of freedom in our marriage in that process.

Yeah. And we've talked about that. We've talked about the repetitive role of doing listening prayer together, and deliverance prayer together as a couple for each other. And we'll unpack that some more in this series. But this series is really going to be about the trauma that that has been experienced, and the role of inner healing and deliverance prayer. And we don't even really like determining the segmenting prayer. Prayer is prayer, right? But it does help us understand what we're talking about when we're listening in for the Lord. It helps us process those things.

So you're talking about, you know, you're paying attention to my journey and our journey together. And for me, I'll never forget, right, like, I remember bringing a stack of books for the elders to consider that were kind of the core texts around what we've been doing and what we've been studying. And I don't know if those books are ever used or not, honestly, I think at the end of the day, it was it just wasn't gonna work. Right. So I Bless them. We've got through that, we bless that church, we know Jesus is in that church. And you know, the enemy really used a lot of circumstances to harm people, us, them, the whole, the whole thing was hurtful. Anytime a pastor is released from a church, it's confusing, especially with I mean, frankly, with the litigious nature of our society and the fear of lawsuits, they they couldn't be transparent or chose not to be transparent about the details. We chose not to talk about it because it was something that was very clear about be silent, be still Exodus 1314 or 1413. I get it backwards. Stay quiet, and I will be your defender, right? Yeah. But in that part, I wasn't released then. It took me a long time to even want to go back to a church. You know, it was very cheap. challenging, but I know for me on the teacher side of this and the seminary side of this, I went back to every book that I had ever read, and went, Lord, if there's anything in this, that's not a view, then I mean, I take it very seriously when the Scripture says, better for you to tie a millstone around your neck and throw yourself into the bottom of the ocean, then lead others to believe it and be lead astray. Okay, I don't want to publicly teach or talk about anything that I don't know that I can find truth in the word about it. And that's what was so funny to me in that season, there was was one of the rumors flying around was like, well, we heard he doesn't need the Bible, because he hears from the Holy Spirit. I was like, Well, I do hear from the Holy Spirit, how am I to determine in my human flesh, if it's of the Holy Spirit, if I don't know the word. I have, we have to know the word. You have to know what the Bible says about the nature and character of God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. And this was a church and I've said this in other places before this is a church then, and there Trinity was the Father, the Son and the Holy Scriptures, right? It was not. I'm not saying the Holy Spirit isn't there. I'm just saying, in the way that we understand and work with the power of the Spirit, it is in direct conjunction with the scriptures. When the Lord talks to us, when we're praying, and we're sensing something from the Lord, we don't just make decisions, because I heard the Lord say this, and I'm going off to do that. We share it together. And then we take it outside of our marriage, we meet with wise counselors, hey, we think we're hearing this about our life and our ministry. What do you think about this? Would you pray about this and give us your wisdom? Yeah. And we find that that's also a problem, or a struggle with people and individuals and couples and families that want to serve the Lord is they begin to hear from the Lord. In their prayer, lives change and at listening, prayer, things changes. And, and they hear something and then almost in a desire to be obedient, I think it's an earnest desire to be obedient. They just kind of go like I heard the Lord say this, we should go do it. And without testing that, the Scriptures teach us to test things; without testing things, that can lead us into a misunderstanding, right? So here you are. Blown up women's ministry, sharing your joy in the midst of this chaos and trial, your husband's being freed from the church. You're going through a cancer diagnosis from your grandmother. I literally was freed. The day you were on a plane, we weren't even together when I was terminated, you were on a plane to get a visit with my grandma. Yeah. Another trauma, another loss in the midst of all of these things.

Yeah, and you know, you're talking about testing what we hear — us going to Montana was tested and, and prayed over. And we had a huge group of people, encouraging us and supporting us and listening with us. Because it was such a big decision to go across the United States to Montana. And I feel like if we hadn't had all of that support and encouragement, it would have been more difficult. Like, did we miss it? Do we not really listen, you're wrong, or Yeah, I get Yeah. People asked me that.

