SpeakLifeAZ
The testimony of Jesus in, with, and through everyday people like us. A father and son who were addicts for over 20 yrs. You name it, WE DID IT, TOGETHER!!!! we used to use drugs together now we share about what God Has done for us to encourage the body of Christ and anyone else who may listen to this that is feeling hopeless and empty. LISTEN TO OUR STORY...and the testimony of others who feel led to share with you.... GOD BLESS YOU....TODAY WE CHOOSE TO SPEAK LIFE AZ!!!!!!!!!!
SpeakLifeAZ
Heather S. Testimony
After a journey through challenging times and personal victories, Heather joins us to share her inspiring story of transformation and faith. Discover how she, along with Eddie and Rowdy on the SpeakLifeAZ podcast, navigates through life's hurdles, from battling cancer to blending families. Heather's testimony shines a light on the power of community, spirituality, and the unwavering strength that comes from shared stories and experiences. This episode is a tribute to the resilience found in faith and the impact of personal narratives on our collective journey.
We explore the cultural backdrop of Iowa's small towns, where faith intertwines with childhood memories of sports, music, and family. Amidst the backdrop of rural charm and big dreams, Heather's narrative unfolds with stories of resilience, sports passion, and the surprising paths life can take. From the thrill of high school sports to the joy of a daughter's operatic achievements, we celebrate the moments that shape us and those that bring us closer together.
Join us as we delve into the heartwarming tale of a trucking love story, a couple's journey of blending families, and the profound impact of community outreach and jail ministry. Heather's story of overcoming cancer highlights the power of prayer, community support, and heartfelt connections. Through this touching episode, we witness how personal stories become bridges of hope, illustrating the transformative nature of faith and the beauty found in service and unity.
all right, everybody. Welcome back to the speak live az podcast testimony of jesus and everyday people. I'm your host, eddie, and always with me is my son roddy. Jesus, what up, dude?
Speaker 3:ah man, what a great day. Dude, it was a lot, buddy, it was a lot we're back to them character building days. It's a character building day bud I think I got over 25 000 steps, man. Now we're gonna record a podcast on my sister's testimony. It's a good day today man.
Speaker 1:It's a good day, man were you. It is a good day, man.
Speaker 3:Were you busy at the shop? Hammered dude, Hammered, Hammered. Come on Jesus. I actually got short with my boss, oh.
Speaker 1:Jesus, I did. I told him I'm tired. You're scheduling too much work Not that I'm a weirdo when it comes to my jobs. I like things, I like things.
Speaker 4:Your way, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And when I don't get my way like that and I like make things perfect, I get.
Speaker 3:I can throw a fit like a little kid. Well it's my name on it.
Speaker 2:It's my name on it, man so.
Speaker 1:I want it to look good, bro, and if I can't, I said I apologize. I want stuff. Perfect, bud, my bad.
Speaker 3:Praise God man. That's character building, but I love it man, I don't mind it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what you got man.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm stoked for this one dude, heather. What's up, man? It's been a minute.
Speaker 1:Yes, I haven't actually even. This is our third try right, third time's the charm.
Speaker 4:Let's go. You can run, but you cannot hide. We'll find you. I'm so excited.
Speaker 3:Scoot your chair over next to your wife, buddy. Just because you ain't got a microphone, don't mean you got to hide off camera, dude. I actually love when the men come and support their women's man. That's just. It's beautiful to see Heather. For me, man, this is a blessing, blessing's mine. You guys, this is so cool. When you first got here, we connected right away and God knew, god knew man. At the time I was actually in the jails and I'm sure we'll get into that. But now you guys are doing your thing thing and you are running your race that God has called you to man, um, and I just see him. There's more than 25. There's more specifically for you, bro. I'm excited for what God's going to do with you guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, god made it very clear to us that when one of his kids agreed to come on here to honor them, and so we just want to honor you and say thank you for your time. We know that there's a million other things you could be doing right now. You know what I mean. But to give us your yes and to come on here and give us a couple hours of your time, man, we know that these things are impactful. We've seen the evidence of that through testimonies that we've gotten from other people who listen, and just so I can't- wait to hear your story, man?
Speaker 5:We don't. I don't know a lot about you guys, but I love the crap out of you guys.
Speaker 1:So thank you, we honor you and just um man, I'm excited to hear what God has done in your life. Um, for for me.
Speaker 3:Heather. Um, we just kind of connected right away when, when you guys showed up, man and Heather, we just kind of connected right away. When you guys showed up, man, and we just started talking and you started sharing your heart of just kind of where God had brought you from and what he brought you through and there's a bunch of different things that you shared with me I was like, oh yeah, we're going to get this one on the podcast.
Speaker 4:And then the first schedule. It was like, was like no, we had to reschedule.
Speaker 3:And then the second one it was mama and it was an emergency. So it's like, okay, this is one that the the the enemy doesn't want shared yeah exactly because anytime there's a fight against something that god's trying to do, you know that whatever god's going to do is going to be powerful yep, um, like dad was saying, man, the connections.
Speaker 3:Dad was just having a talk with pastor and he was saying, pastor, if this whole thing is just so people in this church can connect with each other and figure out who we're actually doing life with, and praise God if it's only for that. I heard one one dude. He told me, bro, if you never get discovered and you never blow up, you're literally going to be the best kept secret.
Speaker 3:I was like oh, I love that dude, I love that. So it's just doing what we're doing. Man, when God first gave this to us, we did what we wanted to do. We were setting up stuff in the bedrooms, we made it our own.
Speaker 3:Preaching videos. That's not what the Lord said to do when we sat down and did what he told us to do, which was just sit down with people and record their stories, record their testimonies, because we are all everyday people. It doesn't matter if you're like dad and working down at the shop and cutting up cars and mufflers, like myself making the wheels spin here at the church, or like yourself at Heartland. We are all. We've all got a story. We've all come from somewhere, come through something, and when we encounter God, things change. So that's, I think, the coolest thing about this is just just how how God uses these things to really encourage his people. Um, so people can find similarities with what you've been through, and man if heather can make it through that and
Speaker 3:so can I. It almost said. The testimony is like unlock the prophetic um, but plus we kick the devil in the face. Absolutely. Revelation 12, 11. We overcome the evil one by the blood of the lamb, the word of our testimony, and loving not our life unto death. So basically, heather, there's just a few parts of this thing that we want to get from you today. Sure, let me pray and we'll just kind of get into it.
Speaker 3:Jesus, oh man, god, thank you, lord, jesus, thank you, god, for what's getting ready to happen. Lord, I thank you for your daughter and her story. I thank you, god, for the encouragement she's getting ready to give to your people through her sharing of her story. God, it's only something you can do Her literally sitting in this room, in this chair, at this table, she's a walking miracle. So, god, I just thank you for the hope that's going to be shared today Because, god, if you can do it with her, you can do it with whoever's going to listen or whoever's going to watch. So I just pray. God, holy Spirit, come have your way in Jesus' name, amen. So, heather, all we basically want from you today is who is Heather? Where was Heather born? What was it like growing up your childhood? What was mom and dad like in the home? Brothers and sisters, school.
Speaker 1:Was church in the home, was church, was God in the home? Amen.
Speaker 3:Get into your school. How was the academics, sports, any extracurriculars or stuff like that when you were youth Me and dad working in recovery we know that a lot of the stuff that adults work through later in life, those hurts and those things they happen early in life. So if you want to get into any of that stuff, but we definitely want to hear how you kick the devil in the face and we want to know your encounter. We want to know the day that Jesus Christ became so real to you, because my day was August 26, 2014 at 1515 West Grand and Teen Challenge. Dad's was in a prison cell.
Speaker 3:So, because they're so personal to us, um, so we want to know how god met heather um and what that encounter was like. And then how your life changed afterwards. Um, because when we have an encounter with the living jesus, it's like dad always says man transformation, life changes is what is a proof of an actual encounter with God. So we want to know how your life changed after your encounter and at the very end, sister, you still got life ahead of you and we want to know what God's put in your heart for the next five years and then the next 15. Just share some hopes and dreams of books or ministries or family, whatever you feel God wanting to do um, but it's just yeah. Thank you for your yes, yeah thank you for asking you guys so what was it like growing up man?
Speaker 5:growing up. You know I'm from a small town, iowa, and uh was not probably uh one of the exceptions of the rules. I wasn't a farmer's kid really nope, I was not. I was actually a grocery store owner's kid and grand kid.
Speaker 3:So um my what over in iowa everybody's farmers mostly.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's a lot of farming, okay, nope, I was not. I was actually a grocery store owner's kid and grandkid, so my.
Speaker 3:What over in Iowa? Everybody's farmers Mostly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's a lot of farming, okay, a lot of farm families there.
Speaker 5:But yeah, my dad, my uncle, my grandpa all just kind of went for it and opened a grocery store in a small town in Iowa and I grew up in that grocery store. I was in the grocery business my whole growing up. I was in the grocery business my whole growing up. That was the family business.
Speaker 3:That was the family business. Yep Was the grocery store. Yep exactly.
Speaker 1:You know what I love about Iowa? It's a big grid, yeah it is You're right, it is. If you ever see it from above, it's east and west, north and south like square, 99 counties yeah man, it's the craziest 99 counties it is. Craziest looking thing. You look at every other state and it's kind of normal. But Iowa's like literally a boxed out grid of, just blows me away.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it was a great place to grow up. You know. It was very protected, very quiet, very small town. You know I grew up like I graduated high school with 69 people.
Speaker 3:I had a very small high school.
Speaker 5:Here's the really cool part about that story is 42 of us were there since kindergarten.
Speaker 3:Really. So you guys grew up together. Wow, that's cool.
Speaker 5:Since the beginning.
Speaker 3:You still talk to those people. Oh yeah, oh man.
Speaker 5:This year should I say it out loud this is our 40th class reunion this year.
Speaker 3:You just dated yourself, sister.
Speaker 4:That ain't bad. That ain't bad.
Speaker 5:So but yeah, we all stay in touch. So yeah, it was. It was great. I mean growing up in the, in the business and everything uh, the family business, um it it uh. When my grandfather passed he died when I was eight years old of cancer things changed a little bit because he was really pivotal in all of that. So that was a really hard time for our family because he was such a very integral part of everything. He was the one that said every Sunday we're having dinner together and we did oh wow, that kind of thing.
Speaker 5:Okay, yep, but I love that man to death. He was, yeah, and so it was really hard to lose him.
Speaker 4:And I was young but it was.
Speaker 5:it was a hard loss, but as far as connection with God and things like that, at that age and that time of my life we were not churchgoers. I did not grow up in a church, attending family, but I had two grandmothers that had a lot of God in their hearts and my dad's mom, um. She liked to go to church as much as she could. She had a lot of things like she always. You know, grandmas have trinkets, things you know, and she always she had like um is this?
Speaker 3:is this the one that was married to your grandpa?
Speaker 5:uh, yes okay yep, she had psalm 23 and I had that thing memorized from very little because she had it open. She had a little book thing. She had it open on all the time. Sorry, I got away from the news, but anyways, um, but yeah, so she was definitely, and she loved gospel music and so I listened to gospel music and she had them on vinyls, man elvis yes yeah, well, no, she had.
Speaker 1:No, my mom is elvis oh my gosh, that's a whole other story, but um, but Is Elvis considered gospel? No, he's got some great gospel. He's got some good gospel, great gospel.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but no, she had some gospel stuff she really enjoyed and that music really affected me younger in younger years and I always had, even since, like a small young age, like kindergarten even, I remember I would talk to God always, always had conversations going on with him. Pray at night, things like that.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you say your prayers. You knew of God.
Speaker 5:You knew of Jesus.
Speaker 3:even though you didn't go, we didn't go no.
Speaker 5:And it's kind of the reasoning I don't know if there's necessarily a reason but the two different backgrounds of my parents, my dad they didn't really go to church necessarily. They kind of did, kind of didn't kind of a long story there. But he got, I think, disconnected with any possible relationship with God when my grandfather died.
Speaker 3:He was pretty angry about that Death messes with people sometimes. Yeah, and I think part of it was that with him.
Speaker 5:So he kind of landed into the agnostic scale from there on, and that was when I was young. Like I said, my mom was raised Catholic and that was not necessarily a good thing. That happened in their family because unfortunately there was a lot of abuse going on in the church at that time with the race and stuff and her brothers oh wow so
Speaker 5:there's kind of that. So there was that kind of a scar yeah from the church stuff there, so kind of both sides had um, but so with that, I wasn't really raised in the church. However, I um always had a verbal relationship with god and I remember having that for a long time. But I'll tell you what scared the bejeebus out of me was, um, when I got into the age of watching like horror movies, we'd have like um sleepovers with my friends and stuff we watched some of those scary movies like poltergeist or whatever.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was scared to death of of some like getting like a demon coming, I was like no, I mean, there was a time when I'd wake up and make sure there weren't any sixes on the back of my neck.
Speaker 1:When I was a little kid I was scared to death of that stuff.
Speaker 5:Cause I kept thinking I don't go to church. Is this going to happen to me? Wow, I mean, that's that was my thought process.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 5:No, I have a younger sister.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's eight years younger than I am, so it's just you girls.
Speaker 5:Yeah just us? Yep, just us two. But the funny thing about the church thing was is that growing up in a small town is that there was the Methodist church, the Catholic church, and if you weren't part of either one, you didn't belong type of thing a little bit.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And the Catholic church was very dominant in my small town and the Catholic church was very dominant in my small town, but it was very sort of an identifier for people in our town of you know? So, oh, you don't go to church, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, oh, you're one of those.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so, and that was pretty.
Speaker 1:You felt that, didn't you? Oh yeah, because growing up in my town I grew up in Mesa, predominantly Mormons, you know what I mean and it was like almost a sense of them and us. You know what I mean. And they knew that you weren't one of them and they didn't treat you like an outsider, but they also didn't give you the time of day either. You know what I mean. And it was like for me, growing up on the other side, it was like we're not those people. I knew we were not those people, you know. I mean I don't know if they knew that we were different we're not but I knew we're not like those people. Right, those people are not like us. I mean, I knew that. I mean, did you know that?
Speaker 5:yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean well, and just the non-inclusion, I think just keeping you not including things and it was so pivotal in the school, even because I mean I went to public school it wasn't a colloquial school or anything, but not that I'm still angry about this but maybe a little.
Speaker 1:We have a group for that.
Speaker 4:We have a group that you can work through that, so I was an honor student in high school.
