LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

Beyond Prison Walls: Finding Faith Amid Workplace Misogyny: Jac Woodhouse's Story - Latter-Day Lights

• Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley

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What if the struggle that nearly broke you was the path God used to bring you back to His light?

Aussie mom and former maximum-security corrections officer, Jac Woodhouse, hit rock bottom in a myriad of ways—dehumanizing workplace misogyny, parting from a 15-year career, navigating her son’s serious health challenges, and fighting her own battle with suicidal ideation. It felt as though one more misstep would’ve broken the camel’s back, until one tender mercy flipped everything around for the better.

In this week’s episode of Latter-Day Lights, Jac walks Scott and Alisha through the quiet signs the Lord placed in her life that eventually set her on the covenant path. What started out as an encounter with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet on her son’s nightstand turned into a beautiful chain reaction—Church with neighbors turned into missionary lessons, which turned into a family baptism. Now, she and her husband serve weekly at the Sydney Australia Temple and in their ward, choosing faith over fear each day.

If Jac’s journey resonates with you, let it be a reminder that God is in the details and the mundane. So the next time life feels heavy, look for a small sign and move toward it. Often, that’s enough.

*** Please SHARE Jac's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/Z7eowq3MK68

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To READ Jac's media interview on News AU, visit: https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/former-prison-guard-lifts-lid-on-life-inside-goulburns-notorious-supermax/news-story/3357e33af12015fa58f40391490fccdd

To READ Jac's media interview on ABC AU, visit: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-06/nsw-corrective-services-toxic-boys-club-culture/11934444?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link


To READ Scott’s new book “Faith to Stay” for free, visit: https://www.faithtostay.com/

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Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.

Scott Brandley:

Hey there as a Latter-day Lights listener, I want to give you a very special gift today my brand new book, faith to Stay. This book is filled with inspiring stories, powerful discoveries and even fresh insights to help strengthen your faith during the storms of life. So if you're looking to be inspired, uplifted and spiritually recharged, just visit faithtostaycom. Now let's get back to the show. Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Alisha Coakley:

And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley:

On today's episode we're going to hear how years of trials taught one family that sometimes even the rockiest paths can lead to the most beautiful destinations. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad that you're with us today and we're really excited to introduce our special guest all the way from Australia, jack Woodhouse. Jack, welcome. Hi guys G'day mate.

Jac Woodhouse:

G'day. How are you?

Alisha Coakley:

We're good. I'm curious, curious. How is it living in the future?

Jac Woodhouse:

yes, yes, literally I am in the future. So, um yeah, nothing much to report, so it's all good so far world hasn't ended yet.

Alisha Coakley:

Good to know we still got what? Uh, 15 hours no something like that.

Scott Brandley:

You've got a 15 hour heads up hey, but if the world doesn't tell us as soon as you find out, okay, give us a heads up you'll be the first oh, man, well, jack, thanks so much for reaching out to us all the way from Australia.

Alisha Coakley:

We always love when we find out that we literally are global right, that the podcast has reached far across the seven seas there's seven, no, oh all across the oceans, all across the lands. We love hearing that Latter-day Lights is. We love hearing that that lottery lights is literally lighting the world with stories from guests like you. So thanks so much for reaching out and being willing to share your story today. Um, before we jump into what you're going to talk to us about, we'd love to know a little bit more about you yeah, so I am, um, a mom in in Australia.

Jac Woodhouse:

I live in New South Wales and I have three sons one who's 27. He's technically my stepson, but I've pretty much raised him. And then my husband and I have two other boys 17 and 15. 17-year-old has disabilities and issues and health issues and so on. But, yeah, we live here in Newcastle, new South Wales, now for the last 10 years. My husband was originally from a regional town in Goulburn, which is where I met him, and yeah, we've been members of the church now since 2020. We were baptised as a family in February 2020, just before COVID opened up, and yeah, so that was a really interesting time to go through to join the church and then, basically, everything was shut down and we couldn't access anything and we were kind of left floating for a while. And, yeah, it was a very interesting time. My husband's a builder and, yeah, we just basically doing our best to keep our heads above water each and every day and do our best to serve others and serve our ward and, yeah, just just try and endure to the end, so to speak.

