Speaker 1: Kelsey and her younger sister, her branches snapping somewhere in
Speaker 1: the distance.
Speaker 2: I stopped for a minute, and then I looked into
Speaker 2: the distance where all the noises were coming from. Out
Speaker 2: comes a huge mountain lion.
Speaker 3: The animal was enormous.
Speaker 1: Its muscles rolled beneath its body as it moved onto
Speaker 1: the path.
Speaker 4: And then I looked back at my sister and I said,
Speaker 4: don't run.
Speaker 1: From the mountain lion came a low, guttural growl. It
Speaker 1: moved forward on its giant pause.
Speaker 4: And I knew in that moment, I'm going to keep eating.
Speaker 3: This is the Miracle Files.
Speaker 5: I'm Emily Jones and I'm Holly Worthington.
Speaker 6: We're two sisters who love a captivating true story, but
Speaker 6: we're also seeking more light in our lives.
Speaker 1: So we're on a mission to find and share unforgettable,
Speaker 1: uplifting stories of God's miracles. We hope you'll join us
Speaker 1: on this journey.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Miracle Files.
Speaker 6: We have a great story for you today. And Emily,
Speaker 6: I got to see you this weekend.
Speaker 1: Yes, we were so blessed to be able to be
Speaker 1: interviewed by a magazine.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was so fun, so fun, a little stressful.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we stressed way too much about our outfits.
Speaker 5: And maybe with good reason.
Speaker 6: My daughters when we send them a picture, they're like, mom,
Speaker 6: beige can be a little risky. And I was like, wait,
Speaker 6: do I look like I'm not wearing a shirt? But
Speaker 6: then I wore it anyway because I can buy anything
Speaker 6: else to wear, so ripped to.
Speaker 1: Me, I know, And then like thirty minutes before the
Speaker 1: reporter arrives, I'm like, I need a new outfit.
Speaker 3: We gotta go, and we like run down to the
Speaker 3: closest store and down to a.
Speaker 6: Thrift story for a dollar ninety three, you got your
Speaker 6: four inch heels.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: We have this podcast that focuses on all these people
Speaker 1: who are so cool under pressure, and.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we are not the irony that we are the
Speaker 6: hosts of this show.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for sticking with us even though we
Speaker 1: are imperfect. Luckily, these are stories about God and he
Speaker 1: is perfect, so.
Speaker 6: And luckily he loves us too despite our imperfections. So yeah, anyway,
Speaker 6: today we want to introduce you to a lady who
Speaker 6: has a really unique story. Her name is Kelsey Vandermide,
Speaker 6: and her story is quite a bit different than a
Speaker 6: lot of the stories we do, but it's incredible and
Speaker 6: fascinating and it definitely has a place in the Miracle Files.
Speaker 6: So without further ado, here's Sparks in the Darkness.
Speaker 1: Kelsey was terrified of the dark, not the ordinary kind
Speaker 1: of fear most children have imagined monsters under the bed
Speaker 1: or shadows stretching across the bedroom wall. Her darkness felt
Speaker 1: heavier than that, more alive somehow. When night settled over
Speaker 1: the mountains of western Montana, it covered everything with a
Speaker 1: wooly blanket of pitch black. There were no porchline lights
Speaker 1: glowing in the distance, no headlights passing by, or electricity
Speaker 1: humming softly through the walls. Their cabin had no electricity
Speaker 1: and sat nearly an hour from town, hidden deep in
Speaker 1: the wilderness, where even the trees seemed to disappear into
Speaker 1: the darkness of night. Sometimes Kelsey would lie awake, staring
Speaker 1: into the unlit void, convinced something was waiting just beyond
Speaker 1: what she could see. The silence outside would break with
Speaker 1: a snapping of branches or the distant cry of an animal,
Speaker 1: and eventually her fear would become unbearable. She would reach
Speaker 1: for the flashlight beside her bed. Click it on and
Speaker 1: watch a small beam of light push back the darkness
Speaker 1: around her. Kelsey's parents had chosen to live completely off grid,
Speaker 1: raising their children in isolation from the modern world. They
Speaker 1: started in a teepee before eventually building a rough ca
Speaker 1: by hand. Their family had very little contact with society
Speaker 1: beyond occasional trips into town for supplies.
