133: You Don't Need All the Answers to Start a Group | Keith and Judy Hook

Keith and Judy Hook return to the I AM HealingStrong Podcast to share what nearly six years of group leadership has taught them. What started as an in-person group just before COVID quickly became a thriving Zoom community — now drawing 15–25 participants each month from across the country and around the world. Keith and Judy walk Jim through how they structure their meetings, how they divide roles based on their individual strengths, and how organic connections within their group — like a volunteer who reads healing books aloud to a member losing her sight — have become some of their greatest joys. Whether you're on the fence about starting a group or just looking for fresh ideas, this conversation is a warm and practical reminder that availability matters far more than expertise.

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Transcript

Judy: Keith and I kind of just diversify our roles here because both of us have been teachers, but I taught elementary kids. Mm-hmm. And um, or one-on-one. Keith taught college and adults, and so he's much more fitting for, for this kind of a group. And, but I'm a connector kind of person, so I get, I'm the one that gets to write the letters and talk to the people and when they call.

And we have a WhatsApp group too, which is, I didn't know how to do that, but Lucia in Italy helped me figure it out. And, and so there's probably, um, 44 or more. People on our WhatsApp group and they, they will contribute some prayer requests or music or scriptures or prayers for people that have given the requests.

So it's a great connector kind of a thing that's not just once a month and it can go on and we're just, I'm just so thankful for other people's ideas of what, what to do. 

Announcer: You are listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast. A part of the Healing Strong Organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world.

Each week we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey. To help. Now, here's your host, stage four Cancer Thriver. Jim Mann. 

Jim: It is my pleasure to talk to Keith and Judy Hook again. We had you on what, the three years ago I believe it was. You were like just married.

Keith: Yeah. Right 

Judy: now it's been 52, so, um, 

Jim: should be 53. 

Keith: Yes. 

Judy: Yeah. Almost 53. 

Jim: Whoa. You're starting to get used to each other. 

Keith: Yeah. 

Judy: Yeah. 

Keith: Takes a while, you know? 

Jim: Yes. You've learned to say Yes, ma'am. Right? 

Judy: Um, 

Keith: I'm going to say a number of things and, 

Judy: and no. 

Jim: Okay. We'll leave that subject right now. Now you're in Seattle, Washington area, right.

Keith: We're about 20 miles north of Seattle, 

Judy: and it's a gorgeous spring day today. Oh my word, gorgeous. It's above 60 and when it's above 60 here, the other big part about our life, Jim, is that we started hosting, um. Foster care first, and then when we moved to Hong Kong, we changed focus and we, we did international students, so we, we've had well over a hundred people live with the kids, live with us over about 30 years.

We just said goodbye to our last one a year ago in September, and then just this last. A couple weeks. We had a student that we had from 2020 till off and on through 2024, come back and visit us for a week. So it's just, it's, our life has been full of internationals and mostly teenagers and early adults.

So like early twenties mostly. 

Jim: That really enriches your life, doesn't it? 

Judy: Mm-hmm. Huge. It's made a huge difference in our lives. Yeah. I 

Jim: only had experience with one international student from France that my cousin hosted, and I still think about her. I mean, I was in my twenties when she came along, and it was just something about being exposed to someone else who speaks a whole different language, a whole different culture, trying to connect.

I don't know. It was a great experience. I can't really describe it. 

Judy: Yeah, it was great for st. So some of them were short term, but most of them were six months or several years. 

Jim: That's incredible. That's, uh, a richness that you wouldn't have had otherwise. Right. 

Judy: Very much. 

Jim: Now that you're in your thirties at, uh, 

Judy: seventies, 

Jim: same thing, right?

Keith: Yep. Yep. 

Jim: Originally, we had talked to you three years ago, and I know if, uh, people listening right now, they want to hear your total story, obviously go back. I think it's episode number 37 back in February of Yes. 23. Mm-hmm. Of course. Just in a nutshell, Judy, of course you got, uh, stage two breast cancer first.

