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
Ron J. Testimony
Big Ron's powerful testimony takes us on an extraordinary journey from unspeakable childhood trauma to profound redemption and purpose. Growing up with a sexually abusive father from age five, Ron's early life was marked by pain that led him to the streets by age eleven, selling drugs by twelve, and cycling through juvenile detention throughout his teens.
What makes this episode particularly moving is Big Ron's raw honesty about how childhood abuse distorted his understanding of love and relationships, setting him on a path of destructive behaviors. After finding Christ in 1984 while homeless and living in his car with his pregnant wife, Ron still battled crack addiction for sixteen more years—a powerful reminder that transformation often comes through struggle rather than instant change.
The turning point in Ron's life wasn't simply getting clean, but his decision to forgive his father after decades of rage and resentment. This act of forgiveness not only freed Ron from the chains of bitterness but led to reconciliation before his father's death. Their relationship came full circle when Ron led his father to Christ, breaking generational cycles of abuse and addiction.
Today, Big Ron channels his past pain into powerful purpose through the Cebu Backpack Ministry, bringing hope and resources to abandoned children in the Philippines. His life demonstrates how our deepest wounds, when healed, can become our greatest ministry opportunities. For anyone struggling with addiction, abuse, or unforgiveness, Ron's story offers living proof that no one is beyond redemption, and that God can use even our darkest experiences to bring light to others.
all right, everybody. Welcome back to the speak life az podcast testimony of jesus and everyday people. I'm your host, eddie, and always with me is my son, rowdy Jesus. What's up, bubba? Let's go, man, it's been a minute dude.
Speaker 2:God is good, buddy he is. He knows what we need and when we need it.
Speaker 1:It was a nice break, man, but I don't like long breaks like that. I know, buddy. Well, it was like you know me, I'm routine brother, I like flow, routine in my life.
Speaker 2:It was the what we had. Somebody got sick and we weren't feeling the best. And then the dude with the golf ball in the forehead. I had Mexico. But we're back, man, amen, and we're going to go strong.
Speaker 1:I praise God for that, yeah.
Speaker 3:How you?
Speaker 1:doing Amazing bro. This journey I'm on is fantastic. It's yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's amazing when you start making healthy choices. Bud.
Speaker 1:That's amazing what happens when you cut out fast food dude.
Speaker 2:Hello, and just start eating vegetables, start eating healthy. That's all part of healthy choices, man.
Speaker 1:I mean I'm down 10 pounds in like two and a half weeks.
Speaker 2:Come on, buddy.
Speaker 1:And it's healthy. I had somebody the other day who was like dude, slow down. I'm like I drastic, bro, I just cut out all the crap. Your metabolism sped up now, bro, and I feel great. I got so much energy, I feel lighter, I just feel good about myself.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna lie, god is good you how you doing oh bless bro. Yeah, I had a great day here, man. Um, yeah, I'm excited for this one man. I really am dude. I was praying earlier and got this heaviness. Uh, just because I know a little bit, you know what I'm saying but uh, we prayed, man, and I feel the spirit of the lord is here.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, god is in this that's supposed to go and touch people. Yeah, let's get to it. Man, who'd you bring with you?
Speaker 2:man dude, we got our brother big ron. What's up bro?
Speaker 1:what's happening guys? Hey, ron, what's cracking bro?
Speaker 1:good to see you, man yeah, good to see you, guys, hey uh, god made it very clear to us, man, when, uh, uh, you get his sons and daughters on, you know that we're sitting in the presence of royalty and you give royalty honor. Uh, so we just want to honor you, brother, and thank you for your time. Uh, and you're just you, yes, god, because we know that you're a busy man. We were talking beforehand. You drove over 400 miles a day and you still made it here on time. So I'll just thank you, man. It's time is valuable. It's one of the commodities we don't get back, that's right, um, so when you do when people do give us our time.
Speaker 2:We just want to honor that and say thank you, brother, so we appreciate that yeah, for me, bro, this, um, this is special because I I was thinking where did we first meet, bro? I know it know it was with Celebrate Recovery. Was it at a P8 rally? I think it was. I think it was, and you had just come into town or something, first one at Compass, I think. So yeah, it was 21 or 22.
Speaker 4:22.
Speaker 2:22. And I remember we just kind of connected that day, man, yeah, you know life. Recovery ain't meant to be done alone, and we got each other's contact information and we just kept in contact, since, man and I know you driving there's times where we've had some really really good conversations as brothers, man, just kind of getting to know each other and praying for each other and encouraging one another. So for me, man, I'm um. So for me, man, I'm very thankful for this me too, brother.
Speaker 2:Thank you for inviting me uh, let me pray real quick, man, we'll kind of get into this thing. Jesus, man, holy spirit, thank you, god. I just thank you, god. Thank you for this time, thank you. Thank you for what you're getting ready to do, god, thank you, lord. Lord, I pray for first my brother Ron. I pray for any nerves or anxiety to just fall away.
Speaker 2:God, this is a place of redemption, this is a place of strength, this is a place where we can really give you glory and honor. Victory, god. So we thank you, lord, for just your story. Ron's been the pen in your hand, god, for all these years, and you're writing the book of his life, and he's in a chapter. But I just pray, god, for clarity. I pray Holy Spirit, to bring back all that needs to be brought back into remembrance For whoever's going to watch this, for whoever's going to listen to this, god, because, lord, what we're really trying to do is glorify you, but bring hope to your people, so people can know that if you can do what you've done with Big Ron, you can do it with them too, god. So I just thank you for what you're going to do, god, and we give you praise for it in Jesus' name Amen, amen, amen. You know, bro, I asked you to kind of check out a couple of these things.
Speaker 2:Man, you've come in basically reciting how we start the show I'm like all right brother's been listening, man, but you know, man, basically, um, when God gave this to us during COVID, it was we made it our own for a while and weren't doing what we were supposed to be doing, and how much how how, how many people, how many people do that? They give you something, you just run way ahead of god and make it your own.
Speaker 2:It's like once god, once we really started to obey what he told us to do. This thing, just um. And it's the speak life az podcast, the testimony of jesus and everyday people. Um, it doesn't matter if you're like myself and you're working at a church. And. And it's the Speak Life AZ podcast, the testimony of Jesus in everyday people. It doesn't matter if you're like myself and you're working at a church and making the wheels spin here. Like dad at the shop, man cutting on cars, welding on metal, playing with grease all day. Or like yourself driving trucks, man, long roads, hitting the road I don't play with grease all day.
Speaker 2:Well, you get dirty. I see you sometimes and you're black when you come home, bro. Okay, find a car guy.
Speaker 1:It sounded weird in my head.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh, black grease all day. But you know what I mean? We're all everyday people. We've all got a story, we've all come from somewhere and basically what we want to get from you today, big Ron, is just who Ron is. Where were you born, bro, brothers and sisters? What was the relationship like with mom and dad? What was the family home like as you were growing up, school, school, sports and me and dad, man and yourself? It was God in the home. It was God in the home Working in recovery.
Speaker 2:We know that a lot of the people we're working with nowadays, a lot of the hurts, the habits, the hang-ups and the stuff that keep people stuck in life, um, a lot of the traumas happen early as a child. Um, so, if you want to, let holy spirit just lead you in any of that man. But I think the most important thing today, bro, we want to get your encounter. We want to hear how God encountered you for the first time and what that process or what that day or what that encounter looked like, because it's different for everybody. I literally had a day August 26, 2014. My whole life changed in Teen Challenge. Dad was in prison. He was in a prison cell, um. So we want to know how god encountered ron, um, and what that was like, the details of it, because it's so personal to you, um. But then afterwards, man, how has we always talk about transformation? Um, and that? That is the, that, that that's the key that shows somebody had a real encounter with God.
Speaker 1:The evidence that you met Jesus is life change, yes, transformation. If you truly met the living God. Things are changing. Things change. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we want to know how your life changed after that. But then I think at the end, what we really want to get, bro, is what you're hoping for in the future, for yourself, for the ministry. I know a little bit about what you're hoping for and when that time comes, go big and be bold man, because we've got listeners that sow into ministries and there'll come a time where I'm going to ask you how people can help. So I'm just excited for what God's going to do.
Speaker 1:right now, man, yeah brother, I'm excited and our listeners pray.
Speaker 2:They do, and we're going to pray for you.
Speaker 1:We've had some of them on and we've asked them do you pray for our listeners? They're like oh, absolutely so, they're out there praying.
Speaker 3:Thank you for the prayers, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what was it like growing up, big Ron brother?
Speaker 4:Well, I was about six months Another.
Speaker 2:Ohio person man.
Speaker 4:A lot of people from Ohio are here dude A lot of people, but I moved to California when I was six months old so I didn't All right, california was my home.
Speaker 1:We'll forgive you.
Speaker 4:Dodgers suck.
Speaker 2:I was a.
Speaker 4:Reds fan.
Speaker 2:All right, you can stay. You know what's?
Speaker 1:funny.
Speaker 4:Ken.
Speaker 1:Griffey Jr just got his last paycheck from the Cincinnati Reds. Is that right? And he retired? How long ago In the 90s?
Speaker 2:Jeez, and he just now got his last paycheck, pete.
Speaker 1:Rose has got.
Speaker 2:Come on, man, he didn't get in yet but the band has been removed. That's right After he's dead. That's what's sad man. I wish we could have seen him get in while he was still alive.
Speaker 1:At least his family will get to enjoy that. Yeah, that's right For sure, but yeah, he got his last paycheck earlier this month, man.
Speaker 4:That blows me away, yeah.
Speaker 1:Must be nice.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm a Reds fan and a Bengals fan.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, all right.
Speaker 4:But growing up. I grew up in Cypress, california.
Speaker 2:It's by Anaheim. Oh yeah, I've sold a lot of chocolate. I fundraised for a while over there in Orange County bud.
Speaker 4:Man, it was crazy, yeah, but I grew up there. My mom and dad got married, I think after my brother was born. He's three years, four years younger than I am.
Speaker 2:Are you the oldest?
Speaker 4:No, I have, my family goes. My parents were going. Okay, my dad had four sons.
Speaker 2:That's what the Bible tells us to do be blessed and multiply. This guy probably shouldn't have.
Speaker 3:I love you too.
Speaker 2:I'm just being the truth. Come on man.
Speaker 4:So dad had four boys before he met my mom, and then my mom had two girls before my dad.
Speaker 3:And then my dad cheated on his wife and got my mom pregnant with me.
Speaker 4:Oh, wow, okay. That's why, after I was six months old, he skated from Ohio. Get away from the, the shame and guilt. I'm sure that he was feeling yeah okay, um, back in the and I think was in he took off with your mom, yep, my mom and my two sisters, oh, wow, and we actually lived in Compton when we first came out there. We lived in the projects. Wow, we hadn't. Their parents had nothing yeah okay.
Speaker 4:I don't. I think they borrowed money to get there. Didn't have anything when they got there. Yeah, so I think in 64, my parents bought a house in Cyprus.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I see.
Speaker 4:And we moved into that house. Well, that's where kind of the nightmare started for me. I was, I think I was four years old, but at five my dad was a pedophile and he started molesting me and my sisters. Holy crap, I didn't know that he was hurting my older sisters, yeah, but he molested me and my little sister together.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, like together, you guys both in the room together. Yeah, oh, dang dude.
Speaker 4:I felt watching my dad hurt my little sister and I couldn't do nothing about it.
Speaker 2:I'm just a little boy. You're just a kid dude.
Speaker 4:I wanted to beat this guy you know all my life. I just wanted to take it out on him.
Speaker 2:That just sucks man for the people, the people that are supposed to keep us safe, the ones that are supposed to protect us and keep us from that evil man. When you're at home and you're a kid and you're exposed to that, it's not your fault. No, you don't have anything. It's just what you know. It's what's happening.
Speaker 1:It becomes the normal. I saw this thing. Tim Tebow was on.
Speaker 2:Oh God, what's his name? Sean Ryan Show. Sean Ryan Show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he was talking about some of that stuff. Come on man 85% of sexual predators are biological parents. 85% are biological parents.
Speaker 2:They do it to their own kids.
Speaker 1:Doing it to their own kids.
Speaker 4:I just could never understand and most of them have multiple victims.
Speaker 1:It's not just one, and he does.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he did. I'm sorry to hear that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sorry man.
Speaker 4:That went on for about five years, until I was 10. Yeah, I remember being about six years old and going to my room crying out to God. Really At six years old and saying God, please stop Dad from hurting me and my baby sister Wow.
Speaker 2:How did you know about God? Is that church?
Speaker 4:I grew up as Catholicolic, went through first communion and I'm recovering catholic now. I'm sorry for all the catholics out there, we've got listeners that are god bless you, but don't pray to mother mary pray to jesus amen I remember as that little boy crying out I, I just wanted to stop Dang dude Going to church. And I'm supposed to believe in all this stuff. Your dad was going to church. He would go on the holidays, but Mom would go every weekend. She was a believer, you know going every week.
Speaker 1:Was your mom aware of what your dad was doing? No, okay, that's what I was wanting to know.
Speaker 2:This was something that was hidden that none of the kids told mom you know it's weird how predators what they do psychologically to kids the grooming, the grooming, the grooming bud.
Speaker 4:And he groomed us, you know he would tell us things how he would hurt my mom. Yeah, you know, keep your mouth shut, you know.
Speaker 2:Fear.
Speaker 4:All lived in fear.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask you how your childhood was growing up. It is hell.
Speaker 4:My dad was a race car driver. He raced stock cars all my life Like dirt track, dirt track.
Speaker 2:That's what my grandpa did.
Speaker 4:We grew up at Ascot. Do you remember the slick track?
Speaker 1:go-kart track they had. Oh yeah, Love that thing. Yeah, we grew up at Ascot, Corona. Do you remember the slick track, go-kart track they had, oh yeah. I loved that thing, dude, oh yeah. I got to race my dad and his buddy there, and I was lighter so of course I beat him. Always and I would rub it in his face. I was like I beat you and he was like yeah, you're 100 pounds lighter than me, we we used to go watch the we call them speedway bikes.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, those things are gnarly dude. We used to go to Orange County Fairgrounds and watch those.
Speaker 1:We used to go there every summer, bro to Ascot Park. My dad would race there a few times, but we'd go there mainly to watch sprint car races and things like that.
Speaker 4:My dad was a figure eight racer.
Speaker 1:Really. That was his thing he won a couple of championships.
Speaker 4:Oh, nice Won a couple of championships but you know, growing up in the house with him you know not only that, but he was a man that if you touched his stuff he'd beat you.
Speaker 2:Beat the crap out of you, oh damn.
Speaker 4:You know, so you feared the belt. I remember one time he wasn't there and he actually beat us with the horse whip and I found the horse whip in a dresser and took it out to the strawberry patch and buried that.
Speaker 2:You ain't beating me with this. No more Dan. No, no Dang dude.
Speaker 4:So this went on until I was 10. And then my little sister had the. She had finally got enough to tell my mom.
Speaker 2:Courage, Courage. Takes a lot of courage, bud to speak up.
Speaker 4:She went to my mom and told her what was going on.
Speaker 2:Did mom believe her?
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, they got divorced he got arrested and was convicted as a pedophile.
Speaker 1:He had to register for the rest of his life.
Speaker 4:He got a slap on the hand. He never went to jail, really. I think he went overnight or something, wow, man Dang, and there was many victims and nobody came forward. Really I didn't find out until after he passed how many people that he hurt, but oh wow bro um and he was older kids, um, not my boys, I, I, they're so lucky my brother, so my brothers grew up in cincinnati the younger brothers.
Speaker 4:No, my older brothers. I asked them that and he never touched the boys. They were very lucky. They had a dad. Their mom got remarried and raised him. He's still in their life and they're all older than me so they're getting closer up to 70. Yeah, so their dad's still there. Wow, and that's the only dad they ever knew.
Speaker 2:Wow, okay, um so I envy those guys I wonder if the girls and mom and you guys kind of, have you been able to talk to your sisters? Oh yeah, did it? Was it when they moved to california?
Speaker 4:it all started then. Oh yeah, we, when we moved in that house in cyprus oh is okay. I don't really remember before that might he might have been hurt my older sister before that, but I don't remember, until I was about five and my little sister was four. All right, and they said it went on until I was 10.
Speaker 2:Thank God she said something man. Yeah, I love that girl yeah.
Speaker 4:And when they got divorced mom she had five kids she was raising by herself. Wow, Wow. We moved on every corner of Cyprus in these different apartments.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:We finally moved into this one house and and lived there until I graduated high school.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, so you had some stability yeah, that's cool that you were in one place, you know, but with but mom, she, she, uh, she went to after they got divorced.
Speaker 4:She put herself through nursing school and got her became an rn yeah raising five kids. Wow, um, you know. So worked, had a job to feed us. Yeah, went to school for school. Yeah, and then slept, so we had no parents.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Mom wasn't there either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was your two older sisters, yourself, and then my little sister and my little brother. Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So your older sisters kind of like we're raising you guys. Yeah, they're basically the moment we, at 11 years old, I I hit the streets, really I hit the streets, I was, I was selling dope by the time I was 12.
Speaker 1:I'm not familiar with cypress, so I'm not sure what that kind of part of town is like it's a good part of town. Yeah, actually where'd you, where'd you get, where'd you find dope and stuff?
Speaker 2:yeah, orange county in the 70, the 70s was different.
Speaker 4:It was, it was in the, it was in the neighborhood I was. You know, by the time I was in seventh grade, I was the guy you know and I didn't have any other money.
Speaker 1:So mom being gone. You guys were just running the streets, yeah, really.
Speaker 4:My sisters. You know they had. They had older boyfriends and hung out with them. Yeah, I don't want to get into.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's their story. Yeah, my little sister.
Speaker 4:I'll get the info, but she just told her did her podcast.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And her story. I didn't know until when my dad died. She told me her testimony.
Speaker 2:I was like wow, Is she here in the Valley? Yeah. Oh really, oh really moved here, oh wow yeah, tell us afterwards. I'd like to listen yeah, we, I may connect with you to get her story for the podcast, bro. I always love when families or husbands and wives or siblings can come on, because everybody's got a different perspective of what they experienced growing up for years we've been talking about doing a book.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um come on bro neither one of us are smart enough to.
Speaker 2:God can move through anything. I know If God can use a rock or a donkey, God can use you, bro.
Speaker 1:Nowadays, you have these things on your phone where it speaks to management. That's right, all you got to do is talk and it'll print it out for you, bro, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I hit the street at 11.
Speaker 3:Got was always hanging out with guys where my sisters, my older sister's age.
Speaker 2:So that's how my oldest sister I was wondering how you got connected and how you, the girl your older sisters were, and you were just drawn to the boys and drawn to the life yeah, okay, and uh.
Speaker 4:So I hung out with them and and uh so you quit going to school no oh, I stayed in school until 10th grade, okay, but I was in and out of juvenile hall from the time I was 12 years old and I'd do six months, I'd do three months, do a year when was the first time you got arrested? Uh, sixth grade really Really.
Speaker 2:What was it for?
Speaker 4:Stealing, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Like burglarizing houses.
Speaker 4:It wasn't to that yet. I was a bicycle thief. They used to call me the garden rogue.
Speaker 2:Guilty, I got to a point.
Speaker 3:My dope dealer was like quit bringing me bicycles, dude.
Speaker 1:Skateboard for me. I was a skateboard thief If.
Speaker 4:I saw your skateboard in the front yard. It was gone. Well, I was, I was uh I was really mean though yeah, um, I would go to shop malls and and knock on windows and tell a guy here's your bike, see ya well, you're, you're a bigger dude.
Speaker 2:Were, were you a bigger kid?
Speaker 4:I was a, I was always big, yeah okay, yeah okay, not this big, I was always yeah, yeah you're.
Speaker 2:I mean when I say bigger, I mean you're taller and yeah, you're a bigger dude.
Speaker 4:You tell you're a big yeah when I was 18, I was, uh well, the last stint that I did in juvenile hall. Uh, me and this other dude, uh, walter, used to work out together, and I benched 500 pounds one time dude and I was curling about 190. Nice.
Speaker 1:Jeez, I can bench 125 now.
Speaker 3:But yeah.
Speaker 4:I was in good shape back then. Yeah okay, you know, I was never over 200 pounds for most.
Speaker 1:What was your juvenile hall experience like Back then? I'm pretty sure it might have been a little rougher than it is nowadays. A lot of fighting, not no, I didn't really have that is nowadays A lot of fighting.
Speaker 4:No, no, I didn't really have that problem until I got on the streets.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:People didn't intimidate me inside.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you're probably a little bigger. They're probably like, yeah, we're not going to try this.
Speaker 2:We're not going to mess with this dude. We want this guy on our team. Yeah, I never had that problem.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 4:I was very fortunate that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:But when I was on the street, a lot of fighting.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, a lot of craziness, especially when you're running a gun and slinging and people always want to try you.
Speaker 4:So yeah, yeah, you know we.
Speaker 1:You ever hurt anybody as a kid.
Speaker 4:Not hurt, yeah, not until I was an adult, not hurt, hurt, yeah, not until I was an adult, yeah. Yeah, you know, I always felt bad. Once I got in a fight.
Speaker 1:Well, I know in that lifestyle sometimes you got to hurt some people.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean Well, that happened later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right.
