This is HIS Story

What if the seemingly disconnected chapters of your life are actually preparing you for something God hasn't revealed yet?

Bobo Beck never followed a conventional career path. From growing up in a Christian family in Atlanta to serving in the challenging neighborhoods of Philadelphia, launching nonprofits, teaching in public schools, traveling internationally, and eventually becoming an entrepreneur, his journey has been anything but predictable.

But looking back, a common thread emerges: a willingness to step out in faith, embrace unexpected opportunities, and use his gifts to serve others.

In this episode of This Is HIS Story, Todd Turner sits down with his friend Bobo Beck to explore the experiences, decisions, and relationships that shaped his remarkable journey.

Bobo shares how his faith became personal during his college years, why he left the familiar surroundings of the South to serve young people in Philadelphia, and how that experience opened his eyes to the needs of urban communities.

What began as a step of faith eventually led to Urban Imperative, a nonprofit helping young Christians relocate to cities, find meaningful work, and become involved in ministry. His passion for serving others later expanded internationally through Grace Seed, a nonprofit supporting ministry, education, and development initiatives.

Along the way, Bobo built a career in education before making another unexpected transition into entrepreneurship and real estate. Rather than separating business from ministry, he discovered that financial opportunity and professional flexibility could create even greater opportunities to serve.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

• How Bobo's Christian upbringing shaped his early understanding of faith.
• Why he chose to leave the South and serve in Philadelphia.
• How Urban Imperative helped mobilize young Christians for urban ministry.
• What teaching in Philadelphia taught him about people, poverty, and community.
• How international missions became an important part of his calling.
• Why he transitioned from education into entrepreneurship and real estate.
• How business success created greater freedom for ministry.
• What he's learned about trusting God when the next step isn't clear.

Bobo's story challenges the idea that following God's calling must look like a traditional ministry career.

Sometimes God calls us into churches and mission fields. Other times He uses classrooms, businesses, relationships, and unexpected opportunities to accomplish His purposes.

The important question isn't always where God is taking us. Sometimes it's whether we're willing to follow Him into the next chapter.

Connect with Bobo Beck:
https://wisdomcalling.org

About This Is HIS Story

Hosted by Todd Turner, This Is HIS Story features conversations with Christian ministry leaders, missionaries, nonprofit founders, and believers whose lives reveal how God prepares people for meaningful service.

Discover more interviews:
https://www.toddturner.com/this-is-his-story/

Support the podcast:
https://www.toddturner.com/donate

Subscribe to This Is HIS Story for more conversations about faith, calling, leadership, and the remarkable ways God works through people's lives.

What if we've confused worship with music?

For most Christians, the word worship immediately brings to mind singing, hymns, praise teams, and Sunday morning services. But is worship really about the music, or is it something much bigger?

Dr. Ed Willmington has spent his life studying, composing, teaching, and leading music in the church. Raised in a Christian home surrounded by faith and music, Ed developed an early passion for musical excellence that eventually led to a doctorate and a career in Christian education and worship ministry.

But along the way, God challenged something Ed had believed for years: Music and worship are not the same thing.

That realization changed not only how he approached music, but how he understood ministry, discipleship, and the responsibility of helping people worship God.

In this episode of This Is HIS Story, Todd Turner sits down with Ed to explore the personal journey behind his convictions and the experiences that reshaped his calling.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

• How Ed's parents helped shape his love for Christ, music, and ministry.
• Why musical excellence became such an important part of his early career.
• The experience that challenged his understanding of worship.
• Why worship is much bigger than singing hymns or contemporary songs.
• How Ed discovered that leading worship also means shepherding people.
• Why familiar hymns and new worship songs both have a place in the church.
• The difference between praise and worship.
• Why Sunday morning worship should influence how we live Monday through Saturday.
• How churches can help children become worshipers rather than simply performers.
• What it means to prepare our hearts before gathering to worship.

One of the most revealing moments comes when a fellow church leader told Ed, "I see in you a pastoral heart."

For a man who thought of himself primarily as a musician, those words challenged his understanding of his calling. He began to see that caring for people mattered more than defending his musical preferences.

Today, Ed continues to help churches rethink how they teach and practice worship, including through his work with Imagining Worship with Kids, an initiative helping children participate meaningfully in worship through music, prayer, Scripture, and creative expression.

His story reminds us that worship isn't something we simply attend or watch. It's something we offer to God with our entire lives.

Learn more about Ed's work:

Imagining Worship with Kids: https://imaginingworshipwithkids.com

About This Is HIS Story

Hosted by Todd Turner, This Is HIS Story explores the lives of Christian leaders, missionaries, nonprofit founders, and believers whose experiences reveal how God prepares people for lives of meaningful service.

Discover more interviews: https://www.toddturner.com/this-is-his-story/

Support the podcast: https://www.toddturner.com/donate

Subscribe to This Is HIS Story wherever you listen to podcasts for more conversations about faith, calling, ministry, and the remarkable ways God works through ordinary lives.

