Life and Mission

One Woman Can Change the World - Interview with Ronne Rock

June 16, 2020 Kay Helm / Ronne Rock Episode 44
Life and Mission
One Woman Can Change the World - Interview with Ronne Rock
Show Notes Transcript

Ronne Rock is a storyteller, truth-teller, hope-dealer. Her new book is One Woman Can Change the World: Reclaiming Your God- Designed Influence and Impact Right Where You Are.

One Woman Can Change the World: Reclaiming Your God- Designed Influence and Impact Right Where You Are  (Amazon link)
onewomancanchangetheworld.com
RonneRock.com
instagram.com/ronnerock/


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Kay: Hey, Ronne it is so good to have you back.  

[00:00:03] Ronne:   I'm good. And it's just, I love your voice, so it's just good to hear your voice.

[00:00:07] Kay: It is. It's really great to sit and chat with you a little bit. We talked a long time before we ever turned on the the record button, but good to catch up, Ronnie, you have written a book  But,  tell us a little bit about who you are

[00:00:23] Ronne: Okay.

[00:00:24] Kay: a little about the book and then we'll go from there.

[00:00:27] Ronne: Okay. Well, I am, I am Ronne Rock, and that is a legitimate name. Ronneis a nickname for Veronica.  but I've had it since eighth grade and it's not going anywhere. I am a woman. I am a friend on the sister. I am an orphan. Both my parents have passed on an orphan,  a wife and a mom and a GG and a safe lap for Pearl, the rescue pup.

[00:00:55] And,  I'm just a, gosh, I'm just a big old bag of. Feelings, most of the time.  if you're an Enneagram person, I'm a four wing three. If you're a Myers Briggs person, I'm in E N F J that just switched to J from P. So now I've got feelings about that too. And, and,  I work. For a global nonprofit named orphan outreach.

[00:01:24] We focus on care for orphaned and vulnerable children in eight countries around the world, and a lot of the women that you'll meet in the book, I had the opportunity to meet through my work. With orphan outreach. It wasn't an intentional meeting or I thought that the, the book would come from my meeting, those women, but they have taught me so much and I'm honored that a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book.

[00:01:54] We'll go back to support the ministries of orphan outreach. In fact, a little bit of money has already been provided to auntie, who is one of the people that you'll meet in the book who lives in the Himalayas. The book itself is called, one woman can change the world, reclaiming your God designed influence and impact right where you are, which may sound like it's going to be a really great self help book for you to be a real tough woman, but it is.

[00:02:27] Anything about that. It is not a book about tips and tricks to help you be a really strong leader. What it really is, is an amazing group of women from around the world who are gentle leaders. They're very gray, silver leaders who focus on who they are. And how they were designed from the very beginning and how God designed women from the very beginning to be leaders.

[00:02:55] If you look in Genesis one, God didn't say he created man and then was going to be the leader. And then here comes Eve. Genesis one says that he created them, man and women, and he looked at humanity and said, wow, this is good. And so, and then he said. Okay. I want you to lead. I've given you, I have created this universe for you.

[00:03:23] And you know, God is, he's not an idiot. He knew exactly what he was doing. Even his, he formed,  the heavens and the earth, and the way he designed it in stages in which he designed it to get it all ready for human life, to be able to live and thrive on it. And then he said, I want you to take the lead now I'm here, I want to walk with you.

[00:03:46] We are going to have great conversations. You are my own and and we are in this together and I want you to lead. And so that's what you're going to read in the book. It is not as, like I said, not help self help book, not a bootstrapping book. It is a reminder and hopefully a conversation starter between you and the Lord.

[00:04:10] Of who you are and his design and you and your identity in him, and then your entire story and how it has worked together. All how it has worked together to glorify him and to do good on this earth.

[00:04:29] Kay: Yeah, it's beautiful. I, I've been reading it and, and just, you know, you take us on a, on a journey, and you just. You allow us to meet these incredible women who are, you know, they're just, they're living life. They're there. They're taking what's been put before them. They've made decisions. I mean, it's just amazing.

[00:04:54] It's,  And it's reminded me too, of of women that I've met around the world and in the work that I do. But I think, you know, we've talked some on this podcast about purpose and calling and you know, what is it that God has called me to do? And then one of the earlier episodes that we looked at,  Oz Guinness, his book, the call, and he says, you know, there is no calling without a caller.

[00:05:20] Ronne: Yeah.

[00:05:21] Kay: And you talk about the Lord talking to these, speaking to us, and how often we see it kind of as a, well, if he's calling me to this one thing, you know, then he's asking me to give up this other thing. But you say he's the God of the ampersand.

[00:05:41] Ronne: He is.  I will, I will say if you, if he came into my office, the first thing that you would notice is I do have actual literal ampersands everywhere. It is my favorite symbol and I don't want that thing that looks like an E with a line through it. I want the curly, super wavy full out Amber sands.

[00:06:02] They're on my wall. They're on my desk. I have a pillow. I just think they're beautiful. And I love, because the thing that I love about an ampersand, it's not just the shape. I think it is a glorious punctuation. I just really beautiful. But what makes an ampersand so glorious as far as its place in our language is that it means and in itself, and.

[00:06:34] If you were to look at it means ant per se. And so you get ampersand that it's and in itself. And so what it really says is it is going to connect to things, but it's not going to diminish the value of either thing. So if this was the Ronneampersand K show. Right. Then it would mean that they're fully Ronnie's here and fully K is here in both of their personalities and their gifts and their talents are here.

