Broken Still Chosen with Rob Roozeboom

Diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy as a child, Rob Roozeboom wrestled to understand how God could allow such a terrible disease to attack his body and crush his dreams. But God pursued Rob relentlessly, transforming his life through His love, giving him purpose and hope beyond what he imagined.

If you're feeling broken, lonely, or different, this is the episode for you! Be sure to preorder a copy of Rob's new book Broken Still Chosen. It's a powerful read that will encourage your heart and shift your perspective in whatever brokenness you are wrestling with.

Rob Roozeboom is founder and president of RISE Ministries, Inc.and RiseFest, a large Christian music festival held annually in northwest Iowa. Host of the popular podcast Enjoying the Journey, he also produced the online video series Stories of Strength as well as Christmas and Good Friday TV broadcasts reaching thousands. Rob is a sought-after speaker, sharing the stage with Jeremy Camp, TobyMac, MercyMe, and more. He is also the recipient of numerous humanitarian awards and has been featured multiple times on the National Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. He and his family live in Sheldon, Iowa.Learn more at RISEMinistries.com.

To be notified of future episodes of Hope Unyielding, follow @hope_unyielding on Instagram and subscribe to Hope's email list.

Transcript

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Hope Johnson: Hi, everyone welcome to the Hope Unyielding Podcast, where I invite believers from all walks of life to come on and share stories of God's faithfulness and dark and difficult times. And let me just say I am so thrilled to have our guest on today because I absolutely love his book and his story, and he just has a lot of wisdom to share with us whatever you're going through. And so I today have Rob Roozeboom on. He

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Hope Johnson: is the founder and president of rise ministries and rise fest, which is a large Christian music festival. In Northwest Iowa.

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Hope Johnson: He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at a young age, and he just has a really amazing story of his journey with God. How God walked him through that his book is called Broken, still chosen, and, as you'll see, he's going to be speaking a lot about how, whatever you're going through, God can use our brokenness and just what he can do with a surrendered life. So welcome to the podcast rob. Thank you so much for joining me today.

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Rob Roozeboom: Thank you. It's great to be with you.

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Hope Johnson: So can you give us a little bit of your background a little bit about your childhood, and just that initial muscular, dystrophy diagnosis.

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Rob Roozeboom: Absolutely it.

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Rob Roozeboom: It's one of those things that I never understood. But I remember I was 5 years old.

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Rob Roozeboom: Yeah, I'm from Iowa. It's that little place in the middle of the United States that so many people overlook.

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Rob Roozeboom: and my dad and mom, they were farmers, and so I grew up on a farm in Central Iowa. I've always loved farming.

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Rob Roozeboom: I was

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Rob Roozeboom: similar to every other child. Run, jump, play, ride a bike, swing you, name it, and I remember, when I was about 5 years old, my sister, who's 2 and a half years older than me, walked on her toes, and my parents were a little concerned

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Rob Roozeboom: on why she was walking on her toes, and I have a 2 and a half year younger brother.

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Rob Roozeboom: and so somehow we ended up at the University of Iowa to get tested

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Rob Roozeboom: on. Why are her heel cords not hitting the floor.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I'll never forget it. We were in Iowa City, the University of Iowa Hospital.

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Rob Roozeboom: I still.

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Rob Roozeboom: it's so many years later I can still smell the smells of being in that hospital, and I remember doing tests. It was a little bit crazy. I remember the doctor saying, sit on the floor, and I thought, what, no, I'm not. Gonna sit. You sit it on the floor. What! What do you want me to sit on the floor for? Cause I could get up like any other child.

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Rob Roozeboom: And so we ran these tests found out our Cpk levels were really high, which is an indication of muscular dystrophy. So that particular day, or shortly thereafter, at age 5, I was diagnosed

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Rob Roozeboom: at that time with a form called Becker muscular dystrophy. It wasn't until years later that I was actually redinose with what's called Lynn girdle muscular dystrophy. I had no idea what it meant. Though I was 5 years old.

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Rob Roozeboom: I was given a label, hey? You have a disease. It's gonna progress. But I'm fine. What do I care? I wanna be outside playing, and

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Rob Roozeboom: that's how I remember being diagnosed. I used to spend every waking moment with my dad on the farm, and nothing really slowed me down, so I didn't think anything of this diagnosis when I was 5. But that's that's how I was originally diagnosed. My sister and I were both diagnosed that day with muscular dystrophy. My younger brother

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Rob Roozeboom: found out he doesn't have it.

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Hope Johnson: Hmm! And

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Hope Johnson: and I know from reading your book that you love sports as well.

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Rob Roozeboom: Out, of.

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Hope Johnson: So can you. Can you talk a little bit about the difficulty with that as you grew up? And as the disease progressed.

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Rob Roozeboom: So when I say I love farming, I mean I love farming, and what I found out at age 9 my dad got called off the farm to go into ministry.

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Rob Roozeboom: and all of a sudden this thing that I loved so much in life was gone.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I became a town kid.

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Rob Roozeboom: Well, when I became a town kid, I didn't have the farm anymore. So so what am I going to fill my time with?