Uh, changed your diet, went to plant-based. Right. Um, and then you, let me see you. Oh, you had a, a naturopath living right down. I mean, not living, but his office is right down the hill from you. Right, 

Judy: exactly. 

Keith: Just a mile down the, just 

Judy: a mile from the, from us. Yeah. 

Keith: Wow. Came, she's been there for a long time, but we just didn't realize it.

Yeah. Until she got diagnosed and then we found out and they, they'd become good friends. 

Jim: That's great. 

Judy: And the sons are actually running the, the office now, Uhhuh and the father was the one that I started out with, with one of the sons, so, 

Keith: right. 

Judy: But we recommend them highly to everybody in our group and, uh, people who live around us, you know, have opportunity to go and, uh, experience their care, their love, their specific guidance and direction.

It's really been. Wonderful. 

Jim: And then of course that's when you found, uh, Chris Wark and then you found Healing Strong. 

Judy: I was, you know, doing some own my own research and 

Jim: Right. 

Judy: Heard Chris War and he mentioned Healing Strong and how important it was to have support and encouragement that you can't walk through this journey alone and all of that.

And I thought. I'm sure it's out in the East Coast, like everything else. 

Announcer: Yeah. 

Judy: And so we're a little bit far from the east coast way out here in Western Washington, and so I looked it up, put in our zip code, and there was a group leader that was trying to get a group started. I wrote to her a couple times, but she just didn't really.

I didn't connect with her. And so I thought, well, I'll call the office the main office of Healing Strong and I'll talk to the secretary and see what we can find out. And the little sec pretty secretary that answered was Susie Griswold and she talked aunt for an hour and was just so gracious and loving and prayed with me and I thought, oh, my word, what?

This is awesome. I need to investigate this more. So I, I think I called her another time and it was the same secretary 'cause I didn't know she was the founder and director of Healing Strong. Had no clue. And then we ended up getting to come out to visit in Atlanta. And what a privilege 

Keith: some of these backstories are, are kind of neat to look at.

'cause you see how God's been working in things, 

Jim: right. 

Keith: And um. We'd never been to, well, I'd been to Atlanta for one conference one time, but otherwise not, and we'd had no plans to go there, except that our daughter and son-in-law from Singapore were gonna go to a conference in Birmingham. They registered for the conference and no sooner did they register than they found out they couldn't take, uh, their newborn along.

Nursing newborns were not allowed in at the conference. And they said, oh, what are we gonna do? We already got these tickets, got everything. So they called us up and said, mom and dad, do you wanna babysit? So they paid our way, hotel airfare to get to Birmingham, and we thought, that's not far from Atlanta.

In fact, actually it was cheaper to fly into Atlanta and then ran a car to go back to Birmingham. 

Jim: Yeah, 

Keith: so that's how we got to Atlanta. It got connected with Susie. Just had a delightful time 

Judy: and decided to become group leaders as we walked out of their little office. 

Jim: Yeah. Yeah. And then, and of course Keith got felt left out, so he got his own diagnosis.

Well, it was a stage one, right? 

Keith: Yeah. In fact, that was the, that was the summer, um, that we went on to Atlanta. I had gotten that diagnosis and, um, then we got this. Trip to Birmingham and Atlanta and time with Susie. I thought, wow, I'm on my own journey. But we can, we're do doing this journey together. We can.

We can do a group. 

Jim: Yeah. 

Keith: We don't what it all is gonna entail. Let's do a group. 

Judy: Yes. And I was so thankful because I be, couldn't do it by myself. For sure. And it was be great to have Keith there. 

Jim: Well, that's what I want to talk about today is your experience with the group being a group leader and, uh, what all that entails.

You gotta have like a college degree, right? To be a group leader? 

Judy: Well, we have college degrees, but not in electronics. As a 

Keith: Judy said electronics, partly because, and we laugh at that a little bit. We, when we started a group, we started an in-person group. Mm-hmm. This was just before COVID. Right. 

Judy: 19. Yeah.

