- If you wanna call it breakthrough, came when Walt said,
"The Lord's healed me, I'm never going back as Lara.
"It's over, I wanna come back to church as Walt."
Which scared me to death, 'cause I was afraid
if he did and then he failed, we might lose him.
And so I was protective of him.
I didn't say no, but our elders prayed about it and said,
"There's no reason not to do this."
And so, we decided to have a Sunday and
where I preached on Zacchaeus.
A man nobody ever would've believed could be saved.
So I got up and said, "Here's the story,
"It absolutely blew everybody's
"mind, especially the disciples.
"And I wanna tell you about my friend Walt."
And I told his story briefly.
The abuse, the struggles, the gender issues.
And I said, "I wanna introduce
"my friend, Walt Heyer, this morning."
And people stood up and applauded.
It was the most powerful moment
I think I've ever been a part of.
And I think for Walt that established a moment
where he realized he really was Zacchaeus.
And he had been uniquely laid hold of by the Lord.
And God was doing something miraculous.
And if he wasn't all on board before, he was now.
- Once I got redeemed and restored
by Christ through the church and
de-transitioned, and then began to deal with life
on life's terms and then got married
to a really, beautiful smart lady
who has been my companion now for 22 years,
and married and it's exciting, and we began
10 years ago to develop this ministry.
And so, through the ministry, it's healed me
to be able to help with other people who are struggling.
There's nothing like being able to speak into other
people's lives who can see their own brokenness
in my life and what happened to them.
So they see that you can be healed by looking at my life.
- When the Lord sends people to us
that scare us, people that we don't know
what to do with, we don't know if we should trust
what they're saying, we need to prepare ourselves
and expect the Lord to put us in uncomfortable positions.
He was always doing that to disciples.
- You know the church is really
a hospital for broken people.
And people who come in that have gender dysphoria,
are broken just like everybody else.
And they are not unique in their brokenness,
they're only unique in how they wear their brokenness.
But we need to treat them in a way that invites them
to admit they're wrong and invite them to the redeeming
and restoration power of Jesus Christ.
'Cause that's what it's about.
That's what the church is all about.
It's about healing.
It's not about leaving people alone.
Churches who advocate, "Well you come and just stay
"transgender, stay whatever you want."
That's not what the Lord Jesus Christ has for the church.
It's about change.
- Walt helped me to not be so afraid of making a mistake.
Walt wanted, I think, the love
and affirmation in friendship and acceptance.
And so, we begin to kinda walk side by side,
even though there were times we
didn't see things the same way.
And we saw 'em differently, and things hit him real hard
that I didn't think were gonna hit him hard.
So being, expecting and preparing as much as you can,
that it's not wrong, people come to church that don't
know where to sit, that talk during the sermon,
that let their kids jump off the platform,
that's exactly where they should be.
Even though it ruins our plans.
And having that openness to the Lord
and the wisdom to control chaos versus let the room go.
That's the adventure of life with God.
He's forever walking us into things
we are completely unqualified to master.
And then he says, I got you right
where I want you, you're ready now.