It's Not Over: Dan and Sarah's Story

Welcome to the Victorious Living Podcast. You are about to hear real stories of real people who have discovered the real hope of Jesus Christ. I am Christi Overton Johnson, the founder and publisher of Victorious Living Magazine. Since 2011 I have had the privilege of sharing the most amazing life stories. I never cease to be amazed at the life transforming power of Jesus Christ. Today in our podcast you are going to go deeper into these amazing God stories and hear from those who have overcome incredible odds and discover how they found a life of freedom. You can discover it too. I trust that you'll enjoy today's conversation between our host and our special guest. Thank you for listening and be sure to share the hope you hear and the mission of Victorious Living. I am honored to be here with Dan Evans. Dan, first question. Would you please introduce the lovely lady sitting to your right? Yes, this is my lovely wife, Sarah, and we've been married for 30 years now. Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and I definitely found a good thing in her. She's been such a blessing in my life, and we've been through a lot together, and we're just very thankful and honored to be able to be an encouragement to those that know us and our story. Sarah, very important question. How do you feel about that introduction? It was good. Did he get a 10? Yes, I gave it a 10. Wow, you guys have been together a long time. That's like half of my life. There I go giving out my age. I read your story that's in the latest issue of Victorious Living magazine, and wow, what a story. I came away with what a love story, not only as you as a couple that was very inspiring, but just what you went through. I want to make it very clear to our listeners today. I guess a lot of us get to a point where we're like, well, what did he do? What did he do? What did somebody do? It's not about that today. I love some things that you really brought out in your story, but God promises us we're all sinners. When we confess, when we pay our dues, pay the price, what does he say he does? He tosses them as far as the East is from the West. This interview is going to be about your story, how you endured things that you went through in your life. If I have it right, you spent eight years incarcerated, Dan? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Wow. You guys were married. You

were together, I think three years. A knock comes on the door. It's just all of the darkness, all the past, everything just hits. You hadn't really enlightened your wife about that. It was kind of a shock. She shows up at the jail the next day. The very next day, yes. You described it, but tell us what you felt like when you got called to the meeting room. What was that about? That night that I got arrested, I tell people it's the worst night of my life. It was also the best night of my life because I got rid of myself and I got rid of God. Like you just said, the scripture is true, that God is faithful and he's just. He forgives us. When he forgives us, he restores us as well. He knows what's best for us. He knew I needed my wife. That was the very next thing he needed to restore. Once I got my relationship restored with the Lord, now he needed to restore my relationship with my wife. I was still in my jail cell, just kind of dealing with all the feelings and the newness of what's life going to be like now and thinking I had lost everything, including my wife, even though I knew God and I were good. Okay, God, how does this go forward? Then when I heard my name called for a visit, I was thinking, okay, a pastor or spiritual advisor is coming to see me. Then I see her through the glass and it was just like shock. What are you doing here? You have every right not to be here and yet you're here. The Lord was speaking to me through her and just her presence. this with their presence, but just what she said to me, it was just an amazing, amazing display of God's grace in my life. Um, because like you had referred to, she had no clue what was going on. And then, uh, but she said she forgave me as soon as I walked out the door, having no idea what was going on. She's still forgetting me. But the Lord was speaking to me, reminding me, Hey, what happened last night when I forgave you? That means it's over with. You're forgiven. And so her saying that reminded me of God saying, Hey, I have forgiven you. It's done. It's over. It's removed as far as the east is from the west to be remembered again. No more. And I needed that. I needed that because, you know, we have plenty of people in our lives. I'm sure you included that have reminded us of the sins of our past. But God says what sin. So she was a perfect example of God's grace. And then the other thing she said, you know,