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Rob Roozeboom: What can I do, and sports. That's when sports become

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Rob Roozeboom: really relevant in my life.

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Rob Roozeboom: And I thought, Well, the farm's gone. I love the farm, but all these sports are I I like these sports. This. This is a good time. I I'm living in the Michael Jordan era. I figure the harder I try the better I'll get well. Remember, I was diagnosed with a progressive disease that I did not know

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Rob Roozeboom: what I was actually up against, so I believed in the mindset. The harder you try the better you become. You can be cut and still become the greatest.

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Rob Roozeboom: So sports

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Rob Roozeboom: filled in, for where the farm was gone.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I fell in love with sports, basketball, football, baseball. I love playing tennis badminton. It didn't matter what it was volleyball. Same volleyball just absolutely loved playing. Sports.

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Rob Roozeboom: And so I started playing in sixth grade

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Rob Roozeboom: and realized I love these sports.

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Rob Roozeboom: But all my body's not like everybody else's body.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I'm not sure the harder I try, the better I'll become.

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Rob Roozeboom: I think I'm up against something I can't beat. But I wasn't willing to throw in the towel.

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Rob Roozeboom: Yeah, I just thought, try harder, lift, more.

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Rob Roozeboom: run, more, do whatever you can to become better at sports. And, as I mentioned a minute ago, my younger brother does not have

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Rob Roozeboom: muscular dystrophy.

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Rob Roozeboom: And so these dreams that I had of being on the starting football team or the starting basketball team. I tell the story often when I speak. I dreamed of running out the tunnel, because in my football dream there was a tunnel

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Rob Roozeboom: full of cheerleaders

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Rob Roozeboom: dreaming my name as I went by, and I was like, yeah, that. Well, that didn't happen. That was my dream, but it did happen for my brother. My brother became a starting football player, starting basketball, starting baseball. I think he set the assist record one year in basketball.

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Rob Roozeboom: and all the pain of this progressive disease began, as by the time I was a freshman in high school. I had to say goodbye to sports. My body couldn't take it anymore.

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Hope Johnson: And how did you deal with that disappointment? And I'm thinking, you know, particularly in relation to your walk with God.

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Rob Roozeboom: I wish I could say I handled it well, but I didn't.

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Rob Roozeboom: When people say

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Rob Roozeboom: they really don't see any other option.

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Rob Roozeboom: But to not be here anymore.

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Rob Roozeboom: That's where I was

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Rob Roozeboom: today. God has redeemed my heart. But at that time I really wanted nothing to do with him. I was so angry at him.

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Rob Roozeboom: My dad left the farm, became a pastor, so I started hearing

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Rob Roozeboom: sermons all the time about God loves you, and God made you and God knit you together in your mother's womb, and I thought, Are you kidding me?

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Rob Roozeboom: He did this on purpose.

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Rob Roozeboom: I want nothing to do with him. I became very

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Rob Roozeboom: rebellious, very angry, very depressed.

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Rob Roozeboom: I I hate to admit it. I really hate to admit it, but I hated life, and I hated pretty much everybody around me. I the pain

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Rob Roozeboom: of disappointment was so intense that I

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Rob Roozeboom: I didn't know how to handle it. So I did the things you're not supposed to do.

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Rob Roozeboom: and turn to other ways to fill that hole inside of me.

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Rob Roozeboom: but it just kept growing it just. I would.

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Rob Roozeboom: I just kept thinking, God.

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Rob Roozeboom: why do you keep giving these things? I love first the farm

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Rob Roozeboom: now sports, and then you take them away.

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Rob Roozeboom: What did I do? I I get that I'm a center, but really

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Rob Roozeboom: I'm done with you. So I shook my fist at God and

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Rob Roozeboom: said, I really don't want anything to do with you.

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Hope Johnson: And what shifted for you, because I know now you are just running headlong towards Jesus. So what what was that shift.

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Rob Roozeboom: Oh, it was a long one! There's there's pieces to it.

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Rob Roozeboom: but it got so bad in my house. When I was a teenager my parents gave me 4 options.

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Rob Roozeboom: They said, You're going to military school.

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Rob Roozeboom: a boys home, a mental hospital, or this weekend. It was called Tech Teens encounter Christ.

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Rob Roozeboom: I said, I'm not going to any of them.

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Rob Roozeboom: Yeah. Well, I was, I think, 16 at the time

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Rob Roozeboom: that Christian weekend came about.

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Rob Roozeboom: and the next thing I know I'm in the car. There were 2 2 guys from the youth group that I went to where my dad was a pastor.

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Rob Roozeboom: One, I think, stood 6, 8. The other one was like 6, 7.

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Rob Roozeboom: They put me in the middle of the back seat. They were on each side, cause I threatened that if they slowed down to turn the corner I'd jump cause I could run back then. Not well, but I could at least run a little

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Rob Roozeboom: handy brought me to this weekend, and I hated it. I hated it the first 24 h. It was just awful. I wanted. It was set in this beautiful camp where there's hills and trails.

