[00:00:25] Speaker A: Worthy revelation twelve, verse eleven. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives to the death. Welcome to by the word of their testimony, and here is your host, Casey Kirka. Hello and welcome to the program. So glad you could join us today. And we are delighted to have a special guest here with us in the studio, Erin Keegan. Thank you so much for coming.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Lovely to be here. Casey, how are you doing?
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Well, thank you. And it's nice to touch base with you in a different space. We haven't been in this space together before, but it's really good to be able to chat with you today about your so tell us a little bit about where you come from and what your background is.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: So I was born in Victoria. We grew up there and then went to Fiji for a couple of years when I was a toddler. My dad's work took us over there and then back to Melbourne until the ripe old age of nine. We headed up to the Gold Coast then until I was 18, and then I decided to do my gap year teaching English as a second language over in China.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Loved it. Incredible experience. And then came back and studied nursing at Avondale.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Wow. So you've kind of been here, there and everywhere. Like, it's taken you to some interesting places, different cultures.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: So we've hugged the east coast of Australia. Avondale was, you know, led into Sydney and then the central coast and morissette areas, so yeah, beautiful place. To.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Was your what was your family like? Did you have siblings and your parents, what were they doing?
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Yeah, so I have one older brother, he's two years older than I am and he's currently over in Germany and he's coming back for Christmas, which is going to be very special to see him then. I'm a pastor's daughter and a teacher's, I think, you know, dad would travel a lot for work. When we were down in Victoria, it gave us some amazing opportunities to network with other people and really get a beautiful perspective of church life. We loved growing up in that space and we didn't really have to move too much. I think it was a bit of a fallacy for us that pastors move around a lot because we spent nine years in one spot, nine years in the next, and I think plumbers kids move more than that.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Yes. Well, that would have been nice. Give you a bit of stability in those times. I know for kids that can be a valuable thing. Absolutely.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: But we went to a couple of Adventist schools growing up and we would always have family worship in the morning and I really remember the Friday nights being special as being candle lit nights. Mum would make a dinner that was like a sit down meal instead of these, like during the week, everyone's coming and going ones.
Everyone would pick out their family, their favorite instrument, and we'd have a little concert.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: So really good memories growing up. Home was a beautiful space.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Good. That's really nice. And what was your earliest sort of experiences where I guess you in your heart had any sort of personal desire that you remember, where you were sort of seeking after God for yourself?
[00:04:13] Speaker B: So I was baptized at the age of 14 with my best friend. Dad had done Bible studies with us. We would go to her place and swim in the swimming pool and then eat doritos and then study the Bible. And it was just such a lovely Tuesday routine.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: But I was fortunate enough that growing up in the church, church was a really friendly, lovely place for me. So dad would be up the front as youth director and he would run down the aisle to him. And you had all these adopted aunties and uncles and grandparents that were looking after you and cared for you and so, yeah, we were in Sabbath school growing up and it was a very fond time of an extended family. I guess, that the church really lent into that space and made it feel like, where else would you want to be on a Sabbath?
And so, yeah, then as I became a teenager and involved in the music space, it was a lovely way of just making friends and hanging out. Midweek we used to do up at Kingscliffe Church, we used to do summer camp music and big camp music and that involved quite a number of months of practice.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: And so you might have dinner beforehand and then practice or one of our youth leaders at the time was teaching me drums or piano on the side.
It was a lot of community and I think for a young person, being engaged during the week and not just on Sabbath morning means that you feel like you belong and that you have actual friends who are invested in you and want to do life together.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: Yeah. So you felt like it sounds like the environment that you grew up in was just this rich, supportive, warm community that you were a part of and that you were just blossoming into sort of space.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: And I'm sure it wasn't all roses for my parents, but they were very intentional in shielding us from, yeah, I guess some of church politics that kids don't need when they're trying to make their own decisions about God.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Fair enough.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: And so it was just always two distinctly different places and we were free to have our teen Bibles and our devotionals and work at our own relationship with God through that way. And so, yeah, I was baptized at 14 and yeah, that was a very positive experience, very memorable, and was well attended on the day and it just reinforced all of this like you're making a great decision. God is the one constant even than when many other things can come and go.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah, this is so true. And were there any key people in your life that would have influenced you to make this decision for God? Yes. You're going to be baptized, you're going to live for Him.
Any people that stand out?