when we made our vows, I didn't just make my vow to you. I made my vow to God. And we said, for better or for worse, this is just the worst part. And so it's just an overwhelming presence of the Lord in my life. And just to have her back in my life like, okay, we can get through this. And I'm just so thankful she's still here today. Well, well, you touched on a couple of things. I was going to ask her saved her from having to answer that. Keep it up. Let me keep it up. Sarah. Gosh, that first night that had to be really hard. And I think other people go through that. I mean, I know other people go through that. How I mean, you were a Christian, both you were right is what, what were you saying to yourself? What was God saying to you? What, what gave you the decision and the strength to go to that jail the next day and say what you did? I guess it's love. You know, I just thought he needed me now more than ever. And so how could I just walk away? You know, I didn't know if his family was going to support him. I didn't know who was going to support it when I didn't want him to be in there by himself. So I guess that's the, you know, it just was the thing to do. I don't know. I just, you know, I did have after that I had definitely days of depression. You know, I just I couldn't get out of bed. It's like three days straight where I'm just like, didn't want to eat, you know, it was just like, hit me. And I grew up in a very sheltered family, you know, went to a, was saved at an early age, went to a Christian school, Christian college, taught in a Christian school. I was just very sheltered. And I mean, literally to the point where when they told me he was going to be incarcerated, I didn't know what that word meant. That's how sheltered I was. And so when, you know, I found out that he was in jail, I was just like, oh my word, I, if it were me, I wouldn't want to be by myself. And so I just knew it was the right thing to do. And so I went and saw him. But then as I said, days after that, it was like, that didn't really hit you. Like, oh my word, what's going to happen? And what are the next steps? But as I told him, and I believed that God was telling me that this is what we're going to do, no matter what it looks like, we're doing it together.

When you arrived, and Dan came, you know, you guys met, I guess you had the glass between you or the plexiglass. And you forgave him, you told him you forgave him. And, you know, you mentioned the whole better or worse, this is the worst. What were each of you, and whoever wants to go first is fine. Ladies first, maybe, but that's okay, if Dan wants to go first. What was the feeling that you had, if you could just describe it for a moment, when you just came together like that? It's hard to remember. It's been so long ago, the thoughts that come to my mind is, like, it's fear. You know, when you're walking in for the first time, and you don't know, you know, someone's patting you down and telling what you can bring and can't bring, I mean, this was all brand new to me, didn't know any of this, didn't even know where the jail was, you know, I had to plug it in and figure out where I was, where I was going. I didn't know anything about that. And then we had to pick up a phone to talk. So when he came for the first time, he just looked defeated. And, you know, wearing stripes, and just, it was just a feeling of, I guess, fear. And, you know, is he going to be okay? I guess. This was my thought for me. It was just relief, I guess, you know, to and hope. Like I said before, I knew God and I were good, but I had questions. What does my future look like? You know, what's life look like now that everything has changed? But yet, when he came and brought my wife back to me, then it's just like, okay, that sense of, we got this. It's not normal, of course. It's a new life. But, you know, I thought of the verse in Proverbs, the three-stranded cord, you know, okay, my wife's back and God's here too. So the three of us, we're going to make this. And it gave me a sense of, we're part of a bigger picture. It's not always about us. Even though we may make choices that we have to reap the consequences from, God can bring beauty from the ashes. If we come back to him and he can make all things, and we work together for good, Romans 8, 28, it plays out. And I knew it wasn't going to be easy. It hasn't been peaches and cream, you know, for the past some odd 20 some odd years, but it's been worth it because we see God in all that he has done in us, in our marriage, with our children that he's blessed us with, and through us with the ministry, and then being able to just be a beacon of light, a beacon of hope to those that are incarcerated to know that, hey, your life's not over. God can restore even you. If he can do it for us, he can do it for anybody. I would imagine, and you would know way better than I, the percentage of couples