[00:07:08] That that ampersand brings in together unifies them and makes them. Stronger, right. Together, but it doesn't diminish. And so when I look at God as he really is, the God of the ampersand is that he takes our story, right? It may be the story of our childhood, the story of a difficult time, the story of a glorious moment, the story of our time.

[00:07:36] If we, when we get married or when kids enter the picture or.  But it could be any of those things. And sometimes we have a feeling it's like, I want to be in ministry. But first. I need to have a career. I want to do something unique for the Lord. I've got an idea even of what it might look like, but first I have to raise the kids and send them off to school and let them get married.

[00:08:07] And then once all of that part of my life is done, then I can focus on ministry.  In God and in fact, in the story or in the chapters, you're going to meet someone who actually felt that agony and really felt as if the Lord was saying, I have this new glorious thing for you. And that means that today it's over everything that has brought you joy from a ministry standpoint to this day.

[00:08:36] Now give it up. It's over. You got anything? And I'm not saying there are times that the Lord does. When he says, I've got a new thing. He really does lay something brand new in your lap at that distilled doesn't mean that what has happened in your past all of a sudden diminishes and has no value. I really believe that an ampersand is inclusive, right?

[00:09:02] It's not exclusive. It's inclusive. And if you look at God's story over and over time, if you look at stories in scripture, those stories are inclusive. They God ads to a person's life. He doesn't say, okay, Paul, even a new name. Everything still the, his past, his understanding of who he was,  as a leader who he was, even as someone who hated Christianity, he still used that information.

[00:09:43] He was still a tent maker. He still used that vocation and he used those, cause God didn't say give it all up, not ever going to do it again. He used those things in ministry, those when Jesus called fishermen, he didn't say, you're never going to pick up a pole again.

[00:10:02] Kay: Right.

[00:10:03] Ronne: Right? In fact, you find out that's a first thing they went back to when I was like, well, I know how to fish.

[00:10:10] I guess I'll fish. And Jesus never said, okay, you, you never gonna pick up a pole again. Matthew, I know you were a tax collector, but you're never ever going to count a coin again. He just said, no. Your story wrapped around gospel purpose and wrapped around a beautiful redemptive destination becomes this incredible sentence filled with ampersands.

[00:10:39] Kay: Yeah. You know, I was thinking actually about this earlier this week about the disciples and God, you know, Jesus. Calls them from fishing and he uses fishing terms to bring them in to the new thing. Fisher, I'll make you fishers, man.

[00:10:57] Ronne: Yeah.

[00:10:59] Kay: And I think that it was something, I marked it as something to go back to and study more, because I really feel like it's more than, he wasn't just using the language that they understood.

[00:11:13] It was more than that. He was he, they were always fishermen, and they were always going to be fishermen,

[00:11:19] Ronne: Yes, ma'am.

[00:11:19] Kay: but now there were fishermen who encountered, encountered Jesus,

[00:11:23] Ronne: Yeah. It's so, so often we look at our stories and we'll say, well, the only way I could do something, the only way I could really do ministry or whatever, is it every part about my life? We have a tendency to look and say, well, if that's a glorious future, then everything here stinks, right? Instead of.

[00:11:48] Saying, Oh wait, God is going to use what's happening right now. He has gifted me even with a past that may not be a beautiful, what I consider a beautiful past. He is a God who makes all things new. He is a God who redeems.  in the book I talk about Joel two 25, which a lot of us will use a lot when we talk about it.

[00:12:11] God, he makes things new and he heals and things,  that he will take years that have been ravaged. He will take years where it feels like he'd been wasteful years and he will show that those years were not wasted. Right. He will bring life to those. To equip you. And I'm not talking also about, Oh yeah, you're supposed to literally go out and change the world.

[00:12:40] Wouldn't that be fun? But  few of us are ever going to be on a platform large enough to have a global voice. Right? It's, what is it? Less than 2% of the global population actually is known by many, many people. That's not the purpose of this at all. It is that we live in a world. Right around us, and that world might be our home, our neighborhood, our church, our community, our city, a people group inside are inside our community.

[00:13:16] A neglected group are hurting human being. That is the world that God places in front of us and says, okay, Genesis one, don't you remember. You're the Apple of my eye. I've equipped you. I've quit you. I just need you to trust me

[00:13:38] Kay: Yep.

[00:13:39] Ronne: on this. I need you to trust me on this. And so,  but again, our culture and Kate, you and I both, because we work.

[00:13:51] In other global populations, there is a lot, there is a lot different between the culture that we live in the U S and the culture in a developing country. And it's not just about socioeconomics. It is also about how time is viewed.  I remember Kate, you talked about we are a, we are a time based culture.

[00:14:14] One of the things you taught me. We're a time based culture. We thrive on filling a calendar and bragging about a bullet journal and showing how productive we are by how much we can accomplish in a day.  and God is not, he is not asking us to accomplish. Things. He says he accomplished in this. He accomplishes things through us.

[00:14:38] That means that we need to trust him to actually do that. Instead of us thinking, Oh, the only way a change is going to be made in my life or anybody else's life is it better be big different than anybody else because, Oh my gosh, if, if I feel like, well, you know, I love to teach, but there are a million teachers.

