A Conversation with Rachel Flick

PNG radio for today's culture and timeless truths come together it's reasoned relevant content apologetics worldview and answers to the questions that you need to know need to know from Alex McFarlane ministries. This is true for a new generation radio and now the man who preached in 50 states and 50 days speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics Dr. Alex McFarlane. You know the word of God has so many precious promises.

And one of which, in the Bible says that the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. God is close to the ones that are of a crushed spirit will welcome the truth for new generation Alex McFarlane. Here we have a very very special show today, a person on very excited for you to meet Rachel Flick has a story that is just amazing. Not only tragedy but of victory and I'm honored to have her on the program.

We are at a convention that we do every year called National religious broadcasters and RB and first all Rachel and say thank you for making time to be with us on trips for new generation so honored to be here.

Thank you so much for having me. Well, thank you for coming and am I correct this is your first visit to the inner business.

In my first NRB yeah yeah so exciting it will. It is, and in terms of this conference are you here to promote what you're doing, or just to begin to learn more about the broadcasting and publishing industry. Also, I have a podcast called the hope cast with Rachel Flick and I talked about resilience and overcoming in posttraumatic growth and so there's some amazing people here with incredible stories and I'm recording some of their stories for the hope cast and just meeting some incredible people that I think will be really important in ministry in the future will in just a moment I want you to tell people about your journey and hope because you can speak authoritatively about that.

I meet a lot of people that need hope and encouragement, and that people in fact it's funny, I was in Arkansas about three weeks ago and I was talking with a young adult person who was frankly angry at God, yeah, but he dropped out of college in college wasn't what he wanted to be and have to be honest, a lot of what his gripes were seemed rather mundane, but you know what it is. Honestly, to have to turn to the Lord and find your source in Christ. I do and so what you tell that story okay so I moved to the Springs in 2006 and in 2007 I started working at the YMCA and I met a man named Micah Flick and we are both working there and Michael is a man who knew what he wanted and so from our first date. He had put a ring on it and we were married in November 2007 and I started make his journey with him at the El Paso County Sheriff's office from the very beginning and three years later we had twins, a boy and a girl beautiful and healthy. We both went through a journey of just going up together falling deeper in love and and getting our settlers in our masters degrees and him in psychology and leadership me in kinesiology and counseling and so those are some those are some think here is there with the diapers and the little years and and then working hard. We were working hard and raises two beautiful children.

Now I do your education, time management, I guess that's one of the learned skill set all my time management yes and at the same time I was helping lead the mothers of preschoolers group at new life Church for a couple hundred women, and so the both of us were pretty good at multitasking.

Micah switched through the ranks of the jail and on patrol and ended in investigations where he was along for he was in law enforcement. Yes, so he was a property crimes detective and on February 5 of 2018 he was doing something called battle which is beat out of theft to law enforcement and this was something that they did every Monday. It was a very common thing. They were an undercover unit and they would track stolen vehicles for long periods of time and then arrest people as a way to intervene in gang violence and they were very successful and had won awards for doing this. But on February 5. They went to arrest the suspect and he didn't know that he had a gun in his city. And so when Micah's partner, Scott went to grab the suspect. The suspect pulled out a gun and shot Scott in hip and then went to execute him and in that process.

Micah grabbed the gun and wrestled it from his hands, but was shot in the neck in the process he saved Scott and on that day. Scott was gravely wounded and continues to be disabled. Micah was killed two other officers were shot the suspect was killed in return fire and a civilian was paralyzed permanently from the waist down, was walking through the area and on that day, my entire life changed and everything that I knew everything that I had founded what was convenient or that I thought that I had theology and and understood about God all had to be reevaluated, goodness, what and how were your children at this moment, they were 77 years old.

How was the news delivered to you that your husband had been killed in the line of duty.

