{ "version": "1.0.0", "segments": [ { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "16.445", "endTime": "43.695", "body": "Welcome everybody to the first ever episode of the Mountains and Valleys Podcast. My name is Andrew Hillsden and I am so excited that you're here listening. This is something that has been in the works for quite some time now. God started giving me the the desire to start a podcast about a year ago, and this and this last year, kinda on and off, I've been planning it, praying praying into it. And these last few weeks have really been a grind trying to figure this out." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "43.935", "endTime": "71.85", "body": "This is something I'm brand new to, so I've had to put in a lot of work trying to figure out how the heck I run a podcast. And so I pray that you have some grace for me as I'm learning and trying to figure this out, but this is something I'm so passionate about, something I'm so excited about. And yeah, I'm just thankful that God is trusting me with this and I'm so excited for what he's gonna do. I'm just gonna pray quickly and we're gonna get into this. Father, we thank you for this podcast." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "72.07", "endTime": "84.435005", "body": "Father, thank you that you've trusted me with it. Father, thank you that you have big plans for it. Father, father, we put this podcast in your hands. It's not mine. It's not anybody else's, but father, it's yours." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "84.435005", "endTime": "104.064995", "body": "It's a platform for you to use to speak to people. And so, god, would you just speak through me? Father, would you just give me vision? And would you just help me be a good steward of what is yours, god? Father, we just pray for the listeners that their ears would be open to you, their hearts would be open to you, and their eyes would be open to you, God." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "104.064995", "endTime": "117.924995", "body": "Just to see, hear, and receive what you're doing, God. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Okay. So for this so for this first episode, what I really wanna do is give you guys the heart of this podcast." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "118.51", "endTime": "140.655", "body": "Really take you through the journey of what God has stirred up in me for this podcast. Kinda give you guys the layout of here's what this podcast is gonna look like. And so the name, the mountains and valleys podcast. To me, mountains and valleys represent a journey of life. It's a journey of life that we are all on regardless of what you believe." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "141.59499", "endTime": "158.65", "body": "If you're a Christian or not a Christian, we all are on a journey of life. We all go through highs in life. We all go through lows in life. And what is so important is how we navigate that. How I navigate the trials in my life is so important." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "160.515", "endTime": "170.83499", "body": "How I navigate the highs in my life is so important. We're all gonna go through them. We're all gonna have highs. We're all gonna have lows. How do you navigate that?" }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "170.83499", "endTime": "206.87999", "body": "And I think that that's what this podcast is about. And so for me, being a Christian, a lot of how I navigate those is different from how somebody else might. A lot of it is God centered and centered around the Bible and centered around the word. And so that's where a lot of my talking and experience is gonna come from, is my journey with God and how he's helping me go through those highs and lows in life. And so this podcast came out of a trip I took last February to to a cabin." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "206.87999", "endTime": "219.685", "body": "We were on our reading break, and I decided, you know what? I just need to get away. I just need to go spend some time with god. And so I booked a a single person cabin up in the mountains, and I went to spend time with God. I did a lot of journaling." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "220.22499", "endTime": "228.08499", "body": "And the one day, I journaled this. I wanna read to you guys my journal. Yeah. Because I I think there's value in that. Okay." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "228.87001", "endTime": "250.535", "body": "Today, I asked God what NBA player I am like. I wanted him to say Steph Curry, but God said DeMar DeRozan. A quote I heard from DeMar was this, Make the negative make sense later down the line. DeMar is resilient. Growing up in Compton, going through all the pain and trials, DeMar continued to work and get better." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "250.995", "endTime": "277.165", "body": "He never seemed to dwell on the negatives and let that and let them define him. But he worked through them and used them as an opportunity to get better. With situations like losing his dad, being written off by the Toronto Raptors and even the NBA, he didn't submit and quit, but he was resilient and pushed through and made a negative situation better down the road. God has made me resilient. I am someone who's able to push through." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "277.545", "endTime": "298.08002", "body": "It's not my own doing, but it's through God's guidance and His strength. God grows me through the rough seasons. It is the resiliency that allows me to keep on going. I'm able to keep on going because God has given me the gift to see in Him, seeing the positives and the negative situation. This is something God has given me and I'm supposed to live it out." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "298.30002", "endTime": "322.53", "body": "I'm supposed to be an example to others through it and teach others how to navigate and walk through the mountains and valleys of life. So as soon as I wrote that last sentence, it immediately hit me. That's the podcast. That's the name of the podcast and that's the vision. Like I had the ideas even before going into that of that I wanted to do a podcast, but didn't really get anywhere." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "322.59", "endTime": "350.4", "body": "But as soon as I wrote that, it was clear that that was a podcast. And so the vision for this podcast, it's about highlighting the journey of life that we all go through. These mountains and valleys of life. And so through various life journeys, through stories, through testimonies, and through teaching, I want you to feel uplifted and encouraged. I want you to start pressing into and deepen your own journey with the Father." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "351.1", "endTime": "377.18", "body": "And Jeremiah 2911 tells us, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil. To give you a future and a hope. And so my hope is that while listening to this podcast, the Father the Father speaks to you and that He stirs you up to seek Him and seek that perfect plan and journey of life that He has for you. As this is a journey that I'm on, and it's gonna be a journey that I'm talking a lot about." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "377.4", "endTime": "394.44", "body": "And I'm accepting the invitation of relationship with the Father. And I want to invite you on that journey. As I talk about it through this podcast, I want to invite you all pursuing that journey for yourself. It's an exciting journey. It's something I am so excited for to see what God's gonna do with my life." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "394.84", "endTime": "418.425", "body": "I know He has so so many special things for me, and I know He has just the special things for you. And I am excited to partner with with you in that. And this is something that makes me come most alive. I was asked this question a few times and it's a question I love asking other people, what makes you come most alive? And for me, what makes me come most alive is seeing other people live out their call." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "418.98", "endTime": "439.215", "body": "Seeing other people be so authentically themselves. There is one night we were doing an ask there we were our young adults community was at an ask for rain worship night. And in Regina or the ask for rain, I think it's like a 48 hour maybe maybe even be 72. I don't remember. But it's just a 48 hour long worship or worship time." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "439.215", "endTime": "460.59", "body": "There's teachings. There's worship. And our young adults community had the midnight session to 2 AM, and and a lot of our young adults community showed up, and it was awesome. I was kinda more in the back kinda just waiting. And to give some context, before this, we our our young adults community had been doing some worship nights." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "461.315", "endTime": "485.03", "body": "And throughout those worship nights, I didn't really see a lot of people being expressive. People were kinda just staying in their spot, raising their hands, and worshiping, which is great. There's nothing wrong with that. But what I love is seeing the expression of people being their true authentic self. And so I wanted to see people dancing, I wanted to see people sharing what God was giving them, I wanted to see people prophesy." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "485.41", "endTime": "508.4", "body": "But in just in our worship nights, we weren't seeing that. And so we come to this Ask for a Rain night and I was in the back as I was saying and there was a prompt. I don't remember what the prompt was but it was an invitation to come up and share. And every single one of our young adults went up and shared, and it was so awesome. I was sitting in the back." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "508.4", "endTime": "533.51", "body": "I might have been crying, probably crying, but I was so happy. I'm like, God this is what I love seeing. I love these people and I love seeing them be expressive and showing and talking about what what you're teaching them. They're not scared. They don't want to hold back out of fear, but they're just themselves and they're so expressive and I love that." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "534.85", "endTime": "556.875", "body": "And so that's my vision for this podcast. This is something that makes me come alive, is seeing people, walking with people, and seeing them live their best lives. And I hope with this podcast, you gain more confidence in who God's called you to be. A lot of my story is I've never had confidence in who God's called me to be. I've had a lot of fears in that." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "556.875", "endTime": "592.88995", "body": "I'll talk I'll definitely talk about it in future episodes, but now I'm I'm getting a lot more confident in who God's called me to be, and I'm a lot more expressive in in doing what God has called me to do. And so that's a big part of my journey, and so I love seeing that when I can help other people through that and I I can and I can help other people walk into that. And so that that's what I want for this podcast. And this podcast is more than than just that. For me, this podcast is a place for me to develop and refine my speaking gift." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "593.58997", "endTime": "617.12", "body": "Throughout so many prophetic words and through it's just encouraging from other people. So many people have told me that I have this speaking gift, and I believe it. I this is something God has placed in me and this is something that's really coming alive in me. And you know what? I just need opportunity to practice speaking, practice talking, practice putting together messages and things, and just practice." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "617.58", "endTime": "634.08496", "body": "I'm really raw. I'm not an amazing speaker. It's not something that just comes naturally to me. It's something I really need to work on, and so this is a place for me to refine and develop that. And God's called me to be a preacher, and so I'm gonna preach." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "635.105", "endTime": "650.79", "body": "Being a preacher isn't defined by the amount of people listening. I don't become a preacher when I have 50 people listening to what I'm saying. I'm a preacher if 0 people are listening or a 1000000 people are listening. A preacher is who I am. It's not defined by numbers." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "650.93", "endTime": "665.64496", "body": "And so I'm gonna preach. And this is just another platform and opportunity to do that. Even this is a this is a place for me to process. I'm a very verbal processor. I don't do well trying to process things in my head or through journaling." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "667.14496", "endTime": "700.57", "body": "I process by just talking and just saying what's going on. And so this is a place for me to do that, just to get on and share and ramble. I hope in the rambling, it's more than just it's not just me rambling, but I hope that there's a purpose and a reason to it, and I and and I know there will be. But this is a place for me just to come and process and share and talk about what God's doing. If any of you guys have followed me on Facebook or Instagram, you know that oftentimes I'll just share what God's doing in my life or what He's teaching me." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "700.79", "endTime": "715.885", "body": "And oftentimes, I don't have enough text just because of their rules with Facebook and Instagram. They have a text limit. I don't have enough room to share what God's doing. And so that's another reason for this is I just wanna share. I love sharing what god's doing." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "715.945", "endTime": "743.775", "body": "There's power in testimony and I hope through my testimony, god can stir you up. But my words aren't gospel. I'm not really an expert in any topic so I'm honestly gonna probably be an amateur in what I'm speaking about. But the goal is the journey of life. And as I am talking about my journey and what I'm learning, what I'm an amateur, and what I what I want to grow in, I pray that you accept that invitation." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "744.23505", "endTime": "768.755", "body": "That invitation of discovery and finding out your personal relationship with the Father. And finally, this is something that I really wanna do and I enjoy. I want this to be my hobby. I've done a I've done a podcast before. Our church partnered with with another church and our some of the young adults, we ran a podcast for, I think it was 2, 3 years, and I loved doing it." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "768.755", "endTime": "776.295", "body": "It was so much fun. I love preaching. I love sharing. I love talking. I love talking about what God is doing." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "777.06995", "endTime": "813.80005", "body": "And so this is a hobby for me. And so it's more than just it's more than just a platform for me to share. It is that, but it's also a platform for God to speak to you, for God to speak to me. This is a platform for God to speak to people and to encourage and to invite people deeper into relationship, And that's the purpose. And so there's a few scriptures that God's really been highlighting to me and that I that I feel this podcast is centered around." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "813.80005", "endTime": "830.315", "body": "So Jeremiah 2911, as as I shared before, for I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil. To give you a future and a hope. Also, Proverbs 35 through 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "830.58", "endTime": "845.72003", "body": "In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. God also gave me Psalms 234. Even though I walk through the valleys of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "847.035", "endTime": "865.92", "body": "Another psalm, Psalm 119105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. One more, Psalms 90 4:5. In His hands are the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains are His, The sea is his, for he made it. And his hands formed the dry land." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "866.62", "endTime": "888.895", "body": "All of these scriptures talk about the journey of life that we're on. But the journey of life that we're on is all centered around God and about the plan and the purpose. The perfect plan that he has as it talks about in Jeremiah. It talks about in Psalms that God is with us. We don't have to fear any evil because his rod and his staff, they comfort me." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "888.895", "endTime": "899.39996", "body": "They guide us. His word is a lamp to our feet. It lights our paths. It's all God doing that. And then even Psalms 945." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "899.54", "endTime": "918.06", "body": "And I also had Isaiah talking about just the mountains and valleys. Those don't really talk about the mountains and valleys of life as the metaphor that I'm using is, but it's talking about the mountains and valleys in just the top of the earth and the bottom of the earth. God is in control of it all. He's in control of the top. He's in control of the bottom." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "918.3", "endTime": "954.42", "body": "They all come under submission to God, and he's in control of it all. Just like our life, God is in control of it all. And so this journey is about learning to give up control and to put it and to put our trust in God and to trust him with it all and to seek and develop that relationship that we've been talking about, and to listen and obey and follow God. And when we do that, that's when we follow that perfect path that Jeremiah talks about, that Proverbs talks about. And so God is calling us all to a personal journey." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "955.04", "endTime": "966.245", "body": "It's a journey that's gonna be so awesome. It'll be so great. It'll bring others to Christ. It'll bring glory to the Name of God. But it's a journey that we need to choose." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "966.70496", "endTime": "1014.90497", "body": "Every day that we every day that we wake up, we need to choose it. And so going back to the vision of this podcast, through various life journeys, through stories, through testimonies, through teachings, through me sharing those things, and through guests that I wanna bring on to to to share share about those things, The goal is that you feel uplifted and encouraged to press and deepen your own journey with the Father. And so my prayer is that, through this episode, that God has stirred you up to get the vision. And through upcoming episodes, that God stirs you up even more to seek Him, to seek what He is doing, to develop that relationship with Him. For some of you that may be starting the journey, you may not have given your life to Christ." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "1014.90497", "endTime": "1040.235", "body": "You may not be following him. And from what I believe, I hope that I hope that you do that. I I hope that God stirs you up to start that journey. For some of you who may have fallen away and maybe restarting it and coming back. For others who are on that journey and who have said yes and and have been following, It's an invitation to go deeper." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "1040.375", "endTime": "1059.86", "body": "To go deeper than you already are. God is endless. There's so much depth to the relationship that He has for you, and we always need to keep on exploring and going deeper and deeper and deeper into who God is. As this is a journey that I'm on, it's a journey that I'm accepting. And this podcast is is that for me." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "1060.64", "endTime": "1080.4551", "body": "This podcast is an invitation for me to seek God even further, even deeper than I than I already have. And again, my prayer is that this happens for you as well. So that's really the vision of this podcast. And so I hope that this has stirred you up to get on board. I know I'm stirred up." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "1080.4551", "endTime": "1094.53", "body": "I'm so excited. I'm smiling right now. I am so excited for what God's gonna do. He stirred me up. He's been stirring me up for over a year now with this, and I hope he stirred you up to get to get on board." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "1095.355", "endTime": "1118.48", "body": "And so I just wanna thank you for tuning in, for tuning in to this first episode of this podcast. As I as I just said, I am so excited for what God's gonna do through this show. I'm excited for what it's gonna do in my life, and I'm praying that God uses it to impact your life as well. I know that as we allow God to work and to speak, I know it's going to impact your life. Because again, these aren't my words." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "1118.48", "endTime": "1139.75", "body": "This is the father speaking through me, to you. Your support would be awesome. So if you could leave a review on this show, that would be amazing. And even if you could share this podcast with other people that you know, that'd be awesome as well. We're also on social media, Instagram and TikTok at the mountains and valleys podcast." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "1139.97", "endTime": "1163.9501", "body": "If you could give us a follow on there, that'd be awesome as well. That's where I'm gonna be posting a lot of show updates, show clips, extra content, and just yeah. That that's where everything's gonna be. So to stay up to date with the show, make sure you give us a follow on there. Again, I just wanna thank you all for hopping on board, hopping on board the journey, and just for listening." }, { "speaker": "Andrew", "startTime": "1164.49", "endTime": "1173.4701", "body": "I'm praying for you all. You're all in my prayers. And, yeah, I'm excited for what for what God's gonna do. We're gonna catch you all next time." } ] }