Keith "Big Country" Johnson Testimony

A Friday laugh turns into a frontline reminder: real ministry gets contested. From there, Keith pulls us through Texas hill country and Friday night lights into a childhood that traded safety for control, where a stepdad’s words built worthlessness and a kitchen drawer almost became an exit. Then—an interruption. A vivid picture of his mother’s grief. A life spared. And years later, a football coach points a teenage Keith toward a small Baptist revival after 9/11, where a simple altar call meets the deeper need: love replacing fear, God becoming an audience of one.

What follows is a tour through the guts of church life most people never see. Keith moves from Baptist pews to an Assemblies of God congregation, encountering the Holy Spirit, then dives into youth camps, internships, and midnight setup crews. He joins choir, meets Erica at auditions, and learns to build community by showing up, not showing off. A move to Colorado to help plant a church brings lessons in promises, resilience, and the quiet ministry of encouragement. Back in Arizona, he helps raise walls, runs security with a smile, and finishes LCU. When COVID shatters routines, he and Erica listen to a simple question from their four-year-old—“Can we go to church now?”—and follow a nudge to Living Waters.

There, the polish is thinner and the presence is thick. Keith steps in to stabilize youth, gets ordained, and starts building YCJ—Youth C Jesus—one student at a time. He designs a faith boot camp to turn testimonies into tools, trains teens to share the gospel with clarity and courage, and builds a leadership pipeline led by an 18-year-old with a preacher’s backbone. He pairs series on fear, discipleship, and service with real-world reps: street conversations, Friendsgiving community, and a food bank Christmas. The bigger vision is apostolic—churches praying for churches, sending leaders, sharing what works—and it’s practical, too. He’s raising support to go full time so youth and young adult ministry can scale without starving the church’s mission.

If you’re hungry for transformation that outlasts the service, this story will meet you. It’s about healing that starts when secrets break, a marriage that leads by example, and a church culture that believes testimonies overcome darkness. Come hear how a kid who wouldn’t drink at parties became a pastor who trains teens to speak light in hard places—and why your story might be the spark someone needs today.

If this resonates, follow the show, subscribe on YouTube, and share it with someone who needs courage. Drop a one-word comment—“Jesus”—to boost the message, and leave a review so more people can find hope here.

Chapters

• 0:00 Friday Banter & Spiritual Warfare
• 6:08 Honoring Guests & Purpose Of The Show
• 12:50 Prayer For Courage And Anointing
• 15:50 Why This Podcast Exists: Everyday Testimonies
• 19:35 Keith’s Texas Roots And Small-Town Life
• 28:12 Stepdad’s Control, Verbal Abuse, And Worthlessness
• 36:58 Suicide Averted And God’s First Intervention
• 43:24 Football, Parties, And Choosing Sobriety
• 52:50 9/11 Revival Night And Salvation
• 1:02:40 Early Church Life And Finding Community
• 1:12:32 From Baptist To AOG: First Encounters With The Holy Spirit
• 1:22:08 Calling, Youth Camp, And Arizona Confirmation
• 1:31:28 Moving To Arizona And Plugging Into Lifelink
• 1:41:36 Choir, Meeting Erica, And Marriage
• 1:55:20 Colorado Church Plant: Promises And Lessons
• 2:05:20 Returning To Lifelink And Building Years
• 2:17:36 Community Over Attendance: Why Church Matters
• 2:28:48 COVID Disruptions And A Hard Pivot
• 2:36:16 Finding Living Waters And A New Assignment
• 2:47:20 Ordination And Rebuilding Youth Ministry
• 2:57:44 Raising Future Leaders And YCJ Vision
• 3:07:08 Faith Boot Camp, Testimony Training, And Outreach
• 3:18:56 Apostolic Growth, Sending Culture, And Unity
• 3:30:24 Funding Ministry And A Call For Support
• 3:41:36 Mutual Prayer, Blessings, And Closing CTAs

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:17

All right, everybody. Welcome back to the Speak Life A Z podcast, testimony of Jesus and everyday people. I'm your host, Eddie, and always with me is my son Rowdy.

SPEAKER_09: 0:25

Jesus! What up, bro? Oh man, what a day, dude. We made it, bud. Thank God it's Friday, bud. Friday. For somebody. I gotta work tomorrow. What are you talking about? It's only for a little bit longer, buddy. I don't want to.

SPEAKER_04: 0:41

Enjoy your weekends. I'm blessed that I get to do this, that I'm healthy enough to do this, so I don't mind at all, brother. It's planting seed until the harvest is ready, bud. That's the way it's good. Thank you, Lord. And I thank God for it.

SPEAKER_09: 0:52

He's preparing us, bud.

SPEAKER_04: 0:53

For what's to come. I was just talking to this dude earlier about that. I'm like, come on, Lord, let's go. Good though? Oh, yeah. Feeling better? You were under the weather last year? Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_09: 1:03

A couple of days this week. I just wasn't feeling the best. I uh it's crazy how after these things, an attack comes, man. It's crazy. Spiritual warfare.

SPEAKER_07: 1:12

Spiritual warfare, bro.

SPEAKER_09: 1:14

People don't, I don't think people really understand that.

SPEAKER_05: 1:17

What we're doing right now, right here, is we're this is the way I see it.

SPEAKER_04: 1:23

We're literally walking into the valley like David. We're going up against Goliath and we're saying, enemy, boom, we're gonna hit you with you in your face. And we're gonna take back our power. You know what I mean? Yeah, man. And you know, if you don't think that don't come with some kind of attack physically, mentally, spiritually, I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_09: 1:40

Yeah, normally I just wake up feeling like I got ran over by a truck or kicked by a horse. But yeah, this week I was like, I was getting.

SPEAKER_04: 1:46

My dad, I'll stop punching the head while you're sleeping. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_09: 1:49

No, bro, I'm excited for this, though, man.

SPEAKER_04: 1:51

Who you got with you, brother?

SPEAKER_09: 1:52

Dude, we got big country. What's up, Keith? Pastor Keith, what's going on, brother? Pastor Keith. Oh, man.

SPEAKER_00: 1:59

Yeah. Jesus. That took a long time to get here.

SPEAKER_09: 2:04

It's all good, bro. Better late than never, big bad. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_04: 2:07

Come on. Brother God, uh, when we started doing videos, God made it very clear to us to um honor his kids when we get to sit down with them. Because as you will know as well as I know, brother, that to sit here and and have somebody sit there and tell you their story, it's an honor, bro. Come on, man. It's a privilege that we get to sit here and even listen to one of God's own children come and share and glorify what Jesus has done in his life. So, brother, we just thank you. We honor you. And God has shown us lately that time is precious, bro. Yeah, it's not a resourceable thing that we can just get more of. We can't go replant more time and grow more time. We only have so much. How amazing would that be? You know what I mean? And so, for someone to carve out a little bit of their allotted time to come and share and glorify God, to me, brother, that that's priceless. And I just thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 3:00

You're welcome, guys. And before we get started, I want to honor you guys because um I don't know if this has happened.

SPEAKER_09: 3:08

I brought a couple come on. We love merch. Come on. Thank you, brother. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_00: 3:18

Thank you for Jesus. If they don't fit, Riley, you just take you on your mission trip and leave it in a different country.

SPEAKER_09: 3:24

Oh, it'll fit, bud.

SPEAKER_04: 3:26

So if you guys can see that, it's Jesus with a cross. And on the back it says Romans 5.8. But God demonstrated his love for us in this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Man, thank you, brother.

SPEAKER_09: 3:37

I am taking that to another country. I'm gonna wear it.

SPEAKER_04: 3:40

Awesome, bro. That means a lot. We've only had one other person bring us a gift, and it was cups that had a QR code that people could scan and go directly to our YouTube page. Dude. Yeah, that's what I said.

SPEAKER_05: 3:51

I'm like, that's so cool, bro.

SPEAKER_04: 3:53

So thank you, man. We we appreciate that, brother. That means the world to us, man.

SPEAKER_09: 3:57

Uh, for me, Keith, um I'm the one who gets the people in, bud, and and it's the contact with all the different stuff, man. And um a lot of people, bro, are not at a place to where they can share or want to or want to share, man. Um, I asked one of the brothers this last week, man. Uh, hey, dude, because I found out he's from the hood, he's from Cali. I'm like, bro, I know you got some stories, dog. And I and I'm like, come on the podcast and share. And he says, I'll pray about it, and then walked away. And later that day sent me a text talking about a bunch of unresolved hurts and and stuff like that. And um, that's stuff that people have and they hold it until they go through a process of healing and recovery. Yeah, um, Jesus, he makes us new creations, but we got a part to play in our healing and our recovery, man.

SPEAKER_00: 4:48

It's funny to me too, though, because I think a lot of people like that would probably experience a lot of that healing, healing and freedom from sharing their story, buddy.

SPEAKER_09: 4:58

Yes, brother.

SPEAKER_04: 4:59

So I don't know if people have noticed on videos. We've literally had guests come on here, brother, who walked in looking one way.

SPEAKER_09: 5:06

They leave, they leave looking different, bro.

SPEAKER_04: 5:09

Not even playing, bro.

SPEAKER_08: 5:11

No, you're not. When they took those headphones off, I look at Raddy like, do you see that? It's like, what's that?

SPEAKER_09: 5:20

It's like they've some of them have been through war, dude.

SPEAKER_04: 5:23

Some of them look just evil, some of them look like you said, they have this glow about them, this glory of God who's now raining on them, and it's it's that's crazy. Yeah, it is. It is to see somebody walk in one way, share their story, and walk out another, that tells you that there's power in doing that, bro. Yeah, bro. And like you said, you find healing, dude. Yeah, freedom. You know what I mean? When you come out and you start sharing stuff that you normally don't share.

SPEAKER_09: 5:46

We've had people say, Yeah, man, I did not plan to share that. It's like, amen. God knew.

SPEAKER_04: 5:51

What happened what happens when you bring stuff that's hidden in the dark to the light, brother? Yeah, what happens? God's like, I can work with that now. You know what I mean? So when you begin to expose things, God has an opportunity to move.

SPEAKER_09: 6:04

God can't heal what we keep hidden. Amen. Come on. Let me pray real quick, man. We'll kind of get into this. Please do. Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Man, Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_07: 6:13

Thank you, God.

SPEAKER_09: 6:15

Wow. God, I thank you for your son, Keith. I thank you for the journey that he's on with your son Jesus. I thank you, God, for um where he started, but Lord, I praise you for how he's gonna finish. Because he's finishing strong. He's finishing one with you, God. Um, so I thank you that uh right now in Jesus' name, if there's any anxiety, there's any nerves, Jesus' name, just fall away. God, I thank you that this is a place where we kick the devil in the face. This is our this is a testimony, Lord. Uh and things may be shared. That maybe one day he told himself, I can't tell. I'm not I'm not telling nobody that. I'm gonna take that one to the grave. And God, this is stuff that uh you're just gonna use for your glory today. I pray that um there's an anointing on this recording, God, for whoever listens, whoever watches in Jesus' name. I pray that there's faith is stirred, God, to draw closer to you because your word says that as we draw closer to you, you draw closer to us. Um so I thank you. You're gonna use this testimony for your people in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 7:27

Amen. Come on, bro. Come on, big dog.

SPEAKER_09: 7:30

So um, when God gave this to us, man, it was it was COVID, it was 2020. Um, he gave a lot of people podcasts, it seems like. Yeah. Um for a few years, we we did not do what he told us to do. Um, we were I set up a studio in my bedroom with a sign, and we were preaching videos over social media gods. Like, so it was the beginning of it was the end of 2022.

SPEAKER_04: 7:52

It was fun, people were listening, but it was not what God told us to do.

SPEAKER_09: 7:54

It's not what he told us to do with this platform.

SPEAKER_02: 7:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 7:59

Um in the end of 22, man, we sat down and we're like, what are we really supposed to be doing with this? And he told us it's the Speak Life A Z podcast, the testimony of Jesus and everyday people. It doesn't matter if you're like dad and you're out in the muffler shop and you're working and cutting up cars myself here, cleaning windows and floors, or like yourself, bro. Actually, a pastor at a church working in ministry. Um, we are all everyday people. We've all got a testimony when we come and we meet Jesus face to face. So um, so basically, what what we want to get from you today, brother, is just who Keith is. Um, what what was your childhood like? What what were uh sports, hobbies growing up? What was your your home like? Brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, your relationship with mom and dad. Um, was was God in the home when you were growing up? Um and and you know, man, me and dad, and kind of the stuff we were just talking about, those those hurts, those those hang-ups, and things that keep us stuck in life. Um, a lot of that happens in childhood and from childhood traumas and stuff like that, man. Um, but the the cool thing is that when we meet Jesus, we have a face-to-face with Jesus, things change. An encounter with the living God changes his people. Yeah, yeah. Um, and and what we want today, bro, is your encounter with God and what that looked like because that was so personal for you. Yeah, God knew it was the exact way he had to line it up so that he could bring you closer to him. Dad's happened in a prison cell in a lockdown yard. Mine was at Team Challenge at 1515 West Grant. I still remember the blue altar sitting under that sub, and God tell me, son, I love you. Son, I forgive you. Yeah, um, and it's just some some of them happen in a moment. Like my my day is August 26, 2014. Other other people, it's like a process. And he and he and he shows up and multiple things.

SPEAKER_02: 9:57

Stubborn enough at it.

SPEAKER_09: 10:00

But he'll he he he shows himself to you in a in a multiple different ways. Um, but basically, we just want to know who who you were before your encounter with God, um, what that encounter looked like for you. Um, and then afterward, how your life changed after you started walking with Jesus and what that started to look like for you. And we know that just because you meet Jesus, it don't mean we're perfect, man. We've still got stuff.

SPEAKER_04: 10:23

But things do change.

SPEAKER_09: 10:24

Things do change.

SPEAKER_04: 10:25

Transformation takes place. Transformation. It's stuff doesn't change. Yeah, that's right. You did meet Jesus. Come on, brother. Well, I think in Romans it talks about transformation. There's this transformation that takes place. It's the evidence. Yeah, it's the evidence of a true encounter with Jesus' transformation. You know what I mean? And I've said it a few times, and I don't mean to offend anybody, but if you said you meet Jesus and you're still the same, I I question whether you're have you met Jesus because Jesus changes us, man. Because the Jesus I know changes people. Yes, he does. Not like this. Sometimes it takes a process. You know, we're never, you know, it's a sanctification process. We things change. So we go home with him. Yeah. But there has to be change, or else I question whether you can change.

SPEAKER_09: 11:04

Um, but then uh at the cool thing, man, is at the very end, um, we we've got listeners who are faithful, bro, and they they come into agreement and basically what we want you to do is uh share maybe what hasn't manifested um that God has put in your heart and plant it plant it in your heart for you for the future. Come on, um, because we want to pray for you, and then our listeners as well will pray for you as well, brother. Oh, bro. Yeah, this is gonna be a good time, man.

SPEAKER_04: 11:32

So I know you grew up in in Texas, man. So what was it like growing up in Texas, brother?

SPEAKER_00: 11:37

I miss it so much to this day.

SPEAKER_04: 11:39

Uh I remember a conversation we had at Freedom Life Group. Yeah. Your desire is to go back to your hometown and start a church. Is that still a desire you have?

SPEAKER_00: 11:49

Yes, to go back to that region and plant a church. All right. One of these days. Won't God do it? Yeah. Yes, he will.

SPEAKER_04: 11:56

I mean, to cut you off, but I just remembered that. I was like, I remember you saying that, man.

SPEAKER_00: 12:00

While we're there, do you remember what my my nickname for you used to be? Uh-uh. Smiles. Smiles. Because we're in that group when you got your girl fish. Teeth, yeah. And for like two weeks, he just walked around like, yeah. It might have been even more than that.

SPEAKER_05: 12:16

It's nice to have some good teeth.

SPEAKER_00: 12:18

Oh man. I I loved it.

SPEAKER_05: 12:20

I smile now in spite of having none at all, bro.

SPEAKER_09: 12:23

He used to have gold sticks.

SPEAKER_05: 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 12:25

I used to walk around like this a lot. Yeah. You know what I mean? I don't care now. Come on, buddy. You know what I mean? I'm gonna shine bright one way or another, baby. Yeah, come on, brother. Amen. I'm sorry. So, what was it like growing up in Texas?

SPEAKER_00: 12:36

So uh Texas was it's different. A lot of people say they've been to they've been to Texas, yeah. Like uh our good friend Chris Peterson, yeah. He'd be like, Yeah, I've been to Texas. I I flew into Dallas for a couple hours and flew out. I'm like, that doesn't count. That's not real Texas, yeah. And uh it's funny because since his like we met last week for coffee, nice and just caught up and stuff. And he's talking about he took a couple more trips to like Austin and stuff, and so he's got a little bit more of the 411. But uh it was just different. Um Texas, uh, North Central, in what they call the hill country in Texas, just rolling hills, cedars, as far as I can see. Uh the fall is beautiful. All the color leaves changing, a little crisp in the air, people hitting each other in football pads, it's just barbecue smell in the air. It's it's a good time to be alive in the fall in Texas.

SPEAKER_09: 13:38

Yeah, so football season, bro. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00: 13:41

Let's go, man.

SPEAKER_09: 13:43

So who's your team?

SPEAKER_00: 13:45

I'm I I'm a Horns fan. I I'm a uh I'm I'm Texas little. I'm how you how you feeling this year?

SPEAKER_09: 13:52

That was a targeting penalty.

SPEAKER_00: 13:58

Yeah. I'm feeling good. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 14:03

You good about your quarterback?

SPEAKER_00: 14:05

Yeah. He needs another year. He'll be another year.

SPEAKER_09: 14:08

Everybody's saying he needs another first quarterback. He needs another year.

SPEAKER_00: 14:12

Just long enough for us to capitalize on the draft picks. The Cowboys got and move up the board to get him to be Dex replacement when he retires. You Cowboys fan too, then? Yeah, I'm a Cowboys fan. It's been my here's the thing for me. I with football, I don't play. Yeah. I'm all Texas. I'm I'm uh six man, I'm Ardo Dragons. That's where I went to school. 11 man, I'm Stevenville Yellow Jackets because I was going to school there before then. Uh been to Texas and Dallas. Outside of that, I like the Rangers. I like the Mavericks. I definitely have tons of more Diamondback stuff than I do. I I love the old school purple, copper, teal. Yeah, that's just the best. Randy Johnson more the best.

SPEAKER_09: 15:08

But that's that's like how Texas is, man. It's the their football, their Friday night lights, and their high school football and their calling. It's great. It's on another level.

SPEAKER_00: 15:17

Friday night, Friday nights, especially outside the city in a small town. Didn't yeah, it's just open. Yeah, it's shut down and everybody's at the game. Yeah, everybody, all the cafes, you get there before the game, you get your dinner, and then you go to the game. You do not do it, or you eat at the game. There's nothing, everybody's there. My little town of 350 people that graduated from. Wow. Okay. I had oh wow. I had 16 people in my graduating class, and we were double the size of the next closest size.

SPEAKER_09: 15:50

What was the name of the town?

SPEAKER_00: 15:51

Iredale.

SPEAKER_09: 15:52

Iredale.

SPEAKER_00: 15:53

Like Ireland, but with a computer slapped on then. Iredale. It was it was supposed to be spelled uh the guy that founded the town was named Ira, like I-R-A. Yeah. And the postmaster misspelled it. And now I-R-E-D-E-L-L. Oh, okay. But yeah. So yeah. Idale dragons. Okay. And black and gold. More gold than black.

SPEAKER_09: 16:20

When when were you born, bro? So we can get in.

SPEAKER_00: 16:22

I was born in 1984.

SPEAKER_09: 16:23

Oh, same as me. All right, baby. Okay.