Speaker 4:All right, as a minor I never did get into any really. I mean, I got in a lot of fights but I didn't lose many, yeah of fights. But, um, I didn't lose many, yeah, but I didn't have to. Most of the time I could walk away. There was one time I pissed off an older biker dude and I was scared I thought I was gonna get stabbed yeah all that good stuff and and uh, they used to have a primary belt. Uh, you know, bikers used to carry all the time I thought he was going to beat with that but luckily that didn't
Speaker 1:happen but uh, you said you stayed in school till you were in 10th grade. What was school like for you?
Speaker 4:so good, no, no I love you I I only really remember, uh, school was probably third grade and 10th grade, yeah, uh like those specific grades or those grades, and I don't know, I don't know why, I only remember it. But those were the times I remember yeah be able to excel and whatever I need no sports um no being a big guy, they wanted me to play they wanted me to play bad
Speaker 2:that street was just just calling you.
Speaker 4:But we moved. Like I said, we were moving every few, like almost every year. Yeah, All around the town. We went to every single junior, high school and high school and elementary in our town, you know?
Speaker 1:Okay, you had mentioned a biker dude, so was that like the predominant people in the neighborhood were there?
Speaker 4:was a couple, yeah, yeah Was mom the. There was a couple, yeah, yeah Was mom. The ones you were running with yeah. So when I was 13, I had a girlfriend, got her pregnant at 13.
Speaker 2:Dang bro. How old was she?
Speaker 4:She was 15.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, a year older than me, like I said I hung around, always hung around, with older my sister's friends and she got pregnant.
Speaker 4:Her parents made her have an abortion. That just killed me. Yeah, uh, not that I should have had a kid at 13. Yeah, but I didn't know why it bothered me. Yeah, but then um wow but then I got her pregnant again and, uh, I think it was, I think it was it's my 14th around my 14th birthday.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I got her pregnant and I got her best friend pregnant.
Speaker 4:Oh dang dude Her parents made her have an abortion again.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And the girlfriend. I only slept with her that one time. It was on my 14th birthday. I got drunk. She was there she was an older, you know, it just happened, yeah, and she never told me he was two years old when I found out that he was oh my god, but it was my sister's friend and she knew from the beginning that it was my kid, but never told me your sister did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh wow.
Speaker 4:And then my little sister found a picture of him and said to my real aunt from eric, and uh, my sister came. You know, eric's your kid. And I'm like no, he's not wow and so I went and said you know, eric's your kid. And I'm like no, he's not. And so I went and confronted her. I can't deny him.
Speaker 1:He's a good image. Do you have a relationship?
Speaker 3:with him.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, really Thank God. Come on man, thank God.
Speaker 4:So when I found out, I hung out with him, did live with him until he was about six, and then they moved to Marino Valley, which was all the other way, on the other side of Riverside.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And they moved over there and I didn't see him from the time he was probably six or seven until he was 15. Wow, I knew where he lived, but they wouldn't. His mom was telling her a bunch of lies and all that, so I would go to like watch him play football. I kind of stalked him a little bit on his birthdays and Christmas. I would always leave presents at his door. I asked him that when I seen him and said do you remember that? And he goes.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, he goes I.
Speaker 4:I always asked my mom who you were, and she just told him. I wasn't a good person and I probably wasn't you know, but unfortunately she was. She was running and gunning too. The biker dude that I talked about was one of her friends. So I was in juvenile hall, 10th grade, and that's when I found out about Eric and I said then I'm not coming back to jail. I had a year I think not coming back to jail.
Speaker 1:I'm going to.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I had a year. I ended up. I think I got in a fight actually. Bringing that up, yeah, and I ended up getting another six months. Oh wow, and so I was there for a year and a half.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, you were in juvie when you got in the fight and they extended your time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Okay, and a member of time, yeah, okay, and that and that. And remember, the counselor is telling me if you don't stop what you're doing, you're gonna end up in prison. Wow, I said I'm not going to prison yeah and I don't know how I didn't go to prison really I've never been to never been to adult prison I've been to a lot of counties yeah, never made it to prison, never made the counties are worse, brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they are jeez, I'll take a year in prison, over a year in county any time, dude, any time Somebody was asking me that the other day.
Speaker 2:I'd take two years in prison for a year in county yeah.
Speaker 4:Somebody asked me that the other day. I said I've never been, but I hear that most people would rather go to prison than to county dog. Oh yeah, I've seen some crazy stuff in California.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, oh yeah, buddy, you had knuckleheads in there. Dude, it's the worst place. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So I got married at 19. And my best friend, him and this gal that I kind of like they fell in love with each other and got married. I was kind of jealous that I met this gal and we got married and really shit in the oven.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Very toxic from the beginning and, um, she became my, my crime partner. This is where I started doing burglaries and and crazy stuff. She'd be my, my driver and I'd go rob things. I didn't break into cars, break into houses, do whatever mom and dad did that stuff together bud.
Speaker 1:Female crime partners or something else dude.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and then we—.
Speaker 2:Man. So it's basically you grew up with just craziness, dude, yeah, and hurt and trauma, and just trying to figure your way through the situations in life that you were in. But you had no guidance, you had no example of what everybody and every man that you saw was a biker on the street.
Speaker 4:Your mom never, remarried when you were a kid? Nope, never. To the day she died, never remarried. Really had a couple of boyfriends.
Speaker 1:So you just had street people as your. Oh yeah, I would run the streets, I'd hang out with them.
Speaker 4:Had a couple of boyfriends, so you just had street people as your male figures. I would run the streets, I'd hang out with them, we'd go do craziness.
Speaker 2:Were you still going to church?
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 2:No, I'm done with that.
Speaker 4:Mom and dad got divorced. She would take us for midnight mass or whatever.
Speaker 2:Christmas or Easter.
Speaker 4:But I just did that. Just go hang out with my buddies and go smoke some weed. Amen, buddy.
Speaker 3:I got an eye outside church dude.
Speaker 2:Except I was smoking weed. Help me God.
Speaker 1:Thank you, jesus. Pastor Suntown, pastor Rowdy, smells like weed.
Speaker 4:Oh Jesus, pastor Suntown, pastor Rowdy smells like weed. Oh Jesus, you want to watch out for those nuns, though.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, those with the ruler, oh man.
Speaker 4:It was funny because I was one of the worst kids in the neighborhood. We lived in a middle-class neighborhood for the most part. I had friends that got new cars when they turned 16. Their parents had money. We were the poorest family you got new shoes my new shoes. I would go to kmart, put my old shoes on the rack and I've been there bud you know that's how I got new shoes.
Speaker 2:Mom couldn't afford it, yeah also did you ever experience any kind of hurt or anything like that in the church? No, no, okay.
Speaker 4:Thank God for that. Never experienced any of that in the church.
Speaker 2:So just dad, yeah, but I mean, and non-smacking you, Well, yeah, when I was 12, I met this family.
Speaker 4:We lived in these apartments, uh, and there was this really nice family that I met used to go hang out with them. They felt sorry for me because I'm everything. Um, after about six months that I knew him, this husband and wife molested me. Oh wow together together.
Speaker 4:Wow, how old were you? 12, 12, yeah, dang, so that was the second time I. I thought, you know, is this the only way that you can get loved, damn dude, is by having, by having sex. Yeah, you know, is this the only way I can find love from adults? Yeah, that's crazy, you know and that's why I started having had a girlfriend at 13, such a young age, that a young age.
Speaker 2:That's how you show love, right, dang bro?
Speaker 4:You know, this is the only way it happens if you have sex and man. I wasn't a good person. I wasn't good for the women.
Speaker 2:You were hurt and broken, bro, and I hurt them. Yeah, hurt people, hurt people. Yes, sir, come on, man Dang dude. And when sex is a measure of love, that just throws everything off because it's difficult.
Speaker 1:Brother, yeah, I mean because that's as a man, me personally, brother. I remember I was like 10 or 11 years old and I have three older brothers that are five, seven and eight years older than I am and I can remember my one brother coming home telling my mom about how she, how he just got laid, and seeing my mom reacting this like all right kind of thing and looking at my other brother and saying, when you're gonna get some, you know I mean, and seeing this as a young boy, I'm thinking oh, so I need to get.
Speaker 1:That's the measure of a man. Right, if mom is celebrating them having sex, then the measure of a man is having sex, oh yeah. So at 10 years old, I'm thinking, well, I need to go have sex. You know I mean because I want to be a man. Obviously, you know I mean. And it led to things, dude, you know I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. When we learn that's what the measure of a man is, or that's how we receive and give love, it becomes corrupted, bro it's why it's so important to raise your kids in the house of god and in the ways of God, and to plant.
Speaker 2:Man dude it's kids, Having kids bro.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's chaos. So me and my first wife, we did all this stuff. We ended up getting arrested one day and she had 11 warrants and I think I had 20 warrants Dang, but they were all traffic warrants.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And I think I had five different counties that I had to go to Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange County and LA.
Speaker 2:Yeah, All you got to do is drive on a freeway and you'll hit all five of those counties.
Speaker 4:They were taking me on the county bus from joint to joint. I remember my old lady being in the back of the bus and they're like let her up front. That's her old man up there and we rode for a little bit and then I ended up going to LA County and she didn't have any up there and then I got her pregnant. We probably run and gun for a couple years and then we had we both we.
Speaker 2:What are you doing for work?
Speaker 4:So I got into insulation right out of high school yeah, insulated homes, I was super good at it, so I did that. But then in 84, uh, I'd lost work, I didn't, I was doing. Uh, actually we were homeless, living in our car in la county. Um had this old 1968 buick electro 225 yeah, you know what that is Big old boat. And we were living on a thing with our dog and ended up getting her pregnant living in the car.
Speaker 2:Dang bro.
Speaker 4:And about.
Speaker 2:I don't know, so this was your.
Speaker 4:My first wife.
Speaker 2:But your second kid.
Speaker 4:Second kid yeah.
Speaker 2:At 23.
Speaker 4:Yep, good bro Wow. It's one thing I'm good at, but numbers I remember you saying that math live but um, yeah, so about a month before I'm thinking, man, how am I getting, how are we gonna get out of this car, you know? So we used to go to gas stations and bathe each other. We would do yep, and we'd go to day-labored places and get work, you know. And I think back then it was $4 or $5 an hour, you know.
Speaker 4:And we'd get enough money to get food and do the same thing over. And I'm like man we get enough money to get food and do the same thing over, and I'm like man. And then in April 15th 1984, a buddy of mine. He said, do you want to go to church with me? And I'm like anything is better than hanging out here. I'll try it, and he's been my buddy I grew up with and always trying to get me to go to church he used to go to camps and all that trying to get me to go and I was like, yeah, robert, I'm not into that.
Speaker 4:I was too busy in my life so April 15th he was born May 31st, his birthday's in a few days. We ended up going to his church accepted Christ, got baptized. Wow, april 15th 1984. Wow, the first time my son was born May 31st.
Speaker 2:Wait, was this a Christian church?
Speaker 4:Christian church oh At Calvary Chapel oh wow, in Long Beach.
Speaker 2:Okay, yep, yep, chuck Smith.
Speaker 4:It might have been I believe so bud.
Speaker 2:Back then it probably was oh dude.
Speaker 1:I was right around the time of the ocean baptism. That's where you were born, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's when I was born Dad you're old enough to be my dad, but the oldest boy here he's going to be. He's going to be 49 in. July.
Speaker 1:All right so yeah, um, it's funny when people hear I'm a dad, they're like, wow, oh, yeah, so yeah, um, it's funny when people hear I'm a dad, they're like, wow, oh yeah, I'm like.
Speaker 4:I like older women dude yeah so there was a two weeks before, uh, my son ray was born. Uh, we were living in the car. I'm like what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1:uh, my brother-in-law and sister my brother-in-law is a muffler guy yeah all his life come on, he did nothing but muffler yeah, and he lived in.
Speaker 4:There was a u-shaped kind of apartments around this muffler shop. You pulled in the parking lot and those yeah and there was a apartment that came up with one bedroom, 300 bucks a month and, uh, I didn't have the money for it went to a catholic church yeah and talked to this priest that hey, you know, want to know if we can get some help. Couldn't get help from the other church. I don't know why I didn't go there and try, but the calvary one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay um.
Speaker 4:So I went, went there and told him my situation goes hey, I can give you a voucher for food, help you out, whatever. I said we've got no place to cook. I mean, you know, that'd be nice. I said really use some money. You know we're trying to get in this apartment. And he said well, sit down here. He goes in the back, comes back, hands us this envelope and says don't open it until you get outside.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know why.
Speaker 4:Yeah, don't open it until you get outside. Yeah, I don't know why. Yeah, I thought that was kind of strange. We got to the car and it was 300 bucks, wow, and we were able to get just enough to get in that did you tell him you needed 300 bucks?
Speaker 1:nope, wow, no, didn't tell him anything. Wow, see god, church too. But yeah, oh, they gave you all.
Speaker 4:They gave you all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1:You know groceries still today.
Speaker 4:They definitely take care of their people.
Speaker 1:They do. That's pretty awesome, though, that it was exactly 300 bucks.
Speaker 2:We were able to move into this apartment Was that like the first time that God had showed up. Did you correlate that with the Lord?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, I did, but I wasn't really I mean. Because this is after your baptism and your salvation yeah, yeah, so, and I was like I didn't know how to do all that. Yeah, you know, even though, because we were on the streets- yeah, yeah, I'm like okay, lord, now what's next?
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything's going to change overnight, right, so that one time you went with your friend that April 15th 1984, that day was April 15th 1984. That day you went with him and you got baptized and you gave your life to the Lord. I was wondering why did he memorize April 15th 1984? But it was your. A lot happened that day.
Speaker 1:Wow, dude.
Speaker 4:I gave my life and baptized. Do you?
Speaker 1:remember any part of the service that spoke to you. I don't remember nothing. I don't remember any of it.
Speaker 4:To be honest with you.
Speaker 1:You must have felt something though. Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:I remember going to the church. I couldn't tell you what it looked like inside.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah and none of that Amen.
Speaker 4:But we got out and her and I man, like I said, it was a very dysfunctional relationship and we fought a lot and uh, used to fight, fight, yeah, and very physical, wasn't good were you guys using or drinking together? Uh, a little bit.
Speaker 4:Not not too, but we smoked a lot of weed yeah um, but you know we weren't really I hadn't really got to the. I mean, in my younger days I did acid and you know all the yeah, canem and all all that type of thing. You know, in my younger days I did acid and you know all the yeah, canaminol and all that type of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah you know, in my teenage years. Yeah.
Speaker 4:But once I met her, we just we.
Speaker 1:It was just toxic, yep, yeah.
Speaker 4:She came from a very messed up family too, I don't know what if she was abused that way? But she just came from her, all her sisters are messed up.
Speaker 1:It's too messed up.
Speaker 4:People trying to yeah exactly so we tried to work it out and then we said you know what well, my brothers from ohio. I didn't meet them until I was 23. Yeah, I knew them never met them, never talked to them. They grew up in the same town as my grandfather.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and my grandfather died and I only met my granddad a couple times in my life. Yeah, they came to California, I think a couple times. So I went back to the funeral and met these guys. They were good Catholic boys, my dad told me. You know, they grew up.
Speaker 1:Catholic boys.
Speaker 4:Yeah, straight cut, I got there. We all had long hair big mustaches ride motorcycles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's like I fit right in these are definitely my brothers, the.
Speaker 4:The bloodline don't far fall, far from the tree. What do they say?
Speaker 2:the apple don't fall too far from the tree. You know what's.
Speaker 4:You know what's weird though my mom and dad neither one of them did drink really never. No, no, wow, never drank, wow, and uh, they weren't in, they weren't I don't you know how did my dad get that mindset to being sober? Yeah you know, yeah, but was he ever hurt? Oh, yeah, oh, I see A lot of times.
Speaker 2:I'm getting to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So her and I we said you know what?
Speaker 4:We're leaving California, we're going to Ohio. Oh, wow, and so I went back from my grandfather's funeral. I came back and I said, let's move to Ohio. And then I got there. I felt like I was home.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, and then I got there I felt like I was home. Wow, I just felt like this is where I'm supposed to be. What part of Ohio, cincinnati? Oh, so you moved back home.
Speaker 4:Yeah, wow, where I was born, you know, yeah, and brothers grew up there. I lived in this little town called Norwood, ohio, and it was a rough part of town, yeah, and so we, you had your kid with you and her yeah, yeah, my okay my wife, my son. We went there. He was, uh, he was probably not even a year old.
Speaker 2:Okay, maybe two, yeah you're going there for greener pastures, to give him a life that you hopefully a better life than the one you had in california exactly yeah, so and you've got some family, so there's a little bit of help and you can feel some support well that that definitely happened.
Speaker 4:um, went back there, got a job working for an insulation company, uh, and everything was going good. And then, uh, she ended up cheating on me, yeah, and I found out that she was with this dude that was in a bike club and one day she tried to get me jumped by the bikers. Oh, jeez.
Speaker 1:That wasn't good for her or them.
Speaker 4:Two guys walked in. She told me to meet her at this bar. As soon as I walked in I knew I was being set up. So I walked out across the street to the convenience store and two dudes walked over there and they started getting in my face and were going to rough me up. And this one dude, he was probably about 6'6" One punch he was down.
Speaker 1:I love big trees. They fall hard, buddy.
Speaker 2:The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Speaker 4:He was down, yeah and I said yep, come chase after me on motorcycles. I got my truck yeah I'll run your butts over yeah and so, uh, the next day I loaded up my stuff and went back to california really left her left her. My boy, wow, yeah, and I stayed with my mom there she lived in.
Speaker 1:Ohio for a little bit over a year dang dude. So I came back and stayed with my mom, do you get to spend any time with your brothers or anything?
Speaker 4:like that. Oh yeah, we hung out a lot, any other? Family you get to meet yeah, I get to meet some of my aunts I've only seen a few times in my life and I have a cousin, a couple of cousins. Is it good to meet some of my aunts that I've only seen a few times in my life too.
Speaker 1:And I have a couple of cousins. Was it good to meet some family? Oh yeah, get to know those people, yeah.
Speaker 2:Those are mom's sisters or brother's dads, mom's sisters, okay.
Speaker 4:And my dad had one sister. Okay, and so when I was in Ohio, I kind of searched to see what the past of my dad was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh.
Speaker 4:I wanted to know where this came from.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh.
Speaker 4:And so what I found out? That had been happening for a couple of generations. Wow, my grandmother was my granddad. He was an incredible guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:My grandma she had some weird things going on. Yeah, but yeah, going on with him and his on. Yeah, but yeah, going on with him and his sister Dang.
Speaker 1:Generational thing.
Speaker 4:It's a generational thing.
Speaker 2:A lot of times, man, you only do what you know, and if it's what you know, then you're just going to do it Like you were talking about. Oh, this is love and this is what you do. Man, do it and like like you were talking about that oh, this is love and this is what you do. That's you. He was man it's just a cycle that just persists and just goes down, unless somebody stands up and says no, it ends with me and that's what happened.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but we, I went through this stage, uh, probably from the time I was.
Speaker 3:Well remember one time my dad had he'd been married he at least five times oh god after your mom yeah, if not more oh, jesus, he's trying to bring me to to his house, and say you know, come, come, stay with me, or whatever I'm like, no, I'm good yeah and then, uh, one time he had this, this gal that he with, and she had five boys, and stole some stuff from my dad and blamed it on me because I just got out of juvie. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And I wasn't the perpetrator.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And he took me outside and proceeded to take his belt off. I said you take that belt off.
Speaker 3:These are coming out and I'm going to knock you out, yeah.
Speaker 4:And he said, yeah, you are kind of big. I don't think I'm going to.
Speaker 2:You're not that little four-year-old boy anymore. I said I'm telling you right now. I didn't take what was stolen.
Speaker 4:You ought to go check out what's in there.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:He said what kind of cigarettes do you smoke? And I was went and bought me a carton of cigarettes.
Speaker 1:It was kind of a weird thing.
Speaker 4:But it still didn't patch up our relationship. No, dude, our relationship dude. Um, I thought about hurting him really bad. For many, many, many years I planned it out. Oh yeah, for many years I was gonna. I was gonna bury him, yeah, and I thought about it and planned it.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, I was gonna try to get away with it all that that unforgiveness man, that stuff just had to be eating you from the inside out. I mean, you had every right to those thoughts and that feeling. And just because that's wrong and you being as an adult, knowing and having kids, like no, that's wrong, I'm going to get, I can. God dude.
Speaker 4:You know just the pictures of him hurting my sister, and you know for me.
Speaker 2:They had pictures of it. No, no, no, I'm serious, they had pictures of his head. Oh, okay, I was like oh my. God, yeah, no, no no, and you know, just that you know, I can still remember what it smelled like in the room.
Speaker 1:Damn dude the paint color.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's still vivid to me oh yeah, I bet, and you know.
Speaker 1:And old things are forever ingrained in you, oh yeah. That's not something you just forget. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:So I ended up leaving her, and I came back to California about a month later.
Speaker 2:How old were you while you were in Ohio for that year?
Speaker 4:I was 24, 25, around there.
Speaker 1:Okay. Then I ended up coming back to california and she uh decided she, you can't leave me. I said yeah, I can't, I'm out, I'm already in california.