Keith: Yeah. And we, so we got this in-person group. We found a local church that, um, was willing to host it. Then we, then we couldn't have the group anymore 'cause COVID happened. Yeah. And uh, we thought, well, we're not gonna just stop. So we investigated Zoom and we got this Zoom group going and we've been going ever since via Zoom.

And that has been so neat because as it enables people from all over the country, actually all over the world. To be part of that group if they, if it's, you know, if the time meets with them, if the subject matter meets with what they're looking for. Um, so I would say, you know, we get 15 to 25 people on a typical second cent, second Saturday a month.

Um, and roughly half might be local. The others are from different parts of the state or country, and oftentimes a couple from overseas. 

Judy: Canada for sure. You know, 'cause we're close to Canada, but, um, they don't have as many groups up there yet. And, and, but we're trying to plant some, we're trying to encourage the people in our group to start new groups wherever they are.

Keith: One of the, one of the internationals we have, um, is the lady from, um, Italy. And she started a group of on her own, and she has also translated the Healing Strong Materials from English into Italia, 

Judy: and she's not. Native born Italian. She is actually from Peru, I think. So she, she, she's a language specialist, but now she's moved on.

She does, she kind of personally talks to her group people that were in her group, but she actually, um, is a mentor for other international leaders and Wow. She's a real support for us too. 

Jim: Yeah. I think I met her at the, did she come to the Yes. 10. 10 year anniversary. Yeah. She's delightful. 

Judy: Yeah. Yes. We just hung around with her.

Yeah. Yes. And there was a gal from England that we, we just kinda stayed with them the whole time. 

Jim: That's right. Yeah. That was a good time. Good time. Now, when you first started it, did it seem overwhelming? Did you feel like, ah, I don't know if I can do this, or how did that go for you? 

Keith: You know, I think there was some of that, partly because the material was so new, 

Jim: right?

Keith: Um, I had, I had led some groups before. Um, we've been in groups before, but this is a whole different type of material than what we've covered before. We knew that we were gonna get asked questions that we didn't have answers to, and we knew that the best our experience had been that. The best answer to that is, I don't know, but I'll find out.

Jim: I say 

Keith: that a lot, fair amount of, I don't knows for, for a while, and there's still some, but, but with the internet and with the connections that you, you get to have, there's all kinds of resources available and, and I think that's one of the key parts of a group is the in-person thing that the, the relationships that develop, but just the familiarity with more and more resources that are there that you can refer people to.

I, I mentioned about the resources that develop. The, the relationships that develop, we have an individual in the group that is blind. 

Judy: Yes. This is incredible. And we, 

Keith: oh, Judy put out the, the need for this person to have somebody read some of the Healing strong materials or some of the healing books to her.

And we immediately had a volunteer from the group. So they regularly talk together and she, donor of her time, reads the books to her and they become best, best friends. 

Judy: And what's amazing is that this came up just during the. The, um, group itself, the largest said, let's just hear from, you know, we often have open discussion in our group, and I think that's one of the reasons people like to be in the group because they, they feel like they're part of it.

But when, um, this new gal ca came on, and I always try to FaceTime the new people that I get, I get contacts from, you know, when they write and they ask about the group, I try to get on them with a. A FaceTime call. And so I build some rapport so that when they get on the call it's like, oh yeah, that's Judy.

I know somebody, you know, you're right. No big deal. And so I can share. Well, anyway, Debbie got on for the first time after our FaceTime call. She got on and she said, she said, you know, I just really appreciate being in this group. This is so cool. And then the gal, the, the gal that was going blind at that time, she's.

Progressed now came on and she said, you know, I really would love to have somebody read to me because I'm having a hard time reading. And this gal was of her first time on too. She was from California. She was far from us. And the new gal who I had just interviewed said, I'll do it. She, and so they made the commitment right during the group and I, and I thought, whoa.

That's quite a commitment. But I mean, in that fraction of, of a time, Debbie knew that she was the one, and now they've since met each other. They live several hundred miles apart, but they've read so many books together, you know, radical remission and, uh, 10 hours to live and on and on. I mean, they just have a writing list of books that they read together, and they read every, every week for an hour at least.

Jim: Wow. 

Judy: It's just amazing. 