Alisha Coakley:

That's awesome. Well, I've said it before on the show, I'll say it again Anytime that I hear that you have three or more boys instant entry into heaven. Like you've done your due diligence, there's literally nothing you could do on this earth that would send you to hell, because I'm sure you've already been through your own little version of it from time to time.

Jac Woodhouse:

Well, if that's the theory, then I should actually get further merit badges, because our eldest son actually just had they just had their third son, so we have three grandsons as well. So yeah. So we've. I said to my daughter-in-law to be a female in this family, you just have to marry in. You can't be born into this family, it's just boys.

Alisha Coakley:

Wow.

Scott Brandley:

Oh man.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh man, yeah, Yep, yep, you get bonus points for that, for sure. Well, we would love to hear more about this family of yours and the journey that you guys went through. So we'll go ahead and put you front and center and let you tell us where your story began.

Jac Woodhouse:

Okay, so basically I reached out to you guys based on a talk that I gave at state conference a couple of years ago where I was asked to give a bit of a background because we're we were reasonably new members as a family. Um, so I guess the story starts where in Goulburn, my husband and I were prison officers for 15 years. You know, maximum security jail. We often get a bit of a joke telling, telling that you know we met in jail.

Scott Brandley:

Nice.

Jac Woodhouse:

Yeah, that always.

Alisha Coakley:

Which explains why you could handle three kids that are all boys, and then now three grandboys too, because you just dealt with, you know, rough and tough.

Jac Woodhouse:

Yeah, perhaps. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the oldest jails in Australia and maximum security and so on. So I transferred down there in 1999 and met my now husband, brad, and I had envisaged that I would have a future in that industry, that I loved it. Despite how hard it was and challenging it was, I loved it and I was working my way up through management and getting promotions and so on and 2007,. I went for a promotion and I was promoted into middle management.

Jac Woodhouse:

Now to set the scene, I guess, with the way it is in the jail system and still is, but especially back then it was very much a I hate saying a boys' club, very misogynistic, very, you know, there weren't many women in that system, in that environment at the time, let alone in management. So I went for the promotion and I was promoted, which made me one of three female managers at the time out of about 25 and I was also the youngest by many years. And around the same time that I was promoted I found out I was pregnant with our middle child and so, yeah, it was made for a really interesting time coming into that. So there weren't a lot of other managers that were very happy about my promotion. So you can imagine that that kind of set into effect a whole, I guess the best way it was going. It put us on a very challenging path because my husband was also obviously a prison officer, but he was of a low rank. Because my husband was also obviously a prison officer, but he was of a lower rank. So there were lots of things that came into play where he became collateral damage in his career as well, through all the efforts that were extended to me, I guess, to try and push me out of the position that I was in, to try and push me out of the position that I was in, to try and challenge me. And then, when I was, I had to let them know that I was pregnant. They'd never actually had a manager who'd been in that position. They'd never had. So not only did they have a young female in management that they didn't want there, then they had to deal with a young female manager who was having children and having all of those issues. So it basically was just, it was the perfect storm, I guess is the best way to put it. And so then my son was born, or our son was born in 2008.

Jac Woodhouse:

And there were a lot of things that were done wrong and and that you know I missed out on a lot of things that I should have been afforded during my maternity leave and things like that, and I'm probably skipping over a lot, but I don't want to bore people um with the, the, the ins and outs, um, I came back to, came back to work after his birth and I was put into situations and positions and places where, for example, I just had, you know, I had a newborn at home and I was put into managing a child sex offender's wing, things like that. These were sort of the things that that these other people in management were trying to do to break me effectively. They were trying to put me into. So I was having to manage these inmates who had done horrific things to children and babies and so on, that I was having to manage them and at the same time, I've got a newborn at home that you know I'm sitting there dealing with these inmates that all I could picture was my own newborn. So it was a very challenging time, meant like really played with me mentally and emotionally. At the same time, there were just lots of other pressures coming in that you know I should have been given leeway and allowances, which I wasn't. I was just expected to toe the line like every other manager, so it just made it really. It was basically the start of like me mentally breaking down. I was put onto a path of mental illness, which made it really difficult.