[00:15:01] So what kind of difference can I make? Or, well, I, I'm a marketer. Me personally, and I go in, anybody can market. What I just told God is, you know what? I'm worthless. And pretty much everybody else that you designed with that gift is worthless too, because we're not doing something that is so unique or so different that that will make us big.

[00:15:25] And,  and I make that confession. And in one of the first chapters of my book, it's like I wanted to do ministry, but more than I wanted to do ministry, I would really want it to be significant.

[00:15:36] Kay: Yeah, we do. We do that. We is.

[00:15:41] Ronne: Yeah. I wanted to be significant. I wanted to be able to put my head on the pillow and go, dang girl, you did fine. And the whole time, the words like I, that's my job. Just to tell you that you are fine. That's not your job to try to convince yourself that you, that you're fine. Fine.

[00:16:02] Kay: So we're already significant because he created us and, and he has a purpose for us, not, not just.  that sounds almost limiting, you know, in this conversation, a purpose for us, purpose is a really big word.

[00:16:22] Ronne: It is, and then we try to limit it. Right? Well, his purpose for me must be this one thing instead of, no, his purpose for me is to, is to love him, walk with him, and then watch how he reveals gifts and talents and opportunities and things throughout the day in a number of ways. And to be actually pleasantly surprised by how creative he is.

[00:16:53] He's a creative piece. I'm a pastor a long time ago, said that we are creative creations created by a creative creator, and it is a cheese ball alliteration, but dang, it's good, right? It's like, do I actually believe that though? Do I believe that I am a creative creation? That when he designed me, he designed me fully with his, he said, image and lightness, and it wasn't just that I can look in the mirror and go, I guess God has freckles in the summertime.

[00:17:27] Wasn't that at all?

[00:17:28] Kay: Yeah.

[00:17:28] Ronne: Right? He created us with the image and the lightness of the gifts that are manifest when he lives through us. He gave us personality that cause he has personality, gave us emotion cause he has an emotion. Those things are not flawed in us. How we respond to them. And yes, I'm not discounting sin nature because trust me, it's alive and well in this broken soul.

[00:17:56] And it's very easy for me to go dark pretty quickly and get pretty selfish and  and get pretty whiny. But in the midst of that, he still looks at us and sees us dressed in white as a bride

[00:18:10] Kay: Hmm,

[00:18:11] Ronne: who is beautiful and has an incredible personality and has gifts and talents to be made manifest wherever she walks.

[00:18:19] Kay: yes, yes. We, we've heard a lot, especially women in the church about the Proverbs 31 woman. And then you, in this book, you, you refer back to her, but you're also showing us living fleshed out Proverbs 31 women that may not look exactly like what we pictured. Can you

[00:18:47] Ronne: Oh, yeah. Well, for the income and I came, I came into,  a passionate love of Jesus. I was a late comer. It was the day after my 21st birthday. But one of the, I mean, I'm, one of the first things I'm told is like, Oh, Proverbs 31 woman, and it is, it is stated as this ideal of who we are supposed to be. Right?

[00:19:14] And we don't, of course, we don't give anybody the whole chapter. We only use about the last 11.

[00:19:21] Kay: Huh?

[00:19:22] Ronne: know, the 11 verses like what is the woman? And then you start reading it and it's like, okay, so it Proverbs 31 woman, in order to be. A true Proverbs 31 woman, this woman after God's own heart, this woman, everybody's going to hold up and in the marketplace, they're going to go and it's going to say that she is finer than all the gemstones.

[00:19:44] Let's see. Okay, Proverbs 31 more. She got her. Okay. She's going to be she guests. She has to get up early. That's a tough one right there. Okay. She needs to be married.

[00:19:55] Kay: Okay.

[00:19:55] Ronne: She has to have kids. She has to have her own business. She clearly must make her own goods to sell and her own store. So she's not just buying stuff, but she's also probably turning her own butter and then negotiating a deal at whatever specialty shops she wants him to be in.

[00:20:17] She has to be brilliant financially. She has to,  Be fearless in the marketplace. And so you look at all those things and you're like, okay, so she is smart, always put together houses, immaculate, married with kids. No, I have failed before I've started. And half the women, more than half of the women who are in the book are single.

[00:20:48] Kay: Yeah.

[00:20:49] Ronne: There are women in the book who don't have kids. There are women in the book who don't have husbands. There are women in the book who have never turned butter. There are women in the book who had never gotten a college education. Some of them have not even made it all the way through high school. So if we were to set, Proverbs 31 is a checklist of what idealism is for a woman after God's own heart.

[00:21:17] Well, first of all, we would all fail.

[00:21:19] Kay: true.

[00:21:20] Ronne: would all fail then. It was never, it was never supposed to be that way. If you read Proverbs 31 from the beginning to the end, you find out, first of all, it was written by a dude and it was written by a dude cause he says, this is what my mom taught me. And it is a book about leadership.

[00:21:39] It isn't a book about. Okay, let me, well, I really, this is the only woman for you and dad and I are just not going to approve until you find her. Right. It was not. It is a book about leadership that then it transitions and you realize that Proverbs 31 woman, it's not this checklist. It is. It is. These character qualities. Of their character qualities and in that you're like, Oh my gosh, it's okay. So she tends to, the things that are in front of her, she okay. She wakes up early. The reason why she wakes up early is because she wants to prepare herself for the day. So she, she gives time to the ward. She gives time to, to set the day and.