Speaker 3: Here's Kelsey.
Speaker 2: My dad built the cabin, and I was born inside
Speaker 2: the cabin. My dad delivered me with no electricity, no midwife,
Speaker 2: and I was raised just that extreme lifestyle. Like we
Speaker 2: had very little to no contact with the outside world.
Speaker 1: For a brief period, her father experimented with polygamy. In fact,
Speaker 1: Kelsey's uncle is Cody Brown from the TV series Sister Wives,
Speaker 1: though Kelsey never identified with the lifestyle. Her father had
Speaker 1: married three wives altogether, fathering twenty children between different relationships,
Speaker 1: but their polygamist arrangement was short lived and chaotic. By
Speaker 1: the time Kelsey was five years old, her mother had
Speaker 1: left and the marriages had collapsed. Only one wife remained,
Speaker 1: and the family's life of less around religion and more
Speaker 1: around survival. The children spent their days milking goats, chopping wood,
Speaker 1: gathering food from gardens, and roaming the mountains barefoot and unsupervised.
Speaker 1: At night, the cabin flickered with lantern light and candles
Speaker 1: until the darkness was all that was left.
Speaker 2: In the complete darkness. When we striked the match on
Speaker 2: the matchbox like that, tiny little match would light up
Speaker 2: the darkness, and when we lit the candle or the lantern,
Speaker 2: it just dispelled the darkness.
Speaker 1: But the darkness wasn't just physical, it was spiritual and mental.
Speaker 1: Her father occasionally read the Bible aloud, so she had
Speaker 1: a rough idea of who God was, but there were
Speaker 1: no church services, no consistent prayers, and no strong spiritual
Speaker 1: foundation in the home. After her parents' divorce, her father
Speaker 1: became emotionally distant and largely withdrew from parenting altogether. Her
Speaker 1: mother disappeared for more than a year before returning only
Speaker 1: occasionally for short visits. Much of Kelsey's childhood was shaped
Speaker 1: instead by her stepmother, who worked tirelessly to keep the
Speaker 1: enormous family functioning while the older siblings helped raise the
Speaker 1: younger ones.
Speaker 2: My dad was a doomsday prepper, so he was very
Speaker 2: much the world's going to end, and just a lot
Speaker 2: of that fear mentality, and there was a couple of
Speaker 2: times that I, like, legit thought that the government was
Speaker 2: just going to take us into these camps and that
Speaker 2: the world was just going to get overrun because my
Speaker 2: dad was just so fearful of how corrupt the government was.
Speaker 1: One day, when Kelsey was a child, some friends of
Speaker 1: her fathers came to stay with their family for a
Speaker 1: short time. What her father didn't know was that they
Speaker 1: were wanted fugitives. When police finally tracked them down, officers
Speaker 1: suddenly swarmed the property.
Speaker 2: An entire swat team and like caught cars and everything
Speaker 2: and came up to where we lived, which where we
Speaker 2: lived was like literally you drive on this little dirt
Speaker 2: road forever out in the middle of nowhere. There's no
Speaker 2: neighbors nothing. So like a whole swat team came up
Speaker 2: and there was like army men surrounding us. So when
Speaker 2: I was a kid, I was like, Oh, my gosh,
Speaker 2: my dad's right, the world's gonna end.
Speaker 1: The fugitives were taken away without incident, but the memory
Speaker 1: of that day lingered in Kelsey's mind long afterward. Despite
Speaker 1: the instability, there were moments of light in that childhood
Speaker 1: in the wilderness. The children built forts in the trees,
Speaker 1: chased each other through fields, picked berries in the mountains,
Speaker 1: and lived with the kind of freedom few children ever experience.
Speaker 1: Without televisions or phones or constant distractions, Kelsey spent long
Speaker 1: stretches of time simply thinking. She would wander through the woods,
Speaker 1: wondering how the mountains existed, why the stars felt so endless,
Speaker 1: and whether someone had created all of it. The first
Speaker 1: time Kelsey ever truly prayed, she was eight years old
Speaker 1: and desperate to save a deer.