SPEAKER_05: 16:32

I know my mold, brother. You gotta just take a look at it.

SPEAKER_00: 16:39

Compared to most youth pastors, I'm like one foot in the grave.

SPEAKER_08: 16:45

Oh, you got a lot of life left in you, baby. Come on. What was childhood like in a small town, brother? Um, well, what'd you guys do for fun, man?

SPEAKER_00: 16:55

I did I didn't graduate, I didn't I didn't get to that town until I was my last my junior and senior year in high school. So uh my mom and dad got married while there's my dad was still in high school. Oh wow. My dad got my mom pregnant. He was 17, she was 19, yeah. A little shotgun action. Um and then a little while later, after I was born, they divorced very quickly.

SPEAKER_09: 17:23

Yeah, and uh kids having kids, man.

SPEAKER_00: 17:26

About six months after I was born on my mom's birthday, the divorce was finalized. Oh my god happy birthday, mom. Um but uh so I grew up in that kind of divided home, and I moved, man, I moved to from the small town that they grew up to Cedar Hill to Arlington to Fort Worth. Me and my mom live in an apartment complex by ourselves on not necessarily the best side of Fort Worth growing up. And uh for some reason I remember being at home alone by myself a lot.

SPEAKER_09: 18:02

I I was gonna I was gonna ask any brothers or sisters, but you're an only child.

SPEAKER_00: 18:07

For for a long time I was. Okay. Um and then um after we were in Fort Worth, we moved into a small town uh called Brock. It's not so small anymore. When we lived there, it was like the same size as my hometown. Like what I call my home Iredale. Now it's like a 5A powerhouse football town. It's exploded. It's just outside of Fort Worth. So a lot of industry moved there.

SPEAKER_09: 18:34

Well, so why why you you're because you said that they split up and you were with mom alone. Um, did was your dad in in your life?

SPEAKER_00: 18:43

Yeah, that dad was there. Like every other weekend, I was with my dad. Okay, and he he was always there around, he always came to football games if he could. So like my dad was not a deadbeat by any means. He was just young and doing his thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But but he still was there, he was always around, he always paid his child support and did all that stuff. My dad was he's really good. That's cool.

SPEAKER_09: 19:10

So you you had a okay relationship with him? Oh no. No, no, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 19:15

Yeah. And and um we and actually my last two years of high school, I moved in with him.

SPEAKER_07: 19:21

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 19:22

Because uh so when we moved to Brock, my mom married this guy, my ex-stepdad. Okay. And uh he was what before I before I got saved, I thought was the incarnation of evil.

SPEAKER_10: 19:40

Yeah. Oh, Jesus.

SPEAKER_00: 19:44

He never like hit me or abused me. Because I had an uncle. I still have an uncle, but I have an uncle that makes me look small. Jesus. He's a big dude, he was You're a big dude. He would he was like at that time, he was like 6'9, like 3'30. He's a construction worker. Yeah, he's a GC and he would he could get after somebody.

SPEAKER_08: 20:07

Big old birdie dude. Yeah, yeah. And he's like a lunchbox.

SPEAKER_00: 20:10

And I heard back like when he was earlier in his years, he's one of those guys, he'll walk in a bar and start a fight just to fight everybody. Oh yeah. Like, he was that kind of dude.

SPEAKER_09: 20:20

We've had a couple people on here that love to fight, man.

SPEAKER_00: 20:24

So uh, so how old were you when your mom married this dude? I was going into first grade. Oh, so you were young. Okay. So I think I was six, about to go into set, I was about to be seven. Yeah. Because I'm I'm old for my because I'm I'm an October baby.

SPEAKER_04: 20:42

So you started late. Huh? You started Yeah, yeah. I started year late.

SPEAKER_09: 20:47

So up to this point, um you're living with mama. It seems like dad's in your life, you got a good relationship with dad, and then this stepdad comes in.

SPEAKER_02: 20:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 20:59

And that had to been hard, man. I can imagine if he starts telling you what to do and stuff around the house. Like, who are you, man? You're not my dad.

SPEAKER_00: 21:09

Well, I've because I was I was raised in Texas, we had a very real respect for authority in our lives. Yeah. Like I was even though I had real good uh like I had a real good relationship with my dad and my grandparents, I always said, hey, when an adult's talking, we be quiet. Like we we don't mix about respect. I always had a great respect for authority, a great respect for my elders, and it only came later, um, probably a year or two in, where I started to see the shift where he was trying to use me like slave labor. Yeah. Because he he owned a a large nursery business in Texas, like a plant nursery, yeah. And we supplied a chain of nurseries in the DFW called Callaway Nurseries. They were the number one nursery in the state of Texas, and we supplied like 95% of their product. So when there was work that needed to be done, I was put I went in there. Yeah. Um and I spent a lot of my days uh crawling underneath these tables that weren't much higher than this, pulling weeds and cleaning the ground from out so they wouldn't grow into the plant. Yeah, yeah. Um but it was just stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04: 22:30

Like um Did your mom marrying him change how you guys lived? Because you said you lived on the kind of the not so good side of town.

SPEAKER_00: 22:37

Oh yeah. Oh, him being that kind of person probably changed. That's where I have I have a weird relationship with money. Yeah. Because I know we need it. Yeah. And we God blesses us with it. I mean, my wife has an amazing job, and um she's a lot of the reason why I'm able to be a pastor. Yeah, what I make it, but I have a weird relationship with it because I've seen the evil of like the just the dead of evil. I've seen the two-faceness in front of everybody else. He acted like the greatest dad in the world. Behind the doors. I mean, it was stuff like he would go out into like I would see him coming from the barn and I'd be up in my room, and he would leave the door open on purpose on the barn and come and tell me to go shut it. And he'd do it just so that I would he I would have to follow what he says in order to go do it. Yeah. So it was a bunch of stuff like that. Wow. And and then the everyday, I mean, the the the big part was he established worthlessness inside me. Dang. He told me how stupid I was every day, how sore I was every day. I might as well get used to working for him because that's what I'm be doing for the rest of my life every day. Like that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04: 24:01

So that that was you remember the old saying, growing up as kids, sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt me. Yeah. That's the big stupidest thing.

SPEAKER_09: 24:11

I can heal from sticks and stones, but then words.

SPEAKER_04: 24:14

I should have told you, sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will slice and cut you. Yeah, those things go way deeper than getting hit with a stick or a rock, bro.

SPEAKER_00: 24:22

Especially when it's someone that's supposed to be supposed to be a role model in their life, and they're telling you every day, hey, you're worthless. So then every time, like I had like I had a birthday party one year, and I invited all my friends, and like 20 of them, they said, Yeah, we'll be there. But we we lived out, we lived out in town. Like it was a 15-minute drive out to our house, and nobody showed. Oh, dang. So, what does that reinforce every time something like that happens? Everything said nobody likes me. Wow. Like all that stuff. So uh it's real. So it ended up like going through uh like and and then just the the icing on the cake. We had one of those, remember those big satellite dishes, like the huge where you had to put it on like channel three, and then you had the other remote that like satcom die and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah. So he would look up terrible stuff, right? Right? Yeah and he would leave it on that channel, and then we we had a line on that channel that went up to our room, and so we turn it on and we'd have that stuff presented to us.

SPEAKER_09: 25:34

It you can talk it pornography, yeah. Yeah, I you're totally good, bro.

SPEAKER_00: 25:39

I don't like saying the word, amen. Amen. And by the way, it's the most phenomenal thing right now. All these OnlyFans models that are giving their life to Jesus. Jesus. I I'm so excited for this revival going through that.

SPEAKER_04: 25:55

Um, but anyway, we had this conversation with our last guest. Do you know that all it took was one man to go to Congress and convince them that it we should legalize pornography? Yeah, it was one man. One man. So if one man can bring it in, one man can take it out. Come on. Yep. I'm just trying to figure out if that's me or somebody else. Come on, buddy. Come on, bro.

SPEAKER_09: 26:22

It's destroying our country, it's destroying our world, our people, our marriages, marriages, bud. Come on, man. Yeah, I'm sorry, I that just we're gonna do that a lot.

SPEAKER_00: 26:34

Yeah, it it's it's totally real. And uh, and so and then stuff like you know, I'm 13 years old, and he would, you know, I go work with him, and he'd be taking me into Hooters and stuff like now you're getting to see the real girl.

SPEAKER_09: 26:51

And so I'm like, I get drowned by well that becomes what you think a girl is for and what they're what they're used for. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 27:02

And uh, so it it was it was so bad to where I think it's my husband's seventh grade, and I remember walking in the kitchen one day, and this is probably the first encounter I've had with God like seriously. So let me back up a little bit. My dad's side of the family were ENC. ENC Christians, yeah. Like Eastern Christmas. Easter and Christmas, okay. Uh my grandpa was a little bit more, he he was in the choir at the Methodist church that he was a part of. Um I was gonna ask about God and the homegrown up, but yeah, but but but that that that was uh that was about all it was. Um but I walked into the kitchen and I opened up the drawer and there was a knife there, and I thought about taking my life. Wow. And then but that that was the only time, and the reason is is because God showed me a vivid picture of what it would do to my mom.

SPEAKER_09: 28:09

Wow Jesus right there that day, going into there and seeing that thing and thinking about it, and then you got this picture.

SPEAKER_00: 28:20

Man, God, heaven knows and that's crazy because I didn't I didn't know I didn't really know a good grasp of Jesus and I didn't know it was him at the time, but I just uh uh after the fact after I came to Jesus, I was like, oh my gosh, God like saved me from that, right? Come on, buddy. And so um yeah, so you showed me that, and then um a couple years later, my mom got the strength to get out of there.

SPEAKER_04: 28:51

Wow and uh Was he abusive to your mom?

SPEAKER_00: 28:54

Yeah, like physically or yeah, really when when when I go to my dad's no No, I was gonna say you're he I mean by the time I was like 13, I was you know, I was already getting like five, ten. I was getting some muscle on me. Yeah and I don't know, I I slept with a baseball bat under my bed because I w I was waiting. Yeah, some nights I prayed to hear my mom screaming, just give me an opportunity to kill my own.

SPEAKER_09: 29:24

Was he did he drink? Huh? Did he drink? Oh yeah, he drank all the time.

SPEAKER_00: 29:29

But like that's no excuse.

SPEAKER_09: 29:33

Yeah, no, no.

SPEAKER_00: 29:34

Yeah, I mean it's stupid stuff. Like my mom would make food for us as a family. He would make our shih tzu's bowl with our food before we got to eat. Really? Yeah, that's like that's what it's just like. Feeding the dogs before we eat. It's another level of just like you're not worth anything.

SPEAKER_04: 29:58

Yeah, it's just demeaning, demoralizing. Yeah. He's trying to make you his for lack of a better word, your slaves. Control. Yeah. Way to control manipulating.

SPEAKER_00: 30:08

And it was just one of those things where once my mom got the and he after my mom left, he was like, he always tried to, you know, downplay it, like, oh man, I'm gonna be better. I I you know I felt the devil leave my body and all this stuff. I'm like, dude, you can keep that stuff for the birds. And and I'm I'm not gonna sit here and lie. Yeah. He tried to sweep me up and took me and bought me stuff, and I took every last bit of it.

SPEAKER_09: 30:37

Whatever you're gonna buy for me. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 30:39

Because I was like, dude, I'm getting payback right now. And then when my mom went to the divorce, I took the truck that he got custom based. But and I'm not saying that for for vengeance sake, but I'm just like, yeah, I was a I was a kid that had all this stuff done to me. Yeah, you better believe I'm getting everything I possibly can out of this.

SPEAKER_09: 31:03

Well, what was uh what was up? So you're a teenager, what was school like for you growing up?

SPEAKER_00: 31:07

Uh school school was alright. I I'm I'm I was not on the outside, but I kind of didn't fit in with like any group. Okay. Like I had my friends that were like goth rock people that were like huffing markers and all that stupid crap. And then I also played football, so I had all my jock friends and everything. And but I always I always gravitate, I was like big bro to a lot of girls, yeah, and you know, friend zoned a lot kind of love the friend zone, bud. It's hard to be in the friend zone, but you learn a lot when you're in the friend zone.

SPEAKER_07: 31:49

Jesus.

SPEAKER_00: 31:50

So uh so it but I was I was I was weird, I was in football and I was in a choir and I was in choir in school. Okay. So not a lot of people got that on their resume. I would I was uh uh 13th chair all region in 1993. Wow. So or no, 1997. Nice ninety three would be a little too early. Yeah. But um yeah, so it it was it was fun to position you playing football. Um in 11 man, I played right guard and then uh defensive end and uh same side linebacker. Nice man.

SPEAKER_09: 32:26

You you have a son, don't you? Uh-huh. Oh yeah, dude. You got a couple you're gonna raise up, man. Let's go, bro.

SPEAKER_00: 32:34

My oldest likes soccer, and I'm just like, oh my god. Soccer?

SPEAKER_09: 32:40

There's no physical contact in that.

SPEAKER_00: 32:42

But but but my youngest son, he is literally an extension of me. Like I raised him like a 90s baby. He's not he watched the original Power Rangers with me, watched all the Ninja Turtle movies, like the not animated one. Like, and he sat through a whole like series of savings, like the entire show of Saved by the Bell with my wife. Come on, buddy. Watched it in my dude, where's it? And he has a head like a bone. He he won't need a helmet.

SPEAKER_09: 33:15

Yeah, they'll they'll make him wear one, but they're trying to find one that fits.

SPEAKER_00: 33:21

His head is so hard, like it's the craziest thing ever seen. It's a it's a new, it's Adam Manningham or something, I guess.

SPEAKER_04: 33:29

My youngest son was funny. He used to have we called it a center block. God, he had a big old head for a little baby. And when he started walking, he'd just fall over. He'd get head forward, and that head would just start taking him. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00: 33:42

Remember that Jack in the Box commercial back in the day where Jack's son was playing. Oh yeah. So good. That's good. But uh, yeah, and then sixth man, I played center and wide.

SPEAKER_09: 33:57

What is six man?

SPEAKER_00: 33:58

So six.

SPEAKER_09: 33:58

That's the attack, that's the the uh blacks.

SPEAKER_00: 34:02

No. Oh that's seven on seven. So that's what teams do 11-man teams do in the offseason. Right. Sixth man is basically basketball with pads. Oh wow. It's high scoring. I mean, some some some uh the first year I moved out here, I was showing some guys like I've never even heard of six man football. There's different formations. Uh a very normal thing is called spread where you have a center, two wideouts, two up backs, and quarterback.

SPEAKER_03: 34:31

Really?

SPEAKER_00: 34:32

And it's it's high scoring.

SPEAKER_03: 34:34

Like they're they're kind of like arena football, maybe?

SPEAKER_00: 34:37

It's more high scoring than arena football. Okay. I would I would absolutely love to see a six-man professional league. Oh, really? It would be the most accurate. Same size build? No. So uh normal field is uh 100 by 50 or 100 by 50. Yeah. Uh six man is 40 by 80. Oh, okay. You have to gain 15 yards to get a first down. All right. And any field goal is like uh a normal field goal is four points instead of three, and an extra point is two points instead of one.

SPEAKER_04: 35:13

How big is a soccer field? It's not as big as a football field, is it?

SPEAKER_09: 35:17

I think it's wider. I don't know if it's a little bit more than a little bit. Yeah, it's wider. It's a lot wider.

SPEAKER_04: 35:20

It's like 60 yards wide. Trying to think of where you could have that at. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:25

It's so much fun. Yeah. And uh, yeah, and then there's not conventional rules. Like a center can hike the ball and run a route and catch the ball. Oh, okay. So like every everybody's eligible. Everybody's out. Oh the only rule really on offense is that the quarterback cannot take a direct snap and run it and then run it. Yeah, really. That has to be pitched to them. Oh, yeah. So that's why you have the upbacks. Usually the center will hike it to up back up and then they'll pitch it back to the quarterback.

SPEAKER_04: 35:58

Gotcha. What's the rushing rule? You rush right away, or you have to do a counter.

SPEAKER_00: 36:02

No, no. Once that pitch is made, you can run whatever. Oh wow. But if that pitch doesn't happen, the quarterback can't advance past the ball.

SPEAKER_09: 36:10

What about the defense? Are they allowed to rush and be on the hike? Yeah. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 36:14

All right. It's it's very fast-paced. Sounds like the hook and ladder is like we my junior year, we ran the hook and ladder at least once a game, and it was a guaranteed.

SPEAKER_03: 36:27

This is something you played in school? Huh?

SPEAKER_01: 36:29

Yeah. Really?

SPEAKER_00: 36:30

We played high school ball. Really?

SPEAKER_03: 36:31

This is high school?

SPEAKER_09: 36:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:33

This is junior high. That's Texas, bro.

SPEAKER_09: 36:35

They're just trying to play football no matter what. Hey, I didn't make the 11, man. I made the six man.

SPEAKER_00: 36:40

This is my junior and senior year. I moved from a 4A school that had five uh about 500 kids a class.

SPEAKER_09: 36:52

They had 11 men.

SPEAKER_00: 36:53

Yeah. Yeah. We they had we had a a uh varsity, a J V two J V NFL, a sophomore team, and three freshman teams. Oh wow. And our freshman teams were playing JV teams from like three and other three important schools. Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_04: 37:10

So was a six-man done at like smaller schools because they didn't have enough people? Yeah. Oh really?

SPEAKER_00: 37:15

Yeah. Like my junior year, we had videos on that. So I can watch it. That went out for football. Yeah. Okay. And but like our like when I moved from Stevenville, it was we had 700 kids go out for football every year.

SPEAKER_04: 37:30

Wow. I got a story for you. Yeah. I played football growing up. Yeah. I make the what you would call a freshman team. And first game is at Mesa High School, playing, I forget who we're playing, and I'm on a kickoff team. They're recording it. I didn't know they were recording the game, right? Kickoff team goes, guy with the ball runs right past me. You know what I mean? I totally missed it, dude. And then you see me like in the background celebrating, right? We go back to school the following week and we're doing watching video, right? And the coach is like, McCurdy, the dude ran right by.

SPEAKER_05: 38:04

What are you doing back there celebrating? You didn't even do nothing. I was so embarrassed, dude. I was so embarrassed, bro. Yeah. He called me out in front of everybody, dude. I was so freaking embarrassed. I bet you never celebrate after the dude runs by you.

SPEAKER_04: 38:21

I don't even know if I played again, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_00: 38:24

Oh man. That's kind of harsh, but like that's real, though. The one thing that I always get people that don't understand football, yeah. And the co it is probably the first accountability a lot of people will understand. Like, yeah. That's good. You are accountable to your teammates. That's right. And it's really good. Your coach will call you out there and make sure. Hey, if he does this again, it's on y'all.

SPEAKER_04: 38:57

I still remember his name. It was Coach Harmon. Yeah. That dude made an impact on me that day, bro. Yeah. We had this little dude named William German. Dude was like 5'4.

SPEAKER_09: 39:06

I love that he remembers that stuff.

SPEAKER_04: 39:08

Dude was a tank. I got to play defense. I'm like a linebacker, right? Hole opens up to William German.

SPEAKER_05: 39:14

Oh no. I'm flat footed. He just nailed it. Drilled me, bro. He put that scatterboo on. I'll never forget it. The dude laid me out, bro.

SPEAKER_00: 39:27

I've never been so sad in my life on the draft. Anyway.

SPEAKER_09: 39:30

We took Jordan Birch over Cam Scattaboo. Ah, dude. I like Birch. I'm actually glad he's over there with Jackson Dart and Malik neighbors. I think that threesome could be really good together, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 39:47

They're gonna be good.