Jac Woodhouse:

And then so the son that I was pregnant with when I was promoted. He's had a lot of health issues. He was born with some disabilities and health issues, serious health issues. We nearly lost him the day that he was born, so that complicated things as well, like privately. So then, with the culmination of all these pressures at work and privately at home, with his health and his issues, we had decided that we had been trying for another child, and it got so bad that my husband and I both made the decision that we were going to stop trying, that it was just too much happening. And then the very next day, lo and behold, found out I was pregnant with our third son and I was just sent into a massive spin, spin of you know. Oh, my goodness, how am I going to do this? How are we going to cope? I haven't been coping so far, um and yeah. So then we were. We had this third child to um now take into the mix and this is part of what plays into our testimony because, jumping forward, it was our third son who was effectively responsible for helping us find the church.

Jac Woodhouse:

But prior to this, like after I just found out that I was pregnant with him, I was in such a bad way mentally that I had planned to have him terminated. I just couldn't. I I just I was really really sick, with a lot morning sickness as well, so that exacerbated everything that was already going on professionally and then personally with our other son, with his health issues. So I was in a world of physical and mental and emotional turmoil that I just struggled to put into words even today, which doesn't excuse the thoughts that I had about terminating that pregnancy, but just kind of hopefully puts it into perspective for people that you know and hopefully they're not going to be too judgmental of me. But yeah, it was just something that I couldn't. I just couldn't see a way around. Thankfully, my husband and my mother talked me out of it and we went on to have him and he has been an amazing blessing because, like I said, years down the track, he actually became the reason that we found the church, and I look back now and again. I see you know, with the benefit of hindsight, that he was put into our family to help us along that path to where we are today.

Jac Woodhouse:

So, following his birth in 2010, things got even worse. They were constantly, you know, we had the issues with his brother. The middle son were getting worse. I was struggling to balance my professional and personal life, and managers there were basically using all of these things to their advantage. It was just a horrible time to be trying to manage a professional and personal balance. I was at the mercy of all of these people who had really maligned agendas that were trying to force me out of where I was and essentially in the end of 20 or mid to late 2011, I was made redundant from my job. I had put in a lot of paperwork with a lot of complaints speaking out about there was a lot of sexual harassment, sex discrimination, grooming, and to this day, unfortunately, there's still a lot of women that are just so. It wasn't just me, it was. I chose to speak out about it at the time, but I was effectively ignored and dismissed, like I was made redundant as a result of speaking. So I lost my career 15 years in. It was 15 years and one week was the anniversary of me joining the department. And so then my husband and I and then, like I said earlier, my husband's career was pretty much collateral damage as well so then he, within a week he was redundant.

Jac Woodhouse:

So then we were basically thrown out from these you know steady, well-paying jobs and careers, and we had kind of seen the writing on the wall of what was coming. So we had started a side business, a business ourselves, which we then kind of stepped across into. But we had no business sense, we had no business knowledge. We were basically just sort of just scrambling day in, day out between juggling what was going on professionally, what was happening, you know, personally trying to stay afloat financially. So so, and for four years we tried to. We made a success of it. We had the first mobile coffee business in Goulburn, in a regional town. We started that up and I'm very proud to say that. But we, yeah, we didn't have a lot of business sense and we lost everything. We ended up losing, you know, after we had lost our careers and our steady incomes, we ended up trying to stay ahead of bankruptcy and things like that. We had to sell our house, we had to sell our investment property, so we lost all of those things.

Jac Woodhouse:

We then um, after years, and at the same time too, we were juggling, dealing with our son's disabilities. So he was also diagnosed with juvenile arthritis when he was two. So we were spending a lot of time trying to manage his pain, manage his treatments, manage, you know, and, being in a regional area, that meant that we had to take him to sydney and back, so that was like a, you know, mostly a turnaround the entire day in a turnaround trip. So if we weren't working, we weren't earning money. Um, as you know, as small business goes, um, so we were just falling further and further down the rabbit hole of just basically each and every day, we were just trying to keep going, keep our family going, keep our businesses going and, um, eventually we came to a point where we decided because my I was originally from Newcastle and so we knew that things just weren't working for us as they should be in Goulburn we knew that we didn't have family support. Our son needed better treatments, better access to treatments and services and supports, and so we made the decision in 2015 to move to Newcastle to be near family, and so we moved up here and my husband. We sold our business down there and my husband continued working as a builder and moved up here.