Well it was when you was a very normal day. I just on carpool is getting my daughter ready for ballet. I was on the phone with a friend and I started to miss full calls from people and so I said hang on just a minute let me switch over and it was my mother-in-law and she said Rachel Mike is been shot. You need to come and you need to come now and I didn't know at that point that he had already passed away and so I was hopeful that maybe you know he been shot in the arm right we have a surgery and and have a recovery and then the undersheriff came to my house and he said Rachel he didn't make it. And so he drove me to the hospital in in a keening whale and a grief sob as I went to be with my husband's body in the hospital and tell my children about the death of her dad, do you recall what you thought or what you fill. The moment you realize your husband was gone. Just know you know I was screaming at God, no, no, no, no, no, don't let this be. Don't let this be and just this full body agony and rejection of this news, and even as I walk through the corridors of the hospital. I was looking at people and just silently praying to them that they would say it's a mistake it's a mistake. He still here and and then I kind of slid into a state of shock and just trying to take in all that was happening because in the line of duty there so many pieces that are part of that puzzle of death that don't get included. When that person isn't dying in the line of duty and there were many many unique complications to Micah's death that I would then begin to navigate, including national media coverage when talking with Rachel Flick and when we come back were going to hear how she picked up the pieces of their life and their family of death of her husband and how you too can process whatever pain you're going through. Were going to get some wisdom from a person who's been there and is standing tall, so stay tuned. More truth for a new generation after the spring.

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Available now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Local Christian bookstores were apologetics resources by Alex McFarlane. To find out where Alex is speaking to visit Alex McFarlane.com spoke about truth for new generation were talking Rachel Flick told her story of journey with the ward through this tragedy of the death of her husband serving honorably in law enforcement and he was killed and Rachel. I'm just riveted by your store.

But before we continue give your website hello how may people find you on the web, absolutely.

It's www.rachelflick.com and it's the whole cast with Rachel Flick on Apple podcasts and a lot of other platforms they can find me the hope And hope cast the trip will after you got this new government had to be very surreal. Did those thoughts of getting the news walking down the hospital corridor worming today.

Were they a tape loop endlessly playing in your mind, you know, I could absolutely play them right now and just take myself step-by-step to that and I have had to do that in my trauma therapy and and bring Jesus into those memories with me and just tangibly grab hold of how he was carrying me in the angelic presence that was making possible to do what was being done as the hallways were lined with staff and a SWAT presence in everyone. My husband's casket was draped in a flag and immediately began a processional when we left the hospital, which included thousands of people and was very surreal to see people standing on the sides of the road and waving flags and saluting and sinking Micah for paying the ultimate price and that process moving forward involved many motorcades and flag ceremonies and 21 gun salutes and things that I wasn't very familiar with at the time, but have come to be as a police widow. And yes, I absolutely needed the tangible presence of the Lord to walk me through every single one of those places. Tell me about your children, how did you go until your children that they would never see their daddy again and that their father was gone. Yeah well it's definitely something you're never prepared for and I was just asking the Lord how do I do this.

How do I do this and as the people had arrived at the house to take us to the hospital. It had turned out, the undersheriff took me and my brother and sister-in-law took the twins and I'm so grateful because it gave me the opportunity to scream and in Keene and whale for 20 minutes outside of my children right so that I wasn't creating more trauma for them and I walked in ahead of them in my brother and sister-in-law brought them to me in the room in the hospital on ASAP them, one on each knee as I usually do. Having twins right you have to learn to carry two kiddos at once and Levi, and Levi and Eliana and held their 10 but when their father was killed or seven so cotton one, so they were they were aware of death.

They understood it.