Speaker 2: I had a pet deer, and she was like my
Speaker 2: absolute best friend. And I would milk our goats and
Speaker 2: feed her, and our goats would go off the mountains
Speaker 2: and come back. And then one time they didn't come back,
Speaker 2: and she was withering away and about to die, and
Speaker 2: my little heart was breaking. And so I was up
Speaker 2: on this mountain and I just felt like I should
Speaker 2: say a prayer, because I wanted her to live so bad,
Speaker 2: and that gave up on everything else, and this was
Speaker 2: like the last option, and so I closed my eyes
Speaker 2: and then I said a prayer. And when I opened
Speaker 2: my eyes, the goats were all around, and so like
Speaker 2: this is the first time I remembered.
Speaker 4: Like, oh, I actually said a prayer, but that.
Speaker 2: Sparked like, oh wait, there's got to be something more.
Speaker 1: When Kelsey was nine years old, her father took her
Speaker 1: into town to get a birthday present. Kelsey wanted a
Speaker 1: puppy so badly, and her father promised he would get
Speaker 1: her one, but things did not go according to plan.
Speaker 2: And we also were gonna get a first haircut. We
Speaker 2: go in, we get our haircut, and my dad literally
Speaker 2: buzzes our hair off, so we were like buzzed.
Speaker 4: So we have super short hair.
Speaker 2: And I was already a tomboy and I straight up
Speaker 2: looked like a boy, and I was just sad about that.
Speaker 2: And then I was like, okay, fine, I can get
Speaker 2: over that. I'm gonna get this puppy. I'm gonna be
Speaker 2: so excited I get to take care of this puppy.
Speaker 2: And then we show up at this pound and my
Speaker 2: dad picks out this already grown dog and it's a
Speaker 2: bear dog and it's like black with like white on
Speaker 2: his chest, but it's already full grown.
Speaker 4: And I'm devastated. I don't want a dog.
Speaker 2: I want a puppy so that I can like teach
Speaker 2: it and grow up with it, snuggle it not a
Speaker 2: full grown dog, and I'm just in tears, and it's
Speaker 2: just I hated it and I did not want this dog.
Speaker 1: Kelsey named the dog Tasha, but wanted nothing to do
Speaker 1: with her. Kelsey did notice, however, that Tasha and her
Speaker 1: pet deer were beginning to form a tentative friendship. Slowly,
Speaker 1: Kelsey learned to tolerate the dog. Life in the Montana
Speaker 1: wilderness remained wild in every sense of the word. Bears, wolves,
Speaker 1: and other wild animals often wandered near the property. Danger
Speaker 1: was so common that the children usually didn't even recognize
Speaker 1: it as danger. But then one evening, near dusk, Kelsey
Speaker 1: and her younger sister decided to take a walk along
Speaker 1: one of the dirt paths near their cabin. The mountains
Speaker 1: were growing quiet as the sun disappeared behind the trees,
Speaker 1: and the fading light cast long shadows through the forest
Speaker 1: around them. As they walked, Kelsey heard branches snapping somewhere
Speaker 1: in the distance. At first, she ignored it, wildlife's sounds
Speaker 1: were normal in the mountains, but then she heard it again, closer.
Speaker 2: This time, I stopped for a minute, and then we
Speaker 2: just kept walking because we hear.
Speaker 4: That a lot.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of like wild bunnies and deer and
Speaker 2: just a lot of wild animals, and so we're just
Speaker 2: used to it.
Speaker 1: She reached out her arm, stopping her younger sister beside her.
Speaker 1: For a brief moment, everything became silent. Then they heard
Speaker 1: the noises again.
Speaker 2: And then I looked into the distance where all the
Speaker 2: rustling sound like the noises were coming from, and then
Speaker 2: out comes a huge mountain lion.
Speaker 3: Kelsey froze.
Speaker 1: The animal was enormous, far larger than she had imagined
Speaker 1: a mountain lion could be. Its muscles rolled beneath its
Speaker 1: body as it moved onto the path, and its eyes
Speaker 1: stared directly into hers.