Speaker 4:How could you already? You left me here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I left you here that's what you wanted you know you have a good life, yeah and I mean I hated leaving my boy there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, month later she was back in california. Oh, geez and uh, but we never did get back together. Amen.
Speaker 3:Oh wow.
Speaker 4:And I'm like nope, I'm good, I had enough of that.
Speaker 2:You tried to set me up once. Dude, I can't trust you. No more girl. That's right, it ain't happening.
Speaker 4:And you know she's had a hard life, though, that's for sure, yeah, and so I ended up. When I came back, I met this lady that lived in these condos that my mom lived in.
Speaker 2:Oh, so you moved back with Mama, like you said.
Speaker 4:And she was 13 years older than me, liked them. Older women, yeah, and we just hit it off man, it was just a great relationship.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:But that same year I was introduced to crack. Oh, and that was in 1987.
Speaker 1:I was right in well, I was right in the heart of it, right in the heart of it, oh yeah, in Cali Jesus.
Speaker 4:And I used to go to the LBC East LA. Oh wow, south Central, south Central, where I didn't belong, and I would go and buy. But I was with this lady for five years. She never knew what I was doing. I was going to ask I was a functional if you can call it that, a functional drug addict.
Speaker 2:There's no such thing, people. All you're doing is paying your bills. You're still getting high, dude.
Speaker 4:There's nothing good about it for me I would work all week and just party on the weekend yeah, and I remembered. I remember crying out to god god, please don't let me turn my car this way and it was like enemy was just taking the wheel and I used to go up to Hollywood and I had a friend of mine that lived up there right behind the studios up there, and I would go to El Dorado Park and buy dope, go to his apartment.
Speaker 2:Smoke all weekend.
Speaker 4:And I'd be back at work on Monday morning. And they were like how do you do that Damn? There's be back at work on monday morning, yeah. And they're like how do you do that damn? But um, there's a will. There's a way, man, yeah and we'd run out of money and I'd robbed a few people. Yeah, and heard a few people. I've been shot at, been stabbed once. Uh, you know addiction sucks man.
Speaker 2:It makes you, turns you into somebody that you're not supposed to be, but bud.
Speaker 4:You know, I know that God took care of me from that little boy. I know that today, yeah, he protected me through all my addiction. I never got arrested for drugs. Wow, ever the burglary.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, dude, I never got arrested for any of that.
Speaker 4:It was all for traffic. Yeah, wow, and so I'm just arrested for any of that. It was all for traffic. Yeah, uh, wow, and so, uh, I'm just like so fortunate that I did all these things, hurt people, and I wasn't. I wasn't being sent to prison, yeah, I was just talking.
Speaker 2:I just helped my buddy move, bro, and I was talking with him about his prior life and he was showing me all these pictures, all this stuff he used to move, and I was like, damn homie, the only difference between you and me is I got caught and you didn't, bro, and he's like that's right. Yeah, it's really what it is, man. Everybody is stupid and young and foolish and dumb and thinks the world got it yeah I did.
Speaker 4:I did a lot of county time too, you know, did a lot, of, a lot of in and out of LA and Orange County.
Speaker 1:See, I really think my prison times are what saved me. Oh yeah, because if I would have kept going the way I was going before I got to prison, I might not have made it through living like that. Getting into prison probably kept me away from everything, everything from the things that were going to kill me right.
Speaker 4:You know we think sometimes going to prison is like, oh, a prison would kill.
Speaker 2:A prison probably saved me, dude hello you know, man, yeah, yeah, so me and this gal, uh, she's you're 25 and she's 38, 37, she was 40, I was I was 27 okay okay and uh, we and we dated for five, six years. Did she have a previous marriage?
Speaker 4:She'd been married and had two boys.
Speaker 2:Her boys live with her oh okay, they're good kids. Wow, so you're 27 and moving in with did you move in with her Mm-hmm and you're helping her with her boys?
Speaker 4:I don't think I was helping.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 4:God.
Speaker 3:Ron.
Speaker 4:They were 15 and 16.
Speaker 3:You know they were doing their own thing, I wasn't going to try to be their dad, Were they fighting you and like oh, who's this freaking guy?
Speaker 2:You're not my dad, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4:No, they loved me man.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 4:They loved me. Her sister, her family loved me.
Speaker 1:They didn't know my secret though.
Speaker 4:I knew how to hide it. Well, I don't know how she put up with it. You know I'd be gone on Friday night, come home on Sunday and she'd be there, yeah, waiting, you know.
Speaker 3:Wow, dude.
Speaker 2:And she was naive about she don't know she don't never did yeah, did she go to church? Was she a good like?
Speaker 4:she was a, she was a believer. Um. Before I met her we didn't go to church together. Um, but her first marriage they were very involved in church. You know, the boys grew up in the church. Oh, wow, um and wow it was probably her, her belief, that saved me from my.
Speaker 2:Maybe she was praying for you, bro. Yeah, I'm telling you You'd leave on Friday and she'd start praying. Just get him through the week, get him back here, god.
Speaker 4:But we would do these trips. We went to Ohio, back to Ohio, together on just a vacation trip, and it was funny one time we went to Ohio together on just a vacation trip. It was funny one time we went to Ohio. Grew up in California. I wore jam shorts when those were hot. I think the beach tank top shirt we're out in the middle of Kentucky Took a drive from Cincinnati up. They call it Mammoth Caves. I'm the type of person that if I see something, I'll say oh let's go check that out.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I saw this place that said the home, the boyhood home of Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln. Oh, wow, so we went there and there was this little cabin about the size of that little cubicle there yeah. It was big enough, but it was inside this glass thing.
Speaker 2:That was the home. That was his home, yeah.
Speaker 4:The whole little town was all Abraham Lincoln.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 4:We stopped at this store on the way out. There it's in the middle of a. I thought we were here banjos playing.
Speaker 2:They don't call it the Bluegrass State for nothing bud.
Speaker 4:So we pull in this gas station.
Speaker 2:I go inside and the lady says y'all ain't from around here are you, and they have a piece of straw in their mouth. Hey there boy.
Speaker 3:No, ma'am.
Speaker 4:She goes where are you from? From california. And then she came in, she had her tight bike pants on. Yeah, they were just like where are?
Speaker 4:these people come out yeah come from whatever, it was pretty funny yeah but we used to do all these great trips and she was an incredible, incredible lady. She was a title officer for for she had a good job. Oh yeah, oh yeah so she took care of everything and I spent my money on dope. Yeah and uh, how she put up with that, I don't know. But in, uh, in 93, uh oh, wow so you're you're working.
Speaker 2:You're doing installation, I'm doing installation and she's working. You're doing installation, I'm doing installation and she's working. But you're not giving no money to the house, you're not paying no bills, you're not buying no food, no, oh, wow, ron.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:How she dealt with, how she put up with that dude yeah.
Speaker 4:And for so long.
Speaker 2:Wow bro.
Speaker 4:Then one weekend her boys moved with their dad up in Idaho, Coeur d'Alene. Idaho, God's country.
Speaker 2:Beautiful up there bud we were going to move there once, I wish. I would have. We were running bud.
Speaker 3:He was having to go to prison.
Speaker 4:We're like are we going to Canada or Coeur d'Alene Great plan? People that wanted to hide, they go up there for sure, ruby Ridge baby.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, dad, I live 10 minutes from, there, richard Butler. My parents were crazy bro. So we went up there one weekend.
Speaker 4:We were outlaws too, brother we went up there one weekend to visit our boys they live with their dad and we came across the Washington-Nidale and I said, eureka, I found it. She said what's that? I said we're gonna move here, yeah she says I can't move here. I said I can. Three weeks later I moved there was sleeping on the couch of her ex-husband. Wow, whoa, yeah whoa and and I got there and uh, stayed clean for a couple of years, yeah.
Speaker 2:Really. Yeah, this is probably the longest time that you stayed clean, since you started getting high as a kid, probably.
Speaker 4:Dang bro, how old are you? So I was probably 32. Wow.
Speaker 2:Has there been any kind of a rehab or any kind of a Never no classes, no drugs.
Speaker 4:I've been to AA a couple of times and NA or any kind of a no classes, no drugs. I've been to AA a couple of times and NA, but every time I went to those, I jonesed yeah forcefully or on your own, On my own, yeah, really, but I just felt like man these stories every time I'm like I gotta go.
Speaker 1:I used to go to those to find people to sell dope to. I remember the first time I went to a couple of Celebrity Recoveries before I came to Celebrity Recovery. I was like what the hell is these people doing?
Speaker 3:You know, what I mean.
Speaker 1:I stayed for the big group as soon as they broke up in a small. I'm like I'm going to sit down.
Speaker 2:Time to go. I did that for like the first year I love.
Speaker 1:The worship part't sitting down spilling out my beans to everybody.
Speaker 4:So I ended up moving there and got a job with an installation company over in Spokane, and a few months later she ended up moving there and got a house.
Speaker 2:Really Is it. Are you installation or insulation? Insulation Insulation, okay, inside the new home.
Speaker 4:Stuff to keep your house warm. Okay, yeah, all right, blowing insulation in attics or whatever. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Man, that stuff ain't no joke, that's got fiberglass.
Speaker 4:No, I did it for 35, almost 40 years?
Speaker 2:Oh bro, yeah, did you do it wearing a mask?
Speaker 4:No, oh God, I'm waiting for the day that they.
Speaker 2:Look at your lungs. His whole lungs are fiberglass, Jesus Ron.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I, lungs are fiberglass. Jesus ron? Yeah, I was, I had. I wore well, I didn't wear glasses until I was 40, but uh always had a mustache. I was always going through my mustache.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I've had this food man chew since I was 19 they probably said fiberglass thing, that's the only thing holding this man together. All that fiberglass, it's all jesus bud.
Speaker 4:So I, I moved there and then she came out for a little bit and we, we got a house and and uh, the, the 40 year old from cali. Yeah, moves up there where her ex-husband is, yeah, yeah, and her boys are, and her boys and she got a job with another title company up there and uh did very well, but uh, our relationship was going side. She couldn't yeah, she couldn't handle it no more and uh, I was getting clean, but then at the same time, were you, you weren't still living with the dude.
Speaker 2:You're with her. I got my own apartment.
Speaker 4:Yeah, okay, I got my own place, okay actually I had a roommate, we rented a house together and, uh, I started I don't know four or five girlfriends at the time when you say clean, you just mean drugs.
Speaker 1:Were you drinking at all?
Speaker 4:I was drinking, but I wasn't using using and that coke was crack was my choice, so it's kind of hard to get crack up in court lane.
Speaker 2:Ida, you look hard enough, you can find it yeah so two years went by.
Speaker 4:I ended up meeting this guy, uh in construction, uh in 95.
Speaker 1:That's where you can find it oh, yeah, yeah, go to any construction site, you find me, I could have found it.
Speaker 4:The day I walked got to to cordell lane, but I just didn't want it at that time yeah, I wanted to feel what it was like being without it.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, wow, and so do you think that the lady being fed up and leaving was part of maybe why you went back into getting high again?
Speaker 4:no, no, no okay, I stayed clean. I was, I was kind of going to bars and womanizing and and did that for a couple of years and and uh, sounds like your father.
Speaker 1:I live with I live with.
Speaker 4:I live with this one dude.
Speaker 2:I live with this one dude that never.
Speaker 4:He was a goody two shoe guy, yeah, and I I had like three girlfriends at one time.
Speaker 2:He's like which one tonight? Yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 4:But, um, and I'm not glorifying that at all, but, uh, I went to a bar one night, met this gal Um, she's a couple of years older than me, uh, and told her my story and she told me that she had gotten divorced and had two girls and she didn't want to marry. She didn't want to be with a guy that's a Scorpio that has kids or dogs. Well, I'm a Scorpio, I had kids and I had a dog. We ended up getting together.
Speaker 2:God's got a great sense of humor and she, we drink.
Speaker 1:We drink a lot together um and no, no dope though not yet okay so you never had, you never had any issues with your drinking remember he's a functioning well, I mean duis. Oh yeah, things like that come from drinking. I had two duis traffic traffic stuff.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I had two duis so her and I, we, we uh ended up getting together, moving in together.
Speaker 2:This was just and you're still up in quarter lane, yeah, or?
Speaker 4:eureka. This, no, it was Coeur d'Alene was his Eureka, it was my Eureka. Oh, I got you. I found it is what Eureka means. Okay, and so we ended up moving in together and we started our own insulation business in 1995. Wow, I'm like.
Speaker 2:I'm done. Making money for other people, let's make it for myself, man, I started my own gig.
Speaker 4:Wow, her and I with two $1,500 credit cards. We were in business for about six months Met another guy. He wanted to come into business with us. About six months later he decided that he could do. I taught him enough and he could do it on his own. Oh, wow, so we ended up splitting. And I grew this company. We had two $1,500 credit cards.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And in the height of it we were doing about $1.5 million a year. Dang, and just 300 houses a year yeah Wow, apartments, commercial buildings, all type of things that we were doing and I met this contractor. We did this big apartment job and he was a Coke dealer. Oh, no Like.
Speaker 3:I said earlier.
Speaker 4:I don't think I can just walk into a house and there's a big old pile there, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I'm strong enough I can walk away, but I didn't have to go to the streets no more. This guy lived at a million-dollar home on a golf course and he only dealt to about four or five people, yeah lived at a million dollar home on a golf course and he only dealt to about four or five people.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we were all friends plumber, electrician, yeah, you know, and he just, he just had that group of friends. Yeah, we go out to the lake on the weekends together and we just hung out together, wow and um, but it was really bad. Then I introduced the new gallon to crack, oh wow, and still doing it just on the weekends. Yeah, we, we friday, we go get some. Come home and I would lock myself in the room all weekend. The kids are like what's dad doing?
Speaker 4:in there, yeah and her two girls. You know they were like what was going on with this dude you know ringing my bell? They didn't. They have no idea what's going on, but then was mom joining you in the bedroom oh, yeah, but she was a she, I was a non-functional addict when I started, don't say what you got to say, because once I'm I start, I don't talk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, I'm like that too, dude. I'd get high with my mom, bro, and then just say something. She'd yell at me, say something I'm like yeah, I'd be biting on my yeah.
Speaker 3:Jesus. Thank you God.
Speaker 1:We knew this guy, pablo. He would do coke and his mouth would get so numb that he couldn't talk. So you'd be like talking to him.
Speaker 4:He'd be like oh yeah you'd mumble yeah, it was it was some weird, weird time man, yeah, um, but she, I feel bad today that I brought her into that life.
Speaker 4:And it messed her up. You know feeling bad about her kids and all that. I'm thankful for the lady that she was. She was probably the first woman that ever loved me for who I was. She ad loved me, yeah, for who I was. Yeah, she adored me, yeah. And then it fell apart because of drugs, wow. And one night she came home, or I came home and she said it's either the dope or the house, or the kids.
Speaker 4:And I couldn't stop Wow, kids, yeah and um, I couldn't stop wow and uh, she ended up. Uh, well, we back up a little bit. Um, we moved out of the house. We, we actually went bankrupt in 1999 and kept the business going.
Speaker 4:Um, we moved out to fight over by ruby ridge yeah about five acres out there, out in the middle of nowhere, and um, built this night, put it, brought in us a double wide and I built this big barn, had a horse and you know, thought things were going, but I was, I was still doing my thing, yeah, and um, she, finally, she finally said I haven't, I'm not doing this, no more. And she ended up leaving me and that tore me up. Why can't I quit? Why can't I quit? She's just an incredible lady. She didn't know she's an atheist. Even today we don't believe in Jesus and she ended up leaving and one night we were probably separated on three or four months. And one night she was at a bar with another dude and we already split up and we were never married.
Speaker 3:Together.
Speaker 4:I should back up. We had a son together. My youngest son, yeah, he just turned 29 on the 9th of may. Wow and uh, I told him I enjoyed that last year the 20s yeah he's a good kid, uh. So we had a boy together. It was planned, uh, and we knew that we wanted to have a kid, yeah, and did it the way we wanted.
Speaker 1:You guys are running a business and living life and doing your thing, man.
Speaker 4:Well, we're not a great life, yeah, but again, her and I, we love NASCAR, we love camping. I had a place on the river, took my camper, kept there all summer long, brought the four-wheel my camper kept there all summer long. Yeah, brought the four-wheelers, left them there. Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know, just go every weekend, go to the river, amen. And when she was done with it, she was done with it, yeah, and I didn't know how to stop. So one night she was at the bar with this other dude been spit up for a while. I went into a jealous rage. Oh, been spit up for a while. I went into a jealous rage, oh damn. And walked in the bar and some dude I don't know if it was the dude, some dude was sitting next to her. I busted his head on the table and the bar brawl broke out. I was arrested the next day. This guy crushed his face.
Speaker 4:He ended up losing his eye and this fight so they, they, they said it was aggravated mayhem and I was facing 15 years. Wow, dude. And so when I went to jail, my bill was 500 grand.
Speaker 1:I'm like there is no way.
Speaker 4:I'm going to get out on this.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's no way I know how much money I got in the bank with the business and all that. So they ended up, uh, at my hearing, got my lawyer, they dropped it down to uh 50 000, thank god, and I was able to bail out. Yeah, and I got out, um, went through trial, took over a year to go through that whole process and I was ended up got convicted. Yeah, and, uh, do you go to prison then? Um, so when I was in jail, these, uh, these two dudes were, were coming into the jail bubble and miles bubble was the next Hell's.
Speaker 3:Angel.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Just an incredible dude man. And Miles is from New York, had tattoos on the back of his head and they were bringing CR into the show. Shut up.
Speaker 4:Wow, oh wow. And I said if these guys can do it, I can do it. Wow, I had just bought an ounce of cocaine. I called my manager at my business, called my. My foreman said you don't know this about me, but go on, go up on the loft. There's an ounce of cocaine up there. I want a gun when I get, when I get out wow, dude cold turkey, boom, you asked me earlier. Never went to rehab, never nothing. Yeah, never touched.
Speaker 2:After that, wow, that was july, july 4th um 2004, wow wow, you must have seen something in bubba and miles that gave you some. Well, it is possible it's all himself, brother.
Speaker 1:He said he just grew up biker and all this other stuff he saw himself. Yeah, I just saw someone he could relate to, someone he could see himself in Some hope.
Speaker 4:These guys and I knew Miles from. He was a construction guy too. Yeah, Did draw ball, oh. So you knew him on the outside. I knew Miles, I didn't know Bubba.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:But I knew him.
Speaker 2:And then you're locked up and then they come into the jail and see you. You're like oh, I know this dude.
Speaker 4:Yeah, wow, into the jail and see you. You're like I know this dude. Yeah, wow, and and miles, I remember before he became christian he was a guy he's been yeah, he'd already been clean for several years.
Speaker 1:But uh, he wasn't christian man.
Speaker 3:He foul mouth, you know, just at work hey, I love jesus, I just cuss a little, and so he they brought in cr and wow bro I need to do this.
Speaker 4:And they kept on coming back every week and I said, um, I said, brother, I'm gonna come to that to your cr you better come.
Speaker 4:So they had a, they had a huge 200 people uh cr wow and um so I ended up getting out um going through trial and um going to that church real life ministries in post falls, idaho, and I remember sitting out in that parking lot for two weeks going. There's no way I'm walking in there, I'm getting struck by lightning there ain't no way god's gonna forgive me for what I've done yeah and then when I walked in them doors the third week, I knew I was home.
Speaker 4:Wow, lord had picked me up and brought me, brought me home, come on. And I saw all these people. They're just like me. Yeah, you know. Yeah, hurt down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know that's why I love cr man dang, bro, at the time I was done.
Speaker 4:You asked me earlier I was done with with coke and crack. I would buy powder and cook it and I quit that, but I was still drinking. Yeah, even after, after I was going to cr, went through my first 12-step. I don't have a drinking problem, I just have a coke problem. Yeah, and so I've been through a lot of relationships, met this other gal after that she didn't drink. We were going to CR together doing all the stuff. We ended up getting married.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 4:And stayed clean. But one night I had no, I'm sorry. Back up, yeah, I was still drinking, but then when I met her I wasn't drinking anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And one night she says let's go to the bar and have a beer together. I'm like you really want to do that yeah I don't know about that so I said okay.
Speaker 4:So we, we rode down to the local tavern and I'm sitting there, ordered my first beer and go to take my first sip. I get a tap on the shoulder and this lady says what do you think you should do right now? Wow. And I turned around and my probation officer oh.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes I said I'm going to finish this beer is what.
Speaker 2:I'm going to do. I know what's about to happen.
Speaker 4:No, that's not what you do, I'm just going to give this to her so, uh, she, she couldn't arrest me right then because she was hammered herself, yeah, playing pool in the in there. The next morning she came and got me violated me. So when I got convicted I got the lightest sentence. I always call it it the lightest sentence of all time.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:They ended up giving me five years probation and six months work release.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:When I was sitting in work release, I would work all day. My business was I'd get out for like 14 hours because my business was 100 miles from the center, 100 miles north or 100 miles south east west yeah yeah, and they would let me out and the the cops. You'd have to call them every time you work release.
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah, and they would. You got to call them every time you move. Yeah, and I was moving every 10 minutes because I had all these jobs. Yeah, and they said you don't need to call as much about every hour, let us know where you're at and this is for the aggravated mayhem breaking the dude's eye in the bar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah you got five years probation you got five years probation with no time no prison time.
Speaker 4:Wow, I got work released that's what he said.
