Our Journey - Life After GO Ministries International

I know it's been a while but WE ARE BACK with more stories of Our Journey in a cult called GO Ministries International.

We kick off this season of new stories with one of the sweetest women I know, Shelina. You will hear lots of giggling in this episode as it really just felt like two friends getting together and talking things out, which is exactly as it should be.

Come back every other Tuesday for new episodes and visit our website for more info: www.OurJourneyPodcast.com

Jade was my roommate for a while my first year at GO Ministries. You'll hear me cry during the intro because after listening to this podcast I realized that because we both had to hide who we really were in order to fit the GO mold, we spent so much time together and never really knew each other.

This session is heartbreaking because Jade is genuinely one of the sweetest people I know, and she was treated so poorly by GO Ministries leadership that it still has lasting effects a decade later.

This is our first anonymous podcast. There’s many reasons that someone might want to do an anonymous podcast, and at the beginning she explains her own reasonings. No matter if a name is attached or not, I think it is incredibly brave for someone to share their journey on a public podcast. 

Our guest today was in GO Ministries for one year, Josh and Laci’s first year in leadership. It is hard to fathom some of the stuff that interns were made to do. 

As always, please take care while listening.  

Today we will be hearing from Carissa. She joined GO Ministries the same year I did. Her story is extremely unique for many reasons, one being that she interned for 3 years, graduated and moved to Brazil to do mission work, then later came back to help the ministry as a “volunteer” and eventual staff member before being kicked out. She’s very open and honest with us about her journey and I am so thankful that she was willing to share her wild ride us. 

In this episode we hear from Josh L (not to be confused with Josh Bredahl who runs the ministry). He was an intern and staff member for a total of 4 years and left just a year before I joined. What's crazy is that as an intern, I didn't know about him even though he wrote a lot of the skits we learned.

Josh's episode is unique because he tells us what it felt like to be a leader and the inner conflict that I believe a lot of the leaders must have dealt with.

He also gets real with us while talking about difficulties after leaving GO Ministries International. I'm so thankful he shared his journey!

*This podcast does contain swear words*

Jamieson is married to Merie who did our very first podcast interview! I recommend going back and listening to Merie's episode to hear more about their journey together.

Jamieson's journey is unique from some of our past episodes because she was a "road kid". This means that she saw the Revival Tour Team at her church while she was still in school and really connected with them. Even as an intern that never traveled, I knew about Jamieson and her family!

Her internship started just weeks after I left. It's so crazy to hear about how things were just a couple years after my own experience. Thank you, Jamieson, for sharing your journey!

Christina came to GO Ministries during my second year and stayed two years after I left, leaving in 2016.

I love that Christina lives in the same state as me and also does media work, running her own company.

She gets real with us in this podcast. She is also very careful to not share another interns story, but even without knowing all the details, it's easy to tell that what happened to her was manipulative and should not have happened.

I'm glad that we could hear about her journey!

Shelbie graduated from GO Ministries in 2018, just two years ago. Her story is extremely unique as she had left GO for a year and a half and then went back.

This episode does have some mature content and a possible trigger for survivors or sexual assault.

Tyler was a 3rd year intern when I joined GO Ministries International in 2011. We both left at the same time two years later. Tyler has a very unique way of looking at the world so his experience at and view of GO is different than some of the rest. I always viewed him as the smart guy. So, how does a smart guy get duped by a cult?

My name's Mercedes, and I joined a cult.

Listen as my friend, Garrett, talks about her experience in the same cult. His view may be a little different because he is still on good terms with the leaders of GO Ministries International and just came to terms with what the experience was a few weeks ago.