[00:22:37] And you know what, she is creative, but she's creative. Not because she got to have her own business. Maybe she'll want her own business. She's creative because she's receiving.  She has a voice

[00:22:51] Kay: Yeah,

[00:22:51] Ronne: and she's not, and she's not afraid to use her voice. She's not afraid to negotiate. She's not afraid to defend people, to stand for people.

[00:23:02] When it's appropriate, she is willing to,  nurture and care for people that are,  her circle. Could be family, could be friends, could be coworkers, could be strangers, but she looks at people and is willing to provide care and to nurture. And so you, you look at, look at her. With the qualities that she pres presents instead of this tightly defined checklist that says, Oh, well, unless you're married, you just a little off. Oh, no, kids. Well.

[00:23:44] Kay: Yeah. And then we exclude ourselves.

[00:23:46] Ronne: Right? Or, Oh, you don't own your own business, you don't have a cottage industry. Aw. Right. And so we discount and we disqualify ourselves time and time again because we use that. Should we use her as a point of comparison, which is sin, right? That there is, I have a friend, Rochelle APAR, and he's written a great book called mythical knee.

[00:24:09] She talks about healthy comparison.

[00:24:12] Kay: Hmm.

[00:24:13] Ronne: Right of, I once was here and now I'm here. I've, you know, I'm in school, I'm learning. I've learned more setting markers, seeing where you've gone, and then the unhealthy comparison where our identities, we start to places value on our own identity based not on who God says we are, but through the lens of others around us.

[00:24:39] In Proverbs 31 that woman was never supposed to be a comparison point for us. Never.

[00:24:47] Kay: right. It can be, you can be an example without being somebody that, you know, it's just held up as the ideal, the perfect, the perfect unattainable.

[00:24:56] Ronne: Yeah. We'll always have people that are good examples for us that that fire up in us a desire to grow and things. If somebody is. If what is being fired up in us though is self-condemnation or condescension. Those things ask when we just gotta take it. The Lord says, you know that that's vain imagination woman.

[00:25:21] Take it captive, put it in its rightful place. Be reminded of who you are and who you've always been.

[00:25:29] Kay: yeah. Yeah, that's good. You, you, you've re, you've written in the book too, that the trouble with women is us. Yeah. Is it stemming from all that comparison that we do? Is

[00:25:44] Ronne: really, it is. We get in our way.

[00:25:48] Kay: Wow.

[00:25:48] Ronne: really get in our own way.  We. I would say it's social. I'd say social media because I do believe that social media has tremendous opportunity for good, but then it also has done a lot to harm us through ideals of influencers and and lifestyles and journeys. It's very easy for us to look at a tiny box with a pretty picture and a few words and say, that person's life is. Cool or more significant. She doesn't, or she doesn't know what life's really like. She's never gone through pain. Right? So we, we had those barbs that long before that. Their media has always. There's magazines, there's catalogs, and being a person in marketing and advertising, I can tell you all about glamour.

[00:26:47] The whole ideal of luxury advertising, right? That says you're not quite good in life unless you have this car.

[00:26:57] Kay: yeah.

[00:26:58] Ronne: You are not caring for your family enough unless you have this kind of home or those things. So that comparison has always been. There, but it was, no, it was there, there Adam and Eve walking in God's presence.

[00:27:16] Can we talk about this? He's walking with them like literally walking, holding hands, talking about the day and what happens? They hear a whisper, quiet whisper that says.

[00:27:42] You know, sure. Seems he wants to have a tight reign on you guys, keeping you in the garden

[00:27:49] Kay: Hmm.

[00:27:50] Ronne: wonder. Right. So it is, and so we still. We still have those things like, well, I wonder what my life would be like. My life is like theirs. I wonder, you know? And so we have a tendency, then we start to lay just layers and layers and layers of self condemnation of,  that we, we claim our lives worthless.

[00:28:15] Kay: Hm.

[00:28:15] Ronne: claim our talents worthless. We say again, it's the well, unless I'm doing something that is significantly different or unless I'm doing something that is impacting thousands or millions, I like just doesn't really count for anything.

[00:28:35] Kay: Yeah. You give us some great examples in the book. You introduce us to all these women. Can you just tell us a little bit about some of the women in your book?

[00:28:47] Ronne: Oh wow. If I do, if I start crying, so,  where do I start with the women? I'll start with Florida century Risa because they were the women that wrecked me first, and you made them in the introduction of the book. You get to in your, and then they make an appearance at the end too, which is great. But. When I, I, as I said, I do marketing.

[00:29:13] And so I had been in the corporate world. I had decided to take the leap to ministry because I wanted to do something more significant with my marketing. I wanted to bring all my corporate expertise and help. So I,  moved over to work for a nonprofit. And part of what we got to do is to do mission trips, which I still do.

[00:29:40] And that's again, I've met a lot of women,  on mission trips and then other forms travel. But it was my first mission trip and I was going to lead it and it was great. I went through training, I got like five stars in training because I was really, really good

[00:29:56] at all the things,

[00:29:57] Kay: right? 

[00:29:58] Ronne: because being an achiever, high achiever, I.

[00:30:02] I just want it to be perfect. And so I had everything down. I was ready to go, had my team, I was writing beautiful flowery things. It sounded, I was really trying to sound a lot like an Bosscamp. I wanted to be real poetic, so you would be drawn to my words. We get to Guatemala, we go to this children's home that had that the organization had never had anybody go to before.