when one or the other gets in a situation where they become incarcerated, and I even know a few that are in separate facilities. They're both incarcerated, but you know, what you must go through and what you must feel. I'm listening to you, and you know what I'm hearing is I'm hearing a description, a definition of unconditional love. That's amazing. It's one thing for us to know and talk about God loving us unconditionally, but pretty clearly when Sarah came there, she was giving you unconditional love. Absolutely. That brings me to something else, because it goes right hand in hand with that term, unconditional love. What does grace mean to you? Hmm. I mean, we can, you know, go ahead. No. Just the, you know, the acronym, of course, God's riches at Christ's expense, but just when you live it out and see that God's unconditional love, that He loves us so much, and He does not cast away a sincere, contrite heart, and we come humbly, and we come sincerely repentant of our sins, and then to not just remove it and just keep us where we're at, but to restore us, you know, in that, I don't deserve that. I don't deserve, none of us deserve that, but to see that unconditional love come from our Heavenly Father, it's just, it's almost indescribable sometimes, Randy. It's just, it's just amazing to be a child of the living God, to just live knowing that our Father not just loves us, but He loves to restore and actually show us off, like, look at my son, look at my daughter, and what I can do, not anything we can do in our own strength, but what He can do in us and through us. That's for me. Yeah, I mean, what we deserve, we don't get, you know, here's what we deserve. We are constantly doing that with our kids, you know, it's like, no, you did this, you deserve this. However, this time, we're going to give, we're going to give grace. You're going to walk away with no punishment. I think of that 1 Peter 5, 10, after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. So again, that grace, we deserve this, which we all do. We all deserve hell. We deserve eternal suffering. And yet, He is kind to give us grace, to give us a son. So allowing us to walk free. we don't deserve it. So what would you say or what do you say, and we'll talk about your ministry, having lived this, having experienced it, having gone through it, having it, you know, taking a big part of your lives, what would you be saying to other couples who have an incarcerated partner or a family member or a friend? What advice would you give

to them on how to be towards their loved one that's become incarcerated? And then flipping it around, what would you tell the incarcerated person to do? You know, both sides of that. I mean, for, we do a lot of ministry for spouses and those that have, you know, those that are incarcerated family members, and it's hard. First of all, I say, I don't know how anyone gets through anything like this without God, because it's tough with God, you know, without God or without having that hope. It's, you know, and without having that friend that's beside you that you can call on and depend on, and that provides for you, like we just said, that strengthens you, that gives you all those things that you need. I mean, I don't think I could have done it. And so to have him as your friend and being able to read his word and let him feed you. So I really encourage that. First of all, if you don't have a relationship with God, like, that's the first step, because it's going to be near impossible to do it without him. So for the family members, I just say, you know, just listen to God and see what he tells you, because sometimes, I don't know, the situations that we're in, you know, they'll call and say, what should I do? What should I do? Should I stay with him? Should I do, you know, and I just say, you got to let God tell you what to do, because I'm not going to say you have to be out of those situations. All I'm saying is, you have to rely on God and just trust him to help in the situation. And it's not going to be easy. You know, you have to, it's going to be a tough road, but with God, all things are possible, right? And he just directs and you get that close relationship with him, because you're walking with him and everything, you're having to rely on him. I lost my job. We lost our house that we were building. There were so many losses that it just feels beat down, you know? So it's hard. I get that. What would you tell those? I think for those, from my perspective, from the incarcerated is, you know, I just go back to my situation. It wasn't a bartering situation. It wasn't like, God, get me out of this and I'll serve you. It was, there is no deal. It's, okay, God, you got my attention. And if it has to be me and you the rest of my life, you have me. I don't need anything else. And that's all God wants. God just wants us. And when, if you can get to that point where you get the excuses out of the way, no more, yeah, buts. It's just, okay, God, yes, take responsibility. I took responsibility for my action. I did it, you know? Yes. Okay, God, let's go forward, me and you. And then work on you, work on your relationship. Same with what Sarah's saying, from both sides, it has to start with the relationship with the Lord, wherever