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Rob Roozeboom: Well, you're not getting away anywhere fast, I mean, if I left I'm going to walk for miles and miles and miles because you're out in the middle of nowhere. Iowa.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I think they even made us throw our shoes in the middle of the room at night, so it would take forever to find your shoes to leave.

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Rob Roozeboom: Finally, I think it was day 2.

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Rob Roozeboom: God got a hold of my heart.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I started

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Rob Roozeboom: to understand, there is a Jesus that loves me.

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Rob Roozeboom: and as I think about it, the year before that

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Rob Roozeboom: I had gone to something called DC. 91.

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Rob Roozeboom: It was put on by youth for Christ. I didn't know anything about it

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Rob Roozeboom: again. It was something that I was sent to

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Rob Roozeboom: by my parents.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I went, and again little embarrassed for the girls. I wasn't there to meet Jesus. I was there to meet girls from all over the U.S.A. And we were at

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Rob Roozeboom: an event that it was multi-day in Washington, DC.

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Rob Roozeboom: We're in an arena. I believe. DC. Talk had just played. Didn't know who these guys were didn't really care who these guys were.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I believe Ken Davis was giving a message. If I think back.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I remember the call to come down to the front.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I thought of myself, there's no way I'm going down there. I'm looking. I'm looking down the road where all the

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Rob Roozeboom: church

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Rob Roozeboom: again. I'm embarrassed to say this, but I called them the Church Dorks. They were all sitting in in the seats, and I thought.

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Rob Roozeboom: Well, they're not going down there. I'm not going down there. Well, the next thing I know I'm walking down these steps I look back. Nobody's coming.

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Rob Roozeboom: What am I doing? This is when I could go down. Step. I'm walking down the steps to the front. They call you forward and say prayer that pray this prayer. And I knew I wanted Jesus. I just didn't know how. The pain was just so intense.

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Rob Roozeboom: And so I pray this prayer. And they said, Oh, we just want you to come down to the front. Pray this prayer.

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Rob Roozeboom: and then you know that's it. Well, they lied to me. I had to pray the prayer. Then they told me how to go into another room and pray with somebody I was like. That's not what you said the first time.

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Rob Roozeboom: So the next thing I know I'm going into this ballroom.

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Rob Roozeboom: and the first person I meet

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Rob Roozeboom: out of hundreds is my volunteer youth leader.

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Rob Roozeboom: and she looks at me and says, Rob, we have prayed for this day. And then, in my smart Aleck comment, I said, well, I never asked you to.

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Rob Roozeboom: But that began this journey of

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Rob Roozeboom: Okay, God, I'll give you. I'll give you my heart. What I wh. What I realize now

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Rob Roozeboom: is I gave you part of my heart.

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Rob Roozeboom: and then I went back to school, and the pressures came. And why is your brother doing this? And you're not doing that. And so I would fall back into sin and temptation. And then I would go to that tech because again I was hurt. I was longing for something in life. I went to that tech. I saw that love of Jesus again where there were no strings attached. Th. There was this love

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Rob Roozeboom: that I

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Rob Roozeboom: I had not experienced before, and it was starting to become very real to me. But again, after that weekend back at school, back with the temptations just

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Rob Roozeboom: hurting.

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Rob Roozeboom: because, being a Christian, when I grew up in us in high school that wasn't cool.

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Rob Roozeboom: It was, you're the church, Dork. You're a Bible thumper, you're this, and so I find this hope.

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Rob Roozeboom: But then I get beat up 3 days later, having it, and so it was easy to

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Rob Roozeboom: squash it.

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Rob Roozeboom: so much so that when I graduated high school

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Rob Roozeboom: I had to go to Phoenix, Arizona just to try and find myself.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I kept asking God, why did you put me on this earth? What is the point.

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Rob Roozeboom: I have this progressive disease. You took the farm, you took sports. What more do you want?

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Rob Roozeboom: And it was through a 5 foot 200 and nothing beautiful

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Rob Roozeboom: blond hair, blue-eyed, sassy woman

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Rob Roozeboom: that I call my wife today for 20, almost 27 years

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Rob Roozeboom: that started to show me this love of Christ

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Rob Roozeboom: that I had heard about experience for brief moments.

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Rob Roozeboom: but she taught me one of the greatest lessons she ever taught me was Rob. It doesn't matter what you do, it matters who you are

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Rob Roozeboom: doesn't matter. If you can go up steps or or down steps, or shoot a basket, or even pick up children, for that matter, it matters who you are on the inside. And I started watching her demonstrate the love of Christ to me in a way I've never seen it

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Rob Roozeboom: experience, and it

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Rob Roozeboom: crushed my heart in such a great way

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Rob Roozeboom: that I thought.

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Rob Roozeboom: this Jesus

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Rob Roozeboom: is real.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I want to know more.

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Rob Roozeboom: And then I ended up in college thinking I was gonna go into business.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I end up in Bible classes. And all of a sudden I think, oh, there's a lot of bad people in the Bible, and God still used them while they had. They had a lot of problems. Oh, maybe there's hope for me! And the Bible became so real, and it put me

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Rob Roozeboom: on a journey to fall in love with this Jesus that we talk about.