Speaker 5:I graduated number 10 in my class right Wow okay, but I was not invited into National Honor society because I didn't have a church affiliation really yeah yeah, and there were a few of my friends same thing. They colored a couple of my friends that didn't also had great grades, um did everything that there was to be was that because of the local people, oh yeah, not because of national people, and ask people could care less.
Speaker 5:Really, yeah, wow that was yeah, yeah, there's still a little bit of anger about that, the authority that was at the school or in charge of it.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately the decision committee, I just had this vision of like the Footloose movie. Yes, where those people that are in the place of public authority are probably churchgoers.
Speaker 3:No dancing yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I'm seeing, because it's coming kind of like that Well here's the thing we had, and this is the truth.
Speaker 5:We had shirts made that were National Dishonor Society Not even kidding.
Speaker 4:We wore those with pride. Come on, yeah, okay.
Speaker 5:But, anyway, so that was sort of unfortunately the negative connections of church. However, the thing, and especially now into adult life, as you guys know, it's not about the religion, it's about the relationship.
Speaker 3:Always yeah.
Speaker 5:And I always had that. It was always there. And even if it was just my quiet time with him, which is always what it was, cause I wasn't really going to a church anywhere.
Speaker 3:It. It was still there in my life always. So you're you.
Speaker 5:You have had a relationship with god since you were a little kid, okay, and so as far as like um, I always believed him to be there and I always thought he was listening, you know, which was even since a little kid. But I I think I attribute that to my grandmothers, because they both had deep faith, they both did um one one was more on the catholic and one was more on the baptist method. End, but I kind of attribute it to them.
Speaker 3:Did you see them reading their Bible and praying and that kind of stuff?
Speaker 5:Well, my dad's mom yes, she had an old Bible that she read.
Speaker 3:The one with the Psalms 23. Yeah, okay, it was up on her bookshelf and then my other grandma that was Catholic.
Speaker 5:she was just, I mean, incredibly faithful. I mean incredibly faithful. She went through a lot of bad things in this life and you know they had crosses all over the house and she went to church every week and you know she served. I mean she was just incredibly faithful and had an incredible angelic. I mean honestly, she walked around with an aura around her. She really did. Yeah my mom's mom was just literally an angel on earth. There's no other way to describe her other than that.
Speaker 5:She was just a really sweet woman, but the thing about it. So when I got after going through school and all of that, when I got to college, because the thing that identity of, okay, I have to have a religious identity, what's my religious identity? So now I'm in college, I can do what I want. I college, I can do what I want. I can go figure this out, right right. So I went to all different church.
Speaker 5:I'd walk to the different churches in iowa city where I, where I went to um college, bigger town, yeah it's a bigger town, that's a big college town and I'd go attend different churches and see where do I fit. Where do I fit what feels right, okay, so I'm gonna go to the catholic church for a while memorize all the prayers.
Speaker 5:No, they never really connected with that yeah went to a Methodist church, went to a Lutheran church different ones to see where am I going to connect it? I never really did connect, you know, but it's that and I talk to my kids a lot about this and I'm not saying that a specific organized religious name is bad, but that isn't the most important thing. I was looking for the wrong thing. I was looking for the identity of the name of what am I? Am I a Lutheran?
Speaker 1:Am I a Methodist? Am I?
Speaker 5:a what am I? You're a believer, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian you know I'm a child of our almighty father.
Speaker 2:That's what I am, you know, I don't need a label, and so when, and so I.
Speaker 5:From that point I there was a long like once I couldn't really hook up with a church. When I was in college, there was a long amount of time where I didn't go. I still always talk to God off and on, not as much as I should have. There was a disconnect there too.
Speaker 3:So before we're getting into college, like, how was elementary and middle school? How was that for you as a kid growing up?
Speaker 5:As a kid. I mean it was good. I, you know I had a, we was very, our town was very clicky. So we had little groups of friends. We all stuck with and I had literally had the same friends from you know second grade all the way to when I graduated high school.
Speaker 3:And you were really smart, so you were in the honors classes and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5:I was in honors classes, not honor society, though, but anyway, I'm still not mad about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're going to have to work through that, sis monday, monday night 6 30 here at the church praise god, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Okay, did you do any sports in school?
Speaker 5:I did, yeah so I played softball, I played volleyball. Volleyball is my main sport, my main love and I was a back row specialist, obviously because I have no heights to me, but um we called ourselves the pioneer volleyball players because my freshman year of high school was the very first year our high school had volleyball. Oh cool. So we launched and then we played four years, you know, together and stuff with my friends. And then I went into college and I played something called Power League, which is where you actually play for money.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 5:Oh. Yeah, and I did that in college for a couple of years.
Speaker 4:Okay, my knees are jacked up though, because of all that, all the up and down and diving onto the floors, oh yeah, oh, so you played on hardwood.
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh yeah, okay, okay and you only if you were cool, you didn't wear knee pads but anyways yeah, so my knees are paying for that now so yeah but, volleyball, softball, um, and I still love volleyball. I love to watch, I love to watch. Those are both my two favorite sports to watch and just follow.
Speaker 1:What was the most digs you had in the game?
Speaker 5:Oh man.
Speaker 1:Being back there. You're digging some balls up. Digging some balls, yeah.
Speaker 5:I don't know, honestly, stats that was like 40 years ago, I don't know, I don't remember.
Speaker 1:Were you good? Was it good?
Speaker 5:I was pretty good, yeah, yeah, because I was low to the ground, I mean, that's the thing I had the advantage of. I could, you know, go this way, go that way. Lots of stuff off the top of the hand. A lot of people are doing that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:You know, you get down and get your hand flat, flat, it goes back up. Yeah, it's flat.
Speaker 1:A lot of that Jam, face shots, face shots yes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no broken noses though no, no, no, no, but I did get it in the face quite a few times.
Speaker 2:Volleyball can be pretty, it can.
Speaker 5:And it's more in the front row than the back row. That's where they're getting nailed, unless they've got their hands up for the ball. Yeah, but anyway I love that sport, it's my favorite sport but as far as like overall, overall sport favorite I'm a football girl man. I grew up watching Monday Night Football with my dad Love football.
Speaker 1:Still love football, college football, professional football, football Love it. Let's not bring that up right now.
Speaker 5:Okay, I know, I'm sorry. I know, I know, are you guys? Okay, I'm really not no.
Speaker 3:I was watching social media and that Matthew Golden catch wasn't even a touchdown catch. Go on social. It wasn't even a catch. The tip of the ball hit the floor. I was like, oh, I saw a slow-mo of it today. I'm like, oh God, this is not good.
Speaker 5:They had it with the grass you guys.
Speaker 3:He has yet to join us on.
Speaker 1:Monday nights for this yet.
Speaker 4:So we're working on this. I'm still in addiction, yeah.
Speaker 1:He still gets his, is his day ruined by a sporting event that has no relevance in life whatsoever? Yeah, but when?
Speaker 5:your heart's in it.
Speaker 1:When your heart's in it. Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 5:You know, man, I got a few more years of disappointment behind the Cardinals and stuff, so I've learned how to deal with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, it's not that important anymore he's still got a couple more years to go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, praise God yeah.
Speaker 1:For that aspect. Someone brought something up about that and said the way it ended was probably perfect, Because what if we would have went and played Ohio State?
Speaker 5:and just got slaughtered. Ohio State's on fire. Right now, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:We're now people that are looking and saw us play that game. They're like a young kid who might be considering coming to ASU and might see that and be like you know, I want to go there. They got some grit. They got some. They didn't quit.
Speaker 5:They dug deep to get back in that game.
Speaker 1:They did, oh man, so having that aspect of the way it ended. I'm like I'm good, yeah, I'm good you know what I mean. Now we can just sustain it a little bit. Yeah, yeah, year right, yeah not always for asu a lot of times we're one season here, 10, 15 years later, another season there. It's like yeah we'll see how it goes. Yeah, we got off track a little bit, yeah, anyways. So you're in college, you're in college, so yeah. So where'd you go?
Speaker 5:I went to university of iowa, graduated there hawkeye hawkeye go hawks, yep and uh, definitely a party girl. Oh yeah, yeah, that was. Those were my years of not being so connected with god, sorry before college was there any like for partying in high school, drinking, or you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah, small town, small town that's what the kids do, any drugging or just drinking.
Speaker 5:No, drinking, it's just drinking but we, the thing is, a lot of my friends had older brothers that buy it for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Unfortunately, sorry, never got in trouble that way. No, she's all telling on people.
Speaker 3:I know we see you out there.
Speaker 1:No, not that friend, it's the other one yeah.
Speaker 5:But only got busted one time and that was a park ranger and he told us we had to go home and tell our parents because he was going to call him and small town.
Speaker 3:He knew him and I did know the guy and I'm like he's totally going to call him.
Speaker 5:So I went home, told mom dad what happened and of course he didn't call yeah and my friends are like you told him I'm like I thought he was gonna. You know that kind of thing. But whatever that was me, I would have done the same thing.
Speaker 4:I've got to go home and tell my parents now Exactly.
Speaker 5:But yeah, it was definitely party time from probably sophomore year in high school all the way through college and all that stuff, but a lot of bad decisions there. But yeah, but you know it's part of those young days.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man Live and learn, Yep exactly, so that was when I met my first husband actually.
Speaker 5:Oh wow, so I got married when I was 22. Oh, wow, I had three kids, yeah, with him. So my kids are with my first husband, sam.
Speaker 4:Oh okay, and then?
Speaker 5:we divorced in 2002, excuse me, 2002. We divorced what?
Speaker 1:did you go to college for?
Speaker 5:I graduated with. I majored in Spanish, Hola.
Speaker 4:Really.
Speaker 5:Yep.
Speaker 1:I majored in spanish minored in business and I have a certificate of international business. What?
Speaker 5:the hell made you speak spanish? Because it was so. It came so easy to me, you guys. Seriously, it was so like I don't know. The language was so easy for me to learn and the really cool part is I still get to use it now and because and we've got a story about the prison with that but in the jails.
Speaker 3:Yeah, come on, I love that our janitor where I work now.
Speaker 5:It's just so funny he and I have this agreement, okay, so every afternoon, when he comes in to get the trash or whatever, I only talk to him in spanish and he only talks to me in english, and and he's it's not as so we practice spanish is his language. Yeah, so we practice every afternoon back and forth of that of of exchanging language.
Speaker 5:No, I used to be, I'm not anymore yeah but if I'm like when we go to mexico here in a couple weeks, it'll come right back. It'll be like second day in and what's really cool about that?
Speaker 5:and this is kind of naughty, but I love to go and barter with the market people they think that you don't speak the language and you can hear exactly what they're saying and so that happened to us not where were we at and that happened, and the guy and he I could hear what he was saying to his buddy about how I'm going to. You know, take advantage of whatever the word was.
Speaker 3:Oh, you're understanding. Hey, I'm going to get this lady watch.
Speaker 5:Yeah, Yep, and so I I spit it right back to him in Spanish of what I was going to actually pay him now and he's like oh, she knew what I said Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, buddy, absolutely, I knew what she said Gotcha buddy, Exactly that's great, but yeah, so it comes and goes.
Speaker 5:But when I get immersed in it again, like if we go to Rocky Point, it'll come back.
Speaker 1:Come on, it's back, it's in there somewhere. Yeah yeah, like riding a bike man, you'll pick it right back up. Exactly yeah exactly.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, it's in. It's back in the, in the cobwebs there somewhere, but uh, anyways. Oh so, three kids, um, and great kids. I have really great kids.
Speaker 3:It's two boys and a girl. I have two girls and a boy, two boys, two girls and a boy.
Speaker 5:Two boys and a girl singer and she's in europe a lot really yeah, she's a professional opera singer wow, yeah, right, leah, yeah, my oldest god bless you
Speaker 3:sis go for it, that's it.
Speaker 5:She's um small town isle girl again, but just blossomed into this amazing opera.
Speaker 1:Where'd she pick up opera singing?
Speaker 5:she. Honestly, this was in middle school she was. There was a concert, like an all-school concert, and that girl stepped up to the microphone with a solo and I'm sitting next to my mom and we had no idea she had a solo right and she blasted that gym and we're like wow, really what just happened. Wow, we're crying that whole thing. So she was like a state jazz champion in high school and all that and she's singing like italian and stuff like oh yeah, she sings in all of Russian, german you name it.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, she sings in all of it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's crazy, and she loves it, loves it. Wow, she went to college.
Speaker 1:When we're done, let me. I want to give you a little something music too, and she wrote pieces and stuff.
Speaker 5:And then, like the second year in, she's like Mom, I'm not really loving composition. I think I want to flip to performance. So we talked about that and I said, ok, that's fine with me, but I want you to also have education, as I want you to get a degree in education as well.
Speaker 5:So just in case the performance track doesn't you got something to fall back on, exactly you can teach wow and the performance track has been just to the moon for her so her big like launch um there was a hawkeye too she is actually. She is a uni panther, united of the of the university of northern iowa is where she went really yep, little small school, but a great music school really but she, uh, her launch into like the whole music thing was um in Houston, texas. She entered a competition down there similar to like American Idol, but for the opera world.
Speaker 5:And uh she, it started with like 2000 plus people that that sent video auditions and then they narrowed it down, narrowed it to kind of like the American.
Speaker 1:Idol.
Speaker 5:And then it got down to like semifinals and and she made it to semi-finals and all that. And then I I called her and I'm like, okay, so should I be on a plane coming down? There is something gonna happen with this which is like no way, mom. Like there's so much talent here from all over the world absolutely not. So she makes the finals wow, he's on the road.
Speaker 5:I'm at the home with the dog and she ended up winning it really wow yeah so, yeah, so it was one of those, and that that launched her, because when being like, it's called the concert of arias. Um, being like the yeah, so that's what got eyes on her from europe and other places. So she's done. She's doing her thing, man.
Speaker 1:She loves germany what's the coolest places? She's, she's oh.
Speaker 5:Oh my gosh. She spends a lot of time in Germany. She's been in England, she's done auditions in a lot of different countries.
Speaker 1:Any famous theaters.
Speaker 5:Well, actually the one that she's in Germany, in Stuttgart, germany, where she goes, is one of the oldest opera houses in the world.
Speaker 1:Really yeah, which is pretty cool, so cool.
Speaker 5:Wow, and she did meet Bocelllly.
Speaker 4:Really, yeah, I have a picture of her with him. Wow, yeah, which is a big deal. That is a big deal.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But right now that dude's a gangster, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he kind of is In our world. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't think Chelly's ever been called a gangster before In his own way.
Speaker 1:He's an, og that's really cool.
