Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations,
Perseverance: The Path to Spiritual Growth
About this episode
Pastor Teresa Pritchard of Fayetteville Community Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina, joins Philip Cameron to unpack one of the most misunderstood commands in Scripture — and why Christians should "throw a party" when trials arrive. Drawing from James 1:2–4, Teresa explains that the phrase "consider it all joy" carries a deeper meaning in the original Greek: a deliberate, active choice to celebrate in the middle of wave-upon-wave hardship. "These trials are not gonna hit you without producing something that you need," she says. "God will see to that." Teresa leads a discipleship group called Tracks, designed specifically for believers in their twenties and thirties — an age group she identifies as under-equipped for hardship because they've grown up in a "cotton wool world." Her core message: perseverance is not passive endurance but a muscle God intentionally builds so we can carry the glory He has prepared for us. The test, she reminds us, is always part of the testimony. The conversation closes with a prayer drawn from James 1:5 — asking God for the wisdom to walk through trials — and a challenge to every viewer to put on "spirit glasses" and respond to difficulty with faith rather than fear. Watch the full episode and visit fccnnc.us to connect with Fayetteville Community Church.
Part of our Faith collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“It's not what the devil says you are that matters — what God says you are, that matters.”
“Perseverance, or patience, must finish its work so you can be mature and complete, lacking nothing — lacking no thing. So when there's seasons of hard times and it's building and producing patience or perseverance, that endurance in us, it's for purpose, and it's for us to be able to lack nothing.”
“God knows that the muscle that he's trying to build in us in this trial is going to be the muscle that we're gonna need to carry the glory that he's bringing our way down the road.”
What's Discussed
Pastor Teresa Pritchard of Fayetteville Community Church (fccnnc.us) joins Philip Cameron for a deep dive into James 1:2–4, exploring what it truly means to "consider it all joy" when facing trials. Teresa explains that the Greek text describes simultaneous, multi-layered hardships — "various colors" of trials hitting like wave after wave — and that the proper response is an intentional celebration rooted in the promise that testing produces perseverance. She shares insights from her discipleship group, Tracks, created for believers in their twenties and thirties who lack tools to navigate hardship. The episode concludes with a prayer from James 1:5, asking God for wisdom to walk through trials with faith and endurance.
- Tracks Discipleship Group for Young Adults
- James 1:2–4 Consider It All Joy
- Greek Meaning of Various Trials
- Test Is Part of the Testimony
- Responding to Trials With Spirit Glasses
- Building the Muscle to Carry Glory
- Prayer for Wisdom From James 1:5
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron, and we have got a tremendous program for you, and we're gonna talk to you, and our guest is gonna talk to you more importantly about the power of perseverance. The devil does not know what to do with someone that won't quit.
Philip:The devil has no answer for someone that keeps getting up. And I just encourage you, you might be sitting today looking through the internet or watching TV on CDN or wherever you're watching us, and the devil is trying to get you to quit.
Philip:Quit believing for your family, quit believing in your church, quit believing in whatever. And the Holy Ghost has arranged you to meet us today because I've got a guest that's a personal friend of mine. I know her life, and she is an amazing woman of God.
Philip:She pastors a church in Fayetteville, North Carolina, called Fayetteville Community Church. A great, great church, great church. Her husband, Wesley Pritchard, you've seen him on most all of Bill Gaither's videos. He's one of the most talented producers I've ever met.
Philip:He does all our music, and we just love, we love this family — not just Teresa and Wesley, but their kids and their grandkids, a whole clan of people that are in love with Jesus and doing tremendous things in their community.
Philip:She is gonna be talking to you about walking by faith, not by sight, not by feelings, and how perseverance will grow you quicker than sunshine's warm ray. Trust me, that is the truth. As you know, our ministry — or if you don't know — our ministry is twofold. We travel and speak in churches in this country. We've been doing that for 50 odd years. We have Daily Faith. And we also have a ministry in Moldova, Eastern Europe. 34 years ago, I adopted a baby in Romania.
Philip:And by adopting him, he became almost like God grabbing me and making me aware of something that I had no idea about. And for 34 years, we've been caring and loving and feeding and clothing and educating and leading orphans to Jesus.