Speaker 2: And I looked over to my sister, and then all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, all this information about what to do
Speaker 2: when you encounter a mountain line pops in my head
Speaker 2: because my dad would tell us like, okay, hey, if
Speaker 2: this happens, or this happens, or if you run into
Speaker 2: a bear, if you run into a mountain line, and
Speaker 2: so he did tell us, if you run into a
Speaker 2: mountain lion, absolutely do not run, or they will chase
Speaker 2: you and eat you. And then I looked back at
Speaker 2: my sister and I said, don't run.
Speaker 1: Suddenly, a strange sound rose from the mountain lion's throat,
Speaker 1: a screamlike growl that echoed through the trees and made
Speaker 1: Kelsey's blood run cold.
Speaker 4: It is like chilling.
Speaker 2: It's like this high pitched growl mixed with like a
Speaker 2: woman's scream.
Speaker 4: And so it made that noise, and it starts walking
Speaker 4: closer and closer towards us.
Speaker 2: And in that moment, I realized I could one let
Speaker 2: fear control me and I could book it because I
Speaker 2: wanted to. Everything in my body wanted me to just run.
Speaker 2: Or I could control the fear and I could stand
Speaker 2: my ground and use the knowledge that came to me.
Speaker 2: And so I chose in that moment to control the fear.
Speaker 2: And so I stood my ground and just lockes of
Speaker 2: this mountain lion.
Speaker 1: Every instinct inside of Kelsey begged her to turn and
Speaker 1: sprint back toward the cabin, but somehow she stayed where
Speaker 1: she was. The mountain lion stepped closer toward.
Speaker 4: Them, and I knew in that moment, I'm going to
Speaker 4: get eaten.
Speaker 2: And I just really hope that it's quick and not painful,
Speaker 2: and then I look back.
Speaker 1: Fear had overtaken Kelsey's younger sister, who had suddenly turned
Speaker 1: and sprinted toward the cabin, disappearing down the path. Nine
Speaker 1: year old Kelsey now stood alone, face to face with
Speaker 1: a mountain lion. On one hand, Kelsey was grateful her
Speaker 1: sister had escaped. On the other, she knew her sister
Speaker 1: hadn't been the mountain lion's chosen prey. It was focused
Speaker 1: solely on Kelsey, its yellow eyes bearing down on her.
Speaker 1: From the mountain lion came a low, guttural growl. It
Speaker 1: moved forward on its giant pause. Kelsey stood frozen, bracing
Speaker 1: for sharp claws to tear into her skin, and then,
Speaker 1: without warning, she saw a black blur. At first, she
Speaker 1: couldn't comprehend what was happening, but then she realized she
Speaker 1: no longer faced the mountain lion alone. The black blur
Speaker 1: was Tasha, the dog Kelcey never wanted, the dog Kelsey
Speaker 1: had sworn never to love. Tasha launched herself directly at
Speaker 1: the mountain lion.
Speaker 2: And it comes out of just nowhere and just starts
Speaker 2: attacking this mountain lion, which is wild because the mountain
Speaker 2: lion is like three times its size, just comes out
Speaker 2: it starts attacking this mountain lion.
Speaker 1: The two animals collided violently in the middle of the trail.
Speaker 1: The mountain lion was significantly larger, but Tasha attacked anyway,
Speaker 1: gnarling and throwing herself into the fight with complete fearlessness.
Speaker 1: Kelsey could hear barking, screaming, and the sounds of the
Speaker 1: animals tearing into each other as chaos erupted around her.
Speaker 1: That was the moment she finally ran. She bolted back
Speaker 1: toward the cabin while the sounds of fight echoed behind
Speaker 1: her in the dark shadows of the woods. By the
Speaker 1: time her siblings and older brother rushed outside with a gun,
Speaker 1: the mountain lion had run off. Kelsey stood there, winded
Speaker 1: and trembling. She felt so grateful to be safe, But
Speaker 1: what about Tasha.
Speaker 3: Kelsey scanned the tree line, fearing the worst.