SPEAKER_09: 39:48

All right. So you're you're a teenager. Um you moved into a a bigger town with mama. Um the the stepdad's gone. Mom gets some courage and um knows that I I don't deserve this and I don't need to live like this.

SPEAKER_04: 40:04

That alone, man, is is Did your mom and this gentleman have any kids? No. No, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 40:08

No, so I'm my mom's only kid because after she had me, she couldn't have any more. All right. Okay. Um, so yeah, that that was uh a really really good thing because I I I I had step siblings through your father?

SPEAKER_09: 40:28

Oh, from the stepdad. Yeah. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00: 40:32

I have half half siblings through my dad. All right, okay.

SPEAKER_08: 40:36

But I I had uh did your step siblings live with you guys? No. Okay. They were with their mom. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 40:42

And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 40:44

So like well How were they? How were those kids?

SPEAKER_00: 40:48

Um they were cool. Did you have a relationship with them? Okay, like me, me and my stepbrother, we got along really good. Um every time he came, every time he came down, he we had a great time. Yeah, and uh we built forts and stuff, and yeah, nice and we lived along the uh edge of a creek. Nice and we dug a little dugout into the bank and would fish out of it and all that kind of like that's good living right there, buddy. Like it wasn't all bad. We we had a lot of really good times.

SPEAKER_09: 41:19

Yeah, looking back on your childhood, would you characterize it as you you had a good childhood for the most part?

SPEAKER_00: 41:25

Okay, yeah, like like I wasn't in want.

SPEAKER_09: 41:28

Yeah, all right, right. You were respectful, you had morals, you respected authority, so you you weren't committing like I was a teenage hellion, dude. Yeah, you know, it was all bad.

SPEAKER_04: 41:39

I was raised heathen.

SPEAKER_09: 41:41

Yeah, so but it sounds like you had you had a good head on your shoulders, man, and weren't you weren't using I didn't hear you talk about using dope or drinking up to this point.

SPEAKER_00: 41:49

No, I I didn't do any of that stuff mainly because I saw everything around me. Yeah, uh I was very conscientious. I I saw all the I saw how my stepdad was uh the drinking, uh yeah, yeah. I had other family that did that stuff, and I'm just like struggled with addictions. Yeah, I I don't want any part of that. Amen. It doesn't seem like a life that's a lot of fun. Like I I would I would just sit there and watch them get laughed at by their friends. I'm just like, why do you do this? Yeah, um so I I've I've never felt that draw for that.

SPEAKER_09: 42:30

Um Wow, you mean even to this day? You haven't never used drugs? No, wow, Keith. That's beautiful, bro.

SPEAKER_00: 42:39

Not not a even as an adult when you could I've never smoked a cigarette. Come on, never put a chew in my mouth. Nice. I I have drank. Okay, right, but it's legal. I'm sure you were you were old enough, but never tried marijuana, nothing like that. No cocaine, no math, and nothing like that.

SPEAKER_09: 42:58

Amen, buddy. Straight edge. Yeah, hey, there ain't nothing wrong with that, friend. Yeah, now look where God has you. Tell that about you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 43:07

And and it's hard, it's hard sometimes because uh I'm dealing with uh one of my my youth. He's the PK, he's been in church all his life, and we're actually going to start talking about testimony and why it's so big this next month. And he's like, I don't know what kind of testimony like, bro, you grew up in the good household. Come on, you've been around Jesus all your life.

SPEAKER_09: 43:31

Like come on, buddy, go ahead. That's a better question. Go ahead. So listen, you you know him. Listen, you know Jim.

SPEAKER_04: 43:37

Listen. Doesn't he? For someone like myself, yeah, right, who's been a drug addict, alcoholic, and out of prison. When I hear like Jim Mercer, Jim Mercer, James's dad.

SPEAKER_09: 43:50

Pastor James' dead, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 43:52

When I hear his story of how he never drank, he never did drugs, walked with God his entire life, has a really good life. Really good job. And I come out of what I come out of when I hear this man say that God has been faithful his whole life, and he's been faithful to God his whole life. To me, I'm like, praise God.

SPEAKER_09: 44:13

Yeah, but he'll he'll tell you, I don't have it to be done.

SPEAKER_04: 44:16

Now that I've done that I've accepted Jesus, you know what that means? He's gonna be faithful the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_00: 44:21

Come on.

SPEAKER_04: 44:22

And I'm gonna be faithful to him the rest of my life. Oh, that's so good. Yep. So to hear those stories for someone like me encourages me and lets me know God is faithful. God is faithful. God is faithful. So when I hear people like that who don't have our story, they still have a story. Come on, baby. Because people like me are gonna hear that story and be like, My God, my God, you're faithful. You know what I mean? And if you think about it, you have Abraham and David. You have the father of faith, you have David and have to draw God's own heart, right? They're both completely different stories. A man who was faithful to God, a man who did killed all these different things, but still God used both of their stories in the Bible to encourage us as believers, the father of faith and David, you know what I mean. So they're important. Yeah, they're important. Both stories are important, yes, sir. Yeah, there's one one is not better than the other. Nope. They both have equal value in the kingdom of God because one is gonna tell someone like me that God is faithful, and one is gonna tell the other person, if I do mess up and I hope I don't, my God is faithful. Yeah, you know what I mean? That He will forgive me and I can be a prodigal and come back home. But for me, I'd rather have that story. I'd rather the Abraham story. I'd rather have the Jip story and then the Eddie story. Amen. But I'm not, I'm gonna use my story. Yes, sir. You know, I wish I wouldn't have done all the things that I did or get through all the stuff that I did. But now that I'm here, I'm I'm screaming from the rooftop.

SPEAKER_05: 45:54

You know what I mean? Look what my God is doing. I did everything I could to ruin my life.

SPEAKER_04: 45:58

My God, you know what I mean? But next to me is this man who's yelling, my god's been faithful my entire life. They're both equally important. Yeah, that's good. So let that young man know. Yeah, oh yeah, let that young man know that there's people like me that love those stories.

SPEAKER_00: 46:12

Exactly what I told him. I was like, dude. Yeah. You got the best ones, bro. You never had to deal with this heart, heartbreak, and all this other stuff. And addiction, all the stuff that we have. Like, he's probably learning to pray at home and reading his Bible and devotionals, and we had a he got in trouble at school, and his mom goes, We're gonna do a devotion, they did the hour and a half Bible study.

SPEAKER_09: 46:37

Amen. We're disciplined, amen.

SPEAKER_04: 46:41

We had one, we had a pastor come on on our show and talked about how when she was a teenager, she thought in order to have a story, she had to step out.

SPEAKER_09: 46:51

Yeah, yeah, and go be bad.

SPEAKER_04: 46:53

And she wishes that she would have known what I know now and what I shared with her. I wish I would have known that back then, that I didn't have to step out to have a story. Yeah, yeah. That I can still have a story and still be faithful in God and all his ways and still have a story to share with somebody. Yeah, you don't have to step out and do something foolish to have a story.

SPEAKER_00: 47:12

That is definitely a lie that Satan's on everybody. Because even like even going through like the suicidal thoughts and all that stuff, like I went to parties and stuff when I was in college, and I thought about drinking. Yeah. Because every time I got around people that were doing that stuff, they always thought I was judging them. Yeah. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_06: 47:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 47:40

Oh yeah. That's real. We're gonna get there.

SPEAKER_09: 47:43

That's real right there, buddy. Wow. And then you stop getting invited to stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 47:47

Yo, but no. Oh man.

SPEAKER_09: 47:52

Alright, so let's go back to high school. You're because you were you're with mom, and you said that the last two years of high school you go to dad's. Yeah. Okay, so how did that come about?

SPEAKER_00: 48:03

So mom left my stepdad.

SPEAKER_04: 48:05

How old were you when she left?

SPEAKER_00: 48:07

I was uh it wasn't I might have just turned 16 because it was it was the So they were married for a while then.

SPEAKER_09: 48:15

Yeah. From seven until 16, man.

SPEAKER_04: 48:18

Nine years, 10 years?

SPEAKER_09: 48:19

Yeah, but he said from like 13, 14, 15, and 16, you're a big boy and you're weight, you're weight. Don't touch my mom again. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 48:27

Yeah, so um I uh the fall semester of my sophomore year is when it happened. Okay. And uh then I went and stayed with my grandma, which was probably the worst thing I could do looking back at it, because I didn't want to move schools right away. Yeah, I still wanted to be with my friends. My grandparents lived on the same property that my stepdad did.

SPEAKER_05: 48:54

Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_00: 48:55

Right down like 120 yards from the back door. Oh wow so every time he so every time he gets to going, he's right there. Yeah, and he's like, hey, I want to come talk and try to put so he's right there. There's so many times I came home from school and he's like sitting in the living room or something. I'm just like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_09: 49:18

So because mom w got the courage and the strength to leave, she you had to go somewhere, you had to go to grandma and grandpa's?

SPEAKER_00: 49:27

Yeah, I either had to go to my dad's house right then or finish out the school year. And I chose to finish out the school year because the town that my mom moved to was the arch rival of the school that I was going to. Oh I love that. And I am not going there, mom. It was a school that was known for heightened drug use and king cars and you know slash scratching and slashing tires and stuff like that. And I was getting a brand new like 99 Dodd Rim Sport Canary Yellow Custom Leather Interior. He's like, I don't want my car to get on. So I was like, no, I'm just I'm just gonna stick it out here and uh and so then after my sophomore year, I moved in with my dad. Um, and I went from uh average sized guy in a big pond to a big fish in a small district. I I easy I went to being the biggest guy in our school, yeah, like that. Yeah, not the strongest. Yeah, let me get preface that. Yeah, yeah. There were some backwoods country boys. Oh, yeah, buddy.

SPEAKER_08: 50:42

Strong as an odd farm boys, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 50:45

And some bow-legged fools that could run like we we after uh in the springtime when we didn't have like sports and stuff, we would go, we'd go over and a couple of my friends, they would either be boxing in a backyard somewhere, or someone would be doing like backyard wrestling somewhere. So they're getting each other like steel chairs and something like we were the antithesis of redneck. Really? So it was it was a lot of fun. Um, but yeah, I I'm I moved there in my junior year. Um, and you know, we're a couple months into the year, and sitting in my chemistry class, and they roll on TV and turn on the news, and the first tower had been a hit already.

SPEAKER_09: 51:33

Dude, they did that with mine too, bro. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 51:36

And uh first period. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 51:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 51:41

We sit there and watch that um watch that unfold and that was crazy. Everything, and they they canceled practice that day and stuff, and everybody went home and then the next day we we go in and oh you had school the next day? Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 51:57

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00: 51:58

Because we're we're small town. The the only thing that was close to us that could have been perceived as a threat is like 35 miles away from us, there's a nuclear reactor. Okay. So there was a c a couple of crop plant uh crop dusters that got escorted to the ground by F-16s. So I imagine those guys were wearing brown pants by the time.

SPEAKER_05: 52:24

Just crop on my plants, man. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_09: 52:27

Air forces. You're gonna hit the ground, buddy. Yeah, you're you're uh Yeah, it was crazy. It was crazy. It was nuts.

SPEAKER_00: 52:34

Yeah, and you know, uh army recruiters in the school and our little small school, like every month.

SPEAKER_06: 52:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 52:41

And so it was it was really crazy. But the next the very next day, we go to football practice, we get done, and my coach, Don Kopfell, those guys I know you might be looking for answers. There's a revival happening at the Baptist church. If you want to go, I'll be there.

SPEAKER_04: 53:08

But at this point, I haven't heard you mention church.

SPEAKER_08: 53:11

No. Really? And uh did you know what a revival was?

SPEAKER_00: 53:16

I just knew my coach is a pretty cool guy. And if he's saying it's good, it's probably good. So I went down there and that night, me and my six of my teammates ever lost.

SPEAKER_09: 53:30

Wow, you never know, dude. You never know, man. Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 53:35

I don't remember anything the preacher said, like nothing. Yeah. I always said if you die not, you go into heaven or hell.

SPEAKER_09: 53:43

And I was like, You remembered that one. Yeah, I don't want to be anything like my stepdad. Like, I want to go to heaven. Yeah, come on, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 53:53

And because I I was like, I've already lived through enough hell on earth. I I definitely don't want to go anywhere anywhere worse than that. Yeah, and uh yeah, and it's funny that night, like I probably said the salvation prayer like 35 times. I'm I'm concrete in this room.

SPEAKER_09: 54:12

Jesus, come on my heart. Forgive me, God, of all my sins. Woke up the next morning, did it a couple more times.

SPEAKER_00: 54:21

But like that's real, man. But the the cool thing is like because of all the worthlessness and stuff that I I had put on me, yeah, like I just wanted to fit in.

SPEAKER_06: 54:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 54:34

I always just want I just wanted to be invited to parties. I I wanted people to just accept me. And that night, God said, I'm your audience of one.

SPEAKER_08: 54:50

Come on, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 54:53

You don't have to perform for anybody. I got you. Funny thing is, that very same week, I get invited to my first high school party. I'm like, serious. Now I get invited for I can't have any food.

SPEAKER_04: 55:12

But uh how the enemy works out.

SPEAKER_09: 55:14

Just thinking that same thing, man. It's throwing the opening the door, everything. There you go. Yeah, and uh as you're talking about it, bro. I can feel the emotion and see it, and I'm like, wow. That was that was an outside of the kitchen and the knife and God showing you that picture for how much it would hurt mama. Yeah, this is your next one where it gets real, and you're like, I do not want to go to hell, man. I want to be in heaven.

SPEAKER_00: 55:41

No, yeah, it and it's so funny because like like this is very contained emotion. Amen. Yeah, I've had a lot of practice. The the first the first Sunday that I preached at um my church and main service. Um like I told my testimony and there wasn't so much containing. It was ugly cry all the time, and oh it was it was terrible for me.

SPEAKER_09: 56:15

Um but yeah, so uh that happened and then So I have to I have to because there's there's two ways that God usually two things that God usually uses to to draw people to him. And one of them is the fear of the Lord, and the other one is the love of God. Yeah, and from what I'm hearing from your story, you had enough fear in your life. Yeah, it was like this day, this night, and this altar call, you felt the love of God. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't something fearful, it was something that man, the where the worthlessness was leaving, some some identity and value was coming, and a sonship, yeah, and a good, good father. Yeah, and you didn't know what you were saying yes or walking into, yeah, but you could feel love in that church, yeah, and through that man.

SPEAKER_00: 57:06

Yeah, man. It was it was so good. I I don't know if y'all uh see Theo Vaughn ever. Oh yeah, so he he just uploaded this clip where he's talking about like his beliefs, and he's like, Man, he's like, I come from a lot of loneliness. And he's like, if I got a chance at a perfect dad that wants to take care of me, I'm taking that. I that's not he's like he said, what'd he say? That's a lottery, uh lottery ticket that I don't have to scratch. And I'm just like, dude, like that's our God.

SPEAKER_07: 57:42

Yeah, that's our God.

SPEAKER_00: 57:45

If Theo can see this, come on, people. Let's go. But uh, yeah, man, that happened.

SPEAKER_09: 57:52

What were you, 16? He said?

SPEAKER_00: 57:54

I was 16, 16, just right before my 17th birthday.

SPEAKER_09: 57:57

And this is this is a Baptist revival.

SPEAKER_00: 58:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 58:01

When you say revival, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_00: 58:03

Is that like they had the guest speaker come in and talk? It wasn't like a Pentecostal Pentacle Black or like a Black Baptist revival. No, it was Southern White Baptist. Okay, they they had the guest speaker come in and you might have a potluck after service kind of thing. But and I I tell you what, I I the that's about the only thing I miss about that church is the potluck. Them old ladies could come back. Amen.

SPEAKER_08: 58:34

Amen. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 58:36

But yeah, um, that happened, and then like I said, like I started inviting to all these parties and stuff, and um, I never partake in drinking because so the one big one I left out, I never met my my dad had a brother, his name's Steven, and my first name is Stephen. It's a memorial name for him. And I never met him because he died before I was born and went to a party, and the guy uh the guy was driving and Uncle Stephen didn't put his seatbelt on, the guy went down into a culvert, hit the culvert, and Uncle Stephen was ejected from the car. And uh then um years later, the town in the rock that we lived in, um we met a lot of family there and moved away a couple years later, three girls of a family that we knew got hit by a drunk driver and killed. And and the like I just never like my not my deepest fear is that I would drink and get behind a wheel. Like that's why I've never I d I I I I never get drunk when I'm out away anywhere. And I've only drank like three times in my life.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:01

Come on.

SPEAKER_09: 1:00:02

It seems to me like, bro, you've got very good self-awareness, yeah, of keeping your wits about yourself. Yeah. So like me, I was eff it. Whatever, this craziest thing, this crazy thing that nobody else wants to do. Yeah, let's do that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:28

But when I was in high school, I always walked around, bowed up, like making sure, hey, you mess with me, you're gonna get something. Oh wow. Okay. Not because I wanted to fight, I just didn't want to be messed with. Yeah. I fronted so hard when I was in high school, I was like, I I I just didn't want to get jacked with. I just want to be left alone and have a good time. Like, yeah, but in the midst of those parties, like I remember the most vivid thing that happened. I was sitting at a table and my friends are playing quarters. And a girl that's in my class, she looked at me and she goes, Why do you come here to judge us? I'm like, I'm not judging you. We live in the middle of nowhere. We don't have a police department. We barely have a volunteer fire department. If one of y'all gets in a vehicle and drives home and rolls over, somebody's gonna die.

SPEAKER_06: 1:01:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:35

Wow, I went to parties to keep my friends alive.

SPEAKER_09: 1:01:39

Wow, when you said that the girls looked at you as the bigger brother, you're you, that's really it was almost like you were there to protect these guys and keep them safe.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:01:51

Wow, dude. That's special, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:55

And like in that moment, like it, I feel like crap because you know, you don't like that stuff saying to you. But coming out of it, I mean, there I I I got to walk an example in front of people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10: 1:02:11

Even my friends that got saved and still had some sanctification they needed to go through that were going to those parties and partaking in this stuff. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:20

I still got to walk it out in front of them. And then after after high school, when you know there I had a friend's family house burned down, another one of my friends, his sister got breast cancer and stuff, and I'm the first person they call to pray just because they're like, we know how serious you are. Yeah. And so it spoke volumes.

SPEAKER_04: 1:02:44

Did you start going to church after that? Oh, yeah. That revival? Oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:48

I I I went I went to that Baptist church. Oh, I I went there for um the remaining? Yeah. Really? I was the only one town, brother. Wow. Yeah, I could have walked to my church. I could have walked to school.

SPEAKER_09: 1:03:03

Yeah, but I didn't know, you know, mom or dad or grandpa. I was the only person yourself.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:09

Only person in my family that was going to church on a weekly basis. I said they would go on like an Easter. My stepmom had a really hard time. She grew up Catholic.

SPEAKER_06: 1:03:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:23

And she just had that mindset, you know. She told me one time I was asking her to come to church. Like I I was trying to give the gospel to her. And she's like, I I spent so much time in church that if I'm going to hell, I'm just gonna go there because I don't want to go into church again. And I'm just like, oh Jesus.

SPEAKER_09: 1:03:39

It's real there, but uh religion pushes people away.

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:44

Yeah. And so um I got somebody close to me that has that kind of mentality. I'm going to church all my life. I don't want to go still, do I? You know what I mean? It's real, it's a real thing, brother.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:56

And it it's tough. Yeah. And uh so yeah, but so that that's what I basically did the rest of my uh my couple days.

SPEAKER_09: 1:04:08

I just have to stop. And for anybody that's listening to this or anybody that's watching this, church may be something that you go to in the beginning to learn how to walk with God. But the reason why you come to church is not for salvation and being saved. The reason why you come to church and you be a part of a church and you give and serve and help, it's for community.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:37

Come on, man.