Philip:And we have a tremendous place called Vara Village in Moldova, amazing place, beautiful place, a village of houses right on the largest lake in the country. And we take kids in rather than have them fall into the hands of traffickers, we take them into our homes, put them back in school. They've never been to a doctor, dentists, never had their eyes checked. And we literally redeem their lives from destruction and find Christ. And part of the DNA of the ministry is to have them help others in need.
Philip:Because by giving, that's how you are healed. If you are looking for God to heal your circumstance and heal your heart and heal your life, give away something, do something positive outside of your world, and that's where the healing of God comes in your life. And we watched this happen, and as you know, a year ago, Russia invaded Ukraine.
Philip:We've had a home in Ukraine for six years, long before anyone knew about Ukraine or Odessa and all the different things that we now know because of the news. And our kids have been there, going out and carrying on in Odessa and all around that area, and also our kids in Moldova. But when Moldova was invaded by the Russians, our kids — these orphans — became heroic missionaries. They go there all the time. In fact, the other day I got a phone call, a FaceTime, from one of our workers, Catalina. And it was nighttime in Odessa, Ukraine.
Philip:And she called, she says, Dad, I want you to listen to something. And she put her phone out the window of our house we have in Odessa, and I could hear the wail of sirens indicating a missile attack. And I says, aren't you afraid, Catalina? Aren't you afraid? And she laughed and she says, no, God will protect us.
Philip:And they go up and they feed the refugees. Thousands and thousands of people. We've given away thousands of blankets. Our ministry has given away 15,000 new coats in the last couple of months. It's amazing what these kids are doing, all because someone took time to say, you are loved. And it's not what the devil says you are that matters — what God says you are, that matters.
Philip:And they just sent me a video the other day, an amazing video. This is shot by them, written by them. The narration — you'll hear a girl called Yago. She's one of the house parents in Vara Village, a village there. And you watch these kids feeding and caring for refugees from a war in Ukraine. This is in Ukraine. And you watch at the beginning of it, and they tell his story — how the Russian soldiers asked him where his wife was.
Philip:And he said, she's in hospital. And they said, where? And he says, I don't know, in Odessa or Kyiv. And they says, well, we're gonna find her. And when we find her, you watch what we are going to do to her, and then we're going to shoot you — an old man watching the threat of his wife being raped by Russian soldiers. You're gonna see him right now in this video. Watch this.
Philip:I can't imagine living with no power, no water. Russia's destroying the infrastructure of Ukraine, trying to make it so impossible for people to live that they give up and go away. And right in the middle of it, you have a bunch of orphans that no one else wants, that have been told by everyone they've ever met, you're nothing, you're garbage, you'll never be worth anything, your mother doesn't want you, your father doesn't want you. And these amazing kids risk their lives to go into a place where missiles flew a few hours before them and a few hours after them to share the love of God. So in the hopeless come those who were once hopeless, to show the love of God. We are stretched at our maximum capacity as a ministry.
Philip:We're helping in Odessa, we're helping in different parts of Ukraine, we are caring for the young folk that have come to us in Moldova. In fact, on June 1st, the orphanages give away their graduates and they're put on the street, and we'll have to take more kids in. We've just come back from Turkey. The most amazing and astounding thing to me is that the largest tragedy, natural disaster that's ever been in the world, has just taken place in Turkey, and the news never reports about it. In one city, 1.6 million people — Antakya — 1.6 million people, 90% of the buildings have been destroyed.
Philip:They've excavated 20% of the buildings and found 50,000 bodies. And a pastor, a Christian pastor in a Muslim country, contacted us. His wife is from Moldova, and she's been watching what we've been doing in Ukraine. And he called and says, please, please, if you care about people, will you come and help us in Turkey? And a team in that blue van drove all the way from Moldova down through Romania, Bulgaria, into Turkey, and drove from one end of Turkey to the other right down to where the earthquake zone is, and gave away 50 family tents.
Philip:And we are believing God for the funds for 50 more. And that's — you are looking at where these people will be staying for years to come. That's their life for the next 10 years, if they're fortunate. And Christians in that country are second class citizens. We gave away hundreds upon hundreds of boxes, 40 pounds of food in every box. The families that are in great need — we need your help. One of those tents costs us $620.
