 Radiant Church presents Radiant Stories, a collection of stories that showcase God's faithfulness to take our hopeless situations and craft them into beautiful testimonies of his power, provision, and love. Welcome back to the Radiant Stories podcast. I am Anna Rittering and I'm here today with the condos, Ryan and Betty condo, and I'm excited today to hear about their ministry journey. They have a bit of a wild ride with leaving the U.S. and coming back and I just want to hear, you know, what God has laid on your heart, why you went away, why you came back. You know, where did your journey as a couple in ministry start? Yeah, I think for, you know, for me it started, I should probably start around the same time, although Betty wasn't in full-time ministry at the time. I was, I graduated college from the University of Central Florida. I had a teaching degree. I was gonna be a high school history teacher and it was that summer after college that the Lord just really made it clear that I was supposed to give some time to him in ministry and so I had an invitation at the time to join a college ministry. I actually never even went to the college ministry before while I was in college, but they were like, hey, we'd love for you to be on staff, which meant you're working for free, you're an intern. And so I said now I have a job, you know, I had a job lined up, a teaching job. It was gonna use my degree. The summer after graduating, the Lord really spoke to me in a variety of ways and it was really clear that he wanted me to go into ministry. So I said yes and I thought it was just gonna be like a two-year thing, but it ended up being, I was 2004. So. Going on 15 years. Yeah, so that was my beginning and actually Betty and I met the March before I graduated college. And so. I actually went to his graduation, he invited me. I don't know why. You barely knew each other. I think we had just met. He's like, hey, you wanna come to my graduation? I invited her to that and, you know, she was on the worship team with me. It was awesome. So that was my first introduction into ministry. And for me, I think that was when the Lord spoke to me and really us about what our ministry would look like because it was actually, we did a 21-day fast. Oh wow. We're into 21-day fast here at Radiant, but that was my first fast and it was a 21-day fast. And I remember asking the Lord the whole time, Lord, what do you want, what do you want me to do in ministry? What are you calling us? And Lord spoke really clearly throughout the 21 days, the same phrase over and over again. And it was, you know, raise up singers, musicians and worship leaders who will love me with all the heart, soul, mind and strength. And he just kept saying that over and over again in a bunch of different ways. So I started doing that at the college ministry at Wesley Foundation. And I just never stopped even when I went to Kansas City, you know, as a 24-7 prayer room, but that was, for me, the foundation was discipleship, raising up young people to love God wholeheartedly. And whatever assignment the Lord gave me, I kind of used that to walk out the calling. Yeah, I would say in the same way for me, I grew up going to just like a very fundamental Bible church. Ryan grew up with more of a Assemblies of God charismatic background, but going to the Wesley Foundation, which is interesting because it's a Methodist ministry, but it's the first time for me that I really learned about prayer, like what actual prayer is conversation with the Lord. And then fasting and yeah, what it looks like to just kind of pour yourself out before the Lord. Which is great, because I had a lot of, you know, Bible knowledge and memorized lots of scripture and things like that, but it just kind of gave me this hunger for like, wow, there really is more. And in the context of ministry, it kind of painted a broader picture. And then did you make your move to Kansas City after that? Yeah, so that's actually Wesley's where I was introduced to IHOP. You know, I'm like, okay, 24-7 worship. I go to this thing, it's called One Thing Conference in Kansas City. It was powerful. I feel like all of us, you know, we came back to Kansas City, not so much equipped, but I felt like we had picked something up. And so I went back a second year and that's when they announced Foreigner Music Academy. And that's actually what led me out to Kansas City. That was 2005, one thing. Ryan calls me on New Year's Eve and he's like, hey, babe, so I think I'm moving to Kansas City. I said, what? You're moving to where? Bunch of cows. Yeah, bunch of cow fields, right? Flat, corn fields. Yeah, there's no beach there, what? Oh man, yeah, that was a big sacrifice. Long story short, we moved there. I moved there in 2006. She joins me in 2007. And for me, it was, you know, going to Kansas City at the time when I went there was to join with the Music Academy, which