that's at. And then once that gets going, you know, as the incarcerated person, work on yourself and bettering. So I tell people, I'm very thankful for the eight years I was in because during that time, God took out of me those things that needed to get out, but he also put in me those things that I needed to get put in. So it wasn't like, hey, when I get out, I'm going to do this. No, I'm doing it right now, right here in prison. I'm going to serve the Lord in prison because we can't serve the Lord as an incarcerated individual. You're not going to serve the Lord when you get out. So that's just, I mean, it's, and it's not easy. It's some hard truths, but you just got to face reality on that. So you, you just had a, I forget how you said it exactly in the article, but it's like, you had this, this like moment where all of a sudden you thought I'm going to start serving the Lord now while you're in prison, I'm going to start being a leader, a mentor. I'm going to start helping others. And you did. And so you did, you attended Bible studies, started leading Bible studies and wow. Take your shirt, lift it up just a little bit. Okay. So tell me, this is your ministry. Tell me, tell me about that. So, Harvest Life, actually, it's kind of a cool story. It's been around since 1988. A husband and a wife started it, and they started by ministering to Spanish incarcerated individuals. And I actually met Dan and Marilyn Nace while I was in prison. He came to where I was at at Liberty Correctional. He was teaching a Spanish Bible study. And then God brings it full circle. When I get out, I end up at his church. I got called to prison ministry while in prison. God used a former incarcerated individual sharing his story at a chapel service to speak to me and call me to prison ministry. And then I knew when I got out, I wanted to be involved. I didn't want to leave anything. I just wanted to be a part of a team. And yet, God brings me to a church where Dan and Marilyn are at, and they're getting to the end of their ministry life, and they're in their 70s, and he's praying for someone to take this over, because he didn't want the ministry to end. And when he came and asked Sarah and I to kind of consider doing that, yeah, it gave me anxiety. Panic attacks. I'm like, this is too big. But I mean, I think Mark Batterson has a saying about if your dreams aren't big enough or doesn't scare you, there's something wrong with that, because God wants those things. He doesn't want us to lean on our own understanding. And then I told God, I don't even know how to speak Spanish. I can't read Spanish. And all they do is Spanish. But God's like, that's okay, because that's going to still be a part

of Harvest of Life, but I got something else I need you to do, and it's about relationships. And all those relationships that he showed me in prison, as far as building relations with those men, now it's going to translate into what we do now with teams. We bring in teams of volunteers. We're in 22, 23 prisons throughout the state of Florida. Every single month we do monthly worship services. We have over 90 volunteers as far as a part of our team. So it went from two to over 90. And then we have three separate teams, a West team, a North team, and a South team. And Lord willing, we'll have more in the future. But it's about building those relationships and being involved. But that's all God, because that wasn't me. That's not what I wanted. But I just wanted to serve the Lord. And if this was what God wanted, it had to be yes, Lord, and put it all in the middle. Just give it all to the Lord and watch what he can do. And this has been kind of amazing to see what he's done. That's wonderful. So Sarah, when you were sharing a little bit ago, you were talking about while, I guess while he was in, and then maybe when he came out, but there was a period of years there. The income, I mean, things really got bad. But you came out of that. And I see the statement, beauty out of ashes. Can you talk about that? For sure. I met some, so while I was visiting him, I would meet some different ladies, girlfriends, people that were coming to visit. And we just kind of started talking and I saw there was so much need, you know, for community. And so I came back and just started praying about what to do with that. And the church that God had brought us to was just absolutely amazing. They were the hands of God for sure. They just were my family during that time. And so I went to the pastor and just started talking about, hey, I feel like there's a need and I'm willing to serve. And so we right there in the church started a, it was called Wives in Waiting. And we invited the ladies to come. Most of them had kids. So we had a kid program going on and it was small. I mean, there was six, seven of us and we would, we started doing just kind of a Bible study and mostly just for community to just talk about, hey, what are you going through? What are your needs? Okay, let's pray about it. Let's put it on the table and just pray for God to meet your needs. And so that kind of started, we did that for a little bit. And then it kind of died out. You came home, we got involved with all the stuff for Harvest Alive. But just recently, probably less than