Speaker 5:it is really cool man I love I and honestly, she doesn't just gets none of that talent from me or her father, that's definitely her own organic role she's just worked on her craft and kept going and loved it so much come on so well, so that's my oldest, my middle is working on her phd right now in um, immunology.
Speaker 5:So, which is in her specialty she's working on like alopecia is like hair loss, right, and she's studying what they call T-regs in the. She's in the lab, hi, mad and that's my daughter's name, maddie and she's working on her PhD. She's got about a year to go until she finishes it. And she's got a very awesome boyfriend named Dan who's also working on his PhD. So, that's them.
Speaker 3:And then my youngest is Rocky, my little guy. He's not so little, that's a big boy, yeah.
Speaker 5:Played high school football and then went to college, walked on as a hammer thrower, wow At Iowa State, and then COVID killed the walk-ons, unfortunately. Yeah, that was so he didn't end up because there just wasn't any funding. Yeah, I mean when there wasn't any attendance in the events and stuff like that. So but anyway, he graduated in cell biology and he works in a lab at a corn sweetener plant in Iowa. Really, so, yeah, and that's my three Okay.
Speaker 1:And then I met this guy. All your kids are college graduates, yeah.
Speaker 5:All of them. Wow, that's freaking phenomenal. The really phenomenal thing about it. Just side story is that my employer, heartland um, pays for your kids to go to college.
Speaker 1:Really, yeah, once you're there 10 years wow, pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, pretty awesome for them to come out of college with no debt and seeing all their friends that are swimming in it yeah, pretty amazing. Yeah, wow, dude that's great pretty cool stuff, so, but yeah, so that.
Speaker 3:And then, um, let's see, met this guy well, so how did uh sam and everything that that goes bad?
Speaker 5:actually it went.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was, we just didn't you guys got married at 22 we got married young I was 22, he was 25 okay, and uh, we just how long were you together?
Speaker 5:uh, 13 years. Oh wow, yep, so in your mid-30s.
Speaker 3:Okay, was it kind of, uh, one of those kind of we gotta make, we gotta make this work for the kids, kind of thing have?
Speaker 5:to ever make it work. We stayed friends the whole time wow yeah, we have a very amicable of course like a kind of one of those like um thanksgiving my mom's house.
Speaker 4:He's there oh, wow, whoa, okay, amen, so that's awesome. Yeah, I mean, that's what we. It's always been that way we were never going to make it.
Speaker 5:You know a lot of times, divorce is never good, obviously. That's a very ugly word, but how people use their kids as pawns is what makes it the worst. Oh yeah, and so we were never going to do that. Yeah, you know unfortunately, our marriage failed but I mean we just we weren't good as a married couple but as parents and co-parenting and literally, like you know, dale and Sam are friends. I mean they, they are so that's just yeah.
Speaker 5:I mean, it's the truth and he we had a house, sam and I had a house right next door to my mom and dad and he ended up keeping the house and he stayed next door neighbors to my parents I mean that was, that was great yeah, yeah, it's always worked and he ended up. Actually, my dad's grocery store business is sam's business now oh, wow he has the grocery store legacy
Speaker 3:wow so yeah, kind of an odd yeah you know things, I kind of stay in the family.
Speaker 5:But as far as my kids I, so sam was catholic, and again that was back to the identity thing, right, what so? I said, okay, my kids need to have an identity in church or they're going to be left out.
Speaker 4:That whole scarring thing.
Speaker 5:So I agreed to have them all raised. Catholic. And so they were all raised Catholic Yep.
Speaker 1:Still practicing.
Speaker 5:Not really. No, unfortunately not any of them. So yeah, but we're working on that.
Speaker 1:Keep praying exactly, yeah got that yeah college have anything to do with that um, I don't think so.
Speaker 5:I think maybe, I guess it's possible, but like my youngest rock, um, he knows how I've been deep diving in the bible and he's he like.
Speaker 5:this morning he called me and this is a great question. Love you, rock. He said, mom, he goes. Was the serpent, the devil in the garden? And I said, yeah, he goes. How is he there already? And I'm like I don't know. You stumped me on that one, so I had to go into Dale's office and ask him, because he knew the answer, because I didn't realize the devil had fallen before that before. Eden, I didn't realize the devil had fallen before that Before Eden. I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:I'm still learning you guys, I am a greenhorn, I am a greenhorn on biblical stuff.
Speaker 5:That's why I'm reading it and studying as much as I can. That's what my son called and asked me this morning I was like dang man All right, that's a great question if your kids are asking questions about that, yeah, man. He does that all the time. Okay, as you say, do we?
Speaker 1:need to pause. No, he's got a small bladder. He says he drinks water like a camel all day long. You know, I mean I. I don't see him in my peripherals when I hear the door
Speaker 5:slam. I'm like oh no you just keep going. That's fine, well, anyway. So the marriage went off track and didn't, you know, didn't work, but um I commend you guys for doing it the way you did.
Speaker 1:by the the way.
Speaker 5:That's awesome, man, yeah and I think it really positively affected, I mean as ugly and hurtful as it was. Obviously, like I said, divorce is never easy, but how you handle it can make a huge impact on how it sort of pans out.
Speaker 1:It could either benefit your kids or it could.
Speaker 5:That'd be a huge detriment.
Speaker 1:I've seen the way parents handle divorce, destroy kids.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Because they're forced to pick a side. Or well, I want to live with mom, I don't want to live with dad.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean, and it's just it's never good for the kids.
Speaker 2:Nope.
Speaker 1:And people that get divorced. They should focus on what's best for the kids. We lived in the same town. We raised them in the same school.
Speaker 5:I mean they just spent half and half on their time and stuff stuff.
Speaker 1:So it worked out. It worked out fine, and that's cool. I commend you for that though, just so you know man that's pretty good. That was important it is, but uh, it worked out for your kids. They sound like they're they're doing great. You know what I mean. I love them all. They're great kids.
Speaker 5:Love them all very much yeah I miss them, but you know they're up in iowa and I'm here but it's. But when I get to go back there it's so fun hanging out with your adult kids yeah, I mean, you know, it just is, I love it. It's one of my favorite times of my life.
Speaker 3:He's like I can't get rid of this one.
Speaker 4:It'll happen, dad.
Speaker 1:We'll be able to hang out sometime, it's nice to visit and hang out with your adult kids.
Speaker 3:It'll happen in God's timing, buddy.
Speaker 2:Let's get that analogy correct. It's nice to visit and hang out with your adult kids.
Speaker 3:I'm just kidding, he loves giving me shit.
Speaker 1:He's my best friend, man, he really is.
Speaker 3:God is good man.
Speaker 5:All the time so cool, okay. So yeah, got divorced, met him.
Speaker 1:What year did you get divorced?
Speaker 5:got divorced in 2002 all right, uh-huh, and then we started. We were in front.
Speaker 2:We're probably friends did you know him already?
Speaker 5:he was a trucker at heartland at the time.
Speaker 3:I knew of him but you didn't have a relationship with him, didn't really know him.
Speaker 5:That well, until there was a load that I needed rescued and he owned his own truck at the time. He was an owner operator, which we don't run over operators anymore but and owner operators can run a little faster than the average truck and I had a load running way behind that was going to shut a production line down and um so they told me this knife's guy he can move run run the wheels off that truck so I called him.
Speaker 5:I said okay, I got this product. It's going to shut this plant down and I got to get it there, can you get it there? And he said what time you need it to be there. And I told him. And when I got to work the next morning I said where are you at? And he said I'm here. I said you're here where. He said I'm at delivery, I'm like. So that was like 650 miles overnight.
Speaker 3:Wow, come on man, wow, I go. So yeah, and that's him.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so, and we just got to be friends after that, because he literally saved one of my customers' plants from a lot of big loss because they were going to be out of some products, so anyways, yeah.
Speaker 4:So we just got to be friends after that, and he had a Billy Ray Cyrus mullet, not even kidding.
Speaker 5:Nice, nice, nice this was.
Speaker 3:Nice, nice. This was in his biking day.
Speaker 4:He had the motorcycle.
Speaker 5:Actually no, biking came later.
Speaker 4:Oh, okay, yeah, biking came later, but he had a very long mullet.
Speaker 1:What color is your natural hair? Black, black, nice, it was long and dark yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, and a missing tooth, and of course, he said in the beginning was from a bar fight, which was not true, absolutely not he made himself look good, it was actually it actually was a root canal that went bad. He sneezed and it flew out. You don't have to come on, honey make it cooler than that and it went down the drain in the bathtub. Check this out.
Speaker 1:I had a root canal here in the front and it kept spark hitting. Oh, cracked it Fell off, dang. So I went and got another one. Spark hit it, cracked Fell off. So I'm like whatever. From welding when you're welding, yeah, and so I had the sticks. My kid called them my sticks.
Speaker 3:He had sticks, bro, he had sticks.
Speaker 2:So they would always be like look at dad's sticks.
Speaker 4:Oh that's so funny yeah.
Speaker 1:Once I got my teeth pulled, they were like what happened to your sticks.
Speaker 5:I'm like, oh man, oh my gosh, that's so funny, so yeah.
Speaker 1:I ran around with the little sharp oh yeah, that's so funny.
Speaker 4:I know all about that, that's funny.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we anyway we met and being real good friends and he was at that time was also, his marriage was ending at that time. And so we were good kind of leaned on each other through that, you know, because it's something it's hard.
Speaker 2:It's not an easy thing.
Speaker 5:And especially when you got kids involved. He had kids involved, I had kids involved.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And then we just kind of started dating and hit it off and, yeah, we got married in 2004.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow A couple years.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a couple years later Boom.
Speaker 1:What was the first date?
Speaker 5:It was at a truck stop, shocker yeah.
Speaker 3:I may have washed my truck.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we went to a truck stop had dinner and the thing we remember the most to this day probably is that his favorite dessert is banana cream pie.
Speaker 4:Wow, I remember it from that.
Speaker 5:But yeah so but yeah, we just, I don't know we were, we started off as good friends and then it just kind of because neither one of us was looking for a relationship at the time, because we just you know, but it just kind of evolved into a friendship that evolved into I can't live without you, type of thing.
Speaker 4:Come on.
Speaker 5:You know, and still, God wasn't part of it. I mean, he obviously is part of everything, but he really wasn't. We weren't churchgoers.
Speaker 4:We weren't?
Speaker 5:you know. We got married. We blended our families At the time my three, his two and he had two others that kids that he had disconnected from that. I well, I'm not going to say I won't take all of the credit for it, but I wasn't going to not have them be connected with us. So we made a lot of strides in that. So now we have the Magnificent Seven Come on In the house we had. The most we had in the house at one time was five right.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay. Yeah, we had five at one time, but still, even that's a full house.
Speaker 2:So once the two that were kind of disconnected and lived in other states um once.
Speaker 5:We got them packing the fold um and that took a lot of time and healing for all that to happen, and we're still on the healing road with that.
Speaker 2:Nothing's perfect, but I love them all they're great kids.
Speaker 5:All of them magnificent seven. We have so seven kids between us and nine grandkids wow, wow, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the notorious nine and magnificent seven come on.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful, that's.
Speaker 5:So it's just really all the personalities and the interesting and the kids, just so many. It's just amazing.
Speaker 2:It's fun.
Speaker 5:So when we get them all together which we to this moment still have not gotten all seven of our kids together at the same time, We've been awfully close, but it'll happen Come on God.
Speaker 1:Let's do this. Come on, god, that's it.
Speaker 4:We'll make it happen when'd you guys get married.
Speaker 5:We got married april of 2004, so we just crossed 20 years last year and, uh, we've been, you know, trucking ever since, pretty much, and uh, it's, we've been, that's been a common ground for us for a long time. So but as far as the you've always.
Speaker 1:You've always worked in the office side of trucking.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was always in the office side, so I was in customer service for a long time. Then I went to dispatch, went to night's dispatch, which that was five years of learning so much. You don't learn truly learn trucking, my opinion until you've worked in after hours or a weekend with drivers, because every weird thing on the planet that's going to happen to a truck driver happens on the weekends or at night, oh yeah I mean some of the calls like I hit an elk, what?
Speaker 1:you know that kind of stuff. You ever make any runs with them um, yeah, I don't want the truck.
Speaker 5:A few times we went to ohio we'll get that on your desk we went a few times on the truck and, um, definitely, we know teaming would not be our thing. That's too small of an area for us I think, but um we uh, it was fun.
Speaker 5:That is tight space, oh yeah, team drivers, hats off, I mean. And the good thing, teams, though good teams, one sleeps and one drives you know they run hard and so he did team with his best friend, who's in heaven now. But um, they uh and they teamed right. I mean they ran hard they ran hard. They did a lot of runs um from the midwest out to california and back and that's some serious miles on teams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my Uncle Jerry was an owner-operator and I remember holidays. Sometimes he'd go over to my Aunt Lola's house for Thanksgiving or something. He wouldn't be there and there were times that he would be there.
Speaker 5:You know what I mean Hit and miss.
Speaker 1:But he always had his truck sitting out front. I always remember it. You know what I mean. And just, it's not an easy lifestyle man, it's. It took a toll on their marriage unfortunately.
Speaker 5:But yeah, it's definitely not an easy occupation to have. A trucker's wife is a very strong woman because she's got to hold that whole household together, everything, every, because he's gone you know, you got it. You got to run the entire thing on your own for the most part other than the weekends he might be in, or whatever.
Speaker 3:So it's a whole. Is that how it was? He was out driving and you were at home with the kids.
Speaker 5:I mean, there was times when he ran local there. He had a local job for a while, and then he came off the road for a while too. He went into a dispatch management position for a while, did that? But honestly, this guy's got diesel in his blood he's not happy driving driving man yeah he's gotta run.
Speaker 1:I can smell you from here, buddy, he was trucking today actually today actually he called me.
Speaker 5:Well, I won't go into expletive specifics, but he was going to find a trailer today that was somewhere where it wasn't supposed to be. And he calls me and just every word going off on the phone. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's like old times, it's bad Jesus, help him Exactly so it turned out he had the wrong address written down.
Speaker 2:So it turned out he had the wrong address written down. It was on him the whole time.
Speaker 5:But anyways, amen, he goes oh, but I'm at a school. There's not a trailer to school and I'm like I know there's not a trailer to school, but you got the wrong address. Go to the Lowe's store that's down there.
Speaker 4:Anyways, whatever.
Speaker 5:So yeah, but that was but yeah, we we walk, now walking with Christ together. I mean my gosh nothing better than that. But getting to that point, yeah. He was raised. He was definitely raised all through. You know he had church in his life all the time.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 5:Okay, and he lost his kids. His kid's mom passed, so he, you know, had a seven and nine-year-old with as a single dad, wow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's rough.
