PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR EXPERIENCE Episode 99

This post is about looking life and what I have accomplished in relations to others. A recent podcast of a 88 year old man talking about his life and the things he had done without having a large platform or large meetings. You might relate to this also. Thank you for liking, shaing and subscribing. 

Transcript

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Oh, this is a Private Investigator Experience podcast, and I'm your host, Phil Little. General, we talk about the cases in life of a private investigator. I also look at situations and advance across the United States and out around the world that could affect us here at home in our own communities and things that we should be looking for. Kind of signals that our personal freedoms might be at liberty and it might be time for us to rise up and let our voices be heard. I've been thinking a lot about my life and career. I started out at, on a farm in Missouri and from there to the Air Force and onto law enforcement, intelligence service, and global security background, and became. The private investigator after law enforcement in that in between times when I was doing government work and other things and wanted to be the best that I could be, I wanted to be the best investigator that there was. And that started out in the local Hollywood area where we were known as a Hollywood PIs and protector to the stars and all those terms that come with being around the film and movie industry. I've hosted radio and television talk shows been on of close to a hundred different shows over the years that had to do with celebrity stalking and intelligence terrorism and violence of all time. And so I've been, I'm an age in life, I've been reflecting on things and looked at what helped my success and where could I have been better. Have I really accomplished that much? I've looked at my career and I've written three books on terrorism and I've had some work with the government over the years. That'd be like something out of a movie or the wildest dreams of a private eye that you would be walking those halls and out around the world doing the things that you were doing and. But still, I feel like that I should have done a lot more. I've operated my life with my biblical worldview, and so everything I've done, I've tried to fit that biblical worldview into the way I investigate things, the way I talk to people, the way I treat people, and my ethics in a business around what could be law enforcement or prosecution. Law enforcement or investigations where sometimes it's easy to shade the truth and get the feeling like, oh, these people have done something, so might as well get'em for this, even though it might be a little iffy. And that's something I never did, never would move into. And what really prompted this conversation I'm having today, which is just a journey, not a book, not a written out. Dialogue, but just reminiscing. There's some things to think about. Maybe you might be in some of these same places in your life, but recently I saw a podcast by a pastor in Tennessee, which I appreciate and enjoy a lot. Alan Jackson, he was interviewing his father, George Jackson, who is 88 years old now, and did passed a lot younger. He's just the dynamic man and normal guy that started his life out with a wife and then had three kids and yeah, they were going to church casually. But then I think along in their, maybe late twenties or something around there, they had an experience where they met a man that in introduced them to a deeper walk with God and a feeling of the Holy Spirit. He was a veterinarian and filled a veterinarian practice. Was in middle Tennessee and I had to relate to Alan Jackson, his son, when he talks about being raised in a barn. Alan was also born on a farm in Missouri and where I was born, and I was raised in a barn. My dad wasn't a veterinarian, but he was a farmer rancher that we had cattle, horses, and hogs and chickens. Else you can think of. And they were sick. My dad was usually the local veterinarian because it was hard to get any real veterinarian. Occasionally I remember we would have a veterinarian coming, but they were difficult to find in those days out where we were at. And the Outbacks of a Missouri way out of town. The thing that hit me was of the impact he's had on life and on people without having a big, huge ministry or a big even church or faith group of some kind or revivals or or large meetings. He didn't have any of that, but he and his wife. A dramatic impact on hundreds and probably thousands of people in a small group, one-on-one meeting, people caring about people, not with a ministry set up, trying to make a living out of it, but they were just giving back one person or one family, or one couple at a time. And then he talked about the father retired in 90 I think around 2099. So for 27 years they traveled the world. They were in Israel a lot, but they were out in these Outbacks of the Philippines and Africa and these places where it wasn't too safe for two white people to be, and Americans particularly, but they would go into these places and make relationships. They weren't there holding big meetings, they would go and knew somebody that was, they were working with, perhaps that was in the area, and they would go spend time with people and change their lives by being able to share how God had affected their lives and give them the hope of not only a good life here, but it turned into with God. I, as I was listening to him, I thought about my own life. Oh my goodness, I've done nothing. Yeah, I've done some ministry and things, but I, at first I was just say, wow I, I'm not measuring up too well here. When I thought about the personal efforts they made, it's easy to go speak to'em about the people on route and show up, do your thing and leave, but where the rubber hits the road. It's when you're doing it with