We lost a couple grandparents the summer before and they been to some funeral so they were really in place to understand what that death meant they knew daddy had been shot, but they hadn't received the news of how he had done and so I brought the men in a place, one on each knee and put my arms around him and I said guys daddy didn't make it that he said he's not alive anymore. What was the reaction I would say shock Stalin. Neither of them were very verbal and that moment tears in their eyes. Probably some kind of stunted were right. Like in shock is a gift that we don't experience it all at once when we had a major loss, and that's kind of a buffer or like a big trampoline right and we had our grief that that keeps us from impacting that pavement at full speed but they were absolutely heartbroken Mike. It was an incredible father and he left a huge hole in their life and the day before we had a Super Bowl party and they been playing games together and eating ice cream and he tucked them in the bed and the next day he was gone and so in many ways it felt like he evaporated out of our life as a healthy, strong, loving man who is just gone and in you all were Christians and don't want.

Did I hear you, so you were involved in new life Church of new life Church in Colorado Springs church will know a lot of people there so how much did your kids know about salvation and the promise of a reunion. That's one of the great realities of the Christian faith. You know not to be trite work which showed but Christians never really say goodbye.

Just I'll see you later so hard, but today sort of default to the reality will were said daddy's gone, but we will see him again in heaven now is that has absolutely been a part of our process.

I don't think that that was something we were capable of processing in that moment, but you know they say that children are about 18 months behind their parents in their grief.

And so, as I watch them wrestle with that. You know, we have heaven is for real. Right: birth went on and wrote that book when he came back from heaven. And so we had books like that where we were explaining again the concepts of heaven.

Where is daddy what is he doing he is as alive as he's ever been. He's just in another place and that is absolutely been an underpinning of our faith and our healing journey is gone. Rachel meet people that they get mad at God reject God, you, you suffered the ultimate loss not only of a loved one or family member but spouses and you're not cursing God you didn't walk away from God, yeah, when you lose your spouse, you lose your every day… Half of your soul and I will tell your listeners that souls do not separate cleanly. It's a very ragged, very ugly process and I felt like a china vase that had been thrown against the wall and that God was left to pick up these tiny little shards and put me back together and I love the picture of can Suki pottery in the Japanese culture where they use gold to mold that face back together and something more beautiful than ever was before it was broken and so when Micah died. I went from a very highly functioning ministry leader mother multitasker and I felt like I lost about 50 IQ points in one week because I began to put my pants on backwards. I would put in one earring and walk away food tasted like gravel in my mouth.

My body just went into complete fire flight and survival mode and I gave the picture to my friends in many ways that I felt embryonic that I felt like a tiny little fetus. Once again, that all I had had was lost and I was completely starting over and the Lord came to me in such a unique and intimate way. I had an interview that we the other weekend. The host said to me about Jacob that in the night when he wrestled with the Lord.

The Lord broken healed him and blessed him all in one night exactly take a brief break and come back.

It was truth for a new generation with our special guest Rachel Flick don't go back.

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New generation of radio veterans for new generation will zoom our conversation with Rachel flick in just a moment. I do want to remind everybody that we got a conference October 15-17 Myrtle Beach South Carolina were working with some incredible people down there and that the truth for new generation conference fall 2021. This is our first post coven conference were back to doing our events and adopt the amazing were going to have Frank turmeric, Cindy Rios, EW Jackson and a dozen speakers pray, promote, and plan to attend but I want to resume my conversation with Rachel and for someone to say thank you for being so courageous to talk about this because I know it's helping millions of listeners and you're doing your podcast Rachel, how did you land on your feet and I know you're talking about a vase being shattered but clearly not under which the Lord you your processing this in the best way possible. It appears to me.

By keeping your eyes on Christ. How did you do that and not implode as so many other people do well have a theory that what you go into the foxhole with his what you have two handle your tragedy in your trauma and as a professional trauma therapist.

I did have a lot of tools a lot of connection and I done a lot of self-evaluation and work prior to getting to this point and so even while I felt embryonic or brought back to my very base foundations I had a lot of people around me who supported me and I think community is a huge part of healing and being able to walk through hard things since they close to the Lord.

I asked the Lord that he would help me eulogize my husband that was something that I value in Micah's line of duty funeral had over 8000 people in attendance, and it was streamed across the world online and I gave a eulogy that went viral and I talked about the problem with the police and the public. And I will tell you that when I stepped onto that stage in front of thousands of people. I felt a peace that surpasses all understanding, and the Holy Spirit came on me like a wind in a fire and he filled me and anointed me and and through that message.