a year ago, God started again, there was a need. People started reaching out to him when they heard our story. They'd reach out, hey, I've got a friend that's going through this. Hey, like girl, my Sunday school, her husband just got arrested. Can you talk to her? So the needs started coming and it was like, okay, God, what do you want? I'm not, I don't really don't have time for this. You know, got so much else going on. And, but if there's a need, if you really want me to do this. And one of the ladies on our team, her husband's incarcerated and she is a mental health counselor. And we were praying about it and we're like, I think she should leave. group, let's do a group. And so she's like, great, I'll do it. And so we're doing 40 days of purpose. And we have about 10 ladies all over the state of Florida, and would love to expand it because we do it like this on zoom. And just Oh, okay. I wasn't like saying, you pause there for a second. I thought I was gonna just jump in there. I asked permission before we started, if I could ask you this. So you're married about three years. The knock on the door comes, they take Dan off. And what seemed as you said, like a honeymoon time, all of a sudden was an extremely threatened. You wanted to have children. That was part of the plan, right? I mean, you were looking forward to having a family together. And all of a sudden, there's that fear like, that maybe is not going to happen. So Dan, you're incarcerated, you decide you're going to start serving the Lord while you're in there. And then Sarah's decide she's going to minister to incarcerated women who are pregnant. And see, I look at things psychologically or trauma based. And I'm thinking that had, you'd think that'd be hard. But what made you what led you to make that choice to specifically work with pregnant women, something that you were looking forward to, hopefully in your life. Right. Um, I guess I need again, you know, it just where God puts

you, we were in a small church and that church, one of the ladies there worked with Department of Corrections. And she was telling me about a federal facility right here in Tallahassee that is housing pregnant federal ladies. And they're there until the baby's born. And it's kind of connected with Angel Tree. So Angel Tree also came in and helped like provide a Christmas time provide them, you know, we threw them a shower for their babies and things like that. But they said there was a need and they would love to have someone come in and do some sort of a group with them. So I asked if we could do a Bible study. And they're like, sure. I'm not I don't know if everyone will come. But you can sure have one. Well, you again, it's about relationships, right? You come in and you show them, hey, you know, I love you, like Jesus loves you, you know, I just want to show you love and grace. And I'm going to spend my time coming in and just getting to know you. And so then they actually let them come to our church around Christmas time, like I said, and Angel Tree help provide things for us for them. And it was just showing love, I guess showing the love of God, it just opened up an opportunity. And it was really neat, because some of them already have the babies, and they're allowed to have the baby, you know, in there for a certain number of months, and then they hand over the baby until their time is served. So I knew they were going through a lot of things that I had gone through just in a different way. I'm sure it's a different way with the baby than it is with a husband, but God just opened an opportunity. And I just thought it was the thing to do. And so, you know, it was just kind of neat to see that. Yeah, that's cool. We're gonna we're gonna start winding this down.

