Ashley Key sits down with Angela Halili and Arielle Reitsma to discuss their #1 podcast Girls Gone Bible. They share how they met God, found each other, launched the podcast, and now take their message on tour—along with a new book releasing June 3rd. 

For decades, Hope dealt with limited mobility in her left leg after injuring it in a car accident. But when her right hip started locking up, she became almost totally immobile.  

“My good leg …was my right leg. That one did all the work. And then all of a sudden one day I couldn’t move it. Very painful. Scary. Because my doctor took an x-ray and he said it was bone on bone.”

Steroid injections helped, but when they wore off, the pain returned.

“I couldn't walk. It just hurt so bad.  I couldn't even leave my house, unless I had help from somebody.  It was really bad, I would walk and be afraid that at any moment I was going to freeze and I couldn’t put my foot down. Nobody knew it. I didn't tell… it was my pain, my hurt. Nobody knew. It was just me.”

For a year and a half, hope prayed for healing.  One day it came while she was watching The 700 Club.

Gordon prayed, “Someone else has problems with your right hip, it’s just not moving properly and it’s very painful and you walk with a limp, God is healing you, he is restoring, he’s making everything new again.”

“I jumped up and I said, ‘that's me! That's me! Heal me, Jesus, please heal me, in Jesus’ name’ and I felt the warmth come in my arm, all the way down. And I was crying and I was crying and just accepting the healing. I knew it. I knew it. I felt it.  The pain is all gone and I can go up and down the stairs. And not be afraid that I’m going to freeze right there and not move. I can walk and put one little foot in front of the other and keep going and there's no pain to make me freeze and stop like it did. So – and that's all because of Jesus. He loves us.”

At her next appointment, hope told her doctor she was done with steroid shots.  

“I said, ‘because Jesus healed me. I'm walking.’ She just smiled, like I don't know if they believe all that, but, hey, God was there before they were.  It's true…God will help anybody that asks because he loves us and he is there to help us. We just have to ask and believe.”

Carlos’ mom knew something was wrong with her baby.  He was not gaining weight. “By six months, he was already on supplementary formula and vitamins, and he still wasn’t growing,” his mother Marian Salomé told us.  

Around his first birthday, a trip to a specialist in El Salvador finally shed some light on the problem. “The cardiologist said he had a hole in his heart and that his heart was enlarged!” she added.  

Then the doctor told them about the second problem:  Very little blood was flowing to their baby’s lungs.  “At that moment, he said to me, ‘Do you know how dangerous this is?’ 
He said your child could collapse at any moment because the right side of his heart is not functioning.” 

The doctor then said the only way to save Carlos’ life was open heart surgery.   There was no way the family could afford to pay for that operation.  “And suddenly, you feel this fear, the fear that at any moment, the child could die because he does not have enough oxygen,” Marian Salomé told us. “All because we could not afford surgery.”  

That’s when, thanks to you, the supporters of Operation Blessing, we provided the surgery needed to save Carlos’ life.  

“After surgery, Carlos has gained weight and is growing!” said Marian Salomé. “Now he’s a very, very active child and there are no signs of any problems with his heart. His lips and skin no longer turn blue.  He sleeps soundly, and he can play all day without resting!”  

“To the people who support Operation Blessing, we can never repay you but we are truly grateful.” 
 

Partnering with CBN means more than just giving—you’re helping feed and clothe families, providing medical aid to those without access to hospitals and doctors, and helping provide clean water for the thirsty. Your faithful giving brings hope to the hopeless and the truth of God’s Word to millions of homes through The 700 Club! Help bring the love of Christ to the world when you become a CBN partner today! 
 

STOLEN CHILDHOOD 

Peacefully asleep in his family’s Liberian home, seven-year-old Cammué (whose name was later changed to “Jackson”) was awakened by an explosion.  A civil war was raging in Liberia, and rebels had come to his village.  “The smell of gasoline fills my nose and smoke clouds my vision as the sounds of war erupt around me.  Guns firing.  Bombs exploding.  Women screaming for their children, who yell back in terror.  I cover my ears, trying to block the awful cries of girls being raped, of bodies being chopped with machetes,” Jackson painfully recalls.  He didn’t know where his parents or siblings were, and started to panic.  “A gurgling sound comes from high above me outside as rebels pour gasoline over our scrap metal roof.  I’m still inside when my home bursts into flames.”  Jackson would give anything if this night had been merely a nightmare; tragically, it was his reality.  His Aunt Kemah appeared seemingly from nowhere, threw him on her back, and they escaped into the thick brush that surrounded the village.  