was- Had it just started? It literally, I was at Guinea Pig. I was in first year. So Derek Lax announced it at the conference and I was like, yeah, I want to go, I want to be part of it. It was such a great time. And I thought I was just going there for a year and then I was going back to Orlando to, I thought I was getting equipped and I was going to go back to Orlando. And yeah, the Lord just kept us, kept me in KC. Sorry, I just have to laugh. Why? Like, oh yeah, I'll just be there for a year. It was so long, it was a decade. I was there for 10 years. But yeah, just, I mean, honestly, the Lord just used his school to get me there because I never would have moved to a different city to just be a missionary. That wasn't on my radar at all. And so I got to KC that first year was insane because I was the only one, I was 25 years old at the time. Everyone else was 18 in the school. I was the old guy. Everyone else had, you know, parents were helping them pay for stuff. My parents already did all that. They were like, you got to work on your own. I was delivering newspapers. I was working at Starbucks on top of a, you know, 50 hours of school week, plus 24 hours in the prayer room. It was like 90 hours a week. It was insane. It was insane. I don't know how I survived, but the best part of that time, the best part of that time, you know, Betty wasn't there, so that's probably half of how it worked. Yeah, that's right. She was still in, you actually went to Maryland at the time. Yeah, I had moved back to Maryland. So we were at long distance at the time, but the best part of that first year was my time in the prayer room. It was like the sweetest time for me because I was working crazy hours. School, I don't remember any of it, honestly. But I just remember what really impacted me was sitting before the Lord, gazing upon the beauty of God, worshiping him and setting my eyes on him. So that was the first part. Second part was just seeing God answer prayer. So inquiring in his temple, we were daily, you know, we were worshiping him, we were gazing on God. But then the other side of that was we were asking God to do what was in his heart to do. And I saw God answer prayer, corporate prayer. I mean, I'd never really seen before. I'd only really read about in books, you know, seeing us like pray for ending of human trafficking every Monday night, which at the time was not really on the radar of the world like it is now. But we were praying for the ending of human trafficking and, you know, and my job, my part time job, throwing newspapers, I would see the answer to our prayers like literally word for word on the front page of like brothels being shut down in Kansas City, massage parlors being shut down, the Lord, not to say the Lord, but it was like, you know, police have insight into some human trafficking things. And it's like crazy, it was almost word for word, what we prayed on the mic and what we were all joining in with on a Monday night. Prayer meeting, seeing those prayers actually be answered in the city was pretty amazing. So that's the school, I only did a year of it. Actually, I actually dropped out. I'm a FMA dropout, one of the first, but I joined staff that next year. And really I think what kept me, what kept us in KC was just, you know, it's really what I think motivates everybody in life, hopefully, but just the worth of Jesus, you know, whether you're, I mean, to say, a home mom or like a teacher or whatever, the worth and beauty of God is like central, you know. And so that's what kept me in KC. Well, and even for me, because I actually didn't move to Kansas City for IHOP, I got a job at Kansas City Ballet. I had spent my whole life preparing for this career as a professional dancer. So I got a job with Kansas City Ballet and moved there a year after Ryan moved there in 2007. I used it as a platform to go into the prayer room, be commissioned from that place into the workplace and share about like, just like Ryan said, the worth and beauty of Jesus. So that's kind of what kept me there. And I loved what Ryan did. I loved the prayer and I loved being a part of the community, but I was actually never on staff there. I started doing a lot with discipleship and small groups and helping facilitate other, we call them friendship groups. It was kind of like, we were both in ministry, but it wasn't side by side. You were there for a decade. When did the Lord put something on your heart for New Zealand? It was actually 2010. Yeah, it was not long after he'd gotten his worship team, the director of the house of prayer in Todanga, New Zealand, had approached Ryan about coming and me, yeah, us, about moving to New Zealand to help strengthen the prayer room from a worship aspect. So training singers and musicians. And at the time, you know, Ryan had just gotten his team. And the awakening was happening. So there was like a visitation from the Lord where