[00:30:30] We get there. It is beautiful. Some side of a mountain. It felt really much like middle earth, sort of the range, just the environment. We get there. We have our bandanas and we have our games and we have everything planned and we are so organized and we bring so much stuff in duffels. And it's, and that's what I call it, the book stuff. We had stuff, we have all the stuff in duffels that we thought that, Oh, this is going to sound so bad that we thought that poor people needed right. 

[00:31:09] Kay: right. 

[00:31:10] Ronne: clearly we're going to this third world country and they just don't have much. So we stopped stuff in, doubles to come and make sure that they had everything they needed.

[00:31:22] And  we went and we taught the kids. I got to the end of that. And then we were amazed how fast the kids were learning. We were just so proud of ourselves to Pat ourselves on the back. And these whole time, these two women, these sisters who had come with their dad from Mexico to start a ministry, and it was not originally going to be a children's home, but,  

[00:31:47]But things changed when they got there and they realized that there was a need. So dad had passed away. It was the two sisters still running this place, and they were so quiet, and I would look at them and they'd have like the concerned look on their face standing in a corner of that. Oh my gosh, they hate us.

[00:32:03] They don't try. They, if they just mingled, if they just knew how great we were, they'd be okay. And so we get to the end of that first day. I walked up to him so proudly, I'm like, Hey, we're leaving. We're going to go to our comfy hotel, and is there anything that you need? And I don't know why I asked that question.

[00:32:23] I don't even can even begin to tell you w what I thought they were going to say. They're really go like, Hmm, yeah, a steak sounds. Yeah. I don't know that they looked at me really quietly and told me they had no milk. And,  yeah. And the floor fell out from underneath me because we had brought up duffels of stuff that they did not need.

[00:32:46] Kay: right.

[00:32:47] Ronne: Everything that we brought to them, they did not. We brought brats. Do you remember those little metal things?

[00:32:54] Kay: Yeah.

[00:32:55] Ronne: pipe cleaners. We brought the most random stuff in a whole lot of lice shampoo because we had been told, well, you know, it's a third world country and all those kids' heads are going to be filled with lies.

[00:33:07] Those kids were clean. Oh, that. So, like I said, just we were way late. I went into the bus where the team was, we bawled like babies. We pooled our money together and we got them what they needed. And they first, the first thing they taught me was that I could come with my big self-made plans, right? And my assumptions of what I thought was wrong in somebody else's life.

[00:33:33] And so then my preconceived solutions of how I was going to fix that life. And they stripped that from me in one day. And taught me that the only way I'm really gonna understand anybody's story. This is to ask and then to listen and to be with them for a little bit, and then to find out what their real needs were.

[00:33:56] Both physical, if there was a physical need, but then also what were the felt needs that they have. What are things that they, I couldn't have told you what it felt like to be. Two women in a country that was not your own running a ministry that your dad started. I didn't know the man is going to come and say today because I want it to be significant.

[00:34:22] So then over time, what they taught me was in one of was a doctor and one was a teacher and they left those professions. So it wasn't, they were uneducated women. They chose to step into and they continue to use those skills and that expertise in his children's home. But they,  they taught me about this God of the ampersand, right?

[00:34:48] They taught me about a God who is bigger than all of the great plans that I may have, and they taught me too to take a breath. And to appreciate what was around me at their children's home. They have these, this flooring that honestly looks like beautiful, intricate mosaic, and we were so impressed by it and then they said, yeah, we just got the scraps that nobody else wanted.

[00:35:20] The broken pieces. Cause we couldn't afford beautiful things, but we could afford pieces of things. And so they took the mosaic and then themselves turned it into artwork and to this unique design. And I thought, how many times have I looked at something? And when it's not boxed up in an bright, shiny bow, I think, Oh, it's just pieces.

[00:35:46] Nothing good could come of that.

[00:35:48] Kay: Right?

[00:35:49] Ronne: That's a waste. How much time are you going to have to take to figure that one out? And they, so they started this journey with me like, Oh my gosh, I don't look around enough. 

[00:36:01] Kay: Hmm,

[00:36:01] Ronne: to look around. There might be pieces that I'm missing, beautiful pieces

[00:36:07] Kay: yeah,

[00:36:07] Ronne: that I have ignored because they weren't bright, shiny, boxed up.

[00:36:12] Beautiful. And then they have this safe. 

[00:36:17] Kay: Hmm. 

[00:36:18] Ronne: was unlike any faith that I'd ever seen before. That was like, you know what? We're going to, God will provide. He will take care of us. It's okay when the time at the right time, when some somebody will come at the right time, a conversation will happen at the right time in me.

[00:36:40] I was the go getter, like, I'm going to initiate it. I'm going to get it all done. Right. Instead of instead of, Oh wait, I how many times I probably blown past a beautiful moment because I'm so, I was just hell bent on getting to the per what I thought was the perfect thing or the clever thing. How many times have I tried to take a problem and solve it with three steps.

[00:37:15] Kay: Yeah. 

[00:37:16] Ronne: When the Lord was saying, you know what? It's just you just step with me just following my step. That's really all the steps you need. Doesn't mean that you can't be smart. We wants us to use our brains. He wants us to be creative. That I really thought everything had to be solved quickly.  that it was going to be buttoned up, solved, done.

[00:37:42] You check off. Well, there's that humanitarian problem done. I moved on and they, they had a faith that I hungered for.