Speaker 5:Wow so, but a church family that came around him too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come on man. So that's, you know nothing like that, yeah.
Speaker 5:Church, family's amazing it is.
Speaker 3:Man dude, I can't wait to get your story buddy.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, william Griefshare grief share on his heart. A lot of it came from that.
Speaker 3:So yeah, because you know that's yeah, kids losing their mom and you know your life partner and, yeah, whatever it's a lot. It's a lot, yeah, so we uh um so 2004, you guys, before we got married um, you are in your 30s and he is in his 40s because he's 10 years older okay, and yeah, he likes him well, his thing is get them young, because they'll take care of you when you're old and wipe your butt that's a wisdom bud, alright
Speaker 1:my wife has that same wisdom. She's 8 years older than I am get them young so they can wipe your butt when you're old.
Speaker 3:That's it.
Speaker 4:And they have good insurance and take care of you. That's crazy, yeah, that we have a lot of fun yeah.
Speaker 5:So we, as far as like church life and stuff, you know it was a while until that happened, so in 2011,. So I wasn't, we weren't attending church or any of that together all through that time.
Speaker 3:You're living in Iowa City.
Speaker 5:Actually, in the little town north of Iowa City called Solon. That's where we raised our kids and we had our daughter went through a horrific divorce. It broke me to my soul. This would be his oldest daughter. Okay, but my daughter, she's my daughter. And broke me to my soul, this would be his, his, uh oldest daughter okay, but my daughter, she's my daughter um and broke me to my soul.
Speaker 5:I was broken and I woke up just what she had to go through and just the fight, it was just so yeah it was just a deep hurt um and yeah I said we need to go find a church, I need to find a place to heal, because I knew I could knew that I needed that Wow.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and that was, and he was just like what is going on. So I know that was that as far as the moment goes, where God spoke for me it was that moment, wow. Because he directed me to that church and that church family. He knew where I needed to be and I listened. Wow, and that church family. He knew where I needed to be and I listened and and he was like, let's go, I'm ready, he's.
Speaker 5:he'd wanted to go to church for a long time wow and I never wow just with all of the sort of bad things that happened in growing up. I never went. And then that, that weekend, when that all happened, um, let's go. Yeah, so we went to iowa city church so you told him that way.
Speaker 3:Hey, babe, I feel like I need to find a church. I need some healing in my life with all that's going on. And he's alright, let's go find one.
Speaker 5:He sees it. I've been waiting for you to say that.
Speaker 1:All these years, that was him.
Speaker 5:He always wanted to go. It was me that said no.
Speaker 1:We had a guest on one time talked about she grew up in church and she truly met God when she found herself broken. That's the truth. You know what I mean. That's the truth. And even growing up in church. I mean, she was in church all her life, knew God, knew Jesus, but then really she said she really didn't encounter him until that brokenness.
Speaker 5:Absolutely, and that broke, so hurt.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Hurting so bad it literally physically hurts.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Your heart's broken so badly.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:For someone that you love. Yeah, and that's what turned us to our Come on. My first church family was at Iowa City Church. In fact, I was just there over Thanksgiving and was talking to the pastor there, tom Steele. Shout out to Tom Steele, he's amazing. You know I told him about what the path is currently and I'm like you know you launched me here. You're my first pastor.
Speaker 1:He was. I love that guy. Come on, he is the bomb he is the bomb.
Speaker 5:He's the one that connected me to the word man and just powerful guy. The thing about this, though he's a quiet powerful, yeah, but any questions I had from him, he always had time for me and I had a lot, because I'm still learning.
Speaker 3:You're smart.
Speaker 5:Well, and I just want to dig into things. I'd come up with tough questions, like I was emailing him on the regular. I'm like are you tired of me yet? But he always had answers.
Speaker 4:He'd point me in the direction of where to look it up and things like that. So great guy, come on.
Speaker 5:But that was our first church family. I was city church and, uh, we ended up jump not really jumping into, but shortly thereafter into service. There too, of how much we enjoyed serving. I mean serving, hearts are just happy hearts, you guys know you know when you guys are in your groove in cr oh my gosh yeah that serving heart it's just it's like you're walking about, you're walking on air.
Speaker 1:Literally, your heart is so full of happy right? Yeah, isn't it funny that our hearts are full when we are outside of ourselves?
Speaker 1:and we're tending to others I think, you see that in jesus, the way that he served and he even said I didn't come to serve, but to to serve people, not to be served but to serve, and that's the Father's heart is get outside of yourself, serve others, and when you do that, that's, that's that joy, that fulfillment that we try to find in the things that the world offers. You can't get that there. You get that by stepping out of your personal self thing and serving another person.
Speaker 5:And it's so fulfilling.
Speaker 4:Oh my gosh, there's no positive energy like that and you can't bottle that stuff up, man, it's just a and people.
Speaker 5:I think there's people that judge that thing. Man, you waste all your time doing what I'm like. Waste all your time doing what I'm like waste all my time.
Speaker 3:They don't know, they just don't, they don't know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they don't know. We're not wasting time in that jail, we're not wasting time.
Speaker 5:We're not wasting time with the grief share folks we're not doing any of that.
Speaker 3:That's no waste. Those are all gems that are on your crown that you're going to lay at the feet of jesus. That's all stuff. You ain't doing it for you, you're doing it all for him.
Speaker 5:And I think that's where the power of the happiness and the joy of it comes from, because you know you're serving your Holy Father by doing all that, and it's just. There's nothing better.
Speaker 1:It's just right here, you know, especially when you're doing it not for personal gain or personal satisfaction, but because you see God in it.
Speaker 5:And see him change people.
Speaker 1:See him using it.
Speaker 5:Oh, in it and see it, see him change people and see him using it.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I mean in the jail especially.
Speaker 5:I mean we'll get to that later, but gosh what some of the transformations we see come on, man, come on powerful stuff, oh yeah but um, anyways, where are we okay? So first church yeah iowa city, church great people, church family, still church family I still go to church.
Speaker 2:I want to go back to iowa, so god I love that yeah, I love them all.
Speaker 5:and uh, folks, unfortunately that church got struck by lightning. Was it been three years ago?
Speaker 4:Really and burned down.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 5:Believe it or not, and so they literally had to start from scratch. Amen, and the really cool part is they're rebuilding and the building's almost complete, and they want us to come back when they open it up, for the first time.
Speaker 5:And it's going to be a gorgeous church and you know God's moving in that situation because you know it's lightning struck, burned it down to the ground and then it took them a while to figure out the money and the insurance and all that. But in the meanwhile, while they were figuring all that, all this construction and building of new residence houses and all kinds of stuff all around them is just blossoming. So there is a flock. Come on, that's amazing he's gonna.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's just that thing's gonna boom when it gets back it's
Speaker 5:so cool, it's just it's amazing to see how guys move in that situation.
Speaker 1:No doubt about it, that's really cool where's iowa city in reference to boone to boone, iowa yeah um, I don't know.
Speaker 5:Do you know where boone is?
Speaker 4:I mean I've heard of it.
Speaker 5:Okay, so it's maybe north-central Iowa then All right yeah and this is south-central, southeast-central Iowa. Yeah, that's where Iowa City is.
Speaker 4:All right yeah.
Speaker 5:But we so we left that church for a little while had an unfortunate incident, not really going to go into that, but we went to a different church in Cedar Rapids, which is a town north of there, and it was an assemblies church.
Speaker 1:Assemblies of God. Yeah, and there was a reason for the reroute. Yeah, Always always always, always.
Speaker 2:God's always working, isn't he?
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So that was the church I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Wow, and that's why I mean I think that's why and that's why I mean I think I think that's why and uh had I was the, the pastor that was there that uh led me through that to. That was amazing. His name is Tim Enloe um. He's an amazing leader in the assemblies and, uh, we were in that church for a short time, but we have a church family there too is that the?
Speaker 3:is that the first time that you personally encountered holy spirit?
Speaker 5:first time in tongues, yeah yeah, yep okay, and it was powerful. It was powerful yeah.
Speaker 4:It was crazy, jesus, it was good, crazy, good, crazy, good. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:And first time it? Well, you know when it comes over you, the first time it just grabs you by your shoelaces and you're like what, what?
Speaker 5:What, yeah? And so, yeah, that was that, so that I feel like that was a reroute reason for me. He had already been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Prior to that I had not, and so I experienced that at that church. And so when he was so, when Rocky, our youngest, graduated from high school, we always teased the kids we're heading to Florida, dude, we're done with Iowaowa, we're gonna get everybody off to college and we out. And we weren't kidding. So we sold our house in iowa in the fall of 19 and we headed to florida and, uh, just, we bought a mobile home down there. We loved it, we had a great neighborhood. We went to 55 plus neighborhood, this one over here.
Speaker 5:I wasn't 55 yet and he kept telling me if something happens to me, they're gonna kick you out of here.
Speaker 3:You can't live here yeah sardy pants you're not old enough to live in here.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I know so I I was in a panic for a minute because I loved it, I loved the people and everything about it. So I called the owner and he's like, who's telling you that? I'm like, okay, all right then, yeah, uh-huh. So, anyways, we went there, so Dale retired, we moved down there in fall of 19. Dale retired from trucking in December of 19.
Speaker 4:Wow, First retirement, whoa yeah From driving.
Speaker 5:From and so driving from driving full-time at heartland. He retired then and we were about 40 minutes from the beach. We had a great neighborhood. We had a great church. We were river river christian church. We love them. Another church family. Shout out to rcc. Love those people and still love those people still a church family we've got, yeah, yeah. And if we, when we do get back there, which we did last year, we just showed up and it was the the, it's so cool, just walking the door and people are like you know, it's amazing so fun to see people and just reconnect, but um we oh, I guess we didn't, I didn't really go on.
Speaker 5:So what we did for service in iowa city was we served, we were greeters, connect people. But we also did um served the homeless there. Um, we did um backpack, uh, blessing what we call. Call them blessing bags, blessing bags. We did backpacks for the homeless and did those outreaches, because the homeless in Iowa it's tough man.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:It's cold in the winter right.
Speaker 5:They have shelters and stuff, is that prevalent there it is, but they have shelters, not as much as here.
Speaker 1:It's more here than there.
Speaker 5:But we did blessing backpacks and what I loved about that more than anything is I. I usually would lead that and, um, we would get a bunch of big box of bibles and I'd hand them out to the whole church family and have them all write messages in the bibles come on so that each of those people would open it up and get a personal message from somebody at church.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's awesome. That was so cool.
Speaker 5:Love that. We did a little bit of work with domestic violence too. That was one of our outreaches, and that was when our first interest was in jail ministry as well. There just really wasn't an avenue there for us to do it. The door never opened At RCC. No, this was in Iowa City. Sorry, wanted to, but it just never.
Speaker 5:The door never opened so we didn't get it done, went to rcc um no avenue there for jail ministry either really. We talked about it but no door really ever opened there um that we could but it was on your heart on our heart always has been yeah and so at rcc we served on the prayer team um. You were part of um host team, weren't you? Yeah, greeting team, yeah. So we did a lot of um. It was just. That was a great church family man. He was the.
Speaker 5:Every year they do the nativity, they redo it they do a like a live nativity, and he was a shepherd oh wow, oh it was fun.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was great stuff.
Speaker 5:There's a picture I have of him with this little kid. Honestly I get tears, I tear up when I think about it. So they at the the manger scene. The shepherd leads all the people through like a almost like a tour guide, right and they get to the scene. And they get to the the manger and the shepherds kneel. There's a slow boy. He's three years old and he's kneeling next to dale and he's got his hand on up on his shoulder and that is a powerful picture.
Speaker 5:You guys, I'm telling you because it's a live baby. There's a whoever in the church had a new baby got, got to play.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, mary and Joseph, and.
Speaker 5:Jesus and this little boy with his hand on his shoulder. Oh my gosh, Wow, yeah so powerful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good stuff, yeah, really really good stuff. I love that you guys just serve together wherever you go, wherever God takes you, and you just do it together.
Speaker 5:That's beautiful, it's almost a selfish notion the way I think about it, because literally and you guys know this, the joy.
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 5:There's nothing like it. No, nothing.
Speaker 3:I see husband and wife serving together. I'm like man can't wait to the day I get to serve with my woman dude. It's just cool to see you guys. Yeah, it's just, it's fun when you're walking, that walk with Christ together.
Speaker 5:it's a powerful thing. It just is, and we've just been very blessed to be able to do that together for sure no doubt. So that was our Florida church family. Amazing people all of them. And then the call came. And that was in another reroute from God, April of 22.
Speaker 1:So when you guys moved to Florida you were retired too.
Speaker 5:No, no, no, no, I was working and supporting him, you were still working for Heartland. Yeah, I was still at Heartland, so I worked in their Jacksonville Florida office there, like dispatch. I started in night's dispatch and then moved to day dispatch and then got asked to move to recruiting.
Speaker 2:And that's where.
Speaker 4:I am now is recruiting.
Speaker 5:So recruiting yeah so, um yeah. So I just kind of went different positions there, but actually still to this day my this is going to sound weird my favorite job is night dispatch. I love that job and I think a lot of it has to do. Now, when I look back at it, I think it's because it's. It is definitely a night of service, because when drivers are calling in they're in trouble.
Speaker 2:They need help with something.
Speaker 5:Something's going on they need you know, and I I love that to be able to help people in situations. But, um, yeah, so we were in jackson, just outside of jacksonville, florida. We lived in orange park just outside of jacksonville and we had a great three years there. Um, our neighbors were awesome and, uh, we miss them to this day and our church was awesome. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, leonard skinner, those guys the van zandandts lived about four miles from us. Really yeah, and I'd run into Johnny at the Walmart.
Speaker 4:Really yeah. So there was, and here's the thing.
Speaker 3:It's so funny Small world.
Speaker 5:It is a small world and he's a small man. That was the thing. He's shorter than me, most of out of this truck. I was outside in the parking lot and he got out of this big gmc sierra pickup. I'm like, dude, what? How are you even getting in that thing?
Speaker 5:you're so little he's so short but how it was funny, because the first time I met him I was in, I was parked in the parking lot at the walmart and then his truck was his park truck was parked here and he got out at the same time. I got out and I looked and he had the same bumper sticker on his truck that I had on my car and it said I love jesus, but I cuss a little and I'm like dude, I'm like
Speaker 4:we had the same bumper sticker and he goes.
Speaker 5:Oh man, he goes, he goes. You know who gave me that bumper sticker? I said who's that he goes?
Speaker 2:my pastor really that's awesome, yeah, that was pretty cool.