it was like, people were getting healed, saved. It was powerful. Yeah. So we were... And you were dancing? Yeah, I was dancing. Yeah, so we were kind of like, thanks, but no thanks. It was for real, like, sounds cool, but not for you. We're flattered. Yeah. So we kind of said to him, yeah, we'll pray about it. But our prayer was about 30 seconds long. It was 30 second prayers. You got to get our attention if you want us to move to New Zealand. And for me, I was kind of like, where is New Zealand? It's on the other side of the world somewhere. I had no grid for even how far away it was or anything like that. But about six months after the invitation came, I had a really profound dream. And in the dream, I saw the whole layout of this land. And it was like a small beach town. I saw the main kind of like hotel or resort of this area. And in the dream, the name of the building was called the Twin Towers. And I remember even reasoning in my dream thinking, nobody would name a hotel the Twin Towers. It doesn't sound very luxurious. I just remember when I woke up feeling prompted by the Holy Spirit to look up that place. And I remember later, I came home from rehearsal that day. And Ryan came home and kind of all the details came flooding back. And I said, Ryan, I had this crazy dream last night. I feel like I'm supposed to look it up. How do you look up a place that you dreamt about? And then I remembered Twin Towers Resort. So I said, OK, I'm just going to Google this, I guess. So I Google literally typed in Twin Towers Resort and a link popped up. And I kind of went, what? And you clicked on it. And it was like the aerial view that she saw in her dream, like exactly the layout of the land, all the details she saw in her dream. It was on the website wasn't that great. Like that then? Aerial view, like the whole picture of the website was like that with like words over it. So you can't even read the words really. But I said, I mean, it was recognizable enough to where I said, Ryan, this is the place that I dreamt about. I have to know where this is. There's got to be some significance to this. So I'm searching for the address. It's like blah, blah, blah, blah. Turanga, New Zealand. And I went, oh my gosh. Remember that 30-second prayer about Lord, you have to get our attention? You got our attention. Yeah, so he got our attention. We went to visit about six months after that. So that was in? 2011. Yeah, 2011, April of 2011. And then we really felt marked by the Lord. We felt called to that land and that nation. And we knew that we'd go there at some point. We just didn't know when or how or what the context would be. So we spent. It felt like the Lord had said yes, but not yet. And there's a pause button. It was 2015 in August that we felt that it was time. The door was still open. And Ryan had been back one other time to visit without me. And he still felt like it was a calling from the Lord to go. So he felt like that pause button was released. And I announced to my team, they were very mad at me. But I announced that we were moving. Did the team know how long of a process in prayer and how long the pause button had been on? I think a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. I feel like I didn't tell them. Hope I did. Because we went in 2011. And then Ryan went back in 2013. And because it was a yes in our hearts. And so I think. It was just kind of a not yet. Right. And so I mean, I don't want to say it was like rumors. But people would come up to us and be like, oh, we heard you guys moving to New Zealand. We're like, really? OK. Interesting. I didn't know that. So yeah, so the pause button was released. And we just spent that next year raising support. And part-time at IHOP, we were also serving at a local church, a Presbyterian church in Kansas City, which is awesome church. And we had little pearly by then. And we had pearl. Oh, yeah. So we had spent the next year just preparing, raising support. And that was really hard. Like saying goodbye to family, our first child, and on their visits to come see baby. We were like, hey, by the way. See you later, grandchild to the other side of the world. So we were feeling the cost of everything of moving. But we also knew the Lord sending us. So we had so much confidence in going. I'm so thankful that the Lord gave me the dream. I think Ryan's a little bit more like, yes, Lord, wherever you go, I'll go. The Lord knew that Betty needed to be convinced. In the kindness of the Lord, he knew that I was the one that needed the convincing. Because it was like, I felt like it was a ripping and a tearing to leave. So I'm just so thankful for the kindness of the Lord in strategically giving me a dream about a place 8,000 miles away to get me to go. When you visited, did you visit the House of Prayer there and get a gauge for what you were getting into? Had anything progressed over the multiple visits that you made? Yeah, the House of Prayer been going since 2006 in New Zealand. And it had different morphed a few times. 