[00:07:20] Speaker B: I would say there are a number of older youth so people who were five to ten years older than me that really invested into our lives and we did midweek Bible study or Friday night hangs or going to their homes. And I think when you're a teen, having someone just that next generation above invest into your life was really foundational, and it just made you realize it's still cool to be in the church at the age of 18. Or 19 when you get there and that these guys are like walking the talk in an on stage and off stage they're the same person and you can have good clean fun on a Saturday night with still Christian morals and things like that. So there's a number of people, and I would also say a number of events that would regularly come around in the calendar. Things like big camp and things like summer camperees, which were real memory making moments where you really looked forward to and they just reaffirmed that this was a body of believers that you wanted to remain part of because it was very spiritually edifying, but also socially rich.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Riching, yeah.
So filling all of those dimensions that we as human beings need to have filled to be able to live life to the fullest. I guess that's really powerful to see that the way the church was structured in terms of all the different events and the people and what they were doing was able to create this environment for you to really thrive. Very much so I'm curious, I know because of what you've said to me previously, that you seem to even though you've made this decision when you were 14 about being baptized, following God, you went through a patch that was a bit more rough in terms of your walk with God. I think you've sometimes even called it rebellious. What did that look like for you and what did you think was behind that?
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I would take my hat off to any parent that has teenagers at home because I would say between the ripe old age of maybe 15 and 17 were very challenging times for Mum and dad to parent me or us. If you put my brother and I in the same category, you could do that pretty safely.
Particularly.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: 1617 were really pushing the boundaries, wanting to be tough outer shelled, wanting to be a little colder and coarser and less engaged in family stuff at home, language starts drifting into the family. Or for my brother, he was starting when he got his license to pick and choose which church events he would go to. For me, I think year eight and Year nine are particularly tumultuous times for teenage girls with bullying. At school. In our class, I remember the principal would sit us down and be like, girls, you just can't treat each other like this. This is not what our school is about. And just in Year ten, it's like we woke up the next Christmas and it all was in the past, but Year eight and Year nine were really challenging years. And I remember going behind Mum and Dad's back in a number of instances where it disappointed them, the things that I was doing. And they were really hoping that we would have made different decisions and were really confused as to why the rich Adventist upbringing that we had had and all the money and effort that's invested in schools and music lessons and church and stuff, why it wasn't reaping the rewards that they were certainly hoping for. It involved quite a lot of lying. In order to do what I wanted to do, I had to break their trust. Like, it's hard to love someone that you're actually lying to face to face. And I remember, yeah, when it eventually kind of came clean about the belly button piercing and about the drinking and stuff like that, it just broke them because they were like, what? Two pages of the parenting manual were glued together that we missed.
And there was so much guilt that they carried. And people, I'm sure, were like, to my parents, how can you pass through a church if you can't even parent your own kids? And yet we never blamed them for that.
My brother and I never really felt like they'd done a bad job. We were just testing the waters and dabbling our feet in the world and trying to lead to lives so very much. I remained involved in church the whole way through and it was not uncommon when I was old enough to go out in cooling gather like go out clubbing that I would be doing that on a Friday night and then rock up and worship lead at church on the Sabbath morning with a coffee in hand and just living this dual life. And I think for me, I was so grateful that God never let me get more than an arm's length away. But it was really hard for people who knew what I was doing outside of church to have that rapport and that trust.
I think the hypocrisy argument was very real and it actually cost some of my friends their faith when they were watching this person of influence. Like, I was always a leader, whether I wanted to be or not. I was just one of those born influences. And I remember hoping and wishing that people would just not look at me in the limelight, but make their own decisions. But they were like, oh, if it's okay for Erin, it's okay for us. And it was affecting the way that they were making choices. And so it was a really tricky time for our family. There was a number of breakthrough moments parenting, and then it was like, you'd go two steps forward and three steps back, and it was just so hard to progress. There was a lot of tension, a lot of distrust, particularly once they knew that we'd been going behind their back. And I remember one conversation that Mum and dad had, they sat me down and they just said, erin, we don't mind what time of the day or where it is or what state you're in, but we just want you to know, if you call us, we'll come and pick you up. And I remember in that moment thinking, wow, they actually love me more than they hate what I'm doing. And that was a very foundational parenting move that they could not have known what an impact that would have on this 17, 1819 year old. Who. Yeah, there were things that were not allowed in our house so that the home could be a place of safety. And, yeah, they just started asking, like, at least tell us where you're going and who you're going with so that we can know you'll be safe and things like that. So very challenging, I think, when parents have invested their heart and soul into bringing up children and done it the best way that they absolutely could have, and still this happens.
And so is it a parent's fault if children go off the rails? No.