What happens when God takes a life that seems to be falling apart and turns it into a calling to restore the lives of others?

Before Abby Germer became president of Refuge for Women, she and her husband were facing an uncertain future. Abby was pregnant when they married, her husband was facing the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence, and their lives were, in her own words, "a little bit of a train wreck."

Then something remarkable happened. A church welcomed them, loved them where they were, and introduced them to a community of faith, recovery, and restoration.

Years later, a mission trip to Mumbai, India, opened Abby's eyes to the heartbreaking realities of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. What she witnessed changed her life and eventually led her to Refuge for Women, a national Christian nonprofit dedicated to helping women escape exploitation and rebuild their lives.

In this episode of This Is HIS Story, Todd Turner sits down with Abby to discover how God used her own experiences to prepare her for an extraordinary calling.

In this conversation, you'll hear:

• How Abby and her husband experienced life-changing grace through a local church and Celebrate Recovery.
• The mission trip to India that awakened her passion for women trapped in sexual exploitation.
• How an unexpected connection led her to Refuge for Women.
• Why rescuing someone from trafficking is only the beginning of restoration.
• How Refuge for Women developed a long-term approach to trauma recovery, housing, education, and independent living.
• Why one survivor told Abby, "Surviving was easier than healing."
• How churches, businesses, volunteers, and ordinary Christians can help bring lasting hope to women rebuilding their lives.

Today, Refuge for Women provides residential care and long-term restoration services across the United States. But Abby's story reminds us that every great ministry begins somewhere, often in the most unexpected circumstances.

God doesn't waste our stories. Sometimes the very experiences that nearly break us become the preparation for the work He calls us to do.

Learn more about Refuge for Women, explore opportunities to volunteer, or support its mission at:

https://refugeforwomen.org

About This Is HIS Story

Hosted by Todd Turner, This Is HIS Story explores the lives of Christian leaders, missionaries, nonprofit founders, and everyday believers whose faith has shaped extraordinary work. Through personal conversations, we discover how God prepares people, calls them to serve, and writes His story through their lives.

Explore more interviews: https://www.toddturner.com/this-is-his-story/

Subscribe to This Is HIS Story wherever you listen to podcasts or watch on YouTube.

For more than 45 years, Roger Kemp has worked behind the scenes of Christian media, helping some of its most recognizable voices communicate biblical truth with clarity and excellence.

Roger began in the shipping department of Ambassador Advertising, duplicating reel-to-reel tapes and sending programs to radio stations. That entry-level position eventually placed him alongside Christian broadcasting pioneer Al Sanders and ministries led by Chuck Swindoll, James Dobson, John MacArthur, and others.

He later served as Vice President of Broadcasting and International Ministries for Insight for Living, became National Program Director for Salem Communications, and ultimately founded RK Media.

In this episode of This Is HIS Story, Roger joins Todd Turner for a deeply personal conversation about:

•  Coming to Christ at a Pilgrim’s Progress-themed summer camp 
•  How a painful family relocation shaped his character and calling 
•  Beginning his career in the shipping department 
•  Learning to write for the ear rather than the eye 
•  What Al Sanders, Chuck Swindoll, and Ed Atsinger taught him 
•  Why audio remains such an intimate and effective discipleship medium 
•  Seeing the power of God’s Word across cultures and languages 
•  Balancing business responsibilities with a ministry calling 
•  Processing disappointment and hurt within Christian ministry 
•  Writing through his wife Lori’s battle with pancreatic cancer 
•  Learning to recognize God’s presence during uncertain seasons 
•  His collection of antique editions of The Pilgrim’s Progress

Roger’s story is a reminder that a life does not need to be lived in the spotlight to have extraordinary influence. God works through faithful people serving behind the scenes, and sometimes we can recognize the pattern of His hand only when we look back.

Learn more about Roger and RK Media:
 https://rkmedia.co

Learn more about This Is HIS Story:
https://www.toddturner.com/podcasts/this-is-his-story-podcast/

Can you pursue business success and still live completely on mission for Christ?

Bill Gemaehlich has spent decades leading global Christian ministries, serving alongside Chuck Swindoll at Insight for Living, planting a church, mentoring leaders, and traveling the world to advance the Gospel.

But his story didn't begin in ministry.

It began with a young businessman whose dream was simply to make money... until God completely redirected his life.

In this conversation we discuss:

• Growing up in Oregon
 • Finding Christ after being raised Catholic
 • Business, leadership, and ministry
 • Working with Wycliffe Bible Translators
 • Serving at Insight for Living
 • Church planting while working full time
 • Mentoring the next generation
 • What American Christians can learn from believers around the world
 • Why serving Jesus is worth a lifetime

If you've ever wondered how your career can become your ministry, this episode is for you.

When you write a check for “clean water” or “orphans in Africa,” what actually happens on the other side of the wire?