Speaker 4:Well, I don't know about that and then and then, uh, so the night I got violated they gave me another six month work release. That that da man. He wanted to put me away. See, I told you. Um, forget what the judge's name was. It's a long ago um, he said see, I told you he's, he needs to go to prison. Yeah. And he said I heard we're not trying him again, you sit down. And he gave me six months. He knew that I was a businessman in the in the community yeah, and that's probably why and I had I had um christian, I met bubba miles.
Speaker 4:Yeah, went, went to that church. I was actually um weeks before I got arrested. All the, all these, these Christians were coming around me At the grocery store, the gas station. God's trying to get you. I'm like people come up to me. You know Jesus? Yeah, I know Jesus. I don't know, I'm not into all that.
Speaker 4:And then a buddy of mine that sold me my insulation. I called him my supplier. He actually we became very good friends. He used to drink with me before and he invited me to church with him and his wife or actually this is a men's breakfast. He said, hey, ron, you need to come check out my church. And I went there and this is I'm like, wow, this pastor knew I was coming, he was speaking, it was my story. I said, mike, did you go tell Pastor Gary that I was coming? And told him my story before I got here. He said, no, no, that's the Holy Spirit right there, 100%. And a couple days later I got arrested and I was like why, lord, I was in denial, it wasn't my fault. I don't know who broke that guy's face and I still don't to this day I don't think I was the one I just had knee surgery and I was taken to the ground right away and my face was. I might have done it. I don't remember doing it, but I take responsibility for it.
Speaker 1:They said you probably said because you started it, yep, if I didn't walk in that, if I didn't walk in that bar that night yeah, dude would still have his eye, yeah and all that. You may not have been the one that did it, but you were the one who started everything I put it all in action so I take responsibility.
Speaker 4:That's what CR has done for me. Come on now, that's good Come on, and so I ended up going to the CR there at real life, went through my first 12-step and then, as a participant in the next one, I co-led.
Speaker 2:This is all up in Coeur d'Alene, yep, wow so you were up there for a minute.
Speaker 4:I was there from 93 until uh 2011.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow almost 20 years bro, okay yep so and you. You it sounded like from about 93 to 2000, somewhere around like 96 or 97, you started getting high again Somewhere around like 96 or 97, you started getting high again Because you were clean for a couple of years.
Speaker 4:Yeah when I first got there? Yeah, 93 until 96, and then 96. When you got put on probation, did you get clean? Yeah, so when I got arrested, it was in 04.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you were getting high for a minute I was getting.
Speaker 4:I was a crack addict for 16 years. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:But up there when you started you said you started in 96. You moved up there in 93?
Speaker 4:Went there in 93, started in 96.
Speaker 1:So that's eight years you were doing coke again.
Speaker 4:Yep Dang dude.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 4:And I started in 87 until yeah, wow, bro, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Some crazy time. No heroin, no meth, none of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4:I did a little bit. No heroin, Never tried heroin yeah.
Speaker 3:But I just never liked what meth helped.
Speaker 4:I wanted to get that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know what I're talking about. You never rung my bell so I went to the meth.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it only it only works once then you're chasing it the rest of the time. Don't ever, people, don't ever try that it's none of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you may be somebody that likes it.
Speaker 1:That's why I because I was a crackhead too and I went from crack to meth because I liked the longevity that meth had. I could like you. Like you, I was a weekend warrior. I could smoke this much crack in a weekend and be good on monday.
Speaker 2:I like that.
Speaker 1:He literally had friends that had bowls filled with crack you go to their house and they'd have bowls like salad bowls on the thing I mean, but I didn't like the, the, the, the way you had to keep doing it keep it.
Speaker 4:Stay there every five where with meth.
Speaker 1:You could do a line and you were good for hours. I'm like this is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4:I could take apart all the doors, oh yeah, stereos, oh my God.
Speaker 1:That's why I went from crack to meth. Yeah, yeah, I like the way the crack rung your bell, but I like longevity of meth. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 4:So I just it wasn't my thing. I tried some speed back when I was a teenager. Yeah, Tried all the different. Oh yeah, Cross tops.
Speaker 1:Until we find our niche, yeah that was it for me, man?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was my. I moved back to California in 87 and was introduced to it.
Speaker 2:That was my first glove it like wow oh, wow that's right yeah, that's what I've been looking for, yeah nothing ever made me feel this good what a, what a, what a lie?
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah. So when I uh, when I met, so I've been so, I've been married five times Wow. Three kids Four, kids Four kids.
Speaker 1:We got to that one Okay.
Speaker 4:So my boys are. Eric's going to be 49 in July. Ray's going to be 41 next week. Josh just turned 29. And I have a little girl. Wow so, four different kids with four different women.
Speaker 1:You had every generational.
Speaker 4:You got a boomer, you got a Gen X you got a millennial.
Speaker 1:You got one in every generation, bro, I had one. I said it every decade 70s, 80s and 90s and I skipped the millennial Praise God. So you're 2004 in Coeur d'Alene, going to CR, going to real life.
Speaker 4:Doing real life. And then I met my next wife in 06.
Speaker 2:Was she in recovery?
Speaker 4:She was going to CR with me. Yep, yeah, but she had some pretty heavy stuff in her life that was going on, that she'd been in and out of prison.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Had a great job, did very well. We bought a beautiful home together but she had bipolar really bad yeah, and it just in and out, in and out. Mental health man, yeah, it was rough, I love you, I'll rip your freaking head off.
Speaker 1:I love you. I'll rip your freaking head off, yeah.
Speaker 2:That up and down man will get you. It was tough who am I going to get?
Speaker 1:tonight Like Jekyll and Hyde buddy.
Speaker 4:Luckily we didn't have no kids together. He.
Speaker 3:I love you big.
Speaker 2:Ron. He said God saved him from a bunch of hell. Amen, buddy, he was protecting you those first couple years clean.
Speaker 4:I met her in 06. We got married so I think I met her in 05 going to church together, doing all that. Together started a motorcycle ministry. We started uh celebrate recovery at our church, which was the church that I went to that that for that men's group yeah, and it was called one or, I'm sorry it was called uh, new life, new life, so real life to new life, to one life, that's crazy dude.
Speaker 2:I'm not done with it all. God's not done with it all.
Speaker 4:So we ended up getting divorced and she begged me to come back, Begged me to come back, begged me to come back and we ended up getting remarried.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 4:And I'm thinking okay, God, you want me to be with this gal. There's got to be a reason, there's got to be a reason.
Speaker 3:Let's make this thing work.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and we started a Celebrate Recovery at our church her and I and a couple other groups, couples and we ended up starting CR there and it went well, couples, and we ended up starting cr there and it went well. Yeah, um it, our pastor was not. Uh, he, he believed in deliverance. Yeah, once you're delivered from it, it's over.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it don't work that way yeah, I mean it does for some people.
Speaker 4:I mean I was delivered yeah I never went back.
Speaker 2:Once I quit, yeah, um sometimes relapse is a part of someone's recovery exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4:So that night that I got violated was the last time I drank. It was february 11th. Come on, uh, 2006.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come on and that's the last drink. That's the last drink.
Speaker 4:Come on, baby non-drugs come on man so I got you know 19 years off come on buddy and almost 21 years of yeah crack, so man you better come into my cr buds.
Speaker 2:I can give you a 20-year coin, or he can bro come on 21 years. Yeah, well it'd be 20 for alcohol this right, yeah, this year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, come on baby.
Speaker 4:So we, good job, dude. Yeah, we, we, uh, we did a lot of cool stuff together too, um, but man, it was just a dysfunctional relationship how long were you with her and then divorced and then back with her.
Speaker 2:How long total I?
Speaker 4:don't think we were separated, for I think we got.
Speaker 2:Like actually divorced, or you guys just separated? Oh, we don't. Oh, no, you went, we got divorced.
Speaker 4:She divorced me.
Speaker 2:Oh, she did. Yeah, she divorced me.
Speaker 4:And then she ended up going to this bar one night playing pool and I'm like. Searching for her and found her in this bar playing pool with some dude. I went over to her. She got a pitcher of beer. I poured the pitcher over her. Jesus, ron, I'm thinking, okay, I'm going to get in a bar fight, jumped in my truck and took off Left her there.
Speaker 1:She was all scared.
Speaker 4:She never called the cops or nothing. She grew up a rough life yeah, she's not a cop caller.
Speaker 3:No, not not at all.
Speaker 1:She was a part of the mexican mafia one time, yeah, deal in math, come on.
Speaker 4:But she was clean, had a great job. Um, just had that mental health thing going on, you know, and we could never get over it. And so in uh in 2011. Um well, back up again in 2003, I broke my leg at work loading up a load of insulation at the supplier's uh yard. Yeah, in january something there's ice all over the ground just jumped off. The tailgate of the truck Jumped off my femur, went into my tibia two inches.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, buddy.
Speaker 4:And my knee exploded, yeah, and so I had two plates and 11 screws. Welcome to the club my man, and then that healed up and they pulled that out and put my knee in. Wow, so it's been over 20 years since I had that Dang.
Speaker 1:Dang dude in. Wow, so it's been over 20 years since I had that dang and um dang dude, so so you're a little robotic.
Speaker 4:Huh a little bit, come on. Now I need. I need the other one because I've been babying the other leg for all these years now my doc's like yeah, that's bone on bone you need to knee repair it was uh, it was funny because my stepmom just had her hip replaced.
Speaker 4:My kid's mom Susan was her name, my youngest son's mom. We had our business together and I called up my insurance lady. She owned our business, I didn't own it, we weren't married. Yeah, and you got perks. When a woman, a business, you go do stuff on the reservation, there's lots of perks to it. So we just left it in her name. But we called her my sugar mama because I wasn't on anything and you just did the work.
Speaker 4:I just did the work and I built this company. I would do all the itchy stuff. She would do all the stuff that wasn't itchy, and she was the best worker. We just did incredible. She would do all the stuff that was itchy yeah, and she was the best worker. We just did incredible. She would bag the machine I'd go up in the attic.
Speaker 3:Whatever, you know, she just.
Speaker 4:I'll never say one bad thing about her, because she was an incredible lady.
Speaker 2:Teamwork man.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It takes teamwork to make the dream work.
Speaker 4:So I broke my leg and then I uh after that bar thing, um, pouring the pitcher over her? No, after yeah oh, it's a man yeah so I'm like what am I gonna do, man? I can't continue her, her and I split up. I held on to the business for a couple years after and in 2000 I was in eight came along the crash, yeah I was gonna ask you yeah, how was that for you guys? And that was, that was rough, and then uh in 2011. I closed the business down oh wow, actually 2010.
Speaker 4:Uh what, it was a worker it was funny, funny. The day that I broke my leg I called the insurance lady. I said hey, sally, I just broke my leg. I'm in the hospital. I said how am I going to pay for this? I don't have insurance. I said Do I put it on the card that vehicle insurance from the company? What do I do? And she said you just became an employee of Rathdrum Insulation. We checked a couple of checks and made me an employee.
Speaker 1:So I got workers' comp.
Speaker 4:They paid for all the surgery.
Speaker 2:It ain't cheap bro.
Speaker 4:Back then I think I probably got about $200,000 in my leg. Wow, yeah, probably got about 200 and something thousand in my leg, Wow yeah. And then I got a settlement and they offered me 100 grand. Wow they offered me 60 at first I was like, no, that's not enough, put another zero on it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I came back with 100 grand and they said you could take the 100 grand now or you could leave the medical open for life. So I ended up leaving the medical open and took half. Wow. So I took $50,000 and kept the other. So, if anything, I wrapped it up and replaced it. You got to pay for that, nice. So when I shut the business down, I'm like what am I going to do now?
Speaker 2:2011?
Speaker 4:2010. 2010. Okay, and I'm like man, I'm at best.
Speaker 2:How old are you? You're 40, almost 50. Almost 50. Almost 50.
Speaker 4:Like I don't know how to do anything else. I've been doing this since I was 18.
Speaker 1:See, that's why, at almost 50, you should not jump out of the back of trucks. That See, that's why, at almost 50, you should not jump out of the back of trucks. That's wisdom.
Speaker 4:I was only 40, then 142.
Speaker 1:We have lifts and they'll come down like so far. They're like go ahead, jump out. I'm like, no, you bring this thing all the way down.
Speaker 2:I ain't jumping two feet, dude. No, no, no, no. Well, he does box jumps at home. He's like my knee's the next day, dude. Oh yeah, I was cutting trees out back of the church. Come on man.
Speaker 1:And I was only a couple foot high off the ground and I jumped down and dude, my knee hurt for days, bro.
Speaker 2:For like a week, bro, and I'm like that was two feet.
Speaker 1:It wasn't even like a hard jump or nothing, it was just like a little step down.
Speaker 4:I'm like what am I gonna? Do now yeah, and so I went to the workers cop offices and they they'll help you find a job yeah read, read, read. So I went there, I'm looking at the list and they'll train you for free. Yeah, I always told myself my dad was a truck driver. I'll never be a truck driver. Oh wow, because my dad used to do things to me in the truck. Yeah, I'm like I'm never going to get in a truck. At 10 years old, I'm like like there's no way I'm ever driving a truck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well there you are 40 years later I got, I got my cdl went through.
Speaker 4:They paid for my whole, my whole deal wow buddy and and uh and how old are you now? I'll be 64 november so you've been driving a truck for 14 years yeah wow ron so I I went, I went to the school, got out of school and you like it driving. Yeah, I did it's always.
Speaker 2:I just think it's funny because this is the second thing that I've heard in your testimony. That you said, or the woman you said about you know, I'm not, no, no, dog, no, it's like. And now this is I'll never do it yeah, god's got a sense of humor. Be careful.
Speaker 4:What you say you'll never do but I would uh when I got when I got done with the school the director said there's two places they're making stupid money Iraq or North Dakota. I said I'm going to North Dakota.
Speaker 3:North Dakota sounds good, North Dakota eh.
Speaker 4:And them I didn't want to get shot at. I knew people that went up there.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, them contractors, bro. They made some money, yes, sir.
Speaker 4:I could have made twice as much doing that, oh, yeah, bud. And working half the time. Yeah, so I went up there, got a start driving truck in the oil field and I was an animal man, I just worked, worked, worked.
Speaker 2:Staying sober, though, and no drinking.
Speaker 4:I got divorced and again that woman, my fourth wife.
Speaker 1:yeah, we married twice so you're single, you got nothing tying you down yeah, you can work, dude so I've worked these guys in the oil field.
Speaker 4:Back then dudes are nuts, we were working you. You go out for 18 hours come home be sleeping for two hours. Dispatch, call you up.
Speaker 1:I got another job for you yeah and if you said no they put you on the bottom list, yeah yeah, you never said no, okay, I had like. No, they put you on the bottom list. Oh yeah, you wouldn't get work for it. Yeah, yeah. So you never said no, yeah, okay.
Speaker 4:I had like three or four log books at the time. Wow, you're always checking the log books.
Speaker 2:Because they want to check your hours.
Speaker 4:You got to do it. You know, back then they didn't have ELDs Made really good money up there yeah.
Speaker 1:And then in 2011,.
Speaker 4:I'm in North Dakota, in Williston.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 4:I'm like I'm bored Sitting in this little trailer. I had my trailer I used to put on the river Sitting in this thing.
Speaker 3:Bored out of my mind.
Speaker 4:I'm lonely. So, I go online, oh and uh go to this site called cherryblossomcom and uh met a, met a couple of girls I did before I left idaho did the same thing yeah, and then uh, idaho did the same thing, yeah. And then one day my wife. Today I met her online Really. She lived in Roseville, california, from the Philippines. Yeah, funny story is when I was in the eighth grade, I had to do this. I had to do a Book report On geography.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Pick the Philippines.
Speaker 4:I had to spin the globe wherever you stopped. You had to do a paper on that place, no way mine was cebu, philippines wow, that's where my wife is from.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's nice the cebu backpack ministry oh dude, I love you god man, god, god did, wow, put this woman in my life and I'm like I always wanted to meet a Filipino. Yeah, you know, wow, I couldn't go because I had I owed so much child support for my middle son couldn't get a passport. I couldn't get if you owe more than $2,500, you couldn't and.
Speaker 1:I owed like $60,000 wow, and you owe child support. You can't get a passport. No, really, you can't go out of the country.
Speaker 2:You can't go out of the country? No, because you're trying to get away from it, yep.
Speaker 1:What if he doesn't know what you're running from, though?
Speaker 2:They don't know that They'll put you in jail for that. Oh, I know.
Speaker 3:I know.
Speaker 1:My cousin used child support. He disappeared, we're like where's he at and he'd get a call. I'm like I owe child support.
Speaker 4:Still, he's dead now. He still owes child support. God was working me. I owed $60,000 at one time, damn. I found out that she was in California my 41-year-old son, that she was collecting welfare for him when he was living with me in Idaho Really For a couple of years. Oh wow, and I told him. I said when I got up to Idaho or North Dakota, I said and I told them, I said when I got up in Idaho or North Dakota, I said you tell your mom that if she tells him she doesn't want any of the back support, I won't tell California that you live with me. She said you can't prove that.
Speaker 3:I said yeah.
Speaker 1:I can.
Speaker 4:I got school records, and so she ended up dropping a bunch of them.
Speaker 3:But there was interest.
Speaker 4:That was still on it that I owed. California. Yeah, it was $7,800. I took my 401K out and paid it right there. Now I can go to the Philippines if I want. Yeah, wow, but then I met my wife Emily. She lived in Roseville.
Speaker 2:Roseville, North Dakota.
Speaker 4:Oh okay, California.
Speaker 2:Oh, so you're up in North Dakota and you do the cherry blossom thing and she's at Roseville, california, yep, okay.
Speaker 4:But then I'm still in love with my wife, yeah.
Speaker 3:The one who you were with and divorced and back with.
Speaker 4:Yep, we got divorced again.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 4:And she came up and visited me one time. Oh wow. And we thought, oh, it's going to work out. Third time it didn. And we thought, oh, it's going to work out, you know. But then it didn't. And then I went to go visit her in December, or something like that in Idaho. And I went to the hotel room and she was just I don't know what she was on Xanax.
Speaker 1:She stood up out of the bed and fell through the wall. Oh Jesus, In this hotel room.
Speaker 4:I'm like, oh, I'm, I'm out, see ya I haven't seen her since wow, and then I was. I was calling emily, my wife, today. She was in california I said hey I'm gonna come to california and see you right now. So I drove to california and met her, but what? As I was courting her?
Speaker 2:you're really spontaneous. That's a's a big thing with addicts, bro, is we just get this bright idea and we go for it. Exactly, it's like slow down.
Speaker 1:Spontaneous can be fun, bro, it can be.
Speaker 4:So I ended up going to California and meeting her in person. But when I was courting her, you know, we'd talk on the phone every day and I only could go in this one spot. This beautiful overview of Williston. You could see everywhere. Well, you could see Nebraska from there. It's so flat, but there was one little tiny hill that I used to sit up there and you could only get cell service there.
Speaker 3:I couldn't get it in my trailer.
Speaker 4:And so I'm talking to her and I says uh, I said, do you know jesus? She goes yeah, I know jesus, I go, do you have a relationship with jesus? And she goes, what's that mean? And I got to lead her to christ that day.
Speaker 3:Wow, and then she was telling me about her dad.
Speaker 4:He was, he was sick and and all. And I said can I pray for your dad? And I said I'm going to pray with you right now, out loud. You know we're on the phone and I pray for her and you know all that Don't hear nothing.
Speaker 2:So this is the first time in your testimony that you've talked about faith or sharing your faith or working with somebody or a woman or a guy, and Jesus is the focus of the conversation.
Speaker 4:I probably should go back. I'm sorry I didn't talk about that, but when I was in jail and going way back here, but when I was violated I was in jail for 30 days I ended up bringing five guys to Christ Come on baby, Except for Christ.
Speaker 2:Come on, bro.
Speaker 4:I was very, very involved. Celebrate recovery.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And that was my thing and I was doing motorcycle ministry feeding the homeless. I started this homeless ministry called Feed that Neighbor Come on bro. I used to have this little cart. I would take it underneath the bridges in Spokane by myself and just start cooking.
Speaker 1:Come on, man, wherever it showed up, you ever make it over to Wyoming anywhere, oh yeah. What was that? Where was Craig from in Wyoming? Oh geez.
Speaker 4:Casper. Yeah, that's casper wyoming, casper wyoming.
Speaker 1:There's a guy there. What's that guy's name?
Speaker 2:burt burt, burt burt eldridge burt eldridge.
Speaker 4:He's a biker. Biker, okay, I, I think I know who he is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think he's part of broken chains I don't know.
Speaker 1:Buddy of ours used to go there.
Speaker 4:He's from casper wyoming, okay, yeah yeah, I've met a bunch of those guys it's a small world church and ministry. It's a small world dude so, uh, you know, I ended up starting to celebrate recovery at my at new life yeah, yeah and started the homeless ministry was. That's where I met my buddy I talked about when I first got here yeah, my accountability partner yeah, yeah I was. I was looking for a place to serve the one?
Speaker 2:who are you telling that you're coming on the podcast and it's?
Speaker 4:called.
