Water is Thicker Than Blood: Mo’s Story

In this episode of the Stories of Hope podcast, hosts Marina and Forrest are joined by Monica Stahl, a worship leader at Radiant Church here in the Valley. Monica shares powerful, firsthand accounts of how being sensitive to the Holy Spirit can lead to life-changing moments in the most ordinary places—from parking lots to coffee shops.

 In This Episode, We Discuss:

• The Power of Small Gestures: Monica recalls a random encounter in a Fresno parking lot where a simple smile and a moment of empathy led to providing much-needed help and prayer for a man feeling "literally and figuratively stranded".
• Divine Connections in Blended Families: A profound story about a "word" received in a local coffee shop—"water is thicker than blood"—and how it perfectly mirrored a miraculous turnaround in connection with her adopted son.
• Boldness on Main Street: Monica describes a "sobering" moment of stepping out in faith to pray for a young couple on Main Street who had never heard of Jesus, proving that the mission field is right in our own backyard.
• Overcoming Fear and Rejection: A candid conversation on why we often "fearfully ignore" divine prompts and how to grow in confidence by leading with a humble, caring heart rather than a "polished" spiritual persona.

Join the Journey

We are on a mission to share 100 authentic God stories from across the Central Valley and beyond in 2026. Whether through documentaries, short films, or these candid conversations, we want to prove that you are never truly stranded.

Transcript

Marina 0:00

Hey, you're listening to uh Spirit Radio. Should I say Spirit Radio or Spirit Media?

unknown 0:04

Podcast.

Marina 0:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

The currently experimental.

Marina 0:08

This intro will change the podcast. Hey, you should just have a mic back there too. I know. Stop in with producer, producer forest in the background. You should. You should. This way it'll, you know, we'll play around with it. Yes, I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Am I here? Yeah, all right, cool.

Marina 0:30

Of course your microphone works right away. Yeah, it wasn't the mic. It was just listening here.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Alright, we're good.

Marina 0:40

You're listening to the Stories of Hope podcast. I'm Marina here with Forrest. Hello. And this is gonna be a time where you're gonna hear stories of hope, of transformation, of healing, and so many other great things that happen when we put our trust in Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Yeah, that's right. We were uh having a staff meeting the other day, and the idea came up. Uh we just really felt called to tell 100 stories of hope in 2026. We don't really have this is a couple weeks ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

We don't want to have any idea how that's gonna happen or where these stories are gonna come from. We just really felt we need to clear up the air time, we need to clear up the staff time to tell 100 stories that are gonna give people hope. God stories, not spirit stories, not anything else, just stories of God moving in this valley or really freaking.

Marina 1:26

Yeah, you're gonna hear from people within the community, maybe people you know, people we know, friends that have had wild experiences, and we've already gotten a few of them, and it's been so encouraging, not just for them to share it and to feel like because sometimes you can sit on a God story and just be like, Well, why did I go through that? I don't understand God. And so we're very fortunate that we have an opportunity to give people an outlet to share what they went through.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah, we have no idea where this is going. We don't have a schedule, we don't have all these interviews mapped out. This is the end of December, and we have one so far, and we're planning hopefully to have a hundred of these. We actually don't know the format. These could be documentaries, these could be short films, podcasts, just on air only. We don't really know. So let's just uh let's just jump in, let's see what happens.

Marina 2:20

We are here with Monica Stahl. Welcome, friend. Hi, thanks. You lead worship at Radiant Church here in Visalia. She has a beautiful voice, in case you were wondering. Um you can sing later. Well, we'll do that. She's like, please don't make. But I I've heard so many folks speak so highly of you and how you allow God to use you in the most random moments, and it's so beautiful. And I would really love to hear one of those stories where you allowed God to use you in a cool way.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Yeah, awesome. I'd love to share. I just actually the other day, uh, me and my daughter and my son's fiance, we took a little trip to Fresno, had some errands to run, and my daughter had an appointment. So uh we were coming back to pick up my daughter, and uh there was a, as we were driving into the parking lot, a man sort of walked in front of us. His head was down, he just did not seem aware of his surroundings at all. And so we just sort of slowly, you know, pulled in behind him. We weren't like honking or anything. Um, and finally he heard the sound of the car behind him. So he jumped out of the way and looked very startled and was super like apologetic. And so we we stopped to make sure that we made eye contact with him and just smiled and we were like, it's all good. You're fine, you're fine. So we pulled in and just waited in the parking lot for my daughter to get out of her appointment. Um, and and noticed that man again, uh, just head down on his phone, still kind of starting to look a little worried. So we rolled down the window and sort of motioned him over and just asked, Are you okay? And um, yeah, so he started to kind of share the situation that he was in. And uh he had, you know, long story short, something had happened with his car battery. Some guys had young guys kind of helped to jump it, but they crossed the wires on the wrong thing. So it like obliterated it. I don't remember all the details, but it had to do with his car battery. Been there before. Yeah. I feel like maybe we've all sort of been in the parking lot and it's like, car won't start. Oh no, what do I do? And so he was in that situation and um and needed needed some help. So I I really felt like looking back on it, I felt like the Lord had sort of put that situation together where initially when we pulled up behind him, um, and he was sort of like in the way, you know, there was like a grace to like be kind and smile. And just I felt like the grace of God was on that moment so that he felt comfortable approaching us in like his time of need. And we were able, you know, provide, uh share what we had with him to help, you know, get his battery fixed and get him on the road. So I just felt like that was just so kind of God. He cares about all the details of our life, like just like when we are like literally or figuratively feeling stranded, like just the ways that he can come through for us. So I just felt like that was such a sweet moment. It felt like an honor to like be there at that time and sort of awake to what was going on around. And um, yeah, so we offered to pray for him afterwards too. And he was very open to that. I was like, dude, can we pray for you? He was like, he like leaned forward into the car, kind of like, yes, actually, I would love that, like put his hands sort of in. Um, he he seemed to feel very like embarrassed and like this was not something that you know he would normally do. And um yeah, so we got to pray for him and bless him. And yeah, it was really sweet.