what, and you've gotta talk and with it and feed into their lives and be there for them when they have needs and encourage them day after day. And sometimes it takes weeks or months before they come to a place in their life that I need change, that I want it. And so it, it is that's where the real, you wanna call a missionary where comes out. Or just a follower of Jesus. And so I began to think about my own life from that. And I thought, really, what have I done? What can I stand before God? And when the Bible says that the Book of Life's gonna be open and everything that we've done, it's gonna be written there. And what am I gonna be thinking? And of course some of this is subjective'cause obviously we're not gonna be human standing there. We're going to know, as we're known, we're gonna have a heavily body. But, so I began to walk through my life and I just wanna say to you on a little journey, maybe you might want to do this with your own life. When you get to think it, oh boy, I've missed it. I've belong. I really haven't done that well. I grew up on a farm in Missouri, a Christian home. I accepted the Lord when I was seven. And within my 10, 12 years old, I was singing in church. I came from a musical family and I was reading choirs by the time I was in my teens and very active in evangelism and youth work sharing the gospel and much as I knew at the time as that young guy back in that timeframe in the Midwest. I was at a country church a couple hundred people, and I had a choir of about 25 people at times, which was pretty large for that size of a church and was learning and growing and giving them my time. And went on from there. And I went to a one room schoolhouse when I was in my first eight years of schooling and then onto, 800 member high school, Inco, Missouri. And I remember some of the things that affected me there. We were just north of the bases of Dixon Line. And I was raised in a family that didn't really we didn't talk about race. There wasn't race talked about. I was raised with all people no matter what color we where they're from or whatever, that God loves them. We're all the same. And I just I never even realized that there was problems with the race school. Of course, we moved out of town and we didn't live in town where maybe in the towns growing up, people might have, young people might have sensed more of that. And that's one thing I tell you what I'm thankful for is being raised on a farm. I learned how to work young. I was was thinking about. What did I contribute to my family? We lived on a farm about nine miles out of Bridgeton, Missouri. And we had horses, cattle. We milked about 15, 12, 15 cattle all the time by hand. We had not only horses in my, had my first quarter horse when I was a little bitty kid, but we had cattle, a hundred, 300 head of cattle. We ran. Farming. And we also had all the crops that you would raise on a farm and ranch. And we were just a ranch with cattle and horses, but we also farming and then we had hogs, a lot of them, and I remember as a kid, 10 miles out of town, I was thinking, I want to go to town on Saturday night. And the only way I was going to get the talent on Saturday night is if all the chores and all the work got done, because my father would be working in the fields and wouldn't be in till in middle afternoon or wait on Saturday come in. So I knew that if I didn't help, I was a kid like six, seven years old when this started. And so I would start early the afternoon milking the cows. Feeding the hogs getting every, all the chores done, chickens and trying to get prepared so that my dad got there and finished up things we could go to town on Saturday night. And that became a routine. And I got to town on Saturday night. Princeton was a town of about 1200 people and it, we had a square, one of the old squares where all the activity was around. There was a theater over on one corner. An ice cream place and a few places around, and my allowance at that time was 25 cents, and that's 25 cents. It got me in a theater show. I, the westerns were on then with a usually some show pre or showing. And so you'd have a two show thing and it was a nickel or a dime for the show. And then a Coke was popcorn was a nickel. And I would come out of the show after to journal all this and living this life and run around the square. And I still had a nick or gun wife sometimes, and then they would come the ice cream. And I remember those times of that hard work and effort and I thank God for it. And I think it'd be such a blessing to all young people if they could grow up on a farm and learn what work is like and learn that. Good hard work range result. And the result they brought to me was discipline and a good body but also I got to go to town that once a week. That was the height of my days. Then after getting outta high school, I joined into the Air Force. I made a decision that time the draft was still in. I didn't wanna go to the Army and I loved airplanes. I seen him around and we'd been around Kansas City. We were north of Kansas City, about 80 miles, and when we went down to maybe holidays or something to a family for Thanksgiving or something, we would I would see the airplanes. And so I joined the Air Force and during that time, wound up in California and. Was Orain to the ministry then at a church in Victorville when I was 20 years old and was in youth and music ministry. And then over a period of time God led me out into the business world saying, I want you to use business as a means to create ministry, man. Provide your wi. And I went on the sheriff's department and was on the sheriff's department and. And then got involved into businesses along. And then after about 12 years from Victorville, moved to ca Los Angeles, where I started a private detective agency. The Little Investigations. And over those next years I built the fall agency up to where I had a handful of guys working for me doing investigations. And I, when I first started that business. Something that, that God told me. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know anything about running the business or that much about private investigations. I just left law enforcement because a friend I had left had gone to the, off to the highway patrol in Missouri, in California, and went into private investigations and I thought, I kinda like that. So I did. And when I was when I was starting I met some people. I was actually, here comes church again. Church there. First Baptist van and the pastor had introduced me to an attorney that was very active and we became friends. And then he introduced me to another businessman Bertman, who owned Gallin Motors. And so I got them as clients and started working and God just told me I know your phone number and I know your address, and I thought about that. I didn't have any advertisement. I didn't have, the only real advertisement at that point was word of mouth or phone books. We had the yellow pages back in those days and I lived on that and God through the business. And then in 1977, I met the founder not the founder. He was running it from the founder. The founder had passed away in the fifties and Stanley Comstock was running West Coast detectives and wanted to retire. And asked me if I would take it over, which I did. And that was a miracle within itself. And there I went on to then starting a ministry. I had two sons at that time young and got into building the detective agency now West Coast Detectives, was known national and had a long history at that time. I I discovered that that was a vehicle that I could use by continuing on with the same principles and integrity that the agency had been known for. And also along the way, I began to I was at another church by the time Osborn Neighborhood Church. And. I got involved there led a national program that did ask me to lead in 1976 was called Here. Here's Life America. The Churches Across America were doing. And also at that church, that was a pivotal point for really where I'm at today. S one was the, there was a family there, Jim and Joy Dawson. Joy Dawson was a dynamic teacher, Bible teacher. Woman of God. And when she spoke, it was God's speaking. She didn't open her mouth unless God told her to. So we become qua. And one Sunday after the service, she came up to me and said, bill, seek God. She's from New Zealand. She had that New Zealand accent. Seek God. You're supposed to go to New Zealand and take the, here's Wife America program, the New Zealand. I talked to some pastors there, and they will host you and help you what? And she said, seek God. So I did. A few months later I was on a plane, spent a month in New Zealand during this Life America program, bringing unity to churches and spreading the gospel there. And then the second thing that really propelled me and lived in the business world was I met George Otis. He was the head of High Venture Ministries. He had been the head of Weir Jet, retired and started his ministry taking people to Israel. Pilgrim groups to visit Israel. And he was at our church and one Sunday he came up to and said, Phil, why don't you and your wife come and go with us on the next trip to Israel? And I hadn't been there. I thought, oh, wow, that sounds great. I did. And then once a while before he said, would you serve on my board? So I went on the board of High Adventures, and it was during that time that we were there. The opportunity came to build the radio and television station in southern Lebanon with the blessing of Israel, which started and that I was a part of. I was in and out of Israel a lot. That exposed me to the terrorism that was going on in the Middle East. And I was interfacing with various officials and NGOs and other people, Israelis there and. Got involved because of my background with some of the military, and we got in briefings and so I began to see this score of terrorism and led to my intercept. Where does this come from? What is really going on? And that led to my first book, hostile and Hip, which was my search, define the source of terrorism. And over those next years being and out of there, I realized that this wasn't just a regional event, but it was gonna become an international because we had found forest that had been trained in those training camps in southern Lebanon that were from all the world, including the United States. And then they went back to their own countries. I said this is just about not Palestinian homeland. Why are all these people coming, being trained and going back to their own countries? So that started and then I decided with part of West Coast detectives I was going to build a, an international intelligence group that we had human assets, people on the ground out around the world that could feed us information, that would help not any investigations, but could help prevent maybe terrorist or other kind of activities. Over the next years, I had traveled the world through relationships I built, and I had this group of individuals spread across the Europe, middle East four East. Had a base out of Hong Kong that covered the different countries out there with locals living in country military. Along the way as I was traveling now over the world, then doors begin to open for me to share about who I was my life. It was like the PIs bills and the bi fields are different back in those days, there was all kinds of PI shows and these investigators shows that when I would go out in the world, they knew more about them than I did. The reruns were out there, and people would wanna say, oh, what is Hollywood Pi? Let's go hear what you had to say. And I would share about my wife as a private investigator and what was going on in Hollywood, but then also share that I'd found this source for two happiness and for returnable life. And that I could have someone who would helped me be a better investigator and had a home in heaven prepared for him. So