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Hope Johnson: That's so wonderful. And I I love how you're now wife

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Hope Johnson: really exemplified that you know that just says to me, we have such a big role to play in showing Jesus to others.

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Rob Roozeboom: Absolutely, absolutely.

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Rob Roozeboom: and she's still doing it. 20, almost 27 years later.

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Rob Roozeboom: a sacrificial love

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Rob Roozeboom: that is hard to explain.

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Hope Johnson: so how did you 2 eventually get together.

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Rob Roozeboom: Such a crazy story. So my dad's a pastor, as I mentioned earlier, which means, we move every now and again

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Rob Roozeboom: new church comes up. I am halfway through my junior year of high school.

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Rob Roozeboom: My dad, I think part of his ministry was to torment me.

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Rob Roozeboom: He takes the farm now. I'm halfway through my junior year, and he goes yeah, we're going to another church 35 miles down the road.

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Rob Roozeboom: Dad, you're an idiot. Stop doing this I'm halfway through my junior year.

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Rob Roozeboom: so here I am, halfway through my junior year, showing up in a school I've never been to

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Rob Roozeboom: in January

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Rob Roozeboom: that day that my brother and I were supposed to walk into that school.

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Rob Roozeboom: 2 young men lost their life in that school on a Friday.

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Rob Roozeboom: Not only was I walking into a school halfway through my junior year, I was walking into a school that just lost classmates.

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Rob Roozeboom: It was absolutely brutal

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Rob Roozeboom: to walk into that, not knowing anybody, or what was going on

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Rob Roozeboom: hand to deal with this progressive disease that is now noticeable.

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Rob Roozeboom: and so I try to blend in as much as I can, but here I am in a brand new school.

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Rob Roozeboom: I make some friends

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Rob Roozeboom: one. Guy saved me, I mean, he came. He knew I was at the wrong table, picked me out of it. He went to our church, put me at another table, and I started building some friends.

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Rob Roozeboom: Well, I remember being in the library one day, and

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Rob Roozeboom: no, I'm not a great library person.

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Rob Roozeboom: I got shush a lot when I was in the library, and again I was mostly in there.

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Rob Roozeboom: Well, cause girls were in there, so I was mostly in the library for that. Well, one day I'm in the library supposed to be studying. I don't know what I'm doing, but I see this girl walk in.

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Rob Roozeboom: and she's vibrant

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Rob Roozeboom: good looking view, I mean.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I think, yeah.

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Rob Roozeboom: that's the one I like that girl. Well.

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Rob Roozeboom: we didn't date. I got to know her name, Charlotte.

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Rob Roozeboom: It didn't date through high school. She was dating a class maid of mine, and I really didn't want to get in the middle of that.

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Rob Roozeboom: And I thought, Well, shoot. I really wanted a gal like that. But that's not gonna work out. So I moved to Arizona and I'm down in Arizona. Her and I had talked a little bit as friends when I was gone, and then for about a year we lost communication.

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Rob Roozeboom: While I was dating a different girl. Whole nother long story messed up situation, but I wanted her to see

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Rob Roozeboom: what the Christian life could look like, even though I wasn't modeling it. At the same time.

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Rob Roozeboom: Some, a couple very close to my parents had

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Rob Roozeboom: her. His wife had passed away unexpectedly out of the blue, and I knew how rocky my relationship was with my parents, and I thought maybe I should come back for a weekend to start rebuilding it.

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Rob Roozeboom: So I went to

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Rob Roozeboom: what's called Yate. It's young adults instead of high school kids. Now you're talking college post

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Rob Roozeboom: post, High Post College.

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Rob Roozeboom: I brought this girl with me just to show her what the Christian life could look like, and then I was flying back home to Arizona.

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Rob Roozeboom: while Charlotte happened to be working this particular weekend.

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Rob Roozeboom: and needed a ride to the airport at the end of the so-called weekend.

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Rob Roozeboom: The next thing I know, I am on my way to Omaha, Nebraska.

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Rob Roozeboom: sitting next to a girl I'm dating.

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Rob Roozeboom: and the girl I always wanted to date on the other side of me.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I thought, Well, this is bizarre, and we got to Omaha. This is back when you could go all the way to the gate. Somehow I was walking next to Charlotte, and I looked at her, and I said, I'm not happy in my life. I'm not happy with the decisions I'm making. She looked at me and said, I'm not either.

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Rob Roozeboom: Here's my chance.

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Rob Roozeboom: But I had to get on that plane and go home

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Rob Roozeboom: one. This gal lived in Arizona, so she had to get back home. I had to get back to my home.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I remember getting on that plane that night, and it was the hardest thing I I ever did. I thought. There goes my chance. I missed it.

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Rob Roozeboom: Well.

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Rob Roozeboom: I got back to Arizona, got back into my routine. It was about a week later I called Charlotte because she had been going on a mission trip to Haiti. That's why she needed a ride to the airport

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Rob Roozeboom: I called her, and it was just a casual conversation. Just asked her how it went.

