Video: Hey everyone, welcome. I’m just excited because I have no idea what I’m doing. And I promise that I’m going to be real and open and just raw with you guys. What we started noticing recently is the amount of subscribers on the is website had grown to about 1300 signing up for a newsletter. In case you are new to the site, my name is Emma Faye Rudkin and my story has just been so beautiful and it changed so much from who I used to be in the past growing up. I am a deaf person, but until recently, about four years ago, I started to pick up sign language. So we’re always gonna caption these videos. We are always gonna have interpreting. And so I’m just excited to get to know you guys. I just get to be real, and to share what it is to be deaf. What it is to be on this grand adventure. And I’m following this man named Jesus and all that I’ve learned from following Him and becoming a child of God and so, you may be in a different place and that’s okay, but my hope is that you’ll be able to get to talk about things, like managing your life, because I have been in a place where I’ve wanted to be perfect and say yes to everything and it ends up burning you out and you end up not performing at anything you love at all. I was just 18 years old when I started a non-profit that became internationally known and so I can talk about so many things, such as being young and having big dreams or being open to something that God has visioned but I wanted and it ends up being exactly what you were made to do. This video is actually my office behind me and so it will change where I’m gonna be talking and sharing, it will change locations, because I travel and I speak anywhere from 150 events to 300 events every single year, so I’m gonna take you on lots of adventures and show you what it is to navigate life with hearing loss and to navigate life where I had a really big dream at such a young age and I know this will be a chance that you can ask real questions. What’s beautiful about using the internet and social media, it’s changing, so people were kind of done with people trying to be fake, if I’m honest, I don’t want to see the perfect hair and the perfect outfits, like I want to get to the gritty . My hope for this is that we will get to what’s happening in our lives and our hearts and also what does it mean to pursue something that’s really scary, ’cause I’m doing it right now. Show you what these adventures look like and the people I get to meet. I get to meet people that have all sorts of stories every single day, and just realizing, I’m missing out on sharing somebody else’s story on the platform that I have, and if I’m new to you, I’m excited you’re watching, because it has been the most beautiful journey I’ve ever been on in my life. Since I was 18 years old… I’ll let you in on a secret I don’t tell people, but I’m actually only 23, and I try to listen and grow with God, because I realized early on in my life, I wasn’t very good at being a human without Jesus. So, that’s me being real. I’m just going to be sharing what I’m learning. I’ve been in a season where I felt stretched and pulled towards what people wanted me to do, what people wanted me to say, and saying yes to everything, and so quickly, I got really burned out, and I realized I was only surviving and not thriving! And I was just dealing with a lot of conflict, a lot of people issues and I just felt like there is this phrase in my life and it does come from scripture, it comes from the Bible, but it is really sweet, it says, “Pursue peace”, and that’s just something that I have on my desk right now, and it’s talking about what does it mean to pursue peace with others, and to pursue, now you can see it, there you go, “Pursue peace”. I believe that there is a peace, there’s a deep shalom, and shalom means, this fulfillment of the identity to be fearlessly free. It’s to be at peace, and we’re all searching for it, we’re all wanting to be peaceful people, we want to experience peace and love and joy, and so peace is saying have that with other people to help them be fearlessly free in their identity. But how do I do that with myself? I’m seeking peace for myself, means that I’m not trying to please everybody, I’m not trying to listen to all these voices. There’s one voice that matters, ’cause there’s nothing good apart from God, and there’s nothing good apart from His voice. So being deaf is interesting, because there is a unique perspective on silence, and I sit in silence a lot, and my hearing loss is about 90% and 80%, so it’s bilateral loss, if you don’t know what that is, but bilateral means that both of my ears have profound hearing loss, and so I come from a season where I had no idea if I would wake up and all of my hearing would be completely gone. I really had to establish that of peace. The peace that surpasses all understanding. It doesn’t make sense to the world, it doesn’t make sense on paper, but somehow God has given me this peace, even though I’ve gone through significant trials and circumstances and depression and anxiety, so I hope this is the place that we can talk about these things, and get to be real, because our world doesn’t allow us to really talk, and thankfully the conversation changes about depression and anxiety, but here we go! So, if you subscribe to something here and you’re wondering, where is she actually gonna share? I’m here, this is the chance, and I guess I’m vlogging, is that what it’s called? Vlogging. I’m vlogging now. So, here we go, let’s do this together. Love you guys. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBT_63AXzsI8RXbPuUVl0Ig?view_as=subscriber
Emma Faye is a national speaker who has touched the lives of thousands of people who have had the opportunity to hear her story. If there is one thing that her audience remembers about Emma, it is her ability to connect on a raw and genuine level to those around her. She speaks with authenticity and with an immense passion for Jesus.