I had the reassurance of knowing that there was purpose even in it, even if I couldn't see it. And so that was really helpful for closing that chapter. And knowing that there had to be purpose in it. And I think we did learn a lot. And I'm thankful that we can look back now and see what we've learned, and we're able to share that with everyone else.

In that journey, you know, I had a lot of time on my hands, Right there was we did have some income, and we were able to just pray and process and launch ever free, full time again. Nova was super supportive and helpful. Just giving us the time that we needed to figure it out. But it really tested me in as a father, Head of Household spiritual leader, the family. Yeah, the enemy was all over me in that womb. How could you do this to your kids? How could you, you know, take them from the place that they lived pretty much their entire young lives and then do this and then give them the gift of the beauty of Montana and then rip it up from underneath it. That's how it felt at the time. And if we didn't have wise advisors around us speaking truth in our life, that would have been devastating.

Right. So I think one of the things that Friends, as you're listening I want you to hear is: One, we've been deeply wounded by” the church”. And we've rediscovered that our  emotions matter, the way we feel about things matters. We don't make our decisions based on how we feel. But those emotions matter. And they matter for the sake of really allowing ourselves to feel the trauma and the pain of what's happening. Two,  I think that learning to hear from God is going to be tested in your life. So we've shared this before we'll share it again, the number one fear people have is, I don't hear from God. Or what if I do this prayer time with you guys, and have a healing prayer appointment? And I don't hear anything. And we've used the language, what are you sensing in our prayer time with people because we don't want people to assume that you're going to hear an audible. I don't hear the audible voice of God. Right. I sense it in my spirit. I know it in my bones, if you will, like  an internal Knower. Yeah, well, it's a thought, or a phrase that comes from within. Well, maybe there are  some people who have literally heard God speak to them, and I  think that's how they would say it. But there's a great intimidation in that. And then the other intimidation is what if I get it wrong? Yeah. Right. We're so concerned about getting it right. And we should be we're dealing with either salvation for somebody we're dealing with, you know, not wanting to represent the Lord, incorrectly. These are all good, important things to pay attention to. But the father is so relational with us, and he's so near to us. And I believe the enemy uses those two fears significantly to keep people from operating in the fullness of their freedom. Yeah, right. And so okay, here's this chaos. I don't recognize I'm freed yet. I'm still feeling fired. And we're trying to work that out emotionally. We're trying to work it out with the Spirit, ,the  Holy Spirit. Did we hear you asking those questions? And it was, it's brutal, right? Yeah, it's brutal to go through that. But in the process of staying, I was consistent or committed or obedient, maybe is another word I'd use to the process.

It was clear, we couldn't stay. We tried. We had some really powerful ministry events starting to happen in Montana, we saw some fruit emerging, which was really confusing. We're hosting freedom Fridays at our house, and people were coming from all over to be a part of it and experiencing powerful experiences with the Holy Spirit. And we did that a couple times. And then it was, it was time to go.

But it was clear. I mean, you know, if the Lord is called you, he'll fill you with meaning, he'll finance. Yeah. And we did everything that we knew to do to stay in Montana to be faithful to that. And when the finances were no longer there, it was like we physically can't stay. Well, you know, as I think about it, COVID hadn't happened yet. During this time, it was about to hit us. And we were launching into full time online zoom, prayer appointments, and then COVID hit, and everyone is doing some appointments, and we had already started it. So I find that really interesting that that was happening or just preparing the journey of this. We didn't intend to start an online ministry! Yeah. It was the very real fact that we had no money. And we were in Montana, and I'm trying to fundraise to support this, you know, financially we have to have our income as missionaries raised by supporters. Yeah, by generous supporters like you. Sorry, cheesy, but it's funny. And so doing that we couldn't fly back to Dallas all the time. Dallas was the hub of our financial, emotional and spiritual network. And so we started doing zoom calls to just, hey, can we tell you about the ministry? We're going to launch this and would you consider supporting us? And then people would say, Hey, can I get a prayer plan? And why? Well, we're in Montana, Can we try it on Zoom? And we sort of stumbled into it, then we did the podcast because we started okay, if we're going to everfree we want this story to be told; what is that going to look like? And did that in the midst of that season as well? And it's been amazing because we haven't even I mean, we haven't done an episode in three plus years and the podcast continues to grow. And it's not I mean, we're not blowing it up like you know, some megastars, but at the same time, seeing that the fruit of it has continued even in the midst of that difficult transition. And we process some of that with you guys in the podcast, but not all of it. We were too close to it. We hadn't processed enough to talk about it freely and we've learned a lot since then.