SPEAKER_09: 1:04:37

Because there are lost people that are coming into a church that are broken and sick and hurting and need some love and need to be seen. And there's people that have grown up in church that that don't go to church anymore, but literally they're missing the best part of church. And it's the community of believers, the beloved.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:58

It's this, man. It's this, brother.

SPEAKER_09: 1:05:00

Man, I don't know who needed to hear that, but it get your butt back in church and get into some community. Watch what God does.

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:08

It's real, though. It's not just a box to check off. Yeah. Say I went to church, or it's not just a thing to claim so you can say you're a Christian. I have to do it. No. It's like literally, bro, two o'clock this morning. I had somebody call me. Come on. Woke me up out of a dead sleep, bro, because one of our brothers was in a motorcycle wreck and they needed me to pray.

SPEAKER_10: 1:05:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:29

I didn't get mad. I sat, I'm like, I got you, bro. Heavenly Father, Lord, God, I just think you, you know what I mean? I started praying for this brother at two o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_09: 1:05:38

He came and woke me up and told me I popped up, and I started praying for him, man. God, just let him live.

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:44

That is what church is for. Yeah. So when you're in a moment at two o'clock in the morning, you got somebody you can call. Mom, buddy. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's church, bro. You don't get that just by showing up on Sunday and showing up right when service starts and running out the door right when it's done. No. That's by staying and making friendships and building relationships with people, man. Talking to people. It's talking to people, it's being real. You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm thankful that I was there to answer that call at 2 o'clock in the morning. So thankful. Yeah. I don't know if he tried calling anybody else or not, but he knew that if he called me, I was gonna wake up and answer that call. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? And he told me this morning after I woke up, he was like, brother, thank you so much. I love you so much for just I'm like always, dude. I don't care what time it is. If I see your name on my phone at two o'clock in the morning, I'm answering that, dude.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:36

Yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:36

Because if you're calling me at 2 o'clock in the morning, something's going down. And you need to know that you got a brother in your corner, bro. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's really good. That's community, that's church. Yes, ain't a box to check. It ain't just so you can call yourself a Christian. It's someone moments like that, dude. You have somebody. You know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:06:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:06:55

It's good. I just had to interrupt and say, oh, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:59

It's important, bro. Yeah, it needs to happen. I I wouldn't, I wouldn't be anywhere without my church community around me. Come on.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:06

There are little people that I go to church with, bro, that I'm like, oh yeah, I was talking with Pastor. And they're like, I don't have a relationship with like a pastor like that. I'm like, yeah, because you show up at the last minute and you run out the church.

SPEAKER_09: 1:07:16

Show up during worship and you leave it before the prayer.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:20

I'm here Sunday, I'm here Monday. Sometimes I'm here on Tuesday. Come on, buddy. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:25

If you don't have a pastor, if you don't have a relationship with Pastor David Tree, you're missing out. It's your fault. It's your fault. It's our fault.

SPEAKER_09: 1:07:33

It's not their because they're so open and loving, bro. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:37

But that's but that's how people are, bro. Yeah, it's real. They show up last minute, they run out the door, and then wonder why they don't have relationships with nobody at church.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:44

Same reason all your shorts get more views than your truth, buddy. Or don't show up to life groups.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:51

And they want to know why nobody nobody I don't know anybody. Did you talk to anybody? Did you put yourself in a position in a life group to get to know some people and do life with people? That's right.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:04

They're not lying when they put that the best friend you've never met in the life group.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:10

So when I first started coming to this church, they used to say it all the time. We do life together. You know what I mean? And that first couple couple years, I'm like, what does that mean? What the hell do you mean? I don't do life with none of you people. Hello. And then I went to a life group.

unknown: 1:08:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:08:25

And I was like, that was the freedom one?

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:27

I think so.

SPEAKER_09: 1:08:28

Wow. I was like, dude. Oh, yeah, because you talk about the at the baptism, all the guys in that group.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:34

Like, this is what we're talking about. No, that was Pastor Tom's life group. Oh, okay. But that's what I'm like, oh this is what you mean.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:42

It is so good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:43

It's really good.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:44

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:08:45

Get involved. Yeah. Yes. If you got small groups or life groups, get in one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:50

If you're coming to be complaining that you don't have relationships with people, you, dude. It's you. Yeah. Don't blame the church. Don't blame my pastor because I know my pastor puts himself out there, dude. You know what I mean? I'll go to war. You know what I mean? It's you if you ain't got relationships with somebody in my church. Exactly. They're the friendliest people I know. Yeah. They go out of their ways to make sure you're seen at a level three, four, seven, ten times before you ever walk into the sanctuary. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_09: 1:09:15

Also, you're you're sorry, that was a rat, dude. Oh, you're good.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:19

I love it. I love it too.

SPEAKER_09: 1:09:20

You're you're passionate about it, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:22

I'm gonna help it.

SPEAKER_09: 1:09:23

You're in high school and you graduate high school, but you're living with your dad.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:26

So um you play football high school? Oh, yeah. Yeah, so I took off my sophomore.

SPEAKER_08: 1:09:32

You ever win any states?

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:33

No.

SPEAKER_08: 1:09:34

No.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:34

Unfortunately not.

SPEAKER_08: 1:09:35

No, you got bigger schools, five A's and four A's.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:39

Well, they all they all have state compared.

SPEAKER_09: 1:09:43

Oh, so all the one A's play the one A's. All the two A's. All the six man's play six man's.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:49

But uh say say everything you want to about Jerry Jones. He lets the high schools use the stadium free of charge for the state games. Yeah, you're talking about six-man schools playing in ATT Stadium.

SPEAKER_04: 1:10:05

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:10:07

Have you seen his documentary yet?

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:08

The the one on Netflix. I've seen I've been like I think I'm like six episodes in.

SPEAKER_04: 1:10:14

I learned a lot about that dude by watching that. I was like, that dude was a working fool. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:10:19

That dude was a moneymaker.

SPEAKER_04: 1:10:21

That dude didn't just like he he got there, dude. And he gambled. Oh yeah. He took risks.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:27

He put the chips in on himself. Yeah, dude. But yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:10:30

I got a new respect for him because of that, bro. I still don't like the dude, but I got a new respect for him. You know what I mean? I'm like, Pay your players. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:37

Yeah. So our uh our uh our my junior year, we ended in a three-way tie for district. We beat everybody in points per game, yards per game, every metric, and they decided in a coin toss, and we were the odd man out.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:54

Oh, geez, really?

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:55

Yeah. And then both the teams came up after like we would go and watch the playoff games for other schools, and both the teams came up to us after their first round because they both lost, said you would have beat either one of our teams. Wow. And uh then my my senior year, we went to by district and got dog walked. Like the team that we're playing was ranked like fourth in state. We we knew my my head coach had an idea that we were gonna get beat. He scheduled a basketball tournament to start the next day. So he knew. So so we got dog walked, and then all of us showed up like you had to be there before 10 o'clock to be counted as president for the day. Yeah, all of us showed up like 9 55. We didn't want to go to school. Wow. But in order to play in the tournament, we had to be present for school. Yeah. So then we go straight into the basketball tournament and we won the basketball tournament. We we had some really good athletes. Um, but yeah, it was just it was just one of those things where and then I I always played golf growing up too. Oh wow. So I went to state my senior year in golf. Or my my junior year, my senior year, I didn't make it, but we had to get together and go.

SPEAKER_09: 1:12:22

So up to this point, you had when you were living with mother, your father was still in your life, still talking to you. Stepdad comes in in those years when stepdad was there, you still had a relationship with dad and still seeing him. He's coming in, you're going to see him. Yeah, you move in with him. What's that what's that look like for you guys? You any butting aheads, or you guys get together making up for lost time?

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:46

I didn't butt heads with my dad. Because me and my, I mean, other than him, he he likes to wake up early in the morning and go sit in the deer blind and not shoot anything for two hours. Nice. Um, I'm just not like that. I I I have no problem shooting a deer or cleaning the deer. I've field dressed deer before. Yeah. But I got better things to do than sit in the deer blind for three hours in the morning. But like we the thing that always connected me and my dad is golf. Yeah. Oh wow. We get out there, me and him, we play on the team, and we beat everybody out there. We that that's just that's how we we worked. Yeah. Um, and then uh the only headbutting I had was with my stepmom. Yeah. Because there was a dynamic there. She had, well, first of all, my half sister was born. My half sister was born when I was 15. Yeah. So I'm 16 and she's got a two-year-old in the house. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:13:53

No.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:56

I mean, I I love I love my little sister, but and I held her and did all that stuff, but I wouldn't trust a 16-year-old male with a baby for nothing. No. Um, girls are a different story. They have that in them. But um, and then uh after my senior year, so the week after I graduated, I spent time with my grandparents, they lived like 10 mile 10 minutes out of town, and I was just spending the week with them. She calls me the Wednesday after graduating. She's like, Your stuff's stuffed in the front yard. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 1:14:30

Come pick it up. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00: 1:14:32

I didn't know at the time she was pregnant, and she was nesting. So she was getting my room ready for the but she didn't communicate that with her. So there was like a and then I found out later, and she had a miscarriage with that baby. And uh and so there was a little bit of that, but I I went and I lived with my grandparents for a little while, did some odd nit jobs, um and started going to eventually started going to a church called the Jars of Clay. It was an AOG church.

SPEAKER_09: 1:15:07

Nice um any scholarship offers or anything for church for football? No, no, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:14

So I I just get it a lot. So um a year after high school, um a couple of my buddies invite me to go move in with them, and I start going to a junior college called Temple Temple College. Um, and that's where I get introduced to um actually that's where I'm at Donald.

SPEAKER_06: 1:15:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:15:41

Oh.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:41

Yeah. Okay. So we're we're down, uh, we're in Temple. Love you, Donnie. Yeah. I I I say Donald to respect Pastor Dave's wishes because Amen. Um because he said, You're not Donnie anymore, you're Donald. Amen. But I still get the nickname. So amen. Um, but uh uh so I go there, uh, meet meet Donald, and uh it's just uh just an awesome thing.

SPEAKER_09: 1:16:16

We become brothers like almost in the Temple College, a faith-based university? No. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:22

No, it's it it's a it's a little JUCO in Texas. Yeah, it's kind of a stepping stone for a lot of athletes that uh specifically basketball players that don't have the grades to go somewhere else.

SPEAKER_09: 1:16:34

This isn't we're not talking about Temple, are we?

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:37

No, like Temple, not Temple. Temple University. No, no, we're talking about Temple, Texas. Okay, there's a JUCO, Temple Junior College, okay. And then right down the street is the town that Donnie or Donald lived in. Yeah. And uh and uh why can I think of it? I can't think of it right now, but uh University of Mary Hart and Baylor was there. So I would go to school at Temple, and then my campus life was over there because they had chapel and I it it's a it's a uh sister school to Baylor. Yeah, okay. So it used to be an all-girls school up in like the late until the late 90s, and then they started integrating guys in. So it was like a five to one girls think. Oh yeah, dude, let's go. And they they used to do this, you know, ring by spring joke and all this stuff. But um, so I my campus house was over there, and I'd go to their I got involved in like their um Baptist student ministries, like we did Katrina Relief out of that. Yeah, wow. We went down, we did uh Yeah, because you're 20.

SPEAKER_09: 1:17:52

You're this is 2004, right? When Katrina happened, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 1:17:56

So we went I went down there two years in a row on spring break to do Katrina Relief. Wow.

SPEAKER_09: 1:18:02

In 2005 and then 2006? Yeah. Wow, dude. So it with that college.

SPEAKER_00: 1:18:08

So I went the first year I went with uh the Baptist students ministries and uh from UMHB. Um the next year I went with the young adults from my church that was going to Taylor's Valley Baptist Church. Okay.

SPEAKER_09: 1:18:21

Um there are a lot a lot of I've heard you talk about Methodists and Baptists and in Pentecostal Methodist, Baptists, Presbyterian Presbyterian.

SPEAKER_00: 1:18:29

There's a lot of uh AOGs. Um there wasn't a lot of non-denominationals out, especially out where we lived. Yeah, yeah. When you got closer to the big city, it was there was a few more non-denoms. Yeah, yeah. But uh in a lot of Catholic churches and Church of Christ and all that stuff. Um Lord bless them. Yeah. I don't know how you can do without music, bro. Um, but uh but yeah, so and and then uh I'll tell you where I got my moniker from. So uh a couple months or no, a month after we do Katrina Relief, there's another evangelism opportunity. Me and three other guys from the college, they wouldn't let any girls go because of where we're going. We went to this thing called the Texas Beach Party. It's in Galveston, Texas. Oh, and if anybody knows about Galveston, Texas, it's like the worst crime rate in Texas. Really? And all the people that live there leave because yeah, because the island of Galveston is in a triangle, so they make it one-way traffic, so it just goes and the other side is used for all emergency vehicles. Really? Wow. Um, yeah, there were crazy things that happened down there. There there was a car accident that happened, and a guy literally went from holding a guy at gunpoint with uh AK-47 to accepting Jesus 15 minutes later. Wow. Like wow. I experienced stuff down there for the first time that I I didn't know what was going on. Really? So yeah, we go into this uh this meeting that we'd have every night before we go out because it was like three days long.

SPEAKER_09: 1:20:20

Oh, so a group of you four went down to this Texas beach party.

SPEAKER_00: 1:20:24

But we met up with another church organization that was down there, and like the four of us were the only white guys on the island.

SPEAKER_09: 1:20:34

Really? Oh yeah. A lot of blacks?

SPEAKER_00: 1:20:38

A lot, a lot of black, Hispanic. Um, well, I take that back. There were two older white guys that were there with the uh uh Southern Baptist mission, and they were like serving pancakes to these people after they're dragging in from parties and stuff. Yeah, so just feeding them and getting something in their stomach, which is a ministry that needed. Food will bring them in, buddy. It was really funny to watch some some 67-year-old white dudes see uh these black girls coming up and they're in like fishnet tops, showing everything and pancakes, and they're like, Jesus, Jesus love. But amen. So we we go into the these meetings before we go out so that we can pray and kind of get our like our assignment and everything. And uh we had met some guys earlier in the day, there were three older black gentlemen, they're about you know 50, 55, and uh they walked in. I said, What's up, OGs? And they're like, Is that how it's gonna be? I said, Yeah. He goes, Okay, big country.

SPEAKER_07: 1:21:45

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00: 1:21:47

That's where it started. I was like, a cool black dude just gave me a nickname. It's ticking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:21:57

My name's Keith, but coming big country. I love that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:01

If you want to follow me on Instagram, it's Pastor Big Country on Instagram. Hey man, give them a follow up. But uh, but uh yeah, it's uh that was really cool. But I mean there there were things like like the the girls at the school, they were doing a prayer vigil for us. Oh wow and like a 24 hour on the clock.

SPEAKER_10: 1:22:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:25

And I saw things, like these girls would come up and they're in next to nothing, and they're like, come to our naked rap party. And there was no temptation, uh like wow, like you could see with like pure what God had for these. I'm like, dude, this is the craziest thing ever. That's covering, bud. Yeah, that's covering. And then we stopped some, like, we we stopped somebody one time and we're like, hey, can we pray for you? Like, yeah. And so we started praying, and we get up and praying, and we look up, and there's hundreds of people around us. Yeah, but like this is like, yeah, I don't I'm I'm Baptist, I don't even know what the Holy Spirit is. Yeah, and yeah, I didn't know it then, but this is the first like moving of the Holy Spirit I'm starting to really see in my life. And uh, I got chills.

SPEAKER_09: 1:23:28

You weren't kidding about the Baptist thing, no, but they emphasize God the Father and Jesus the Son, and then they tell us we're sealed by Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_04: 1:23:36

He says it all, he talks about it all the time about what church he grew up in, you know what I mean? And I just think, man, but I've never but now it's like, well, that's really a thing. Because they look at it different.

SPEAKER_00: 1:23:44

No Acts, no Hebrews, no what? Oh, boo. I never once in that in any Baptist church I've been to have ever heard a sermon from either one of those books. Wow. And that's they don't they don't believe in the miracles for today.

SPEAKER_10: 1:24:03

Yeah, it's just yeah, really.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24:06

Yeah. I I had I had a good friend that uh that graduated from UMHB and he went to Hong Kong to be to be a youth pastor in Hong Kong. Wow. And uh the night before we left, we went out for dinner, and uh he was I was talking to him and he was like, Yeah, they're not for today. Wow. Yes, they are thankfully his opinion on that matter has changed a lot. But but and it's and he's had to see some miracles come through with his wife's help and his wife's health and stuff. And I'm just like, dude, like I because I was already going, I'd already left uh his his dad was the pastor of the church that I was going to do.

SPEAKER_04: 1:24:56

Quick theology discussion here, because maybe somebody's gonna listen and needs to understand this. Where are they getting that from? Where is that um where in how are they interpreting that? That that that's for that was for them, but not for now. What's the I don't get that?

SPEAKER_00: 1:25:16

I don't either.

SPEAKER_04: 1:25:18

Because it's very prevalent, obviously, because he talks about it, and you're now you're talking about it, and the Baptist Church said those things were not for today.

SPEAKER_00: 1:25:26

They're very cut and dry. Is that traditional? Just a traditional thing that's passed down through the generations that's just stuck? What they believe is that when Jesus says the Holy Spirit would come and you'll do uh greater things than even I did, yeah, that he was talking to just the apostles. Really? And that's it.

SPEAKER_04: 1:25:43

Really?

SPEAKER_00: 1:25:44

So when the apostles died, the Holy Spirit done.

SPEAKER_04: 1:25:49

That's interesting. Oh, that's interesting to me.

unknown: 1:25:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:25:53

Um I didn't grow up in church. I didn't find God until I was probably in my late twenties. Yeah. And I've seen the power of the Holy Spirit move plenty of times. You know what I mean? That that even concept baffled me. Yeah. I don't get that. Baptist and Calvinists are too interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 1:26:18

And I and that's the thing. There's also the difference between white Southern Baptists and the Black Papists, because they're basically Pentecostal. Yeah. Like that's another thing. There's such a wide margin for what that is. All right. And so, yeah, it's it's kind of crazy to um see. And anybody that is Baptist out there watching this, I'm not downplaying what we love you. I I would not be in this chair if it wasn't for a Baptist church.

SPEAKER_04: 1:26:50

Amen. Amen. It still has its place and its purpose, brother.

SPEAKER_00: 1:26:54

And like I said, y'all do the ministry of the belly so much. The the the the ministry of uh elastic waistbands is thoroughly thriving in uh the Baptist Church. Amen. Feed my sheep. Oh man. Amen. You do that. You you fed Jesus a lot of meals on my behalf, let me tell you. But yeah, it was it was crazy. Yeah, and then uh So how old are how old are you at this point?

SPEAKER_09: 1:27:28

22?

SPEAKER_00: 1:27:30

Um yeah. Uh I'm I moved out when I was 20. I was 19, about to be 20. And then um then so I'm at this this Taylor Valley Baptist Church. So the guy that I was telling you about that went to be the missionary, his dad is the pastor of the church that I'm at.

SPEAKER_09: 1:27:56

Um, so did the guy that go to Hong Kong, was he Asian? No.

SPEAKER_00: 1:28:00

Oh no, he uh he he he why is from Texas and he's going to Hong Kong?