Philip:Can you sponsor a tent for a family? Would you build a house for a family for $620? I think you would. And your gift of $620 is what it's costing us. That's not an over-cost, that's how much it's costing us at the place we buy them. $620 will allow us to put a Christian family in a tent and save them from sitting outside with nowhere to go in the middle of hell when the whole world around them has fallen down. Every box of food, 40 pounds, is costing you $32.
Philip:You can give that to help us. You can write me today: The Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. Do something today.
Philip:Don't curse the darkness. If you're in a circumstance where you need God to move in your life, this is the opportunity God's giving you to say, well, I'm gonna sow a seed outside of my world. And when you do that, I promise you, the Bible says, cast your bread upon the waters and it shall return to you after many days.
Philip:Pressed down is gonna multiply into your life. Help us today. Keep this going. Literally, as I'm talking to you, my wife and a team of folk are working on a container. We've given away thousands of blankets in the last year and 15,000 new coats, apart from used coats that were given to us. Also, you can help us today by giving, and please do so.
Philip:A church that is part of our ministry that literally creates the welcome boxes and the Christmas boxes for the new kids that come to our homes in Moldova is my guest on the program. I've never met a church like this in my life. These guys had a bake sale to help get Christmas last year to our kids. And what happened was they bought all the cakes from each other on the black market, and by the time they came to have the bake sale, all the cakes were gone. And they re-baked a whole bunch of cakes. And they gave the most amazing Christmas gift you've ever imagined in your life from Fayetteville Community Church. Teresa Pritchard pastors that church, along with her husband Wesley, and she's my guest today.
Tracks Discipleship Group for Young Adults
Philip:I love you so much, it's embarrassing. And I want to thank you publicly for the care and concern you guys show. You've been in Moldova, you know what we're talking about, and I thank you for that.
Teresa Pritchard:Well, you know, we love you, Philip. We love these kids. When I'm seeing what they're doing, going, making that drive to Turkey, and the way that they are giving out those tents and the food boxes, and the way that they went to the border for everything going on in the world, they just seem to wanna rise up to the occasion.
Teresa Pritchard:And it just brings me — it makes me think of what we're gonna talk about today. And I wanna give the end of it and then go back to the beginning of it. But I'm teaching right now a group of kids in our church that are in their twenties to early thirties. And we started this a few years ago. It's a group, and we named this group Tracks, because the Lord laid on my heart that this particular age group just needed discipleship, just some training in how to persevere and how to stand and keep their faith in really hard times, because in their lifetime they really haven't had a lot of hardship.
Teresa Pritchard:And I've noticed that we lose a lot of these kids in the church. They might be raised in the church, go to college, and then they don't seem to be coming back to church when they start their families. It's an age group of a lot of transition. And I just felt like they needed tracks to run on, something that they could grip their faith to, to keep going.
Teresa Pritchard:But when you were talking about the orphans now rising up and being the hands of the ministry, I thought about James 1:4, which is the end of what we're gonna be at today, but it says perseverance, or patience, must finish its work so you can be mature and complete, lacking nothing — lacking no thing. So when there's seasons of hard times and it's building and producing patience or perseverance, that endurance in us, it's for purpose, and it's for us to be able to lack nothing.
James 1:2–4 Consider It All Joy
Teresa Pritchard:So not only have your orphans been through such hard lives — just lives that we personally cannot imagine — but they've persevered. Thank God for Orphan's Hands ministry, Philip, and for your family, for having vision and your own perseverance to continue to provide homes for these children and to continue to pour out like a drink offering for these kids.
Teresa Pritchard:Because now they've learned how to persevere themselves, lacking nothing. So not only are they not lacking anything, but now they're making sure that people in the world are not lacking anything, and they're now through their example pouring the love of God on people and meeting the broken where they are.
Philip:And also, Teresa, what amazes me is these kids have gone through hell — I mean, almost since they were born, they've gone through hell — and they end up stronger. And in comparison, the American church, our kids have never had crisis. They've lived in a soft world and everything's given to them on a platter. And what's happened is when storms do come, they're not equipped to handle them because they've literally lived in a cotton wool world — in the church, in their home, in school, and whatever they've done. And they're ill-equipped to persevere when perseverance is required.