[00:37:57] Kay: Yes.

[00:37:58] Ronne: They had a relationship with the Lord and I love Jesus and they had this relationship with the Lord. I was like, wow. They make me hungry for more of him.

[00:38:10] Kay: Yes. That happens a lot when we get kind of beyond our world here.

[00:38:15] Ronne: so, so there's Laura century Suh in Guatemala there is,  there's Lisa, grand Rapids, Michigan. You has an incredible ministry to teen moms and their babies. And her story started by being a teen mom and then realizing that everybody cheered for her to not have an abortion. And they all told her she did the right thing by choosing life. But then she had to walk the road of what choosing life meant, and she felt really all alone.

[00:38:48] Kay: yes.

[00:38:49] Ronne: So it wasn't as a child who say, you know what? When I grow up, I'm going to be, I'm going to minister to teen moms. It was, I'm in crisis. I remember what it was like. I'm still walking road. I remember that pain and because I know what that pain feels like, I'm going to reach out to somebody else that might be walking that road.

[00:39:13] And it wasn't that she started it thinking that she was going to have a huge ministry. It started with I am here and I'm willing to talk cause I know what it feels like.

[00:39:23] Kay: Yeah, yeah. And we ever looked at those simple starts, like you said, one step at a time following him.

[00:39:32] Ronne: Well, we, the Lord says, don't despise the day of small things. Right. And we, but we want to HIG. You think, unless it is a big thing, then it's not a bit, it's not a good thing. It has to be big. It has to be bright, bold, super colorful. Ghana going to have a big launch and blow the roof off, and I will tell you, every single one of the women in this book will remind you that it starts with a nudge in.

[00:40:01] It starts with right where you are. You take one step. And then you take the next step, you take the next step, and those steps may happen just one right after the other. It might be Steph and pause and pause and dwell and set intent, and then a step.  there's Lucy who she was in. 

[00:40:31] Kay: Yes. 

[00:40:33] Ronne: There's none wanting to be a non, that was her life like she, her brother was a priest.

[00:40:38] Sister dad was just the thing that you did. She was going to be a nun. And so when she felt all of a sudden at 14 years down the road of sisterhood, she felt this, I need you to step away now. I just think I need you to step away. Not from, not from faith or anything like that. You've been faithful and stuff, but I have, I have something.

[00:41:05] Come here, come here. And she said, she literally said, it's like she's, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm so sorry. You don't know what you're talking about.

[00:41:20] Kay: Like, no, you called me to this. You can't change it.

[00:41:24] Ronne: I'm supposed to be in this ministry and it has to look like this or else it's not ministry. And so her story, I don't want to spoil it for folks. It is a, it's an incredible story and it also shows that God doesn't waste a thing. He did not take her from 14 years of sisterhood and burn it. It is so, Oh my gosh.

[00:41:53] Kay: And he didn't change his mind. Can you just brought her to the next steps, which she couldn't see because we, you know, we have this, such a finite view of everything, and yet he's outside of all that.

[00:42:08] Ronne: Yeah. He was like, Oh. He goes, Oh, you're still a sister. We're still married. I just need you to move from the convent now and again. Her story is phenomenal. There's, Oh, there's Elizabeth who lives in Kenya. Oh, talk about a joy. Bring her, she's great. She's another one, and she's one that thought that she had a million.

[00:42:31] She had a huge plan.

[00:42:33] Kay: Mm.

[00:42:34] Ronne: A huge plan, thinking she knew exactly what God wanted her to do as a social worker and a counselor. He turned that idea on its head, but it's still using every idea that she came up with in her big plan that using them in a fresh way.  there's, Oh, there's so many good. They're just beautiful people

[00:42:56] Kay: just going to have to get this book and read

[00:42:58] Ronne: I know you do, and then what I hope to do because folks are like, well, now what are you going to write another book? I'm like, I don't know. You know what? I'm of an age. I don't know if I'll write another book, but I tell you what I want to do is I want to keep sharing stories because K is you ship, right?

[00:43:18] You read and it sparks in your mind. I've never looked at that person in that light before.

[00:43:26] Kay: right?

[00:43:27] Ronne: But I know somebody,

[00:43:29]Kay:  huh.

[00:43:30] Ronne: I know somebody who embraces God's design like that. Now I just want to share those stories to continue to remind us all that we really are. His delight. We are. We are shaped physically and emotionally and spiritually in a way.

[00:43:52] Kay: yes.

[00:43:53] Ronne: that is that, that is a delight to him. He did not, there was a, there was a social media made that has gone or been floating around about the past week, and it's like, you're, you don't annoy me. Love God, and I was like, it's not like he created us and then went, well, that was garbage. What else can I do?

[00:44:15] Right? He didn't. He still, and that is in the midst of us rejecting him, telling him we've got better ideas telling, you know what? We'll call you when I'm in big trouble or all the things that we do that indicate our lack of belief. Right? We want to believe, but, but then we reveal the areas that we're still struggling to believe.

[00:44:40] Kay: Lord, I believe, help my

[00:44:42] Ronne: Help my unbelief.

[00:44:44] Kay: prayer in the Bible.

[00:44:46] Ronne: yeah, so that's the, like I said, that's what I hope I want to be able to. That's what I really hope this book does. I hope it starts conversations with us in the Lord and with us and others. I hope it opens eyes to help us see how the gloriously, we really are designed by the father.