SPEAKER_09: 1:28:06

Yes, wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:28:08

I love that the he was effective because you know that whole uh you know Prophet You know, they don't believe a prophet when you come to their hometown. Yeah, like that. He went to Hong Kong and he was very blessed when he was over there. Praise God came back and told us a lot of stories sometimes. So uh um I was at that church for a couple years. That's the the next year we went with our young adults group from that church to go do our um Katrina relief. Uh and then um I was working at a ice cream parlor um probably that summer. And this gentleman comes in and starts talking to me, and he goes, We we just start talking about God and then start talking about mission work and stuff like that, and he goes, That's really cool, man. And walks out, I'm not thinking anything of it. My uh my uh boss calls me while I'm at lunch that Sunday. I'm hanging out with all my friends, and she goes, My pastor wants to talk to you about being the next youth pastor. Really? And that was the dude that walked in. So we met up and we talked, and uh kind of and so I was like an interim youth pastor, but it was an ALG church. Nice. So I went from Baptist to AOG. I walk in the first Sunday, and I'm just kind of getting a feel for it and stuff, and uh we're mid service, and I hear somebody back there shut the and I'm like, what is going on? And then God. This is real. But but but some people do it in a blaspheming way. Yeah. They do it to be seen. Hello. And so I never did it. I didn't do that until I moved to Arizona. Well, Pastor Dave got a hold of me.

SPEAKER_09: 1:30:18

So this is at the AOG. The Assemblies of God Church. This was your first experience at the church?

SPEAKER_00: 1:30:36

First experience I've ever heard of tongues in my life. Okay.

SPEAKER_09: 1:30:40

Was there an interpretation for them? Or did you just hear tongues? Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:30:44

I just heard tongues.

SPEAKER_09: 1:30:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:30:45

There now there were times in there where there was interpretations. Yeah. And it it was more like a a corporate prayer and somebody was speaking in tongues, but it was a very like bolstrous loud thing. Yeah. And so I was I was very conscious about that for a long time. Yeah, and man, we had a cool deal. I had my own little room like at Snack Bar and like big subs and everything. And we did lock-ins and yeah. Uh bro. So in that in that time, that's part of Donald's testimony too. Yeah. Oh. He had gone through, he got married, went through marriage. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:31:27

And then um We need you to come on, bro, and share.

SPEAKER_00: 1:31:31

When he came out of it, I was youth pastor at this church. Yeah. And so a lot of our bonding time, like when we reconnected, we would go to the church. I had a poll table in my youth room. Yeah. We'd throw on tunes and play pull and do just he could heal. Yeah. Heal from the hurt, man. Yeah. Yeah. And uh really reconnected. And then uh after that that summer, I went to a uh youth camp that I had served I'd served at the previous summer as well. And uh man youth camp was the greatest thing for me. It it it took my very shelled self and I I just broke out of the shell. Right. Um and even at the Baptist camp, like I was like, I just went wh got wired for youth ministry. Like God just started like, all right, hooking the jumper cables up to me. And uh so we went I went down there and uh did Donald go with you?

SPEAKER_09: 1:32:44

No. No, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:32:45

No, he he he wasn't part, he was still uh living with his parents and trying to work on money stuff and things and um I uh went down there, had a great time, moved back to uh to uh my grandparents' house and started getting a job because I was out of college now. And I wasn't going back there.

SPEAKER_09: 1:33:10

Did you graduate?

SPEAKER_00: 1:33:12

No, I just got I I hated doing like the English and math and all that garbage, man. Like, I'm not ever gonna use this stuff. Like why? Yeah. And so I I moved back home and working for a little bit.

SPEAKER_09: 1:33:32

Um but you did go to college for a couple of years.

SPEAKER_00: 1:33:36

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So so while I was down in Temple, I was entertaining this thought of going to this school out here for the golf academy. Well, it's now the golf or was the golf academy of America when I graduated. It was called the San Diego Golf Academy. Yeah. And uh it's like a technical school for golfers. Yeah. So you get like business awareness and stuff like that. So uh but I was there. Um I started going to an A.O.G. church in this little small town called Jars of Clay. And uh birthday at youth ministry. I had one kid in my youth ministry. Um and my it was a really, really small church. I mean it makes my church now look like a mega church. But but we go to uh we're looking for like what we're gonna do for the summer, and I was contemplating my head like this this dream about going to the school, and do I want to do it? Do I want to move away from my family and all this stuff? And so we go to uh uh CF and I, Cross for the Nations Youth uh Youth Camp. And or it's actually Youth for the Nations, their youth camp, and uh take my one youth student, he gets freaking just laid out the holy spirit and all this stuff, good speaker. And um this guy first night comes up and he goes, My name's Carrie, and I'm from Arizona. And it's Patrick Carey, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:35:11

Wow, Carrie Robinson. Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_00: 1:35:13

PC is he was he the speaker?

SPEAKER_09: 1:35:15

Yeah, oh man!

SPEAKER_00: 1:35:18

Wow, God, and and it's funny, and I told this because we did a roast for his birthday one year, so I'm sorry I'm bringing the slap, Pash Carrie. But he he's wearing these white Aldo shoes, the ones that had that kind of like little elf lip at the front of them. Yeah, and he had a vest on, and his hair was like frosted, he had like a frosted mohawk. Just when he had hair, yeah. And uh I'm like, hey, of course, I'm I'm from I'm from Texas, yeah. Like that metro stuff, you're on the edge, bud. Like if you're metro, you're like one step away from another team. So I was like I learned to talk about Patrick Karen. Like when we're gonna was like, do these people know that they hired a gay dude to come see?

SPEAKER_09: 1:36:12

So he just likes how he looks and how he smells. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 1:36:16

And and thankfully, he was a big part of my life, and now I like how I look and how I smell. So um so but um he goes for that, and their their camp thing is so cool. They do, they like, except for the evening services, they completely separate the kids and the youth pastors, and the youth pastors have like their own like conference experience. Like we have separate like day sessions. Oh man. So the next day, wow, that's great. The next day, he's the session speaker for our thing. And um, I'd stop him like, dude, I've been thinking about moving to Arizona to go to the school. And the second you said I'm from Arizona, yeah, boom. So I got his phone number, got connected with him.

SPEAKER_09: 1:37:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:37:10

First we move out here.

SPEAKER_09: 1:37:13

Oh, so that was confirmation for you. Oh, yeah. That was God saying, look, you can go. I've got people that I'll put you in connection with in Arizona. Yeah. Wow. Wow, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 1:37:22

I get home, I call Donald, and I'm like, bro, you want to move to Arizona with me? Oh, wow. He goes, let me pray on it. I call him back to say he goes, Well, we're moving. I'm I'm already packed. Wow. I love Donald.

SPEAKER_09: 1:37:38

That is a friend right there. We're going, bro. Had he ever been here or lived here?

SPEAKER_00: 1:37:43

Oh, wow. He was escaping, man.

SPEAKER_06: 1:37:45

Yeah, getting me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:37:47

He was healing and escape. Yeah. And I was so down to just have somebody on their brain right with me.

SPEAKER_09: 1:37:56

When was this? What year is this?

SPEAKER_00: 1:37:58

It's 2008. Okay. In the middle of the depression.

SPEAKER_09: 1:38:03

He called it a depression. The crash, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 1:38:08

Well, the my my uh miles per gallon was being really depressed by the time I got. So I had that that yellow half-town pickup loaded with bed and dressers and stuff on the back with a car dolly and his dodge neon on the back of it. That was stuff full of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to Phoenix, we're bringing everything with us. When I pulled in the when we pulled into Phoenix, we were hitting like five miles a gallon. I filled up and Tucson had to fill up as soon as we got in.

SPEAKER_10: 1:38:44

Jesus. Yeah, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:38:46

Yeah. Yeah. It was, and it was go, it was sucking oil too. Bro. And and we did this in August.

SPEAKER_10: 1:38:55

Yeah. Woo.

SPEAKER_00: 1:38:56

So yeah. I don't know why. I moved to Arizona and I just started moving in the summer. I'm like, what is the deal? I can't get this through my head.

SPEAKER_09: 1:39:07

Don't move in summertime in AZ. No.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39:10

But um we just did this last summer. Praise God. Oh man.

SPEAKER_08: 1:39:16

We moved a half mile down a road. It wasn't that bad.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:39:20

Just the guy that has the truck and moved everything. Yeah. I love you, Dad. That's all good. It was easy for me. Yeah. He'd come home from work and another couple truckloads would be moved. I'm glad I'm able to help my mom and dad, buddy. Yeah. There was years where I just tried to get away and run away. And like things never worked. And it always would just, and I'd end up coming back to mom and dad's house. And it wasn't until this time, after 2020, with the whole 2019 and all that crap, that I came back home and I heard God say, just chill. Instead of trying to get away, why don't you just chill and see how you can help? And that's when I started to really just see what I could do to help, man.

SPEAKER_00: 1:40:07

Be still and wait.

SPEAKER_07: 1:40:08

Yeah, that's all it is.

SPEAKER_04: 1:40:14

He did get all the big stuff though. Amen. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for that. He's a good kid, man.

SPEAKER_09: 1:40:20

Yeah.

unknown: 1:40:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:40:21

God is good. Yeah. All right. So you're in Arizona with Donald. Yeah. And you guys get a place, an apartment. Yep. Where'd you guys move to?

SPEAKER_00: 1:40:29

Uh Arizona and Warner. Oh, baby. Or in in between Warner. No, Chandler. Okay. It's still Chandler. It's in between Warner and Elliot. Um, I can't remember. But it was different for us.

SPEAKER_04: 1:40:44

Los Palminos?

SPEAKER_00: 1:40:45

Like we, we, yeah. Yeah. The one right of north. Right by it. Yeah. And uh, yeah, we uh God didn't know where that's at. What the hell is wrong with you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:40:57

You're an Arizona original, buddy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:41:02

It was different because like we'd kind of kind of been in the city, but not real line, like big city. Yeah. And um just the like there was SWAT at our apartment complex like once a month. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:41:17

Country Club in Elliot, right?

SPEAKER_00: 1:41:18

And like like a a year into it, a dude was had been laying dead beside our swimming pool for like two days. Wow. And we walked in and tried to get out of our lease, and they wouldn't let us have our lease. And then like our our downstairs neighbors, they're putting stuff on their on their uh door that like degrading to women and throwing all these parties and stuff. And me and Donnie are like the new people in town, so we're we're really popular with the youth this one. They would all like after youth on Saturday night, we have 35 kids in our two-bedroom apartment, like just hanging out. Yeah. And we come home sometimes with all these kids in tow, and they're downstairs like doing keg stands and like degrading women and stuff. And we had we had to report them. And if anything didn't happen, Donnie had brought his shotgun with him. He was gonna go down. Hey, y'all need to stop.

SPEAKER_04: 1:42:19

But uh where'd you guys start going to church when you got here?

SPEAKER_00: 1:42:22

Straight to Lifelink.

SPEAKER_04: 1:42:23

No way.

SPEAKER_00: 1:42:24

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_09: 1:42:25

The the first week when we were here, you called Pastor Carrie, and I'm like, Where are you? I was like, dude, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00: 1:42:31

Yeah, what's going on? And I I told him when we're coming, I texted him and told him when we're coming out and everything. The first week we were here, like we were still in uh the Freedom CTA campus.

SPEAKER_09: 1:42:42

Wow, you were a CTA?

SPEAKER_00: 1:42:44

Yeah. We're like we're like two years in.

SPEAKER_09: 1:42:46

You're an OG, buddy. You're one of the originals before they got out of the house and they went into that school. That's the school that they started in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:42:55

We we got there, I think a year after the first thing. Yeah. So maybe a year and a half. Okay. So um the first week, CTA, there was something happened that flooded. There was like a big storm, and the whole school flooded. So they had to on a whim find another school and set up somewhere else. You're like, hey, we haven't done it. Can you come out and help set up? Yeah. So my first week, I'm on setup and teardown team. Movers and shakers, baby. Nice. Movers and shakers, man. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:43:27

That's what we're doing now in Queen Creek. Yeah. Yeah. That's fun.

SPEAKER_00: 1:43:30

And uh uh Donald was already had he already had a he uh transferred with Stanley Steamer when he moved out here. So he had already started going to work and I didn't have anything to do. So Saturday morning I was here. Nice. And then that Saturday night, Pastor David did a sermon, and that's the first night of spoken tongues.

SPEAKER_04: 1:43:48

The first night what?

SPEAKER_00: 1:43:51

Really? Yeah. Really? Wow.

SPEAKER_09: 1:43:54

Wait, you said Saturday night? Yeah. Huh?

SPEAKER_00: 1:43:58

It is Saturday night service. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:44:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44:03

Yeah. Nice.

SPEAKER_09: 1:44:05

Wow, that's how lifelink was at CTA. It was Saturday night.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44:09

We we did well at one point we were yeah, we're doing uh Saturday night and Sunday morning service. Nice.

SPEAKER_09: 1:44:17

But it started with the Saturday morning setup, a Saturday night service.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44:21

Well, I think that one might have been special. I actually think he was he was speaking to the youth that that night. Oh wow. And I uh Pastor Carey was like, hey, yeah, you okay stick around. Yeah, yeah. Wow. So like I I integrated very quickly. I was like, move and shakers, youth, yeah, whatever you wanted. Yeah. And uh and so yeah, spoken tongues the first like was it a message on Holy Spirit?

SPEAKER_09: 1:44:47

Do you remember it?

SPEAKER_00: 1:44:48

I I yeah, it it I don't think it was completely a message on Holy Spirit, but that last, you know, you know how pastor is he started flowing the Holy Spirit and then he opens it up and yeah, wow, and so it it was really cool, and then uh yeah, we just that was just became the normal thing set up. Wow, and then there was choir and then we got into the choir. You did? Yeah, oh man. Laundry talked about it in one of his sermons one time here.

SPEAKER_09: 1:45:19

Come on, bro.

SPEAKER_00: 1:45:20

Um yeah, that's where me and Erica met. We met at a choir audition. Oh really? Yeah, the same day and I think September of that year. Wow. She was moving back from Texas because she went to the Honor Academy in Tyler, Texas, um, with Ron Luce. And I don't know if you've ever heard of him, but he was he's uh big he did uh the choir of the fire um youth conferences and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_09: 1:45:47

Um that was all way before I was saved. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:45:50

So um she's moving back from that and the the church that she went to was the rock church in Texas. Yeah. And they're associated with LifeLink. Uh her she was looking for churches online. Her mom opened up to the yellow pages and it said life link associated with the rock church, and that was and so she's like, Isn't that the church that you went to? Yeah. And she's like, Yeah. And so then she came here. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04: 1:46:21

So like God knew. So that was a church they were at when they were in Texas. It was a rock, that's right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:46:28

Yeah, and so so we'll have to have we'll have to have you on, Erica, in 2026.

SPEAKER_00: 1:46:35

When people like tell me there's not God, I'm like, you just don't know, bro. Yeah. How it enters it up, man.

SPEAKER_06: 1:46:44

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:46:45

And uh, but yeah, so it came, I mean, just just went straight in, dove straight in. And uh it was.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:54

Did you end up going to the golf school? Yeah. Really?

SPEAKER_00: 1:46:57

Went to the golf school, went there for two years, graduated with my associates in golf course management. Wow, yeah. And then uh a couple years after that, went into LCU.

SPEAKER_04: 1:47:09

We had a guy on here named Kent Chase, used to be a professional PC.

SPEAKER_09: 1:47:12

Professional golfer, man. He was buddies with uh uh who's the Mexican Chichi Rodriguez. Chichi Rodriguez, yeah. Yeah, he said one time he was at a golf course going up to the putting green, and it was Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman, and Jack Nicholas. I was like, are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_04: 1:47:29

Yeah, that was who he was playing with that round.

SPEAKER_09: 1:47:32

Ping, ping, uh Al So Al Solheim, the founder of Ping. That's Kent Chase's like right hand dude, man.

SPEAKER_04: 1:47:40

That's cool.

SPEAKER_09: 1:47:41

Yeah, it's cool.

SPEAKER_04: 1:47:41

But he has a ministry he does called Kent Chase Kent Chase Golf Academy in Phoenix.

SPEAKER_09: 1:47:45

It's in uh way out there in the West Valley.

SPEAKER_03: 1:47:50

Yeah, yeah, really cool, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 1:47:51

That's cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:47:52

Yeah, man. Dang.

SPEAKER_08: 1:47:54

All right.

SPEAKER_00: 1:47:54

Um but yeah, and then after the first uh the first the first year, I took a break for the summer and I interned under Pastor Carey. And so we went through the whole summer uh um did you do school of worship? So no. So this is before school of school of ministry or school of worship. Okay. So I was the official first intern at LifeLink. Wow. And uh so um, I mean, I did all the stuff, like I he had me going through all John Maxwell stuff and um so leadership. We had we had this deal where we would go and we would nail signs in our kids' front yards, just like and say like stuff because we were called the link back in the day. Say, hey, this is from the link of the staff or the staff of the link. We miss you, love you, uh all that stuff, and just uh encouraging message. Um just to show the kids, man, that yeah, yeah, we love you. Yeah, and we're driving around for hours during the middle of the night to put these out for our kids. Come on, man. Yeah, it was it was a really cool thing. The cool thing was is uh me and Erica kind of were uh forming a uh a friendship talking and stuff, but nothing real serious. And uh if y'all remember Lisa Neal, so Pastor Carrie had tried to hook me and Lisa Neal up, and uh and she wasn't having it, but uh and that's fine. Um love you, Lisa, wherever you are. So yeah, yeah, yeah. She she was hardcore. Yeah. Um I pray for whoever if she ever gets married, who she marries, because he's got another thing coming. Oh yeah. In a very, very good way. Yeah. Um you're blessed. Yes, very blessed, ma'am. Um, but so she was at this wedding and she's talking to Erica and she's like, Hey, like, you know, like was kind of you know, if you're not into it, just tell him like you don't she was looking, just honestly, she was looking out, she didn't want me to get my heart broken as much as she didn't want you know Erica to feel like she's getting pulled in something. Yeah, so I don't know any of this happened. We went to a wedding because I just needed somebody to go. I didn't know Lisa was gonna be at the party, I didn't know I was gonna know anybody. Yeah, and um so after and we planned after that that we were gonna go around and we were going to nail these stakes in our yard because she was a part of youth ministry too.

SPEAKER_09: 1:50:41

Yeah, Erica. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:50:44

And uh so we go on this trip and then we start talking. By the end of it, she claimed it's our first date. Wow, nice. Like it was just so crazy. Yeah. And then uh, yeah, and then Yeah, we'll need to get her on.

SPEAKER_09: 1:51:00

We need to hear her side of the story, sis.

SPEAKER_00: 1:51:03

Yeah, she she just couldn't she she couldn't she couldn't resist the Southern China Big Country Texas boy. Yeah, because I I'm definitely not like if you would have looked at her list of the thing, like other than like the God stuff, yeah, like I am not the dark haired, full beard, yeah, like Italian, like smooth talker kind of person, like kind of thing that she would have been into. Yeah, but in all honesty, like when I was growing up, like I was blonde haired, blue eye, yeah, 10, you know, yeah, probably some type of tomboy kind of thing. Yeah, and we fit some of those things, but also it's it's like God knew what he was doing. Oh, yeah, and there I mean it's such a crazy story. When we first moved here, um You and Donnie. Yeah, me and Donnie. When we first moved here and we were plugging in, we got uh me and him and another guy, Chad L, we were the uh sticker applying ministry for our church. So we used to give out all those stickers all the time. Yeah, and so anybody went on the car, we'd be like, hey, what which car do you have? And we would go out there and center it up and make sure it looked good. Oh, yeah, all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_09: 1:52:23

And uh you're talking about the lifelink church stickers from the back. Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 1:52:27

Yeah, all right. So um we're out there doing that one time.

SPEAKER_04: 1:52:30

I think they quit gaving those out because there were people that were doing bad things with lifelink stickers and they're weren't driving the best books.

