Lisa Boullt: It’s been kind of my mission to not only follow what God put on my heart, but also to just keep Andrea’s legacy constantly going and sharing her story, because there’s a lot of misinformation about organ donation.   

Clinging to Faith When Our World is Crashing Down On Us: Lisa Boullt & Judy Henderson – Episode #457

Narrator: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week we honor Organ Donation Awareness month with music industry veteran Lisa Boullt. Lisa decided to start her own business helping artists and songwriters. Through this process, Lisa reconnected with her sister Andrea’s story, who had passed away in a car accident years earlier and was an organ donor. Lisa was touched by Andrea’s live-giving gift, and felt moved to write her sister’s story and educate people about the impact of organ donation.

Later in the episode, we’ll hear from author and advocate Judy Henderson, who spent thirty-six years of her life in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. After growing up in a dysfunctional family, dealing with an abusive ex-husband, a stay in a psych ward, and facing a boyfriend who manipulated his crime to pin the blame on her, it seemed like Judy would never find her way out of darkness and despair. But she chose to believe that God would rescue her from the prison walls that surrounded her both physically and emotionally.

Let’s begin with Lisa’s story.

Lisa Boullt: My name is Lisa Boullt. I live in Nashville, Tennessee, and I work in the music business.

Growing up in a town called Monroe, Louisiana, in the northeast part of the state, I didn’t really have a dream per se, but I just knew I wasn’t gonna stay there. And I kind of remember thinking, I wanna go somewhere fun. I wanna work at Disney or something that’s fun. It always had to include fun. So when I started college, I was a Public Relations major, because I thought, That’s something interesting, and it could lead to something fun. 

I graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1997, and then I ended up in Nashville. One of my first jobs in the music business was with Rhett Akins, actually right before I went to work for an amazing man named Charlie Daniels. I always tell people I learned how to take care of an artist by watching Charlie’s team take care of him for all those years. So it was a true blessing. 

Losing a Sister and the Aftermath

I was twenty-four when my sister passed away, so I was a lot younger, and I just don’t think I got to really process everything. I lost all three grandparents within four months of my sister. So for me, it was a repeat of the same hospital, the same funeral home, and the same cemetery. By the fourth funeral, honestly, I was kind of cried out. I was numb, truly numb. I think I had to go into a protective mode at that point because I was watching my parents grieve a child. 

The day of the accident, my mom and my brother were here with me in Nashville. Mom was getting ready to move here like two or three weeks later. She had taken a job here. She and my dad had just divorced, and she and Andrea were going to have a new start here in Tennessee. But the weekend that they came, one of her best friends was getting married, so she begged Mom to stay home. So Mom’s like, “Okay.” My dad was still in Louisiana at the time. This was before cell phones, so she called my apartment and told us they were home, and Mom was able to go to bed. We found out later that after everyone checked in, they went back out for a while and rode around. I still don’t know a lot of the details, but I think [it was] just teenagers being teenagers.

Andrea was a passenger in the back seat, so she was in the middle, and there was a boy on her left, a girl on her right, a boy driving, and a girl in the front seat. According to the police report, he fell asleep at the wheel and crossed over four lanes of traffic. But everyone was asleep, so no one really saw what happened.  

Well, the next morning, I get a phone call from my sister-in-law. We had gotten the information that there had been an accident, and we didn’t really know what was going on with Andrea. 

They packed their stuff and got back on the road immediately. I was able to get on a plane.

At that point, she was still alive, she was on a ventilator, and had no brain activity. She had not woken up. They had told us at that point that it was highly unlikely that she would survive.

That was one of the hardest things to hear because she didn’t have cuts or bruises. She looked  like she was sleeping, and she had a little knot on her head. I think that was really hard for all of us, because we’re like, She looks okay, but unfortunately the damage was internal in her brain. She actually passed away the next morning, and before she passed, they brought us in to say, “Do you know anything about organ donation? As a family, we need you to make the decision.”

There was really no question about it, because when they explained to us the importance of how many people—you know, up to eight organs can be used—and now the stats are up to seventy-five. People can enhance their lives through tissue and veins and bones. So when you hear those numbers, it’s not a hard decision. We wanted other people to experience all the beautiful things that we loved about her. She was definitely full of life, very spunky and funny, and so our family made that decision pretty quickly, because there’s a timeframe for organs to be transferred to the recipient. 