Teresa Pritchard:That's right. And I find that a lot of it's just the lack of biblical knowledge. That is such a passion for me — the word of God — because it's the only thing that will stand when everything else is gone.
Philip:Yeah.
Teresa Pritchard:And we have to build our lives on that. And I just have a fire in me to teach them and to lead them by example. But I wanna be in James chapter one, verses two and three. If we don't get any further, it's just, consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance, or develops patience.
Teresa Pritchard:So I wanna go to the first part: consider it all joy when you face trials of many kinds. Well, I don't know about you, but when I'm facing this — this is multiple trials. When you go and dig into the original language, it's many trials at the same time, of various colors. To me, colors is like various levels of heat. And so it's the big, small, and everything in between.
Teresa Pritchard:And it's like wave upon wave — one wave hitting you, knocking you down, before you can get up and get the sand out of your eyes, you've gotten hit by a bigger wave. And it's saying, consider it joy when you're in the ocean and being knocked down by wave after wave after wave and hurricane winds, you know?
Teresa Pritchard:And it's like, well, I had to go back to the original language. What does that mean, consider it all joy? And it's literally, throw a party when this is happening to you. Throw a party. And there's a reason verse three says, because — and the original language for that is, you're gonna know from your personal experience. In other words, you'll come to know. Like, it's the same way that when Mary said to the angel Gabriel, how can this be? I know not a man. It's a very personal, intimate knowing.
Greek Meaning of Various Trials
Teresa Pritchard:But you will know — the testing of your faith will develop perseverance and patience. So that's why you can throw a party, because these trials are not gonna hit you without producing something that you need. God will see to that.
Philip:That is so true.
Teresa Pritchard:But it's gonna be developed almost like a baby being developed in the womb of a mother. So throw a party, because it says whenever you face trials — not if you face them, they're coming. Especially it says, my brothers, to Christians — we're targets.
Philip:Right.
Teresa Pritchard:But we shouldn't be fearful of trials coming. We just need to be aware. Even Jesus didn't hold back on us, you know, in this world.
Philip:My dad used to say to me, you can't have experience without experience. You need — and when you go through hell, at the end of it you're stronger, you're wiser. You think, I'm not falling in that hole again.
Teresa Pritchard:That's right. But we try to avoid — we try to avoid the trial of our faith because we don't want to go there. But that's where the maturity is, and that's where the strengthening comes.
Philip:It is.
Teresa Pritchard:And I was telling my class, my Tracks kids, I was telling them that we have to put our spirit glasses on, because trials are coming no matter what. And for it to produce something that you need, and for God to be able to turn it around and let it serve you for good, really depends on you. Because you can't help what happens to you in life. The only thing you can control is your response and your reaction to it.
Teresa Pritchard:So when you know better, you can do better. So hopefully today is going to be a know-better session that God has given us — his promise, consider it joy. Why can we have any kind of, let's throw a party when something bad happens to me? Especially when it feels like you've been pushed off of a cruise ship into a raging sea and you're just trying to keep your head above water.
Teresa Pritchard:That's what this various-trials situation is like. It's intense. Because you know that the testimony of your faith — God's building a testimony here. It's not to test you so much, but it's to show you who he is and how faithful he is to you. He's going to make sure that you come out of this and not even smelling like smoke, basically. But we have to persevere.
Teresa Pritchard:And God knows that the muscle that he's trying to build in us in this trial is going to be the muscle that we're gonna need to carry the glory that he's bringing our way down the road. So that's what I was trying to tell them — the testimony of your faith will produce something you need, and that's patient endurance.
Test Is Part of the Testimony
Teresa Pritchard:And the thing is, we all love the testimony. Boy, we love to hear a testimony. We just don't wanna make a test. If I can have a testimony without the test, then everything will be wonderful in my life. But you need the test because the test is part of testimony.
Philip:And so whatever you're going through today in your life, it's a test, but you're working on your testimony.
Teresa Pritchard:And here's the thing — God's not testing you because he knows what's in you. He knows what faith you have or what faith you lack. And it's just to show you — how do you know where you are in the plumb line of your faith walk with God without the test, you know? Teachers can stand up in the classroom and lecture all day, but until they call for a pop test, the kids don't really know what have they absorbed.