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Rob Roozeboom: 2 days after that I'm in Arizona and Charlotte's back in Iowa I get a message from my roommate. Hey, Charlotte call.

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Rob Roozeboom: I thought, well, that's interesting. So I called her.

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Rob Roozeboom: And I decided that night 4 h into the phone call. I was going to tell her how I felt. It took me 4 h because

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Rob Roozeboom: I'm a little scared, and I said, Hey, this is how I feel about you this, how I've always felt about you.

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Rob Roozeboom: and she goes me, too. I say, great! I'll see you in a month.

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Rob Roozeboom: I quit school.

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Rob Roozeboom: quit everything down there, and I moved home.

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Rob Roozeboom: In March of

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Rob Roozeboom: 1997.

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Rob Roozeboom: We were engaged by June of 97. We are married by November of 97, and that was almost 27 years ago.

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Hope Johnson: Wow! That's an amazing love story. And I I just think it shows how there are no coincidences in God's kingdom. God.

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Rob Roozeboom: Right.

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Hope Johnson: Clearly brought you 2 together as a team.

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Rob Roozeboom: I'm so grateful because I was literally living 1,300 miles away.

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Hope Johnson: Yeah, yeah, no, that's amazing. That's amazing. And just as I read your book, and you give so many examples of how you've worked together how she supported you and I just I just love that. So thank you for sharing

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Rob Roozeboom: Group, day.

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Hope Johnson: Now I'd love to move along a little later in your journey, because, you know, as you surrendered your brokenness and your.

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Rob Roozeboom: Is, the.

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Hope Johnson: To the Lord. He did a lot. He did a lot in terms of your ministry and your heart. Could you share a little bit about rise.

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Rob Roozeboom: Yeah, it's crazy. I'm in school. I think I'm gonna be in business.

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Rob Roozeboom: This particular school is Liberal Arts. Christian College. You have to take Bible classes. So I take Bible classes. And all of a sudden the wrestling starts.

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Rob Roozeboom: Abraham, Moses.

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Rob Roozeboom: Joseph, David, they all start to become really real.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I'm thinking I don't remember learning about this now. I probably wasn't paying attention when I was in church.

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Rob Roozeboom: I wonder if other people

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Rob Roozeboom: think the same.

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Rob Roozeboom: and all of a sudden a wrestling starts inside of me. Rob, go, go tell your story.

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Rob Roozeboom: Nope. I don't want to tell my story. I don't want to tell people I was angry at you, Guy. I don't want to tell people I don't measure up. I don't. I don't want to raise money. I don't. I don't want to do any of that.

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Rob Roozeboom: 2 years. As I finish up school the wrestling starts.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I remember going to my advisor asking I thought I was going to be a banker to loan money to farmers, since I couldn't farm.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I went to them, and I said, Hey, are there any openings for an internship in a bank.

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Rob Roozeboom: He goes, Rob, we just filled the last one.

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Rob Roozeboom: What!

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Rob Roozeboom: The last one every time I tried to get into banking. Whether it was in Arizona or in Iowa. The door closed every time. I thought you couldn't call one more person just to get.

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Rob Roozeboom: and he's like Nope.

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Rob Roozeboom: So I knew this guy that was in ministry, and I thought, Well.

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Rob Roozeboom: God won't leave me alone on this ministry idea.

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Rob Roozeboom: Maybe I'll call him.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I knew him since I was a troubled teenager. I called him up. I said, Hey, you ever had an intern. He goes. Nope! I said, great! I'll be your first one. He goes. Well, I gotta talk to board, I said. I really don't care what you gotta do. Just give me in. I I don't I? I wanna intern?

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Rob Roozeboom: And so he did. He let me intern

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Rob Roozeboom: for him. Well, while I was interning for him this Rise ministry started stirring more inside of me, and he goes. When you're not doing stuff for us, you're welcome to start building that start working on it.

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Rob Roozeboom: And I remember being in my mom and dad's driveway. One time my brother was home he now, I think, was living in California, and has for the last 20 some years.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I was telling him about this idea, this ministry. God was stirring inside of me.

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Rob Roozeboom: I said, but I don't have a name for it.

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Rob Roozeboom: and he thinks for a moment, and he goes, call it rides.

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Rob Roozeboom: You have a hard time rising. Why not call it rise?

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Rob Roozeboom: And so we did. We called it rise, and it used to be an acronym called, realize, investigate, surrender, and enjoy.

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Rob Roozeboom: realize who you are, investigate your gifts and talents and then use them. Don't just figure them out and leave them on the shelf.

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Rob Roozeboom: Surrender to the things you cannot change, which I've been talking about for

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Rob Roozeboom: well, forever. It seems that could be your height, your weight

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Rob Roozeboom: could be a progressive disease.

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Rob Roozeboom: and then enjoy life the way it was intended, and that is by being you in a relationship with Jesus.

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Rob Roozeboom: So in 2,001, as I am graduating from college.

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Rob Roozeboom: instead of going to graduation and walking across the stage because I didn't like walking in front of people.

