Great Things Happen When You Forgive_An Interview With Lisa Bain

Welcome to A New Life podcast with Pamela Jean, where it's all about empowering women to empower more women. Get ready, friends, to create a new life.

And here is your host, Pamela Jean. Hello, my friends, and welcome to this week's episode of A New Life podcast. I'm your hostess, Pamela Jean. Thank you, friends, for being here. I am Brie, bringing someone back today that I interviewed about a year ago. A year ago in April, to be exact. April of 2024, I uploaded a podcast from my good friend, Lisa Bain. Lisa was a good friend last year, but now she's even a better friend this year. God has just brought this friendship into my life in just such a really cool way. You know, when you let him pick people to have in your life, he just picks the best people. And I've always been friends with Lisa, but we just. It's just at a. A different, deeper level. So organic, so natural, so God given, and I am so grateful for it. But the reason I'm having Lisa back today, I have to tell you this. Lisa is not the same person she was a year ago. And I've noticed this transformation with her virtually from afar. I don't see Lisa a lot. We chat occasionally. We send prayer requests back and forth as we need them for our friends and our community. But we don't see each other like, once a week, which we want to change that. But I digress.

Yeah, we are going to get the.

We are going to get that fixed. But I have just noticed a shift and change in Lisa from afar. Through social media, through her, her newsletters, through her posts, through her Facebook and Instagram, and the other things that I've noticed about her. There's just something new and different about Lisa, and I really wanted to dive into what that is because guess what, you guys, I don't even know. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but I've just noticed a change in her. And I just told Lisa like two seconds before I hit record that we were going to talk about what's different about her, because I've noticed a difference and I felt a difference. So, Lisa, my dear, dear friend, thank you for being here. I would love for you to just share with the audience, for those who don't know who you are and what you do, if you could give just a little bio about what you're doing, what your mission is, and then as you are ready, please dive into what's happened over this past year to create this phenomenal transformation in the person you have become so welcome, Lisa.

Oh, it's so fun to be with my friend. Oh, thank you. Well, my name is Lisa Bain and I'm the founder of Lisa Bain Ministries. And I've been in the nonprofit world, gosh, for about 25 years, but Lisa Bang Ministries about 15 years, which began out of a cancer diagnosis with my mom, stage four. And on the same day I was diagnosed with a bunch of long autoimmune diseases where I was told I probably wouldn't be walking in six months and had a lot of mobility challenges. And on that day, my mom, as I told her, just looked at me and said, this is the best day of our life. We're going to start a non profit. I want to help those that have a life altering illness, a special need or a crisis situation. And we would give care packages and hope and tangible support. And the fun part was animal therapy. At that time, I had Mavis Pearl and we have our little stuffed stuffed dogs. But now it's Mabel, Maddie and Moose. And we've always incorporated animal therapy. And you know, one little thing, someone always says, well, what are these step dogs for? That started out and, and I do want to say this one little story. It started out with a request for us to go see a little girl who was actively dying in the hospital. And they wanted Mavis poor in her lap when she went to heaven. And I was like, oh, my goodness. So I dressed her up as a ballerina because the little girl was. And I had a stuffed dog bulldog, and I dressed it up as a ballerina. And off we went. We got into the room and you could tell she was close to heaven. And her parents came over, we gave her the prayer quilt. And they put the stuffed dog under one arm and Mavis Pearl got under the other arm and they just wanted one more few words from their little girl. And when she felt Mavis, she opened up her eyes and she said, mom and daddy, I love you. I'm gonna be okay. And she just, you could tell it was heaven right there. And she went to be with Jesus in that moment. And that forever changed my life and really is a pivotal point in where we began. And they came over to me and said, these little stuffed animals are a part of what you're doing. And she was buried holding onto her stuffed Mavis Pearl dog. And from then on, those stuffed animals have been prayed over and delivered in the care boxes. And so our therapy animals are important because they break the barriers where we sometimes can't. We do hospice work, hospital work, we do home visits. And it just grew. And my mom lived five years, not five months. And the day that she said, we're going to start a nonprofit, she said, this is about giving. Giving equals joy. Joy equals hope, and hope equals healing. And she said, lisa, we're going to teach people the importance of healing in serving. And she also said, I have a lot of mom isms. Serve, step out, see miracles. And someone said, well, she got it backwards. It step out, serve. And she says, no, because sometimes you're too broken in the place that you are to step out. You need to serve right where you are, and then you're able to step out and see miracles. And what she did the day she started this nonprofit was she gave me a purpose. And purpose keeps you going, and it keeps me walking. I can literally wake up some days and think, how am I going to do this? And then I take one step forward to the hospice visit. God takes it from there. And it's always the best day, the best days. When you don't think you can, you can't, but God can. You know, man's extremity is God's opportunity. And my mom knew what she was doing. And I also have a whole new compassion for those that struggle with autoimmune disease. You don't look sick. There's so many people that struggle in silence, and we're able to be there and just love on them and know what that's like. So that's. It's just exploded. And, you know, during this, this nonprofit began as Joy in the Cause, and about five years ago, it transitioned to be Lisa Bain Ministries, because the board wanted to take it in a different direction, and I could never. The day we founded this organization, the first thing my mom said was, never compromise Jesus. Never take that verse off of the website and always remember the foundation of why this began, because you always want everything that happens to see the handprints of God. It's going to be a journey where people can only say, wow, that was God, and that was going to be changed. And I knew that I couldn't do that. So we began Lisa Bain Ministries, that made that as the foundation and put things really in place that would not waver or change. And it was close to that time that Mavis Pearl, I was not able to use her because I had handed over the patent and the trademarks, so I couldn't use Mavis. So that left little Mavis just kind of there. But you know what? Probably a few weeks later after that, she went to heaven along With Gracie. They went together, and it's almost like she knew. She knew. And I can look now and see how the Lord orchestrated that, and he orchestrated the whole thing, which is really part of the shift that you sense in my life.

