WHOA That's Good Podcast - Still Crushing After 47 Years? I'm Taking Notes! | Sadie Robertson Huff | Nicky & Pippa Gumbel

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Sadie can’t help but hype up the major longevity in Nicky and Pippa Gumbel’s lives — we’re talking 47 years of marriage (yes, forty-seven) and decades of doing ministry together. No shade to influencers in their 20s, but when someone’s been living a Christ-centered life for that long, their wisdom just hits different. Nicky and Pippa share how they met, became besties, and then fell in love. They still laugh about Pippa’s savage joke when Nicky proposed — and Nicky? He’s still totally obsessed with her and we love to see it!  This Episode of WHOA That's Good is Sponsored By: https://helixsleep.com/sadie — Get 27% off sitewide today! https://activeskinrepair.com — Get 20% off your order when you use code WHOA at checkout! https://drinkag1.com/whoa — Get a FREE bottle of AG D3K2, an AG1 Welcome Kit, AND 5 of the upgraded AG1 travel packs with your first order. - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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helixsleep.com slash Sadie. ["On Your Night Now"] What's up, well that's good family. I hope you're having a great week, but per usual it is about to get so much better because I have two of my very favorite guests back on the podcast. We have Nikki and Pippa Gumbel all the way from the UK.

Welcome back to the podcast, guys. Oh, it's wonderful to be with you, Sadie. We always love being with you. It is a joy to be with y'all. I know we have spent such little time with each other for me to love you so much, but you guys are so incredible. And the things that y'all have done are so inspiring. I was telling somebody recently that we were having y'all on,

and they were like, oh my gosh, we do the buy one a year with Nikki and Peppa. I can't wait to listen. And another friend of mine who actually is working at LO now did your Alpha course. And that was a huge part of her testimony. And so truly, I mean, I meet people all the time who have been touched by your ministry.

And I'm just so, so thankful to have a full conversation today and I don't always set up what all we're gonna talk about or the heart of what we're talking about, but I do kind of want to set this one up because you guys were on four years ago. Y'all are back on the podcast now. But one thing that I just can't miss when I look at y'all's life is the longevity you've had

in so many different areas of your life. You've been married for, I don't want to get this wrong, but 47 and a half. I was gonna wrong, but 47 and a half years. 47 and a half years. And then you pastored HTB for 46? Well, we were involved at HTB for 46 years. Yeah, 46 years. In different roles. I wasn't sure what the role exactly was because in the Church of England, y'all say things different. It's like the bishop and then here it's like the pastor. So I wasn't sure exactly what the phrasing would be for that. We were involved there for 46 years.

Different roles, different ways. And then you wrote the Bible in a year and I've heard you guys say that y'all have now done it together, like read through it 14 times, 15 times? We've done it, yeah, since 1990, so it's like 35 years. That is crazy! I'm like, what? I can't even get these numbers right because I was listening to y'all this morning and I was like, that is incredible. And I wanna talk to y'all about longevity in marriage, longevity with the Lord, longevity in the church because nowadays, and this is not a bad thing,

but we look so much to like influencers for life advice on social media. And not that that's always a bad thing, there's helpful tips and tricks from influencers for sure. But most of the influencers, including myself, I'm 27 years old. Like, okay, I can give you what the Spirit gives me. And I'm confident in that. I'm not knocking myself. But at the same time, there is something to be said about someone who has been married. People have been married for 47 years and pastored or were a part of a church for 46 years and have continuously read the Bible over and over and over again. I mean that's wisdom that you, that's the wisdom we need to sit under, that we need

to listen to and pay attention to. That's the kind of lies you actually want to model and I think that a lot of times when we think about who's influencing our life, one thing we don't always think about is, OK, if they're influencing your life, then you're going to start looking like them. You're going to start acting like them. And the direction they're going is the direction you're going to go, which can be, of course, a great thing or a not so great thing.

And so when I look at people like you, for Christian and I, you guys are the type of people we wanna model our lives after. I mean, we hope whenever we're y'all's age, we love each other like y'all love each other, you know? That we love the Lord like y'all love the Lord. And so that's kind of what I want the heartbeat of today's conversation to be about.

And we'll start with the longevity in marriage, but to do that, we gotta take it all the way back. You have to tell one of my favorite stories how the two of you guys met. Oh, dear. That is back in the day. That was when we were about 17. And I before we were Christians and I wanted to get into a nightclub and you had to be a member. I love it so much.

And a friend gave me Nicky's number because I needed someone to get me in. And she said, ring him up, he'll get you, he's a member, he'll get you in, which is what I did. I didn't know him. I just rang him up cold and said, could you get me and my friend into Francoise? And he said, okay, come round. And he had a whole group of people. And we sort of became friends from there on.