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Rob Roozeboom: especially that size of crowd.

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Rob Roozeboom: I went to a conference with Kim Davis.

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Rob Roozeboom: who I met well, I didn't even meet him back then, but I think he's the one that that led me to Christ

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Rob Roozeboom: back at DC. 91. I am now with him in Denver, Colorado, launching a ministry

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Rob Roozeboom: called Rise Ministries. All I knew at the time it was about sharing the story God had given me.

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Rob Roozeboom: It was about

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Rob Roozeboom: reaching young people that were hurting.

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Rob Roozeboom: and then we would see where it would go from there. So that started May one of 2,001.

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Hope Johnson: Wow!

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Hope Johnson: And it also led to rise. Fest.

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Rob Roozeboom: Yes.

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Hope Johnson: Is a Christian music festival. Can you share a little bit about that? And then also, you have a really interesting goal for this coming June. Can you share about that.

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Rob Roozeboom: Yeah. So

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Rob Roozeboom: I had never really known about festivals.

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Rob Roozeboom: I remember when I was a

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Rob Roozeboom: a freshman.

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Rob Roozeboom: I had this family that we went to church with that camped, and I loved the camp. So they took me one time camping, and there was this guy playing a piano up on stage, and I thought, Well, that's interesting.

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Rob Roozeboom: All these years later I came to find out. That was Michael W. Smith. At the time I did not know, didn't really care. And then in 2,001, 2,002, my wife and I get invited out to the Jerry Lewis telephone. So we had always done either the show or traveled, and spoke for them all the while. There was this festival in our area called life flight that I had never heard of.

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Rob Roozeboom: and all of a sudden one of our team members said to me.

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Rob Roozeboom: probably 3 years after doing the show in LA.

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Rob Roozeboom: Hey, have you ever been? I said no, and then they said to me, Hey, I think we should start a festival. I said, no, we shouldn't. That's stupid. They're they're right down the road. Why would we start another one?

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Rob Roozeboom: Why, I listened. I went and and went to that life like festival and thought, oh.

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Rob Roozeboom: this is what a festival is.

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Rob Roozeboom: Hmm! That's pretty

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Rob Roozeboom: pool.

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Rob Roozeboom: We ended up meeting with them. They helped us launch in 2,005. We took it over in 2,006.

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Rob Roozeboom: And the next thing I know, part of our ministry is hosting an annual Christian music festival

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Rob Roozeboom: which I had 0 experience in.

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Rob Roozeboom: have

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Rob Roozeboom: only been to 2 of them before that.

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Rob Roozeboom: Knew I liked music, but didn't realize how important music was to me at the time.

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Rob Roozeboom: Fast forward we had to take a year off, because financially, it was so hard.

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Rob Roozeboom: I remember 2,010. We couldn't do it. It was a board decision

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Rob Roozeboom: they asked, and I remember being with my son at another event, I think lifelike put it on. We were leaving that event, my son said, what was that? It was Brian head Welch. He was doing a concert from corn. He had been born again.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I said, Well, they were doing church. He goes, Dad, that's nothing like our church. I said, No, sir, it's not Buddy. He was about 7 at the time he goes. You doing the festival this year. I said, Nope.

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Rob Roozeboom: why not, I said. I don't have enough money. He goes. Is it just your money? I said. No, he goes. You pull all the money together. I said, yes, but we pull all the money, and he goes. You still don't have enough. 7 years old in the back of my car, leaving the parking lot.

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Rob Roozeboom: That young man says to me, Dad, I will give you all of my money if you bring it back.

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Rob Roozeboom: I sat down with the board. The next year, I said, I don't want to have this conversation again. I did not realize how important this festival was to my own family, because all I was doing was running.

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Rob Roozeboom: We bring it back in 11, 2,012. Our community comes calling our community.

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Rob Roozeboom: asking me to move it through a series of events, God speaking through other people. After I had said no to moving it, I say yes.

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Rob Roozeboom: that was

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Rob Roozeboom: 12 years ago.

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Rob Roozeboom: It has been the craziest journey I've ever been on. We went from a one day festival

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Rob Roozeboom: to a 2 day festival. We host it in a community of 5,500 people over 2 days. The last 2 years we had 20,000. Last year we had 19,000.

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Rob Roozeboom: All the while

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Rob Roozeboom: we find out that there has been the largest gathering in our community, and it's not rice fest

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Rob Roozeboom: we found out a hundred years ago, in 1924, the largest gathering took place.

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Rob Roozeboom: and, as I learned, I thought, Well, what was that? And they said, Rob, it was the Kkk.

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Rob Roozeboom: I said, you gotta be kidding me the largest gathering to ever take place in our community was a Kkk. And at first I was a little annoyed by it, and then I just thought, No, it's just wrong.

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Rob Roozeboom: That is.

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Rob Roozeboom: what did we invite in a hundred years ago as a community that maybe we should have never invited in

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Rob Roozeboom: what was a dark day in our history. God.

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Rob Roozeboom: we have a new

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Rob Roozeboom: light day.