Marina 6:26

That is really awesome to walk in that obedience. It's scary at times because we never know how people are gonna react. But I've never had anyone tell me, please stop talking to me about hope or being positive towards me, especially nowadays where people are more surprised by empathy than they are by anger, yeah, which is so unfortunate. But that's part of our job, right? God called us to be light in those places. Yeah. And so that is an amazing story. But I'm really curious if there's a moment where you have had that happen, the reverse. You know, has there been a moment that you can think of where you were surprised by God or by someone coming up to you encouraging you?

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Yeah, I actually a story comes to mind right away. And it was at the coffee shop here in town. I I actually I well I did like start the moment. I I actually felt like the Lord told me to. So awkward. So awkward. So I walked up to him. As I got closer, I could see he actually had a Bible open. So I was like, okay, this is like, I'm not gonna be totally off here. I was like, hey, so I just felt like the Lord told me to come ask you if you had a word for me. And he was like, um, well, and then he just shared this this word he had was um water is thicker than blood. And interestingly enough, um we so we have a blended family. We have three biological kids and three adopted kids. Um and next November will be 10 years that we've been together. So this story happened maybe five years ago, four years ago, and um one of our sons in particular there was uh just it was a heart, it was a journey toward connection. And you know, as a mom, that that feels hard, it feels heartbreaking, so much prayer and effort and how, you know, like just always wondering, you know, if you're doing the right thing with all your kids, you know. So um basically the the night before, like our our son had to come back home, and uh we there was just a massive like turnaround, uh things that had shifted and um we had shared these like incredible moments of connection where he had shared his heart with us and just recognizing um the love that we had poured into him and even acknowledging some of the resistance that had been there on his part. It was just like such a powerful time of connection with our adopted son. And um, so when this guy had this word for me, water is thicker than blood, I like literally like my knees buckled in the coffee shop because I knew exactly what that meant. Um, and just how like the work of the spirit um and the connection and the family and the love and the bonds that he is able to create are even stronger than what we would consider the strongest bond is like blood, you know, that um the work of his spirit in us is like even stronger than that. And so that just felt extremely personal to me and just um strengthened and secured my heart even more in an area where I had at times felt like desperate to um have a sense of like hope and connection and in this relationship. So yeah, that that was that was pretty wild and very yeah, very special uh moment for me where I really felt seen and loved and known by God in a very like intimate, personal way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

I love that. We were talking about this, Marina. You were talking about this earlier. How like how many moments have you missed by not pulling the trigger? Like God asks you, hey, go go ask that guy if he has a word for me. Like, I'm not doing that.

Marina 11:22

Yeah, yeah. Like, I don't know what book that's it that is in front of him. Like, yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Uh and there's just lots of times when God's like, pray for that person or do this. And I was just like, I fearfully ignore it and have been missing that kind of stuff in my life. And so that's that's really encouraging for me just to yeah, if he's really in it and he's really guiding this, then what are we afraid of?