So great. We used to go to this nightclub every night. I mean, literally, whatever you were doing, you ended up at the nightclub. That is so funny. It was quite funny. It was a completely different world, yeah. So that's how y'all met and y'all were both not Christians, which is so funny to think

about the two of you at a nightclub meeting each other. That was y'all's thing that y'all did, 17 years old. But how did y'all start to get into an actual relationship? Because it was a little rocky there at first. Go on, Pips. I was going to say, I think you're referring to the first, Nicky went off and became a Christian. Yes. Went off to Cambridge and was, he'd been actually quite an atheist before.

And then once he came to faith, he went the other extreme. I was a very argumentative atheist and then I became a very argumentative Christian. That's so good. In the days when you had tracks, you know, journey into life and everything, he'd have them in his pockets to give to everybody, to put everybody off wherever he went. That's so funny. And then I saw him at a party, and I didn't know that he'd become a Christian. He came up to me and told me I looked terrible and that I needed Jesus.

I thought he'd gone crazy and I decided I'd keep far away from him in future. Oh my gosh, yeah, you look terrible is not the best first line. Not the best, no. They don't teach you that on evangelism training to go and sell people that they look terrible. You did not put that in the Alpha course. Never do you say you look terrible. I learned a lot. So how did you, Nikki, how did you overcome that comment to winning Pippa's heart to

be your girlfriend? Well, we were best friends for about three years. We were, you know, I would advise her about her boyfriends, of which there were many. And we never thought there was any romance. But then someone else advised it. I was at Cambridge University and at the end of Cambridge, they have these May balls, which are like massive extravaganza. And someone else had invited her to that. And I don't know why

I just ended up we ended up talking and then dancing and then playing tennis in the morning and and then then going down the river. It goes on down the river. And then by the end of it, I had completely fallen head over heels in love. And that's continuing for, well, that's now almost 50 years ago. Wow. So that was 1976. Wow.

Yeah, it's 49 years ago. That's incredible. One story. I got lucky. Hey, it's 49 years ago. That's incredible. One story- I got lucky. Hey, you all got, you all both got lucky, but you also put a lot of heart into it. One story that I heard this morning as I was just listening to different conversations y'all have had, and I'd never heard this before, was how you propose, and I guess I should use propose lightly to Pippa because the engagement story is so funny and

I love it so much because today's day when you get engaged it is very well thought out. You know, it is months of planning, the girl kind of knows because the nails are always done, the dress is always on, the camera's always there. That was not the way you proposed. And so tell me about the day that y'all got engaged. Well, you have to think back to 48 years ago. And it was a very different world out there. So I literally decided on that night, I just went for a walk, I went for a little pray and the I thought, maybe I should propose, ask her. But I was very worried that she might say no. I wasn't sure she would say yes. But I was a bit fearful of being rejected. So I just said, would you ever like to get

married? And then you just, and she said, yeah, I'll be this. So I said, who would you ever like to get married? And then you just, and she said, yeah, yes. So I said, who would you most like to marry? And she said, Prince Charles. Now you can't imagine that. It was just a silly answer. It was a silly question. So I, it was just a name that I just plucked out. I wasn't very serious. It's more like sort of Prince William now. You have to understand the context. You'd have to think Prince William. That is so funny. An unmarried Prince William. So, so then I said, well, would you marry me?

And factually she said yes. Yeah. That is the cutest story ever. When I listen to that, it makes me laugh because I was like, I just love that you didn't know he was seriously asking you to marry. You're like, Prince Charles. We didn't have any rings or anything. So when we got home, we told my mother that we'd got engaged and she looked in her sort of jewelry case, go

on, you can describe. She literally, I mean, she was so sweet. She got her old rings out and said, oh, would this one do? Oh, missing a stone. This one a bit bent. How about this one? And we went, oh, okay. So we found the ring and after about two years.

No, you're less than that. While we were engaged, it fell to pieces. It fell to pieces. So we took it to the jewelers and they said, don't think it's worth mending actually. Oh my gosh, that is hilarious. That's so good. That is the best story.

What I love about it is that, because I do think in today's day, it is such a different time. Like, obviously I think social media has definitely played a big influence in the way that you get engaged because it is so much about, you know, the perfect moment and picture and this and that.

And one thing that I do fear in the way that we do things now is that people spend so much time and attention to the way they get engaged and the details of the wedding and less time and attention on the actual marriage that they're stepping into. For y'all, obviously, that's a really funny story, and the engagement was so lighthearted.

It was not super intentional when you think about it. You're like, oh, OK, not super intentional when you think about it. You're like, oh, okay, I think I'll ask you to marry me. But what was like, what were y'all intentionally talking about or thinking about that made y'all go like, oh, we're ready to get married. Was there that there too? Like what made you realize that you were ready?