that opened up all over the world, wherever I would go. Then in in the early two thousands, I was, had a small group at my home in Los Angeles. It'd been going on for several years and we had a pastor come from Germany with the team, about 20 people. He was visiting the states with the team, and I had him speak. My small group showed about what was going on in East Germany. That's where he grew up. And of course, by this time, the, the wall come down and there was freedoms coming back, even though the Nazis, he was in a part of East Germany that was still heavy. Young Nazi operations and things going on. And after he finished, he was praying for someone and I looked at him, was looking at him. I heard inside me it's as clear as the bell as I'm talking now you are going to East Germany and minister that. And I thought, what was that? Where did that come from? But I had learned not to just kick it off all, not just me, not just my daydreaming or desires, but let it pass. But this time I didn't. And when he finished, I looked at him and said, Gerhard, you not gonna believe what I heard. Because I third, I'm supposed to come to East Germany and minister with you and and it fractured a second. He didn't even hit, he said this was about October of 2003. He said, come in, Pentecost in 2004 and we are a youth conference, nationwide youth conference for youth. Come from all over to Germany, have a big, huge tent. And I instantly, I said, I'll come. Not knowing what I was getting into and people with the group five or six immediately said I'm going with you Phil. And we did. We arrived there. That first trip, it was amazing how all this worked. None of us knew how it was gonna work and I went for the first one time, I just said, okay, I'll go. It was amazing time and Todd then told me while I was there, you're coming back here in October to this church in, berlin, which new Death Right. Church, which became our base church there. And sure enough, the pastor said, come and we had a September week of ministry have, and then over the next years I was back doing what dozen times. And as an investigator and many times talking about terrorism and things going on in the Middle East, the German people were extremely interested in what was going on in the Middle East. Extremely interested because of the German history. With the Jewish people, though I was able to weave in my career and what I was doing, but also be able to share the gospel message that I found something more exciting than being a private investigator and traveling the world. And then as I discovered and thought about, okay, what else have I done? In I guess about 2016 something, I started building out a business out of Mexico and I was down there a lot more than I ever planned. And I had been there a few months and visited a church and had lunch with the pastor The week after, it was a Spanish church. He spoke pretty good English and after having that lunch, he said, would you speak at our services? Coming up and Eastern. I said, wow, that's quick. I said, you don't know me. He said, yeah, but God does. So I did, got involved with the men's group and then it was a little later that he asked me to take the pastoring of the English service, which I did for about the next four years while building the business. Then I went, as I look back, that before I was there in Mexico about wasn't really building the business. It was about God perfecting more than me and what he wanted me going from having to study every week because when you preach every Sunday, you gotta make sure you're hearing some God. And as I thought about then moving headquarters to Texas and being involved and things here, had the opportunities one on one to get involved in people's lives that were, a man who's younger than I am who's had some strokes and was a pastor and had some really difficult walking, getting around and I he came to a small Bible study I was in and we just connected and I've had the ability to share with him and feed into his life. And it's a one-on-one, not minister to a hundred people or 10 people, just one on one. So I've done some of the things that God wanted me to do and I know that I've missed a lot of opportunities, but I've done some things too. What about you? Do you think you've missed a lot of opportunities to help people and be the kind of man or woman that God wanted you to be? Stop, walk through your wife like I did, and I suspect you're gonna find that you done quite a bit. And specific things that God had for you to do. And it's interesting when we're making a difference in people's lives, we don't really understand or think about it. And in particularly if it's one on one, we could one on one affect a hundred people's lives. And I even think, oh, I haven't done anything. So take a walk through your life. Take a deep breath. To God, you're important to God, and don't listen to just what other people's done and feel like I'm so unworthy and there's no hope for me. When there is, there's hope for you. I just pray that you'll get something out of this and you'll find that in your career, whatever you're in, you'll let God be your guide. Be your my case, my chief investigator, or your chief partner. Or COO or technical person, whatever you need, let him help me. So I'll be praying for you. Leave a comment, whatever you think. I know this has not been a typical private eye post with cases and whatever. We've got about 150,000 of those or more from the founding in 1922. We've done a few things. I've seen a few things and we'll talk about those. Let me know. Send me those comments and if you have questions or if you have some spiritual questions that you don't have an answer to, you'd to find did that with me, or email me directly at e whittle pi777@gmail.com. Lemme excited it about what we have ahead for us this year. It's rolling down on the end, but we can still make a difference in 20. God bless you, your family. God bless you.