Speaker 1: Then movement caught her eye. Out of the woods came
Speaker 1: her dog, bloody, exhausted and limping. Kelsey stared in disbelief.
Speaker 4: She made it.
Speaker 2: She had some scratches and bites on her, but she
Speaker 2: totally made it.
Speaker 1: It Later dawned on Kelsey that if her father had
Speaker 1: brought home the puppy she originally wanted. She almost certainly
Speaker 1: would not have survived that encounter. The very thing she
Speaker 1: had cried over and rejected had become the very thing
Speaker 1: that protected her when she needed it most. For the
Speaker 1: second time in her young life, she felt another flicker
Speaker 1: of something she couldn't explain. Maybe God was real, maybe
Speaker 1: he had been watching over her all along. After that night,
Speaker 1: everything changed between Kelsey and the dog. Tasha became her
Speaker 1: constant companion, and soon Tasha and Kelsey's pet Deer became inseparable,
Speaker 1: often sleeping beside one another near the cabin. But as
Speaker 1: Kelsey grew older, the darkness in her life began shifting
Speaker 1: from the wilderness around her to something much deeper inside her.
Speaker 1: At fourteen years old, she entered public high school for
Speaker 1: the first time. The transition felt catastrophic. Kelsey had spent
Speaker 1: nearly her entire childhood isolated in the mountains, poorly homeschooled,
Speaker 1: and almost completely unprepared for normal society.
Speaker 3: She barely knew how to read.
Speaker 1: She didn't understand how schools worked, how teenagers interacted, or
Speaker 1: even how to navigate a hallway full of strangers. On
Speaker 1: her first day, she rode a bus for an hour
Speaker 1: down the mountains into town, feeling panic filled with every mile.
Speaker 1: When she finally arrived at school and stepped into the
Speaker 1: crowded hallways, the noise and movement overwhelmed her. Immediately, Students
Speaker 1: shoved past each other between classes, while a locker slammed
Speaker 1: around her, and Kelsey felt as though she had been
Speaker 1: dropped into a foreign country where everyone else somehow knew
Speaker 1: the rules except her. She lasted only two days before
Speaker 1: dropping out, and then the next year she tried again.
Speaker 2: I really like forced myself to stay, but it was
Speaker 2: so difficult in so many ways. I didn't know how
Speaker 2: to communicate with people. I didn't know how conversations flowed,
Speaker 2: and how to converse with people and talk to people,
Speaker 2: especially not my own age. Like yes, I talked to
Speaker 2: my siblings, but I feel like we almost created our
Speaker 2: own like Mountain children lingo and communication style.
Speaker 4: So that was really hard.
Speaker 2: And then I just failed all my classes at first,
Speaker 2: and I got made fun of a lot, and I
Speaker 2: did get bullied a lot in the school. The people
Speaker 2: were super mean, and in class it was okay. I
Speaker 2: just had to sit there and try to pay attention
Speaker 2: to them speaking this different language, just trying to pick
Speaker 2: up the words that I did understand. But I was
Speaker 2: so scared when the bell rang and it was lunchtime
Speaker 2: and I had to go out into this like cafeteria
Speaker 2: with all these kids. I had no idea and my
Speaker 2: heart was racing. I didn't know how to talk, and
Speaker 2: so people said horrible things thanks to me. People try
Speaker 2: to beat me up, and I got food spin in
Speaker 2: my hair and horrible names written all over my locker,
Speaker 2: and just I could go on and on of all
Speaker 2: of the horrible things that happened. So I a lot
Speaker 2: of times I would just take my food and just
Speaker 2: eat in the bathroom stall and eat really quick and
Speaker 2: just stay in there so that nobody could see me,
Speaker 2: and then go back to school.
Speaker 1: Still, even during those years, there were occasional sparks of
Speaker 1: kindness that stayed with her. Teachers who helped her find classrooms,
Speaker 1: people who treated her with patience when she felt completely lost.
Speaker 1: But during high school she felt shame, fear, and isolation.
Speaker 3: Eventually, that pain led her into darker places.