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But I do think, well, I think we were best friends. We were really best friends. We loved each other's company. And I think that was where it started, wasn't it? We had been best friends for about three years, but neither of us had thought a bit about it romantically until that night at the May Ball. So in a way that enabled us to get to know each other really well without any of the sort of complications

of romance. That's so sweet. And yeah, I think you're right that, so we didn't, I mean, our wedding, my sister made banana sandwiches. We had far too many people. We had far too many people. It was complete chaos. And the organ wasn't working.

It was out of tune. Nobody has one. And it was it was so. But I do think you're right that that people do invest a huge amount in the engagement in the in the honeymoon. We are Vicka. Sandy Miller, our boss, lent us his cottage in Scotland. It was January. January. It was freezing cold.

We didn't have a car. So we got a friend lent us a car and we went to two weeks in a free absolutely frozen. It was one of those things where you had a meter and had to put money in. We spent our whole time going to the bank to get more money. It was so cold to try and keep warm. We didn't invest a huge amount in the engagement or the marriage or the honeymoon. But I think we've had an amazing marriage and that's what really matters. And I think that's the thing to invest in rather than in the slightly more superficial

thing. They're really important, but they're not as important as you're investing in your relationship. It's so true. I always tell people, I think a lot of people say, oh, well, he's my best friend. And then sometimes, I'll be talking to people who are dating, oh, but he's my best friend.

I'm like, really? Would you ever treat your best friend like that? Would your best friend ever treat you like that when they're in unhealthy relationships? And I think sometimes, because we know they're supposed to be my best friend, when you're dating, you just are like, okay, they're my best friend.

But actually, they truly should be your best friend. You know, like the person that you love the most, that you enjoy their company the most, the person you want to call. And it was so sweet the other day, I was telling Christian this, because I love my friends. I've always loved friendship. I've always loved having a best friend and a person and, you know, all the different things. And, you know, friendship looks so different from, you know, especially after you graduate or college and then to the real world and then getting married

and like friendship dynamics change. And I have great, great, great friends right now. But I was thinking, I was like, who is my best friend? And I was like, what girlfriend would I just pick up the phone and call first? And then I started smiling because I was like, I always call Christian first. Like he is my best friend.

And I was like, and that's actually how it should be. He is my husband. He is my go-to call whenever something funny happens or exciting happens or when something bad happens. And I was thinking, man, I'm so grateful that my husband really is truly my best friend. And so those are the things you do really want to pay attention to and focus on when you're dating.

Like, is this person your go-to call? Is this person the person you actually want to spend your life with? Because then you look down the road 47 and a half years later and you're really glad you married your best friend, the person whose company you enjoy. I know through marriage, you go through so many seasons of life,

so many different things together. You guys have three children? Three children. Three children. So we have our third. 10 grandchildren. On the way, 10 grandchildren. That's incredible.

You've got your third on the way, I know. That's so exciting. That's wonderful. We're so excited. And we, you know, love to look up to people who have done ministry and had kids and all the different things. And I've heard you guys say in interviews, man, there's so much I would have done different when I had young kids.

So I want to ask two questions. One, what are some of the things, if you don't mind sharing, that you're like, okay, I wish I would have done some of these things different, but then what are some of the things you are like, we did this really well, and this is what I loved about our family growing up, because Christian and I are all ears and want to learn. Oh, well I always say to our children we made many mistakes and have apologized endlessly to them for the mistakes we've made. But I think we were very blessed. We were travelling quite a bit with work and our boss then said, take your children with you. And it was such a helpful thing like you do that we took our children with us. He said you're not, he wouldn't allow us to travel

unless we took the whole family. Oh that's cool. And it makes such a difference, I think. If we'd gone off to all parts of the world without them, I think that would have been very hard to keep the sort of cohesion of the family. But taking them with us, I do think was a very wonderful, an amazing opportunity. They've been to Africa, they've been to Australia, New Zealand, you know, they've been to the Far East, they've been to Australia, New Zealand, you know, they've been to the Far East, they've been everywhere. And that's been such a blessing. And therefore, I think we were quite a tight unit doing all those things. I think at times you get the balance wrong, though, or we did, of doing too much, having too many people in our house,

having too many meetings, all those things, and then having to readdress those things. And I can remember sort of really wanting to get to a conference where I thought, you know, the Spirit of God was doing such a great thing and I needed that, and I probably didn't give as good a childcare provision as I could have done. And then looking back, you sort of think, why did I even think it was so important to go to that? The Spirit of God is at work anywhere. And it's so easy to have a bit of FOMO. If everybody's there, I've got to go there.