[00:45:07] He did not make a mistake. We are not the exception. We're not at an all saran. Women. We're not an afterthought. Women, we're not a, well, I dunno, somebody needs to pick up the trash. I'll just make, make a trench, pick her up. Or,  we were designed from the beginning to be glorious. And we were designed from the beginning, man and woman to really harmonize as well

[00:45:33] Kay: Yeah.

[00:45:35] Ronne: as in, in,  in just beautiful.

[00:45:38] Leadership of the space that we are given in this time that we are given.

[00:45:47] Kay: Yeah. That's good. Just as we wrap up, I want to ask you a little bit about,  I had asked some of my friends, you know, I told them I was going to talk to you and all they had was the, the title of the book, you know, and I asked for, so, so the big question was, what are the most useful tools or stories you use to inspire those.

[00:46:11] Who have you teach.

[00:46:14] Ronne: You know what tools and tips? Again, if, if I was teaching you how to have a really successful meeting. I would have some great tips and tools, and I at one point worked for general electric when I worked for NBC and the television network, and I can do a purpose process payoff and have a meeting started and finished in 20 minutes.

[00:46:36] I can get all those things down and teach you today how to do that. But when it comes to relationships. And the long road walking with other people and the suffering together, right? The compassion brains. I'm probably not going to have a lot of great three step tips, but what I am going to tell you is what I have come to understand time and time again when it comes to caring for other people.

[00:47:05]first of all, we care the most when we. Close our own mouth and listen first to what the true needs are, even if it takes a while for that person to express their needs. And Henry now and talked about, he and I will completely mess up his, his quote, but about what true friendship looks looks like and how suffering together with somebody and it is being quiet when they want to be quiet.

[00:47:35] It is talking when they want to talk. It is basically truly being,  empathetic to stepping into their lives instead of it being, okay, fine. I'm going to bring you into my life for a little bit. We've got 30 minutes. It is saying, no, I'm going to step into your life and I want to understand your life more.

[00:47:55] And so it is, it is taking time.  I've also seen it's probably the best tool that any of us ever have, if you want to call it a tool to talking about what true transformation looks like in a life is, um, we can sit and I love scripture, but I will also tell you that there are times that we use scripture as a quick fix, right?

[00:48:23] Instead of having the hard conversation. If somebody is in pain, let me spout a plat. I'll else that a Psalm to you just to be here. This is, you know what God says instead of saying, you know what? It stinks right now what you're going through, and I don't fully understand it, but I'm, I'm willing to listen and I want to walk the road with you.

[00:48:43] And then we're both going to pray together about it and see what God tells us together as the walking this road. But this is what I do now. And I can say with confidence, I can tell you about what God has done in my life and the transformation that he's made in my life, in certain areas, knowing that that is covered by the power of Jesus Christ.

[00:49:09] And so, and if you'd like, that's revelations 1211. My testimony, testimony of our lips, of the transformation that's in our lives. I can't, I can't tell you how to fix your life altogether, but I can sure show you what God's done in mine

[00:49:25] and I have confidence that Christ was, is and is to come the Redeemer and that will help overcome.

[00:49:38] Time and time again. Now when it comes to stories that I share, you're going to find out most of the stories that I share, just personal stories about my life. It's not like, well, let me tell you, I did this and then I did this and then I did this. What I've seen is that God is so gracious to speak to us in a variety of ways.

[00:49:59] In small interactions with other folks I use in. What you find in the book is that I talk a lot about what God has taught me at that through history or what he's taught me through nature and things that that sometimes when you're trying to share and help somebody taking it out of a personal. The story, I guess taking it from, well, you know, yes, I had to flee a bad and this is what I did.

[00:50:28] I did these three steps and it was all done. What I can also though, when the big story is, is to encourage someone to walk the hard road toward healing. I don't know. For me, I might talk to you about two volcanoes in Guatemala. One that's has is furious and. Just destructive. And then the other one that storm it, but the fire of the one actually fertilizes the soil of the other. And so the best coffee is on this dormant volcano that's standing next to this really nasty mile volcano that has destroyed lives and homes and futures. And that reminds me of like, okay, no matter how that it gets, there's a redemptive. Destination.

[00:51:19] Kay: Right, right. And I actually took. I highlighted apart from that chapter where you talk about those two volcanoes and I had a friend who needed some encouragement and I, I might not have been allowed to do this because it was a pre-released copy, but I snapped a picture of this paragraph at the end of that chapter.

[00:51:38] I

[00:51:39] Ronne: Hey, contract contraband care is still good care. It is. No, I that I'm, I'm honored that, that story. There are several stories and I just love, I love how God's, again, he speaks to us through scripture, but he confirms all, he confirms his truth in a sunrise, in the quiet of the sunset, in seasons, in,  The behavior of a baby.

[00:52:10] He just has so many. He's such an excellent teacher and reminder of his grace and mercy and kindness and the fact that he does teach us he, he says that he is not gonna. He's not gonna let us down. He says he's the author and the Perfector. He is gonna finish what he started. He is really going to finish what he started in us.

[00:52:37] And so it goes back to that. If I really see myself as designed by him as a, as a beautiful reflection of his character and his grace and his mercy, and I know that he is not going to ever leave me or forsake me.

[00:53:01] Kay: right.

[00:53:02] Ronne: Then that gives me confidence when the times are not great cause he also promises in scripture that there's going to be suffering, that it's not going to be easy.