Jac Woodhouse:

With that that um, and in the process my mental health was just declining, just getting worse and worse. I had many, many moments of just not wanting to be here anymore, feeling feeling like that I was, my family were better off without me. So I was in some pretty dark places and thankfully, my husband was massive support and just kept us all going. I then I ended up finding out that I could start taking legal action against the department and I hadn't known this prior to everything, because we hadn't had time to really investigate anything or any financial opportunities for compensation or anything like that. And I was with a counsellor one day and she said to me about reopening my workers' compensation claim and I said what do you mean? And she said, well, you could reopen it and try and regain some sort of compensation or something like that. So, long story short, I made some inquiries and, um, I found out that I could actually in fact reopen my workers compensation claim for psychological injuries, which I did, which then started off a massive, massive um fight again. So when you take on a state government department, that's a pretty massive path to go down, yeah, yep. So if I knew then what I knew now, I may not have done it, but I guess these things are. You know we go on these paths for a reason. I guess these things are. You know, we go on these paths for a reason.

Jac Woodhouse:

So I started this fight and I went to the Australian Human Rights Commission for sex discrimination and found my claim was terminated immediately under that legal avenue because I found out that ever since the Sex Discrimination Act had been started in 1984 here in Australia, state public servants across the country weren't actually protected by it. They weren't covered by it. It was. There was a clause in there, a section that exclusively precluded any state public servant being protected by a Sex Discrimination Act, which, when I read that, I thought how is that even possible? How is that in this age? So that meant anybody who was a teacher, a nurse, a police officer, a prison officer, a fire in the part of the fire brigades, ambulance, anybody across the country who was employed under their state government. They had no protections if they were sexually discriminated against in their employment. So I had to go a different legal route for myself personally at that stage and I just had no way to go through that.

Jac Woodhouse:

But having said that, I then started down a path of actually lobbying state parliamentarians to have the legislation changed. And around that time was when we had the whole Me Too movement going across, you know, across the world, and so we had a lot of things going on here. And then there was actually calls for there was lots of things happening here in Australia at the time. So I had written to our state premier complaining about, you know, things that were wrong with our system and what was? You know, what women were facing in the workforce and so on, and I was threatened legally to basically, you know know, stop speaking up and all of these things.

Jac Woodhouse:

And I ended up attending there was a nationwide inquiry done by the Human Rights Commission here that were looking to make changes to the Sex Discrimination Act. So I went there and I put forward you know that we needed to have this section removed from the. It needed to be repealed. And, long story short, there we not just me, but you know people like me who spoke up about this in particular we had it repealed. We managed to have that removed, so now we can safely say that, you know, state public servicements across across australia now have protection under the sex discrimination act, which was, you know, something that I'm proud to have been a part of.

Scott Brandley:

But um, yeah, that's awesome. I know that.

Jac Woodhouse:

You know, if I hadn't, have been put through these things, um, you know, I wouldn't have been aware of it and I wouldn't have been put through these things, um, you know, I wouldn't have been aware of it and I wouldn't have been able to speak up about it. And I was into the. I did interviews, um with a couple of journalists we spoke up at, which then created a lot more attention, and I, I made um, made headlines with it in, you know, drawing attention for other women who were facing the same thing. So then they were then able to access the legal avenues that they needed under similar circumstances.

Jac Woodhouse:

So, you know, I guess there's another bright spot in all the darkness, I guess, for so many others, many others, um, so, yeah, um, and then I guess, around um, so around that time I was going through all these legal, um, legal avenues between 2017 and 2020, 2021, um, and then one of the big turning points was that I had an uncle pass away in 2019. And so around that time, our youngest son and at that stage we were living next door to members of the church. We became they're like family to us now and we were living next to them and we had been invited to them and we had been invited to a couple of things at our now chapel, our now ward, and my son with the disabilities here. Actually, when we had enrolled our boys in school up here in Newcastle, we actually made friends with some members from the church and there was all these looking back now, there was all of these connections, all of these little stepping stones being put into place that we didn't realise at the time, that, you know, we were becoming introduced to members of the church and the church itself.