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Rob Roozeboom: Could your light be shown could we break this record? And so we are going after 25,001 in less than 6 weeks

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Rob Roozeboom: to host.

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Rob Roozeboom: the largest gathering breaking what was a dark day, and turning it into a light day, taking back ground

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Rob Roozeboom: from a hundred years ago.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I have learned more since since we did. Just last week I learned

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Rob Roozeboom: that a church in our community

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Rob Roozeboom: was cleaning some area of their church, found a cubby or something.

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Rob Roozeboom: and a Bible is in there. If I understood them right. There is a Bible in there from when the clan was here. The head Klansman, Grand Wizard, or whatever you call them, walked down the aisle that Sunday

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Rob Roozeboom: a hundred years ago, to hand the preacher the appropriate Bible to preach from.

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Rob Roozeboom: They just found that Bible last week

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Rob Roozeboom: or a week ago.

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Rob Roozeboom: a week and a half ago. Then I learned another church. The Reformed Church

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Rob Roozeboom: was preaching against the Klan.

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Rob Roozeboom: Well, the Klan got mad, went to their property a hundred years ago.

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Rob Roozeboom: put a cross in it, and burned it.

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Hope Johnson: Wow!

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Rob Roozeboom: These stories have just come out in the last week as we continue

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Rob Roozeboom: in you to go. God! Is it for such a time as this, as Esther was called, to rescue the Jewish people, as havoc says. You know we've heard of your fame and glory. Can you? Will you do it again in our day.

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Rob Roozeboom: And so we are asking God, will you do it again? In our day? We'll will. We redeem the record

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Rob Roozeboom: of a hundred years ago?

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Hope Johnson: That's amazing. That's amazing. I'm I'm just so excited for that

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Hope Johnson: and for anyone who's interested in going can. Who's who's going to be there this year

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Hope Johnson: for.

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Rob Roozeboom: Oh, we are!

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Hope Johnson: Curtis, I did.

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Rob Roozeboom: Oh, so excited! Our good friend Ben Fuller.

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Rob Roozeboom: We have, we are messengers, Darren, with we and our messengers, this little Christian rock band that maybe you've heard of called skillet.

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Hope Johnson: I love.

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Rob Roozeboom: To have those guys to.

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Rob Roozeboom: Yes, yes, oh, I do, too. And then on Saturday we have announced La Craye, Matthew West.

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Rob Roozeboom: Feel Wickham.

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Rob Roozeboom: And by the time this Podcast comes out we will also have announced sef schleider as well.

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Hope Johnson: Okay.

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Rob Roozeboom: It's been a new number one song over the last few weeks, and so

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Rob Roozeboom: really looking forward to it.

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Hope Johnson: That's amazing. If anyone has has the opportunity and lives out that way in Iowa, I'd really really encourage you to go.

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Hope Johnson: I do have just one question to connect what we've been talking about with anyone out there who's feeling broken or different, because, although not all of us have had a serious medical diagnosis. We all feel broken. We all feel different in some way. Whether it is infertility, whether it's

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Hope Johnson: like you said height or weight, or something. What would you say to those who are just really down and depressed and discouraged by their brokenness, and by feeling different.

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Rob Roozeboom: That is such a a great question. And it's so

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Rob Roozeboom: hard for individuals to realize

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Rob Roozeboom: that when you allow Jesus into your life, your brokenness actually

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Rob Roozeboom: can become your greatest strength.

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Rob Roozeboom: And so, when you actually allow the light of Christ to shine through you

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Rob Roozeboom: through that brokenness, he will use it in such a powerful way.

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Rob Roozeboom: And for me, when when I have allowed him to do that, and I see it

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Rob Roozeboom: affecting or impacting other people's lives.

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Rob Roozeboom: it means a great deal to me, because it doesn't feel in vain anymore.

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Rob Roozeboom: But if you're feeling alone today or depressed, or you know the book we talk about feeling unloved, unseen, and forgotten. Those are 3 words I have wrestled with most of my life.

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Rob Roozeboom: Have few ways.

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Rob Roozeboom: First of all, you gotta get the negative out.

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Rob Roozeboom: You gotta have those whisper Stop! And and so in the book we talked about how to renew your mind, and and some of the simplest ways

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Rob Roozeboom: is to renew your mind through praise. Praise God for for everything he's done

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Rob Roozeboom: another way is through music. I told you music means a ton to me, and so renew your mind through

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Rob Roozeboom: through music

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Rob Roozeboom: another way is through Scripture, just reading his word

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Rob Roozeboom: praising him.

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Rob Roozeboom: etc. And then this one is huge.

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Rob Roozeboom: It's community.

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Rob Roozeboom: I have learned

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Rob Roozeboom: over the last few years that went grief, because

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Rob Roozeboom: if we're honest on the heels of brokenness is grief, and grief is a very difficult word to talk about.

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Rob Roozeboom: because so often, I think if you are like me, you don't want to deal with it.

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Rob Roozeboom: Think, wow! If we just ignore it, may maybe it'll go away false it, won't it? It just won't.