Assuming his parents were dead, Jackson and Aunt Kemah stayed on the run in the jungle for months.  For a brief time, they were elated when they found Jackson’s father in another village, as well as his half brothers and sisters.  It wasn’t long though, before his father was taken captive by rebels and driven away.  Jackson was also separated from his beloved aunt in an attack, so the siblings decided to find the home of one of their uncles.  En route, Jackson became separated from his siblings, but did find his uncle.  He longed to stay with him for some sense of belonging, but before long, his uncle told Jackson he wasn’t able to keep him safe there and that he must go to a children’s home.  He promised to try to find Jackson’s parents and send them for him.  “I plead with him not to take me to Mother Davis’s orphanage.  I sob through my pleas, explaining that I just want to go back to the farm and find my mom.”  With broken hearts, they both knew it had to be.  “As I wave goodbye to my uncle, I, too, am attempting to appear like my heart is in one piece, like I’m not the shell of the child I once was.”  Jackson lived in four different orphanages over the course of the next seven years, in squalid conditions and often very little food.  During these years he also experienced the trauma of abandonment and a broken heart.  That pain found it’s expression in anger, not trusting people or wanting to connect, and being terribly insecure.  The last orphanage, thankfully, was much better, with plenty of food and nicer conditions. It was started by a kind man named Pastor Kofi, and Jackson says he started to come alive again here.   
     
A NEW FAMILY 

Years later, as part of the Liberian Boys Choir, Jackson and 11 other boys, managed by Pastor Kofi, travelled the US for a year giving concerts at churches.  Their goals were to raise awareness and funds for Liberian orphanages and Kofi’s ACFI (African Christians Fellowship International).  Toward the end of that year, another war broke out in Liberia, making it unsafe for them to return.  Pastor Kofi broke the news to them.  At a coming concert, they explained their plight to the congregation, which included a dark-haired woman and her three little girls.  Afterward, Jackson and his best buddy in the choir, Mark, playfully called her “Mom,” as they talked and played with the girls.  That mom was Lysa TerKeurst, who felt compelled to support Jackson and Mark in some way.  That way soon turned out to be adoption.  In fact, after a concert at the TerKeursts’ church, the whole choir was adopted - mostly by families in the Charlotte, NC area, allowing them to stay close.  An indescribably deep longing in his heart was met in being part of the TerKeurst family.  “Years earlier, I had cried out, “Mom!” when my orphanage was being raided.  I thought no one had heard me.  I had felt so alone and afraid.  But it was almost as if God had preserved that outcry and released it years later, and Lysa answered back, “I’m here!”

There were difficult aspects of suddenly being part of a family in America, too.  Having a scarcity mindset was one of them.  “My brother, Mark, and I were anything but typical American teens,” Jackson explains.  “We were children of war trying to find our place in a new country.  We were surrounded by an overwhelming amount of stuff, but we had no way of knowing if things like housing and food could disappear again, like they had in our past.”  Other challenges were submitting to parental authority, and trying to fit into the American educational system, being quite behind. 

HOW TO LOOK BACK TO GO FORWARD

Though happier and more materially secure than he’d been since age seven, Jackson still carried the wounds of the intense trauma of his early life: anger, trust issues, emotional insecurity, and not knowing how to express his emotions.  These resulted in anxiety, depression, and wanting to isolate.  “Eventually, something would trigger my past wounds, and I would act out.  I believed I wasn’t worthy of affection or a true place in my family, so I would try to stop relying on others and find my own way forward.”  Finally, he sought counsel on what kind of help he needed, and then took action.  Here’s what continues to help him and he believes will help others:

• Seek healthy communities based on what you and your family need.  He strongly recommends the Church, Bible studies, close friends and family.  “When you can open up about the pain of your past, it starts to lose its power.”  

• Seek mentorship, counseling, and accountability.  Jackson sought the help of a trauma therapist, who helped him understand what went on in his heart and mind and how to begin to heal from it.  He believes mentorship and accountability are ongoing needs we all have.  

• Cultivate open conversation in your home.  “This was something my family did really well,” he says.  “My parents read books, went to conferences about this, and developed a support system with other moms who had adopted kids from Liberia so we could share…”  He says they also had a night of the week where they opened up about their lives, past and present.  “Emotions were expressed.  Hurts were shared.  Joys were celebrated.”  

Jackson wanted to write this book to help others who suffer from the past – which is everyone in some way.  “There is no burying our past.  What’s done is done.  So there is only digging it up, holding out the mess to God, and asking Him to sift it like dirt. Through taking advice and acting on it, we’re left with healed scars and not open wounds.  And that is how we go forward, healed and whole.”  

WONDEROUS SURPRISE

A couple of years ago, Jackson received a call from his brother, Jerry, in Liberia, who said there was someone there who wanted to speak to him.  “My heart feels like it’s about to beat out of my chest.  Who could it be?  Who did they find?” he wondered.  “’Hello … hello … Cammué?’  I recognize the voice as if it were my own.  ‘Nae Keynah? O’ma?  Yes, my son!’”  After more than twenty years, Jackson was speaking to his birth mother.  A few weeks later, Jerry found his dad, too, in another village.  Though he had long believed they were deceased, he learned they were very much alive, and has been to see them! Jackson and his wife, Amanda, are also doing everything they can to help them.    

For more information on Jackson TerKeurst click the LINK! 

CREDITS

Author, The Only Way Forward is Back (David C. Cook, 2025) / entrepreneur, owner of TerKeurst Enterprises, a local trucking company / licensed financial literacy professional with World Financial Group / adopted son of bestselling author and speaker, Lysa TerKeurst / passionate about drawing people together from diverse backgrounds / bachelor’s degree in business, Union University / married to Amanda, father of twins, a boy and girl