Speaker 3:It's pretty cool guy to meet him and stuff, and I'm like you, I need one of those bumper stickers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, same, I know I know, I'm trying to be better about that. It's a process. It is a process we all are. Help me.
Speaker 5:Jesus.
Speaker 1:Exactly. I'll tell you Better watch out for all them religious folks.
Speaker 5:Oh, yeah, are you even saved. Yes, saved and forgiven.
Speaker 4:Amen.
Speaker 5:On the regular.
Speaker 1:Come here, let me lay hands on you Exactly what?
Speaker 5:No?
Speaker 3:Jesus, we're cut from the same cloth y'all.
Speaker 4:Yes, so we're laughing a lot. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Jesus.
Speaker 5:So let's see, where were we? Florida, right, right, florida. So April of 22, a call came from Heartland to Dale and said, hey, would you consider coming out of retirement and coming out to Phoenix? And he said for. And they said we're going to open our first school. We want you to run it.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, oh instructor.
Speaker 5:And his first answer was if you can get Heather off the beach, I'll come.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And that was a hard sell, you guys. Yeah, that was not. Heather didn't want to leave the beach.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 5:There's a lot of sand here, but I don't see a beach.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 5:But knowing him and his personality and just he is a perfect fit. I mean he's a perfect fit for that job teaching students and actually we've worked in ministry into it too, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:Just so you know that sand is not really sand, it's just dirt.
Speaker 5:Yeah, okay, it's just dirt. Yeah, it's just dirt.
Speaker 1:Okay, there's no sand here, it's just dirt If it's here, it's been imported.
Speaker 5:if it's here, it's been imported well, we that came in april and he went to georgia and trained for a couple months to get to be an instructor and we left and drove out here with our pickup truck and a u-haul so he goes.
Speaker 3:He goes to georgia to start training. You start closing up shop and to sell the house and everything. Getting that done wow, a trucker's wife really is a dang you're a superstar.
Speaker 5:We actually really lucked out, because we ended up selling our place to some neighbors and they were great people and it worked out just really good, so it was a really good fit.
Speaker 2:All that whole thing was worked out really really well I don't remember what happened with that. They were supposed to got put back and overpaying. As far as I don't remember what happened with that, they were supposed to get a house, but with COVID they didn't get a house oh that's right I forgot that. They were living in a moving room. Wow, and they came over and we found out they were retired Presbyterian pastors who'd been called back at 80. Back into the thing they're in their 80s yeah, I forgot that.
Speaker 5:He always remembers details, you never make money on a mobile home. It's like are you kidding me? We did COVID, flipped the world upside down, you guys.
Speaker 2:We were all in about 75,000. I love you too, Really Wow.
Speaker 5:It was crazy. That was a whole crazy time yeah.
Speaker 4:We want you to move, we'll give you the resources.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 5:He made it work so we could be out here for sure, there's no doubt about that. So we ended up selling our place there and packed everything up, sold a bunch of stuff and literally it was us the dog, a pickup truck and like a what size Utah was that? The? Biggest one, yeah, and a pool behind you, that's all we had. We sold our furniture sold everything and just basically kept our clothes and the dog and that was it.
Speaker 1:Had. They already had location here.
Speaker 5:Yeah, well, they had. So the terminal out here had an extra space at the back of the yard where they could actually have a range for teaching.
Speaker 2:So he's on the back end of that range.
Speaker 5:Wow, so that's where he has the school at the back end, and the back end of the lot, I should say.
Speaker 4:So he's back there.
Speaker 5:And. I mean there was an office there for me to work in for recruiting, so that's where I work, and so we came out in June of 22, but it was 116 degrees that day. But so what? The dumbest thing we did was, when we packed everything, I flew Rocky down, our son down, to help us pack in florida. And then we were also our daughter leah. When she was traveling in europe, she'd store her car at our place, so he drove her car back to iowa for her and so um, so he gets, he packs the u-haul, helps us pack the pickup and all that we get out here.
Speaker 5:We don't have any help. I'm like why didn't we bring rocky with us again?
Speaker 2:it's 116 degrees in.
Speaker 5:Chandler and so we moved into a lease home. We leased a home in Chandler when we first got here Because we weren't really sure.
Speaker 4:You know, what.
Speaker 5:I mean, we did step out in faith, but we're like we're going to lease a house, we're not going to buy one. Are we going to be here? We don't know. And so we got here and we were in Chandler and that's how we found this church.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so we went to Compass for a little while, but didn't really. It was too big. Yeah, it was just so. We came here and, honestly, the Connect tent just great people right, yeah.
Speaker 5:And so we were here for about three months or so, and there were four maybe, and then we ended up having a crazy neighbor incident at our place in chandler. We had a neighbor throw a boulder through our dining room window. Uh, not a boulder, I shouldn't say boulder, it was a. One of those brock about that big, almost killed our dog what guy was nutbag really anyways.
Speaker 5:Um. So we said, uh, lease company we out, this is not safe, this guy is not safe. I mean, csi came out the whole thing. It was a rock from his yard. It was like a yard boulder.
Speaker 1:Did they ever find out what the purpose of that was?
Speaker 5:No, but this guy was so nuts that when the cops got there we called the police. We got home from work and there's this rock in our house and the glass is all. It was a three big, three pane dining room window and, um, we called the cops, got them there all that stuff and this guy comes out of his house. Is everybody okay? It's? Like geez really see where that that little divot is in your yard, where the rock's missing, that is in our dining room makes you stupid is everybody okay Is everybody.
Speaker 2:Okay, footloose again. I don't want to lose another friend. My answer was I didn't know. We were friends. We were friends, fred.
Speaker 1:It's Footloose again. Exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5:Yeah. So we ended up we told the lease company. We were like, look, keep our deposit, we're out. This guy's in this, we're going on. So, we left the East Valley. I mean, it scared me, this guy was literally. I was scared of him, I was scared, I couldn't sleep.
Speaker 2:It's not a good thing.
Speaker 5:Anyway. So we went to the West Valley. We found this great condo in Sun City and we hadn't really been here long enough to like root in. Okay, we liked the church, but we're like, oh, we'll find a great church over there Because this is a there, yeah, so when was this? So this would have been spring of 23, spring of 23, okay, so spring of 23. In april, um, I got diagnosed with breast cancer. Okay, so I'll. So we were in sun city, got, I had a mammogram that came back odd and they found a mass and so that was the devil kicking the devil in the face thing right yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so got that diagnosis in April and started treatments in May into June and about probably three weeks in for radiation treatment. I woke up one Sunday we were church shopping up in the West Valley In Sun City it's all people, I love you. One Sunday we were still. We were church kind of church shopping up in the West Valley, never in Sun City. It's all people. I love you, heather.
Speaker 3:And so I don't want it's seasoned.
Speaker 5:It is. I don't want to go to a church that doesn't have a youth program.
Speaker 1:Amen, I want generational. When you say Sun City, what are you talking about? That's where we live. Give me a more.
Speaker 5:Or like 55 plus. Like where at in the valley oh west, so north of Glendale, north of the stadium. Wow, way up there. Wow, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Way over there 303. We're an hour from here.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Really yeah.
Speaker 2:We're an hour from here.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Come on now.
Speaker 5:So there was a morning in June I and I said we need to go back to LifeLink.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 5:And he said we better get going we had a long drive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we came back and they remembered us.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the Connectant, yeah, dang man. Yeah, they remembered us and it had been months. Yeah.
Speaker 5:And Veronica and Edgar called us by name. Wow, Dale.
Speaker 4:Heather.
Speaker 5:Yeah, Kelly, yeah.
Speaker 2:Kelly remembered us. Chris Bonds remembered us.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 5:We were like how we weren't here that long for people to know us and they remembered us.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And it was Growth Track.
Speaker 2:Ah, that day.
Speaker 5:So I'm like let's go yeah.
Speaker 1:We're home yeah.
Speaker 5:So we went to Growth Track that day and they had just restarted growth track. If they'd had it off for a while or something, they just started it back up. It was that sunday that god brought us here wow and we went through class with pastor sheree and oh my god.
Speaker 3:I know, you know that she was literally praying for growth track helpers and you guys showed up and that's when we said we're in we want to serve for this.
Speaker 5:After the, after the class was done, I'm like okay, we're going to keep coming back every time to help serve. What can we do?
Speaker 1:that was yeah, we wanted to keep doing this because this you're a prayer answered from pastor sheree
Speaker 4:so we wow guys yeah, that was it.
Speaker 5:That was when we came back and knew this was our home and and then everybody's like wait, you're driving from where again? And dale's like hey, jesus came down from heaven for me. I can drive an hour, yeah the church that's alive is worth the drive.
Speaker 3:That's it, yeah we drive an hour to get here from santan.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yep, so that's and that's how we ended up back here, but them remembering us, I mean that truly, that was impactful you guys I mean, people don't realize what a big deal that is yeah, it's huge, yeah, it's huge yeah so that brought us back.
Speaker 1:Makes you feel seen Absolutely, makes you feel known, validated, everything we're like what.
Speaker 5:Why would they remember?
Speaker 3:us. I don't know if you guys know this, but the dudes that are at the Connect tent they got notepads with names and little reminders, so they can help them. Because it's a lot working and all the new people.
Speaker 5:Yeah, man, they're very intentional, yeah because when pastor dave comes out he's like, okay, what do you got for me? He wants to know who are the newbies, all that stuff. Yeah, I'm in in that groove now with guest connect, but yeah, but just great because you know what the. When new people come to a church and the the lead pastor takes time to personally go talk to them, heck yeah it means a lot.
Speaker 3:It does because how many I I've been to a lot of church and the pastor's so busy you can't even get to him.
Speaker 5:And you know, and Pastor Dave is such a powerful presence anyway, and Pastor Cherie is just Pastor Cherie, you know, she's all in there, man, she's God's cheerleader.
Speaker 4:You saw what he was doing when you came in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he literally here setting up for his wife for tomorrow.
Speaker 3:Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, she's gonna be doing everything with her group and he comes in the night before and sets it all. That's how you serve your wife I seen that.
Speaker 1:I was like are you, are you really here to set up? He's like well, yeah, I was like dude. Yeah, it blew me away. You know, the man could be busy doing god knows what, but he honey, you got an event.
Speaker 3:You got to go set your event up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I'll do that baby, see him, support her and help set up and her dreams and visions too.
Speaker 3:Man yep, I'm like we're so blessed guys, we really are, and that's you know when we?
Speaker 5:that's the other reason. You know the lifelink's just home.
Speaker 3:I mean there's the pastors. Here I mean people, everybody. It's just literally.
Speaker 5:When I say church, family, people don't understand that term.
Speaker 3:It really is family.
Speaker 5:It really is.
Speaker 3:I never knew that, heather, until my life group, until I did a life group because we'd all you hear here about we do life together and I'm like how, where do you guys? All I see you is on Sundays, it's like how do we do life together?
Speaker 3:it's life groups. I stepped into a life group in 2021 and it changed my life. Changed my life Pastor James and Pastor Lacey. It just kept growing and growing. Some summertime, in May, when we usually break, we gotta keep adding more life groups. This one, it grew and grew and it just I realized what family is. Yeah, just because your blood don't mean your family. No, because there's people that I'm blood with, I don't even talk to y'all and my family because I'm see you. Yeah, we're doing this thing called life together 100%.
Speaker 5:Man Love it, love it and with Jesus all interwoven in the middle of it, it's so cool it's just I don't know. It's really cool and you know the fact that, like what I was mentioning earlier about the school and stuff with the students, you know whenever we can work ministry into it, we can and you know we invite them to come and we have we've brought students.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you guys brought the one dude, yeah and um and just that impact on people.
Speaker 5:And then he'll get messages back from some of his students. He'll say you just don't know what you did for me come on you know that kind of stuff and that that's impactful man it just is if you could affect someone's life, that they remember you and it changes them in a positive way. Yeah, all right, jesus, let's go.
Speaker 3:So how did you know that we were doing this podcast? Because it was very, I think, then it could not have been long when you, I think, that I saw.
Speaker 5:Did I see maybe a shirt? I think you guys had a shirt on and I looked it up.
Speaker 2:That's what it was, oh wow.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you guys had a shirt on and I looked up and, like they do a podcast, that's so cool.
Speaker 3:And was oh wow, yeah, you guys had a shirt on and I looked up. I'm like they do a podcast, that's so cool. And then, and then I watched a few of them and um, they, yeah, so yeah, I remember you started sharing with me about the cancer and overcoming and um, I was like, okay, yeah, we've got to get you on dude.
Speaker 5:And that was you know when getting into this, this church was a very healing environment for that too so there's no doubt, because that's when you really you know, when you're going through rough times like that, that support around you is it's powerful. I mean and the power of prayer.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Dang man your people.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, because people, everybody here lifts each other. Yeah, you know, and that's so important to have that circle in your life. Dang, it just changes things.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it just does.
Speaker 5:It's powerful, but yeah, cancer-free. Beat the crap out of it.
Speaker 1:Keep the devil right in the face. Keep the devil in the face. Come on Jesus. Yeah, man, which is amazing.
Speaker 5:And then, right after that, how?
Speaker 1:long was your treatments?
Speaker 5:I went for six, five weeks of radiation, no chemo. Thank you jesus. Thank you god but I was around people in the treatment center and those people were going through that, yeah chemo yeah yeah, kills them from the inside out. Man yeah I felt so blessed for radiation, watching the chemo folks, because I mean radiation. It was hard it was still hard it was hard I mean, and honestly, the hardest part was after the end, so the day that you.
Speaker 3:Were you like in a room with the day that you saw it? Were you like in a room with the? Or did you take a pill? No, it was in a room.
Speaker 4:In a room, it was a radar gun thing I had to lay strapped down on a table with my arm kind of up.
Speaker 5:It was uncomfortable and all that Great people though. So it was a city of hope. I went to them and great, great people, so nice. But the thing about like I don't remember if I got off track with what I was talking about now and I started thinking about people at City Hope. They were amazing, but getting through that was I don't know.
Speaker 3:When you got the diagnosis, did you think you were going to die?
Speaker 5:I didn't know. We were so shocked with the diagnosis Because, honestly, when they said they found something odd, I didn't think they were going to find cancer. I really didn't. I was like they just say what. We were in the truck and they called and, um, it was on. You know, the phone was through the thing on the radio and I was like it's cancer, it's really cancer what so did they say odd?
Speaker 3:or did they say we found cancer they?