SPEAKER_00: 1:52:37

Do you know that there's somebody funny story if that's you, repent. Funny story. Someone in our church just like, hey, do we have any type of sticker? Because they're all over every church at do we have anything like that? Yeah, like I can get some made up. So I literally picked one up, picked them up the other day, handed them out to everybody, and then there was somebody going slow in front of me, like 20 miles on the speed limit. And I wasn't really in a hurry, but I don't like driving slow. So I just and I get like not a hundred foot in front of them, and God's like, You got a life uh Living Waters Bible Church sticker on the back. I'm like, dang it. And then every every time Pastor Dave would talk about that just started flashing through my head, I'm like, geez.

SPEAKER_09: 1:53:31

Amen. But uh God knows what he needs to use to control us on those roads, exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53:37

Yeah, so uh, so that's funny. But uh we were doing that, and then Pastor Tammy, uh John and Tammy. Oliver. Yeah, yeah. Pastor Tammy comes out, and I don't know her from Man, Dad.

SPEAKER_09: 1:53:49

You know a lot of these people for a long time, brother.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53:52

I don't know her from Eve. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:53:55

Oh, this is when I'm in California.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:53:58

2012 when I started coming here.

SPEAKER_00: 1:54:00

Yeah, this was still 2008. Pastor Tan John and Tammy were here for quite a while. Yeah, they were. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04: 1:54:06

Yeah, they you know Josh, he was in our school with us. Josh Oliver.

SPEAKER_00: 1:54:10

Yeah, that's her son, the youngest.

SPEAKER_04: 1:54:11

Uh with long hair. Yeah, Jesus looking dude. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:54:16

He was not the one I begged to be the theologian. Oh, yeah. By any means.

SPEAKER_04: 1:54:20

He's got like a master's now. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I think it's actually Dr. Doctor. Dr. Joshua.

SPEAKER_00: 1:54:27

Joshua, I'm sorry, but I would never hear that. Um Dr. O.

SPEAKER_09: 1:54:32

But uh, but uh look what God has done.

SPEAKER_00: 1:54:36

Yes, right, and I know Tammy's so proud of him. Come on. Um, but yeah, she comes out and she's like, I know you don't know me, and this may sound weird, but she goes, I feel like you're a diamond in the rough, and you need the right jeweler to like shape you and form you into what you can really be. Wow. And uh, so this is about a year, and then uh comes around, and me and Erica had after the wedding, we had been talking for about a month, and Pastor Kerry pulls him aside, he goes, you know, you went from this girl, there's a girl that I date that I I wasn't really, I was kind of more talking to her, like it wasn't I wasn't like it was just somebody to date, yeah. Yeah, and so and then I got serious about Erica and he's like, again, make sure this is right. And so we took a week off and we fasted. And so I'm walking over, I'm talking to Tammy, I'm like, this is what what's happening? And he goes, she goes, that's funny. Because she thought that Erica and Josh Russell were still dating. And she goes, I was praying for them, and you just kept replacing Josh. And I'm like, She's like, uh let's come back to this end of the week. So um Erica at the time was going through the W WP Carry School of Business ASU with an entrepreneur uh uh masters in entrepreneurship and she wanted to be a jewelry stone store owner in order to fund the kingdom.

SPEAKER_09: 1:56:26

Yeah.

unknown: 1:56:27

Wow, bro.

SPEAKER_09: 1:56:29

Yeah, you're the diamond. Oh wow, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 1:56:34

And because of how she the the positions that she holds and how she's able to work, she's been funding my ministry. Wow, wow, bro. Wow, God knew that last part epiphany on me mid-sermon about four or five months ago. Wow.

SPEAKER_09: 1:57:02

You didn't see it until you were preaching that. I was talking about it and then you saw it, you're like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00: 1:57:08

And I I was just weeping. My kids were like, what's going on? I'm like, y'all don't understand. God just like blew my mind over something that's been happening for 15 years. I just now saw it. Yeah. Wow. And so, like, man, so she like um we come back after that week, and I'm sitting here, I'm like, I'm praying. I'm I'm like, I'm I'm fasting, fasting, fasting from her praying. She calls Donald midweek on Wednesday and is like talking to him on speaker while I'm in the room, and I'm like, you freaking jerk. I was like, I was like, I'm about to fight Donald. Like, I'm then my mom's calling me and's like, what are you doing? If she doesn't come back, she's the best thing that ever happened to you. I'm like, we're month in, mom. Like we're trying to make sure this is the right thing. And uh, and then Donald starts having visions about her speaking to women. She went to a retreat this past weekend and was one of the speakers for the women. Yeah, wow. I'm like, dude.

SPEAKER_09: 1:58:22

Have you told Donald that? Huh? Have you told Donald that?

SPEAKER_00: 1:58:24

No, I literally just remembered it.

SPEAKER_09: 1:58:28

Holy Spirit, bro. Yeah, he's gonna watch this, man. You remember that, Donnie? You were prophesying, big dog.

SPEAKER_00: 1:58:34

Wow. And so um, she's but and Erica's just she's just like, I'm having great just devotions in the morning, just having Jesus time. No worry in her life. Like, I'm like, it, I mean, let's keep this real. If anybody's ever met my wife, they know that I punted way out of my league. I mean, I I punted the coverage by my especially in the physical department. Like, like God's long way. Yes. God is very faithful. And uh, but yeah, it was crazy just to hear that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:59:19

It was just crazy.

SPEAKER_09: 1:59:20

What part did you what am I hearing?

SPEAKER_04: 1:59:23

That God allows you to outpunch your coverage, bud. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:59:29

God allows you to outpunch your coverage.

SPEAKER_09: 1:59:33

So I can have I don't have to settle. No, no, no, okay, amen. I'm like, I'm not settling. I just want you to see that can I say something on that?

SPEAKER_00: 1:59:44

Because because coming from the uh the just drowning in worthlessness, like I never saw myself as worth something. I I had when when I was going to temple, when I was in Temple, um and we're working at uh Chick-fil-A with Donald I had a girl that took interest in me that I thought there would be no chance. Way out of your league. Uh yeah. And and so she took an interest in me and we started dating. And we dated for like six months and broke up and that that was a whole different story. But in that I found like that sense of like okay, I'm worth it. Yeah. Oh, that's so good. W without that relationship, I would never had the strength to talk to Erica. God used all that all all the if you've gone through relationships and it didn't pan out the way you want, I mean, obviously seek God to pray for that person, but take the positives out of the relationship because if it wasn't for her and the couple relationships I had after that and and one that I didn't have because of a situation, uh like there was a girl in Texas that I would have moved to heaven and earth for. And I knew her. We were like yin, like we used to drive around in like uh in a car into nice neighborhoods and look at houses and listen to gangster rap. And like like we were like the same person, you know? Yeah, and it didn't happen, and it kind of crushed me a little bit. Yeah, but at the same time, like all those things I look at all the good stuff that each one of the relationships had, and then everything about all the good things are all wrapped into Erica, and then she's so much more. God, that's so good, Keith. Like that's so good, buddy. Like the fact that she's that much prettier than I ever thought I could marry, like, I'm literally like I'm standing on an altar, I'm thinking she has options, she can say no at any time.

SPEAKER_04: 2:02:07

Do you have vision?

SPEAKER_01: 2:02:10

Sure, you're not drunk. You have beer goggles on running.

SPEAKER_04: 2:02:15

You know what the most attractive thing to a woman is?

SPEAKER_00: 2:02:18

Godliness.

SPEAKER_08: 2:02:19

That's right, buddy. Somebody that loves Jesus.

SPEAKER_04: 2:02:24

If you are just a man that is in love with Jesus, that is the most attractive thing to a woman.

SPEAKER_00: 2:02:31

Amen.

SPEAKER_04: 2:02:33

You know what I mean? It really is because that lasts a lifetime. The Bible says beauty fades. But love for God lasts a lifetime. And that's what they're looking for. Is if I'm gonna be married to this person for a lifetime, they better love God. All the rest of the stuff I can deal with, but if you ain't a lover of God, it's really good. It really is, brother. Yeah, that's why I tell single men in church when I'm ministering to them, be careful, bro. Yeah, yeah. That's the most attractive thing to a woman is that you're in church and that you love God. Yeah, they'll kick down heaven and hell for you, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 2:03:08

Yeah, you know what I mean? That's how a lot of pastors end up in trouble, too.

SPEAKER_09: 2:03:13

Yeah, because yeah, that's why I tell the guys I work with in recovery white, pink, or green. Watch out, boys. Those three things will take you out of ministry faster than anything, man. Yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_00: 2:03:24

Yeah, there's there's so many, there's been women hit on Pastor Dave in front of Pastor Street, and I'm just like, Yeah, and you didn't tear their face off because he knows what he's going home to.

SPEAKER_09: 2:03:39

She knows what she's getting, man. No, no, no, I mean Pastor Street didn't tear their face off for him.

SPEAKER_00: 2:03:44

I'm like, She probably took it as a compliment.

SPEAKER_04: 2:03:46

Like, I know what I got.

SPEAKER_00: 2:03:48

I used to that too when we first got married. I told Erica, I was like, hey, if you can flirt and get something for free, just go for it. Because I know exactly how anywhere. I I went from not confident she was gonna walk down the aisle to very confident that she wasn't going anywhere. Right. And it was so cool. Amen. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_09: 2:04:08

Yeah, and so when'd you guys you you when did you get to LifeLink?

SPEAKER_00: 2:04:12

We got to LifeLink in 2008.

SPEAKER_09: 2:04:14

Eight. And then when did you guys start dating?

SPEAKER_00: 2:04:16

2009.

SPEAKER_09: 2:04:18

And then how long were you guys dating before you got married?

SPEAKER_00: 2:04:22

Uh a week less than a year.

SPEAKER_09: 2:04:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 2:04:25

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:04:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 2:04:26

Pastor Tammy advised, she goes, do not have a long engagement because it'll get harder and harder to stay pure.

SPEAKER_06: 2:04:33

Yeah. Oh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:04:35

So like all these people were like, oh, I gotta be you know with them for five years. No.

SPEAKER_10: 2:04:40

Wow, that's a long okay.

SPEAKER_00: 2:04:41

Just just find the woman God has for you. Amen. You're never gonna be financially prepared, you're never gonna be emotionally prepared. Like all this stuff. Just grow together.

SPEAKER_04: 2:04:53

That's words I had in my mouth. I was getting ready to say. Just grow together. Grow together.

SPEAKER_07: 2:04:57

Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 2:04:58

I wasn't financially prepared to get married.

SPEAKER_09: 2:05:00

That's how I feel. I'm like, dude, I gotta I'm working part-time. I I don't have enough money to support a family and a woman, let alone kids. Yeah. I live at home with my parents. Not yet. You know what I mean? Not yet. Amen. I love you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_00: 2:05:15

When this podcast blows up.

SPEAKER_09: 2:05:19

God's preparing me for something. If you're watching and you're interested, I don't know, man. Money is not an option.

SPEAKER_00: 2:05:28

For everybody in this room. Oh, did you hear that? The guy that uh the smartest guy in the world?

SPEAKER_09: 2:05:37

Yeah, the Asian dude? Yeah. Did you hear what he posted? Jesus, bro? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:05:41

Oh, he said Jesus was real. Oh, yeah. The other day he posted that he's gonna be the second person to hit$500 billion, and everybody's gonna be go to advance the gospel of the you go, buddy. You go, buddy.

SPEAKER_09: 2:05:55

I was so tempted to be like, uh, here's my Cash App, my Benmo, my Zenmo, my PayPal.

SPEAKER_00: 2:06:02

Here's my ministry.

SPEAKER_09: 2:06:04

Um, but yeah, I was like, dude, that's so cool. Well, God do it, God'll do it for us, man. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00: 2:06:12

Yeah, yeah. And uh yeah, so um, yeah, we were just in our year. Our anniversary is on Donald's birthday. So he he was in my wedding on his birthday. Come on. And uh, so if I miss that date, I'm screwed twice.

SPEAKER_09: 2:06:28

So who is your best man?

SPEAKER_00: 2:06:30

Donald.

SPEAKER_09: 2:06:31

Oh, I love that, bro. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 2:06:34

He's my bro. Yeah. Even now, like we hardly talk as much as you know, I'm I'm sure either one of us will want to. Yeah. Um, because we're we're just in different atmospheres now. Yeah. But that kid's busy, bro.

SPEAKER_09: 2:06:51

The the And he's got a lot going on with all these spots and kids, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:06:55

But the second we reconnect, it's like never missed a beat. We've been there all together. Come on, man. Um it's just with everybody like that.

SPEAKER_04: 2:07:03

I have a couple friends like that, man.

SPEAKER_00: 2:07:05

It's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Anytime I go home, my some of my buddies back home are the same way. I I I had one of my good friends from back, my best friend from high school was in it. Um Chris was actually in my wedding. Come on. Peterson? Yeah. Oh, cool, man. Um uh Reese Roberts. I don't know if you remember Reese. He's uh he's married to um one of the Ogulls. And uh one of their daughters, he's I can't remember which one he's married to. But he's married to one of them.

SPEAKER_04: 2:07:42

And then uh one of Scott's daughters.

SPEAKER_00: 2:07:46

Yeah, one of Scott's daughters, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 2:07:48

Yeah, they were only here for a little bit before when I was here and they left.

SPEAKER_00: 2:07:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 2:07:52

So yeah, I think we played SOLP all together like one season, and then next thing you know, they were gone. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:07:58

And then Pastor Curry was in it, Pastor Megan was in it, um Jessica Campbell. Yeah, uh the community. Yeah, and and and Lacey and Pastor Sree and Pastor Dave, well, Pastor Dave played keyboard and did the sermon. Come on. Pastor Shree and Lacey led worship. Wow. Like that's right. The first thing we did after we got married is we had a worship service. Come on. And there was a lot of people in there that didn't worship like us, and they got to they got to see that. Amen. Um but yeah, it was it was a crazy time.

SPEAKER_09: 2:08:38

Um how old were you? What was this? 2010? So you were 26.

SPEAKER_00: 2:08:43

I was I was 25. 25. Yeah. It was a couple months before I turned 26. Erica was 21. So yeah, it was it was crazy.

SPEAKER_09: 2:08:54

Man, when you said 15 years, it's been 15 years with that woman, bro. You guys been through a lot together. Because that marriage ain't easy. Nah, marriage takes work, bud. Marriage takes being intentional. And are you still dating your wife?

unknown: 2:09:08

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:09:08

Oh, the don't ever lose that, bro. No, don't ever lose that.

SPEAKER_00: 2:09:13

We're we are crazy busy all the time, but you make time in this calendar? Uh we try for every month. Once a month? We try. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, doesn't happen every time, but we de we make it a point. This is especially, you know, October, November, December. Holidays. Especially when you're in ministry. Yeah. That's a very busy time. Sure is. Yeah. So we we make up for something. We do a couple times in other months and stuff like that. But yeah, it's and you know, uh, she she was, you know, she talks to other women, she's like, Yeah, my husband gives me like 30-minute back massages like three times a week and stuff. And you know her love language.

SPEAKER_09: 2:09:58

Yeah, that's right, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 2:10:00

Yeah, man. You know, it's really good. Acts of service and just being there. Yeah. Like, we don't have to be watching the same thing, just being in the room. Yeah. Like, she she she is all about like, you're my best friend. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:10:21

I'm like, I see my dad sitting in his chair and he's got the game on, and then my mom's right next to him. She's usually on her phone. And sometimes I see my dad just put his hand down. It's like, come on, hold your hand. Like, oh man, these guys have been through hell together, bud. The only way mom and dad are it's all God. Oh Jesus, because this dude definitely wasn't me.

SPEAKER_04: 2:10:47

I did everything I could to screw that. Gave her every reason, bud.

SPEAKER_09: 2:10:50

Yeah, but God, God's not done.

SPEAKER_04: 2:10:53

Somebody asked her one time, how can you trust him? She says, I don't, but I trust God's plan and purpose for our life. Amen, brother. I was like, best answer ever, man. Don't trust me because I'm not trustworthy.

SPEAKER_05: 2:11:05

Yeah, trust him. You know what I mean? You're getting it. That was her answer, dude.

SPEAKER_04: 2:11:08

And I was like, I'm good. That's a beautiful answer. I'll take that all day.

SPEAKER_00: 2:11:13

Comes down to it, none of us are trustworthy. No. Unless we're surrendered to God. Amen. There's not a trustworthy bone in my body. Amen. It's Jesus about Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. Amen. But uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:11:26

So So what was your your so your fur how long were you at LifeLink?

SPEAKER_00: 2:11:32

We we were here from 08 to um so the we left in 2012 for a year because we moved to Colorado to help plant a church.

SPEAKER_09: 2:11:44

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00: 2:11:45

Um Wow.

SPEAKER_09: 2:11:47

A couple years into marriage.

SPEAKER_00: 2:11:48

Yeah. Wow. She she graduated college. The ASU? Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:11:54

Let's go, Sun Devils.

SPEAKER_00: 2:11:56

And then like five weeks later, we moved to Colorado.

SPEAKER_09: 2:12:02

Your wife graduated ASU, so she has alumni, she can get student tech, you know what I'm saying? For ASU.

SPEAKER_04: 2:12:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:12:10

Let's go to a Sun Devil game, bro. Come on.

SPEAKER_04: 2:12:14

Tell them no.

SPEAKER_00: 2:12:15

Tell them no. Come on. They used to get mad at me because I'm so much fun of ASU. Oh my god. But she she never went to the game or anything. So I'm like, how can you get upset? Because back in that day, especially, they would be doing really good and they go up to like Wyoming Tech and get the crap kicked out of them. I'm just like Colorado. Yeah. Like yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:12:42

So we're on the upswing now with this Kenny D, man. Kenny Cunningham is a great coach. He is just what these kids need, bro.

SPEAKER_00: 2:12:51

I got scared there for a second last year.

SPEAKER_09: 2:12:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:12:55

Scattaboo basically almost won the game for y'all.

SPEAKER_09: 2:12:58

Dude, that was the targeting penalty. That's why I said that in the beginning, dude. That was targeting, man. That should have been a first down on your 40-yard line, and we were driving. That's good to finally have a Texas fan. Admit it.

SPEAKER_08: 2:13:14

That brings me comfort. I didn't even do nothing.

SPEAKER_00: 2:13:18

The thing about it is, because I've been on the other side of it too. Yeah, you've won them. Like Dez got that ball. Dead's up. Yeah, he got that ball. But it's one of those things like there's so many missed calls in a football game. Like if you're if you're upset about that, it's like I'm gonna hold that one.

SPEAKER_04: 2:13:41

That's one thing to miss some calls, but that's another thing to miss a blatant.

SPEAKER_09: 2:13:45

Blatant call when they they even went under the hood and looked at it, and we're like, no, that's not targeting. It's like the first part of the dude hit him right in the head.

SPEAKER_04: 2:13:53

That's a very thin line.

SPEAKER_00: 2:13:55

I just watched four years of people doing this to uh to Micah Parsons every single play. And all the other teams going, hey, are nobody's holding. We're like, he's getting held every single play. And then he goes to Green Bay. Guess what? All the Green Bay fans are saying, he's getting held every play.

SPEAKER_09: 2:14:18

How'd you feel about that Green Bay trade?

SPEAKER_00: 2:14:20

Oh, I'm you good with it? I'm okay.

SPEAKER_09: 2:14:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:14:24

Uh like I'm Jerry even said I'm I'm still a Micah fan. I I love Micah Pargins. He's awesome. But it's a business. Yeah. You you can't you can't be like, football is such a business now. I wish him well. I hope he does good unless he's playing the Cowboys.

SPEAKER_04: 2:14:42

Then so people are overly invested in I you I used to be.

SPEAKER_00: 2:14:48

Honestly, I used to be like, when me and Erica first got married, the Cowboys lost, it ruined my day. And it ruined our relationship for the rest of that day.