Teresa Pritchard:What is it that layer upon layer and line upon line is building their education? God's building our life. So it's really to reveal to us and to others around us where we are. And it really shows us the genuineness of our faith. We don't just talk to talk, but it really reveals — are we walking what we say we believe?
Philip:We've only got a couple of minutes left. I want you to pray, because I know that our women today watching this, and you're going through hell, and you're thinking, how can I see my way through this thing? And God sent Teresa into your life to tell you that your perseverance is gonna bring the blessing of God into your life.
Philip:About a minute and 45 left in this program. Pray for us, Teresa, that God will allow us to stand strong.
Prayer for Wisdom From James 1:5
Teresa Pritchard:Okay. Well, you know, verse five, right behind that talking about trial, says, if you lack wisdom, ask God. So, God, we come to you today, and I thank you — if there's anybody watching that just feels like they're under that weight of the many trials all at once, Lord, we are just gonna do what your word says. It says, if we lack wisdom, ask you, and that you will give it generously to us without fault.
Responding to Trials With Spirit Glasses
Teresa Pritchard:And so, God, we thank you that you will begin to pour out your wisdom — the how to walk through these trials. Show us how. And by the Holy Spirit, I know that you will enable us to stand, and I expect great testimonies to come out of this, Lord — great testimonies for your glory of the goodness and faithfulness of our God. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Philip:Amen. Amen. Wow. Every time you come on, I see a new facet of your life and how God's developed you through trials, through struggles. And yet you're coming out as pure gold. And the gold only happens after the fire's turned up. Man, I don't like that fire being turned up, but that's the purification process. Thank you, Teresa, for being with us on Daily Faith. We bless you.
Philip:She is pastoring, along with her husband, Fayetteville Community Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The website is fccnc.us. And I encourage you, if everyone wants to watch a great church service online, you go and watch that program. Thank you for watching Daily Faith today. Remember what we're doing in Ukraine and in Turkey and Moldova — we need your help. Thank you for watching. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons. And in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus.
Building the Muscle to Carry Glory
God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness, now no longer orphans. They wanna return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine.
If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 833-Daily-Faith. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
Why did Teresa start a discipleship group specifically for people in their 20s and 30s?
Teresa noticed that a lot of young adults raised in the church were drifting away after college and not returning when they started families. She felt this age group — going through a lot of life transitions — lacked the biblical grounding to hold on during hard times, so she launched a group called Tracks to give them something to 'grip their faith to' and keep going.
What does Teresa say James 1:2-3 actually means when it says to 'consider it all joy' during trials?
Teresa dug into the original language and found it literally means to 'throw a party' when trials hit — even multiple, overlapping trials of different intensities. The reason you can celebrate, she explains, is the 'because' in verse three: you will come to know from personal experience that the testing of your faith is guaranteed to produce something you need, namely perseverance and patient endurance.
Why does Teresa say God allows trials — is he testing us because he doesn't know what's in us?
Teresa is clear that God already knows what faith you have or lack — the trial isn't for his benefit. It's to reveal to you and to those around you where you actually stand in your faith walk, showing the genuineness of what you believe. She compares it to a teacher giving a pop quiz: the lecture alone doesn't show the students what they've truly absorbed.
What's the connection Teresa draws between the orphans' hard lives and the concept of perseverance in James 1:4?
Teresa points to James 1:4 — 'perseverance must finish its work so you can be mature and complete, lacking nothing' — and applies it directly to the orphans. Because they persevered through extraordinarily hard lives, they now lack nothing, and that same strength is what enables them to go into war zones and disaster areas to make sure others aren't lacking anything either.
What practical advice does Teresa give for how to respond when trials hit?
Teresa tells her Tracks class to 'put their spirit glasses on,' because you can't control what happens to you — only your response to it. She encourages viewers to ask God for wisdom (James 1:5), which she says he gives generously, and to trust that God is building a testimony and a spiritual muscle through the trial that you'll need to carry the blessings coming your way.
Topics
teresa pritchardjames 1perseverancediscipleshiptrials and testimonyfayetteville community churchspiritual maturity