Well, let me let me shift gears just a hair here. We're acknowledging that we went back and looked at all the Biblical stuff in the books. We read about what I would call as the the practices of inner healing. Dr. Kraft was our primary mentor. But from that place we launched into teaching, I mean learning from lots of other people. And we put together our own way of formulating what a prayer point looks like. We acknowledge that it's biblical. Acknowledge that the Spirit is in it. We acknowledge that the Lord is blessing us in  that he sent us to Montana, we're acknowledging that all and yet devastation. Yeah. And so part of what happened in that season was I'm praying. And we are were not hearing you. We're still holding on because yes, you were ready to come back. You hurt.

You said earlier, you were ready to come back to Texas. But in Montana, you wouldn't have said that. Right? You were you had a really great network of women. And so you really wanted to stay on, you were saying, “I'm gonna find a job as soon if I can find a job. And like, if I can find a job, we can stay right?” But the Lord had been whispering to my heart: we're not staying, I couldn't say that to you yet. Because your heart was still really desiring to stay. And so in that place of waiting, and the Lord was clear to me: you need to love your wife well and give her time. Right? You need to plan for your family, but love your wife. Let her process, let this work out. And so in that space for me, I'm praying one day. And I'm journaling and I'm still I'm just working on just kind of working my junk out honestly. And this, this town comes to mind. I heard Wimberley, Texas and I write this in my journal. I'm like, where's that? And I kind of pack it away, again, leaving it and I don't know if it was three weeks or a month or two months. I don't even remember. But I do remember this there was there was an online deal. Apply to a speech therapy job. They're like, this is a really great job. And you're like, Oh, this is going to be it. And then turns out because of the way Google searches work, we thought it was a local job, but it was one telehealth funky. What was it? No, everybody in telehealth, I think it was a job in California. So yeah, it doesn't matter the details, but you were so excited. And then it was like, and I remember you saying, that's it. I'm done. It's time we have to go. And I was like, Yep, I know. I've been I've been waiting for the Lord to show you and you to process that. And then I say, Hey, this is weird, right? I got the word Wimberley, Texas. You know what? That's that. And you were like, I mean, I don't remember how you said it. Like, yeah, I mean, we've been there. We've been there.

We've been camping there my entire life. And you're like, Keith, we have been there. Yeah.  That time we met my parents. And it's this is cool, little like falls kind of area. And it's like this kind of bluish green water. And it's kind of swampy and we, you know, kind of had some cocktails and had some floats. And just, we're hanging out my parents, we met my parents there one time, and I was like, Oh, that's beautiful. And I was like, Okay, so what's that about? Right. And so one of the things that we acknowledged as a family was moving to Bozeman, Montana. Beautiful. The beauty changed us. And we knew that, coming back to a big city. After having that one. It was just really good for our kids. Yeah. Particularly Olivia. She's an outdoors girl. And we had some medical stuff coming with her. We didn't even know at the time that we'll share that later. But we knew we want to be someplace beautiful. And it was like, well, when is it beautiful? Well, let's just see. So we're kind of cooking on that for a little bit. We're starting to get the house ready. And we finally go, Okay, we need to pull the trigger and get a realtor. I had met a guy that I really liked and became a realtor. We got the house set up. We did the pictures. It's summertime now, 2019. And I'm just crispy, right? I'm like, I don't know, we had 14 chickens. Two dogs, bird, a couple of alley-cats that ran the yard. And I was like, man, corralling all that to show this house with 30 kids, oh yeah, the lizard.