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Rob Roozeboom: And so on. The heels of brokenness is grief, and what I have come to learn is that when you bring grief to community it's cut in half.

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Rob Roozeboom: What do I mean by that? You need to have

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Rob Roozeboom: a great team around you.

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Rob Roozeboom: That means people you will let jump into. Your well doesn't have to be a huge number of people.

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Rob Roozeboom: but you were never meant to carry your brokenness on your own, or to isolate yourself, or to think nobody cares. Those are all those those lies that I was talking about. And so when you renew your mind, whether it's through prayer, or Scripture, or praise, or community, you can put those statements where they belong

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Rob Roozeboom: pretty much in the pit of hell.

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Rob Roozeboom: Just get rid of them. Don't let that voice whisper in your ear.

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Rob Roozeboom: and don't, don't isolate yourself. That is probably the absolute worst thing that you can do, because the next thing you know you end up telling yourself things

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Rob Roozeboom: that probably are not true. I've also been learning that 80 to 85% of what we worry about

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Rob Roozeboom: actually doesn't

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Rob Roozeboom: doesn't come true.

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Rob Roozeboom: And so if you are like me, and every time you went into a room, whether it be a public room, friend's room, etc. And you think nobody cares.

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Rob Roozeboom: Yeah, it's a lie.

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Rob Roozeboom: or I'll never amount to anything. No, it's a lie. God put you on this earth for a reason.

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Rob Roozeboom: or I can't make it through also a lie. You you can. You just gotta let people into your life, and you gotta be okay with asking for help. It does not make you weak.

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Rob Roozeboom: It actually, I'm learning

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Rob Roozeboom: makes you strong

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Rob Roozeboom: because you're willing to be vulnerable enough to say, Hey, I need a little help.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I don't have it all figured out. Well, the sooner we can get there a little bit the better

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Rob Roozeboom: cause every time we think we got all the answers who

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Rob Roozeboom: scary place to be, and

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Rob Roozeboom: God has just been so good to me

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Rob Roozeboom: over the last while I'm realizing

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Rob Roozeboom: I'm speaking to you today from a wheelchair, and if it wasn't for my wife getting up early this morning to put me into a sling to get me on a shower chair to help me get dressed to an a young man showing up at my house at 7, 45, who's 19. That's been with us for 4 years. I would not be sitting here on this podcast this morning.

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Rob Roozeboom: But if I don't let those individuals into my life

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Rob Roozeboom: which is scary.

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Rob Roozeboom: I'm not going anywhere.

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Rob Roozeboom: and I'd rather go places

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Rob Roozeboom: than to be stuck at home, and I'm just so grateful for the team that God has has put around me.

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Rob Roozeboom: And I would say, if you're feeling

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Rob Roozeboom: those feelings of loneliness, look at the team guys putting around you, and and don't be afraid to ask for help.

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Hope Johnson: Wow! That's really powerful. Thanks for sharing, I do think in American culture we're especially prone to isolating. So I think that's just so so relevant to everyone listening whatever you're going through?

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Hope Johnson: And just one last question, where can listeners connect with you on social media online? And where can they pick up a copy of your book, broken, still, chosen.

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Rob Roozeboom: Yes. So if you wanna see what's going on in the ministry, go to rise. ministries.com. If you wanna see videos, go to Youtube rise ministries, TV, we have an Instagram rise ministries, Facebook rise ministries. If you want to see my personal life, you can go to rob rise at Instagram you can go to rob Rosab on Facebook, and then, if you

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Rob Roozeboom: are looking at picking up the book, which I would be extremely grateful for probably the simplest way is, you can go to Amazon

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Rob Roozeboom: and just pick it up there. You can also go to Barnes and nobles or Christian books.com. Those are simple ways to to grab the pre order the book.

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Hope Johnson: Great great, and it it releases on June fourth. Am I correct?

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Rob Roozeboom: You are correct. June 4.

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Hope Johnson: Free and and just anyone listening. I've ordered several copies, and I'm going to be doing a giveaway. So please stay tuned if you're not following me on Instagram. It's at Hope, underscore, unyielding, and that's where I'm going to be doing the giveaway, so I'll be doing it soon. You won't get the book until it comes out in June. But I will. I will be doing that because I

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Hope Johnson: I genuinely, really just loved Rob's book. I've I've read it. I was part of his editing team. So I got to know his story really well. And I I do believe that whatever brokenness you're experiencing if you feel different if you feel discouraged. This is the book for you. So I ordered several copies, one to get one to do a giveaway, and then one just just several to give away as gifts.

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Hope Johnson: So Rob, thank you so much for your ministry. Thank you for joining me today on the podcast.

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Rob Roozeboom: I appreciate you so very much. Your words of encouragement mean a great deal, because, as I shared everything that I just shared

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Rob Roozeboom: friends, I wrestle with it, too. I have to quiet those voices as well, and that's why I can share that with you, because I'm in the same boat. So thank you so much for having me. Thank you for believing in this book.

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Rob Roozeboom: We are excited to get it into people's hands.

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Hope Johnson: Absolutely.