2011, it was on fire. Actually, there was a guy named Aaron Walsh. He was the director. And then there's another guy with him, Dalton Thomas, who's now in the Middle East and doing amazing work out there. And it was really strong. And I mean, it was powerful. I remember it was cool seeing. It was like something new, too, for the country. So we got to New Zealand in 2016. And in some ways, it felt like it was the weakest I had seen it, the prayer room. But at the same point, because the YWIM Youth of the Mission base was there, the Youth of the Mission base was just exploding. And so our staff was small, the prayer room. And some people might go, oh, that's hard. It's dwindled, whatever. But the prayer meetings, we'd have 100 young people. And it would be fiery contending for God to move in the city, in the nation, and in other nations surrounding. So in some ways, the staff of the prayer room decreased. But the prayer meetings, you wouldn't have known. If you were just coming in from the outside looking in, it was like, wow, this is amazing. So I came there. And we got there, and mostly we just tried to figure out what do we do here. And it wasn't exactly what we expected when we landed. We were being stretched to the mat as leaders. And for the first time, really, we were doing it side by side, completely joined together in ministry. Which, how was that? Was that the first time that that had ever really happened? Yeah, it was really the first time. It was awesome. It was so awesome. Yeah, I felt like it really actually strengthened our marriage. It was cool just praying together, asking, like, we didn't know what to do. I felt like that's a great place to be. Get on your knees together and pray about it, and seek the Lord. What do we do? What's that supposed to do? What are we supposed to do? Just sitting there in the living room. It was cool doing that together. And the first thing we did was we had an internship that we were running at the House of Prayer. That was amazing. We did it together. We discipled eight students from all over. They were great students. And it was the first time we had done discipleships together. It was our crash course, also, of how to lead an internship all by yourself. I thought we'd have a full staff, like three or four people. And it ended up being three of us by the time. And that's including us. So we were like, ah. So we were like, we guys were doing this on our own. And so it was great though. We did it. And I feel like there's a lot of fruit from that. We saw a lot of fruit from those eight people. And we still are in contact with a lot of them. Another huge part of what I feel like the reason why the Lord sent us there was the House of Prayer to always run side by side with that while we're in base. But I think for us, it was cool to just go there. And again, we didn't know what we were doing. And it wasn't exactly what we expected when we landed. But we were asked in the course of that year, the first year asking the Lord, we were on the internship. We were also going, Lord, what do we do with the prayer? How do we strengthen what is here? There's some great foundations that you've laid, Lord. And through the work of Aaron Walsh and Dalton. And it had been going for 10 years. Yeah, 10 years. I've been. 10 plus years. Yeah. And so I'm like, Lord, what can we do to strengthen what you've got here in this city, in this prayer room? And we started asking that question of, OK, God, if it took us five years to get here, why now? Yeah. And so it was actually crazy. So it felt like they were supposed to be emerging of the two, like actually become one. Of the YWAM base. The YWAM base. And the House of Prayer. And so we did that in that next year. It's kind of weird. It's like we moved there to build the House of Prayer. And then we essentially shut down the House of Prayer. Basically. Like the Toronga House of Prayer was no more. And we were now one with the prayer. We essentially moved the prayer room into the YWAM base. And we dropped both of our names and became one ministry. And it was called YWAM Furnace New Zealand. And so yeah, we joined forces with YWAM. And I felt like immediately there was strength added. Because in YWAM, I've always loved the House of Prayer. I mean, all our musicians were YWAM. It was like, if it wasn't for YWAM, there wouldn't have been a House of Prayer. The House of Prayer, I mean, probably before we even got there, had really leaned into the strength of YWAM because the numbers were small at the House of Prayer. And so for us, we just we brought them together and it added strength immediately to what the prayer room was. And so I mean, even when we were leaving, the Lord actually called us back. We wanted to stay longer. We did. We wanted to stay. But the Lord