Speaker 4:I love that and he he'd been feeding the homeless at this place uh downtown Spokane. At this uh senior citizen uh kitchen yeah and they would let him do holidays and stuff like that. Thanksgiving was coming. I said, hey, I'd like to come over and help serve kitchen. Yeah, and they would let him do holidays and stuff like that. Thanksgiving was coming. I said, hey, I'd like to come over and help serve whatever yeah and came over there and the first time we talked on the phone he was at walmart doing grocery shopping for the for the homeless ministry we ended up talking for two hours on the phone come on, buddy about jesus come on buddy and then, when I met him in person'm saying why do we only do this on the holidays?
Speaker 4:Yeah, why do we only serve as Christians on Christmas, thanksgiving, easter, why are we? Why, you know, then, we're just Sunday Christians, yeah.
Speaker 2:Come on, buddy.
Speaker 4:I said I want to do this every day. So I ended up getting the cart going downtown feeding and then I was doing it in corner when it got cold. I was doing in post falls, coeur d'Alene, where I live, and there was a St Vinny's thrift store and I asked him if I could, if I could serve in front of the store.
Speaker 2:St Vincent DePaul.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, on Wednesday nights, if I could go there Wednesdaynesday night and feed and they let me do that for almost all, uh, three months of the cold I guess that was october, november, starting to get pretty cold. Yeah, the directors of saint vinnie's called me and said hey, ron, I need you to come down to my office. I'm thinking he's cutting me off. Yeah, yeah, he said you know, behind this thrift store, we, we own the apartments back there and there's this, a basement apartment. It's not an apartment, it's like a kitchen with all the stuff. How would you like to take your ministry down there?
Speaker 2:wow, look at god, go, and I'm like really.
Speaker 4:He said, yeah, you could use that, he goes. But here's the kicker we're going to use that as a warming room. When it gets 20 degrees below, we're going to let the homeless come stay there. And will you stay the night with them so they don't tear the place up? Wow, dude, I said ain't got a problem, anytime, come on. Wow, bro, these guys were like wow, they all knew who I was.
Speaker 1:Everybody knew who Big Ron was.
Speaker 4:And from CR, from the things that I did in town and they used to call me Pastor Ron. I'm like yeah, I'm no pastor and I just do CR. That was my always. I just do CR. So one night I'm sitting there with these guys and they said I said, what do you guys need? What do you you know?
Speaker 2:The homeless. You're sitting in the warming room with the homeless guy.
Speaker 4:I said what do you guys need? You know, I know you can get food any three times a day. I said but what do you need? Underwear, socks, backpacks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, out of the horse's mouth. What do you guys need? What do you need?
Speaker 4:And I said I'm going to pass this tablet around or paper tablet around, and you guys put down and there was male and female.
Speaker 1:Oh wow.
Speaker 4:So I had five churches that were doing this Feed. Thy Neighbor was my ministry.
Speaker 1:It wasn't New.
Speaker 4:Life's ministry. It wasn't Real Life's ministry. There was five churches that were involved.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 4:And I ended up going to each one of those and they put a like a a collection bin in there for whatever, but I had a list of what they wanted. We ended up filling a 53-foot semi-trailer. Wow, we had so much stuff.
Speaker 2:Come on, buddy.
Speaker 4:We took care of the homeless there and in Spokane. Wow, wow, dude, it was crazy. Yeah, new shoes, new backpacks, new sleeping bags. Yeah, one of the guys said can you get the cops to quit bugging us when we're sleeping in the park?
Speaker 1:I don't know if I got that clout but I'll try, buddy.
Speaker 2:He said they always make us move in the middle of the night. I said I remember those days, man. Amen, buddy, I remember those days.
Speaker 4:Cops come knock on my car hey you need to move.
Speaker 2:The worst for me, bud, is I'd fall asleep in the parks and the baseball fields and I'd be in the bleachers, bro, and the kids would come, or the coaches. We're getting ready to play a game, can you get up? You can't really have your hair with the kids coming in here.
Speaker 4:I'm sure I'm glad that you asked that question, because I really missed the whole part right there. So you know, when I was doing Celebrate Recovery and all that you know, I went through a couple of step studies and I came to the point where I was going to forgive my dad for what he did. My dad lived in Coeur d'Alene. Oh wow, and I'm like Lord, you're going to have to help me with this one.
Speaker 2:Your father was in Coeur d'Alene. Dude, Did you know that?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah. I always had a relationship with him. Yeah, I just didn't have a.
Speaker 2:But are you? Is this where you were planning and plotting to put him in the dirt All the way up to this point. Yeah, wow big run, yeah, so he wants to move.
Speaker 4:He wants to be near me and my sister, you know, because nobody has a relationship with him and he was married to have this wife. He was married to her for 19 years and, um, I ended up leading my dad to christ. Wow, I forgave him.
Speaker 4:Wow, and I tell him, tell dang dude, you're gonna make me cry my dad was like um wow bro he never said I was sorry and it wasn't for his that we just know that that when you ask for forgiveness, it's not for them, it's for you. It's for you, buddy, yeah it was for me, and he and the lord lord took care of all that that day Come on. All that feelings of what I wanted to have. I wanted to hurt him. I just gave him a big old hug and told him I loved him. Oh my gosh. And I didn't hug him. I barely shook his hand.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I just didn't trust him and my boys when they were growing up, they weren't allowed to sit on his lap or shake your grandpa's hand, don't get close. My sister, she was a Christian too. She would let her daughter sit on his lap and it would freak. Nope, I'd pull him up, I'm not here. Whatever, he never did hurt the kids. After you, guys, you knew marriage with the kid. He never did hurt the kids After you guys, yeah.
Speaker 2:You knew marriage with the kid. You don't.
Speaker 4:I think he hurt some cousins back in Ohio after that my two cousins that I had both girls, yeah, and she didn't tell me. So dad came to Christ. Wow, he was going to real life and he would call me and say guess what they let me do today? They let me be an usher. Today, they let me work the lobby. He wanted me to be proud of him, like a son should be. Yeah, he wants your dad to be proud. He wanted me to see what I'm doing, how I'm changing how my life's changed.
Speaker 2:Anything's possible man.
Speaker 4:But what's the worst crime? Stealing a cupcake or murder? Yeah, sin's a sin.
Speaker 2:Sin's a sin bud.
Speaker 4:So I was able to forgive him. That was the biggest thing for me, that changed my life.
Speaker 2:That's the same with him. Yeah, he had this unforgiveness towards his father, but it wasn't for that. It's for cheating on grandma. But the day that he got on his knees and forgave his dad, he ain't touched meth since man or heroin or it's that unforgiveness, bro, yeah, that unforgiveness is a poison that kills us on the inside and, like you said, it's for us I went to this.
Speaker 1:I blame them for everything, dude. Oh me too. It wasn't my decisions, it wasn't the choices I was making.
Speaker 4:It was all his fault. It was him, yeah, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:And yeah, it was crazy bro, that's exactly right. The 20 years of my addiction I blamed it all on him.
Speaker 4:If he wouldn done that, I wouldn't have done this. You know, I mean reality. I was making those choices. You guys are helping people today.
Speaker 3:Bud this is really good guys, man, he used to he used to tell people.
Speaker 2:Again, he'd tell people my son's a pastor. I'm not a pastor, I'm just a son of god man, I'm a servant.
Speaker 4:That's it, buddy and it was so cool, wow. But in 2013, him and his wife got in a car accident and killed them both. Oh, wow. And he passed away, of course, and I was glad that I was able to lead him to the Lord. Amen, I know where he's at.
Speaker 2:Man dude, there'll be a day when you can go up and give your crown to Jesus and see your father. Bro, yeah, Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow, Wow Ron.
Speaker 4:That's powerful dude, that's redemption.
Speaker 1:So I got to ask you, brother, because I want people to understand that what did that do for you, that forgiveness, what did that do for you? How did forgiving your dad change you?
Speaker 4:So all the weight that I was carrying for all those years felt like they just fell right off my back yeah. It was like I was new, my life had begun.
Speaker 1:Bitterness anger.
Speaker 4:All of it. I had a guy at work that he's always pissed. I'm going to beat that guy for saying that.
Speaker 3:I'm like.
Speaker 4:I remember being like you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember being like you. I said I'm not. Who haven't you forgiven? Yeah Right, who are? You really mad at yeah.
Speaker 1:Who are you really mad?
Speaker 3:at.
Speaker 4:He's not a believer and I've been showing him my cross. Yeah, and you know, I told him I said I was I listened to christian music. Ah, could you listen to that? Oh yeah, I got my jesus man yeah, you share this testimony with him.
Speaker 2:But I'll say, when you get your link and it's live, you let him listen to this, watch what this does for him. But I love you, bro, come on man no, my, my dad.
Speaker 4:When he uh, he passed away, he was a race car driver and I worked for this trucking company. I was living in Williston and the cops came to my door at 3 o'clock in the morning and he was killed at 10 o'clock in the morning. He got in the killed like at 10 o'clock in the morning, oh wow he got in the accident, so they were looking for me all day long they couldn't figure it out.
Speaker 4:Yeah and uh three o'clock in the morning they came to my door and knocked on the door. I'm like you, can't wait until seven it wasn't me, I didn't do it.
Speaker 1:I was sleeping.
Speaker 4:I opened up the door with with my boxers on and cops at the door. You're thinking the worst One of my kids hurt or something oh.
Speaker 1:God.
Speaker 4:I could tell by the look on his face.
Speaker 1:Oh God, I would answer the door and say it wasn't me.
Speaker 2:Thank God, we don't live like that no more. Dad, I was heaping dude.
Speaker 4:So I invited him in and he told me yeah, your dad was killed in a car accident today with his wife Wow.
Speaker 3:And I was like I didn't know how to feel about it at first.
Speaker 4:you know, but I had to go back. He lived in Idaho. He lived in this house that I'd never been to before, up on this beautiful on the lake. And then they had just bought a new truck and an pull behind camper and they were to go travel the country yeah, first stop Wyoming, wow. And that didn't happen. So I didn't know where the house was, I didn't know where his camper was.
Speaker 4:The truck was in the impound for yeah so, uh, I had to investigate all this stuff. Well, she had a son also that I think that he abused. Yeah, um, so he was super angry. Um, I couldn't get a hold of him. He had just got out of prison yeah oh geez.
Speaker 4:Um. So the way liability insurance happens um they both live for like 20 minutes or half hour or something like that, but whoever? After the accident after the accident, and whoever dies first is liable for that other person. We're now liability, really. So he lived 15 minutes longer than she did, so he was liable for her so all the insurance money went to her, so her son, that is a hundred thousand dollars yeah we talked to the aunts and we're going to split this between the four of us.
Speaker 4:He took the money. Wow, we didn't get nothing. Wow.
Speaker 2:Death does stuff to fans.
Speaker 4:He didn't come and help empty their house. He didn't help getting them back. They wanted to be buried by her parents in Kentucky.
Speaker 2:He was hurt, bro, I'm sure, oh, I'm sure.
Speaker 4:He was angry, he was, so we ended up having the having the service service for him. A friend of mine, one of my contractors I did work for. He owned a cemetery oh a mortuary, yeah and he gave me a great deal and they, we cremated them both and put them back in kentucky by and sent them well actually her sisters were there, so they took them back yeah well, I don't know, a month later I got this box in front of my house.
Speaker 4:It's my dad. The boy sent my dad's ashes back. He ain't gonna be getting buried with my mom or my family. Oh, wow, wow, he's real hurt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so A month later you get your dad in the box. I'm like what are?
Speaker 4:you doing here, dude? Holy shit, you won't go away. Where am?
Speaker 2:I going to put you.
Speaker 3:You followed me all the way to. Idaho Now you're following me here, man.
Speaker 2:You're up in North Dakota.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I'm thinking I don't, I'm not, I forgave him, yeah. But I wasn't putting his ashes in my house. I wasn't going to tell people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is my dad, yeah.
Speaker 4:You know, I didn't. I didn't have that kind of relationship with him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I wasn't hurt anymore.
Speaker 4:I just, I just didn't, I wasn't going to do that. Yeah, I'm thinking how's the best?
Speaker 2:way, who can I give him to? So?
Speaker 4:I ended up taking him out in the shed with all my tools. He loved tools.
Speaker 3:He loved working on cars, yeah.
Speaker 1:Hang out here Hang out here dude.
Speaker 4:So he sat in the garage for years, yeah. You know what did you end up finally doing with him? So a few years ago, me and my little sister went back to Ohio together First time we'd ever been back to Ohio together and we had a family reunion with all the Jemisons.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And we took his ashes with me and I put them in a creek and let them go into the river.
Speaker 2:And all the family was there.
Speaker 4:No, just me, oh, just me.
Speaker 2:Wow, bro. Oh, that had been a very was just like see you, dad, yeah, you know, amen.
Speaker 1:Yeah amen, at least you did something yeah it wasn't my brothers, that wasn't their dad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know they didn't want nothing to do with me well, they had a relationship with the other guy who was their dad. Who is their dad?
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah today yeah yeah, um, and I got to. I got to meet their dad a couple of times, but that last time that we had that family reunion he was there and I said, man, you're not my dad, but I sure wish you were my dad yeah I said you did a great job with these guys. My brothers are all alcoholics but they've all done, you know they're all at home they've all been married for over 40 years. You know, uh, wow, um, you know, he raised him well.
Speaker 2:He raised him well, amen and uh, that had to have been some closure for you, some a little bit of healing for you with your father. Oh yeah, that had to have been man kind of a way to just kind of put a bow on it. Everything that god had done with the bringing back and then the salvation and the phone calls, hey I was serving the day and yeah, and hearing he's dead and it's like, yeah, that had to my my uh brother of course didn't, didn't even.
Speaker 4:I don't even know if I told him I had his ashes with me. But my brother that's just older than me, he's always been kind of distant. We don't really have a talking. He was here and went to Sedona last year and wouldn't even come visit me.
Speaker 2:Family's the hardest, bro, family's the hardest.
Speaker 4:I think he felt like it was my fault that his dad left. I'm like trust me.
Speaker 1:You didn't miss out on nothing. You didn't miss out on nothing.
Speaker 3:You didn't miss out on nothing.
Speaker 4:My dad didn't play baseball with me. I didn't have any of that. Didn't sound like there was much love in the home, bro, I raced BMX bikes when I was a kid, and motorcycles and did all that I played football from Pop Warner up to junior high school.
Speaker 1:My dad never came to any of my games. I still love my dad.
Speaker 2:That was the first time I met this guy. Is that my Pop Warner game bud? I call up to the thing. I showed up on a Corvette or a motorcycle and I look across the field and there he was. He looked like superhuman bro with all these tattoos.
Speaker 1:I was like whoa, I brushed out of prison.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he's tattooed. I was like whoa, I brushed out of prison.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, he was a big dude.
Speaker 4:Oh man, I love you yeah, I'm glad you said that because I missed that whole part of the story. But yeah, you know that was that. That was an incredible part of my life and my testimony with god and how he worked through that you know, um, I was always very close with my mom. I was her, I was her boy. Um, it's so weird because all the trouble my mom would go. She would come visit me in jail, no matter where.
Speaker 3:I was at, she was always there to put money on my books.
Speaker 4:Um. My sister was like why would?
Speaker 2:you waste your time with that kid. The love of a mom bro.
Speaker 4:She would travel 100 miles to LA County. I've been in every county jail. In the system she would go to every one of them.
Speaker 1:I was in prison for 11 years, from Yuma to Tucson, to Winslow, to kingman, and you better believe my mom saw me almost every one of those places except for yuma I wasn't in yuma very long, so she didn't get a chance to come see me. She drove to douglas, tucson, winslow, lawrence god bless, she'd come see me at every one of those places, brother. Wow, $50 almost every two weeks, like clockwork, wow. Yeah, moms are the best dude.
Speaker 4:They are my mom. She was incredible, yeah. So getting back to the North Dakota, so I get to North Dakota, meet Emily and go to California To meet her. Yep To meet her and ended up getting her pregnant.
Speaker 3:Oh no.
Speaker 4:She had a tubular pregnancy and ended up losing the baby.
Speaker 3:Oh no.
Speaker 4:And then February.
Speaker 2:Is that a topic? Yeah, it's like mom. Yeah, and mom had one of those, bro, it was crazy dude, my first wife did too. Yeah, those things are no joke on a woman man.
Speaker 4:She lost crazy my first wife did too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those things are no joke on a woman man. And then she lost that side, yes, ovary and the tube and all that yeah, the fact that she gave birth to our two kids is yeah, it's a freaking miracle dude she.
Speaker 2:So, uh, I went uh how old are you when you meet emily and how old's emily I'm?
Speaker 4:49 and she's 13 years younger than me. Okay, no more older women.
Speaker 2:Hey, and you stayed with this one, so this one worked.
Speaker 4:It's just amazing. Miles used to tell me we got broken pickers.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We got to wait until God picks them. Yes, sir, buddy, yeah. So when I met him, when I met the reason why he's still single brother, yeah, when I'm waiting for god to pick this one, he's got.
Speaker 4:He's got her out there for you, brother amen, you're.
Speaker 2:You're my hope. I remember talking to you one of our phone calls, bro. You tell me about your little girl. I'm like all right, bud, you had a kid around 50 amen well, you don't want to wait that long.
Speaker 1:I know my mom wants grandkids if I could plead with the Lord, please hurry up soon God.
Speaker 2:God is good.
Speaker 1:I need me a little fat butt grandbaby running around, buddy, you mad at a little RJ running.
Speaker 2:Oh dude, oh man the thing about Emily.
Speaker 4:She lived in Roseville, she was married before me. Her husband brought her out from the Philippines. Eight months later he had a stroke and passed away. Oh wow, oh no. So she was there all by herself, wow, and she wasn't giving up on the American dream.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:She was staying here, she was doing her paperwork, she was going to do whatever she had to do, whatever she had to do, to stay. But and then we met. I went to go see her in California and her friends. She didn't know how to drive and her friends dropped her off at the airport or brought her to the airport to pick me up. And I see her come up and she kept on going.
Speaker 1:Did that come up, and she kept on going, did that three times she didn't realize how big I was. Yeah, tattooed up. I mean, she'd me on the, you know, on the computer, but she'd never seen me live. Whoa, what did I get myself?
Speaker 4:into and she's like I didn't do that. I said yeah, you did I watched you and so, uh, that was in december. In february we ended up going to a NASCAR race, went to the Daytona 500.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 4:And I took her and I got her pregnant again. Ah, but she was planning it, I wasn't planning it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she wanted a kid. Bro, get a ring, be a citizen In the Philippines if you grow old and don't have kids.
Speaker 4:You're an old maid. Yeah, just this mental thing oh yeah, no, there's cultures like that around the world, bro.
Speaker 2:Look at the Bible, the women who don't have sons. You know what I mean. There's a lot of it's crazy around the world. They're considered cursed or something.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and that's yeah, yeah, she. So you know, I led her to Christ. And then what is she? 36? She's 30. 30. Yeah, because she was born in 74.
Speaker 2:Well, you said 49, 50.
Speaker 1:She's born in 74. She's 50 now. Or will be 50.
Speaker 4:She'll be 51 this year? Yeah, but so she ends up getting pregnant and moves to North Dakota with me. With your daughter? No, she wasn't born yet. We're getting ahead of him, dude. No, I'm trying to.
Speaker 2:No, he said, she's pregnant.
Speaker 1:Right, he didn't say she had a kid.
Speaker 2:No, but with your daughter.
Speaker 4:Yeah, with my daughter. Oh, all right, thank you, yep, with my daughter. So we went.
Speaker 1:He does the same thing at home.
Speaker 4:man, we try to tell him something and he wants to finish it for you. You got to raise this boy, oh yeah. That's why I call him Rowdy.
Speaker 1:Let me tell the story, bro. Quit trying to finish it in your head.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think it out.
Speaker 4:So we got married in Idaho and she's a few months pregnant. We got married April 20 come on Ron, april 26, I thought he was.
Speaker 2:April 15. I was like wow 2012.
Speaker 4:I want to make sure he got it right he might be 28 oh my god Ron at least I didn't say September she gives you a hard time.
Speaker 2:At least she got the right month.
Speaker 1:I only know my wedding date because I had to turn myself into prison the next day.
Speaker 2:brother, November 6, 2006.
Speaker 4:I know that God picked her for me. Amen. I wasn't sure at first. Yeah, I was still in love with my ex.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow bro, and I'm like and she knew that.
Speaker 4:She knew that I still had feelings for my ex. And she was pregnant. But God just kept on showing me how to love her, how to love this woman, amen. I never knew, until I met Emily, how to love a woman.
Speaker 1:How to love a woman.
Speaker 3:Really good dude how to love them right Never knew
Speaker 4:how it's really good I was been in love before, but I didn't know how to love.
Speaker 2:How to show love, yeah, and Serve.
Speaker 4:We've been together for 14 years. Wow, you know that's the longest I've ever Longest relationship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow.
Speaker 4:So my daughter was born in November of 2000, or 2012. Yeah, I would say my boys, all my kids were born in Olympic years.
Speaker 1:Because my oldest was 76.
Speaker 4:My son, my middle, was 84. My youngest is 96. And Faith was 12.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 4:So when Faith was born?
Speaker 3:she's never seen me drunk or high.
Speaker 2:My wife has never seen me drunk or high. Amen, buddy, amen.
Speaker 4:You know it was hard on Emily at first, because she knew that I I still had feelings yeah, but god kept on saying this is the one, this is the one. Yeah, I just fell more and more and more in love with her.