“We wanted other people to experience all the beautiful things we loved about [Andrea].” – Lisa Boullt

Andrea’s Legacy Lives on Through Organ Donation

I met a friend at a charity event who had lost a son and we connected. Her son had become an organ donor a few years before that. I said, “Well, my sister was an organ donor,” and she said, “What do you know about that?” So two days after that meeting, I was led to do a lot of research. I texted my group of high school friends and asked, “Where do I start?” They said, “Start with the place that did her surgery.” So I kind of went backwards and made a phone call and said, “I know this might be the most random question, but do you have any information from 1993?” 

And I remember the girl that answered the phone, and she said, “I don’t think so, but let me take your number.” She took my phone number, my name, my sister’s name, the date of the accident, and all of that pertinent information, and she said, “I’ll have someone call you.” Two days later, I got a phone call, and she said, “I found something. I found the names of the people and the organs we were able to use for other people.” And to be honest, that changed everything for me. I immediately started crying, because those people became extremely real at that point. 

Most all the time when someone’s waiting [for an organ] that means they’re pretty sick at that point, right, when they’re on the list. And to know that you are that close to what could be the end of your life and you’re waiting for that phone call—it’s so beautiful to know that yes, we had a loss, but the people that got the phone call, it changed their life. I was like, I hope they got her heart, and the way she loved people, and her love for music, and her love for her friends, and her love for her family.

“It’s so beautiful to know that yes, we had a loss, but the people that got the phone call, it changed their life.” – Lisa Boullt

Once you meet someone that has received an organ from a donor, it’s a game changer, because they’re telling you from their perspective of how their life has changed. And that’s where God has shown me, like, This is what you needed to see. You need to see these people that have received organs and that have been saved by donors, because that’s the other side of it. I’ve only known the loss on our family side, I’ve never really understood the gain until the last three years. 

“Once you meet someone that has received an organ from a donor, it’s a game changer, because they’re telling you from their perspective of how their life has changed.” – Lisa Boullt

Creating Life After Loss

I think God has a sense of humor sometimes because of the fact that He basically told me to tell my sister’s story, I was like, “Are you kidding me? I don’t know how to do this.” But I do tell people a lot that when God gives you an assignment, you don’t ask questions, you just say yes, and everything falls into place. So when I was assigned this from God to write Andrea’s story, I had to open up a really hard situation that I realized I had not really processed, because at the time, Andrea had been gone for twenty-eight years.

“When God gives you an assignment, you don’t ask questions, you just say yes, and everything falls into place.” – Lisa Boullt

I got in touch with her friends, and I’m like, “Tell me how y’all met. Tell me your favorite stories.” [It was] such a blessing getting to reconnect with people that loved my little sister and still love her to this day. It’s been a sweet, sweet journey of meeting different people. Honestly, if I had to guess, in the last year and a half, I’ve met probably twenty people that have either received an organ or been a living donor—something [to do] with organ donation. So I have a whole group of friends now just with this topic, and it has been incredible.

It’s been kind of my mission per se to not only follow what God put on my heart, but also to just keep our family’s legacy—to keep Andrea’s legacy—constantly going and telling teenagers about her and sharing her story, because there’s a lot of misinformation about organ donation. So I think if anything, if I can share our truth, and Andrea’s truth, and how she saved people and paint a picture in a book that’s understandable to them, I think that’s where I’m supposed to be right now, because I have not always talked about it. 

I think when you’re passionate about whatever it is in life—if it’s your job, if it’s a mission that you’re passionate about—I think when God lays it on your heart, you’re gonna be an advocate for it, no matter what it looks like.

“I think when you’re passionate about whatever it is in life—if it’s your job, if it’s a mission that you’re passionate about—I think when God lays it on your heart, you’re gonna be an advocate for it, no matter what it looks like.” – Lisa Boullt

I’ve been a Christian my whole life, but I’ve really in the last twenty-five years just really changed. Jesus Calling has been a part of my life. I wish I could tell you how long I’ve been reading it. I know that every time I read it, it’s exactly what I needed to hear that day. When they came out with the note-taking version, I was really intrigued by that because I did like the idea of writing. So I would start highlighting my favorite parts of the day and then rewriting it on the side. One of my best friends and I started five years ago doing this—highlighting and then we write our favorite parts and we text each other every day. I’m like, This is my favorite part, and she would tell me her favorite part.