Jac Woodhouse:

And so around 2019, my uncle passed away and our youngest son had lots of questions about what happens when we die, where do we go when we die? And at that stage we we weren't. We weren't going to church, but he was. He was actually going to church with our neighbors, so he was actually going, he would get himself up.

Jac Woodhouse:

Yeah, he was. And when I say he, he was our link to getting us into the church. He would get himself up. I think he was only about nine at the time, 2017, 2018. Yeah, he would have been nine years old. He would have been nine years old, so he would get himself up on a Sunday morning and he would get himself showered and dressed and he would jump in the car with our neighbours and go off to the ward and go to church and come home and we were like, yeah, you know, like I've never.

Jac Woodhouse:

I grew up, I was born into the Catholic Church, I went to a Baptist church with my neighbours a very similar thing to what he was doing. So I've always known that there's something there. And so we certainly didn't, you know. We was like, yeah, whatever you need to do, you do it. You know. We encouraged, you know any sort of knowledge or interest. And then, when my uncle died, he said you know really what happens, where do we go, what do we do, what happens after we leave here? And so our neighbours invited us to their family home evening with some elders and they taught us the plan of salvation, and so we had that there and we had some booklets that we took home with us and it was around this time that all my legal stuff was really ramping up and my mental health was really declining at the same time and I actually had a massive breakdown just after this and had a massive mental breakdown, and I was actually in my son's bedroom and I was in the darkest hole that I could possibly, that I had ever been into this point and I was really contemplating whether sorry, um, yeah, contemplating whether to still stay, and I was curled up on his in his bed and I rolled over and I saw the Plan of Salvation booklet on his bedside and I grabbed it and I read it again and to this day, all I can do is say that it was just.

Jac Woodhouse:

The Holy Ghost came over me. I've never experienced a feeling like it. The Holy Ghost came over me. I've never experienced a feeling like it, and I just felt completely at peace and I got up and I went, that's it.

Jac Woodhouse:

And I went downstairs and my husband was just sitting at the dinner table. He was just beside himself. He didn't know what to do, he was exhausted from everything and I put the Plan of Sal salvation booklet down in front of him and I said I'm going to church. You can either come with me or not, that's your choice, but this is what I'm doing, this is what I now know that I need. And, to his credit, he said, yeah, let's go, let's do it. So we started going to church.

Jac Woodhouse:

This was 2019. We started meeting with the missionaries. We started, yeah, doing everything it was. And then, 1st of February 2020, we were baptised as a family the day before our youngest son's birthday, his 10th birthday. Okay, yeah.

Jac Woodhouse:

And then, ever since, we've yeah, my husband's now part of the elders quorum.

Jac Woodhouse:

He serves on the elders quorum in our ward. I'm an advisor for the young women's in our ward. We yeah, we just I just the miracles that we have seen since we have turned our lives around and joined the church, and my husband and I also serve at the Sydney Australia Temple. We go down there weekly and serve as well, and it's just true, like the blessings that have come and the people that we've met, where we are now as a family, like you know, I just know that we wouldn't be here if we hadn't have been on the path that we had and all of these trials that we went through, all the things that we've had to endure and lost and, you know, nearly given up lost hope. Yeah, we wouldn't be here if it hadn't have been for the path that we were on, and I guess that's ultimately just what I wanted to share with people was my testimony that it is true it is, and I wouldn't be sitting here before you today if it hadn't have been for for this church yeah, wow.

Scott Brandley:

So spending most of your life outside of the church and then learning all the things that you know about the church, like what do you like? Do you ever think about the difference and what your life was like beforehand?

Jac Woodhouse:

Yeah, I mean even something as simple as, like we ran a mobile coffee business. So there in effect was one. We were inhaling coffee on a daily basis for four years, like we were just, and even when we moved up here, like we, we ended up giving up tea and coffee, cold turkey. We were just bang, that's it done. You know? Um, we were drinking, we were drinkers, we weren't big drinkers, but we still drank, we still.