Speaker 5:found well the first. Then the mammogram was odd and then when they took the biopsy, it came back as cancer stage 2.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 5:Yeah, as in, it's an invasive carcinoma, whatever, whatever, and so, yeah, it was unexpected. For sure, you don't see that coming in life, right.
Speaker 3:I got a call from my doc and I went in for a CT scan for stomach bleeds and they were like, hey, you need to come in. We found something on your heart.
Speaker 5:Yeah, stomach bleeds and they are like, hey, you need to come in, we found something on your heart. Yeah, remember, I remember all that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so how did it all come out?
Speaker 5:I still got the thing on my heart and just okay and just keep going, yeah, so it's just extra love it's a it's a pericardial cyst we're gonna call it extra love, amen, okay I'm to be okay. There's just extra love in the cyst.
Speaker 3:That's what it is. Remove it.
Speaker 4:Jesus, that rowdy love.
Speaker 3:That's a special one, but it's scary, it really is dude. When you find it, it's like what?
Speaker 5:That word in your face, that word cancer in your face is crazy, even when they say we found something.
Speaker 3:It's like, huh, something, what's the something? It tripped out yeah, it was.
Speaker 5:It was definitely a mental battle, there's no doubt. But right after that, so after the radiation treatments, at the end, when you ring the bell and you finish, that's you had to ring your bell.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yay, did you get a video or pictures of your bell?
Speaker 5:yes, that was also my highest weight which watching that video is interesting my radiate, my radiation oncologist guy was so cool, I loved him so much. And dr hewlett, and he said okay, we're going to celebrate today. This is a great day and I'm not going to take away from your celebration. But I'm going to tell you, is your roughest time still coming? I'm like, okay, he said so. I just he was always honest, which I love, that you got a doctor's got to be up, yeah you know.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, so you can trust him and know what to expect and I said okay.
Speaker 5:I said what are we talking about? He said your skin's gonna fall off. And I'm like okay, he goes my skin's gonna fall off. He said, yep, he goes, it's gonna turn black and it's probably gonna fall off around the area.
Speaker 5:Yep, yeah and so I was like okay, so you know, we talked about salves and burn creams and you know different medical whatever's and not to go into gross stuff. But um, probably week 10 days in, after radiation stopped, I'm in the shower and literally my whole side falls off like it was all black skin and it was gone yeah and it was just raw oh my god, yeah, wow it was like it was surreal it was really and, of all of the stuff I went through with the cancer, that was like the hardest day and it was like it was surreal.
Speaker 5:It was really and of all of the stuff I went through with the cancer, that was like the hardest day and it was so painful yeah and I worked through the whole thing I worked through the whole thing, yeah, and so I didn't miss a day. Actually, I worked the whole time so I was. What I was doing was I was putting soaking these uh like a cloth in this medical how big of an area? Like basically probably I, I don't know 10 inches long, my.
Speaker 3:God, or five inches wide. Really, is this where, like the radiation was Okay, that kills the skin, and so what? He?
Speaker 5:said was and I think I'm saying this right is that when you take the radiation treatments, you know it's pounding, pounding, pounding and then it stops and then your skin starts to eradicate it and get it out of what they call the dermis, the levels the levels of the skin Pushing it to the surface. And that's when the skin just goes boop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 5:Crazy. I wasn't expecting that to be completely raw, from basically armpit to waist.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's basically what the arm was.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so that was something that took a minute to get through all that.
Speaker 3:My.
Speaker 5:God. Right after that was when my sugar went off the scale with diabetes.
Speaker 3:So you said that when you rang the bell you were at your heaviest weight.
Speaker 5:I was yeah and that was 120 pounds ago.
Speaker 4:Wow, come on Brian, and so.
Speaker 5:I've gained back about 10 pounds over the holidays.
Speaker 4:Hey, we're in a process? Yes, we are.
Speaker 2:It's all good, it's a new year, so I'm actually about 110 down right now.
Speaker 5:But it's holidays, yeah that. But so the radiation again, god working right. So I still think that the radiation had a was one of the reasons why the sugar just went off the chart. It was so high all of a sudden and my a1c just went crazy you're so, before this time you never had been always been pre-diabetic, never diabetic, but I. But nothing changed, other than I had radiation treatment oh, so you think the radiation treatment?
Speaker 3:I think so.
Speaker 2:Radiation does weird stuff in your body okay it's just, you know, I don't know if there's any medical there's.
Speaker 5:Doctors in here probably tell me I'm completely wrong, but I think we've got a lot of those people around. But I think that's something to do with it, and then, and put me right into the ability to take manjaro, which has been that, the injectable that I've been taking. Wow, whoa.
Speaker 3:So if your sugars didn't spike, you wouldn't have got the on jarrow and you wouldn't have lost all the weight. Wow, wow, heather. So you didn't even. The weight loss was not it really?
Speaker 5:it was a side effect of the medication. Honestly no.
Speaker 3:But you were just trying, I got to get my sugars figured out.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So they give you the shot and you started losing all this weight.
Speaker 5:Well, they started me actually on a different medication called metformin, which is a typical diabetic medication, oh yeah. Yeah, it made me so sick.
Speaker 4:Yeah, those pills.
Speaker 2:I couldn't stomach it.
Speaker 4:Yes, I couldn't.
Speaker 5:And to my doctor I'm like I can't, I can't do vomiting and diarrhea every day. I can't live like that I can live with my skin falling off, not with that, let's try something different. And so she's like, okay, we're gonna have to go to an injectable, and manjaro it was, and that's when the weight just started coming right off. But the thing about insurance like covering manjaro is you have to try a different diabetic medication first to even get to that so that insurance will approve it so again, god working right you had to have the metformin first.
Speaker 3:Wow, and then the.
Speaker 5:Monjaro is covered and you know it's like $1,500 out of pocket a month if you're going to buy it out of pocket.
Speaker 1:Wow, and my insurance covers it for $25. Nice yeah.
Speaker 4:Come on.
Speaker 5:Come on. So yeah, go Jesus on that.
Speaker 1:How's your blood sugar levels? Great.
Speaker 5:A1C. Now I'm not quite healthy, but I'm at a pre-diabetic level. But the nice part is not nice, but is that once you're diabetic you're always with diabetes? So I can stay on the medication as a maintenance.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So until I hit goal, and then we're going to get some skin cut off after that.
Speaker 3:Amen, yep, come on, sis, amen. That's what we're going to do, come on.
Speaker 4:What? That's what we're gonna do come on wow, yeah, so that's.
Speaker 5:That was quite a yeah, that whole thing was just. I mean, a lot of times, you know, when you're going through those moments in life and you guys know this those challenges, those things that happen it's when you look back later.
Speaker 2:You're like okay, god all right now I see where you were working there.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's what that was going on there, and then you turned and pivoted here.
Speaker 3:Then you made this happen and okay, now I get it because you it was 23 and that was green light season yep and then, once you started the radiation in the manjaro, that is our season of miracles in 24 yep wow, miracle, yep for sure yep for sure yep and this being in part of this church family has been such a positive impact that I can't even put that into words what that means to us.
Speaker 5:And to be part of this place, we love it.
Speaker 1:We love serving, we love we still live in sun valley we live in sun city, we drive really yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:So like on those when we're doing grief share.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So we will come over here. Sometimes we take a nap over at Fry's. But we'll come over here and do our thing, and then we drive back home and then we get up at 3 in the morning to go to work.
Speaker 1:Right, it's here. You can always come take a nap on the couch, yeah. I'm here all day guys, we'll put you in the green room for a second.
Speaker 3:yeah, I got one over there one over there exactly get you set up man nap at the church.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so, but yeah, it's been faithful but that's easy. That's easy for your guys' job too, right, because you guys are in Phoenix, obviously well, we work in Phoenix in the southwest side of the city, so we live off the 10 and 202 on the southwest2 to church and then back across to go home, and so that's why moving back to the East Valley is definitely on the radar, because we want to be closer to over here. You know, it's just going to be a lot more yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, have you ever thought of what's this place over here?
Speaker 5:Is it for old people?
Speaker 3:It is Ahwatukee.
Speaker 1:No, it's off of like Dobson and Riggs yeah Ahwatukee, no Ahwatukee's on the other side of the 10.
Speaker 3:This is like Sun Lakes, sun Lakes, sun Lakes. Oh, okay, that's.
Speaker 5:Ahwatukee Is that south of the 202? Is that south of the 202? It is Okay.
Speaker 3:It's East of the 10. Okay, gotcha Like if you were to get off of Country Club and Riggs, Alma School and Riggs, If you were to take the 10 to Riggs and get off and head east you would run into Sun Lakes which is a retirement community as well.
Speaker 5:And it'll probably be a little closer to Queen Creek when that all happens.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, right down the road, yeah.
Speaker 1:Just a straight shot, because if limit, you can hit green lights all the way and it's speed limit.
Speaker 5:What's that okay?
Speaker 1:sorry, it's the numbers they have on the side we're still in process.
Speaker 3:People, yes, in arizona there's suggestions are we on a timer?
Speaker 4:all you gotta do is get on the freeway and know that the speed limit is not.
Speaker 5:It's a suggestion uh, it's when we live in florida. Seriously, I was just talking to a friend in florida today on the phone and he's like so what's it like out there? The industry is? I'm like actually believe it or not, it's worse out here than it was in jacksonville and I'm surprised but it is a little bit there.
Speaker 3:There it was the wild west out here it's pretty scary yeah there's some times and we're just like what is that?
Speaker 5:what wait, what? What are they doing?
Speaker 1:if you ain't doing 80, you're in the way exactly you're in the way.
Speaker 4:Exactly, you're in the way. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:There's times I'm doing 80 and there are cars that are flying by me still and I'm like people yeah, we're already doing 15 miles over the speed limit and you guys are just like or I'll see the like, a policeman sitting up there, somebody just zooming by, and I'm like, oh, they're going to get him no Driving erratic. Yeah, I told someone the one time like literally as a collective, arizona said, we're doing 80.
Speaker 4:That's the speed limit You're going to have to deal with it. We're doing 80.
Speaker 1:That's pretty much a given Everybody has man, that's pretty much a given.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so anyways, where were we? I don't know, Are we good? Oh, and jail ministry, we need to talk about that. We haven't talked about that yet. So that opened with Brother Rowdy.
Speaker 3:So you brought that to us. That was a whole God thing.
Speaker 5:Wow, you know we were looking for that opportunity and Rowdy brought it up to us on a Sunday.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you got to let him tell you how this happened. Okay, yeah, that's crazy, because you don't even do that I know, I know, dude the crazy thing is heather, they called me.
Speaker 3:They're like the jail. They got a hold of me and we're like, hey, we were given your information and we want you to come in here to start. And I'm like, what the heck, dude, they got a hold of me and so I just followed through. I was like, all right, go down to penal county and go through the process, dude, and meet, go into the one and fill out the forms and get the email. And they're come in and go into the jail, do your fingerprint. And I'm like, wow, that wasn't something I was seeking. They got a hold of me and I was like, okay, god, so I go in there and I'm doing that. And they basically the chaplain's like, whatever you want to do, you can do chaplain john.
Speaker 3:Yeah, chaplain jefferson whatever you want to do, you can do.
Speaker 5:I'm like well, don't say that to Rowdy. What are you doing? That is not safe.
Speaker 3:So I just started doing it, man and man, we had a Christmas thing that I went in there and I was in there and Chaplain John took a picture of me inside the thing and sent it to me and I shared it and the jail revoked my thing.
Speaker 5:And I'm like oh god, but I got you in. Yeah, so it was a total god thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely 100 the crazy part is is that that particular jail is is hungry for non-denominational christian people to come in there, because lDS is there, mormons are taking up Jehovah Witnesses are going in there and telling them their stuff, Us as Christians we are missing.
Speaker 5:And when we're not there, if we miss a week or we're scheduled or we don't come or something. We were sick not that long ago. We missed a week and literally the guys were like where were you? They told us you were going to be here.
Speaker 4:And we're like we were sick. Sorry guys, I love that.
Speaker 5:And we got a kid now, Abraham, a kid we're really connected with. He's less than a week away from release Come on man and we said come here, we want to see you here.
Speaker 2:We want to see you here. You know when you go through orientation.
Speaker 5:They tell you not to do that. Don't tell them where you go to church. I know, excuse me.
Speaker 1:Why the hell would we not? Why would we not I?
Speaker 3:know, Absolutely want them here in our church. You kidding me? What kind of place? Because there's a lot of stuff from, because it can get crazy. Yeah, you're dealing with felons and crazy people, man, and when crazy people like that find an in to somebody, they can take their way. You know what I mean. So it's just to protect you. But we need those people in church Absolutely.
Speaker 5:Those people need to be in community and guess what Jesus loves them too.
Speaker 3:Amen. You know what I mean the least of these.
Speaker 5:And these guys have had so much time in the Word. They test us every time we're there, oh man.
Speaker 1:They got nothing to do all day. I gotta look that up when I get home what I was doing. I was doing one-on-ones in maricopa county and I had this guy who came from prison and he was uh, I won't say what he was, but anyways he literally was like teaching me, yeah, and I'm like dude, I'm the one that's supposed to be coming here, you know what I mean. And he's like got his bible out. He's waiting for me, you know. I mean, he's like dude, check this out.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah I loved going seeing that dude.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we learn from them we do, we learn from them every time they'll be, say something they'll be just like. Can you believe that?
Speaker 2:what he?
Speaker 5:just said like this this last time this guy. He went to court and he said I was going in there and expecting to be released. But the night before I prayed and said, god, whatever your will is, let is, let's go Right.
Speaker 5:Gave him 30 more days. Yeah, and he's like I and we. He was kind of a big mean dude, looked like me, looked like a big mean dude and he's like I guess, I guess God thinks I need to be here another 30 days and he just took it that way as a pot in a positive that I just need this time, but it also keeps him. Reason that he's in there. Yeah, so what brad, I don't know, is I'm the one that submitted his name.
Speaker 3:I put, I put our names in there for us both to go. Yeah, yeah, wow, you didn't know that.
Speaker 5:Seriously, now you don't know that till now, reveal they denied him. Yeah well, I don't. Here's what I don't understand.
Speaker 1:We had talked about going there because it's closer to our house and we wanted to get back into job ministry, so I took it upon myself to put our names in yeah. To see to start the process.
Speaker 4:You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean, yeah, on my own. I called and said hey, you know me and my son want to come in and send our names, and so, of course, they reached out one day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, gave, hey, can you come in here? Yeah, all right, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 5:So is there an amount of time that goes by that you can go now or not?
Speaker 3:I think it's a full calendar year, a full year.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and when are you going to be able to go?
