Welcome to Living My Faith, a weekly show that celebrates the everyday believers who are walking with Jesus not just on Sundays, but in every area of their lives. From relationships and parenting to health, habits, and home, our guests share how they keep their faith at the center of it all. Hosted in Jacksonville, Florida and supported by Christ-centered partners, Living My Faith is a space where real life meets real faith. Today, our host, James Fenimore, spoke with Derek Januszewski.
Derek Januszewski
Founder of Pachamama Sanctuary
Website Address: https://pachamamasanctuary.org/
Short Company Description:
Pachamama Sanctuary is a church-based sacred plant medicine retreat organization with locations in Orlando, Florida and Casco, Maine. Founded by Derek Januszewski, Pachamama holds legal ayahuasca ceremonies rooted in faith, healing, and spiritual transformation. The sanctuary serves people from all walks of life including veterans, executives, and those navigating addiction, trauma, and mental health, offering a safe, ceremonial container for deep inner work and lasting change.
Can you share a moment or experience that significantly deepened or shaped your faith journey?
The moment that changed everything for me was not a quiet, peaceful revelation. It was rock bottom. I had battled addiction for years, and there was a moment where I was suicidal and I genuinely did not know if I was going to make it. I went through a public relapse. I went through rehabilitation. Most people would have walked away from anything spiritual after going through that kind of pain. But sitting with the plant medicine, going through the darkness, and coming out the other side with clarity and purpose, that is what shaped my faith in a way that nothing else could have. When you survive something that should have broken you and you come out of it with a calling, that is not coincidence. That is God.
In what ways do you actively live out your faith in your daily life — at work, home, or in your community?
I built a church around it. Pachamama Sanctuary is not a business to me, it is my faith made physical. Every ceremony I hold, every person who comes through broken and leaves with hope, every conversation I have with someone who has tried everything else and is ready to try healing at the root, that is me living out my faith. I have sat with nearly a thousand people at this point. I do not do that because it is profitable. I do it because I believe in it completely. My faith is not something I practice on Sundays. It is the reason I get up every single day.
What encouragement or scripture has been especially meaningful to you in this season, and why?
Romans 8:28 has carried me through this season more than anything else. That all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. When you are staring down a cease and desist from a municipality, when you are fighting for something you believe in with everything you have, you need to be anchored in something bigger than the circumstances in front of you. That verse reminds me that the fight itself is part of the story. The resistance is not proof that we are wrong. It is proof that what we are building matters.
What advice would you give to someone who’s struggling to live out their faith or looking to grow spiritually?
Stop waiting to feel ready. Spiritual growth does not happen in comfortable moments. It happens when you show up, even broken, even uncertain, even when the results you wanted have not come. I have been through addiction, public failure, and seasons where I did not know how I was going to keep going. What kept me moving was not willpower. It was surrender. Surrender to the process, surrender to something greater than my own understanding, and the willingness to do the work anyway. If you want to grow, get honest about where you actually are, find a community that will hold you through the hard parts, and do not confuse struggle with failure. Some of the most profound growth I have ever witnessed in people happened inside the deepest pain they ever experienced.