Sometimes it's just going to happen. Rain, hail or shine. But I'm one of the success stories that came back and that all hope was not lost, and I'm so glad that they persevered.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is an amazing thing because I just really like how you brought out about what your parents did because they didn't realize at the time. But in showing that unconditional care and love for you, that really planted a seed, didn't it? And the fact that that's what God is like. It was god was using your parents to just, hey, draw you back, give you a taste of, hey, this is what God is like.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: And I also never experienced I never experienced during that time, someone in the church come up and say, hey, that's not on. Like, my experience from the rest of the worship team who were watching this double life and the congregation and stuff was never one of, like, if you're 1ft in and out, you should be 2ft out. It was never like that. It was like, we'll take a glass half empty over nothing at all.
That was consistently a space of love. And I think that was foundational as well in never pushing me out.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you think that if someone had put a heavy line down, would that have spurred you away? How do you think you would have reacted to something like that?
[00:16:21] Speaker B: I think you can be quite vulnerable and fragile in those moments. Like it doesn't take much to push someone out. So the fact that no one ever went there, because I know that's not everyone's story yeah, absolutely. Was really powerful for me.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: It's so interesting, so many lessons that you can learn from this story in terms of whether we are family or church members. When we see young people going through some of these struggles because they're struggles of finding your own way in life, your identity, there's all sorts going on in your life at that critical time and we have to just be mindful and careful and wise and prayerful about how we interact with people like this.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: And I know that Mum and dad never stopped praying that that scene would lose its attraction for my brother and know that one day it would just be less attractive, less fun, less inviting, and God really answered that prayer. So when I came back to Australia after my gap here in China and went to go study nursing, I was relocating from the north end of the conference down to the south end. And it was at that time when I had the opportunity to have a clean slate and God just provided that new start option where the friends that I would develop didn't know what I used to do or who I used to hang out with. And I was in a position where I was like, wow, I don't need to continue doing what I used to do.
And interestingly. I actually didn't have the opportunity to go out for a couple of months. And when I did go out, after a while, I was invited to be the designated driver. And to see that environment as it really is. Like, it's really only fun when you're drunk.
When you're sober, everything is sticky. The place stinks, the music is loud, the dresses are minuscule, short, full of seedy old men. Like, the the place was just so disgusting. And that was the last time that I ever went out. And so God had created this space in my heart like water had gone under the bridge and then I had this gross experience and I've been dry ever since.
God was so good. So he really did answer Mum and Dad's prayer. The scene had lost its attraction and it took a number of years for me to feel far enough away from it to be able to go and volunteer with the red frogs up at schoolies who go and do, I guess, like missionary work almost at these year twelve school leavers events, because I felt like it was no longer a temptation.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Yeah, you feel like it moved that far ahead from that space.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: It was a real moment of victory to the point where when I bought a house in my mid twenty s the real estate agent gave me a bottle of champagne to say congratulations, and I was like, Mum and dad, I don't want this in my house.
I don't want to be in possession of it. I don't want anything to do with it. What should I do? And they were like, well, it's up to you. And so what I ended up doing was we went out into the backyard and set up a video camera and like they do at the horse races, and sprayed it all over the back fence and then poured it down the drain. And those photos are such memory moments wow. Of victory and praise moments where you would rather waste it than take it in or give it to someone else. Because you don't want to give anyone else that kind of advice either.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. Such a like, that kind of thing is done usually just in fun. But that had so much depth.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: It had a lot of life.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
What a wonderful opportunity to really celebrate what God had done in your heart.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: And with the people that had done the hard yards with me, like some mum and dad. To have seen that resolution turn around yeah.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: That would have meant a huge amount to them.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: Massive.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: After their journey through this whole time.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: Was, have we lost a whoosh in the back of someone's car? And God really protected from any long term lasting impact as well, because a lot of silly stuff can happen in that scene. And so, yeah. It's much safer on this side of those decisions.
You have far less bruises when you're sober, you have better quality friends, you're more alert for work the next day. You have so much money in your account because it's an expensive habit. It's amazing how much drinking can force you to lie if it's not something that's supported at your home.
And yeah. Just to have that clean conscience was a real game changer.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: I don't look back at all. It feels like a world away now and rightly so.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: Yeah. So I guess retrospectively, looking over that whole experience where you kind of went out back in, do you think there was anything in your life from growing up or through your teen years that was either missing or that you think you would have had more of that would have meant that you didn't have the desire to go out and try these things?
Any thoughts on that?
[00:22:02] Speaker B: No.
Okay.
I don't think it was an omission on anyone's behalf.
I think it was just something that maybe by our nature we found interesting or we were curious in and grabbed us and pulled us into that world.
Yeah. I would never pass that blame onto a single onto anyone.
It was very much no one's fault, but it was our own decision. And when I say our, I mean, like my brother and I yeah.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: Is there any aspect of just pure youthful innocence that you don't realize the nature of the scenes you're getting into because you haven't had negative experiences or something. Do you think that plays into it at all? Or it's just human nature?