called us back. And so leaving, it was really hard, but it was actually awesome because I don't know where it would have been if we would have left it on its own outside of YWAM. But bringing it together with YWAM is I think it's part of the Lord's strategy to actually give it longevity and strength and that it would not, the fire wouldn't just fizzle out. So it's still burning, you know? We've got some crazy prayer meetings going. Yeah, it's so awesome. And we were talking about on the way here just how half the time, you know, stuff wouldn't work. Like the sound wasn't working. But you'd have these awesome musicians and just such a passion and a hunger for the presence of the Lord in to see a move and from this tiny little place in the ends of the earth. That's always really struck me about your guys' heart and mission for New Zealand is that it is such a tiny place at the ends of the earth. So when you guys got there and when you kind of jumped into it with discipleship and with the Lord laying on your heart, like we should partner with YWAM again, what was kind of the biggest thing that you learned at the end of your season in New Zealand? What was the biggest thing that the Lord put on your heart? Like what's your favorite thing about the people or what do you still find yourself praying for New Zealand? I think the biggest takeaway was we're not tied to a platform or like the big, like we just, we really felt God and encountered God in the small and like the smallness of a small, tiny, 150,000 people literally at the ends of the earth. It's actually the farthest city from Jerusalem. It's actually the ends of the earth, you know? So like, and so it's, but we encountered God in the smallness of it. It's just cool to see God move in that place and really like when we were feeling bankrupt as a leader, you know, we were leaders there, but just like not feeling like we had to have it all together and have all the answers, but just really leaning into God and actually encountering Him as like, I'm gonna actually help you in your leadership. I'm gonna give you wisdom. I'm gonna give you strategy. I'm gonna direct your path when you're like clueless and don't know what to do as a leader. And when we did that together when we were asking God, He really met us in that place. And it was just great because I felt like it's, I mean, you know, you always think, oh, if you're a leader, you have to have it all together. You gotta have the strategy. And I'm reading leadership books at the time. The whole time I'm like trying to like grow as a leader, which is good, you should do that. I'm listening to leadership podcasts, reading books, but really we encountered God as like a helper going, I'm actually gonna help you as leaders. You don't have to have it all together. You don't have to have all the answers and so for us, we just felt the kindness of the Lord, the mercy of God and the help of the Holy Spirit as we were essentially an uncharted territory for us as young leaders. I feel like you guys really, really laid an amazing foundation. You left it in a really peaceful way, I feel, with an open door. I mean, talk about that transition. Coming here? Coming back to the US, yeah. Because, I mean, like you just said, Betty, there was no severing or anything like that, so it'll be kind of like a, we'll go back, you know, and maybe even for a whole another season or something like that, but what brought you guys back to the US? You know, we wanted to stay there. We actually were praying for, we started praying and- January. January. But we even did it fast. We were asking God to show us what He wants to do. Lord, help. Because we were like, we wanted to stay. We got an offer at another church in America to come there. We were praying, God, you want us to stay in New Zealand, go to this church? But we didn't feel peace about either, which is weird. And it was like- Our visa is ending soon. We need to make a decision. And so at that point, we were like, if we don't hear from the Lord, we're going to go to Kansas City where we came from and see and wait there. Ultimately, we didn't feel like that was right either. But when we prayed about extending our visa, we didn't feel peace about that. When we prayed about this other opportunity, just kind of wasn't materializing. We didn't feel complete peace about it. I had a dream. It was not quite as significant or profound, but I did have a dream. God often leads me in dreams, which I'm so thankful for. It's like, just shut up. And when you're sleeping, I can talk to you. But I had a dream that Ryan and I were driving around this very small town and it felt like the middle of nowhere. In the Midwest. Yeah, it was somewhere in the Midwest. And I remember us feeling like in the natural, it wasn't a place that we would want to be or go to. But I remember Ryan saying, I really feel like this is the right decision for our