It began to shake and break up some of the things that I know that you're passionate about and our culture with the idea that authority is bad that people seek a level of anarchy is and they call it freedom and I challenged those assumptions and that a huge piece of what is broken in our culture is people's unwillingness to submit themselves to God and thereby also earthly authority and in that in that place of obedience and submission to the Lord, where I gave that eulogy. It was like the Lord was filling me up plugging the end to the outlet of the Holy Spirit, who is the source of our power. And I found purpose and I found meaning in Micah's death by being able to speak to people and challenge and encourage them and because Micah paid the ultimate price and he did so in such an honorable way that you could never cast aspersions on his behavior. I have a seat at a table that very few middle-aged white women get to speak in and people allow my voice to be heard in the race conversation in the law enforcement conversation because he had paid that price and because I was obedient and when we combine obedience and sacrifice. The Lord comes in. In a way that is just unparalleled and it was through that power coupling of working alongside with the Lord and in the same moment. It's not like it looks pretty right leg like I would ugly cry on the floor. I felt broken, my mind took a while to heal from trauma brain I was in the middle of the city in Colorado Springs, a place that I lived for 15 years and I was completely lost and I had no idea where I was. Let me ask you this through 2020 will be sold across to do from the police. People spitting in the front running literal legislating in the face of law enforcement officers what you what's what your reaction to the is so often the media police are denigrated and criticized and and you and I both know what a vital role by planning Romans chapter 13 says that the law enforcement officers actually are ministers of God right so justice you give me your your take on this sudden rush to just demonize all law enforcement officers will a part of defunding the polices about secular humanism, where we believe that man is essentially good has all that he needs within sight of him and so we don't need police, because we could be policing our self, and it's an outright denial of the inherent sin nature of man, so it flies in the face of how God made the universe and the rules that he set in place and I also believe that it is a way for people to say I don't want you to be the boss of me that's a big one with coach people that they are the center of the universe.

There is no sum greater than the individual and that our truth is whatever we wanted to be, and darn you if you step on my toes with my truth and so when you see people spitting in the face of law enforcement intentionally ambushing them, shooting them you are watching people react to the idea that they don't want authority in their life or in the world. I think it's an incredible misrepresentation of law enforcement officers are one of my passions is to bridge the gap between the police and the public and help the public to recognize that police officers are humans and have families and have children and they are real people when they take that off and they carry a similar representation of authority in their uniform and with their badge. But to elevate them above that place though they have been given the authority of this the state to enforce the law is a misunderstanding of our commonality as humans and their desire to sacrifice law enforcement officers are incredibly sacrificial in ways the public never sees on a really or they give up birthday parties, they take care of the children and car accidents. They clean up suicide scenes tires in the pouring rain tires absolutely no they think they grab lost dogs they they literally do these things that serve our communities in so many ways and I think that people don't understand what an incredible commitment is to be in law enforcement sure for one to give your website again where people can find you.

Rachel Flick.com and the hope cast with Rachel Flick. It's so inadequate but I simply want to say thank you, thank you for what you're doing for your kids and your family. Thank you for what you're doing for our country, but most of all, thank you for the representative you are for the gospel so honored to do it and I will praying for you. Let's visit again and I want to continue to hear how the Lord is using you how your touching so many lives are know you want thank you Rachel thank you so much for having me Alex TMG radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland ministry, PO Box 10231 rural NC 27404. That's PO Box 10231, Greensboro, NC 27404 call us at 877 yes, God 16877 yes, God in the number one or give online@alexmcfarland.com while you're there loosing the program archives. Read Alex's blog invite Alex to speak at your event will contact Alex with a question or comment Alex before.com. Thanks for listening today and join us again next time. As we bring you more true for a new generation fund TMG radio