SPEAKER_10: 2:14:59

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00: 2:15:00

And she had to come to Jesus and meet it's like you can't react this way.

SPEAKER_10: 2:15:03

Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 2:15:06

So it's good to be a fan and I clap and I holler and stuff. When that TV goes off, it's done. I'm done.

SPEAKER_08: 2:15:14

Yeah. Amen. On to the next thing. You're ministering to somebody right now, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 2:15:19

But but that's that that's a certain thing.

SPEAKER_04: 2:15:21

Like when when I got there too one time, brother, and it's like, I love football. I'll sit there and cheer, but at the end of the day, it doesn't do a damn thing for me. They're they're they're not paying. It doesn't make my life better, it doesn't make my life worse, it doesn't advance the gospel. I'm not getting a paycheck because I cheered louder. You know what I mean? At the end of the day, it's it's grown men playing football.

SPEAKER_00: 2:15:41

Now, when I'm around my buddies, I'll get I'll still get heated in and and holler and all that stuff. Oh yeah. And I still do, but in my house, oh that's good. It's yeah, I'm done. If we're out at Buffalo, I'll I'll chop it up and I'll I'll give you the business and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_04: 2:15:58

But my piece is too important to allow a football game affect my peace, buddy. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, like if I turn it off and I'm just reeling still and I'm upset and I'm mad. I'm like, that game just now has power over me. I'm not giving it that kind of power over me, but yeah, it it I love it. I'll cheer and hoot and holler.

SPEAKER_00: 2:16:15

And it's gotten better now. I still used to like I love Chris Peterson to death, but he used to like try to like push your buttons, get get on to me about about football. And I'm like, bro, dude, you were a band guy. You don't know anything about football. Love you, Chris. Love that, dude, bro. That's great. I'd be like, just because you play band and you were marching band on a fight does not mean you played on Friday night.

SPEAKER_09: 2:16:45

I'd be talking about football, and he'd be uh, did they make a three-pointer? I was like, oh yeah, different sport, bud. I love that.

SPEAKER_00: 2:16:53

I'm like, oh my gosh. So, so yeah, when people that don't know anything about the sport, that that probably irks me more than another fan base. Yeah. Like, sometimes when Cardinals fans are like, oh, the cowboard, like, you never won a Super Bowl, shut up.

SPEAKER_09: 2:17:11

Nigga for 30-something years.

SPEAKER_01: 2:17:14

I would have to see three of them more than any Cardinals fans can ever say. You guys got sick.

SPEAKER_04: 2:17:20

Boss of the Packers fan. Yeah. Like has ownership, oh yeah, things, all that crap for for the Packers. And uh that dude, he's the biggest dick.

SPEAKER_00: 2:17:30

Y'all know y'all y'all know John Jones used to go to school here or go to church here. Yeah. So John Jones. He used to be a he's a wild. James Jones. James Jones. James Jones. I don't know why. I keep saying John Jones. I I had his kid in preteens. Sorry, James. So we we uh when I was uh my last couple years here, I was doing the safety team. Yeah, yeah. And he would come out to get coffee, and then we just give each other crap about the Cowboys and the Packers. And like he he was he was such a cool dude. Yeah. But yeah, we uh we used to give each other a good amount of lip for that.

SPEAKER_04: 2:18:06

My boss has this card sitting at his desk, right? It's a business card, and on the back of it is a square box written on it. Anytime a Cardinals fan or Viking fan comes into the to the shop and they start talking football, he'll be like, you know what this is? And they're like, a box? He's like, no, it's a trophy case where the Cardinals hold a trophy case. They're like, there's nothing there. He's like, exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 2:18:30

No, the only team I really, other than the like the Eagles and the Patriots for obvious reasons, is Denver. Yeah. So I'm I moved to Yeah, Colorado. So we moved to Colorado 12. Right after I moved there, they shipped Tebow out. Yeah. And they did him dirty. Yeah. And that's my my brother Christ. So I was like, dude, I don't like it.

SPEAKER_09: 2:18:54

After he won him a playoff game. Crazy. Yeah, yeah. Crazy.

SPEAKER_00: 2:18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:18:58

But so what why did you guys go to you said you went there to plant a church? Yeah. Like you and Erica or somebody else. Someone else.

SPEAKER_00: 2:19:07

Okay. Um I was just feeling like, man, there's there's something I was interning, um, and I was going through the school of ministry. So I went through 2010. So the year we got married, I went into the school of ministry. Okay. And um went through that. My and the second semester, we had like our projects that we had to do. So um that's when lifelink started. We are started in our own youth camps. Oh, cool. And so Pastor Curry's like, hey, you want to have a youth camp one day, so uh you're gonna build this. So I had to find the camp, come up with a theme and all this stuff. And like uh like 80, 90 kids went. Wow. And that's the camp where Jeremy Gresl gave his life back to Jesus. Um, the camp where Chris and Jessica Campbell met. Wow. Um so like there's a lot of growth that came out of that, and it was just something really cool for me to do. Wow.

SPEAKER_09: 2:20:13

Um, so I went there and then um Are you putting together camps now where you are for your students?

SPEAKER_00: 2:20:20

No, so I would uh part this last year we went with without walls church. Okay, and I was like, hey, if y'all need any help, I am here. I have experience in this. I was camp counselor for a long time. Help. Yeah. They didn't ask for any.

SPEAKER_09: 2:20:37

So there'll be a day when Living Waters is big enough that you're gonna be going on your own camps and you're gonna be putting them together. Yeah. In Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_00: 2:20:45

I'm good. Yeah. So I and and it it was so we that next year I was interning at Lifelink. I was in the middle of a staff meeting on a Tuesday morning, and God was like, There's something else. Like, I just felt it, something change and shift in my heart, and uh, I was like, what is this? Like I just felt God was like, it's time for you to move. And so I'm like, what? How do I know? So Pastor Carey had already moved away. I called him, I was like, dude, like God's like trying to I need to move, I need to go somewhere. And he's like, okay. So we uh we started going through this deal, he introduced me to some people, and he had met some people at a at an ARC church planning conference, and so he was like, Hey, how about these people? And they're from Jacksonville, Florida, and they're moving to Denver, Colorado. Them and 22 other of their people are moving, and we're gonna come in. Wow. And uh so I'm like, sweet.

SPEAKER_09: 2:22:01

Talk about buying into a vision.

SPEAKER_00: 2:22:03

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, a lot of people. Wow. And so we went up there and um we were there for years.

SPEAKER_09: 2:22:13

You said Colorado Springs?

SPEAKER_00: 2:22:14

No, Denver. Denver, okay. Uh Centennial Colorado. Okay. And uh we went up there we were like five, five, six months in, and it's not going the way. Like they were like, hey, we'll have you lead young adults or something that didn't come about. Well, like there were there's a lot of promises that weren't kept. Man, that'll make the heart sick, bro. And and that's not saying they are thriving right now, yeah, and they're doing a great job. It was just I think they overpromised not knowing the season that they were about to walk into. And like we met them before we moved, and we had like a meeting when we were there, like at the beginning. The next time I met like met one-on-one with a pastor was about four days before we moved back to Arizona. So, and all this is like after we uprooted our life to come help you plant your vision. So it was hard. I don't think I I don't think it was anything, I think it was just the season. Yeah. Um, I learned a lot um there. But also one of the things I am so thankful for, Pastor David Sheree, during Christmas time we came back home to visit people because they took two hours out of their time to come and have lunch with us. Pastor Dave? Yeah, and Shree. They both came and they poured into us and encouraged us. And that was the hugest thing. And so um after the year was up, like we did a lot. We had a single mom, single uh Puerto Rican mom and her 14-year-old son live in a two-bedroom apartment with us rent-free. Wow. Like, yeah, and that's a whole dynamic. And then there there's a lot of other things that happened that were really good. I have some friends for life out of that thing. Yeah, yeah. And but it just was we were supposed to go there to help plant and then eject. And uh we came back here and got right back into it. It was about, I don't know, five or six months before we moved into this building. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:24:48

And uh oh, so there you're you went from CTA to Perry.

SPEAKER_00: 2:24:53

Yeah, and then we went to College and then came back. Okay, and me and Jason Haynes were in here with a jackhammer pulling a tile out of the lobby in here. Yeah, and we did a lot of work like that, and uh definitely signed a ton of stuff inside the walls, oh yeah, but on the pulpit and all that stuff. It was so cool. Wow.

SPEAKER_09: 2:25:16

Um, but yeah, we just came back and did you see the by did you see the Bible buried in concrete on the altar where Pastor stands on Sunday and preaches? Yeah, standing on the word. Yeah, man, I love that pastor, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 2:25:31

Man, and that's the thing, is like um Yeah, honor them.

SPEAKER_09: 2:25:35

Yeah, I feel like that's really what got what they've done.

SPEAKER_00: 2:25:39

Yeah, it it's it's so great. And and that it was the hardest thing. It was such a hard thing to leave.

SPEAKER_04: 2:25:51

You guys came back and were here for a little while again.

SPEAKER_09: 2:25:54

No, no, oh, so you're you mean you showed up, you got married, you went to Colorado, and you come back, and now you're serving again at Lifelink and they open up the building and you're a part of it.

SPEAKER_04: 2:26:12

Yeah, so you guys were here for a few years after you came back.

SPEAKER_00: 2:26:15

We were here until 2020. Yeah. Oh, cool. So we're here for another seven years. Oh wow, buddy.

SPEAKER_04: 2:26:19

That's when I met you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you guys were already in this building when I met you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:26:24

Did I ever meet you?

SPEAKER_04: 2:26:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:26:26

I did. Yeah. Okay. You met me a couple times. Before I went to California.

SPEAKER_00: 2:26:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 2:26:30

Okay. Yeah. He was still a little squirrely.

SPEAKER_09: 2:26:32

Yeah, I'm still getting high, bud. I probably got high in the bathroom.

SPEAKER_00: 2:26:40

I think the next time I met you was when you uh snuck into the Harvest Festival down at Living Waters that one year, and you're like, I'm not here. Oh yeah. I remember that.

SPEAKER_09: 2:26:50

Why was I there? I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00: 2:26:52

Somebody invited you. Somebody did. Yeah. You just came down and got some free chili and eating the food, but that was great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:27:00

Um I'll never turn down a meal, bud.

SPEAKER_00: 2:27:04

But yeah, it was it was a really um So what did you do in those seven years again?

SPEAKER_09: 2:27:10

You probably you probably never thought you were gonna leave. You were like, you came back from Colorado. They were back in ministry, brother, from what I remember. This is home.

SPEAKER_00: 2:27:18

We we jumped back in as we're doing youth, yeah. James and Lacey and um um oh you got back into worship and yeah, yeah, Erica was a singer.

SPEAKER_08: 2:27:28

Yeah, come on, bro.

SPEAKER_00: 2:27:29

Eric was a choir director. Yeah, come on. Um, I mean, one of my fondest memories, me and James up in the top of that little room with the barn door on it, the youth room, yeah, running the snake up there at two o'clock in the morning, just giggling our butts off, like the just laughing about the silliest stuff. Like, like it was it was a great time doing LCU in that room over there. Mom, buddy. Man, like just there's so much stuff that happened in this church is so good.

SPEAKER_04: 2:28:02

I remember doing LCU right here in the nursery.

SPEAKER_00: 2:28:06

Yeah. Your first year, yeah. My first year was on Ray and Valvista in school over there. Oh wow, yeah, wow. I was in I was in the first class of LCU.

SPEAKER_06: 2:28:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 2:28:21

Yeah, and funny enough, the guy sitting right next to me most of that time was Drew Oliver. Really? And yeah, he lasted for about four months and then you want to hear something crazy?

SPEAKER_04: 2:28:34

So when I did my first year at LCU, it was Chone's first year in LCU. Oh, wow, dude. And he was doing the tech in there. Wow. He's now the dean of students of Thales Bible College.

SPEAKER_00: 2:28:48

That that suits him.

unknown: 2:28:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:28:52

He's the making the classes and writing the notes and all.

SPEAKER_04: 2:28:55

But but I I think about that sometimes for myself and how we were there together year one, uh, and the choices he made and where he's at, and the choices I made and where I'm at. I'm like, I missed my opportunity to know. Well, I didn't miss. I mean, I could have kept going, but I was I was still trying to figure out who the hell I was. It's all it's all redeemable. Yeah, yeah. Amen. Now I'm like now. I'm like three classes away from a bachelor's. Come on, buddy. Leading CR. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_09: 2:29:25

God's calling him on the prayer team.

SPEAKER_00: 2:29:27

You you didn't you didn't miss your assignment. Amen. I didn't you just got dropped off of your stop. I know my name.

SPEAKER_04: 2:29:35

I know my lane, brother. Amen. I couldn't deal with all that. Yeah. I couldn't. All that administration. Thanks. That's why I'm glad he's ministry leader, CR. You do a lot of job putting a word.

SPEAKER_09: 2:29:48

Love on the people.

SPEAKER_05: 2:29:51

Not my calling, but not mine either.

SPEAKER_00: 2:29:54

Not mine either.

SPEAKER_09: 2:29:55

My wife's gonna love it. Another one. Here's another one, honey. Trust me.

SPEAKER_04: 2:30:03

What year did we do that Freedom Life group? What year was that? Do you remember? That had to be what 16? 17 years old. I think so. It was 16. 17. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:30:11

Seven, the end of 17, I came back from California. So I think it was 16. Yeah. Yeah. That was a really good group for me.

SPEAKER_00: 2:30:17

So it was like that was three years after we got back.

SPEAKER_04: 2:30:20

Yeah. But yeah, I think it's me, you, Jim Marsha, and Tim and uh Donnie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We finished out that group.

SPEAKER_00: 2:30:28

Not not the Donnie we've been talking about. No. The female Donnie. Female Donnie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 2:30:32

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 2:30:34

But yeah, it was that was such a such a fun class. And so enlightening. Yeah, dude. Like the conference, dude. I walked through a lot of forgiveness and that.

SPEAKER_04: 2:30:48

I still got a picture on my phone of us all there. I love that, bro. Pops up every now and then. I'm like, oh man, that's such a good group. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's when I learned a lot about you and who you were, and that's when you told me you felt called to go start a church and die and back in Texas.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31:04

Funny thing, uh about a year and a half ago, I had a family friend that so after my mom left my stepdad, she hung out with this couple that were younger than her, but they were crazy. Like, dude used to have like stacks of Playboys in his thing. They were party all. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_08: 2:31:28

Most most men do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31:30

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 2:31:31

But um not nowadays, it's all yeah, now it's on their phone.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31:34

God help us. Hey, did you hear that you have to provide your license to watch it?

SPEAKER_09: 2:31:41

Like, dude. That's amazing. At least there's some kind of something. They're getting there.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31:46

12-year-olds can't get on there and come on, buddy. They're getting there.

SPEAKER_04: 2:31:50

They're getting there.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31:50

Um, but uh so they're hanging out with him and he showed me all kinds of stuff. They're like terrible things. Yeah. And uh he reaches out to me about a year and a half ago and goes, hey man, I've been going to this church and uh I've been praying about planting my own church, and God put you on my heart to be the pastor. And I'm like, here's a criteria. After the full time, I have to be paid to a point where my wife can quit her job. And that's not uh when people come in, that's from start. Yeah. So I was like, those those are the two things I'm not budging on. Yeah. I said those two things start to happen, I'm very interested. Yeah. So yeah. So so and that that that's just those are good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:32:56

Because your your wife's making good money here and providing for you guys and allowing you to be in ministry.

SPEAKER_00: 2:33:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:33:02

So that that right there, those that's those, I don't know what you're gonna like, boundary stipulations, that is gonna allow her to step out of the world and out of all that and allow you into full-time ministry, but her to raise her kids and be the mama and even maybe step into the church herself as well.

SPEAKER_00: 2:33:21

Yeah, and well, and she's she's the worship leader at our church right now. Come on, bro. So, like she's already on top of everything, she's already like being a worship leader, and um but yeah, because going from being like a on staff pastor to being the head pastor, that's different levels.

SPEAKER_08: 2:33:42

Oh yeah, buddy. Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:33:44

I like right now, I still have been with where I can support her in her job and she can vent and I can take all that stuff in. If I ever go to being a lead pastor, that's a lot, that is now her job to be support. So like there that's something that has to happen. That's good. Um, but yeah, so anyway, so going back, like I went through uh we were in youth ministry, I did uh went to the choir again for a little while, and then the last couple years I was here, I was on security. Yeah. And it's funny because I'm leading like Jim Ogles Jr. and Chone and John Murr, like, you know, dude's you know, private protection and all this stuff, and he's like teaching me how to be a human x-ray machine and look for stuff on people. Yeah, the really the only reason why I got the job is because I knew how to do it with a smile. So I was I I was like the branding for the safety team. So I was like, guys, I get what you're doing, but we gotta be nice and smile to people. We still gotta shine a light. Yeah. So that was kind of my job. I I leaned on them for all the technical stuff because Nate Peterson was the safety lead before I came in. So we learned so much from him, and then um when that happened, I was like, okay, so and and I I interviewed for it, like nobody ever gets a position just on a whim out in in this church, which is a great thing, but amen. But um, I interviewed for it and did all that stuff, and um they were like, Yeah, so let's do this. And so I leaned on my team for all the technical stuff and tactical everything. I was like, this we're gonna love on people while we're doing this. So um but yeah, I did that and then uh freaking 2020 came around and uh we did not handle in home church the same. No, it's not the same. It was rough, yeah, buddy. I and I I'm a I'm a get out of the house and meet like my personality, like I I just have to be people energize me. Yeah, not feed off the spirit, man. Yeah, and uh just going into that uh that season, like the first little bit, like we shut down for a little bit. Yeah, and then we opened and then we shut down again. Yeah, and I was like, sweet, but all our kids had to be in there with us, and then we shut down again.

SPEAKER_09: 2:36:39

That second shutdown, a lot of people left.

SPEAKER_00: 2:36:41

Yeah, and it and mine wasn't a political thing or anything. I had nothing, nothing against church. I understood why they do it. I even texted Pastor Kerry. I was like, man, I don't know how you do it. Like, it's gotta be such a hard thing being the leader of a church in this time and be like, well, you know, all the things you gotta juggle in your mind and your spirit. Um it's crazy. And uh so we're sitting there talking, and uh Jax is I think he's That's your son. Yeah, my my oldest. He's about to turn four, or he was about to turn four. And we're going through this, and he's like, Hey, can we go to church now?

SPEAKER_09: 2:37:28

Because up to this, up to this point, all the kid knows is church every Sunday.

SPEAKER_00: 2:37:32

Yeah, and and he and he like we'd show him like the kids program that they did. Yeah, and he goes, Can we go to church now?

SPEAKER_07: 2:37:39

Nah, sorry, man.

SPEAKER_00: 2:37:41

And so his birthday was coming up, and I was like, We're we gotta go to a church somewhere. Yeah, and I'm talking to Lisa Bumpus online, you know, Leaf Lisa and Jeff Bumpus. They they might they might have moved moved on before um she was a flight attendant, so they had to do Saturday night service. So when we stopped offering a Saturday night service, they kind of shifted out um awesome people. But she's like, she doesn't have a job anymore because she was a flight attendant, or she she has one now, but they just shut everything down. Yeah. So um she goes, hey, you should come to our church. Like, we we're jammed in here like sardines, no mask, our pastor loves Trump, like kind of thing. And I'm like, all right, let's go. And uh so we're like, yeah, we'll go here, and so that Jax can get his interactions. Honestly, all of us were wanting some interaction. Yeah, and we lived, I mean, we live in Penau County, so like uh down the street from you. Sheriff Lamb was like, I'm not enforcing anything, so go do whatever you want to. Yeah, praise God. Um, and so we went there, and I'm like, uh oh. And so we get back in the car, and it's like it's a different world. Like you go from LifeLink where the the musicianship, the worship is the excellence all the time, yeah. And went here and man, it was it was rough. And if anybody who Shannon, if you are listening to this, that that's not anything you should, but it was rough.