But actually, you're so, one's so blessed to have children that if it's, if God's saying stay home and look after your children or do something different, then that's the important thing to do at that moment. That's great. That is such good advice, honestly, for us right now. And it's so funny because bringing your kids along places definitely comes with its humor in and of itself

because it is wild and crazy and they're always doing something that you're like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. But people actually love it. Like when we brought our kids together, 25, I was like, okay, this might be kind of crazy. But the stories I heard from backstage that they had with the kids was so sweet.

And Honey ended up watching it that night with all the people backstage. And she started singing What a beautiful name and she was like actually she was leading worship And then she watched me preach and she told Emily the the girl who was watching her. She said she just crushed that She was three, you know, but I heard about it. She's like, she crushed that.

And I was like, man, I'm so glad we brought them, you know, because I didn't know how that was going to go. But I'm so glad we did, because now we can say they experienced that with us, you know? Yeah. What a great memory for her. It is.

It's such a great memory for all of us. And we definitely get the balance wrong often. And you said you spend time apologizing. I was spending time apologizing now. The other night, I was putting honey to bed. And I had this thought, oh, I need to do this on my phone. And I started looking something up. And she said, mom, put away your phone.

And I was like, I'm so sorry. I am on my phone while I'm trying to put you to bed and I do apologize. Sometimes mommy is on my phone too much. And like, you know, I think that's the beauty of the relationship is like apologizing as we go to. But to what you said about missing out on things, man, that speaks to so many people,

not just in parenthood, but just in life in general. I feel like we all have that FOMO of looking at different, maybe in our world, it's like conferences and this and that and where everybody's at, but in everybody else's world, there's so many different things. You see parties people are having, or gatherings people are having, or a job that you really want

and like what you're missing out on. One thing that has really struck me this past week, as we've celebrated my Pebblefields life, is that he really loved this verse where it talks about how, make it your ambition to live a quiet life. And then it goes on to say, for you will gain the respect of the outside world.

And I've been thinking about that verse so much because I was like, what a verse. It sounds so contrast to itself. Like, if you make it your ambition to live a quiet life, you think, well, the outside world won't know me. You know? Yes. The outside world won't care about me.

This is a private life. And you think about that with mothering children, or you think about that with a job that you don't get a lot of recognition for, or ministry behind the scenes. It's like, this is a quiet life. But when I look at my Pebble Off Phil's life, he was truly that verse.

He was a public figure who lived a very private life, very quiet life. And somehow, a man who lived at the end of the, literally, like the middle of nowhere, he had no cell phone, he had no computer, he hunted for a living. Like he lived a quiet life, and millions of people are talking about him this week, and talking about the respect they have for him, and the things they learned from him. I heard a story last night about a guy

who got baptized last night because he heard about my grandpa's passing and started looking into his life and watching videos and decided he wanted to get baptized. And it just really struck me, and it's cool that you said that Pippa, because I was thinking, man, I feel like I need to make it more of an ambition

to live a quiet life. It's okay to not go to everything. It's okay to have more of that balance because the things that God has put right in my hands in my home, in my house, and around me is what He's asked me to steward, you know? And I feel like God can and makes a way to do both, that you can live a quiet life

and make an impact on the world. And I feel like you guys, like y'all live such humble lives. You're such humble people. I remember Louis Giglio said about you, you're the most humble leader he knows and one of the best leaders he knows, yet you've touched the world with your faith. And so I wanna get into a little bit about the longevity

with your relationship with the Lord. One thing that we talked about yesterday at Pebbleville's funeral was that he never lost the thrill for Jesus. And I thought that was pretty remarkable. You know, this is a man who came to know God at 28 and he was 79 and he never lost the thrill for Jesus. I feel like you guys are like that as well. What has

that been like walking with God for so long and not losing the thrill and the love for God? All right y'all, I got some exciting news about one of the Hub Fam's favorite little daily routines. AG1 has got a major glow up happening. It's the same scoop a day routine that we've been keeping up with for years, but now it's even better with upgraded vitamins, minerals, and probiotics.

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and five free AG1 travel packs, the upgraded version with your first order. So make sure to check out drinkag1.com slash woe to get started with AG1's next gen and notice the benefits for yourself. That's drinkag1.com slash woe. I was an atheist. So the background I came from, neither of my parents were churchgoers. My father was German, Jew. And my mother told me when I was 14, your father is German and Jewish and you are never to speak to him about it. And I never did. I knew nothing about him until 31 years after he died, I got a phone call from someone who told me that they were investigating my,

they were doing some research about my family and what did I know? And I said, nothing. So they, I said, what do you know? And they sent me my family tree. And I discovered my great grandfather was called Isaac. And my great great grandfather was Abraham, not the Abraham, but Abraham. And I discovered this whole heritage. And six months ago, my sister had inherited my parents' house, was clearing out a cupboard,

