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Stories of return have a way of finding the person who needs them most. We close the year by opening our inbox and our hearts—sharing letters from listeners who pulled over in tears, confessed hidden battles with pornography, and asked for prayer in moments of deep despair. We also celebrate quiet miracles: three people who went back to church, two brand-new believers who found a home, and a former running partner who wept through our first episode and rededicated his life. None of this is about a show; it’s about what God does when testimony meets a willing ear.

I talk about how this mission started—as a clear nudge from God to give voice to backsliders who haven’t spoken yet—and why compassion matters when prodigals walk back into the room. We read encouragement from pastors and friends across denominations, because the work of restoration belongs to the whole body of Christ. One story stands out: a man who once served time at Soledad State Prison now drives past the yard on a delivery route, free in body and purpose. That’s the kind of grace we want the world to overhear.

If you are interested in joining Partners in Prayer, please visit their website at https://pipsministry.org

If you'd like to be part of The Redeemed Backslider ministry, please contact us at www.theredeemedbackslider.org

If you know a backslider, or have a testimony to share, please reach out to us!

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Kathy has two books out and they can be found on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online:

Redeem California, With God it IS Possible:

God of the Impossible: 30-Prayers for the Redemption and Restoration of California

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What if the prayers you’ve been whispering for years are beginning to be answered—and the church needs to be ready for the homecoming? We sit down with Sis. Billie Jean Bishop, co-founder of Partners in Prayer, to trace a path from personal tragedy to a nationwide movement of intercession for prodigals. Her story carries a fierce tenderness: a miracle-filled conversion, a mother’s grief after losing her son Christopher, and the costly decision to forgive the man involved in the crash that took his life. Through it all runs a bright thread—God’s comfort is real, His sovereignty can be trusted, and He is calling exiled sons and daughters back.

Reports of returning backsliders now arrive almost daily: adult children, teens, even grandparents. But the call is bigger than celebration; it’s preparation. Restoration requires more than an altar moment. It needs discipleship, practical help, and a community that welcomes with robes and rings rather than suspicion. Billie Jean names the spiritual battle shaping families, the unique pressure on fathers, and the simple tools that build resilience—praying scripture, blessing instead of lecturing, and showing up in covenant agreement.

Tune in to listen to more of this amazing testimony!

For her full testimony of forgiveness and to hear the man she eventually would call son, click the link below.

https://youtu.be/SXmRG4cmpSE?si=akaZ2mRRol-TZxHd

and be sure to visit her website at https://www/pipsministry.org

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Partner with us : https://www.theredeemedbackslider.org

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Kathy has two books out and they can be found on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online:

Redeem California, With God it IS Possible:

God of the Impossible: 30-Prayers for the Redemption and Restoration of California

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The word holiness can feel like a verdict, especially if you’ve been burned by “standards” that sounded more like a measuring stick than good news. Kathy sits down with her pastor to untangle the knot: holiness as a life turned toward God, standards as practices that may flow from that love, and the harm that happens when we reverse the order. The conversation is tender, candid, and practical—rooted in real stories of backsliders who returned against all odds and found that God had been working the whole time.

We get honest about what keeps people away: the belief that you must fix everything before God will receive you, the sting of conference moments that celebrate strictness while fragile hearts shut down, and the old habit of wearing an image like armor. Kathy shares her own journey—fashion, jewelry, hair, and the gym culture that once defined her—and how God slowly reshaped identity from the inside out. The pastor offers a clear path: start with presence, not performance. Let love make surrender light. Fruit will follow the root.

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Kathy has two books out and they can be found on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online:

Redeem California, With God it IS Possible:

God of the Impossible: 30-Prayers for the Redemption and Restoration of California

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A teenage romance. A gang neighborhood. A near-fatal drive-by and an overdose scare on the job. Then a quiet, stubborn decision by a young mom to move across town, climb on a church van with two babies, and keep walking to the altar for more than a decade. That’s the spine of this episode: the slow, steady courage that makes room for miracles.

We sit with Luis and Eileen Pena as they unpack the real story behind a 32-year marriage that almost didn’t make it. Eileen’s early encounter with God at 13 becomes a compass she returns to after parties, pain, and a divorce that upends her family. Lewis shares how belonging to a well-known gang brought status and danger—bullets flying, friends wounded, and a moment when a round missed his head by inches. He also talks about the day cocaine spiked his heart and he begged God not to let his kids attend his funeral. Through it all, one soundtrack repeats: a mother-in-law’s intercession and a wife’s refusal to stop showing up.

Tune in to hear the rest of their love story and how God showed up for them both.

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Kathy has two books out and they can be found on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online:

Redeem California, With God it IS Possible:

God of the Impossible: 30-Prayers for the Redemption and Restoration of California

Send us a text

A mother’s psychosis, a father’s kindness, and a daughter learning to trust God more than outcomes—this conversation traces how early wounds shape our faith and why secure love can tether a drifting heart. I sit down with licensed marriage and family therapist and educator Danielle Cisneros to unpack trauma in a Pentecostal home, the silence that followed crises, and the loneliness that teaches kids to read rooms instead of resting in them. Danielle explains psychosis in clear, compassionate language, then shows how adaptive healing happens when safe people meet us where we are. Scripture became her refuge, but what truly rewired trust was a father who chose relationship over punishment and mentors who “mothered” her into wholeness.