And so I want to target some specific ideas or comments, something we can leave for people to think about. Going back to the beauty from ashes, you know, just life just getting totally ripped apart. And what would you want to tell you know, those listening to this, who are in that position right now? They're hurting. Maybe they're just got in, maybe, maybe they've been in a long time. I mean, they're just they're like wondering, what in the world do I do to pull my life back together? Can you just give us a brief summary of what steps they should take today now and moving forward? What did you do? How can they do that? How can they relate to that? From my perspective, is just that, you know, God is near the brokenhearted. We know that he is there for you. And it's tough. And it's dark for many days. I mean, it's not like it was easy. It was hard. It was difficult. There was a lot of things to work through. But I knew that God was there. And I knew that he was providing. I mean, we could tell Story after story after story about how God met needs and so if you give it to him, he, he is your friend and he delights in you and he wants to meet your needs. And so I just encourage them to, you know, just really rely on the Lord find community. If I want to found community, I would be separated now and just completely away from church and because of some of the things that went on and the hurtfulness through all of that that I had was the hardest part for me. And so finding a community that really loves like God loves, and you can do that in the chapel. If you're on the outside, you have to find a church that God directs you to and find that Christian community because without that, I felt like I really would have suffered much more than I did. It just was such a joy to find the people of God that give grace and love and love like Jesus loved. And so I would encourage you to trust God, find community, open the word, start reading the book of James, reading the book of John, really letting God speak to you through that. And, and I, and reach out to ministries that, you know, go up to the chapel. I really encourage the guys to go up to the chapel and get involved, because that takes the focus off of you and puts it on serving like Jesus served and you forget about a lot of your issues when you're serving others. And I encourage you to encourage you to do that. I think of Psalm chapter 34, that he hears our cry in Deuteronomy 31. He doesn't leave us. He doesn't forsake us. He's for you. He's not against you. And I agree with Sarah with the community, even though from the incarcerated standpoint, that takes on a different view, because you don't know who to trust. And so I'm very thankful for the prayers of my wife and others that were praying that God led the right people into my path. And so we have to use wisdom and discretion and discernment when we're incarcerated as far as who to open up to and who to trust and stuff. And so I pray that those who are incarcerated listen to this, you know, like Sarah said, same thing, rely fully on God. And then, but also community. And that's like restoring hope, right? Harvest the life. We're here to restore hope because he restored hope for us. And we, that's why we go in, come to the chapel. And that's why we're trying to be in every prison because we want to be that community for them that to let these men know, and women, we go in the women's room, you're not alone. You do have people in your corner. You do have people who are for you and against you. We're, we're the hands and feet of Jesus in your life. Let us help by being that word of encouragement by being that body saying, hey, we're here. We're taking a Saturday morning to be here. We're taking a Thursday afternoon. We're here. We want to be here. It's not just checking a box for us. We love you truly love you and let us be that picture of God's grace and love in your life. And so I just want the men and the women who are wearing blue or whatever color and wherever you're at to know that God sees you. He hears you and he's for you open up your heart and let him in and see what happens.

I went in one day. It was really chilly and blustery. And, and, uh, so I had this big, heavy blue shirt. And one of the guys sees me and he says to me, he says, Randy, if I ever get out, I'm never wearing blue again. So I said, all right, I'll never wear the shirt when I come in. It's been great talking to the two of you. I want to give you one last moment. You know, to talk about what motivates you, what a motto might be, what drives you, what keeps you going every day. What would that be? So, for me, my life verse, the verse that God gave me when I was in prison was Jeremiah 32, 27. And the word says, behold, I'm the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? Because in my mind, I was putting a lot of stuff out there. It's like, God, you can't do this. Look what I have to face. I have this. I have this. I have this. But God kept bringing that back. And it's like, bring it. Is there anything too hard for you? There's nothing. Like we already said, you know, there's nothing impossible. God, I said, the God of the possible. And so I tell the men that I may not know the challenges they face, but I know the challenges I face, both in prison and out of prison. And God continue and continues and continues to guide me through the challenges that I face. reaffirm, there's nothing too hard. Just give it to me. If you give it to me, watch what happens, the mountains will move, you know, I'll overcome because we are overcomers through Christ. And so I just want to encourage them. That's my motto. There's nothing too hard for the Lord. So why am I making things complicated? Just trust him. Amen. Yeah. And Sarah, he, he could have let you go first, but he's given you the last word. How wonderful is that? Share it with us. I just think of the goodness of God. Um, I love that song, the goodness of God. And you know, you've led me through the fire and the darkest night that you're close by me and God is good. And even though we mess up and screw up every single day, you know, we're sinners and continue to just remember that God is good and he wants to restore us. And we said that, and to remember that your story is not over, God's still writing your story. Um, it's neat to think of that when you mess up, you know, when I think, oh man, I really screwed that up and to think, okay, it's okay. God's using this for his glory. How now can we continue to write this story to make it a, just a beautiful picture of God's grace and goodness. I said, she had the last word. So Dan, you can't say anything else. You'll ruin the moment. Hey, Dan and Sarah, it's been great having you. And, uh, I'm, I mean the stories, the things, the thoughts, the points you've made and your smiling faces. I know it's lifted me up and I know it will our listeners. Thank you so much. And I wish you all the best God's blessing as you continue to minister out there every day. Thank you so much. Living Magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098 or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living Magazine free of charge in bulk with or without staples.