Jac Woodhouse:

So simple things like that in terms of like following the word of wisdom and so on, was it was like a no-brainer to us, but it was, you know. So there's all of those things that were completely foreign to us to start with, but now it's like I couldn't imagine doing anything else, I couldn't imagine being that person that I was beforehand. Before we, we found, before we found the church, and before we we changed as people and we changed as a family and and that's not to say it's all been, you know, an easy in an easy ride, like, even like our middle son. He still struggles with a lot of things and you know he's he questions stuff still to this day and but hopefully he'll, he'll, he'll find his own testimony and you know, all we can do is provide that and you know, surround him with the people that you know are good role models and good examples and so on, but, yeah, from coming from outside the church and spending what 40-odd years living life as we thought, thought it should be you know it's um I, I, I'm.

Jac Woodhouse:

I feel more at peace, being where I am now that's awesome.

Alisha Coakley:

Can I ask? So, like when you, when you mentioned the, the struggle that you had with with, like, thoughts of suicide and things like that, do you feel like like after joining the church, those have lessened or gone away, or is that still something that kind of hits you from time to time that you're still working through?

Jac Woodhouse:

yeah, definitely still working through mental health. Mental illness is is a real thing. It's, you know, depression and those feelings of um worthlessness that you know everyone will be better off without, without you around, um, like before I went all went through this and experienced all this. I, I and I guess that's probably another reason why I had to go through these things, I think, is to be humbled and to understand and be able to walk in somebody else's footsteps, because prior to me experiencing things I had, no, I guess, I had no understanding of what depression was. I just thought why can't you just get up, why can't you just smile, why can't you just, you know, for other people I just didn't have that understanding and that empathy, whereas now I do.

Jac Woodhouse:

Obviously, and joining the church wasn't a miracle pill like it hasn't been. You know, wave a magic wand by any means, and you know, everything's better. I still have days that you know I don't want to get out of bed, but they're far less. And I do have. I do have the supports now to help me with that that I didn't before. I have the scriptures to go to, I have people that I can talk to.

Jac Woodhouse:

I know that the thoughts in my head aren't, mine 're not. You know, all these negative thoughts, I I know where they're coming from. Now it's um, it doesn't mean that they're any easier to fight off, but I guess it's just knowing being able to recognize and and have that support to say, look, you know, you know this isn't real, you will get through this and having the resources to do it, to help and I guess that's probably the beauty of this and trying to say to people you know, both my husband and I have identified, actually, that people who have grown up in the church, I don't think fully appreciate what they've had and what they do have. I think it's very easy. We've we witness from where we stand and our experience is that there are a lot of people who take for granted the lifestyle that they've been brought up in and the, the supports that they've had and for us never having had that until the last five years.

Jac Woodhouse:

We're very grateful and very appreciative and, you know, we, we we identify it for what it is and I guess that's that's probably a really key thing for having not grown up in the church as opposed to somebody who has. I think it's very easy for people to not realize what they've had and throw it away very easily.

Scott Brandley:

Right, yeah, what about like your perspective as far as not being a member of the church? Because you know now that you're a member of the church, trying to share the gospel with people that aren't members of the church. Right, you were on that side for most of your life. Do you have any thoughts on ways that members can reach people that are not members?

Jac Woodhouse:

Yeah, I think actions speak louder than words. Okay, I guess, and looking back, I feel I I probably I don't remember crossing paths with members, but I have crossed paths with missionaries of other churches, other faiths, where I've kind of blown them off in the past, which I regret now because I identify that, as you know, which I regret now because I identify that, as you know, they're just sharing faith and sharing, you know, what we now, what I now know is the truth. I guess the biggest takeaway for me is that I don't try to verbally convince people. I try to convince people by my actions that you know, if somebody's that my service to other people or my empathy to other people, or just going about supporting people as best I can, is going to lead to a discussion of why I do what I do and then be able to introduce my faith and the church and what we're about. Does that make sense?

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, yeah Well, that's reassuring because a lot of times you know members I mean, I've grown up my whole life in the church but you just wonder how you know if you're actually making a difference. Doing those things right, being that good example and just trying to be live a christ-like life, but it sounds like from your perspective on the other side, those are the the things that ultimately do make the difference. So we should just keep trying to do that.