Speaker 1:back. I'm getting ready to go to Maricopa County. Okay, they told me to wait until the beginning of the year and here we are, good and lifeling church is gonna have prison, both jails. Yep, that's amazing, right taking territory around man that's right, I mean that's it if we got you guys and uh and now county yeah, we're gonna have me and hopefully my wife and come on mama maricopa county yeah and, uh, I'll be in the prisons you know, patty murphy's going down.
Speaker 5:She's doing women's now let's go nice, let's go.
Speaker 1:Our pastor made the mistake of asking God for more rowdies and eggs Her are coming.
Speaker 3:We need more safety.
Speaker 4:We're going to go get them. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's powerful stuff.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 5:I think people look at it like you're doing what and why are you doing that on your Saturday? You don't know. Man, read the Bible. Get there and do it. Read the Bible. What did the Bible say?
Speaker 1:You fed me when I was hungry, you came and saw me when I was in prison, and all these different things that you did. Well, when did we do that? When you went to, did it for one of the least of these.
Speaker 5:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Those are the people that, and for what you're doing, it doesn't get the recognition, the notoriety.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're not getting a camera, you're not getting lights, you're not getting. That's not what it's about.
Speaker 1:But you better believe that each one of those men, that is, his hearts are changing. Heaven is rejoicing. And it's because of what you guys do.
Speaker 3:Your faithfulness.
Speaker 1:Now, people are never, ever going to be like, oh, it's just dell and heather, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:But heaven is definitely going my soldiers going in the darkness snatching my kids from there.
Speaker 5:Well, that's the thing people like do you feel safe there?
Speaker 4:I'm like yeah I do feel sad I don't I don't.
Speaker 5:I don't ever walk in there afraid I don't know what it is maybe I shouldn't ever walk in there, afraid I don't know what it is. Maybe I shouldn't be there, but I'm like.
Speaker 3:I don't feel no, you're good. I just I feel drawn in there, don't those inmates? Aren't those inmates thankful? Yes, aren't they like? Thank you so much for coming. The land want to hurt, you See, and here's the difference.
Speaker 1:If you, they would know it. Yeah, and it would be different because they would know it.
Speaker 5:You're afraid of us.
Speaker 1:They would see the fear on you, and then they would be like we got one yeah, With the fact that you go in there comfortable and just, you know, doing your thing. They see that, yeah. They know that, yeah. Those men are designed to know who's weak, who to prey on, who to whatever. You know what I mean. So they see you come in. They know that this is not the one. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Well, plus, you're going in there with him. You're serving together, a husband and wife.
Speaker 1:I got to tell you a story. So when me and Roddy were doing Maricopa County jails, we were assigned to do sex offenders. Being somebody who was in prison both of us those were the type of people that we were it would have been it would have been an honor to take one of them out. Sure you know what I mean. And so when god put us there and the chaplain told us that, our first reaction was like wow are you serious witness to these ones? You know what I mean who needs it worse, but listen.
Speaker 1:He clearly said are they not my sons too, that's right, and it was like dang dude. So in that moment I had to put down everything. The world told me everything, that those people were worthy to be killed, those people were not worthy to live. And I had to put on the eyes of Jesus and say that's his son.
Speaker 3:I didn't even know. I didn't even know until like six months into serving that they were offenders, that they were offenders and he shared. I think it was something. On the news I saw a dude that we were ministering to. I was like, oh, he's got like 47 years and I was like, oh my gosh man. I was like I don't even ask, I don't even ask.
Speaker 3:I don't really want to know yeah, no, you don't. That's not something you do in jail. I'm just going to see them as the person they are not as what they did.
Speaker 4:That's what I try.
Speaker 5:I mean some of them will share you know what they've done or whatever, but one of them, one of the guys that he's leaving now to go do his hard time, is he was a correctional officer, yeah, and so, and but he's an inmate now but we had missed it. Like I said, we said we were missed, we were sick and he's like I thought I wasn't gonna get to see you guys before I go off and so he was so happy to see us that day.
Speaker 5:It was good to see him, but yeah, it's powerful stuff. Man, we have a guy that we did.
Speaker 1:His name is cleo lewis. You have to go listen to one of his. He was a narc police officer. Yep and uh walked up to go do a deal. Knocks, knocks on the door. The guy answers and they're like you get high? He's like no, I don't get high. And he said he felt the click of the gun and the gun put to the back of his head.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they said you are the day he got high and then he was hooked, Got him Dang, Got him like that and and he just to where he ended up going to prison. You know what I mean. And now he's a pastor.
Speaker 3:He's all the advice. He goes all over Sunny Slope rescuing God's kids man.
Speaker 1:He goes and snatches his homeless people off the street and families and gets them into places to stay.
Speaker 5:Oh man.
Speaker 4:That's when you get the most broken though is when you heal the most. You know what I mean.
Speaker 5:I feel like the farther you, the farthest gone you are in this.
Speaker 3:You've got all that, all of that positivity to come back with. I mean, that's, that's and that's god, using that, I once, uh, I got this imagery of like this elasticity where, if this is the zero marker, as far bad as you go down, yeah is as high as you go with god when he redeems it man Absolutely. So it's just yeah, it's only something God can do.
Speaker 5:Well, that's why you know, trying to explain how God lets evil happen or bad things happen, he doesn't let anything happen. But here's the thing when you get into those moments of the darkest times that it is, that's when you reach out the strongest for him, and that's what he wants his kids to do.
Speaker 1:Reach out for him Brokenness, absolutely.
Speaker 5:That's what it's about, right there.
Speaker 1:It's amazing for me when you see you ever heard of Samantha Smart. So she was a girl who was kidnapped.
Speaker 5:Oh, was kidnapped. Elizabeth Smart, elizabeth Smart, elizabeth Smart. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And she saw just horrible stuff take place. You know what I mean Horrible. And now she literally goes out and ministers and tries to help you know women who've been through similar things and to see her take what she's been through because it was just unthinkable you know what I? Mean. I remember the story, but to see, her come out still loving God, still preaching the gospel, still sharing faith and hope, is like.
Speaker 5:When you talk about walking in faith.
Speaker 1:Oh, come on.
Speaker 5:Strength. You see, the love of God, that's probably what got her through all that, when you talk about walking in faith. I mean it's like strength. You see the level.
Speaker 3:That's probably.
Speaker 5:That's probably what got her through all you could lean on, I mean in the darkest times, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:I see stories like that and I'm like that's a good God. Yeah, and someone can go through something like that and still come out Just saying he'll be held, and just you Just saying he's a good God and just you know yeah absolutely, that's real
Speaker 5:faith.
Speaker 2:It is real faith.
Speaker 5:And I saw, I heard something on a pastor I follow in Jacksonville, florida, joby Martin. He's awesome and he and his friend Charles they do some prison ministry and they were talking about a lady they met on death row. They do ministry on death row. That's a whole different aspect of that you know.
Speaker 5:But they were talking about this woman that was in there that I think she killed her whole family or something. She's in there, she's gonna die in prison and uh, they met her and she was. She affected them in such a way they said they'd never met anybody so free in jesus as that woman and she's in that jail till she dies and that just tells you the strength of that faith that relationship.
Speaker 5:And that's what we tell the guys in jail. It's like you know what? Yeah, there's concrete walls here, there's bars there, but your freedom to you and your holy father.
Speaker 2:That relationship doesn't get blocked off guys.
Speaker 3:It's open. It's open Every day, All day. Well, so man.
Speaker 5:We went over a lot of stuff didn't we.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we did a lot. Yeah, we did Is there.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, grief Share, we haven't talked about that. Yeah. So Grief Share, we do that. You know we lead that here and that was something on Dale's heart to do. We had a our church in Florida had a real successful Grief Share program and you know when people lose loved ones.
Speaker 5:That is just some of the deepest hurt and the need and the need for healing and the need for Jesus in those moments, you know, and uh, so grief share has been. We went through our first class together and, like you said, it's, it's a life group, that's, that's your family and they are, and we still have our little chat group.
Speaker 2:Everybody supports each other. It's awesome.
Speaker 5:It's so good, we'll start it up again here in February. I think we're going to do another 13 weeks. It's awesome. Feeling like that in that moment when you're helping. It's just like CR, you know, when you start to see people change and heal that is so dang powerful it's powerful to see those changes happen and and it's God- To be able to be able to help facilitate it Just to help facilitate it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, see God moving in those people. That's the part that's very humbling. Yeah, it's very humbling. It's not us, we have nothing to do with it. You're just making a space available for God to do it Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So how does grief share work? Is that like a set time frame?
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's like books and videos, it's like a 13-week and there's a different class for 13 weeks and they all deal with the different aspects of grief, because you know, obviously grief is all different kinds of loss friends family, whatever, suicide cancer whatever we had the last group that we had this year, our holiday, last holiday get-together, we had a suicide family come in, a mother and a daughter that lost a son, slash brother to suicide and man, that is a tough walk. Suicide is such a dark you just you know it's such a dark place to know that you just really don't feel like you have another option other than that.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And to try to understand it. I I almost put that off to the things where there's a lot of things that God does that we just don't understand and we're not supposed to. I think that darkness is, suicide is one of those things Not that that's a God thing, but I think it's something that we're just not supposed to understand. It's hard it's hard to understand. Yeah, you leave kids behind, you leave loved ones behind. All that and the darkest sickness that you could get into in your mind that place.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you start to feel like it's better off if I'm just not here, right exactly, and that and everybody be better off.
Speaker 4:I wasn't here I wouldn't be a burden on them, I wouldn't be a drain on them.
Speaker 3:They wouldn't be worried about me anymore.
Speaker 5:The evil one man evil, one whisper and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:I was right, I was there heather yeah, I was right there, jesus, so let me ask you this about this grief share thing because I think this is something that probably should continue on yeah and I know you guys had some helpers yep we did um. Do you see people being raised up to continue this?
Speaker 5:to go on. I think so. Yeah, we had some people in the group.
Speaker 1:I hate to see it be a one or two thing and then kind of fade out.
Speaker 5:I think, cause some of our participants that were in this last group. There's a couple of them, I think, that would want to end up going into a leadership role. I think at some point, which is wonderful, because if you've walked the walk of grief, you don't. Nobody knows it better than someone, right? You know, we both had, you know, a lot of loss in our life, and so we, um, and this was something on his heart, and I'm you know, along for the ride, and it's been a wonderful one for sure.
Speaker 5:Um, and I lost my dad not that long ago, so that was still fresh grief on my heart.
Speaker 3:So oh, it was actually.
Speaker 5:You got some healing through the grief share amen, I did amen yep, and it was um and just helping some of the young gals that are there that have lost mothers and just brothers, I mean just so many things that we help people but we didn't help them. We were just there, jesus helped them, but yeah well, I encourage you guys to make sure that I think pastor dave wants somebody is coming behind you and making sure this stays on yeah we build teams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we don't do this ourselves, we build teams right, like I said, I hate to see this be a one or two thing and then not continue.
Speaker 5:I think it'll continue on, maybe not like all the time, like Ciara's, but something similar I think that's why I was asking if it was a periodic thing. It's like 13 weeks, and then you kind of start over again but, they aren't like in order. Somebody could jump in on week 6 and still be fine, they don't like follow each other, but it's just a different subject matter each week about growth and the different things that you deal with, because there's so many levels of it.
Speaker 1:One of the things I'm going to pray for is that people are coming through that are wanting to be in leadership, because I see that as something that can coincide on Monday nights with CR and have that opportunity where people can come get that, because they may not need the CR, they may not feel comfortable there, but they feel comfortable there.
Speaker 5:And we get to worship together. Yeah, I love it and I do that's my favorite part.
Speaker 1:We had a brother that was in CR that went to you guys and he was like I'm like, I don't care, come where we want, just get to healing man.
Speaker 4:I don't care. Oh, you're not with us no more.
Speaker 2:It's not a competition thing, bro, it's all family, man, we're all family, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's it. Yeah, man, that's it, that's it. But he needed to know, dude get your healing, bro, I don't care where you get it, just get it bro.
Speaker 2:You know what?
Speaker 4:I mean yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:As long as you bring the brisket, you know who we're talking about.
Speaker 5:I love you, bro, but I love that monday nights is becoming this healing monday absolutely we're having. That's why I'm saying I hope it continues on.
Speaker 1:We want it to yeah, because monday nights are becoming that you know, what I mean and, yeah, I pray that that continues on for you guys. We'd love that too, for other people as well. You know what I mean absolutely well, so what do you?
Speaker 3:what do you? Let's get something you're hoping for here in the next few years and then give us 10 years, okay?
Speaker 5:Yeah, what are you hoping for in the future? For me, they also still is rocking and rolling Right. So, um love it.
Speaker 3:You're in. So you just completed your first time. First semester, first semester, first year, yep First year.
Speaker 5:So then I'm going into second semester and I'm actually doubling down on classes in. January, february, because I want to. I've got enough credits that they dusted off in the cobwebs from Iowa.
Speaker 2:They kind of carried through a little bit so.
Speaker 5:I can get my bachelor's, I think, by 26.
Speaker 3:If.
Speaker 5:I could kind of speed it up a little bit and then hopefully master's to follow. I don't know if I got a PhD in me.
Speaker 3:It's a lot. It's a lot I hd and me that's a lot that's a lot.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna.
Speaker 5:I'm gonna the masters, for sure I'm not gonna let myself fall short of masters.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm learning so much, oh my gosh you guys, I'm just like what?
Speaker 5:and I I feel like you know, the more you learn, the more this you understand the scripture and understand what's going on the closer you get to him. I don't know there's just a connection there. It's just like connecting links you know, getting closer and closer and closer as you become more educated in the word and um. Just all the different aspects of things you didn't think about before, like biblical finances was the class I just took. I'm like I didn't ever look at things a certain way you know, and now I look at it completely different.
Speaker 3:one time I go to pastor, I'm struggling. I forgot what it was, dude, but it was like food or girls or something like that, and I'm like I'm struggling. Let me see your finances, I'm like how is my finances today? But it is, it is. It's all connected dude 100%, 100%.
Speaker 5:So future for me they're definitely getting a bachelor's and master's with Deos for sure. And then you know, we're just going to keep serving and serving and doing what we do um the. I'm hoping that we can get some more people involved in the jail ministry come on I just I don't. I mean, there's a certain person that feels okay doing that, I guess, but um, I'm hoping that we get some more people just because of the joy that we are having in it.