family. We just kind of started putting feelers out at different churches. Long story short, a few conversations. And we meet with, our last meeting was with Pastor Lee, you know, at the end of that conversation. But he was like, I have peace about it. And I'm like, what? I don't think I had ever told Ryan about that. The dream? Yeah, the dream. Which didn't even feel very significant at the time that I had it. But I kind of had my radar of like, okay, if Ryan confronts me with this. Small place. Small place in the middle of nowhere Midwest. Could be that. So that was the next part of like having to tell them, hey, we're moving. I think they knew at that point, but making it official and so, and then. I'm telling the community. It was hard. It was a really painful. I kept thinking, didn't we just do this two years ago? Say goodbye to all of our closest friends. But yeah, so the Lord led us back to the US and just even where we are here, it's exactly what we're, what we feel called to do with Lord and spoke to us in 2004. What I want to ask you guys in closing is, how do you feel like the pain and the tearing that came with transition from Kansas City to New Zealand and then from New Zealand back to the US within those two years and all the lessons that you learned and everything that the Lord put on your heart. How do you feel like it, it prepared you for where you are maybe in the settling? Maybe this is, this is kind of where you're, you're settling a little bit. The big one for me is then the Lord, you know, before we went to New Zealand, the Lord was like, you know, Lord spoke as vision, you know, of calling and vision tests in 2004. It was until like 2015 where I really started like going over, back over, looking back over the history of ministry that we've, you know, is at that point is almost 10 years in Kansas City, two years in Orlando and really like realizing that the vision never changed and that the vision is what drives what I do day to day. And so just knowing my vision, knowing, knowing our vision has helped us, helped keep us on course. Being able to even clearly articulate that. So it's more than just, oh yeah, we're doing this and then we're doing that. But we spent a long time really ironing out what exactly is our vision, what is our calling and is this a calling for a year or two or is it a lifelong calling in ministry? And we really felt like it was our lifelong calling that the location could change but the actual vocation would be the same. So that was, I feel like that's been our driving force is the Lord has called us to this. It's, you know, it's from the Lord and we just have to be faithful to it. And whether it's in a prayer room in Kansas City, small ministry and, you know, college ministry in Orlando, literally a small, you know, three-person staff prayer room at the ends of the earth or in Kalamazoo, Michigan, we just have to be faithful to it and it affects our day to day like it actually gives me so much freedom to go. I'm not called to that, you know? Or yes, I can do this because it fits in and actually builds towards what the Lord has called me to do. So that's huge. And then I think the other big thing for us is really the worth of God, the worth of Jesus and like it's the, I mean, in my mind it's a driving force behind like everything that we do is like, you know, why do we love people? You know, because he's worthy of those, you know, we want to like lead him to the Lord and he's worthy of them and why do we, you know, act with integrity, you know, in our workplace or whatever. It's cause he's worthy of it, you know? And so he's worthy of our lives, our lives fully given to him, fully surrendered to him. And so I think that's been for me, probably for you, just an over, like just a thread that's been throughout all of it is the worth of Jesus. I love it. I feel like just as an observation, I feel like even the transition, though painful through every season has solidified, it's created unity in the vision. I feel like too, as a couple and that's, I feel like that is so encouraging to, you know, maybe any missionary couple that would be listening to this is don't fear growing apart. If you unify on a vision, if you're together with the Lord, with the vision in front of you running towards it, it's affecting your everyday life, then you will see the fruits, you will see favor, you will, you know, all of these things. So that's super encouraging, you guys. I have really enjoyed hearing the timeline of everything. It's a pretty big time. It is a pretty big timeline. I love it. So thank you both for being on the podcast. Thanks for having us. It was my pleasure. Um, so this has been Radiant Stories. I'm on a Rittering signing off. Be boobab. We don't know how to end it yet. You're so sweet. Thanks for having us. This has been Radiant Stories. Click subscribe to get a brand new story delivered to you every Monday.