[00:53:11] And I would give anything to, if I was an editor right now,   a development editor, like in a novel, I'd be so stripping those things out of scripture and saying, I'm sorry. They just, um, they don't advance the narrative. They just need to be stripped out. We're just going to have a single narrative.

[00:53:28] But. Mmm. They're there, which to me and what I pray that this book and just our lives in your podcasts. Okay. Or just reminders that he, he designed us with purpose. He designed us for purpose. He designed us on purpose. It was not an accident.  she has purpose is far bigger and far more imaginative than we could ever like claim to.

[00:53:56]And just to, to hold onto those things, to reply, say reclaim them because they were there. They'd been there since the beginning. I think we have, we've sacrificed so many because we, we don't believe that he might actually love us that much

[00:54:18] Kay: That's some truth right there. That's the hard truth. We don't want to admit that, but we find it because it just kind of eats out in those moments.

[00:54:28] Ronne: yeah, and I'm still learning. I am no expert, man. I'm no expert, and I have lived with this book probably 15 times during the writing of it, and now the launching of it, like, Oh, there it is again. That's okay though. At least I recognize it. Like, okay, that's right. Holding on, holding on now, cause we've been through this before.

[00:54:56] I have felt this before and you've been here before. You're here. So yeah.

[00:55:04] Kay: Yeah, and it's going to be exciting to see what he does with this, this book, because I know you have, I, we, it's been two years since we talked on this podcast. I mean,

[00:55:16] Ronne: That was, well two years ago I had John. Did I just,

[00:55:20] Kay: we talked about it and teeny, teeny, tiny bit. It was kind of like a mentioned that you were working on a book.

[00:55:26] Ronne: yeah,

[00:55:28] cause I had just, because at that point it was like, Oh my gosh, it's a real book. It's not, it's not just the, my original idea, which was I'm just going to share these great stories about these women and I'm going to try to raise a little money with it. And yay. But it was the idea that it was actually going to end up being a book of transformation two years ago.

[00:55:53] I don't know if I still believing it. I was just walking the road of realizing that, Oh wow, they're, they're just really Mark something here.  

[00:56:03]Kay: Yeah,

[00:56:05] Ronne: And. It's been a vulnerable journey and it's, and so it shall remain, but it's okay. Right?

[00:56:14] Kay: yeah, yeah.

[00:56:15] Ronne: like, come on, I'll take that. Bring your vulnerability to me.

[00:56:18] It's fine, girl. I got you.

[00:56:20] Kay: he does. He, he's good with that. Yeah. I tell us how we can find you on the, on all the internet things

[00:56:29] Ronne: All the

[00:56:30] Kay: well, maybe not. I'll admit it. You know, all the, all the places because you, you,  it's, you write wonderful words, words of encouragement and truth that are just always a nice sweetener for my Facebook feed.

[00:56:44] You know? 

[00:56:45] Ronne:   you were kind, you know, I just, I have told people I am addicted to hope aye. Because God's hope does not disappoint.

[00:56:54] Hope does not disappoint. And. I really, I see. When I see the future in a person or whatever, I always see a redemptive destination.  And for the longest time I tried to hide that because it felt, I don't know, kind of felt.

[00:57:11] In some ways I thought, Oh gosh, it sounds like Pollyanna, but it's not. It is not the, it's not effortless effort. Bessant yay. It's all going to be good guys. Stuff. It is this gritty hope that goes to war,

[00:57:30] Kay: Yeah,

[00:57:31] Ronne: That isn't afraid to get messy.  cause that's how God is, right? He is not afraid to get in the trenches with us.

[00:57:38] So,

[00:57:39] Kay: Well, that's faith. When, when the Bible describes faith, it's substance. So if you were, you know, if you look up faith and you try to, like, if you do an image search for faith, you didn't get pictures of churches and angels and clouds, what you should really get as a Rock.

[00:58:01] Ronne: That's true. Big Boulder. It's got grit on it. Right.

[00:58:07] So,  I, it's RonneRock pretty much everywhere. And that is R O N N E. Even though autocorrect will misspell it, it's okay. And again, short for Veronica and Ronnie, the with the no eyes, just. Just to be different, I guess, but it's RonneRock.com 

[00:58:28] Kay: Hmm 

[00:58:28] Ronne: also on Instagram, I'm running Rock on Facebook, just slightly different.

[00:58:34] It's running Rock, right? And that's my author page. And then if someone wants to buy the book, one woman can change the world. The easiest way to do it, you can find it anywhere books are sold or you can go to one woman can change the world.com. And the links are all there. Everything is there for you to make it easy.

[00:58:56] But yeah, it's available.

[00:58:58] Kay: All

[00:58:59] Ronne: buy it and  in, and it will be released

[00:59:05] Kay: Yeah. Yes.

[00:59:06] Ronne: the, into the homes of kind souls everywhere.

[00:59:12] Kay: Absolutely. For sure. And I'll have those links in the show notes for, for everybody who's driving and can come back later. 

[00:59:23] Ronne: Yes. Do not use your phone right now to make a purchase. Yeah.

[00:59:31] Kay: Awesome. Ronnie, it's always such a pleasure to talk with you.

[00:59:35] Ronne: Oh, this was so good. I wish we lived close to each other just so we could hang out and have coffee all the time.

[00:59:40] Kay: Yes, that'd be awesome. I'll be right over.

[00:59:43] Ronne: Good.