Jesus Listens, May 28th:

Treasured Jesus,

Help me remember that challenging circumstances come and go, but You are continually with me. The constancy of Your Presence is a glorious treasure! It comforts me to know that You are writing the storyline of my life—through good times and hard times. You can see the big picture: from before my birth to beyond the grave.

No matter how heavy my burdens are, the reality of Your Presence with me outweighs all my difficulties. When I wait quietly with You, I can hear You whisper: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

In Your refreshing Name, 

Amen

Narrator: To learn more about Lisa Boullt, be sure to follow her on social media, and check out her book, 17 Again: A Story of Life After Life, at your favorite retailer.

Stay tuned to Judy Henderson’s story after a brief message.

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Our next guest is Judy Henderson, whose life took an unexpected and devastating turn when she was wrongly accused and convicted of a murder, leading to a life sentence and thirty-six long years physically separated from her family and spent behind bars. She shares how, even in the darkest of times, her faith became her anchor and how she never gave up on one day walking out of prison, finding freedom once more.

Judy Henderson: My name is Judy Henderson. I’m the author of When the Light Finds Us: From a Life Sentence to a Life Transformed. I’m an advocate for those that are incarcerated—for mothers and their children—and trying to get them home to their families. I also work for Catholic Charities of Kansas City, St. Joseph. It’s very rewarding because now I’m able to give back and help those that are in need, and give them a hand up and not just a hand out, because it’s so important that they be taught how to have a solid foundation. 

I’m the oldest of eight children. Being the oldest of eight, of course, you’re the leader of everything, you’re the first one to learn everything. My parents started taking us to church, and we’d get together and sing at different functions. It was a very strict religion, but I also came from a dysfunctional family. I wasn’t able to date until I was eighteen, and that’s who I ended up marrying. I [was taught] that no matter what, you were supposed to stay married. So I stayed with my abuser for twelve years, until I had the courage to leave. I thought, He’s going to end up turning this abuse on our children, and that’s what I feared the most.  

I ended up in a psychiatric ward. After my release from the psychiatric ward, I met my co-defendant, who became my boyfriend, and he had been in ministry. He was a real estate broker, and he was very intelligent, very suave, very debonair. I met him in April, and we started dating. In June, I came home, because I bought a business. My children and I were thriving pretty well, as far as I was concerned. 

I picked my son up from the nursery care one day. I got home, opened the door, and there in the foyer were suitcases. And I’m thinking, Why are there suitcases inside my house? I then saw my co-defendant come around the corner, and he said, “Those are mine.” I said, “What are you doing? I don’t allow anybody to live with me or stay with my children. That’s not how I live.” And he said, “Well, Judy, I just feel like you need somebody to take care of you and the kids. I want to be a part of this family.” Being in the mental condition that I was already in, it made sense to me. Yeah, I want this little picket fence. I want a good Christian family, and I want a husband that really loves me. It was in June when he moved in, and in July, the murder was committed. I was present, and I was grazed with a bullet at the time.   

Judy Gets Framed for a Crime She Didn’t Commit

We did have the same attorney representing both of us, which today cannot happen in a court of law because it causes a serious conflict. Your attorney will not put you on the stand if you’re going to say something that’s going to hurt his other client, which was my co-defendant, so I had two choices. Either I take the stand and I lie—put my hand on God’s Word and say that I was someplace else at the time. I refused to do that—there was no way I was going to put my hand on that Bible and lie about the whole situation, saying I was someplace else, and that my co-defendant had nothing to do with this, nor did I. My second option was don’t testify at all to save your life. So those were the two options my defense attorney gave me.  

They didn’t have any physical evidence like they did on my co-defendant, but he manipulated the whole scene, the whole crime, to where it pointed toward me. Unbeknownst to me, on the side—while we were strategizing and coming up with my defense—he was in every meeting only to ensure that I would not testify against him, that I would not turn states, that I would not implicate him. And he was seeing two other criminal attorneys on the side without us knowing that. So I had no defense, and they charged me out of mitigating circumstances. Once I was convicted, he got those two attorneys to represent him, and he was acquitted of the murder.  

I could have received the death penalty, because the only sentence that capital murder carries, is life without parole for fifty years or the death penalty. If I had received the death penalty, I would have been executed between eighteen and twenty years of being incarcerated. So, I wouldn’t have been here right now to talk to you. 

In my cell in prison, I put up the verse Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you.” And His plan was not for me to die and rot in prison, but I did find my purpose while I was there.  

“In my cell in prison, I put up the verse Jeremiah 29:11. His plan was not for me to die and rot in prison, but I did find my purpose while I was there.” – Judy Henderson

How Did I End Up in Prison?