Jim: Yeah, that's one thing I have found in leading my group, which I believe I started pretty much the same time you all did in 19 2019. 'cause then I had to stop, uh, doing the COVID thing. But it's not so much, I mean, it's great what they learn, uh, the different knowledge that we share with each other and the curriculum that is offered, uh, by Healing Strong.

But it's actually just sharing stories with each other and being. Kinda like on the same journey, even though each journey is individual, but we, it's like we're all, it's, it's like going to war, I guess. Like, like military people always talking about those, they fight with, you know, there's this bond that's normally there.

It's the same type of thing. People just, when they come to the meeting, like mine's in person, it's like, get to see them. Uh, well, they just talk the whole time. It's all ladies and they're sharing their stories and I have no control. It's like, just like at home, I have no control. But they just love the fact, you know, each one catches them up on, you know, their own story and then they share things.

They've learned it probably a half hour before I can get a word in, but it's fine. 'cause that's the best part of the meeting. 

Keith: Yeah. The support they gain from one another is huge. A huge part of the. 

Jim: Right. It 

Keith: really is. 

Jim: And I'm a perfect example of how you don't have to be a natural leader. You don't have to have a lot of knowledge, uh, medical knowledge, especially to lead a group, right?

My qualifications are, I have the code to the door and to the alarm system, no one else does. So that's my qualifications. And it's funny, I've, I've been asking for someone to step up. 'cause like I say, it's all women and me. They're all very qualified for it. 'cause they do all kinds of research. They knew about tests and, uh, there's one lady, she, she's done every blood test there is, and she talks about it.

I'm like, you're all qualified to be the leaders here way more than me. Some of 'em are teachers by trade one's a nurse by trade. I think they just like, um, watching me squirm. But just recently, in fact, uh, our next meeting we're gonna have new leaders. They finally said, okay. Two of 'em are gonna co-lead. So I'm like, oh, what a really excellent, I'll open the door.

I can still do that. I'm gonna let them just go with it. It'll probably be so much better. Uh, so that's kind of exciting. But yeah. 

Judy: Oh, that is 

Keith: one of the things that Heal Strong has done now to, to help group leaders is they have some, some leaders that have been in it for a while and have, have done well and they've become mentor leaders.

Right. And, um, for us, that's, um, Dawn down in, um, Rancho Cucamonga. Oh. She has all offered so many resources to us, so they, yeah. And, and she invites us to be part of their, um, their, their group. 

Jim: Their tiny group. 

Keith: Yeah. 

Judy: Yeah. They got the group of the decade conference and Keith and I kind of just diversify our roles here because both of us have been teachers, but I taught elementary kids.

Announcer: Mm-hmm. 

Judy: And, um, or one-on-one. Keith taught college and adults, and so he's much more fitting for, for this kind of a group. And, but I'm a connector kind of person, so I get, I'm the one that gets to write the letters and talk to the people and when they call, and we have a WhatsApp group too, which is, I didn't know how to do that, but Lucia in Italy helped me figure it out and, and so there's.

Probably, um, 44 or more people on our WhatsApp group, and they, they will contribute some prayer requests or music or scriptures or prayers for people that have given the requests. So it's a great connector kind of a thing that's not just once a month and it can go on and we're just, I'm just so thankful for other people's ideas of what, what to do.

Jim: Right. Well give us a, a, a brief rundown of what your meetings are like. Okay. 

Keith: Okay. Uh, so we'll open in prayer and we, Judy and I pray beforehand as well, but mm-hmm. Then we also open the meeting with prayer for us, realizing an expression that realization that we're not doing this on our own. We can't do this on our own, this human body that was created by God and created to heal and he knows best.

How to get it back to functioning well. And so we ask the Lord for guidance for each, each meeting. Uh, wisdom, you know, would be, begin with a disclaimer. None of us are doctors. We we're presenting information and encourage people to look at it. And, but that's up to them and they have to find their own healthcare provider.