Speaker 2:So we were you like calling that lady or and talking with her and like that kind of stuff, or with the ex, yeah, while you, while em Emily was in your life.
Speaker 4:Not after she moved in.
Speaker 2:no, Okay, all right, because I was like that could have messed with her totally, bro, okay.
Speaker 4:No, yeah, that December I went to go visit her. She fell through the wall or whatever, and then I went to California and met Emily Amen. And then in whatever it was she picked me up at the airport. Okay, all that happened, amen. So she comes to North Dakota. I was going to this church called New Hope and ended up starting the very first Celebrate Recovery in the state of North Dakota. Wow, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:So you went from real life to new life, to new hope, to new hope.
Speaker 2:To one life Not done yet. I know buddy.
Speaker 1:Getting ahead of you, bro. This is great dude Getting ahead of you.
Speaker 4:So, we started we, I started emily didn't. She never had any issues. She said you know, that's your thing, I don't want that's for you, amen amen, don't try to talk me into it. So I I didn't, you know, but I did did incredible, had a great CR there and Faith came into our life and that was my do-over.
Speaker 2:Is that your daughter's name? Faith? Yeah, Faith. Oh, you got a reminder. Every time you look at your baby girl, God bro.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's beautiful. So she looks a lot like me.
Speaker 2:Poor kid God bless her lot, like me, poor kid. God bless her. God bless her.
Speaker 3:Except without the chops right, Didn't need a female version of me.
Speaker 4:I would have rather looked like her Filipino mom, so this is your first daughter.
Speaker 1:My only daughter yeah, really All right Wow.
Speaker 4:So we're going to church. She grows up in the church. Love, love, love, new Hope. Does your wife enjoy church?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, really.
Speaker 4:She got involved in the church. Her and Faith would do Sunday school. They were teaching Sunday school. Wow, she knew everybody and I knew everybody. She worked at the hospital. They had a Starbucks at that hospital. Everybody went to that Starbucks. They knew my wife. She worked at the hospital and they had a Starbucks at that hospital. Everybody went to that Starbucks. They knew my wife, she was a barista there.
Speaker 2:You're truck driving.
Speaker 4:I'm truck driving, I'm out all the time. A lot of Filipinos came to Williston, to North Dakota, contract nurses from the. Philippines, because they couldn't get nobody to come to North Dakota.
Speaker 1:Really who the hell wants to live in the freezing cold Right?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so she had a lot of friends. We had a lot of parties. Yeah, a lot of man we just. I've been to the Philippines.
Speaker 1:My stepdad's from North Dakota. Oh really, yeah, he's around Fargo area somewhere.
Speaker 4:He didn't put somebody in a chipper. Did he Well, did he Well? He moved to Arizona.
Speaker 1:He moved to Arizona when they were.
Speaker 2:Is that Pops yeah?
Speaker 1:He lived in Arizona probably in the last 40 years of his life, but him and mom would go back to North Dakota and visit his family. They'd go up there and play pinochle and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:They love pinochle up there man, one of my very good friends. He's a huge pinochle person.
Speaker 1:And they got a huge Canadian accent.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, don't you know yeah. Yeah, yeah, oofta, feed them in. That's their big. I don't know what it means, but oofta.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my boss is a race car driver too and they had this thing called the Dakota Tour, so they go through South Dakota, north Dakota, up into Canada a little bit and they always got these videos of these guys from the area. Just the way they talk just cracks me up, dude. Their accents are just insane they are.
Speaker 4:Yeah, some of the nicest people you'll ever meet in your life are in North Dakota.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in North Dakota, oh yeah, oh, they're great people.
Speaker 4:Everybody waves at each other.
Speaker 1:North Dakota. Eh, what's he waving at?
Speaker 4:I'm from California. We give you a different kind of wave, he cut me off. Wonderful people up there. Yeah, and you know there's nobody there, so you get in your car. You could be 100 miles in an hour you know, 90 miles an hour, you're done. Semi-car didn't matter. So we had started the CR there and she was very involved on Sundays, got very involved and then the crash happened. The oil field fell down in around 15 and then in 16, we moved to Arizona.
Speaker 4:Wow, so we're going to move to Arizona. So we moved out here.
Speaker 1:So by the time you were up there driving, what were you driving? Oil and stuff, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:I hauled everything.
Speaker 4:Really, if there's something on the rig, I've done it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Everything All right. Bolts to the derricks.
Speaker 1:That's a dangerous job oh yeah working on them rigs man, I never worked on the rigs. I like watching them videos where they show them doing it. I'm like them.
Speaker 4:Dudes are nuts.
Speaker 2:I've been, I've been dirty all the change and those dirty put around kelly oh yeah, and then they ain't those things don't look light oh yeah, oh yeah, I've seen a lot of big
Speaker 4:old chain seen a lot of death at the highway. Did a lot of prayers on the highway from kids that got killed in the world. Yeah, I've probably seen six or seven fatalities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, on the road up there there's a reason why they make some good money. My best year, one of the dangerous jobs out there a year, yeah, and I was only making $27 an hour. But you were working. How many hours I was on overtime by Wednesday morning.
Speaker 4:Huge, huge. I've been to the Philippines seven times. We would go to the Philippines every year, every other year. That's awesome. So we moved out here.
Speaker 1:What made you guys decide to come to Arizona? Why not back to California or Idaho?
Speaker 4:Because she didn't want to be around my exes so we didn't go back to Idaho.
Speaker 1:Did you know anybody in Arizona ever before? Or was this just a place you guys picked?
Speaker 4:We just picked warm. She wanted to go back to where it was warm and I said, well, it's close to the beach, only a few hours to drive anywhere. You know, yeah, I said, well, it's close to the beach, only a few hours to drive anywhere. It'd be good centrally located. We moved out here, lived in Glendale, lived here for a year 2016. Yep Came out here, worked for an insulation company as a salesman.
Speaker 2:Oh, back to insulation now. Yeah, no more driving.
Speaker 4:I did that for a year and got laid off. I came home, told her we're moving back to North Dakota, because it was starting to take off again and she started bawling. Don't make me go back there.
Speaker 2:She likes the heat. She likes yeah, from the Philippines, bro.
Speaker 4:So we ended up going back to North Dakota. We bought a home there.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 4:And I still love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could you call the area eureka?
Speaker 4:no, that was. I was idaho, okay and and so I didn't like it at first for a long time. Buddy of mine, randy. He said you really don't like it here, do you? You always talk about how ugly it is? It was ugly north dakota yeah, but then I started. God started opening my eyes, and let me see how beautiful it was summer times are great, oh, they're awesome, but you got the weather's opposite of of arizona.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you got three months of good weather and nine months of cold oh yeah, like we got, yeah, yeah nine months of hell, yeah, three months of beauty, no.
Speaker 1:Here, here, three months of hell.
Speaker 2:Here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, three months of hell, Nine months of beauty. Yeah, there it was backwards, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:You couldn't go outside. I did, I worked in the oil field.
Speaker 4:I don't care if it's 50 below zero.
Speaker 1:I'm out, gotta do what you trucking that snow and stuff chain up.
Speaker 4:I never chained up, though I never had to really yeah, I was, I knew how to do it without it, because you're getting like feet beat of snow mostly ice really, you would get feet of snow yeah but they plot it out of your way really quick when you're in the oil field, really, and uh, they got to keep it moving, you got to move it. Oh wow, so it's out of your way pretty quick, you know you got loaders and big machinery.
Speaker 1:Is that the biggest industry in North Dakota?
Speaker 4:Oil, oil and gas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So they got to make sure that's moving, because that's where they're getting their money from yeah.
Speaker 4:Williston before the oil boom in 08 is when it started. There was probably 15,000 people residents in the city. When the boom in 2010, there was over 50,000 people who lived in that little town, the infrastructure couldn't handle it.
Speaker 1:Really Every yard every church there was trailers.
Speaker 4:Trailers Everywhere.
Speaker 1:All these traveling workers coming and parking their trailers.
Speaker 4:They were building apartments all over the place to keep oil fill workers. Then it turned off that year. But then I got laid off from that insulation job and I told her she just started bawling and I said we're going to go back.
Speaker 1:So what happens when you build infrastructure like that and then the economy crashes and people leave, and now you're stuck with all this infrastructure that's not used there?
Speaker 4:was a time well, there was three booms. There was one in the 50s, one in the 80s and the 2000s. Yeah, when the one in 84 crashed, it was like somebody took the light switch and turned it off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Same thing in 15. Yeah, they built all these apartment buildings and Halliburtonton they owned all these apartment that they kept their workers in big three-story buildings.
Speaker 2:yeah, um halliburton you see, that sign around here a lot.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've never seen it, but on the the fences they've got halliburton construction yeah, this is halliburton oil oil and gas, yeah, okay so the big red trucks all over up there and they're the first one that started fracking. They cementing and fracking back in the 30's. They invented it, but they owned all these apartment buildings and when people were gone they were fully furnished. They would put a bunch of roll off dumpsters in front of it, start throwing furniture out the window. Stuff was good until it hit the ground. I'm like what did they call it? St Vinny's or Salvation Army, or Goodwill?
Speaker 2:Team Challenge.
Speaker 3:They'll come and do a pickup, yep, all that.
Speaker 4:And my buddy Randy, one of my bestest friends up there. He's a big Team Challenge guy and I'm like why aren't they calling them? But they didn't. It's all write-offs.
Speaker 1:Why aren't they calling them? But they didn't. It's all write-offs. Yeah, it's all write-offs. It was nuts. Big companies like that. They need loss.
Speaker 4:So we ended up moving back to North Dakota and Randy was like I don't go to New Hope anymore. He got kind of cliquey. The pastor that we liked had left. So he said there's this other church called life church it's assemblies and, uh, I started going there.
Speaker 4:The pastor was phenomenal. Uh, he was legally blind but he could see if he was real close to you. And that dude could read the word without a bible in front of him and just, he didn't need. He didn't need it in front of him, just didn't need notes, didn't need nothing. And um, I went up to him one day I said, hey, I want pastor chris. I said, uh, I'd like to start celebrate recovery here, because the other one actually had fell apart at new home.
Speaker 2:I said I'd like the one that you started, the first one in wyoming? Yeah. At New Home I said I'd like that. The one that you started the first one in Wyoming, yeah, or North Dakota.
Speaker 4:In North Dakota. Okay, but now it's all over the state, from Fargo to.
Speaker 1:Williston which.
Speaker 4:Fargo is as far east as you can go.
Speaker 4:Williston is as far west, as you can go Wow and and um, so started uh, well, he told me, uh, I'll think about it. Didn't know me very well at the time he goes. Yeah, he didn't know who I was or anything like that. So he just I told my buddy, randy, this and he ain't gonna let me start no cr. Well, they were still doing New Hope, was like just down the street or yeah, new Hope. And he said, yeah, you know they're doing it over there. And I said, yeah, I know we could use one every night of the week and it would be great if we could do one. And a year went by and he came up to me one day and said Ron, you know they shut down the CR over at New Hope. He said we need to talk to you, you need to tell me your vision for CR here at Life Church.
Speaker 4:So him and his wife sat down with me and they said build a team, let's do it, come on. And I got a sign-up sheet out of the lobby, talked about it in front of the congregation, come on. And we ended up getting like 20 leaders that went through the 12 steps, come on.
Speaker 4:And they're still doing it today. Wow, I ended up becoming the state rep for North Dakota and when I left, the gal that was leading that I trained. She ended up becoming the state rep and the ministry leader for that church. Amen, so, but Emily, in 2020, covid happened. Of course. It all shut down. Yeah, we had only been doing CR for I don't know seven months or something like that yeah. It shut down. Well, North Dakota, we're a little tougher than the rest of the country.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:We were only shut down for about a two months.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You guys, if you want to wear a mask, wear a mask.
Speaker 3:If you don't want to wear a mask, don't wear it. Yeah yeah, your government was gangster, come on, yeah, yeah he's, he's on the, he's a secretary now.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um, so we, uh, we're like, what are we gonna do, you know? And uh, we ended up, uh, teaching a group in the philippines. We went through that with the alt trained them online with the lady leader and she asked Melanie is her name? She asked Emily if she would be her translator. They all know how to speak English. So Emily ended up going through the 12 steps with us.
Speaker 2:Look at God, go bro the thing that no, that's yours.
Speaker 4:That's yours, don us look at god go bro the thing that.
Speaker 1:No, that's yours, yeah, that's yours.
Speaker 2:Don't tell me to go to your thing. Hey, will you translate? For of course I will for my people.
Speaker 4:I love that she ended up running that because melanie didn't understand a lot of she went through it and they got through it and we were all supposed to go to the philippines together. It never happened, um, but we got through that 12 step and ended up. The people were, uh, that we trained kind of went away from the church it was bradford church, they've they've kind of just. Some of them went to to australia, some of them came to America, they all went to work wherever. Ended up not starting a CR there.
Speaker 2:Over in the Philippines, in the Philippines but.
Speaker 4:Emily got to go through a 12-step.
Speaker 2:Experience it. Yeah, Now she's official.
Speaker 4:We were still going, she wouldn't come to our group, she would do the one for the Philippines, but she wouldn't come. She would come. She would do the one for the Philippines, but she wouldn't come with me, she would come on special occasions or whenever she would come. And then, in 2017 and two, we decided we were going to come back to Arizona, so we ended up moving out here, sold the house, sold everything barely with the skin of our teeth.
Speaker 3:We were able to get here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and got a job before I got here with a company in Gilbert and started that job Driving Driving truck, driving truck truck. Yeah, and when I left I would probably would have stayed. They were only paying truck drivers like 17 an hour. Wow, uh, back then. Yeah, I'm like I can't do.
Speaker 3:I'm not good. I wish I would have done it. Yeah, they're making way better money than that now oh yeah, but um.
Speaker 4:So we came here in 22, started that job. Emily got a job. She was going to be a manager at a hotel doing the housekeeping.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:My nephew.
Speaker 4:He runs a cleaning service for a bunch of big hotels over in Scottsdale and he hired her to do hotel service because that's what she has a degree from the Philippines and that she hated that job and she ended up getting a job at Banner Health. And we started going to Generation and I liked it. She stayed back. I came out, got a place and I was like searching around for different CRs, see what I could find, and I thought Generation was cool. It was an AG church and I liked it. We started. She got here, we started going there for about a year and then my next-door neighbor, he was telling me about his church, about one life, yeah, and I'm like it's just right out of the neighborhood.
Speaker 4:You could be there less than five minutes yeah I said this, I said I'm gonna listen to this guy online and pastor jared, he, he loves the hurting for sure yeah um and I can just tell he's got a passion he loves the hurting for sure, and I can just tell he's got a passion for the hurting and all that, so I'm
Speaker 3:like let's go check out this church.
Speaker 4:And we've been there for a couple of years now and love it and went to him the first day I walked in. I got my Celebrate Recovery shirt on with my Broken Chains vest.
Speaker 2:I was wondering if you were going to wear it in today or not.
Speaker 4:I thought about it. It's just too hot.
Speaker 1:But anyways. So you went from real life to new life to life church, or new hope to life church, to one life, to one life. God's got a sense of humor he does it all, has life or new or something in them all. That's pretty good stuff, god's got a sense of humor.
Speaker 4:He does it all, has life or new or something in them all. Yeah, that's pretty good stuff. So I go up to Pastor after service and said hey, you know my name's Ron. I do celebrate recovery and have you ever thought about starting a CR here? And he put his hand on my shoulder and said I've been praying for you for six years. Wow, and we ended up starting a CR. Come on that for you for six years. Wow, and we ended up starting to see our come on that one life.
Speaker 4:Yeah, trained, did the alt for almost a year and we've been, we've been launched for over a little bit over a year now.
Speaker 1:They just had your one year celebration not too long ago yeah yeah, so that that was. How'd you get involved with broken chains?
Speaker 4:I was up in north dak in North Dakota and went to where did I go? Oh, my buddy, a really good friend of mine, up in Idaho.
Speaker 2:Randy.
Speaker 4:No, okay, no, randy's a big Teen Challenge guy.
Speaker 2:My kind of people. Still a biker, but he doesn't wear a cut Amen.
Speaker 4:He loves. He's actually was a student and now is leading on the board in Fargo Come on man when you say wear a cut does that mean wear a vest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, part of the crew.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he doesn't wear a cut. I get that. I just want to make sure people that are listening understand what you meant by he doesn't wear a cut. He doesn't wear a cut, yeah.
Speaker 4:So he's such a good friend, though he's a prayer warrior. That's kind of like me in prison he was a crackhead.
Speaker 1:I was like me in prison. I would never take a badge, but I would. You know what I'm made of. Oh yeah, I don't need a. That's a pretty thing.
Speaker 4:I don't need a thing broken chains was just a way that another way of a tool to to ministry blast.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Uh, what that's about. Yeah, you know love bikes and starts conversations, yep, and it was just a conversation starter. That's why I make t-shirts Motorcycle enthusiasts they're uh have hope in. Jesus.
Speaker 3:Christ, yeah Love it.
Speaker 4:And uh, that's what we do, yeah.
Speaker 1:And uh, jesus Christ, yeah, love it, and uh, that's what we do yeah and uh guys are a good group of people, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, love them. Yeah, yeah, you guys reach people that some other people just can't reach. Because of that, you know. I mean, yeah, I see you guys riding in on your bikes and your jackets and all that other stuff and it creates conversation, it's an eye catcher and it's people grab people that someone in a suit might not grab. Right, you know what I mean. It has its place, it has its purpose, sure does, and I'm thankful for it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm sweating right now. I can't imagine having that.
Speaker 1:I love it when you guys roll up to RCR.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:All your bikes and you line them up, and I'm like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I grew up around Dirty Dozen and stuff like that, brother, so I like bikes. You know what I mean. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's awesome, I'll have one one day, when you grow up, that's funny because when I got money, it's funny
Speaker 1:because here in the last month or so I found myself going online and looking at baggers and looking to see how much they are and I'm like really jonesing for one right now, and yeah I got I got my first motorcycle when I was like 13 years old the problem is is that I have so many biker friends and I always see the posts that say one's down over here, check it's like. Okay, I really like one, but do I really like one?
Speaker 4:you know what I mean I don't ride as much as I used to and I got arthritis in my hand.
Speaker 1:Really bad now me and my youngest son bought a cross rocket together. It was a little ninja 250 and, uh, I used to ride it to work. He would ride around the neighborhood and rode it to work one day and on my way to work I saw two bikes. One was getting loaded into an ambulance, the other one was off to the side of the road and I just thought is this really? I was thinking more about my son. What if my son decided he wanted to ride to work one day?
Speaker 4:you know what I mean, and so I told him we're selling this thing, dude yeah, I was only broken chains up in north dakota too, and but we were right near uh stir the only one oh wow, wow, they became more members.
Speaker 2:There's always got to be the one that starts, though, bro, I was a POC and I'm a POC here, but Sturgis wasn't.
Speaker 1:but five hours away. Is that president of a chapter? Point of contact, point of contact.
Speaker 4:All right, so we went down. They used to have this Christian concert every year in Rapid City, South Dakota, called Hills Alive, and all the big people I've seen Crowder.
Speaker 2:Do security for them. What's that you would do security for them?
Speaker 4:No, no, no, I just me and the wife and Faith would go down there and watch a Christian concert. Bring other people. He did it again. He's all good. Do security for him. No, no, no, I just bring me and the wife and faith would go down there watch christian concert.
Speaker 1:Bring other people he did it again. He's all good he's tired?
Speaker 3:no, I'm not, he'd just like to try to finish your story, but oh, I was just asking a question did you do security for him?
Speaker 2:a lot of the motorcycle people do security for places, so yeah, we, we would do a lot of rides over there, and there was.
Speaker 4:There was a few because we're close. Yeah, we would do a lot of rides over there, and there was a few because we were close to Sturgis so there were a lot of broken chains down there.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 4:My buddy Tracy. We started the CR at New Life together, him and his wife, and we started that CR and he got into Broken Chains. He said hey man you kept on bugging me. You ought to join Broken Chains.
Speaker 1:You guys ever did a run to Sturgis and had like a booth and stuff at Sturgis?
Speaker 4:Jeff Stoltz is the founding member.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And the first time he'd ever been to sturgis.
Speaker 1:I was there with him come on and we gave out those serenity rags yeah, the red rags, yeah, yeah, come on I forget how many we gave away that that weekend.
Speaker 4:That's a lot, that's awesome. And then the next year he came. I think he gave out 15 000 rags.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah he travels all over. He's an amazing guy amen.
Speaker 4:I love that. Um yes, so growing up her faith, faith is my biggest story of all. Yeah, um and she was born in 2012, grew up in church. Um, she loves jesus. Yeah, she was. Uh, she was about seven and she accepted christ. Come on one day. I'm sitting there watching people get baptized with my with my broken jeans vest on yeah and uh wasn't helping. I was just sitting by the door garden.
Speaker 4:I was the pastor's personal guard at that church, armor bearer baby yeah, nobody messed with him because there was a couple of people that heckled him. Not on my watch but, anyways, I'm standing there at the door and Faith comes up to me and I said what you doing sweetheart? She said I want to get baptized. I said, faith, what do you want to get baptized for? She said I want everybody to know I love Jesus Ever since then. Then, man, it's just like. A few months later I got a video her getting baptized.