Speaker 3:I just want other people to have that serving joy as well if you're listening to this or you're watching this and you feel that in your heart, please reach out to one of us so we can help you get that started.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, because it does impact lives there oh, it does it's I mean in those that connection that you make with those people and the changes in them. I mean the guys that we see we, I mean and they just open up more and more and more and uh, and you can tell that they've been in in the scripture too they'll change they'll be more. He'll have more things to add in that. You know they've been reading, or they and they.
Speaker 1:It's just cool to see them come along we had 30 inmates face down on the ground.
Speaker 5:Oh my goodness, it was crazy craziest thing ever they gave themselves, they gave themselves, so we go, we had, it was maricopa county we had a thing we were doing every every.
Speaker 3:Sunday, it was worship. We weren't allowed to do what we were doing. Yeah, we turned the lights off.
Speaker 4:We broke a lot of rules, but they let us do it. But they let us do it.
Speaker 1:But we went. We would have a routine. It was like 30, 40 minutes of worship and we go in there one Sunday and I tell Roddy, I feel like we're supposed to do something different today. He's like you got the lead dude and it was James 4 10. If you humble yourselves before the Lord, he will lift you up. And so I we're standing in front of these guys and we're like I share the verse and I'm like we're going to show you what it means looks like to humble yourself before the Lord.
Speaker 4:oh man, I just buried my head in a chair, me and Rowdy get down on our knees and bury our face in the ground and we start crying out to God.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean, and I don't know how long we were down there but at one point I feel God say get up and go pray for them. And so I get up and I hit Rowdy and we stand up, get up.
Speaker 3:Everybody's down dude, down dude.
Speaker 1:I was like kneeling on the ground face to the floor and we're walking around we walk around, start putting hands on them and praying for them and just, it was the craziest thing I've ever seen in jail.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a rowdy jesus, wow.
Speaker 1:And it was all 30 of not there was not one that was not participating in humbling themselves before the Lord, and it was probably the most powerful thing I've seen.
Speaker 5:That is so cool Because you're talking about yeah, yep, you know, yeah, some, some dudes, some roughnecks yeah.
Speaker 1:And to see them follow.
Speaker 4:Dang.
Speaker 1:To see them follow. Yeah, that's powerful and get down on their knees and cry out to God, to get to that humble moment because dang in the whole badass mantra right.
Speaker 3:Real men don't cry, yeah that whole humble thing.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, it was. That's so cool.
Speaker 4:I can't wait to get back in there, I'm anxious for you guys to get back in there as soon as you can.
Speaker 5:I can't wait to get back in there. I'm anxious for you guys to get back in there as soon as you can and you know they tell us not to lay hands, but we do it anyway.
Speaker 3:Amen, pray for those people. Yeah, absolutely, we need it.
Speaker 5:Yep, 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did lay that we did lay hands this last time.
Speaker 4:You're not supposed to do that, but guess what?
Speaker 5:Well, somebody will probably tell us to stop If you're being led by the spirit of God. Absolutely. I'm sorry. There's something about praying for somebody and laying hands. There's something about that, there is.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. And it's yeah, I don't know. It's God, it really is 100%.
Speaker 3:What else do you believe?
Speaker 5:in God for man I Any books?
Speaker 3:Go big man.
Speaker 5:You keep saying in books.
Speaker 1:You got away with words, man. He wants everybody to write. I know well he was. You know why that is because he hasn't finished his yet. I have a partially. I do have a partially written, I do have one partially written.
Speaker 5:It's a. It's a trucker romance that I started about 15 20 years ago and actually my daughters were.
Speaker 3:They were mad because I had them.
Speaker 4:I forgot like three or four chapters written and it's some somewhere in a storage box, somewhere and were mad because I had them. I forgot like three or four chapters written.
Speaker 5:And it's somewhere in a storage box somewhere and I had them read. I'm like what do you think they're like? This is really good. Keep writing what's going to happen.
Speaker 2:I'm like, and I didn't write anymore after that, unfortunately, I know, so I left them hanging and they bring it up once in a while.
Speaker 5:But yeah, writing a book would be fun to do I think? That would be. You know, I do love to write and I love the crafty stuff and all that.
Speaker 2:You know doing all the crafty fun stuff. You haven't seen one of her cornhole boards yeah, they're fun.
Speaker 1:She's talented. I love to do that stuff. What was the lion thing you were doing the other day?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so that was the one from Brotherhood. Really, that was for brotherhood four-man camp yeah that was when the when it was in the first beginning stages he took a picture of me drawing it out yeah, to paint it, you really did that off the thing like this big, yeah, really so well what it is. Oh, I don't not freehand gosh. No, um, I could, but I'm not so what I do is I project it.
Speaker 4:So I've got, I put it under a projector and I blow it up and then I sketch it out, trace it out, and then I painted it.
Speaker 2:That's good and so good, smart and so like those Buffalo Bills ones same thing, that.
Speaker 5:I just did recently, and then I did a. What did I do? Oh, seahawks and Cardinals, I started that one, yeah, so it's fun.
Speaker 1:Did you burn the Seahawks one?
Speaker 5:I brought. Did you burn it? I burn it, no. So it was for Bill and they were good. I would have had to burn that.
Speaker 3:I know Not that we get too hyped up about football around here. I think that's why Edgar won't commit to come out on the podcast. Probably we're going to give him a hard time. Oh man, I've asked him a few times, he keeps dodging me, that's so funny.
Speaker 1:Another dodger. But we love you, edgar, we're brothers. Love you, bro. Just hate the Seahawks.
Speaker 4:Football fun. We don't mean no, harm Edgar's the bomb. He's so cool.
Speaker 5:But yeah that's yeah, but also I want to continue being the burrito queen.
Speaker 3:Okay, serving the men's ministry. I love that you make the best breakfast burritos.
Speaker 5:Thank you, I love the options.
Speaker 3:My gang we got options. This is great Sausage bacon chorizo. I'm like. Oh, I hope they'll keep letting me do it.
Speaker 5:You guys haven't had a breakfast in a while and I'm like, dang, are they going to?
Speaker 3:I promise you, Pastor Chris, you're a blessing to him.
Speaker 1:Promise cheese for him he's like he's a non-cheese guy, but yeah, the day that you guys had burritos, we had. We did a podcast, like recently after that and we're talking about the men's group, right- the men's gathering and I'm like how many? And he's like I think I had like two and I'm like no man not burritos well, they were great burritos the last time that you guys had them.
Speaker 5:Ben Bide told me he ate three of them.
Speaker 3:I go what.
Speaker 5:Three.
Speaker 2:He's like they were so good I kept eating them.
Speaker 4:They were good, oh, that's fun. I love doing that stuff. Yeah, that's cool man that comes from being a football mom.
Speaker 5:I used to cook for big meals for football teams.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 5:I love doing that stuff, so yep.
Speaker 3:That's kind your heart, sis, and uh thanks you really have a heart to serve, love it, and that's amazing, man. I hope you never lose that heart for god and the heart for god's people.
Speaker 5:Yeah, god changes things he's crazy once he gets inside you and starts going to work and you let him. I mean when you open that door my goodness. And then the doors he opens once you open your heart and mind to him, and then what he, the path he takes you down, come on what's it say?
Speaker 3:draw near to him and he draws near to us yeah, ridiculously awesome.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yep, man, so good. You guys, this has been a blast. I really enjoy doing this. This is fun. I was nervous but this has been really fun. It's just like sitting around shooting family having a talk man.
Speaker 3:That's what we're trying to tell these people that are like oh people. I'm like People get all crazy. We get these crazy calls. I'm freaking out, I'm just chilling.
Speaker 2:We're just having a conversation.
Speaker 1:We're just doing it in a microphone with some headphones on.
Speaker 5:That's it, that's right. That's right. Yeah, exactly Doing that, that's so cool. Thanks again for inviting me to do it, you're me.
Speaker 1:Let's go Hold on.
Speaker 3:If you're watching this or you're listening to this, you can obviously see that it all starts with Jesus and it's just saying yes to Jesus and letting him into your life and letting him into your heart. Romans 10, verse 9 and 10, it says that we believe with our heart and we confess with our mouth unto salvation, because you believe unto righteousness and you confess. So it's just Jesus is Lord, and once you get to a place of brokenness and realizing God, I need you. He comes in and does what only he can do. So just let him in, because he's up there with his arms wide open. God, I need you. He comes in and does what only he can do. So just let him in, because he's up there with his arms wide open, going son or daughter, I love you, let me in, let me do what I do, so just surrender your life to him and let him in and watch what he does. In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Thanks again, sis.
Speaker 5:Absolutely, it's been fun.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, let's go, jesus man father, god lord thank you god man, I just I sit here in awe. I don't pretend to understand or pretend to know what you're doing, god, but I thank you that you're doing it, lord and I just I thank you for your daughter.
Speaker 1:I thank you for heather god. I think you just for um. What an amazing story, god. I thank you for Heather God. I thank you just for what an amazing story, god. I thank you for everything that you brought her through God and I thank you, lord, that this is a story where cancer lost God and I praise you for that.
Speaker 2:God. We know there are so many stories out there where cancer wins and it takes a life, God and I thank you just for this one here.
Speaker 1:God that this one you won, god, and I just thank you, god, for just her marriage with Dale. God, I thank you for their hearts. We could clearly see a heart that loves to serve God and I praise you for that, because that's only something you can do, God, because it's a heart transfer that takes place, god. We begin to step out of ourselves and we begin to live this selfless life, and it's all about your people, god, and I see that in your daughter's heart and I praise you for that, god. I pray that, that she continues to have that heart, god, that when opportunities arise, god, and she has availability, that she will give her. Yes, god, because we saw a beautiful picture one time from somebody that said there's this parchment paper with Heather's name on it and as you unroll it, god, it's just this yes, yes yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So I thank you, lord, just for opportunities for her to give more yeses.
Speaker 2:God Glory to God and I praise.
Speaker 1:God for the gels and what you're doing through her and Dale and the gels. God, I thank you, Lord, for the gels and what you're doing through the herd and the gels God. I thank you, lord for the salvations that are coming.
Speaker 1:God, I thank you that you hurt her heart. God, bring more people Lord. Thank you, lord, so I pray right now, God, we know that this is a calling, that not many people are going to step out and want to do this just willingly. God, it's a calling. So I pray right now, by the power of your spirit. God that you're putting this on people's heart. You're putting this a calling in people's heart. God that you will bring people from Lifelink Church. God who will see?
Speaker 1:and feel in their heart, god, that I want to be a part of that. I don't know what's going on in there, but I got to go there and so I thank you, lord, that this team is going to begin to establish God and, as we step into Maricopa County, god, that there's going to be more opportunities for people to come and serve in the jail ministry. God, because your word clearly says it when you visited me in jail, you were doing it unto the least of these, god. So I pray that your people will hear that call in their hearts, god, and they will answer that call and there will be a team that go with Dale and Heather, that they'll be able to raise these people up and show them the way of what is how it's done, god, and I thank you for that, lord.
Speaker 1:Thank you god, but I pray for time set aside god to finish the novel. Hallelujah. Thank you, jesus. I thank you, lord that yeah it's just going to be another, another creative another thing on her, on her notch, god author. So I thank you, lord, for what you're doing there, god, and I thank you, lord, that that's going to open a door for more God. I see devotionals coming, god.
Speaker 2:I see things as she continues to go through Thales, god, that you're going to put on her heart devotionals God, and we will see devotionals that have Heather Snipes Wow.
Speaker 4:So I thank you, Lord, for that right there, Father.
Speaker 1:God, and I praise you for that, lord. Lord, I just thank you for what's to come, god. I pray that as they begin to mature in their marriage, god, and as they get older in age, god, as they begin to retire, that they will find fulfillment in each other, god, that they will find peace in each other's presence, god, and that you will open doors for them to continue to serve as a couple.
Speaker 1:God, because people are seeing, people are watching and they see what's taking place and they see a couple who's serving God, and these young people who are going to be couples, god, who are just getting married, are going to look and see Heather and Del and how they serve as a couple. They're going to see Chris Boggs and Kelly Boggs and how they serve as a couple, and the Rosarios, god, and they're going to be examples for these young couples, god, of what it's like to serve and be a couple. God, that they can do it hand in hand. It doesn't have to be a separate thing. Father God, you go do yours, I go do mine. Let's do it together, thank you for the example they're setting for the young people.
Speaker 1:God and Lord, I just thank you for this testimony, lord. God, that the words that she shared her story will stir the faith and hope of people. God, that they will hear similarities. God, and I pray that there's a woman out there who's going to listen to this.
Speaker 4:God who's?
Speaker 1:going to hear something in Heather's story and make that connection and reach out and contact her and make that connection personally. God, thank you.
Speaker 1:God because, ultimately, I feel that this is what you're trying to do through this podcast, god is to create connections, find similarities and relationships. God, of how I can relate to you, so I'm going to reach out to you, god, thank you, god. So I thank you for what you're doing. Lord, we praise you, we love you and we surrender everything we have to you. God, have your way. We pray in Jesus' name.
Speaker 3:Amen.
Speaker 5:Heather, will you do us a favor and pray for speak life and pray for me and dad, absolutely, absolutely, father, god come to you with bold prayers and humble hearts. Father, this speak life podcast is an amazing avenue to get your word out lord these servants, these men, these hearts, to serve and get your word out lord. It's amazing what they can do. We know what they can do. We know what the power of your word can do. We know what you can do in people's hearts.
Speaker 5:We pray that this podcast reaches ears to change lives and to turn lives towards you, father, towards you. We know you are what we need to focus on in this life. We need to keep focusing on you. All the outside noise in the world no you on you, jesus. Everything needs to be pointed towards you and we thank you, and we thank you for the opportunity to do this and we thank you for this church family and we thank you for Eddie and we thank you for Rowdy and we thank you for their hearts to do this and serve Lord and bring this word.
Speaker 5:And bring this word strongly that it will change hearts and change minds to focus on Jesus, our Almighty Father minds to focus on Jesus, our almighty father, who, through you, everything is possible, everything, anything, everything, all things are possible through your father.
Speaker 3:And we pray this in your mighty name and we all said amen. Hey everybody, I sure hope that your faith was stirred and you were encouraged by this testimony. I don't know where you're watching. Well, you're watching on YouTube, but I don't know where you're listening from. 're watching on YouTube, but I don't know where you're listening from. If you could, whatever platform you're on, subscribe to the channel. You'll get the notifications for all the future episodes. If you could, please go and comment on whatever platform you're at. It helps us so much with the algorithms getting seen. If you yourself want to come on the podcast, you can reach out through social media Facebook, instagram or X. Speak Life AZ. All one word and we'll get back to you and get you on the schedule. Until next time, we're going to continue to Speak Life AZ. God bless you, jesus, jesus.