Jac Woodhouse:

Yep, yep, by all means. I mean, like I said, the family that are neighbours that you know have become like family to us. They're just beautiful people and they're just so giving and so loving and so open in whether it was a material thing that we needed support with, or just emotional support or anything or advice, or they're just a loving, beautiful family. So, and then the other, the other families at our children's school, when we first moved to Newcastle, it was the same thing. We were drawn to these people because of their just their natures, the type of people that they are just so giving and loving and serving, and it was just something that we gravitated towards because I think, essentially, my husband and I both, despite not being religious as such prior to coming into the church, we were still always people that would help others if they needed it.

Jac Woodhouse:

I think it just helped us gravitate more by seeing these members. I think it just helped us gravitate more by seeing these members. We could align ourselves with them because they were just such giving people. They were always just there to help others that needed help, regardless of who the person was that needed the assistance. So I guess that would be, you know, having not grown up in the church? Yeah, so I guess that would be. You know, having not grown up in the church as a yeah, by just what is it you'll be known by? You will know them by the their fruits is that the description.

Jac Woodhouse:

Yeah, that that just always has stood out to me, because and what I try to live by is it's not so much. You know you can say all these things and you can, you can somebody, you can sprout scripture and say and say all the right things, but if you're not following through or living those words, I think is the difference.

Scott Brandley:

Mm-hmm.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, wow. So tell me, because one of the other parts of a big part of your story was was, you know, after going through that whole experience of of the inequality at work and just, um, you know, kind of having that, that ickiness right, it happened to you and and meeting defeat instantly, like like when you first went to to file a suit right and just to be denied instantly, the most people would stop there, like if they were brave enough to actually go forward and even start a claim right, most people would stop after. They were like oh so how do you think, and even though you weren't a member of the church at the time, how do you think it was that you were able to keep going? You know, like I mean, you said you know, am I right? Like you?

Jac Woodhouse:

Yeah, I guess, and to kind of backtrack a bit, when I went to university and then pretty much followed up within a couple of years of that falling into the prison system, I lost a lot of my religious beliefs because I was especially in the jails. I was kind of like how on earth can there be a God with all of this evil and horror and the things that these people are doing to each other? How can there be a God people are doing to each other? How can there be a God? So I kind of got to a point where I didn't necessarily believe in a God, but I believed in something. There was something bigger Everything happens for a reason.

Jac Woodhouse:

That was the philosophy that I kind of tried to live my life by trying to make sense of everything, all of the inequality, all the injustice, all of the you know, seeing what some of these inmates had actually done and were continually doing to other people. You know, some of it was pretty horrific. So I guess I sort of put it into a context that I could understand and live by was that, you know, everything happens for a reason. There's something out there in the universe that I can't explain and I don't really know about. But I'm just putting faith in the fact that all of this is happening for a reason.

Jac Woodhouse:

And I do remember when I opened that letter, having my claim denied that you know that there was no avenue to pursue, and just the injustice of it. I remember thinking, well, that's not right, I need to do something about this. Maybe I've been, you know, maybe this has happened for a reason, like it's just one of the and and then after that, then I fell into a heap and cried and you know I was like you know, screamed and ranted and raved. You know about the injustice of it all and how could this happen? But I do remember thinking this has happened for a reason. This is is like I don't know. I don't know if that answers your question, Alisha, but it's kind of yeah, I guess it kind of put me on that path.

Jac Woodhouse:

It was like well, you know, I'm not standing for this, I've got nothing left to lose, and maybe this has happened for a reason, so I've just got to find a way to do something about it.

Scott Brandley:

Wow well, we we talked a little bit beforehand jack about how, when you look back in your life and you can see certain things that have happened and you're like, well, if though, if that wouldn't have happened, then this wouldn't happen, then this wouldn't happen and I wouldn't have happened, then this wouldn't happen then this wouldn't happen, then I wouldn't be here, right, so things do happen for a reason, and God's in the details. You just don't ever know how those dots are going to add up, right?

Jac Woodhouse:

No, and the key point to that is the simple fact that, when I look back, none of this would have happened if I hadn't have been promoted into that position of management, where it was a boys club and it was misogynistic and, you know, women weren't accepted in that role. If I'd have just kept going where I was as just a you know run-of-the-mill prison officer, you know I my head wouldn't have been up on show and you know I wouldn't have drawn all of that negative attention and negative activity to myself and my family. But the the key point to it all, when I read like the aha moment was, when I look back, when I was promoted there was a panel of three people that were responsible for doing all of the interviews and doing the actual promoting, and one of the men that were on that panel has been he has grown up in the church, he's a long-time member of the church and when I found that out and I found that out, you know, probably it was around the time actually I think I was doing my talk for state conference and I actually started connecting the dots and realised that this gentleman was a member of the church and I confirmed it. I made sure I got the confirmation. It was kind of like a lightbulb moment.