[00:22:59] Speaker B: I think the slippery slope can catch you in, but you don't really realize how widespread the negative impacts will be.
One of the horrendous impacts was that I was school captain in year twelve until it was taken away from me because of something that I had done. And it was a very humiliating but very public experience and not that I could ever blame alcohol. But alcohol was a big part of what had happened. And so I think when a young person gets into that scene, they have no idea how widespread the rollout of that will be.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: And so yeah, I just remember that was an awful year. Awful. Awful in so many ways.
And the fact that God can retrieve someone from that is such a testament to who he is.
[00:24:02] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
Wow. Yeah, no, it's so interesting to sort of tease out some of the details of that experience in terms of just as I say, lessons to learn and also just insight into what it's like for a young person going through this, what's going on in their mind? What are they learning? What are they wanting?
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Proof someone from it? Yeah.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: No, that's right. I mean, certainly in your experience there were so many dots that were joined up in terms of giving you the ideal environment and I guess that's the nature of a fallen situation, isn't it? I mean, think of Satan, the fallen angel. He was in a perfect environment and what excuse do you have? He went down.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Did God forget something?
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Yeah. No, it was everything done that could be done. But we certainly praise God that in all of this he has grace. Absolutely. He has abundant grace and he doesn't give up on us even if we go astray, he's still there for us. And as you mentioned, you can see his hand protecting you all through these times, even though you did have some bad experiences, he saved you from a lot that could have happened.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: And I think one of the reasons why God lets us go through those horrendous experiences is to remind you of just what a damaged sin does, it's not without consequence, and to make you really want to give it a wide girth.
Not even dabble in not even dabble in it. For me, it was a clean cut. There was no such thing as reducing the amount and going back to social intake. It had to be all or nothing.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: And that's another really good point, especially for anyone who's listening, who may be struggling with addictions, that often it is ideal to have that clean cut and just see it for what it is and just turn away from completely. Sometimes that can be easier said than done. For some people, but certainly in your experience, it seems like it's what happened. It's what happened. And prayer was involved with that as well. Accessory prayer. Yeah. That God would just turn you right away, turn your heart away from that whole scene and that whole hold on your life, really, at that point.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So where did life go from there then?
[00:26:41] Speaker B: In my early 20s, started having some longer term relationships and things like that. And that was a real I would say I have a great taste in men. Like, I chose really well, even dating through my twenty s. All of them had beautiful families.
Yeah. They were all good people. But praise God that I didn't marry up until the man that I walked down the aisle to because he was on the same page as me in terms of purity. And I think when you are the one advocating for it, but maybe not from the other side, or you're both still trying to work it out, or you are both not as advanced in that decision as you should be, it can be a really heart wrenching space of not wanting to not enjoy physical closeness. But also the slippery slope is super real.
And so it was definitely maybe like a decade of trying to work out, like, is the line in the sand sex or is it less than that? If the slippery slope starts really quickly, what is God asking me to do if I'm fighting for it? But they're not.
You feel like you're always the one who's putting the brakes on, but there were some great men in there. We were just working it out. And with that comes baggage that you bring into the next relationship. Like without praise God, like without having crossed that line in the sand, there was still a lot of baggage that I had to work through before marrying Trent because Satan just gives us this lie that everything is okay up until that point. And yet my experience is that it's not.
That the line is actually much sooner to that. With that relationship kind of journey also came a greater understanding of modesty. So when we grew up on the Gold Coast, you're beside the beach, everyone lives in singlets and swimmers. It's very informal and casual. And that was not even on my horizon until up into my late twenty s or early 30s, let's say late twenty s. I think that modesty was something that God was calling us to. To the point where when it was suggested to me that it would be a good move to ask everyone at summer camp to not wear swimmers but to wear bodies and swim shirts, I was like, that's a bit of an overkill like you're was it was a complete disconnect.
And I felt that that was too many steps in one direction. And yet God changed my heart slowly, slowly over time. And as I was reading Letters to Young Lovers and Messages to Young People by Ellen White. This theme came through of let's not dangle the bait before men and then ask them to not treat women like a piece of meat. Let's make it easy for them. Or if some of them are coming away from different addictions, maybe like porn in the past, that it's actually a real stumbling block when they see then Adventist women that they're trying to respect or maybe even someone that they're fancying not dressing modestly. And then that puts them in a very compromising and difficult situation.
And so I think God matured me in my faith when I realized that it wasn't just me, that it was affecting what my wardrobe was, but it was very innocent up until that conviction. Like, it was not mal intent. It was just ignorance. I didn't know that it was a factor on the horizon.
