- Lorie Hartshorn is nostranger to the "700 Club",

just not the one you'rewatching right now.

Last fall, she was named the co-host

of the Canadian version of this program.

Every day, Lorie can beseen across the country,

sharing the gospel.

So it may be hard toimagine just a few years ago

that she was having herown crisis of faith.

(dramatic music)

(happy music)

- [Reporter] LorieHartshorn is the co-host

of the "700 Club" Canadian edition.

She's also an author and Bible teacher.

She and her husband Deanbrought their children up

to know and love God.

So they were blindsidedwhen all three of them

decided to reject him.

- Oh there were drugs and alcohol,

and some very dark, heavy metal music,

and you know, justdealing with the reality

of sometimes not knowing where they were.

- [Reporter] Today,Lorie shares her journey

from devastation to victory,

and recounts what causedthe dramatic reversal

in the lives of her children.

- Lorie Hartshorn is here with us now,

and we welcome you tothe American "700 Club".

It's great to have you.- Thank you ,

oh it's an honor to be here.

- You know, your testimony,what God has given you to share

is something that's impactingso many families right now.

Let's go back to that,you say in your book

that you had seven dark yearsthat were really difficult.

Talk about those dark years,and what was going on.

- Well you know, at theend of the day, Terry,

I felt ripped off, likewho signs up for this?

You know, you think asa, both my husband and I,

we just certainly not perfect parents,

there's no such thing,

but we just wanted our kids to love Jesus.

- And you'd done everythingyou were supposed to do.

- You try to do those thingsthat direct your kids to Jesus,

and so really we felt really, I was,

I admit, I was angry atGod, I was frustrated,

I was so disappointed anddiscouraged, and of course.

As a mom, you know, we'vegot this extra muscle

called enabling, we wannahelp more than we should help.

(laughing) right?- Yes I do know.

- So it's like I gotta fix these kids.

- Yes, and well you hadone, your oldest son,

at one point, you actuallyhad to kick out of the house.

That's such a painfulthing for a mother's heart.

Even when you know, thatperhaps this is the best thing,

or the most needed thingto do, what was that like?

- Well it was one of thehardest moments of our life,

but I think at that point,we'd come to the place

where like are we gonnatrust God with this,

and what are the boundaries,so it's healthy boundaries

that we need to set thatwe're not, in a sense,

you know, getting into the,jumping into the pit with them,

that we needed to be thepeople God called us to be,

and live the life he called us to live,

so when our kids didreturn, not if they would,

when they did, they were gonna find us

right where they left us.

And so some of those toughchoices had to be made.

- You say also thatspiritual warfare is real,

and you were unprepared.

- Oh unprepared.- That's where I think

there's so many peoplestanding in that place.

Tell me how you figured out

what you were supposed to be doing

that you weren't (laughing).

- A lightning bolt fromheaven, like honestly,

it was such a wake up call, Terry,

because I believe scripturesays we have three enemies,

the world, the flesh and the devil.

Well, we spend a lot of timelooking at the broken world,

and all the problems, and those teachers,

- The wise by this.- And maybe blaming,

we do the blame game,right, and then the flesh,

like our kids are just making bad choices.

They just need to shapen up, you know,

and then, seems to be the last resort,

when we go the enemy has anassignment for our family,

and we need to stand.

And that was a wake upcall to my husband and I.

We were praying people,

but we were actively engaged in warfare.

- So how did you engage in warfare?

- I think we became to a deeperunderstanding of the fact

that the enemy can have aabsolute influence over your kids,

even as Christians, you can be demonized,

and our kids were verydifferent kids, they changed.

Personality change, theyhad given space and place

to the demonic, and we started to pray

like we'd never prayed before,and we invited many people.

I was traveling and speaking,teaching leadership,

I mean I felt disqualified,I felt like, you know,

what do I have to say toanyone, and the Lord just said

you be faithful to follow me first of all.

- And you be honest.- And to be honest.

- Yeah (laughing).

- Sometimes we wanna, youknow, we do wanna withdraw,

and but I'll tell ya,scripture is very clear

that God works in community,

and he wants us to invite people

into our pain, because hemade it very clear to me,

I was going up to speak,at really the home church

I was raised at, he said ifyou do not tell your story now,

when you're in the middle of this mess,

when you're in the middle of your pain,

who's gonna be there to partywith you when I come through?

And I knew then Terry, I hadto start telling our mess

in the middle of the mess,so that God changed our mess

to our message today.

There is hope, you haveto decide for yourself,

you are gonna trust God, andJesus, he is more powerful

than anything the enemycan throw at your family.

- And now you've seen it.

At one point a counselorasked you and your husband

a question that you thoughtyou knew the answer to,

what was it?

- Do you really believewhat you say you believe?

You know, that's a crisisof faith, isn't it?

And that is where I thinkthe rubber meets the road.

I had to grow up in my faith and trust.

Do I really believe Godis who he says he is,

is he gonna go after my kids?

Is he able, and wepositioned ourself in a place

where we were counting on God.

In fact, we were bold enough to say God,

this is on your name, this is about you.

It's not about us anymore.

It's for your namesake andyour reputation's at stake,

so God, go get your name.

- What was the wake up call for you?

- The wake up call was Ithink moving from a fixit mode

into a trust, humbleyourself before God and pray.

And you know, Psalm 107was really my wakeup call.

It says very clearly,when you cry out to me,

I will hear you, I will answeryou, I will set you free.

And that literally means cryout in the original language.

Literally means cometo the end of yourself.

As parents, we came to the end of ourself.

Our kids, that's what we pray, Terry.

That God would bring themto the end of themselves.

- And you know, sometimes wepray that prayer for our kids,

but we don't do it ourselves.

- You're so right,- As parents.

- That's right, and you knowthis is a journey of humility,

and I encourage parents,humble yourself before God,

and just tell your kids, we believe,

you can't outrun Jesus.

You can outrun mom and dad,but you cannot outrun Jesus.

- So what happened to your kids

after you started prayingwith that kind of authority?

- You know, from our view, wedidn't see a lot of change.

To be honest, it almostlooked like things got worse,

but what they would say, asthey share their stories,

they started to feel this deep, deep,

like they were in angst,they were in turmoil.

Jesus was just, the hound ofheaven was going after them.

And you know, with eachone, it was different,

but I'll tell ya, thenight that our first,

one of our first sons returned to Jesus,

it was nothing short of a miracle.

He showed up at church,was the first miracle.

The second miracle, hesaid he felt something

grab him by the scruff of theneck, it wasn't his mother,

but it coulda been,(laughing)

and take him to the front ofthat church, and he repented.

He was delivered of the demonic.

He was just restored.

I tell ya, Terry, today he's an evangelist

and church planter in Canada.

That is not a parent's testimony,

that is through thetestimony of what Jesus does.

- And today, you are hostingthe Canadian "700 Club"

and God has used all of these things

that you learn through theprocess of walking through them,

just speaking to the lives of others.

- [Lorie] That's right,you know, everyday,

you and I have a privilege,

we share the best newsin the world, the gospel.

- Boy that is the truth.- We know it's powerful

to change lives, becauseit's changed ours.

- Well Lorie's usingher story to help teach

and encourage others.

She has a five part Biblestudy called "Finding Freedom",

and you can get the DVD and the guidebook.

Go to cbn.com and we'lllead you right to it.

Thank you Lorie, it'swonderful to have you here.

- And wonderful to meet you,- Thank you.

- and thank you for what youdo, and you are my mentor.

You know (laughing).- From afar.

(laughing)- I learn from you.

- You're sweet to say that, thank you.