Speaker 1: She fell into the wrong crowd and became involved with
Speaker 1: drugs and alcohol. She found herself trapped in an unhealthy
Speaker 1: relationship that only deepened the emptiness she already carried inside.
Speaker 1: She eventually moved to Elko, Nevada with her boyfriend, where
Speaker 1: she worked long hours at Subway as a hotel maid
Speaker 1: while living in a motel beside a brothel. By then,
Speaker 1: the darkness she feared as a little girl no longer
Speaker 1: existed outside her cabin window. It had settled fully into
Speaker 1: her life, and one night, sitting alone in that motel room,
Speaker 1: Kelsey finally reached the breaking point. She had gotten into
Speaker 1: a terrible fight with her boyfriend and felt completely surrounded
Speaker 1: by darkness.
Speaker 2: I just remembered that night, just sinking so low that
Speaker 2: I'm like, this can't be life. This can't be like
Speaker 2: all there is to it, just living day to day,
Speaker 2: like waking up working at the subway with this girl
Speaker 2: that does drugs and gets high out of her mind,
Speaker 2: and then going to this other job where I just
Speaker 2: am a maid and cleaning up everyone's filth, and then
Speaker 2: going to this motel living with this boy who treats
Speaker 2: me horribly, and so I just at that moment, I
Speaker 2: just realized that there has to be more to life.
Speaker 4: This can't just be it.
Speaker 1: The room felt suffocating, empty, dark in every possible sense.
Speaker 1: For the first time in years, she found herself thinking
Speaker 1: back to all those strange moments from her childhood. The
Speaker 1: deer that survived after her first prayer, the mountain lion encounter,
Speaker 1: the dog appearing at exactly the right second, a teacher
Speaker 1: showing her compassion, the quiet acts of protection and kindness
Speaker 1: she had almost forgotten. It suddenly felt as though those
Speaker 1: moments had been trying to point her somewhere all along,
Speaker 1: And in that darkness she realized something simple but powerful.
Speaker 3: She wanted light.
Speaker 2: And so when I was right in the depths of darkness,
Speaker 2: I did reflect back on these sparks of light that
Speaker 2: I did experience, and it projected me onto this path
Speaker 2: of seeking God, of seeking the light.
Speaker 4: And I did.
Speaker 2: I went to different Christian churches, and I studied religion,
Speaker 2: and I really dove into finding light, finding the ultimate
Speaker 2: source of light. And I did. I found that it
Speaker 2: is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the ultimate source of light.
Speaker 1: For Kelsey, the answers didn't arrive all at once in
Speaker 1: some dramatic moment. Instead, they came the same way light
Speaker 1: had always appeared throughout her life, in small sparks that
Speaker 1: slowly illuminated the darkness around her.
Speaker 2: When I did realize that there was God and I
Speaker 2: found God, it was just so comforting to know that
Speaker 2: the light always wins in the end. There is not
Speaker 2: enough darkness in the entire universe to put out a
Speaker 2: single light, a single candle, and so I just love
Speaker 2: that that, no matter how much darkness and evil there
Speaker 2: is in this world, a tiny little candle of light
Speaker 2: can make.
Speaker 4: That all disappear.
Speaker 1: Now, when Kelsey reflects on her childhood, she no longer
Speaker 1: sees fear, neglect, or isolation. She sees miracles, big and small.
Speaker 1: They kept leading her toward God long before she recognized
Speaker 1: his presence, and today Kelsey believes those sparks were never
Speaker 1: random at all.
Speaker 2: I honestly think miracles can also be just like when you.
Speaker 4: Feel so low or so unloved.
Speaker 2: It's like that comforting feeling or that spark or that
Speaker 2: tiny little light, or like those people that come into
Speaker 2: your life that help lift you up, or a smile
Speaker 2: from a stranger that helped you through that day. Like
Speaker 2: miracles can be the tiny littlest moments, the feeling of
Speaker 2: connection of love, and then these big, huge moments Some
Speaker 2: people don't ever experience these big, huge moments, and so
Speaker 2: all they do.
Speaker 4: Think like, oh, is God there?