But Trent, the man that I got to marry to and a bit years ago yeah, he was just like, can you make it easy for me as well? And so that was a real respect thing and a considerate thing. And now being married is awesome. And you don't have to worry at all about that when you're in the safety of your own home. But there's a time and a place, and while you're dating, it can really set the tone and the speed in which things can unfold. And I think what we have learned is that when you are doing that in God's way and with modesty, that your heart is protected and that there is so much respect that's there. Trent actually asked when we were dating if I was okay withdrawing the line in the sand and not kissing before our wedding day. And I remember when he suggested that I was like, hold the phone.
[00:31:42] Speaker A: What?
[00:31:43] Speaker B: That was such an elementary step in the development of a relationship.
And so early on, and certainly in movies, we see steps, a million steps beyond that happen first.
And that was a real like it was a very strange thing to be asked, and it felt very left field.
And it took me a while to kind of come around to the idea. And I was like, wow, that's.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: How.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: Will we ever let each other know that we like each other?
And yet what it forced was a lot of creativity to the point where sometimes I would go over to his parents place for dinner, and he had set up the backyard to be a fire pit with these fairy lights.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: Or he'd put together a picnic camper with this whole array of things, and then we'd go down to the water's edge and have a picnic breakfast.
I remember one time going over and he was making this, like, not butter chicken curry, and he spilt some Turmeric on the carpet and he just totaled off and got the vacuum cleaner and came. Back and cleaned it up and then went and put the vacuum cleaner away and kept cooking. And I think I picked my jaw up off the ground. Like, did I just watch that?
But this competence in being a male his room was clean.
He was very capable. He had lived out of home before, had just moved back in for some circumstances that was easier in that format. Yeah, he didn't need a mum, he needed a wife. And I think that was a beautiful thing. We both married. What some may consider later in life, others may be in the same boat around. Our was a beautiful age of we had made certain values quite clear to the other person that this is a non negotiable for me or this is really important. We spent a lot of time in the word together and in the presence of our families. And due to dating during lockdown, we actually had some very cheap dates. Instead of going to expensive restaurants in the city. Yeah, we were having homemade family dinners.
[00:33:56] Speaker A: Those could be the best.
[00:33:58] Speaker B: It was. It really was. And my heart felt protected and guarded and safe and it actually kept the pace in our dating relationship.
I have a lot of friends who dated for three to seven to nine years, begging or hoping and wishing that he would propose and never has.
And yeah, when you put those boundaries in place, there's certainly some huge things to look forward to that encourage the momentum to keep going.
Trent was he'd been on his own journey with God, and a lot of us had a lot of healing to do. But it was beautiful to know that in your interactions with each other that you could feel your heart heal when that person was not committing the same crimes that others have in the past.
And so you could learn to trust again and regain that confidence and not blame all men for one man's mistakes and things like that.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: Well, I guess you saw in Trent, you saw a totally different way of doing things because his approach to you from the start was obviously his setting the boundaries at a standard that you didn't even expect.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: I thought I had boundaries but height on it.
[00:35:20] Speaker A: But to see that, I can understand how you would have such a wow moment of that and that would make you feel really safe and protected and.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: Trusted and respected and my parents could sleep with these amazing clean consciences. They're actually being adults with this.
When we shared our first kiss on our wedding day, it's this gorgeous moment in our wedding video where we asked my dad, being a pastor, we asked him to marry us. And so he had the joy of walking down the aisle and then continuing to walk up on stage and turning around and conducting the ceremony when it came to the part. You may now kiss the bride. Trent grabs from his best man behind him and a cobra hat, because there's this country theme that comes through in their upbringing, and he holds that over to shield the front of us.
We come together almost kissing, but not and then everyone's like, throw the hat away, throw the hat away, tosses it into the crowd. We kiss and everyone cheers.
And it was just like there was so much ecstasy in that moment, and for the whole rest of the day people were like, oh, you can stop now. You didn't want to because you had unleashed in its right time and in its right, like Solomon says, don't awaken love until the right time.
And that was the right time. And it just invigorates and it plugs and injects so much excitement and life and energy into the marriage season. And so, yeah, hands down, it's the sticky tape that's designed by God to hold a couple together through the thick and thin, and that still maintains that electricity for decades afterwards, which is so amazing.
[00:37:18] Speaker A: And then when you save that for marriage, it becomes the most precious thing in marriage, doesn't it? You've never had it before this time. So it represents the beauty of marriage.
