Cathy Madavan on the local church and joy in the struggle

So Mark went off to Bible college then-

Okay

... a year later in, uh, in London, uh, for, we were there for a few years.

And actually it was there while we were in London that Mark got diagnosed with a, uh, a hereditary degenerative disease, and we were told, I think when Mark was about 26, I was about 22, that he would lose all of his eyesight.

And they were like, "By the time you're 50, you'll be blind."

Wow.

Which, so he's at, he's at Bible college.

You know, you've got all these big plans for your life and what you're gonna do, where you're gonna go.

Yeah.

You know, people very unhelpfully told us that, you know, no one would ever employ Mark-

Mm

... um, and that, you know.

And we were just like, "Okay." You know, so Mark stopped driving at that point.

I'm suddenly doing all the dri- It, it was j- you know, it was one of those things where you go, you've given your life to God, you've met someone, you've got all these dreams about how you're gonna serve God, and suddenly-

Yeah

... you've got a curveball, and you're going, "Oh, okay, I d- I didn't actually see that coming."

Yeah.

Um, I didn't see my life looking like this.

Yeah.

Um, but-

So in terms of our, our podcast here, Legacy Podcast, and thinking of, like, how to journey a long time-

Mm

... you have to deal with curveballs.

Yeah.

So if you are giving advice to somebody who is in their 20s, so maybe somebody who's a student, uh, who is not yet-