Whenever I first arrived there, I was so angry. I mean, I was so, so angry, and very sad, very hurt. I was in so much pain. I had to figure out, How did I get here? How did this happen to me?  

And so I did years of therapy. I guess the warden told twelve of us lifers that he wanted us to go to this three-day Christian retreat called Residents Encounter Christ, which is still going to this day in the prisons. So I did. I went, and I thought, You know, I’m going to go, but I doubt that I will get anything out of this because I’m really ticked off to the max with God right now. He and I had a lot of heart-to-hearts—a lot of angry things I said, because I knew He could change anything in a blink of an eye.

But when I went to this retreat, it was filled with so much love, and the volunteers just embraced us and showed the love of Christ. We did a foot washing, which was so humbling. I just wept remembering how Mary washed Jesus’ feet. And I could just feel that—I felt it deep in my soul. I thought, Okay, God, you know what? I’m gonna give You a shot here, another shot, to help me figure out why I’m here.

There are two things you can do with anger—you can get bitter or you can get better. So I chose better, and I let Him take the lead. And He started opening my eyes to look around and see all these desperate women that needed help. They were all in pain. They were all hurting and missing their children. So that’s when my journey began in finding my purpose.

Motivated By Family to Never Give Up on Freedom

I loved my family so much. When I went to prison, I didn’t let them know how frightened I was, how scared I was, how I didn’t think I could make it. I wanted them to know I was strong. My mom said, “Judy Ann, you open your Bible.” And so I did that great for thirty-six years, I had my Bible open in my cell. 

Because I had that love for my family, my children kept me going. My family, we were very close-knit, always. Even while I was incarcerated, during funerals, weddings, holidays, and Christmas, they always set a chair for me that was empty with my picture in it and on the table. So everybody would always know that I was there. I was present in thought—even if I wasn’t there physically, I was there in spirit. And so, no matter where I was, I was included in everything.  

I did all kinds of programs while I was incarcerated for moms and their babies. I became a certified paralegal, a group and personal trainer, and a certified dog trainer. Anything that the Department of Corrections had, I wanted. They would like to remind me all the time, “Judy, you’re not going to be out there, so you need to just accept what is.” I said, “I refuse. I’m going to fight until the day I walk home, because I am going home. I’m standing on faith because I know it’s going to happen.” 

Finally Pardoned by Governor Number Seven

I started doing the clemency process in 1982. [It] went through six governors that denied me. Three parole boards made their recommendation to the governor’s office to release me, and not one of those governors would do it. But let me tell you, seven is God’s number of completion. My seventh governor is the one that gave me my life back. 

What He does for one, He’ll do for others. You have to stand on it, you have to believe it, and you have to walk the path that He’s chosen for you to walk, and those things will come to you. 

I got a full pardon and nobody else has ever done that in the state of Missouri that was a lifer. 

“What He does for one, He’ll do for others. You have to stand on it, you have to believe it, and you have to walk the path that He’s chosen for you to walk, and those things will come to you.” – Judy Henderson 

It’s okay to be angry with God. I want everybody to know that. God expects that. He already knows that you’re gonna be angry before you even say anything to Him. So it’s okay to be human. He made us human. He gave us all of these emotions. So get your anger out toward Him and tell Him exactly how you’re feeling. Then say, “Hey, you know, if You want me to serve You and do work for You, You’re going to have to lead me, and You’re gonna have to help me believe that You’re involved in this.” And if everybody will pay attention to the signs that occur in their life, they will find their purpose, they will know what it is God created them to do, and they will live a happy, blessed, prosperous life.  

Narrator: Be sure to check out Judy’s new book, When the Light Finds Us, available at your favorite retailer. 

If you’d like to hear more stories about standing on faith when it all comes crashing down around you, check out our interview with Jochen Wurfl.

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Next week: Sawyer Brown’s Mark Miller

Next time on the Jesus Calling Podcast, we’re welcoming Mark Miller, the lead singer of Sawyer Brown, back to the show. Mark reflects on the fortieth anniversary of the iconic country music group, their latest album, and how prayer has been a key part of his mindset for many years. 

Mark Miller: There’s not an hour that goes by that I’m not either praying in my mind. It’s just a part of everything that I do in my being. So from the time I get up, to the time I go to bed, I want the Holy Spirit to just cover me and carry me throughout every minute of my waking day.