Speaker 4:Come on at church yeah, and I and I was able to do that for her come on and, like I said, she's never seen me drunk or high.
Speaker 2:My wife's never seen me drunk or high come on thank god and, uh, you don't ever want to.
Speaker 4:I don't ever want to go back there. No, Don't ever want her to see me like that. You know my boys had to live that life and see their dad go through that misery. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's exactly what it is.
Speaker 4:It's misery, misery, misery, she they. When Ray was I think he was 13 when I got with Susan, my youngest son's mom, and they knew I was going in and out of that bedroom, you know, every weekend. Well, him and the two girls decided they're going to break in. We were gone one day and I got home and he had my crack pipe in his hand.
Speaker 1:Oh man.
Speaker 4:He said what's this Dad? He knew what it was. Yeah, he said is that what you're doing in there? And the girls were just upset and that started the whole cycle you know, I don't have to worry about that with Faith. I don't have to worry about her going in my room and finding something yeah to worry about that with faith.
Speaker 4:I don't have to worry about her going in my room and finding something I don't know about how she's going to feel someday when she hears this story. She knows a lot of it, I've told her a lot of it, because I don't want to hide nothing from her. But I try to tell her these are stories to teach you. You're going to do life no matter what, but as long as you are a daughter of christ, you're gonna be okay. Yeah, trust in god, don't trust in this world.
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah, you know she's she just graduated sixth grade yesterday nice dude and and got a middle schooler. She a couple months ago, uh, I walked in her room. So what are you doing? I'm doing a bible study nice, she's got her bible open I'm telling her to do this. Yeah, and she's got a couple. She brings friends to church all the time on a friday night come on and uh, she brought a friend to church a few months ago and she accepted christ. That's come on, man, and so she's being a disciple. Yeah, you know, she's out there.
Speaker 1:She goes oh, I don't know how to pray.
Speaker 4:I said, yeah, you do. I've heard you and your mom pray before. I said, when you do it at school, you don't have to do it out loud. Yeah, if you want to pray for your friends, you just go up to their desk and say God, you know, loving this girl, boy or whatever. Yeah, and just get whatever comes to your head, whatever the Holy Spirit's doing yeah.
Speaker 1:And you just do that. You don't have to, they don't have to even know.
Speaker 4:Yeah that you're laying hands on them. Come on, unless you feel like it. Don't be scared to tell anybody about your faith. I don't care what the school's telling you. Don't be afraid. Be faithful in the Lord. He loves you. He created you.
Speaker 2:He'll protect you.
Speaker 4:Last week Ray, my 41-year-old. He's got three kids and he got them taken away from him a few years ago, not because of dope had an incident I don't want to go into that but got his kids taken away from him and just tearing him apart. His ex she's been in and out of meth for years. I think she's had like eight kids. They had three kids together, oh Jesus, and they separated five years ago and she had two more. Yeah, and he called me up last Friday and said she got murdered and separated oh.
Speaker 4:Jesus and she knew Christ. Yeah, she'd call me up and ask me stuff once in a while, you know, even if they were split up, yeah, and tell me what she was doing, and you know she was going to church or whatever. You know, I hadn't heard from her in a long time. Yeah, it's just sad to know what this, this drug, does. Oh, yeah, what chemicals. How it messes us up, yeah, you know, puts us in the wrong places, how you and I, how three of us, could be alive today. He took us to those dark places, but he got us out of those. He kept us in the light.
Speaker 1:As the Bible says, a thief comes to steal, kill and destroy buddy Any means necessary Alcohol, drugs, money, women, whatever it takes to destroy a person.
Speaker 4:I always say know, we talk about the armor of god. Yeah, you got the brush, the shield. Yeah, you got the armor you got the uh the boots, the belt. The only thing it isn't, it doesn't talk about, is your back. It's because jesus got our back. Yeah, he's always since that five-year-old boy, he's always had my back. Yeah, kept me alive for a reason, for the things that I could do today, amen plus, if you and I stand back to back, that's right.
Speaker 1:You know I'm saying got your six baby yep, we're two or more gathered.
Speaker 4:He's in the midst.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me, you and rowdy stand together back to back. Oh jesus, where are they gonna get through? That's right, where they're gonna get through three, three stranded cord is unbreakable unbreakable come on baby your daughter.
Speaker 4:Your daughter is exemplifying what she sees you and your mom doing, or you and her mom doing so in in 2017, we went to the philippines and I'm like man, I want to go help some people here, you know. So we got with a friend of my sister-in-law and she took us down to this place called the drop-off center and kids. People have too many kids. They'll just drop their kids off like a dog, so you'll see naked kids running around you. You know no parents around no, nothing. They've probably been abused, and whatever.
Speaker 4:And I said I want to go down there and feed those kids, go, give them a little care package. So we went and got all the stuff, put them in little grocery bags and filled them up. And went there and we fed 70 kids that day.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 4:My daughter got a video of that. She's probably four years old, she's almost, she wasn't quite five yet. Yeah, and she says to me why are we doing this, daddy? I said because these people they don't have a said because these people they don't have, they don't have a mommy or daddy, I don't have a bed to sleep in.
Speaker 4:She goes you mean they don't have a cell phone or nothing american kids and I said no, sweetheart, and uh, we ended up feeding that time and I'm like this is the beginning of something. Yeah, and that was the birth of Cebu Backpack Ministry.
Speaker 1:My wife and I started a ministry. And we went what's it called?
Speaker 3:Cebu.
Speaker 4:C-E-B-U. All right, backpack Ministry, you can go online and it's all together Really, and we have a nonprofitprofit uh 501 3c, nice um, in night or no, we were supposed to go back with melanie and her husband in uh 21, but because of covid we couldn't go you couldn't go to the philippines until 22. I think we went in 19 again and we fed. Uh, I think we fed a hundred kids at that time yeah.
Speaker 4:And then last year we've, we started the foundation and, uh, did a fundraiser last year got enough funds to do 1500 backpacks? Wow, and I work with a pastor called pastor z, a pastor z man and just brother in christ. He over there in the philippines when, when we were there last year, he became a broken chains member let's go we patched him in because he rides motorcycles everywhere nice, but he has all these slum areas that he he ministers to yeah and we went into all these areas with them and gave out the backpacks come on um if somebody that I know is listening to this or watching this, what?
Speaker 2:where do they go if they want to sow a seed and help.
Speaker 4:You can go on. Sabu backpack ministrycom ororg c e's C-E-B-U.
Speaker 2:Backpackministryorg org.
Speaker 4:Okay, yep, you can go on there. There's a link to give. We're probably going to make a trip next year. Looks like we're going to go in May, so I'll start. I'm probably going to try to do something for Christmas. Pastor Z called me a couple weeks ago and said are you guys going to come back and do anything? Because we filled the backpacks with school supplies last year and right before school started.
Speaker 4:So this year, because I'm having gastro bypass surgery next week, I'm not going to be able to go this year. This year's been a little rough for me. So after I get done with the surgery and all that, I'm going going to be able to go this year. This year has been a little rough for me. So after I get done with the surgery and all that, I'm going to start doing fundraiser for Christmas and then we're going to start for next year. I don't know how much we'll do this year for Christmas, but Pastor Z is an incredible, incredible guy. He loves them kids. You can go on his Facebook and see all the pictures he posts on there how do you spell his name?
Speaker 2:it's Rizaldi he's one of your friends. Pastor on Facebook. Thank you God. Thank you Lord On Facebook. Yep, Okay, Thank you God. Thank you Lord. Yeah, bro, as you're talking about this backpack ministry, I feel like this is what God is calling you in this season. This is it.
Speaker 1:That's funny, because next time I think you go, I think Roddy's going with you that would be awesome, jesus.
Speaker 2:That would be awesome Jesus. That would be awesome. Those ain't cheap.
Speaker 4:I need your help, people. You know we would love to have more prayer warriors.
Speaker 3:We went with another couple that were an awesome.
Speaker 4:They're partners with us in this ministry and they're awesome people. They love the lord um and and I love to have them uh next time we go. I just want to get people that are uh prayer. You know they're going to go out want to do uh street, street ministries get on. That's this guy right here, buddy yeah, and the cool thing about the philippines everybody talks to ducks or speaks english yeah that's his risaldi risaldi, madali.
Speaker 1:You can go on facebook and r-i-z-a-i-d-y-a-l-d-y last name g-a-A-I-D-Y, a-l-d-y.
Speaker 2:Last name, g-a-n-a-r. Rizaldi Gnar.
Speaker 4:And he is with Bradford Church, bradford Church.
Speaker 1:Bradford.
Speaker 4:Church in Cebu, Philippines. Amen. And this guy, he rides his little. He's got like a 175.
Speaker 2:Everybody over there, I'm sure has got the little, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Mopeds and motorcycles.
Speaker 1:He's a big boy.
Speaker 2:I'm like when we went there.
Speaker 4:I took him to the Harley shop. They have a Harley shop he's like look at me. I said you can eat and sit on that bike so I can take a picture of you he's all got it on his Facebook.
Speaker 2:It's his profile, look at me and my. Harley with his broken chain jacket.
Speaker 4:That's great, that's awesome well, the thing about Pastor Z. I hope you don't mind me telling you a little bit of your story. He was a, he was a gangster dope dealer in Cebu and his whole crew got got murdered. But him and he became a, he became a pastor.
Speaker 2:And his whole crew got murdered. Wow, but him, god saved him.
Speaker 4:And he became a pastor.
Speaker 2:Look at him now and 25 years later.
Speaker 1:Come on, jeez, he's out there just loving on.
Speaker 4:Christ loving on the kids, that's what. God does brother.
Speaker 1:Redemption.
Speaker 4:He's one of us 100%.
Speaker 1:Did you ever go to Sun Valley? Just recently had their big year celebration.
Speaker 4:I didn't get to go there and see hannah dude, how's that? Yeah, her story wow bro I was at the summit in texas and I was her bodyguard there. Yeah, one of her body hear about her dad.
Speaker 1:I was like oh yeah that's so good, dude, that's god, bro, that's 100%. It don't matter gangster, drug dealer. When God gets a hold of you, god does things, bro, jesus.
Speaker 4:When I was in the oil field. There wasn't a day went by that I didn't go out there and tell people about.
Speaker 3:Jesus yeah.
Speaker 4:I had a friend of mine that was a Jehovah Witness. He had his own relationship.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:But I said, do you go out there and tell people about Jesus out in the oil field? I just go to church, I go. Well, nobody's going to know him unless you tell them about him. Yeah, and he saved your soul saved my soul.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 4:And he redeemed, he redeems us man, yeah, he does.
Speaker 1:And oh, that's good for you bro people think the things that you need you and rowdy. Do they consider that radical? They do bro I know, I know they're like you, like they tell me right, you guys are radical. We're like radical, we're just bold. We know what god saved us from man radical.
Speaker 2:Why would you not philippians 120, for I fully expect and hope to never be ashamed, but continue to be bold for Christ.
Speaker 4:Right David and Goliath brother Come on man. Yeah, you know, are you going to stand up for your God?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was in California and I had a fundraise for a few years man over there for the church that I was with and I'd go to. I'd be on the streets on like boulevard or la palma, and I'd see at bus stops the jehovah's witness and have their little sign and be a guy and a girl. They'd just be standing there, bro, quiet. So what I would do is I'd take my box of chocolates and for about 20 or 30 minutes bro, I would just work that little intersection where they were just standing selling all these chocolates, praying for all these people, handing out all these flyers. Oh, oh, yeah, you're good dude, go ahead bro. And I'd freaking when I was about 20 or 30 minutes in, after everything's gone. I'm like that's how you share Jesus with people and then just walk away dude they were like what's going on here?
Speaker 1:That's pretty funny because they're a religion that believes you have to work for it.
Speaker 2:Oh they do. That's pretty funny, because they're a religion that believes you have to work for it. Oh they do. They stand there. That's not working for it.
Speaker 1:They're standing there. I love that dude. I love the fact that him and his wife go back to the Philippines and do stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I love how she interpreted that step step.
Speaker 4:How.
Speaker 1:God did that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he did.
Speaker 2:Because, he ain't smart enough. It took Melanie to ask her hey, will you please interpret for this and for her to do it? And now she's like she can do anything within celebrate recovery because she finished that step study. God has something in the future for them. With CR in the Philippines man, oh yeah, bud. With cr in the philippines man, oh yeah, bud. What do you call it? A poc, a poc. They got one. As the pastor z yeah, you know. Now he's a point of contact in cebu for the broken chains for future, and everybody in the philippines rides bikes.
Speaker 2:So you got no idea, big Big Ron, what God's going to do in the Philippines with CR, with the backpack ministry, with you and your wife and Faith and Pastor Z. Wow, there's good things coming. There's a reason why you're going through this gastric thing and you're getting healthy Because you've tried this before with the program and opted in lost weight. But because of the money you weren't able to stay because it's not cheap. So now what you're getting ready to do? You already know the tools. You've done optivate, you know about this portions. So this thing is going to like be a a kick in the butt for you to get healthy so that you can go over there and make multiple trips a year so you can minister and help those kids.
Speaker 4:That's my prayer, that I can do that full time. Yeah, you know that I'm going back and forth, that I can build a team you know backing all that to help these kids over there. Yeah, man, you go over to third world country, you go to Mexico and you see how these people live.
Speaker 2:India.
Speaker 4:India, Turkey, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:It's different. It's different.
Speaker 4:We're so spoiled here. Yes, sir, our homeless are spoiled here, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:You know. That's why they're sleeping in tents on the street.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, you know, that's why they're sleeping in tents on the street?
Speaker 4:Yeah, but you know it's a sad thing, it's real, but it's true. It's true, and you go over there and you see real poverty.
Speaker 2:Real poverty.
Speaker 4:Shats. We went in 19, and I brought a friend of mine from the oil field, Javon Green. He's an incredible, incredible guy. He was a backup singer for Aretha. Oh, wow At least I think that's the story. But anyways, he's a great singer. But he went to the Philippines with us in 19. And he got to meet Pastor Z and Pastor Jim and he was like brother. I got to come back here.
Speaker 1:I got to come back here.
Speaker 4:God is moving here. We went to, I told my story at this alternative school we called it alternative school for these teenage kids and I told my testimony about my dad and all that. And this one kid came up to me and he said, hey, can I talk to you? And I said, sure, we sat down. He said my life's the same as yours. I don't know if it's the same. He said I was shooting heroin. I, I'm like I didn't even know they had heroin here in the Philippines, yeah, and he said yeah, and I was. I was prostituting myself and doing whatever I can because I don't have any money. And there was 70 kids that were there. There was only supposed to be 45. Wow, we brought backpacks to those kids and there I said you guys need to share with each other kids showed up, yeah and then we went to this.
Speaker 4:Uh went to this place for new moms that were teaching them kids moms over on the street that didn't know how to take care of their kids. They would put them in this home and teach them how to change diapers and how to make a bottle.
Speaker 2:Like care, actual things, ways to care for kids.
Speaker 4:Wow. And so we went there and I got to speak with them and do that and ended up speaking at, I think, around 15 different places that trip and I was just touched. We went to this one place, an NGO, a government-ran institution. I couldn't take our cell phones in there, I couldn't take any pictures, but it was where these kids were abused, either by their family, sexually abused or they were trafficked. There was a kid in there, less than a year old, that was sex trafficked.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, bro, oh yeah, it's disgusting what the heck is going on.
Speaker 4:It's disgusting bro, they said, like you said, most of it's somebody in the family. Yeah, yeah and there's actually people are so poor they're having kid.
Speaker 2:People are having kids now to sell them into that on purpose, bro, it's horrible I knew.
Speaker 4:I knew that I had to do this ministry um I don't know how to?
Speaker 2:I'm not a very smart guy, um god knows that, god knows, god knows and I can't wait for a day where I can so I'm gonna I'm gonna share something with you here at lifLink missions is huge, huge. We have a team of doctors that go on our mission trips so that they can perform health clinics. We missions in Uganda, kenya, mexico, we're I mean multiple different countries. And something that God put in my heart a long time ago, bro, is like Asia. There's literally parts of Asia that have never been proselytized because they've been closed through communist regimes. And now they're open.
Speaker 2:And God has brought me to India when I was 12, 13 years old. I believe I'm going to go back there again to share the gospel with those people. But this thing you're talking about in the Philippines, I could totally see a team of people, like you're saying, health clinics, people that are going over there, and we're going there to just give them Jesus and give them the needs that they need and to encourage Pastor Z, bring Pastor Tom with us so that we can encourage the pastors that are there so they can rise up into what God's calling for them, because it's not all about us Americans going and saving the day.
Speaker 2:It's about us going and encouraging those leaders and the people who are there every day.
Speaker 1:It's equipping them. It's equipping them so they can do it.
Speaker 2:And building relationships, even as.
Speaker 4:I'm even. I've got chills. Come on, god, I'm, I'm man. I've been waiting for this for a long time, man. Yeah, I've been praying for it and don't really know how to get started, but, um, that is my, that's my prayer it's, it's out in the air.
Speaker 2:You spoke it. What's in the heart has been spoken out, and now it's going to go into the right person's ears you could go on that website and see a little.
Speaker 4:Uh, pastor james was our. He, he was our pastor. I met him. Uh, the first time we went over there I met pastor z, but pastor james, um, he met us at that drop-off center and then he took us to his church to Bradford. His dad had cancer at the time and ended up passing away, but I got to meet his dad before he passed and he helped me do the Celebrate Recovery that we taught in 2020. And I'm like man, I got to come back. When are you going to come back? When do you come back? And I wanted to bring people that are going to be like that bring doctors. I met a guy. I do the bridge down Once a month I drive the truck for the bridge downtown in the zone and one of the guys from the ascendants. His name is Doc. Him and his wife are nurse practitioners and I was talking to him about it this weekend. He said dude, here's my card, give me a call, let's come on let's get this fundraiser thing going, come on man, let's do it you know.
Speaker 4:So get people. I can't get dentists, that can go over there um yeah, all these things. You know that we can, what we could do. It isn't, like you said, giving them this stuff. How do we go over there, bring Jesus, let them have a little, you know, get checked out.
Speaker 2:Actually meet the needs. Yes, because that's really what it is, man.
Speaker 4:You go over there and my heart breaks every time I go into the slums.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:You're walking on feces.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:They got nowhere else to go. Yeah, this one lady. I said, could you have a restroom I could use? And she took me to her house and it was a clean house but I'm looking at the outside of it, going man, this is rough and go inside and she takes me the bathrooms right there. It was just a hole about this big. She had me a tabo. They call it. It's just a bucket with a handle. You wash yourself with that after you get done. Wow, pooping the hole it's very humbling.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm like wow, okay, yeah. But the thing about the Philippines they always have a smile on their face, isn't that the crazy.
Speaker 2:Thing.
Speaker 4:You don't see an unhappy Filipino. Yeah, my wife has the most beautiful smile and God has just given me something to take that kid to eighth grade. He had a plan back then. Then I just didn't know how that's right to get there, yeah and I'm still learning you know, and um, you guys can get a hold of me through uh rowdy and uh hopefully, and get some people through this and we'll get it.
Speaker 2:God's gonna do what he's gonna do, bud's. He sees his people and he knows. He knows when we're ready, he knows when they're ready. He knows yeah.
Speaker 4:I uh I stepped down from from uh celebrate recovery as a ministry leader. It's because I feel like God's a lot it's, a lot it's calling. I've been doing it for 21 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man.
Speaker 4:And I still have a heart for it. Don't get me wrong, I'm just. I've been doing it so long and I feel like God's calling me. Why did I give you a Sulu backpack?
Speaker 1:Hello.
Speaker 4:Without Jerry and Barbara I wouldn't be able to get this nonprofit 5013C. I mean, they're really hard to come by.
Speaker 2:They are bud and.
Speaker 1:God made it happen. God does a lot of money buddy.
Speaker 2:Yeah dude.
Speaker 4:So it happened. We have one People can go. There's a link on there that you can go to PayPal and get right there. It goes right in the bank.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 4:And they send you a receipt, so you can write it off and your taxes and all that good stuff. I'm excited to see what God's going to do in this next chapter, when I go through this surgery I need to. When I came to Arizona, I told myself I'm going to just work on Ron. I got to work on me.
Speaker 2:Come on bro, but I jumped right back into the same.
Speaker 4:My addiction personality.
Speaker 2:Come on, buddy.
Speaker 4:Oh, I got to do this. I got to save these people. Yeah, I can't save nobody. I got to save myself.
Speaker 2:Come on bro.
Speaker 4:And I'm not being selfish.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 4:I haven't worked on my own stuff. I've own stuff I've I've gotten into. Uh, I've never been a depressed person, but in the last year I've been in this depressed state and um, I need to get away from that I got this great ministry. I got this great wife. Um, I'm gonna. When I go back to the philippines, I'm gonna be 100 pounds lighter. Come on, I'll be able to climb those hills come on bro, last year when I tried to.
Speaker 4:I'm like we're going up there you're gonna kill this fat old guy but I mean, god got me up there and got me down, amen, and uh, I was hurting pretty good the next day, but uh, we did a lot of we did a lot of walking it's time to get healthy bro and now I'm gonna different lifestyle, change my life, and let God just listen to what he's got planned, not what Ron's got planned.
