One Stage, One Story, One More Yes

When God gently stretches the places fear once occupied and invites us to trust Him with our voice

🕯️ ✍️ 📖 🕊️

This morning I found myself reflecting on the upcoming Speakers Tribe NZ Mini-TENx event and wondering how I arrived here.

I’d be honoured to see you there.

📌 GATHERING DETAILS

👥 Gathering Type: In-Person Gathering
📅 Saturday, 20/06/2026
🕛 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
📍 Te Pou Theatre, Auckland

🎟️ Register Here:
https://www.tepoutheatre.nz/mini-tenx/

“Many Worlds, One Story”

If someone had told me a few years ago that I would willingly stand on a stage and speak about healing, creativity, faith, and the journey of restoration, I would probably have laughed nervously and looked for the nearest exit.

For much of my life, my voice felt safer hidden than heard.

The irony is that God often places His calling in the very area where fear has tried hardest to establish its territory.

A year or two ago, a friend shared something that caught me completely off guard. He told me he saw me speaking on stages and in stadia.

My response was immediate.

“Hell no. That ain’t going to happen. Ever.“

At the time, I meant every word.

Standing in front of people was one of the last things I wanted to do. The thought of microphones, spotlights, and audiences felt completely foreign to me. Public speaking belonged in the category of things other people did.

Not me.

Looking back now, I cannot help but smile at the certainty of that response.

Not because I was foolish.

Not because my fears were irrational.

I was simply speaking from the limits of what I could imagine at the time.

God, however, was not limited by my imagination.

While I was busy explaining all the reasons it could never happen, He was quietly healing my heart, restoring my confidence, strengthening my voice, and preparing me for things I could not yet see.

As I prepare to share 7 🗝️ Keys to Healing 💔heARTs💖, I realise this talk is about far more than public speaking. It is another chapter in a much larger story, a story of God continually inviting me to say yes.

A yes to healing.

A yes to creativity.

A yes to being seen.

A yes to using my voice.

A yes to believing that broken things can become beautiful again.

When I look back across the years, I can see how each key emerged from a season of restoration.

Singing helped awaken something that had fallen silent.

Joining Greater Auckland Chorus in 2016, after Clive gently suggested I find a hobby, became one of the first steps in rediscovering joy. At the time, I had no idea God was beginning a much larger restoration project.

Drawing, which began during my studies at Yoobee Design School in 2017, gave expression to emotions that words could not yet carry.

Bible journalling opened another doorway, allowing Scripture and creativity to meet on the page.

Painting became a conversation between my heart and God.

Dancing in church taught my body what freedom felt like.

Writing helped untangle thoughts and memories that had been buried for years.

Speaking is now teaching my voice to agree with what my heart already knows.

Faith has woven through every one of those journeys like a golden thread, holding together what once felt fragmented and lost.

What began as survival slowly became healing.

What began as healing gradually became purpose.

What began as purpose is becoming a calling.

The beautiful thing about God’s restoration is that He rarely wastes our pain. The places that once felt most broken often become the very places through which His love flows most powerfully to others.

I have watched Him take ashes and create beauty.

I have watched Him exchange despair for hope.

I have watched Him restore dreams I did not even know I had surrendered.

I have watched Him transform performance into authenticity and striving into surrender.

The message I will share on that stage is not theory.

It is testimony.

It is the story of a God who meets people in hidden places and patiently restores what life, loss, fear, trauma, disappointment, and brokenness have stolen.

📖 “And I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.” — Joel 2:25 (NKJV)

As the day draws closer, I can still feel traces of nervousness.

My stomach occasionally reminds me that standing in front of people is stretching territory.

My mind sometimes asks whether I am truly ready.

Yet beneath all of that is a deeper peace.

The same God who called me is the God who equips me.

The same God who healed me is the God who will use my story.

The same God who carried me through every valley will stand with me on that stage.

Perhaps the most remarkable part is not that I am speaking.

The most remarkable part is that somewhere along the way, my “never” became a “yes.”

Fear once wrote the script.

Grace picked up the pen.

This is not about delivering a perfect presentation.

This is about offering my loaves and fishes and trusting Him to multiply them.

Perhaps that is what obedience often looks like.

Not certainty.

Not confidence in ourselves.

Simply another faithful yes.

🪨 Truth

The stage is not the destination.

The stage is simply another place where God can display His faithfulness.

🌱 Hope

Somewhere in that audience may be a person who feels as broken, lost, afraid, or stuck as I once felt. If sharing my story helps even one heart discover that healing is possible, every step of this journey will have been worthwhile.

💡 Reflection:

• What “never” have I spoken over my life that God may be quietly transforming into a future “yes”? 🤔
• Where is God currently inviting me to trust Him beyond the limits of my own imagination? 🤔
• Which part of my story have I been tempted to hide that God may want to use for His glory? 🤔
• What gifts or passions has God used to bring healing into my own life? 🤔

🎺 Affirmation:

I do not need to be fearless to be faithful. God is with me in every step, every conversation, every creative expression, and every opportunity He places before me. My story matters because His grace is woven through it. What He has begun, He will faithfully complete.

🙌 Prayer:

Father, thank You for every step of this journey, including the ones that felt uncertain, painful, or impossible. Thank You for restoring what was broken and for patiently teaching me to trust You with my voice. Thank You for the places where Your plans were greater than my fears and Your vision was larger than my imagination. As I prepare to share my story, help me remember that this is not about performance but about faithfulness. May every word point people toward Your love, Your healing, and Your hope. Use my story to encourage weary hearts and remind others that restoration is possible through You. Strengthen me where I feel weak and fill me with Your peace. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

You may not feel ready for every door God opens, yet His invitation has never depended on your perfection. The One who called you is already standing on the other side of your yes, waiting to reveal His faithfulness once again.

Come as you are. Bring a friend. Bring your curiosity. Bring your story.

I’d be honoured to see you there.

📌 GATHERING DETAILS

👥 Gathering Type: In-Person Gathering

📅 Saturday, 20/06/2026

🕛 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

📍 Te Pou Theatre, Auckland

🎟️ Register Here:

https://www.tepoutheatre.nz/mini-tenx/

“Many Worlds, One Story”

For The Tribe. By The Tribe.

Speakers Tribe NZ — Making a Difference, One Story at a Time. 💛💙❤️