Speaker 2: But if you don't have these huge, unexplainable miracles and
Speaker 2: you still have that hope and you still follow God,
Speaker 2: I think that's so powerful because your faith is so strong.
Speaker 2: And I think everyone can look in their life and
Speaker 2: they can find those small little sparks, those little tiny miracles.
Speaker 1: For most of her life, Kelsey thought she was surrounded
Speaker 1: by darkness. Now she knows the light had been with
Speaker 1: her the entire time.
Speaker 6: This was a really special story for me to write
Speaker 6: up because I just loved that imagery of the sparks
Speaker 6: in the darkness, and I feel like it's such a
Speaker 6: beautiful way to describe how God often works in our lives.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love that you could just see all of these
Speaker 1: little sparks in her life. And it's kind of different
Speaker 1: from what we typically do. We normally tell like one
Speaker 1: larger story and this is instead a series of smaller
Speaker 1: miracles that led up to her finding God, which is amazing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and she's had such a fascinating life.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 6: So Kelsey shared something really crazy and kind of creepy
Speaker 6: with us, but it's also pretty miraculous.
Speaker 5: So here's what she said.
Speaker 2: I've shared the story of my family knowing Israel Keys
Speaker 2: who ended up being a serial killer, and just like
Speaker 2: seeing that darkness and like hearing about all of the
Speaker 2: horrible things that happened. So my parents were best friends
Speaker 2: with his parents, and so my older siblings grew up
Speaker 2: with Israel and knew him, and then he actually stayed
Speaker 2: in our cabin after he committed crimes. So that's another
Speaker 2: miracle that he didn't kill any of us, which I
Speaker 2: feel like would have been a perfect opportunity because we
Speaker 2: lived out in the middle of nowhere and nobody would
Speaker 2: know if one of the million children living there.
Speaker 6: That is chilling, right, And from my days of following
Speaker 6: true crime podcasts, I know who Israel Keys is. I
Speaker 6: don't know if do you know who he is?
Speaker 3: Emily, Yeah, he's creepy.
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, he was. He was suspected of murdering
Speaker 6: like at least eleven people, and he buried kill kits
Speaker 6: across the US and traveled all over to commit crimes
Speaker 6: like such a scary guy.
Speaker 1: Yes, amazing that nothing happened to her or any of
Speaker 1: her siblings, which, yeah, maybe another one of those little
Speaker 1: sparks in her story.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 6: And by the way, during the time that Kelsey worked
Speaker 6: at the Subway in Elco, my husband and I stopped
Speaker 6: there on the way to San Francisco. Yeah, and I
Speaker 6: remember seeing this beautiful girl there. We had a big,
Speaker 6: pretty long conversation with her, and I just thought she
Speaker 6: looks so out of place, and I wondered how she
Speaker 6: ended up there, and I as we drove away, both
Speaker 6: my husband and I were thinking that we just really
Speaker 6: hoped that things would turn around for her. And when
Speaker 6: I look back now, I'm pretty sure that girl was Kelsey.
Speaker 1: Might have been no coincidences, right, we always say, yeah,
Speaker 1: no coincidences. And by the way, I just want to add,
Speaker 1: you know, Kelsey has been through a lot of really
Speaker 1: hard moments, but she is doing so well now she's married,
Speaker 1: and the way that she met her husband is a
Speaker 1: really cute story.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: So she sees him at a party and the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit just told her that's your.
Speaker 3: Husband, this is your husband.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so she's like, Okay, well, I better go
Speaker 1: talk to him first.
Speaker 3: So here's what Kelsey said about it.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what to do, just go up to him,
Speaker 2: and I didn't know what to say. I'm like, this
Speaker 2: voice is telling me to talk to you. I just
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm gonna sound like a crazy person, and
Speaker 2: so I like go up to him. I give him
Speaker 2: a good old handshake and we kind of just talked
Speaker 2: for a minute and then he was like, well it
Speaker 2: was good to you know, meet you and stuff and
Speaker 2: play it off cool.
Speaker 4: He like walks away. I legit grab.