and she found a whole cupboard full of his diaries from 1912 till the day he died. And so I'm writing a book called, He Told Me Nothing, but he left me everything. Wow. So that was my dad, but he left me everything. Wow! So, that was my dad, but he was totally secular. No, although he was Jewish by religion, by faith, by ethnicity, he was secular, agnostic, and my mother didn't go to church. So, I came from a background that was totally non-religious, and then at 18 I encountered Jesus through reading the New Testament. And I knew the difference it makes,

because I'd had that experience of life without. I think so many people nowadays are nowadays are the things that anxiety, depression, loneliness, it's what Jesus described as harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd and that's probably how I would describe now looking back. At the time I felt very happy I was having fun, this nightclub every night, you know, life was good. I was at Cambridge University which is an amazing place to be. I had lots of friends. But inside, there was an empty, a spiritual void. And encountering Jesus and finding that Jesus said, I came that you might have life and have it in all its fullness.

I knew that was so amazing that I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to encounter Jesus. And because I encountered Jesus through reading the Word of God, I knew that that's how God speaks. So, that's what I've done, basically, every day since, is to pray that God will speak through His Word. and that's spiritual food. I think so many people, life revolves around physical things, which is good, physical needs, food, physical pleasure, which is fine, that's all good, and then they have a kind of an emotional bucket, which is like friendships and all that kind of thing, which is also good. But there's also this spiritual side to us. And without a relationship with God, there is this spiritual void. And that's what I discovered. Jesus said, human beings can't live on bread alone. We can't

live on material things alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And just as I need breakfast every morning, I need spiritual food every morning. And that is what has sustained us, I think, over all these years is spiritual food. And it's not enough to just start a relationship. As you know, all relationships have to be nurtured, and you nurture it through communication. It's the same with our relationship with God. You need to start it like you start a marriage, but then you need to nurture it through constant communication. And that is – it's more important to listen than to speak. It's more important to listen – that God speaks to us than that we speak to Him. Of

course, that's important as well. Prayer is important. But there is this, I think many, many people today are searching for some kind of spirituality, but often it's going in kind of directions that maybe don't sort of fully satisfy or maybe aren't even terribly helpful. But what we're seeing here, I don't know how it is in the US, but there's now amongst the young people a return to the Bible. Sales of the Bible are up 87% in England in the last few years, and church going has gone up 56% since 2018. So there's been, and it's mainly young people, and it's mainly young men who are now searching

because they've discovered these other things don't actually fill the void. You can do yoga, you can do all these spiritual retreats or whatever, but somehow they always leave you dissatisfying, wanting to try something else. And until you find a relationship with God through Jesus, there'll always be this spiritual void. So that's what sustained us, isn't it, Pips? What do you... Long answer. Long answer, yes. No, that's so good. That was so good. I love what you said because it's so true. I feel like people are searching everywhere else

to find God except for like in the word of God, which is so ironic because we literally had the words of God. And even how you said it's more important to listen than to speak. And obviously prayer is important. But one thing that's been hitting me lately, I've been going through the Psalms

and it's actually teaching me how to pray. So the more you listen, the more you even know how to speak because you know who you're speaking to and how to even speak to God. Like you would so limit the way you speak to God if you didn't understand who you're talking to because it's not just like talking to another human, you're talking to the because it's not just like talking to another human, you're talking to the creator of the universe, you know? And so, it's so beautiful how you put that, and

really cool too, and sorry to keep referring to my grandpa, but it's so, you know, on the top of my mind right now, because we had his funeral yesterday, and it reminds me so much of how you came to the Lord is how he came to the Lord because he had tried everything. He owned a bar. He literally was running a bar. Did he? Yes. Wow.

And he was living a wild life. And then he started to read the Bible. And he actually, and I've heard you talk about the book of John, same thing for him, the book of John. And he just fell in love with who Jesus was, gave his life to the Lord, got baptized. And from that point on, never looked back. And it's so beautiful because it's like,

he knew what life was like before, and he knew what life was like after. And he knew how unsatisfied he was before, and he knew how filled he was after. And I think that's something that might be missing sometimes He knew how unsatisfied he was before, and he knew how filled he was after. And I think that's something that might be missing sometimes in people is that they don't have that true encounter experience,

because maybe their idea of becoming a Christian was just, okay, I'm gonna start going to church, or I'm going to start trying to do the right thing, or I'm gonna stop going to the nightclub, or stop going to bar, but it's like, it's not just about starting this or stopping that, it's about knowing Jesus. It's about starting a relationship with Jesus,

because starting and stopping, that isn't very sustainable in the long run. You know, you're gonna grow weary in that because it's all in your own strength. But when you know Jesus and you have a relationship with the Lord, like you said, in a marriage, there's there's longevity to that relationship. And so I love how you broke that down.