They can work with them on this. Uh, some of our people are just doing naturopathic type of treatments. Some are doing fairly strong conventional treatments, whether it's radiation or chemo, and some are doing a combination and all are welcoming in the group 

Judy: or preventative 

Keith: or, or some are doing preventative.

Yeah. 

Judy: Or caregiving too. 

Keith: And then we have a time, um, not, not every week, not every month, but a testimonial time. When somebody can, one or more people can share what's been happening in their lives. Um, we have oftentimes a prayer time where we'll ask for prayer requests, uh, and then we do, uh, a particular subject.

Present that, and it's, it might be 20 to 30 minutes long. Sometimes it's longer. 

Judy: We've gone through the book. 

Keith: We've gone through the book and times we've gone back through the book at times in various orders. Right. But trying to bring additional new information in as well. So one of the things that, I'm kind of the researcher between the two of us.

Um, and so one of the things that I'm doing during the course of the each month be ahead of time is doing some research about, okay, we think we're gonna lead with this topic next month. Let's see what else is out there that's new. It fits with the curriculum, but, but it's new, new stuff and there's always tons of new things out there that are happening.

There's no darth of of materials that you can use. So we present that material oftentimes. Um, it, it might be, it might be somebody in person, it might be a video 

Judy: speakers 

Keith: that's available on the internet. It might be something that, that Dawn from Ranch Cucamonga has suggested to us to use some time. And so we present that.

Uh, sometimes we have conversation taking place in the, with the whole group right after the presentation, right? And other times we break into small groups. One of the things you can do in Zoom is, uh, break into small discussion groups. And we used to have those for maybe 10. 15 minutes, 

Judy: but there's women that like to talk abroad.

Keith: They're saying, can we have more time? Because they're talking about the subject. 

Jim: Right. 

Keith: But they're also talking to each other about each other. 

Jim: Yeah. 

Keith: Um, you know, they have lots to share together, and I think that's one of their favorite parts of the whole meeting is Yeah. Mm-hmm. What, it's what we present, but it's them talking with one another.

I think like you, we, we have two, maybe three men, 

Judy: but we try to encourage couples to be on there together. 

Keith: Yeah. 

Judy: Right. And so when we first interview them or you know, they talk FaceTime with me, you know, a lot of times I will ask about the, their spouse and I say, you know, they're so welcome on the meeting.

It's so helpful for them to kind of get some of this background themselves and the encouragement. And we do have. Several that are on like that. 

Keith: Mm-hmm. 

Judy: Which I think helps grind it out a little bit. And then we have some guys that are by themselves too. And then we try to encourage them to, if there's somebody that they want to talk to later, they wanna connect with.

We mentioned that they should just write to me and text me and I'll, I'll check it out with the other person. And you know, the one that just shared the testimony today, I would like to get ahold of her, but I don't know what her name is. Oh yeah, for sure. And they always wanna connect. They always Right.

Keith: And oftentimes somebody will put some, you know, we have the chat open on Zoom. Yeah. So people can respond to things, to there as well. 

Jim: I know there are people listening who, who, uh, there's no group around them. And they want to join, they wanna start one, but they don't feel like they're qualified, which I thought my example would would just kill that.

But what would you say to somebody like that? Uh, that's just hesitant. I mean, I know there are a lot of people that are hesitant to start one, but they go, I just, I just can't do it. But what would you say to them? 

Judy: We've had a couple people who have said they were going to start a group. 

Jim: Mm-hmm. 

Judy: And then they tried to, and then they kind of backed out, but then they stayed part of our group, which is fine.

And even if they're starting you, because you can list, you can be a part of more than one group at the same time, if you're out in the middle of Nevada. There's nobody living around you. There's no group or whatever, and you don't know anybody else who's wanting to do this kind of a treatment or journey.

You can get on a Zoom and. On our website, there's a calendar that actually will show you the groups that are having meetings every day of the, of the month and how to get on and what times they are and that kind of thing. And I talked to one gal in um, Australia actually, who wanted to get onto a group.

So I met with her on FaceTime and we just kinda shared a little bit with her and she's actually doing a group now. And then there's a gal in Florida that I talked to too. Um, she wanted to start a group in South Africa, but do it from Florida. I said, what about if you have your relative in South Africa, be your co-leader and both of you do the group for South Africa.