Oh, okay. So I'm going to stop you for a hot second, because that was phenomenal. First of all, the first little girl that went to heaven with Mavis Pearl under her arm. Oh, my gosh. I. I can't. I don't. I've. I know. I've heard that story more than once, but I well up with tears every single time. And what a beautiful foresight that you have to understand how important animal therapy ministry is. Because when we as human beings and as people can't get through to another person, a child, an elderly person, a sick person, that we can't get through to them, an animal always can.

And let me in hospice. It's unbelievable, the stories I could tell you. Where. Animal. Where. My dogs have just played such a huge part in it. It's.

They're.

They're. To me, they're angels on earth.

I couldn't agree more. I. You know, I grew up in Northwest Iowa. A lot of people know that. And I grew up on a little acreage outside in the middle of nowhere. When you. When you think nowhere, that's nowhere.

So. But it's the world. But you can see it from there.

Yes, absolutely. But I will say it was an incredible place to grow up. It was a great to have childhood always outside, all the time. But I always had a dog, and I always had multiple barn cats, always. So I. I was never alone. As lonely as I felt sometimes as a kid, my animals were everything to me, and animals still are. I mean, they had such a soft place to land with me. And I love that you've identified the animals to bring them into your ministry.

Yeah.

And I just want to speak to the point, Lisa, of when you didn't decide that Mavis's mission and purpose was over. You didn't decide that there were other forces in the room that decided that for you. But as we can look back, it was orchestrated by the Lord the whole time.

All the whole time. And my mom knew it was coming. There are so many stories I could tell you. She even put off heaven a little bit, knowing, oh, my gosh, you're going to go through something so hard with betrayal. And she would just kind of go back and forth. And then finally she looked at me and she said, you know what? Jesus is going to send angels to help Take over, and you're going to get through it, and you're going to make the right decisions. And shortly after that, she went to heaven. And she knew. But she also knew that I would choose correctly. And. But that, in part is. She poured into me. She set me up for the most beautiful things, and I had a great teacher for five years of this journey.

You're so lucky to have that. Okay, that was a great backstory. But now I want to talk about the shift, because the shift I've seen, and we've not had a conversation about what I've observed with how you've shifted and changed. I know we've had little snippets of conversation at a networking meeting from here or there, but we've not had a girlfriend sit down where you just opened up your soul and said, this is what's happening. But I've just witnessed and noticed this. What is the shift I'm so excited to hear?

The last thing my mom said to me was, forgive always, and love wins. She would just always say, lisa, love wins, forgiveness heals. Love wins, forgiveness heals. And I was like, man, why does she say this all the time? She knew I was going to have to put that into play in a way that would change my life. It wouldn't be easy, but it would be necessary, and it would be the key to the shift. Well, when we lost the nonprofit, that broke my soul, that was my mom's. And so I remember being on the floor for three days, and on the third day, the Lord was like, you know, lisa, this is divine intervention. Get up. Move forward. You need to write books. My hand is on this. Well, I got up and I started moving forward, and I went to counseling on how do you work through this? I grieved. I grieved hard. And even my counselor was like, this has been the hardest thing for you to walk through. And so one year, two year, three years, walking through this forgiveness of those who I looked up as family, I felt betrayed by. Well, about that last year. And you actually have a part in this, Pam. I was really feeling like, you know, lord, I've really walked through this. I've walked through the forgiveness. I am on that place. And I saw you, and we had a conversation, and you looked at me and you said, you may have a little bit more left to go. Do you remember that conversation?

I do remember that because you were. You were buckling that day. I could see you buckling and doubting what you were doing and really let that evil voice was filling your heart. I could tell. And I remember. I don't remember the exact words, but I mean something to the effects of, okay, you've not fully let go of that, and you need to let go of that pain so you can move forward in your purpose.

And there were some things that were hung up that we needed breakthroughs on. And I was hitting walls. I was like, lor, what we are praying. We need breakthroughs on this, financially, we need. You know. And you confronted me in such a dear way that's a sign of a true friend and said, you're. You haven't let it completely go. And I got in the car and I thought, yes, I have. No, I haven't. Yes, I have. No, I haven't. I really realized I had about 20% left to go. So I just started seeking the Lord. And I could hear my mom say, you know, Lisa, forgiveness heals. And I knew that I had about 20% left of grieving and forgiveness left to go. And I just started praying and just bombarding heaven with Jesus. I am. I want to truly love these people and pray for these people in a way that my soul wants them in heaven with me. I'll never forget I was in the prayer closet and I was just singing and praising, and it was probably in a few months ago, and I just started praying and I felt the sweetest presence of the Lord just engulf me. And I mean supernatural.