When Pippa, did you want to add anything to that? I mean, I think, you know, Nick is very enthusiastic. So I have that model with me. So that's helpful. I think from the moment that we became Christians, all of our friends were not believers at that time. And we realized we had discovered something amazing. And almost, we sort of couldn't see a bit like we're using, that they couldn't see it.

But I think we felt on a mission from the beginning of how are they going to hear unless they're told and Our friends were lovely, but they were lost. Yeah lost I mean we were I was lost before and not that they weren't lovely people But they how are they going to hear unless we we did something about it so I think we've also felt that we've been on on a mission, all our married life, and to tell people as best we can. And I'm a useless, I'm a useless evangelist. I often chicken out. I'm, I was at the nail place the other day, and she asked me where I was going. I was just about to go off to Alpha. And I didn't even tell her that I was going

to Alpha. And I was, why on earth didn't I tell her? And you sort of feel a real failure. But I know I have the good news and I know it's transformed me and I know that we have purpose in my life and I've seen people's lives transformed. I want it for everybody. I am so excited to tell you all about one of our new partners, Active Skin Repair.

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about Active Skin Repair and get your 20% off your order when you use the code WOA. That's activeskinrepair.com. Use the code WOA, W-H-O-A, to get 20% off your order. It's so cool. I love y'all are truly on mission people, but it's also really cool to hear that you Pippa would even say it is hard.

And sometimes I check it out because when people look at y'all, you're like you're traveling the world telling people about Jesus. You wrote the Bible in the year you wrote Alpha, but even you feel that way because I feel that way. I had this moment recently, we were on a gondola and I was like, and we had another guy with us

because it had to be like four in the thing and it was just me and Christian. So then they were like, hey you, go get in the gondola with them. And we were on this trip with illumination. So I was like, this is prime time. All I have to do is talk about illumination and talk about Bible translation.

This is how we're gonna get started. So I started it by saying like, wow, look how beautiful everything is around us, you know? Like, and I was, but I was so nervous. I'm like, why am I so nervous to talk about this? And then he's like, what are y'all doing here? I'm like, oh, we're here with Illuminations. It's a Bible translation agency.

It's really doing just amazing work. And how cool is it to sit here with creation around us? And I really felt a prompting to ask him, like, do you know God? And I didn't do it. And what's so crazy is after he even said to me, he was like, oh, I recognize you. You're the girl always preaching on TikTok or whatever.

And I was like, yep. I'm like, I had every single thing set up for me to just ask him where he was at with the Lord. I mean, he brought up me preaching. We talked about God being all around us, and yet something just felt so intimidating to ask Him that question, but yet that would have been the question

that God has started in such a great conversation. And so I say that to say, man, there are moments that you feel super confident and super loved by the Spirit and like, here we go. And then there are moments that you do just feel weak. You know, your humanness gets in the way, awkwardness gets in the way, little things get in the way. And so, yeah, don't beat yourself up,

but stay on mission, you know, for those things. Because I feel like people listening are gonna be like, okay, I'm not the only one that feels that way in certain scenarios. But that doesn't mean don't do it. That just means, you know, maybe tap into God. Why did I feel so afraid in that moment? Why did I feel so awkward in that moment?

I do want to talk about feelings, because one thing that I heard you say in an interview, I listened to this more, I love so much. You were talking about how much you love Pippa and Nikki, and you were like, I'm so grateful I feel that way. I feel love for her. But it's not all about feelings. And I think in the same way with the Lord, it has to be the same way because you don't always feel that way. You don't always feel on fire. You don't always feel super confident. You don't always feel like getting up and reading. How do you push

past whenever you have moments or even long periods of time where you're not feeling it the way that you used to or the way that you do in other times? Yeah. Well, in 1996, I was playing squash. I played squash all my life really, until I retired at 64 from squash. But I was playing one of my very closest friends on the squash court. And he was 42 years of age, and he dropped dead of a heart attack. Wow. And he had six children, the youngest of whom was six at the time. And I just completely, I was so crushed by it

because I had never experienced anything like that. I could not understand why God allowed this amazing, godly man with a wonderful wife and these six amazing children from six to 16 to be left without him. I remember that night, obviously I couldn't sleep. About five o'clock in the morning, I went for a walk and I just said to God, I don't understand why you let this happen, but I'm not gonna stop trusting you. But I didn't feel anything.