Wow. You know? So just that encouragement one to the other, I think is huge. 

Keith: I think if somebody is thinking, feeling maybe led or has the interest in a group become a part of, even if you don't have cancer, become a part of a group first. 

Jim: Mm-hmm. 

Keith: And just experience it. And then also I think some people do a group all by themselves.

I would encourage people try to do it with a, with a partner? 

Judy: Yeah. 

Keith: Yes. Somebody else. Partly because if you're doing a Zoom call, somebody is kind of concentrating on letting people into the group on different, a variety of things with Zoom, uh, which I usually do, but I don't always catch something in the chat, right?

Mm-hmm. It's just helpful to have a couple of people. Working together, and you don't have to necessarily be in the same physical location with Zoom. You could be opposite end of the country, but working together. 

Judy: Right. And during the meeting, a lot of times I'll get a text from somebody in the group, I can't get in, would you help me send the link again?

Or whatever. So I have my phone there to be able to send the link again or whatever. We've decided to do the same link so that we don't have this all the time, but we're not into it very long yet, so. 

Jim: Right. 

Judy: We'll see. But it's good to have both of us working together. 

Jim: Yeah. And the fact that right on the website, they have a, a year's worth of curriculum that you can just push play and just go through the curriculum that gives you a year of cushion to figure out, Hey, this is not that, not that hard.

Judy: Yeah. 

Keith: Yeah. You know, I'm kind of a, a teacher. I mean, I've, 

Judy: you are, 

Keith: I've pastored a number of churches. I've taught at a Bible school. Uh, I love to do that, but you don't have to be a teacher by profession to, to do this. Like, like you said, there's so much material out there. You're the group leader. You're helping bring this group together.

Judy: Yeah. 

Keith: You're, you're not necessarily teaching the lesson. They're pointing the video lesson by sick. 

Jim: Right. 

Keith: Um, 

Jim: the participant guide. Yes. Yeah. They love that one. And you can get it free off the website also. 

Judy: Yes. 

Jim: Rather than the hard copy. But I like hard copies, old fashioned. 

Judy: Yeah, but you can press the links on the, on the resources.

And that's what we encourage people do both. Do both. 

Keith: I think thinking about, people oftentimes think, I can't. I can't do that. 

Jim: Right. 

Keith: And oftentimes I think that's the enemy not wanting you to do that. And we simply need to say, Lauren, I may not have it all together to do this, but I'm gonna trust that you're with me and you just want my availability.

Right. More than my ability. And if, if this is you asking me to do this, Lord, I found the best thing to say is I'm in. Yeah. And he'll provide, doesn't mean I don't have to work on something, but he'll provide. That's right. 

Judy: One of the things that really encouraged me in the very beginning to be part of a group is second Corinthians one, four, where the Lord says that we're to encourage others with, uh, with the encouragement that that has come to us.

I didn't get it, the words exactly right, but we're to be there. This journey that we've gone on is not just for us. It's to share with others, and there's so many people around that have no clue that there's alternative ways to heal cancer. They think that whatever the doctor says is what is fine for every single person.

Right? No, God is individual. He has, he's created us with a, a healing. Mechanism to heal our cell, our bodies. Everybody's gotten cut and have seen how God heals the cut. This is something that's on the inside. He can heal on the inside as well as the outside. 

Jim: That's right. Yeah. He's pretty good at that. Yes.

Yeah. Before we wrap this up, which you've given us a lot of good information and I think you've, uh, relieved some of the, the stress or the confusion of people who maybe are thinking about starting one and like, yeah, I think I can do this, but I'll do like the advice of being a part of a Zoom meeting and just kind of see how it goes.

Judy: Isn. 

Jim: Yeah. I didn't think of that simple process. I am not a teacher, as for my wife was a teacher for. You know, like 14 years. That's her gifting, but not mine. So are there any stories that you would wanna share quickly about, uh, any of your participants or anything like that? 