[00:37:30] Speaker B: For you as a couple, and that God can wipe that slate clean and that he can heal, because both of us brought baggage in from going too far than we should have in past relationships. And so to know that this is all still possible, even with that, is just the best expression of God's grace and his compassion and his love towards us and wanting us to experience that fullness of life that he intended us to.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah, amazing thing. An amazing gift that God has given to the human race.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: One other thing that I learned when I was in my late twenty s, I went on, I want to say, a mission trip, but I was nursing as a medic over in Fiji at camperie. And when I was over there, I was without jewelry for a couple of weeks. Right. Because you're out in the bush and you're covered in mud. And when I came back, I was just really convicted.
Would I still have any friends if I didn't wear my three favorite necklaces and my pearl earrings and my rings? Because those were parts that I had unknowingly held onto as part of my identity.
And I got to say, with nursing scrubs, pearl earrings look awesome, and you can have like a really lovely pendant necklace and it makes you look so professional and grown up and feminine and all this kind of stuff. But I was really challenged by the concept of like, I wonder what it's like if I don't have clogged pores. I don't have like, panda eyes once you wipe off the mascara at the end of the day, can I half my morning routine by getting ready faster at the gym after my shower and stuff? Like that. And I actually embarked self willingly on a jewelry free January experiment on myself.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: Actually believing that I might lose my job and my friends without said additions to my appearance. Interestingly. I was still employed at the end of January, and I wasn't getting the tarnished. When you got cheap jewelry around, like Reeves and you get the tarnished faces and yeah, I actually stopped in that moment wearing wow.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: And did people comment? Did you have any reactions that you half anticipated? No.
I don't know.
[00:40:03] Speaker B: It was magically all in my head, but I really become so fondly attached to these things. Is it wrong for people to wear jewelry? Maybe not for them.
I went on a real journey with it, with God, but it was sincerely just one of those things of like, is this a necessary part of who I am or can I still be me without it? And wondering where that line in the sand was. And so, yeah, I was really fascinated by how I could declutter my appearance, I guess, and make it cheaper and faster to get ready and still be beautiful without the things that I once thought were a necessary part of my life. Also, when I was nursing, I was doing a string of night shifts and decided to do a social experiment on myself. If I could take coffee out of my diet and still practice safely overnight, or if I would fall with my head down on the desk or do a clinical error, which would be the worst outcome. So I did like the eight week sugar free challenge, as a lot of people have experimented with things, with their health over the years. And if I was taking out sugar as a stimulant, I should probably take out coffee as a stimulant. And I just remember thinking, like, a mocha was my favorite cup. It was like half chocolate, half coffee. I had my favorite baristas on my way to work and as I was yes, I was in these night shifts. So, like 410 hours night shifts back to back. I was curious to see if I swapped it out for decaf or herbal teas or cup of soups or chives or hot chocolates, whatever, would I still be able to function?
And so I did start swapping it out and I replaced with those drinks because I still loved the hug mug feeling. And then I'd add in like a mango or some watermelon or some grapes or strawberries.
And I found that I did stay awake, much to my own surprise. I also was able to fall asleep faster when I got home from work. And my sleep was better quality during the day because you're trying to sleep.
[00:42:19] Speaker A: During because of the night shift.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And I actually, in that moment, decided to give it a run for like a month, and then that stretched into two months. And at the end of two months, I was at Gloria Jeans and I forgot to ask for a decaf cappuccino. And as I was drinking it, I was like, I think this just tastes different. And then within, like, minutes, my heart started pounding.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: And I started feeling, like, hyper alert and hyperjittery and like, man, this stuff was a drug.
[00:42:57] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: It was a real awareness that something that my body had come away from had just been reintroduced and that I was sensing the effect of that. And so from that moment, I haven't gone back to coffee since then. And now when I look at the people in the line, because I remember at the time just thinking, well, Erin, if you go based off appearance, right, because we're all a little bit shallow in the know, do I want to look like the people that are lining up for coffee? And I have to say, maybe it was just that line that I looked up, but they all looked really tired.
Little bags under the eyes and sunken skin. I was like, do you really want that? I wonder, if I don't have it, will I have a more youthful appearance?
It was a journey. God slowly stepped me down. I went to the decaf first and then to chives and stuff like that. Working your way down to your herbal teas to find an enjoyment in changing your taste buds.
[00:43:58] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. So you went on a bit of, like, this is a bit of a health journey, but you've seen a big difference.
[00:44:05] Speaker B: And because obviously the alcohol thing was a long time ago, I was really fascinated. Ellen White puts, like beer, wine, spirits, tobacco, liquor and tea and coffee in the same sentence when she says what to stay away from. And when I read that sentence and I was very much dividing the two in completely separate camps, I just remember thinking, there is no way that there should not be a full stop in between or a comma in between. Like, those two things are chalk and cheese.