You know, people say, you know, when you have something terrible, you feel the presence of the Lord close to you. I didn't feel anything. And that was like weeks, and maybe even months afterwards. And I really, that was a really hard time in terms of my faith to try. And I still, I still don't understand why God let me die. There's been a silver lining in that we didn't exactly adopt his children, but we holidayed with them every year for 15 years while they were growing up. And that was amazing and they've become, you know, we're just about to go and do a wedding rehearsal and one of them is going to be a bridesmaid at that wedding. The youngest one is now the

head teacher. He's only 33 and he's the head teacher at one of the most prestigious schools in the UK. And you know, all the deputies are in their 50s and he's like, he looks very, he looks about 19. They all think he's the intern, but he's actually the head of the school. And we're so close to all of those children, and it's been a huge blessing, but I didn't understand why it happened, and I didn't feel anything at the time in terms of the close, you know, you expect to feel close to God when tragedies happen. So there are times in life when you don't. And so that was, I think, the hardest time for me was after that in terms of the relationship. We haven't had it enough. I mean, I have been totally madly in love with Pips for 47 years.

I said to her the other day, I love you so much. You're so amazing. I just adore you. And she said, and I put up with you. It was a joke. It was a joke. It was like Prince Charles' joke. It was a joke.

It was a joke. There is something joke, but there is something in it. There is something in it. I always say there are only two people born without original sin. Jesus and Pippa Gamble. That's definitely not true. You're the best. You really are the sweetest and the best. Y'all's love is so beautiful.

Cheers. You really are the sweetest of the best. Y'all's love is so beautiful. You know, I love that you shared that because to be honest, that is, that's something you don't hear a lot of people say that they didn't feel the presence of God, but it's actually so true. And I think people are scared to say things like that publicly in the church because, you know, it's like, oh, I don't want to let God look bad,

but you can't make God look bad. He's holy, holy, holy. And you have to be honest, you know? And we like, oh, I don't want to let God look bad, but you can't make God look bad. He's holy, holy, holy. And you have to be honest, you know? And we went through something years ago where our honey, our oldest went through a medical situation and it was terrifying. And it actually was, you know, we spent a couple of nights in the hospital,

but it led to a series of really hard, honestly, months. And that was my first time where I did not feel God's presence. Like I didn't feel peace that surpasses all understanding. I didn't feel that. And I remember being worried and upset that I didn't feel that because I so expected that if something bad were to happen,

that at least I was gonna feel supernatural peace or at least I was going to feel supernatural peace, or at least I was going to feel His presence in the midst of it. Or Christian and I were going to feel strong in our marriage, but none of that felt real. Our marriage did not feel strong. I did not feel strong. I felt afraid.

I felt confused. I felt mad at God. Why would He let this happen? Where are you, God? And again, the Psalms helped me so much through that period because when you read through so many of the Psalms, they didn't feel it, you know? They're like, where are you God?

Why did you turn your back on me God? Why are you not answering me Lord? And then you stick with the Psalms and eventually they come out of it, you know? And I don't know that, yeah, that you always go back and you know why, I still don't know why that happened. I will never know why that happened. But God is good and we're so thankful

that He is our anchor and our strength. And yes, He's an ever present help in times of trouble, but that doesn't mean that the help is gonna look the way you expected it to look or feel the way you expect it to feel. But you, like I've heard you say, and it's so true, you just kind of have to make a decision. You're gonna stick with the Lord.

And again, reading through the Psalms is so beautiful because you see people walk through life and they walk through really hard things and you walk through really beautiful things. And even if the hard things are really hard and they get these really good, God is still in the picture. He's still who you're calling to.

He's still who you're depending on. And it's amazing when you look back and now we look back at that thing we went through with Honey and although it was the hardest time of our marriage and the hardest time of really our faith journeys, we had never been rocked like that in our faith before because it did make us question, you know, God, we,

what, like we know you're real, but we've never gone through something like this. And why do you not feel real right now? And just like asking ourselves hard questions. And now though, I'm like, man, because of that time of our life, we are so much stronger in our marriage because we got to see sides of each other

that were so vulnerable that we never had tapped into before. We were so much stronger in our faith because we had really vulnerable, honest conversations with the Lord about how he works and how he's good in really hard times. And so, you know, you look back at it and you're not, you don't wish it would have happened.

You wish it still wouldn't have happened, but you do see how God's carried you through and you do get stronger and that, you know, perseverance does produce hope in your life. The last thing I wanna ask you, because we're starting to run short on time, which I could truly talk to you all day. I'm so thankful for your time,

is that you guys have been in ministry for so long. And not only do you love each other and you love the Lord, but you love people. And that that's hard because it's sweet. It's so great to love someone like Pippa, right? She's easy to love. She's very easy to love. It's great to love someone like the Lord, obviously, but to love people who are hard and it's messy and it's complicated and people walk away and you get burned. How do you keep your heart pure towards people? How do you love God and love people for the long haul and we need advice on loving people Yeah, you go I think