Marina 11:46

Yeah, yeah. Rejection. Yeah, like that is such an ugly hold on everyone. And then even when I've had great leaders in my life, I've been very fortunate to have solid leadership around me as I've grown in Christ. And sometimes I would feel like it's a double-edged sword because I would see them do those bold things, and I'm just like, well, yeah, no wonder it works for you. Like you're like this with God. Like I'm working on that. Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Yeah, it feels it can tend to like we can make this like stereotype in our mind of like a charismatic personality or a more spiritual person. And it's literally just like, I mean, I feel like when I was at that place um and able to go towards that guy, like for me, I've I've like practiced that a lot. And we all just like start somewhere, you know. It feels very intimidating. And even, you know, sometimes I'm a little more or less hesitant, but it's like we're all people, and really what communicates the best um in those attempts is a humble, caring heart, not a polished, perfect spiritual person, like necessarily, especially in that kind of a scenario where you know you see someone who's maybe hurting or sad or seems worried, and you feel like, oh man, I feel like I should go pray for them. Or um, what's really gonna communicate is care and compassion and humility more than like that polished sort of thing. And so I I just feel like yeah, just getting that courage up and going for it. It's definitely one of those things you can grow in, just like anything. You know, you start, you gotta start somewhere. And I think the more you do it, you know, the more confident you can be become for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

While we're on this pulling this thread, do you have any other stories of you being bold and stepping out that you can share with us? I feel like I guess wanna get a little bit more inspiration here.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

It's definitely like the little um handkerchief and the magician. Like you could keep pulling that and I'll I could keep bringing those stories. I love it. And I I mean, I have uh I remember the first time I shared with someone was like in kindergarten. Like when I first found out that people didn't know Jesus, I think it was before I had a chance to be scared, I started. And so I feel like that's kind of unique, um, maybe. But I just like when I found out people did not know Jesus, I was like, oh well, you should definitely know Jesus. Um, and so that's been something that like I've grown in. But yeah, I have a really like cool story. There was a small group of us that had actually gotten together with the intention of like going out into the city and looking for people that might need hope and would maybe want prayer. So the first thing we did was gather together to just worship a little bit, to pray. And then we asked God, like, is there anyone you have in mind? We were asking him for like pictures or names or something to kind of like get us started. And some people got some specific things and others didn't. We paired up with like more seasoned people, and then ones that had maybe never gone out and done that, we paired up together and went out. Um, so as I was walking down Main Street, I saw this young couple. They looked like maybe in their mid-twenties, blonde, blue eyes, you know, just like someone, you know. Life's great. Yes, uh-huh. Totally, exactly. Looked like they'd maybe just come out from their date or something. And and man, my heart just started to pound when I saw them. And I was like, oh, you know, like we kind of can have this picture in our mind of like the lost. And that really surprised me when I felt the Lord like tugging on my heart. And it was kind of happening fast, and they passed us by, and I was like, uh, did I miss it? Do I turn around? I turned around and I kind of like followed them even down the road, which just feels so weird. But I just tapped them and like, hey, excuse me, I, you know, and just shared. Like, I was walking past you, and when I saw you two, like my heart just started to pound. And I I feel like that was God just saying, like, He sees you and He loves you. And I just wanted to share, you know, share with you that and and just ask if you need prayer for anything. And they were like, uh they just was quiet and they looked so confused. And so I was like, Well, like, have you uh they're like, uh, maybe, I don't know. So do you like go to a church anywhere? Or have you like ever heard about Jesus? Or do you have any thoughts on God? And they were like, No. I was like, You've never heard about Jesus, no. And I was like, wow, okay. In that moment, the Holy Spirit just gave me the words to say, and we we got they let us pray for them. And it was like their eyes were open, like bug-eyed, and then they were looking at each other and then looking looking at me like while I'm praying. Like they just had no context to like posture biblically posture their hearts for prayer, you know? And um, and there were some things that you know they had shared afterwards, like, what they they were like, did you know this? Or like they were kind of looking around for cameras. I think they thought it was like like an influencer stopping people on the street or something. They were like, What is this about? You know, or like, how did you know this? Like, because there were things that we were praying that were specific. And I said, No, just like God, like, and I shared more about God, just being loving and being our creator, and that we can actually have relationship with him and that he speaks to us and we can speak to him. And so they were just in awe, and um, you know, we told them like where we go to church and invited them to visit again. But I not only was that like wow, such a cool special time to get to minister to them, but it it also like was like a really good sobering up um for my heart. Just I think we just pass so many people by and we I like I never would have imagined that they would have never heard about Jesus. Like here in the Central Valley, you know, like we can kind of get in our bubble and we're so aware of all the good things we're doing for the Lord that we think, you know, and there's just really a lot of people that haven't heard yet. And so that felt like a good sobering to my heart and just like encouragement to continue to like not let rejection, not let fear or busyness um like clout like keep me from being bold and just taking that step and letting my heart be sensitive to like those little prompts that the Lord might put there. Yeah. I love that so much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Thanks for joining us. Follow the journey. Find us at MySpirit Radio on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for more stories of help. Do you have a God story? We would love to hear it. Head to spirit89.com and click on the stories of help family and share it with us. Links are in the show notes. Alright, I'll see you next time.