But, yeah. What a journey that God slowly, slowly and lovingly took me on. Very personal journey where, yeah, you can identify the similarities that are between them and that anything that clouds your mind or affects your decision making or creates an addictive tendency are things that God doesn't want us to have. Like, he wants us to have self control. It's in the fruit of the spirit. And it's not really like, I can't wait to have another piece of broccoli.
You've got the ability.
So if you're a slave to something you really want to question, is that something that's drawing me closer to God or is it becoming a vice that Satan's using?
[00:45:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Thank you for sharing those bits on your journey there. And before you move on to the last little phase of your testimony, we're going to take a little break just so we can share our address. Roll to our listeners. So if you are interested in contacting us at Three ABN Australia Radio, you can do so through the following information thank you for joining us on by by by by by by the word of their testimony, information about today's program, or if you have any questions, please contact Three ABN Australia Radio. By phoning zero.
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[00:46:19] Speaker A: Welcome back to by the word of their testimony And I'm Casey Vikoka and you've been listening to Erin Keegan in our studio today, sharing her personal journey of her spiritual life and its connection to all different parts of her individual life and experience. And we just were talking before about your delving into some health changes. You experimented with trying to see if life could be possible without coffee and that was an amazing thing. You found that you're actually feeling better, sleeping better, even though you're still doing night shift and that sort of thing, which is amazing and it's awesome. That just the way God made our bodies is the best way without any extra stimulants and things. So did you have any other experiences in the health space that were impactful for you?
[00:47:12] Speaker B: Yeah, so I got into I was fortunate enough to find a couple of programs in my mid to late twenty s that helped me to lose some weight. I was really keen to see what the best version of myself would be after a significant breakup, which is a bit of a life changing event for a lot of people and that enabled me to really delve into that space with a keenness and an openness and they really helped. But what I found was that on that campery medic trip that I was talking about that I went on over there, we were without a fridge. And so, by default, over the space of two weeks, I had no chicken, no cheese, no yogurt, no milk. Like all of those things that I'd kind of been having all the time. When I came back to Australia after that trip on the plane I happened to watch the documentary what the Health? And then at home I started reading some books by Ellen White like Ministry of Healing councils on health councils on diet and foods and things like that. And then I started watching more and more documentaries and I became increasingly interested in what would life look like without chicken or without dairy.
And after a couple of weeks, maybe, of not having these foods, there was a morning tea at work and I went to town on all my favorite foods like the cheesecakes and the cheese platters and bought yogurt again in the fridge. And, yeah, there was like a chicken kind of savory that was there. And I felt so bloated and gassy and upset in the stomach after that experience.
And I realized at that point I was like, I've been alive for 28 years with these symptoms and didn't know what had caused them until I'd eliminated some foods accidentally on this trip and then just had forgotten to restock them in my fridge and then had suddenly had them again. And my body was going back to its old symptoms. It was very liberating to be able to pinpoint what they were and then over that year, increasingly read some of Ellen White's writings. And then over the next year, as I did my Masters in Nursing, I was really focusing in on the lifestyle medicine space and realized the literature and the research and evidence that's out there in support of these foods not being needed to gain the calcium or protein that we think we need. And that in terms of getting your iron and protein from meat sources, like skip the middleman and what do they eat, go to the source that so many of us experience an inflammatory response to dairy.
And it was just fascinating to me that I had not known all this, but had been a symptom sufferer.
And so to come into more of a plant based way of eating was a slow journey, but it was edified by what I'd been reading in inspired prophecy as well as what I was reading in the literature. And to see all of that marry up was a really big thing. So I was a big half marathoner. I loved running all of those community events that got shut down during COVID When I was doing a lot of those things is when I was learning about all this. And I signed up to do the 100 kilometer oxfam, which takes you along the Great Northwalk from Barrara down to Manly down in Sydney. It's huge. And you hike the 100 K's as a team of four around the clock.
[00:51:03] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: No sleep. And it took us 34 hours to cross the finish line.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:51:08] Speaker B: And it's such an endurance event with a lot of elevation. And my team were very much like bacon and egg rolls, so there's seven pit stops along the way and they was like, filling their bodies with chocolate and snakes and coffee and turkey sandwiches and packets of chips, just all of this kind of fuel. And I was on this journey of thinking, wait a second, if God created our bodies to last forever and do endurance events, what kind of diet did he give us to do it with? And so I was fueling my body with things like avocado and sourdough and lentil patties and roast sweet potato, and then I would have, like, dates and nuts and bananas and fruit and things like that, nice and water instead of gatorade and just all those swaps. And they were like, Aaron, you're going to let us down. We won't make it to the end if you're not having the right fuel. And so it was a real challenge. And I remember thinking, like, God, show off. Yeah. These are three secular teammates. One of them is a personal trainer, the other two were not. But we were just doing this race together. And during those midnight moments, I had far less sugar crashes and spikes and more sustained energy. I was more awake, I was less gassy going up the hills than they were even in and of myself, I had less pimples. And it was just fascinating to me how sustained the energy could be during these crazy endurance events. And so I was able to cross the finish line in spectacular self winning fashion. I loved it. It was such a moment of like, go God, we did it. Look at what you did. And a couple of weeks later did my first full marathon using the same stuff as fuel and just yeah.