Speaker 4:Come on buddy, I don't have to be in charge, I don't have to be the leader of Celebrate Recovery or be even a POC for Broken Chains. I don't have to do those things.
Speaker 1:The only thing you have to be, ron is a child of God.
Speaker 2:A son, that's it, bud. A son that, the only thing you have to be.
Speaker 1:Ron is a child of God, a son.
Speaker 4:That's it, bud, a son, that's all you have to be. You know, I've helped hundreds and hundreds of men through Celebrate Recovery. I've done my work, you know and God is telling me I'm proud of you, my faithful son, Amen and good deed.
Speaker 1:Can I tell you something as I've been on this journey of getting healthy myself? The other day I was working out and God told me how you tend to your temple, your body, as a reflection of your love for me. He says you wouldn't go to that building that you go and serve at and call church. You wouldn't go there and paint the walls, would you? I'm like no, he's like you wouldn't go there and there and paint the walls, would you? I'm like no, he's like you wouldn't go there and make a mess of it, would you? He's like no, I'm like no, he's like I don't live there, I live inside of you.
Speaker 1:So why are you doing what you're doing to my dwelling place by eating unhealthy, by taking in fast food all the time and misusing the temple that I dwell in, when you would rather take care of a building that I don't dwell in? But you're going to abuse the actual temple, your body, that I dwell in? That was a smack in the face, ron. That was like a smack in the face of. I had it all wrong and I knew that this was a temple of God. I knew this was a building. I know God don't dwell here. I know, when I walk into this place, I bring him in with me.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:But for some reason in my fleshly state of mind, I could just do whatever I want with this, because it's mine. You know what I mean, and he was very adamant at correcting me.
Speaker 2:What's it say in one of our steps?
Speaker 1:Offer your bodies as living sacrifice All the way, in pleasing God.
Speaker 4:True act of worship.
Speaker 1:And I got to tell you. That floored me, dude, that made me look at how I eat, how I work out, the things I'm doing that I'm not supposed to be doing, hello, and all those things. It's the temple of God and you're abusing it and I'm like no more God.
Speaker 2:Last night we had a long day, bro, and at night it's like 8.30, I go out. What are you doing? He's like hooking up the swamp cooler and getting ready to work out. I'm like what?
Speaker 4:are you doing?
Speaker 2:He's all gotta do something Like oh man.
Speaker 1:My wife. When Rowdy and my wife were down in Mexico, she's like what are you doing? Are you, you know, are you?
Speaker 4:behaving yourself.
Speaker 3:I'm like we were worried about him.
Speaker 2:He's alone.
Speaker 1:I'm doing the same thing I do I go to work, I come home, I exercise. I need to take care of his temple. And I even told her in my text God forgive me for what I've done to your temple man he started sending mama pictures of him working out. Look, he's sending me pictures of his biceps.
Speaker 1:Amen, it's one thing to know it and to read it and understand that God dwells in us, it's another to live in and that this is just a building. But to have him himself correct you in that and tell you I live in you. Why are you doing that to me, to my dwelling place? That's different, bro. That hits, a little different than just knowing the scriptures and reading it but having him correct you in what they really mean. You know what I mean, no doubt.
Speaker 2:So, ron, we've got the hell that you grew up in, bro. We've got your encounter on April 15th in 84, when you surrendered and you became his son, because that was the time that he became father for you and that's how you made it through the hell that you made it through Because of him and his grace and his hand being on you. And then we've got how your life changed, bro, because you did a lot. I love. I love just how real it is, because, even though you say yes to jesus, you still go through some stuff always you go through some stuff, man it still takes time to get egypt out of you bud.
Speaker 2:So it's just real. I love how open and honest you were, bro um, and then at the you started talking about the philippines.
Speaker 1:That's, I can tell that's what you're hoping for, that's what you're believing for in the future, my man that and good health that and good health bro anything else, anything else you believe in god for, in the future just good health good health in the philippines and the philippines and subu backpack ministry.
Speaker 4:I can continue being a great example to my daughter amen uh, you know, she graduated. She graduated, uh, sixth grade yesterday and just to watch this young lady grow up, yeah, and that she loves christ and she'll come up and ask me questions. It's like wow, thank you, lord. Sometimes I don't know what to say, you know.
Speaker 1:It's awesome to watch our children do that. My youngest son's in the stage right now where he's finally understanding that when he's struggling to go to the Scriptures, and he works next door to me and he'll come over. Oh, I was just reading, look Dad. I was just reading, look down. I was just reading romans 8. Look, this is what romans 8 says. And I don't know, but I don't show it. But inside I'm just like oh my god, are we really doing this right now?
Speaker 4:you know what I mean.
Speaker 4:Yes, me and my, my little sister, uh, thank you god, we, she, and she says I, I accepted Christ before she did, but I think she did, yeah, but we'll keep on arguing about that. But she loves the Lord too, amen. And my mom I didn't talk about my mom a lot, but my mom was my rock for me and was always there for me, uh, for me, and was always there for me, uh, and she didn't. She didn't, um, go to church after you know. Yeah, I think she might have went to some bible studies and all that. Uh, she passed away in 19 from heart disease and um, and I was there, for I was living in North Dakota and she called me up and said that she was in the hospital. Then they took her to a nursing home and they said that she was okay. But I got there and she was just blown up. She had this plate of food they gave her. I'm like nope, taking her back to the hospital and got her back to the hospital and she died about five days later.
Speaker 2:Wow, Were you able to have a conversation with her?
Speaker 4:I never asked my mom if she knew Christ, but that day my sister, my eldest sister I don't know if she believes in God, she doesn't believe like we believe.
Speaker 2:She's way left, she's been through a lot, bro. She's been through a lot, bro, love her.
Speaker 4:She's got a big heart. The people on the left still love Jesus yeah they do, yes, they do, and I pray for her that she does what she did. She flew from California. I drove from North Dakota. Everybody was able to come see my mom before she passed, we put her in hospice.
Speaker 4:But when she was sitting, the doctor said that she had about 10% of her heart and 15% of her kidneys were working, or something like that, and so they were going to give her dialysis. My sister was Mom, get dialysis, get dialysis. And so she said, yes, okay. We went downstairs. The nurse called us and said to come back up. Got back up there. Mom said no, I'm ready to go home. Wow, and she meant heaven. Yeah, because she always believed in Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And so I was sitting with her and Sherry went back down the stairs and I said Mom, do you want me to get a priest to come to pray with you? She said no. I said you want Pastor David. Pastor David was my mentor, my spiritual mentor. He was one of the pastors at New Life Still today he's in India actually and I said you want me to get Pastor Dave over here? She was in Idaho and she said no, and I go. Mom, do you want me to pray for you?
Speaker 2:She said that's all I wanted, dang dude, I knew that was coming, bro, I knew Gets to me every time. He got me dude, she goes.
Speaker 4:that's all I wanted, Ron.
Speaker 2:My boy just pray me home Dang.
Speaker 3:Oh man.
Speaker 4:She said to me I'm so proud of you, ron, so proud of you. You've become such a good man, I didn't know what to say. I love you.
Speaker 2:Mom, I love you Mom.
Speaker 4:I put her through hell.
Speaker 4:She loved me unconditionally all my life the love of a mama bro and then when we were going through, we were going through her belongings, we we had to have, uh, her, we had to do some stuff to her house to be able to sell it. There's five of us and so we had to recarpet it, repaint it, do some stuff with the flooring, and got all that done. But we were going through her stuff and Tammy found a Bible that she had in her nightstand and it was all marked up. She'd been going reading that Bible. Yeah, man, I know where mom was at.
Speaker 2:She knew who the father was. Who's going to be there?
Speaker 4:Who's going to be hugging me before? My dad or my mom? Yeah, they're both going to be there.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful bro, that's beautiful man. The beauty of Jesus is that it's a personal relationship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he prefers us to have community, but there's nothing in there that says that you have to have community to make it to heaven you don't have to come to a building to come to church.
Speaker 4:I mean, we're having church right here. Yeah, we're inside of a building, but it said.
Speaker 1:It says if you believe in your heart, you confess with your mouth, you shall be saved yeah it doesn't say you're required to make this many church services or you know what I mean's just as simple. Do you believe or don't?
Speaker 4:you. It was like what Faith said why do you want to get baptized? Because I want everybody to know I love Jesus. Keep it simple.
Speaker 1:My mother-in-law was very private in her faith. Yeah, my grandma, but damn, if you made it inside of her house, dude, you have no doubt that woman loved the Lord. Because at 5 o'clock, 5.30 in the morning, with her cup of coffee, she was reading her Bible.
Speaker 3:At night she was in her chair.
Speaker 1:At night she was in her chair reading her Bible. All you had to do was spend a day in her house and you knew that woman loved the Lord and she wouldn't preach, she wouldn't share she wouldn't open up. But, man, if you were blessed enough to spend a day in her house, you absolutely knew that woman loved the.
Speaker 2:Lord Bro, there were times when me and my cousins would come home from the lake and she would have drunk Indians inside feeding them lunch. Bro, like alone, we're like Grandma. You cannot have these people in your house, it's okay, they're just hungry. They'll go after they eat. Love you, grandma. Hey, grandma, it's her prayers why I'm here bud, that's right. Man dude Pray for this brother. Thank you, bro, thank you Ron, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 1:Appreciate you, man so vulnerable, so honest and so open, so real, dude. I told you beforehand we were going into warfare, dude.
Speaker 2:We did some war. We lit that devil up, bro Smacked him. Yeah.
Speaker 1:We lit that devil up, bro Smacked him, yeah One more time we put that dude under our heel and we crushed his head.
Speaker 2:Thank you, god. So I thank you for just sharing man, we'll pray for you, brother. Man Jesus.
Speaker 1:Man. Thank you, Lord, Father God, I just praise you, God. Thank you, God. I sit here in awe wonder of just how mighty you really are, God. I don't understand how me and Ratty got chosen to be able to sit here with your sons and your daughters.
Speaker 2:Do this God.
Speaker 1:Thank you, lord, to just hear their stories.
Speaker 2:God, it's just Everyone's so beautiful.
Speaker 1:I know there's nothing.
Speaker 2:I did to earn it or deserve it, God, but I thank you for this opportunity to sit down with your children, God.
Speaker 1:Thank you, God. It's an honor and I said it when we prayed earlier, Father God that when we sit down here with your children, we're sitting down with royalty. Yes, Father God, we're sitting down with royalty.
Speaker 4:Yep, yes, father, we're sitting down with prince and princesses of heaven.
Speaker 1:God. Thank you, lord. And so, father, I thank you for your son, ron man. I just thank you for a life filled of just trials, tribulations, faith, miracles, wonders, god, of how you just moved, protected, cared for your son, god.
Speaker 1:So, father God, as we come into this new season, god, he said in his story that he has stepped down from CR at leadership, god, and he's believing you, god. So I stand here in faith, believing with him, leadership God, and he's believing you, god. So I stand here in faith, believing with him, father God, that this Cebu Backpack Ministry, god, is this next season, god. So, father God, I thank you for resources, I thank you for soldiers, I thank you for workers, I thank you for people whose hearts are for those children, god. So I thank you, Lord, that this ministry will lack nothing and this ministry will have everything it needs to thrive, to prosper, but, most of all, to bring hope, faith, encouragement to your children over there. God. So, lord, we praise you for what you're going to do. We thank you for what you've already done over there, god, we thank you for Pastor Z and Pastor James.
Speaker 2:Thank you God.
Speaker 1:And every other man of God, woman of God in the Philippines who just is doing your work. God, we pray for just resources for that area. We pray for people in that area, god, we pray for open ears, open minds to God. We pray for open ears, open minds, to be able to hear the truth of your gospel and that those people in that area, god, that they will turn from their ways that they will confess that you are Lord, that they will pick up their cross and they will walk it out daily.
Speaker 1:Because as much as we can do here with resources, as much as we can do here with the things that we provide God with the once-a-year trips, god, you can do here with resources, as much as we can do here with the things that we provide God with the once-a-year trips, god, you can do so much more with people in that area. Thank you, god. So I pray, lord, god, by the power of your Spirit that transcends time, space and just everything, god, that you begin to facilitate in that area a ministry that begins to move in a mighty way.
Speaker 4:God, we're already seeing things like this happen in.
Speaker 1:China, god, we're already seeing things like this happen in China, god, we're already seeing things like this happen in Africa, god. So we thank you, lord, that right now, by the power of your spirit, you're getting to stir things in the Philippines. God, you're beginning to work and minister to people's hearts and minds. They will turn and they'll see. I thank you for the government workers, god, the government people who are in in position of power and authority in the Philippines, god, those are the ones that you're going to begin to stir their hearts.
Speaker 4:God to see what's really going on.
Speaker 1:Those are the ones who can create laws. Those are the ones who can create things that will be permanent fixtures, God, that will forever change the face of the Philippines. Lord, Thank you.
Speaker 1:Lord. So I thank you for what you're doing, god, lord, I thank you for faith. Lord, I thank you for faith. Lord, I thank you for a young girl just on fire. For you, god lord, I pray right now, lord, that you put an army of angels around her, god to protect her. God, because what ron is starting? God, I see faith is the one who's going to carry it to the next level. Yes, that she's going to see that these are my people, this is where I come from, this is part of my heritage and I want to make a difference there, god thank you god.
Speaker 1:So I thank you for what you're doing in her heart and her mind right now in this season. God and Lord, I thank you for Ron and Emily. God that they're creating a house, an atmosphere within their home that encourages, that stirs and just feeds the faith of this young girl. God, that she will grow up not lacking or knowing everything she needs to know about the lord god.
Speaker 1:Thank you lord for the example that ron and emily are placing before her, god. So I thank you for what you're doing. I love you, god again. We just pray that you return this time back to ron. I know he's having surgery coming up, god. I thank you, lord, for just your hands yeah, and and the people that you have in place already.
Speaker 1:god, for the people that you've spoken to and stirred in their hearts to have this surgery go well, god. So I thank you for what you're doing there, god, lord, I pray for anything in Ron's mind, god, whether it's an eating habit or excuses why he cannot do the things that he needs to do on his part.
Speaker 1:God to help this surgery be well and to be a successful God. Thank you for new eating habits, Lord, I think he was talking beforehand God that there was this class that he had to go through and he had to learn how to re-eat again and how to drink water, to sip water, god. So I pray, lord, god, that everything that he learned in that class, god, it did not fall on deaf ears.
Speaker 1:God Come on Lord, but that it has fallen on fertile ground, god, and that when the surgery takes place, that those things, god, that he'll practice, those, things.
Speaker 2:Thank you, God.
Speaker 1:Because he needs to get himself right.
Speaker 4:Yes, sir, Healthy God.
Speaker 1:Because there are many hills and valleys within the Philippines that he needs to travel and walk on God. And you need a Ron who is healthy, who is strong, who is mighty in the Lord God, to be able to go over there and minister to these people. God, thank you, lord.
Speaker 2:Thank you, God.
Speaker 1:So I thank you for that. Right there, lord, depression. I speak to you right now in Jesus' name. You have no authority over Ron. Lord, I thank you that you called your son the Prince of Peace. God, I pray that that peace is bronze, that he takes hold of it, that he owns it, that he takes authority over it. God, thank you, jesus. You are mighty, you are strong. Help us to operate from a place of victory. God. Help us to operate from a place of victory. God. Help us to minister to a place from victory.
Speaker 1:God, he said earlier that his motto was to speak life. I pray, lord, god, that he begins to speak life into his own self. So good. He begins to speak life into his health. He begins to speak life into his mental health. He begins to speak life into his physical health. He begins to speak life into his physical body. Thank you, god. He begins to speak life into his soul, his mind, body, emotions, all those things. God, we know that the power lies in the tongue. Our thoughts have no power, but our words are sharper than a two-edged sword, god. So I thank you, lord, that he's going to begin to speak life into those areas that need to be spoken. Life into God. He will take back his authority over his own mind, over his own body.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 1:Over his own health and he will declare victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Yeah, another testimony.
Speaker 1:So we praise you for all you're doing. God, doing God. We thank you that you hear our prayers. We thank you that you answer prayers. God, align his will with yours, god, so everything can be done in a timely manner. Let it be, and we can see your glory through it, and I know that our brother will testify and give the glory to you, god, yep. So have your way, lord.
Speaker 2:Move in a mighty way. We pray in jesus name, amen, amen. So while he's praying, bro, I literally saw you on social media with a sibu backpack ministry like page and you were going lives and you were sharing testimonies while in the philippines about the work you were doing over there. And so there's something with social media in the Cebu backpack ministry that God wants you to bring to the world so we can all see it. And it's going to start here in like a marketing or a fundraising thing, but it's literally going to travel with you over there and while you're there, the people who sow seeds here will be able to see what you're doing there. So it's a powerful testimony of what God has for you, and it's just beginning. You've tasted and seen that he's good and there's more coming, bro, big time.
Speaker 4:You go on the website, there's lots of pictures of what we did over there, let's go dude.
Speaker 4:You know all the kids, the smiles. We had a group of kids that came from a cancer house. It's kind of like Ronald McDonald House. They bring them to this place from the provinces and let them stay there while having treatment. And 15 of them came to the church, all had masks on because they're sick and I got to preach. Pastor Z got to preach in front of them and they're from five years old to teenagers. One of them, I think, was 17. And we gave them all backpacks.
Speaker 4:And my group was kind of over to the side. They were ready, they were pretty tired. This was the last group that we were going to see. We went to 18 different neighborhoods in two days so we were like moving and the Holy Spirit said you need to go pray with these people. And I went to every parent, every child, laid hands on every one of them went around that table and gave hope to every single one of them, amen.
Speaker 4:And I said to them it doesn't matter if the Lord takes your child or not, that you know, if you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, that you're never going to lose them. You know where they're going. Yeah, you're going to be there with them. Come on, trust me to be there with them. Come on, trust me. I had another group that I got to go, was invited to a jail there. I love going into jails, like you guys do, and I didn't think it was going to happen. But we finally got to go to this jail and the cell was not big and there was 50 guys in there, wow. And then there was another little cell, not much bigger than that cubicle, with the women and it was kind of like this the men were over here, the women.
Speaker 1:They could see each other.
Speaker 4:We brought in their McDonald's. It's called Jollibee. We brought them in lunch. I got to preach and their big thing over there. They think once you're in the system you'll never be away from it.
Speaker 2:That's not just over there bud.
Speaker 4:We think that here.
Speaker 2:Just get a number You're a number, you're never, getting out.
Speaker 4:It's worse. What I mean, you know.
Speaker 2:People don't think here no, it's real what I mean, you know, people don't think here, no, it's. Yeah, it's real, bro, there ain't no hope, but I, I told them.
Speaker 4:I got to tell them my story. I've been. I've been behind these bars. Yeah, I don't know what it's. I don't know what it's like to live in the like they. I didn't say that, but I know what it's like. I have that hope. Not sure what they're going to have with the next meal is, but man, god used me.
Speaker 2:Come on, buddy, and still using me, amen.
Speaker 4:So not only will the kids be, I want to get into doing jail ministry also over there.
Speaker 1:Amen. Will you do us a favor, ron Sure, will you pray for me and Rowdy and pray for Speak Life ministry that God moved in that Will you that god moved in, that we pray for us, but yes, for sure, let's get it.
Speaker 4:Thank you heavenly, father man, just thank you for brother eddie and and rowdy that man, what they're doing with speak life, father, god and man this has been my mantra for years and that they are using these microphones to just touch all you people out here in arizona it would go global Father. God that they would be able to touch people all over the earth. Father God that need.
Speaker 4:Jesus and are hurting out there. They have so many different people and personalities that come through these doors, Father God, and they're able to use those people for your glory, Father God.
Speaker 3:It's not them.
Speaker 1:It's not what they speak, it's what you speak, and that's right those people's lives out there, father, god and you just continue to work through them, father god.
Speaker 4:Uh, keep them healthy as they go through their journey. Father god, uh for their family. For for the? Uh eddie's wife. Father god for roddy's mom. Uh, for his brothers and sisters and cousins, father God. But Father God, just look after this ministry, that it grows.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Lord.
Speaker 4:More than they could even fathom. Father God Thank you. God, that they just are able to go places that they never imagined. Father God, jesus, that you took them from that living room, doing whatever they were doing at first, to what they're doing today. Father God, in five years from now, they're not even going to recognize it.
Speaker 1:Father God, Glory to God. We are so thankful for these brothers right here.
Speaker 4:They love you and they love what this ministry does, father God. So please just look after them, guide them, father, hold their hand, fill their hearts with you and, through these microphones, that they would just be able to sit your word and love you and let everybody know how much you love them. Father God, we love you. Father God, love what you've done in their life, what you're going to do in their life, in Jesus' name, amen, thanks bro.
Speaker 2:Appreciate you. Hey, everybody you're going to do in their life In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 2:Thanks, bro, appreciate you. Hey everybody, I sure hope you enjoyed this testimony, wherever you're listening or watching. If you could, please subscribe to the channel, like and follow us, man. You'll get all the future notifications of upcoming episodes. If you yourself would like to come on the podcast and share your testimony, you can reach out through facebook or instagram. Speak life az. All one word, um. Leave a comment, man. It helps us for the algorithms and the way that stuff's all run. Um, if you can, we could really use some support. Please support the show man monthly. They definitely help, but until the next time, we're going to continue to speak life AZ. God bless you.
Speaker 1:Jesus, jesus.