That there's a verse in Proverbs which is really what alpha is based on it says Proverbs 20 verse 5 says in the heart of every human being is a deep well And the wise person draws it out. So every person you meet has in their heart a deep well and there's gold in there and our task is to draw out the gold that is in every human heart. So you know that's what it's amazing about you a group turns up on the first night of Alpha and you know, they may be atheists, agnostics, whatever, but in their heart is a deep world. There's something amazing, because every human being is created in the image of God. And our task is to draw out from them

to get to know what is that beauty that is in every human heart. I love that. And so good. And I think you, you know, obviously you have your family that you're the closest to and then you have your group of support friends. And if somebody hurts you out of that group, that is, well obviously your family first, that is seriously painful. But on the whole that

that group is very important that you have a group of people who support you through the good and the bad. And we still pray on a Monday with our old boss, the person who ran the church before we did. He and his wife, they're 85. And every Monday we get on a Zoom call with him and his wife and Nicky and S And every Monday, we get on a zoom call with him, and his wife, and Nicky and Silly Lee, who run all the marriage stuff, our oldest friends, they were at school together, university together, so we've known all our lives. And then it was about two or three others. And they are our best friends. And when things have been tough, they've prayed for us. And we have prayed for them. And so, we've walked that journey together.

And I think to have support is really important because things do go wrong. There are some really difficult things going on. It could be in their family, you know, in all our families, or it could be about work, or it could be at the church, or something going around. And you need some people who will stick with you. Of course, ultimately the Lord and that must come first. I think it's Joyce Meyer says, when there's a disaster, do you go to go to the throne or the phone? And of course, there is a bit of a danger to go to the phone. I know that. But I also know I've got people who will pray for me, for us, our family, at a second notice. And I think that is important because it is hard keeping going.

People give us so much joy. And we've made some amazing friends. And we've made, you know, in the church, that's what I love about the church. You've got everybody. You know, we've got good friends who are ex-cons and you know, they're ex-prisoners. They are so funny. And they've been the closest friends to us. And we love them. And in the sort of non-Christian world, I don't think you mix like that. We've

got old friends, we've got young friends, we've got people from the poorest to the richest and all around the world. I think that's so, so rich. We enjoy the people that are so different from us. We're fascinated by the people who've, I don't know, stoked being drug smugglers or whatever. How did that go? I think they think we're too nosy about it because we're so fascinated about it. We want to know how the crime world goes. But

to see their lives transformed gives us so much faith and hope and joy. So cool. So that actually people are the biggest blessing. Of course there'll be a few that will give us a hard time. All criticism. Nicky's very good about criticism because of course there's a lot of criticism. You've had a lot of criticism but I don't think you take it to heart too much, whereas I think I would take it to heart more but you're quite good about that. Well nobody likes being criticized. I don't like being criticized. I want everybody to like me, but the fact is they don't. That's life, isn't it? You can't expect to go through life without criticism. I think it was Aristotle who said, if you want to go through

life without criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing, and then you won't be criticized. But if you do anything, there's going to be criticism. And we can learn from it, because sometimes it's true. But if it's not true, Jesus said, blessed are you when people criticize you and persecute you. So either way, ultimately, it's a blessing, Jesus said, blessed are you when people criticize you and persecute you. So either way, ultimately, it's a blessing. It never feels like that at the time. It feels like, why are they saying that? It's always humbling, which is good. It is always humbling, that is very true.

Man, that is such good advice. I love that so much. And Pippa, you're right. Like. Where else do you get that than the church? To have friends who become family of all generations, all different races, all different incomes, all the different things, like past, present, everything looks different in our life, but yet we have this commonality by the blood of Jesus Christ. That is the coolest thing ever. That is amazing.

I'm so grateful I do have generations in my family, but if it wasn't for that, the church is where you find that. You have generations of people to learn from, to get close to, to grow. And that is such a beautiful, beautiful gift. And it's so funny you mentioned criticism because with our new show coming out,

oh my Lord, you know, you get all the comments. And yesterday my sister-in-law was like, well, I already had to get off the comments. She was like, someone said I looked old and that was rude. And someone said they liked the old cast better. And she said, so I put up my phone and I got in the word. And she quoted this scripture that had meant a lot to her. And she was like, I just had to put something else in my mind. And I was like, that is, we're all gonna have to do that.

You know, you all have to do that. Find yourself back in the Word and let that be your guide. Let that be the lamp into your feet and the light into your path. But you guys are incredible. Thank you so much for, like I said, the lives that y'all live and lead and love. I've learned so much from today

and it's been a joy to get to chat with y'all again. So thanks for coming back on the podcast. It's always an honor to be with you, Sadie. We love you and all your family. We adore all your family. Yeah. You've got an amazing dynasty. Yes.

That's awesome. Thank you. You guys are amazing.