Jac Woodhouse:

So here we had, there was a plan, God had a plan and I still don't know, like I still haven't you know, just to you know, full disclosure. It's not like we've reached some pinnacle and youacle and our family, that we've come to the end of a really great movie and we've achieved all these goals or anything. It's still a work in progress. But when I look back, there was a plan, God had a plan for us that this guy was part of the promotional team that promoted me, that threw me into this turmoil and all of this loss and all of these horrible things that I wouldn't even wish on an enemy that I and my family have sort of stumbled through for so many years. But you look back and it's like, well, there was a path, there was a plan, there's something there and it's not for me to try and explain or understand, but I look at that and I go well, again, how else do you explain it?

Alisha Coakley:

So yeah Well, I know you're not at not at your pinnacle yet, but I definitely you know, imagine that you're kind of on the upswing at this point.

Alisha Coakley:

I mean, I feel like it just it's one of those like in all things, there must needs to be opposition, but that also means that when you've hit your really low load, there has to be a really good high right, like it's. It's gotta be coming at some point. Uh, that's just what I think, anyway. So, uh, gosh, um, are there? Uh, do you have any last thoughts, anything else that you'd like to share with with our listeners today before we wrap up?

Jac Woodhouse:

I guess, as a as growing up, as a, you know not being a lifetime member of the church is. Just don't take for granted what you have and you know appreciate. You know appreciate the church, appreciate the teachings. It's not a magic wand, it's not going to make anybody's life perfect, it's not going to. You know the problems aren't going to disappear. But lean on the resources that are available and lean on the people around us in the church and take guidance from the prophet and from his counsellors and from your ward leaders and embrace it and, I guess, be a good person. Be a good person to others and just be mindful of how your actions and your words are going to affect others and that it's not just the person in front of you but they have families behind them that are being affected by your actions and just try and do good.

Alisha Coakley:

I love it. That's perfect, oh, awesome. Well, thank you so much, jack, for coming on here today, for reaching out to us all the way from across the world and in the future. Thank you so much, jack, for coming on here today, for reaching out to us all the way from across the world and in the future. I'm really just. It's just been a pleasure being able to hear you and your story, and just the takeaway that you guys have, like your whole family, seems to just kind of exude light, and so I love that. I love seeing that. So thank you for that.

Jac Woodhouse:

Thank you.

Scott Brandley:

Thank you for having me I love. I love your stories, like yours, jack, where you know, you know there's trials through life. You don't know where they're going and sometimes you don't feel like you can even take one more step or another breath Right, but somehow you make it through that and then God's right there and he's got you and and he's got a plan. I just love that. It's like so inspiring. So thanks for coming on and sharing that with us.

Jac Woodhouse:

Thank you. I just hope it helps somebody out there that you know, if they're, if they've got doubt or questions, then just hopefully it might support somebody else in their, in their journey.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, yeah, I really think it will, so, all right. Well, folks, that's all that we have for today. Remember, if you guys are listening right now and you are feeling like you might have a story to share, you might know someone who, uh, would would be able to be a great guest here on the show, like Ms Jack. Reach out to us. You can email us at latterdaylights at gmailcom, or you can head over to latterdaylightscom and fill out the contact form at the bottom of the page. And please, please, please, don't forget to do your five-second missionary work. Share this episode, comment on here, let Jack know what part of her story really resonated with you or what kind of thoughts and feelings you've had about it, and, um, and I guess that's. I think that's pretty much all we have, right? Scott?

Scott Brandley:

yeah, yeah, enjoy the rest of your day, jack thank you we're gonna go to sleep on this side of the world I gotta finish the rest of my day yet well thanks again, jack, thanks everyone for tuning in and we'll see you next week with another episode of latter day lights. Take care bye guys.

People on this episode

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Scott Brandley

Host
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Alisha Coakley

Co-host