In this episode, Todd Turner sits down with longtime Africa practitioner Jason Miller to talk honestly about the dark side of global generosity: dependency, staged photo ops, buzzword-driven proposals, broken “sustainability” projects, and a charity mindset that quietly damages the very communities we say we care about.

Jason has been working in East Africa since the mid-90s, from backpacking and hauling fax machines into Tanzania to walking slums, village wells, schools, farms, and “sustainable” projects across the continent. Together, Todd and Jason unpack how Western money interacts with local culture, government corruption, and survival ethics on the ground. They tell real stories of empty chicken houses, stolen wells, abandoned greenhouses, and ministries that exploded with donor money and then collapsed under the weight of it.

Most importantly, they explain why U.S. oversight tools like Guidestar, ECFA, and clean audits are necessary but not enough. Once money leaves the country, the paper trail gets fuzzy and the real story is told in dusty fields, rural schools, and village churches, not on a glossy PDF.

In this conversation, you’ll hear:

• Why “don’t feed the bears” is a painfully accurate picture of some mission models
• How well-intentioned donors can destroy local businesses and jobs without realizing it
• Why buzzwords like “sustainability,” “water is life,” and “women’s empowerment” raise money but often hide shallow work
• How cultural views of truth, honor, and family boards can completely change what “accountability” looks like
• Why schools, wells, fish farms, and orphanages often fail once the team flies home
• The limits of 501(c)(3) audits, Guidestar stars, and ECFA seals when funds are wired overseas
• What real donor due diligence looks like when you actually “watch the money in action”
• How Open Trust Global helps close the gap between donor stories and donor reality

If you’re a pastor, foundation leader, missions pastor, family office, or everyday giver who supports overseas work, this episode will help you ask better questions, fund better projects, and avoid doing unintentional harm with generous gifts.

Open Trust Global exists to put eyes and boots where the dollars go so that every gift has a fighting chance to become the good it was intended to be.

William Booth didn’t set out to build a global movement. He walked into the slums of London with a Bible, a stubborn faith, and a burden for people the church had learned to ignore. Out of that simple conviction came The Salvation Army, one of the most influential Christian missions of the last 150 years.

In this episode of HIS Story, Todd Turner sits down with Booth for a first-person conversation that brings his world to life. You’ll hear what shaped him, why he refused to look away from suffering, and how holiness, courage, and compassion fueled a ministry that changed cities across the world.

This episode explores:
 • Booth’s early ministry and calling
 • The spiritual and social crisis in 19th-century London
 • How The Salvation Army began and why it grew
 • Booth’s passion for the poor, the addicted, and the forgotten
 • What today’s church can learn from his bold, practical faith

If you enjoy Christian biography, church history, classic revival movements, or stories of ordinary believers doing extraordinary things, this conversation will pull you in. It’s a fresh look at William Booth, The Salvation Army, and the kind of faith that still speaks today.

What happens when someone decides to live entirely by faith?
 In this episode of This Is HIS Story, Todd Turner shares a compelling conversation with George Müller — the man who cared for more than 10,000 orphans without ever asking for a penny. Through prayer alone, he watched God provide food, shelter, and hope for thousands.

Listen as Müller recounts his rebellious youth, his powerful conversion, and the unwavering trust that shaped every decision of his life. His story still challenges today’s believers to depend on God in practical, courageous ways.

Whether you serve in ministry or simply want to grow your faith, this episode will stir your heart and remind you that God still answers prayer.

👉 Hear more timeless stories of faith at https://hisstorypodcast.buzzsprout.com

What if you could sit down with Charles Spurgeon himself — the Prince of Preachers?

 In this episode of This Is HIS Story, Todd Turner guides you through an imagined interview that captures Spurgeon’s wit, humility, and deep trust in God.

Hear how a teenage preacher became one of history’s most influential pastors. Learn about his personal battles with doubt and depression, his bold stand for truth, and the faith that carried him through suffering. This conversation reminds us why his words still ignite hearts more than a century later.

Whether you’re a pastor, teacher, or believer seeking fresh encouragement, this episode will point you back to the same grace that transformed Spurgeon’s life — the grace of Christ alone.

👉 Listen to more episodes and stories of faith at https://hisstorypodcast.buzzsprout.com

What happens when the roles you built your life around suddenly disappear? In this raw and real episode, Todd Turner sits down with longtime friend and Texas real estate agent Denise Milliken to talk about life after divorce—from empty nesting to learning how to change toilets solo. Denise opens up about the quiet loneliness, the awkward holiday moments, and the hard work of building a life that feels like you. If you’ve ever wondered who you are without a partner, this episode will resonate.

🔹 Triggers of loneliness no one talks about
 🔹 “Boy work,” broken sinks, and building self-worth
 🔹 The truth about dating apps and independent women
 🔹 Why embracing your new identity is essential

This conversation aligns with Module 7 of the UnYoked Divorce Recovery Course, where we walk through how to release old labels and live fully in the identity God is forming in you.