Do we test God? No, but when you put him to the test, he totally comes through.
[00:53:11] Speaker A: He comes through. Yeah. What a wonderful opportunity you had to try that out and to sort of prove it to yourself between yourself and God, but also let that be seen public. Yeah. That was such a blessing in your experience.
Nice. So you've had quite some wonderful journeys with health and experiencing the benefits for yourself. Yeah.
[00:53:35] Speaker B: And the drive for health has been long standing. Like, I've loved nursing for many, many years. I was a cancer nurse initially, and then after hematology, which is like your leukemias, and those kind of diseases went into the lifestyle medicine space. And as I was nursing, shift work is a really interesting thing when you're trying to respect the Sabbath, what do you do with the shifts? Yeah, and I just remember for me personally finding that there was a lot of opportunity in the public system to swap off Sabbath shifts. In the private it was a lot harder because everyone wanted to keep the Sabbath at the sand, they wanted to protect that. But it was easier for me to swap off to like a Tuesday night or something like that. In the times when I couldn't swap, or if I was on a Friday night shift, I would work the afternoon and at dinner kind of opening Sabbath, I would read my Bible and then go back in for the second half of the shift with a very different mindset.
[00:54:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:33] Speaker B: I found that I could do a Friday night shift in the Sabbath afternoon well, because I'd still been to church in the morning. So then again, the Sabbath afternoon, I'd have this service mindset. I'd read my Bible for closing Sabbath at dinner and then the evening would feel like work. The one shift that I really struggled with and would try never to do was the Sabbath morning. And I had a really understanding nursing unit manager who allowed that flexibility because I was willing to swap off onto any other shift in the week. Like I'll work the Sunday, I'm just not a fan of the Sabbath.
Yeah. God was really gracious in that space and I feel like if I was able to go to church, I had still had community and I'd heard a sermon and I'd been part of the.
[00:55:18] Speaker A: Worship service spiritual connection.
[00:55:20] Speaker B: And often on Friday night shift I would read my Bible more like people read trashy magazines on night shift in their downtime. I would read my Bible more than if I was at home.
[00:55:33] Speaker A: You were able to still make that hour, those hours special in Sabbath even though you were filling in the necessary duties.
[00:55:41] Speaker B: Because Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. Like some professions just run twenty four seven. You think you've cops your Ambos security. Like how do they keep the Sabbath?
[00:55:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you for sharing those moments of how you did that. And now you're moving into a brand new space. You've got a little one on the way.
[00:55:59] Speaker B: We have a growing tummy.
[00:56:02] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:56:06] Speaker B: We are in the last part of our third trimester.
[00:56:09] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:56:10] Speaker B: On the home run. And it is a crazy stage of life from being just the two of you, professionals and independent, to considering how much all that you know is about to be flipped on its head and shame.
[00:56:28] Speaker A: Yeah. With a special bundle and a special new experience.
[00:56:32] Speaker B: Really?
[00:56:33] Speaker A: I know a lot of people have said that when they have a child it gives them a new understanding or a new appreciation for even how God relates to us in a relationship with God. Absolutely. Yeah. Just being, having to care for someone like small person who's very helpless and nurture them and love them is such an amazing journey.
[00:56:57] Speaker B: And refining your character, teaching you patience and how you see God's ability to be Creator in a whole new different light. We were so blessed to have an Adventist sonographer along the way who really identified the miracle that was unfolding with us instead of being cold and clinical around those elements.
You can't deny that there is a Creator when you watch that little embryo develop. And the nursing part of my brain just found it so fascinating. And now it marries up with what we read in the Bible about God being the sustainer and the provider of life. And he nurtures his young and gathers the sheep in his arms. I think you just see all those Bible verses in completely new yeah.
[00:57:47] Speaker A: Yeah. That's so oh well, thank you so much for sharing with us and all the best on that new journey for you. Erin really appreciate just sharing how God has worked in your life. And to our listeners, if you have a story to share, we encourage you to share it with someone about what God has done in your life. Not only will they be blessed, but you will be too.
And every one of us will be drawn closer to him. And so you've been listening to by the word of their testimony, I'm your host, Casey Vakirka. And until next time, God bless.
Jeff been listening to a production of three ABN Australia radio.