We map how childhood survival strategies—control, people-pleasing, avoidance—break down in adult relationships and ministry. Healing doesn’t mean erasing the past; it means accepting reality, grieving what wasn’t, and practicing new responses until peace holds. We redefine ministry as meeting needs, not chasing titles—smiles, rides, protection, and presence where souls ache. And for anyone afraid to come back, we lay out simple first steps: watch a service online, fast from noise, read one psalm, write three sentences. Grace meets motion, and home starts with a single step.

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Partner with us : https://www.theredeemedbackslider.org

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Kathy has two books out and they can be found on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online:

Redeem California, With God it IS Possible:

God of the Impossible: 30-Prayers for the Redemption and Restoration of California

Send us a text

A five-year-old meets God in a prayer meeting. A teenager discovers he doesn’t fit. A young preacher catches fire, then loses his footing in a storm of loneliness, loss, and regret. Years later, a desperate father bargains for his unborn child’s life on a Yosemite worksite—and God answers. This conversation with Michael Torres is the unvarnished arc of calling tested by catastrophe: from pulpit to prison to purpose.

We walk through the tender memories that formed him—Bible quizzes after school, old hymns on a white piano, the exact spot where he first felt called to preach. We name the ache of isolation and the pressure to fit that so many sensitive kids carry. We sit with the painful honesty of a marriage that should not have been, and a crisis of faith that followed. Michael explains how control became a counterfeit refuge that led to four bank robberies he planned in meticulous detail. Then the dragnet, the arrest, and the heat of a cell where he chose gratitude over bitterness and asked for a Bible.

It's not everyday, a preacher becomes a bank robber. Tune in a listen how God has redeemed his life and is rewriting his future!

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Partner with us : https://www.theredeemedbackslider.org

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Kathy has two books out and they can be found on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online:

Redeem California, With God it IS Possible:

God of the Impossible: 30-Prayers for the Redemption and Restoration of California

Send us a text

Some stories grip you because they name the ache you’ve been carrying. Luis grew up in church, but grief took him someplace colder—anger he couldn’t shake, music that deepened the mood, and pornography he couldn’t confess. He didn’t storm out on God; hope just thinned until silence felt easier. When conviction finally met courage, he chose the terrifying route: tell the truth, trust a pastor, and let his wife see the parts he hid. What happened next reframed everything he believed about obedience, provision, and what strength looks like in a man.

We walk through the layered fallout of loss and secrecy, from the way our inputs shape our inner life to the subtle ways shame starves intimacy. Luis explains how fasting and prayer did different work—prayer softened him, fasting broke the bitterness. In the hardest year—jobless, living with his parents, expecting a new baby—doors opened he didn’t knock on: a surprise interview, early pay advanced for required tests, and a rental home against the odds. Those moments didn’t reward his goodness; they revealed God’s goodness and taught him to recognize the weight of God’s presence as glory, not guilt.

Listen in for the rest of his testimony.

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Partner with us : https://www.theredeemedbackslider.org

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Kathy has two books out and they can be found on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online:

Redeem California, With God it IS Possible:

God of the Impossible: 30-Prayers for the Redemption and Restoration of California

Send us a text

Some stories arrive like a storm and leave the air clearer than before. Kathy sits down with April Martinez, who grew up loving church, survived years of hidden abuse, and then endured the whiplash of public blame and church hurt that pushed her out at sixteen. What follows is a fiercely honest journey through survival mode—protecting younger siblings, running from violence, two suicide attempts, foster care, and the aching desire to feel nothing at all—only to discover that numbness never heals what truth and mercy can.

The turning point comes through her son, Anthony. Diagnosed with a brain tumor at eleven, he finds faith with remarkable clarity: receiving the Holy Ghost, asking for baptism, and urging the family back toward God. One month after his baptism, Anthony passes at fourteen. April remembers the ride to the hospital as he prayed in tongues, his tenderness checking on her between waves of pain, and the unmistakable peace that settled in the room as he slipped away. The grief was crushing, but it did not have the final word. Breath by breath, April returned to the God she met as a child—the One who was safety before everything broke.

Across this conversation we unpack how trauma hides in plain sight, how shame keeps victims quiet, and how healthy boundaries are not bitterness but wisdom. We talk about reconciling with faith after church hurt, why a prayer closet can do what a platform cannot, and how a grandmother’s intercession can outlive a generation.

Tune in for more

Support the show

Partner with us : https://www.theredeemedbackslider.org

Follow us on Insta & Facebook: The Redeemed Backslider

Kathy has two books out and they can be found on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online:

Redeem California, With God it IS Possible:

God of the Impossible: 30-Prayers for the Redemption and Restoration of California