Speaker 2: Him by the arm and pull him back because I
Speaker 2: didn't know why the spirit told me. And so I
Speaker 2: pull him back and I'm like, I'm not done talking
Speaker 2: to you. And I seriously like my stomach dropped because I'm.
Speaker 4: Like, who does that?
Speaker 1: So at this point she thinks she's blown it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but here's what's going through her husband's mind.
Speaker 2: So when I walked in the room, he saw me,
Speaker 2: he knew I was his wife. When he saw me
Speaker 2: walking towards him, he was like, yes, suck because he
Speaker 2: was thinking the same thing. He's like, what do I
Speaker 2: do go up to this girl like you're my wife.
Speaker 2: He's like trying to play it off cool. So when
Speaker 2: we're talking, he's like, I just didn't want to scare
Speaker 2: you off. And so when you pulled me back. He's like,
Speaker 2: that was legit the coolest thing I've ever experienced in
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 4: So he got my number and we got engaged.
Speaker 2: We were instantly best friends, Like it was just the
Speaker 2: stars aligning and everything, and we're happily married and have
Speaker 2: three kids.
Speaker 4: So it worked out.
Speaker 3: Isn't that the cutest story?
Speaker 6: I love that miracles really do come in all shapes
Speaker 6: and size, I know, and I think their marriage is
Speaker 6: just another.
Speaker 3: Miracle, another spark.
Speaker 6: He's like, yeah, and I love how it just feels
Speaker 6: like God was holding her hand, leading her through that
Speaker 6: darkness throughout her whole life. And it makes me emotional
Speaker 6: to think about because I know he does that for
Speaker 6: all of us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he does.
Speaker 1: I know what made me think about all the little
Speaker 1: sparks in my life because I know.
Speaker 5: He's done the things for me too, just like that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I have a lot of little sparks that I
Speaker 6: can of, And one that it reminds me of is
Speaker 6: when I was in high school, I was going through
Speaker 6: a dark time. I just I didn't even believe in
Speaker 6: God at that point. I decided that he wasn't real.
Speaker 6: I was just kind of a rebellious teenager. Honestly, and
Speaker 6: I remember there was a time I was in the
Speaker 6: hallway at school and my friend had headphones on and
Speaker 6: I was like, hey, what are you listening to? You know,
Speaker 6: I was just thinking it was some cool music or whatever,
Speaker 6: and she said, why don't you listen, and she put
Speaker 6: her headphones on me, and she was listening to this
Speaker 6: beautiful song about Jesus. And I remember how just the
Speaker 6: chaos of the hallway disappeared and I just felt this
Speaker 6: peace wash over me. And even though I had hard
Speaker 6: in my heart so much, that was just one of
Speaker 6: those little sparks, you know, where I just felt this
Speaker 6: moment of light and of peace, and I knew I
Speaker 6: couldn't deny it. And it was one of the things
Speaker 6: that led me back to my path towards God.
Speaker 1: And isn't it amazing how God knows us individually and
Speaker 1: he knew that's what you needed, That was the spark
Speaker 1: you needed.
Speaker 3: That's what I mean, my own sparks that have led
Speaker 3: me to Jesus. And I'm so grateful for those me too.
Speaker 1: All Right, well, we want to thank Kelsey for sharing
Speaker 1: your story with us, this incredible increasing story story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so grateful for how your life has turned out and
Speaker 1: if you want to follow Kelsey on Instagram, her user
Speaker 1: name is Kelsey King Vandy.
Speaker 3: That's k E L s E Y k I n
Speaker 3: g v A n d Y.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for joining us today, and
Speaker 1: if you haven't subscribed to our podcast, please make sure
Speaker 1: you subscribe.
Speaker 5: Leave us a review. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 6: See you then, Thank you for joining us. If you
Speaker 6: have a miracle to share, contact us at the Miracle
Speaker 6: files dot com or find us on social media. We
Speaker 6: release new episodes each Monday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so don't forget Miracle mondays. Subscribe on your favorite
Speaker 1: podcast platform and YouTube for amazing video content as well.
Speaker 6: Join us next time as we discover more of God's miracles,
Speaker 6: and don't forget to look for His light in your
Speaker 6: own lives