Judy: Oh yeah. We had, um, one of our participants was in, in the area where Barbara O'Neill was going to be speaking.

Jim: Oh, wow. 

Judy: And, and in fact, I first heard about Barbara O'Neill from Lucia in, in Italy. Mm-hmm. She told us about, anyway, so I thought it got kind of intrigued about it. And so, um, we mentioned to the group and a gal who was very close said, well, I'm gonna go to the meeting. And I'm gonna take notes and, but I see that it's gonna be online too.

So there were several other people that were going to be online and they were going to attend the meeting virtually. So after they did that there, they were writing to me and saying, this was so cool and I learned this and I that and, and I said, Hey guys, what do you think if we put together a panel? So one of them decided she would do, um.

Kind of the listing of what was covered in the presentation. And another one would tell about going to the meeting in person and what it was really like there. And then the third person was going to list resources or whatever, and the three of them worked together. Even though one lived in Seattle, one lived in ca, Eastern Canada and the other one in Eastern Washington, but they arranged a time to, they talked together and they planned this all out and we just facilitated it and I tried to connect people that wanted to be connected with them anyway.

It was fascinating and they've talked about it ever. I mean, ever since people will bring up Barbara O'Neal. Many of 'em got the books that she was recommending and they've been doing the, um, castor oil packs and those kind of things and seeing results, and, and it's been, it's been powerful. 

Jim: Wow. Yeah. I think anyone who's listening right now, and it's kind of on the edge of whether they wanna start one or not.

Once you get into it and you build a community and as you're doing research, you realize, wow. There's more information that we can ever use. It's, it becomes very overwhelming, but 

Announcer: mm-hmm. 

Jim: If you just stay with the basics and stick with that, and, you know, and different people have different stories of something they've tried that's worked for them.

Uh, and, and that's what I find anyway with my group. You'll look back and say, man, I, I wish I hadn't waited so long to start this. 'cause I have a family, a community that, you know, can relate to what I'm going through, perhaps if, you know the person's going through cancer or whatever. Like me, I, I went through my diagnosis and I had a month or two to live.

Uh, and that's been 10 years. So I kind of went past that. I'm cancer free. They wrote me off. They said, uh, we don't need to see you anymore. Yay. I like that. And you two are doing great, right? 

Keith: Yep. 

Judy: Yep. 

Jim: You're looking fantastic. 

Judy: Seeing on the protocol though. We don't wanna get off of that. Yeah. 

Jim: Oh yeah, yeah.

You don't wanna go back to the way you were before 'cause something happened that caused the cancer. So, no, it's always good to be healthy. 

Keith: I think I'd say, you know, to people take the risk, right? Open yourself up to doing something brand new. Yeah, there might be some challenging times, but, uh, the growth that comes from it, the new people that you meet, the fulfillment, looking back, I all 

Judy: their preach 

Keith: things is hell, you know, God use me to bring these two people together and this and that.

Huge satisfaction. Yeah. 

Judy: Yeah. 

Keith: Just, just being able to, to touch people's lives in areas where they're hurry and need some help and maybe I can. Part of the conduit that brings that help. 

Judy: I never would've dreamed that Keith is gonna turn Moses age in a couple weeks. 

Jim: Oh man. 

Judy: And I am, yeah. I've been preparing for, for this because this is gonna be the most awesome time of our life.

Yeah. We sold our house and so we are all set for this new adventure and I'm 75 and it's just so amazing that God would use us. To impact young people, that we have young people in our group that have had CA cancer and old people, um, and middle whatever, that he would use us to be an encouragement to them.

I just think that is incredible. 

Jim: Anybody listening, they wanna find out more about it. They can always join your group, which is the second Saturday of the month, right? Yep. 

Keith: Second Saturday. Right. Yeah, 

Judy: in the morning our time. So that sometimes works for people that are farther away. 

Jim: Right. So you just go to the website and look up, uh, your group and get all that information there.

Judy: Yep. 

Jim: Perfect. Keith and Judy, thank you so much for sharing your great wisdom. 

Judy: Thank you. God bless you, us 

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