Dreaming Big, Starting Small & Trusting God Through It All

In this episode, we sit down with TV presenter, actress and creative educator Joanna Adeyinka-Burford to talk about faith, identity, wellbeing, and learning to trust God in a career that doesn’t always follow a straight line. Joanna shares her earliest memories of faith — writing little worship songs at five years old — and how that childlike desire to know God shaped her creativity later in life. Growing up in a musical household, training at Italia Conti and New York Film Academy, and launching her presenting career through a Channel 5 competition, her journey has been anything but predictable. From CBeebies to pantomime, teaching, acting and now writing a devotional for children, Jo reflects on the twists, shifts and surprises that have marked her path.  We talk about wellbeing, list-making, navigating the unknowns of self-employment, and the moment she learned to stop praying “Lord, let me get this job” and started praying “Lord, let me walk with You.” Jo also opens up about grief, losing her best friend in 2020, and how God met her in the questions, the why’s, the wrestling, and the slow healing.  This conversation explores faith in real life — in creativity, career, trust, parenting, rest, identity, and those seasons where God invites us to come to Him exactly as we are. Chapters (00:00:00) - Interviewing Joanna Adeyinka Burford(00:02:03) - My earliest faith memory(00:04:05) - How Does God Fit Into Your Lists?(00:07:09) - The Wellbeing Project(00:11:14) - How My Career Has Been Stabilised By My Faith(00:17:33) - Joanna on Writing a Book(00:22:35) - Good Grief in the Life(00:24:28) - What Happens When Our Prayers Are Not Answered?(00:26:25) - How to Grieve Well(00:34:50) - Coming to God: The Psalms(00:36:44) - Who's Your Faith Warrior?(00:39:05) - The Importance of Believing in Yourself(00:47:45) - What Does Rest Look Like For You?(00:53:13) - Jo on her faith journey