Yeah, those things. Anyway. I'm like, I asked  Hey, do we need to stay? Or like, is this house gonna sell quick? Or, like, where are we at? He's like, No, he has a great house. It's great location, the markets on the upswing again, this is pre-COVID. So it was still in the in Bozeman. The market was crazy, even before COVID. And I was like, so if we just got to move back to Texas and start looking for a house, will that work? And he's like, yeah, yeah, that'd be fine. Okay, great. This thing was so quick. So we started with my parents, like, Hey, can we live with you guys for a couple of months, while we sell this house and move in and we'll come down to Texas for July 4, because that was kind of a family tradition, our family and yeah. Shirky, that sounds right. So fortunately, my brother has this great storage at his property. The guy who owned the house before then used to build cars or something, I don't know. And he was gracious in Seattle. So we loaded up the U-haul, and over four days we drove the U-haul in a big old world. Mike, you were hauling my car? No, we weren't. We were hauling another another, like most big old trailers of like the enclosed trailers. And then you had an A-trailer behind yours. And we even got rid of a bunch of stuff, packed it all up and headed back down to Texas. Yep.

What were you thinking? When you saw that big old truck and all the animals? I don't do well with the unknown and feeling unsettled and not knowing what's next. So I think I was very nervous about how everything was going to fall into place. Because literally, we had no clue what was going to happen. We just knew we were dropping our stuff off your brothers, and then we were staying with your parents. And that's all we knew. And so it was a really scary season. Even just the idea of driving a U haul with my car and all these animals across states was scary too. I'd never pulled a U haul. So I think for me it was it was just like okay, Lord, we trust you. We don't know what's next. But we trust you. And we know you're gonna make a way where there is no way and I'm forever the optimist so I was very hopeful that He was going to show up and show off for us because that's what we needed for ourselves and for our kids.

There's no doubt that I am the risk taker in the relationship. Yes ,you are. I'm not afraid to jump off the diving board before now if we know there's water. But even in that ,there's a lot of tension there's less stress. I remember my body feeling the stress in fact that I went back to an old journal entries right before we packed up and we were coming down to visit the mall we were doing a one last trip back and forth. And I remember in this journal, I'm sitting here on the plane. I've got the kids and I feel like my head might pop, my wife's not here I got fired. And like I'm trying to take care of my family and like just the pressure of all that felt so overwhelming – that doesn't do it justice. But again, got through it ,got past that to kind of decompress a little bit; we came back, we packed up, we'll move down. And okay, this isn't me fine. Let's be great. You had a couple of contracts on the house. And they're terrible. Like, like, lowball bids. One contract came in and it was just like you want to what like, well, we want to put a contract on the house. We want to renovate it. But before we own it, because we need the money. And I was like you you I'm gonna give you permission to renovate the house I can't oversee with money I have no control over or contractors I don't even have control over let you do that and then sell you the house. Anyway, bottom lines, it was nuts. And the house didn't sell for nine months.

And so here we are, summers coming, it's over it's coming to be over like kids have to start school in two weeks. Alright, Lord, we're gonna need a break through here because we've been going down to Wimberley from my parents lived in Spicewood, Texas area over near B cave and we love the area and we enjoyed them. But we knew after looking at many, many houses over that time that summer, we had a feeling that Wimberly was a confirmation. You know, we got the word of knowledge. I got the word of knowledge, essentially that Wimberley Texas was the place to go. But then we tested it, moved in with my parents, we looked at houses in South Austin, my parents live near Buda, where your family lives, we looked at all these different places. And we kept again kept coming back to Wimberley. Right?

You know, and I am thinking even about how long it took. It took nine months, which is how long it takes to birth a child. And while that felt like forever, looking back now I can say okay, Lord, you really wanted us to be right where you wanted this. Yeah. And if we hadn't waited, we may have made some other decisions. And so I see that as strategic on God's part to to allow us to learn right where he wanted us to go.

No, I think that's good. And I think for me, that's a great pause to break up these episodes. So we're going to continue this journey in this story. We've gone from Montana, we talk about the tension and trauma, the words of knowledge that God showing us this path, even in the midst of this great darkness and he gets us to Texas, we unload a pack. We're waiting on Wimberly, waiting on Wimberly next episode of every podcast, waiting all right, we'll be back with you guys soon. Take care.

Bye bye

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