SPEAKER_09: 2:39:31

So before I came to LifeLink, I was involved with Living Word Ministry, Living Word Christian Center. They're all over California, they're all over the world, yeah, and they're really small. A lot of them are in storefronts, some of them are in people's homes, yeah. Some of them the music and the works, it's like you gotta use what you got. Yeah, and this is what we got. Yeah, here at LifeLink, we're really blessed. Super blessed. Super blessed. But that that's that uh is some people don't know what we have here because this is all they know, bro.

SPEAKER_01: 2:40:07

Yeah, yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_04: 2:40:09

But you know what's crazy though is going to some of them churches that he was at in California, as bad as you'd think they were, there was still this authentic oh yeah, oh yeah, authentic worship worship that was taking place. It wasn't a performance, it wasn't not that Light Link is a performance, don't get don't move what I'm not saying, but there was an authentic, hey, I can play keyboards and I want to worship God. There was an authentic, hey, I can play guitar a little bit and I want to worship God. Yeah, and you could sense the authentic worship in what they were doing, no matter how horrible they sound. Yeah, you felt it, you could sense it. It was just it was still authentic. God would always show up. Oh, yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:40:47

Yeah, I that that's the thing is that the worship was not great. Yeah, but the Holy Spirit was still thick. Amen.

SPEAKER_09: 2:40:59

Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 2:40:59

And then also, I mean, my pastor, he's same. Yeah, what's his name? His name's Ben Lee. Okay. Pastor Ben Lee. Um, he's the same size as me. Yeah, nice. He's he's big. Cowboy hat and the whole thing. No, not cowboy hat. Okay. He he grew up in Flagstaff. He's he's kind of like one of them barefoot backwood sasquatch kind of guys. So and he likes to hike a lot, which uh I'm still trying to understand all that. So but um but man, we we just bonded really quick. It was just like meeting a brother like instantly. Um and I was like, dude, this and God kind of put like they need you. Wow, wow, not and and that's that's not a brag anyway. No, but it's through all the experience, like yeah, being a part of LifeLink, and we I like honestly thought that it was for that season, but being a part of Life Link, we're about to step into an as apostolic season in our church where we're gonna be a sending center, yeah, and we're about to do some exponential growth, and that's a lot of the stuff that we're talking about now, yeah, is stuff that I learned 10 years ago in Lifelink. Yeah, like like backdoor thing, like the just the behind-the-scenes stuff, how to work certain situations, yeah, it's stuff that I all learned 10 years ago, you know, being an intern at Lifelink.

SPEAKER_04: 2:42:34

Yeah, I don't think what people don't understand about churches, it's not just you don't have a group of people that just show up on Sunday and boom, this worship service takes place. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_09: 2:42:44

They don't see what's going on during the week.

SPEAKER_04: 2:42:46

There's a lot that goes into it. It's not just uh you know what I mean? Yeah, I don't think people understand it because they just show up on Sunday and oh, wow, this is a great yeah. You don't know they don't see Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday. Staff meetings, Thursday practice, yeah, yeah, you know, Tuesday night, you know, staff meetings, yeah, all the prayer time, all that stuff that goes into putting on that service that you get to enjoy.

SPEAKER_00: 2:43:11

In fact, we we just put together an apostolic team of 20 people. Come on. And we're having our first meeting tomorrow morning. Come on. Come on, buddy. And there's people in there that have vision, but they never been through like a sky blue Swiss cheese session. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so uh You've been through plenty of those. Yeah, I'm gonna have to be like, y'all, you can't have your feelings hurt. Yeah, that's right. Our whole point is here to do things that work, yeah, and that will bear fruit. Come on, not not just throw stuff out there and be like, hey, I hope it works. Oh yeah. Like I've been through so many of those with throw some mistakes. Yeah, yeah. Like, like it's preparing. That's right. I th when I first heard that, I thought, oh, they need they need somebody to help with youth. Because they did need somebody to help with youth. Yeah, they need somebody to help do this because they or help with worship, because they did need somebody help with worship. Our worship is light years away from where it was. Yeah, and but thank god they and and when I told Erica that, she's like, I don't know if I can. That worship was not good.

SPEAKER_09: 2:44:16

Oh, you got back in the car and was like, honey, I think this is where we need to go.

SPEAKER_00: 2:44:20

Yeah, and like three weeks later, she's like, I get it. And so during this time, Pastor David Shredd took a sabbatical.

SPEAKER_10: 2:44:28

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:44:31

And so God, I remember that one. So we told everybody we knew please don't tell them let us do, let's wait until they get back from sabbatical. I don't want them to hear from anybody else. I want to have a conversation. Come on. The day they got back, we got a call from Pastor Free.

SPEAKER_02: 2:44:52

You guys left.

SPEAKER_00: 2:44:54

Like, oh no. That's why I didn't want to happen. Like, it's it's it's nothing we love you guys. Yeah, it's nothing to have to do with anything that happened this summer. God is moving us in a place that they need us badly. And you know it it it was it was hard. That's real because no matter how much you want to convey that message and how many times you say it has nothing to do with anybody, it still hurts.

SPEAKER_09: 2:45:29

It hurts, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:45:32

It's tough. And and the funny thing is because Lifelink has an apostolic call on it. Yeah, and we send people out. They sent Pastor Kerry with uh his first year salary to California. Yeah, and so like that that's a thing that's on this church, and but it's hard. Like I I didn't get to talk to friends that I had for months. Yeah, oh man. It was that's hard. That was the worst part for me. Yeah, because there's a community, like even like uh yesterday I opened Instagram and like Donnie and Kayla and James and Lacey and they're all on a trip, and I'm just like that, that's the thing I miss right there. Yeah, and there's there's so like there's so much that I wanted to just be like, hey, because I want I want to stay in touch with everybody. Yeah, I'm like, I want to still be best friends, like wanna do all that and and I had to grow and it's real good and and myself to go, hey, I can still be friends with them. It's great, but I don't have to be there, I don't have to be offended every time I'm not invited to a birthday party or whatever. Yeah, like because it's hard. My personality does not like that.

SPEAKER_09: 2:47:06

It really is, bud, because I I being here, I'm a part of it, but like I don't get invited to all the stuff because a lot of the stuff, it's like kids' stuff. Yeah, I don't have a girl, I don't have kids, or couples, or couple stuff, you know what I mean? So it's like all right, that right there is real. Because when I would see that, I'm like, dang, why don't I ever get they're going to the movies? Why don't I brought it up?

SPEAKER_04: 2:47:28

You gotta have thick skin to be a minister. This isn't for the faint of heart, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:47:32

No, no, it's not, it's real stuff you're talking about, man.

SPEAKER_04: 2:47:36

Because the thing with ministry is is there's there's people who are seasonal, and very rarely will you find someone who's a lifetime thing. Yeah, there's three reasons.

SPEAKER_09: 2:47:48

They're either in your life for a reason, they're in your life for a season, or they're in your life. Yeah, yeah. For life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:47:56

And that that that's the thing, like the the whole the thing is that Satan is always looking for a way to get you offended. Oh, yeah, of course. Oh, yeah, buddy. Of course.

SPEAKER_09: 2:48:08

Have you read the book Unoffendable? It's such a good book. Read it.

SPEAKER_00: 2:48:12

But and that's like I'm I'm a I'm a Todd White guy. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:48:18

Love Todd White, bud. He talked about it. Team Challenge, Colorado.

SPEAKER_00: 2:48:22

As soon as he really got caught, he's like, I made my mission to live unoffended.

SPEAKER_07: 2:48:30

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00: 2:48:31

And like that thing, like, I'm I'm still trying to get there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 2:48:36

But it's all it's only possible by the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_04: 2:48:39

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I tell people all the time I stay slippery. Oh, and I'm like, like a duck. Let it roll off a duck. There's nothing you can do that's gonna offend me. Yeah, you can tell me you hate me, and I'm I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00: 2:48:51

I would much rather somebody tell me they hate me than not invite me to the birthday party.

SPEAKER_04: 2:48:58

I've learned to live by myself. Yeah. If I get invited, cool. Yeah, if not, cool. You know what I mean? Going home and gonna love my family. I got a wife and kids that I can go home to, but you know what I mean? Exactly. But I stay slippery, bro. There's people that come up to me all the time. I'm sorry, but I'm like, I don't even know what you did, dude. What'd you do? You know what I mean? That's how slippery I stay because I don't pay that much attention. Yeah, I don't give people that much validity that they can offend me in a way that's gonna make me do something. Yeah, I don't. I don't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:49:28

Well, so you're it's 2020 after COVID, everything opens up, but during this, you and Erica go to Living Waters. Yeah, and you plant yourself there for your son Jackson. Oh, wow. So he can start getting involved with in the interaction as a kid needs. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:49:45

And uh a lot closer to home too, huh?

SPEAKER_09: 2:49:48

A lot closer. Yeah, five-minute drive in the Gilbert every buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 2:49:54

Where we were living, it was still like a 35-minute drive because we lived out in Magma Ranch. Like wow, you were past us. We were way out there.

SPEAKER_09: 2:50:02

Yeah, we're copper basin, man, driving in. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:50:05

And uh it's a drive. And uh, so yeah, we're doing that, and Gage has basically been. I mean, he was born here, but since he's been about two years old, he was basically raised in in Living Waters. And um, but make sure you give Jared a hug for me. I will. I love that dude. I love him too. I call I called Jared. Yeah, I I called Jared the Holy Spirit hype man. Yeah, like yeah. Any anytime it's down, anytime the mood's down, he's gonna come in there. Let's go, baby.

SPEAKER_04: 2:50:40

Dude, him and the guy, him and the dude that he started that business with, he comes, brings his car to my shop, right? And he's like, Are we gonna do it? I'm like, Don't you know we're gonna do it, bro? We're literally out in the parking lot just going to war, dude. And uh yeah, I love that dude.

SPEAKER_00: 2:50:55

Dude, he he he cracks me up. Yeah, he he he's he's such a big thing.

SPEAKER_04: 2:51:00

I got to speak life into that dude that he's that he started that business with, bro. Yeah, and minister to that dude right there in the parking lot, dude. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I love Jared. Every time we get together, we have to pray. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 2:51:13

It's crazy. I'm connected to his brother, Jason. I didn't know that I was his brother until dad told me. I was like, whoa, no way, dude. Yeah, he's my dude. He comes in three, four times a year, teaches. Yeah, it's awesome. The Strother brothers. Strother brothers we have Jason on here.

SPEAKER_06: 2:51:34

No, we haven't. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_09: 2:51:37

I've reached out to Jared and asked him, but he wouldn't. He wouldn't. Everybody's in a different place, man. Oh, yeah. Yeah, get him, dude. Get him. Hey, yeah. Get him. Come on, Jared. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00: 2:51:50

Hey, Riley wants you in here.

SPEAKER_09: 2:51:52

Come on, man. 2026.

SPEAKER_08: 2:51:56

Come on.

SPEAKER_09: 2:51:59

You know a good reliable mechanic, buddy. You're a green back.

SPEAKER_00: 2:52:05

Oh man, that's funny. But yeah, we're we're uh 2020. Um there's a guy literally, there's a couple that got there about a month before us, and I talked to Pesha Ben and Christina, and they were starting to lead the youth. Okay. Um so I go in there as a support role and everything, and uh it goes for a little while. Then they had to exit abruptly, and then uh I stepped in and then that was a couple of years ago, wasn't it? That was in probably August of 21. Oh wow, yeah. And then in March of 22 is when I got ordained. The week after I spoke for the first time in main service on Sunday morning. Okay. And my pastor was gone, but he like he was like, everybody vouched for it. Yeah. So then I'm like, why is my mother-in-law here again? And why is there's a couple other people that came last week. They they go to a different church, but they came this week. Yeah. And then I didn't know. They like surprise ordained me. I'm like, if y'all had told me I would have dressed a little bit nicer. Wow. But but yeah, so it was really cool. And then um, after that, we just like I started out with we had like four kids in a very, very tight little like kindergarten classroom because it used to be a school, the place that we're at. And uh and then uh just grew from there at the end of that year. We ripped down the wall and just started building out and um growing. We're about 20 kids right now. And I had a lot of it I did by myself. Uh, then I had a couple, I had a uh uh woman coming in with me, and she did it for a little while. She had life at her, and she's still in the church, still doing good, but she needed to go do something else. And then uh I recruited probably the oldest youth staff in the history of man, every one of them over 50 years old. Um wisdom, a lot of wisdom. Come on, buddy. Need a little bit more energy, but uh that's what you're for, and then uh hall man, I can do it every once in a while, but they're these kids are running me ragged.

SPEAKER_09: 2:54:46

Well, these kids are gonna grow up and they're gonna be in the church and you're looking at your future leaders. Yeah, look at what happens here, bud.

SPEAKER_00: 2:54:52

Well, that's crazy because the the uh uh my brother and sister-in-law, they go to uh without walls. Oh yeah. And without walls uh is awesome church. Um they invite some people over.

SPEAKER_04: 2:55:13

I worked on that pastor's car too.

SPEAKER_00: 2:55:15

Uh huh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 2:55:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:55:16

They they invite some people over from their church. From without walls to come to Living Waters. No, no, no, to come to uh 4th of July a couple years ago. Okay. So we're over there, these people come in, they're really cool. Their son, uh their oldest son, Tejan, he's very put together, very respectful, speaks with intelligent, like he says intelligent things. And I'm like, this kid's different. And he's like really put together. And then uh last year we went to a lock-in over there and he uh he like youth pastors this kid after the first service, and he's like, Hey, what do you get out of that service? And talking and I walked over after they got talking, I was like, dude, if you don't become a youth pastor, it's a crime against humanity. And he goes, Well, that's what I want to be when I you know, like when I grow up kind of thing. And I was like, dude, okay. So I kind of just threw some hints, like, hey, if you ever want to come over here. And then he did a one of our events we call the YCJ Games, and he came out and was a special like I guess speaker. He's 18. I would have never been able to do what he did when I was 18. Come on. Like he brought the gospel and the Holy Spirit and just like worked this way. I'm like, and my my uh my pastor's son goes, Is T J gonna take your job? You know, punk. Um but uh so and then uh about a month after that he asked me to be my intern. So he's like look what God is doing. I'm really, I'm really like he he is he's undecided on where he wants to go to school, like he wants to go to some Bible college in like Missouri or something.

SPEAKER_09: 2:57:17

That it be GCU, God.

SPEAKER_00: 2:57:20

And then he said, well, maybe GCU or or even something like Theos or you know, we do the Living Word Bible College at um at our church. Yeah. I'm like, you don't have to do all like what's the other one they got here, Arizona Christian University.

SPEAKER_04: 2:57:34

Yeah, there's a couple of them.

SPEAKER_00: 2:57:36

Yeah, there's there's a few of them that their options. I'm just like, I'm praying that he's the one that's able to take this over. Yeah. And that's good. Because I I got about two years of youth ministry left in me. Yeah. Um and then I want to pass it on to somebody to let it grow. And then that's when, you know, I'll I'm gonna start stepping into it in January. We're gonna launch our young adults ministry. Yeah. And I'm gonna be over that. And then uh hopefully in the next two years, I'll be able to kind of slowly step back and then oversee him. Yeah. And he'd be like my direct report. So he he would come on, we would talk about youth ministry stuff. And but and then one of his friends came to church last Sunday and she wants to get into youth ministry. So now we have a young dude and young girl that are on fire for Jesus. I'm just like, thank you, let's go. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 2:58:35

What what does uh YCJ stand for?

SPEAKER_00: 2:58:38

Youth C Jesus. Nice dude. Why SJ just doesn't roll off the tongue? No, YCJ does. It does. I sit there and I ponder that for like so we're just gonna do a play on words here. Yeah, come on. So yeah, YCJ Youth. Um this is 2000 uh 2022. Yeah. And uh it's uh it's just uh wonderful. We got some really solid kids. Come on now. Really solid man. And um they're doing good stuff, but uh we I just need that next that next person to take it over so I can give it over. Yeah, doing midweek stuff? Yeah, we do what's that? We're we're actually starting, so um we're starting what I'm calling what we're calling the faith boot camp. Yeah, and we're we're gonna go like next week, next Wednesday, we're gonna do like testimony. What's a testimony? Why is it really important? Yeah. And then the next week, I'm gonna bring like three by five cards and get them to write it out like just like you did, like who we were before Christ, how did he change you, and then what are you doing like since then? How's he improved your life? Yeah, and then have them get it into like a two minute thing. Not a three hour like two-minute thing.

SPEAKER_09: 3:00:03

And then I got a 20-minute one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:00:07

And then the fall the following week, we're going to pray and commit it to the Lord. Come on. And um and pray for boldness and courage to go and tell people testimony. That's great. And the following week we're going to go off campus and we're going to go to like a fast food restaurant or something. Yeah. I told them if you give your testimony to somebody, I'll probably I'll buy your meal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 3:00:31

So you know how you reach people? You don't reach people by throwing scripture at the time. You don't. No, you don't. You start to quote scripture to somebody, it turns it off, it turns them off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:00:43

Very rare case cases that they actually really.

SPEAKER_04: 3:00:46

But it's literally telling somebody, hey man, I used to be this. Yeah and then I met God, and now, man, this life has changed so greatly that you know I haven't 15 years off Matth and heroin. Man, I haven't touched that stuff in 15 years because of God. And they're like, Really? Yeah. Oh man, I struggle with this. Next thing you know, you're having this conversation, and after a decent conversation, can I tell you about the gospel? It opens the door.

SPEAKER_00: 3:01:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 3:01:14

To share the gospel.

SPEAKER_00: 3:01:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 3:01:15

If you just come out and start beating people with scripture, they're gonna be like, that don't mean nothing to me. What the hell is that? I don't even know that what verse is that, you know what I mean? But if you share what God has done in your life, that's why I love doing this. Yeah, we're literally sharing the gospel. Yeah. That's literally, if you think about it, we're sharing the gospel.

SPEAKER_00: 3:01:32

It brings valid. Not that Jesus or God needs more validity, but it brings that personal validity to brings it, makes it personal.

SPEAKER_04: 3:01:41

Yeah. Because the last thing you want to do is I tell people all the time. Somebody you meet on the street, they know they're a drug addict. They know their life is messed up. They know. They don't need you to come tell them, dude, your life is crap. Get your stuff together. They know that. What they need is hope. I've been where you at, bro. I was a drug addict for 25 years, 11 years in prison. I know what it's like. But I also know that by giving my life to the Lord, I haven't been in prison in 15 years or touched Meth or heroin in a long time. You know what I mean? And then it's like you bring once you stir hope and faith in people, now they're like, well, tell me more about this Jesus.

SPEAKER_00: 3:02:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 3:02:24

It opens a door. Testimonies are so important.

SPEAKER_00: 3:02:27

It's so important. Yeah. And then so the funny thing is because paired paired with that, so we're going through sermon series and stuff, and it's October. So we're doing a series called Monsters Under the Bed. It's all about conquering your fear. Yeah. So being able to conquer your fear and talk to people and get bold. And yeah, and then the November we're going to be uh going through discipleship and kind of going through the same steps and also kind of going through a Friendsgiving sermon series talking about our community and how we come together. And then December we're going to talk about service and being service to others. And we're going out to a food bank and pass out stuff for Christmas and things like that.

SPEAKER_04: 3:03:17

So make sure they understand that when they're when they're sharing, if somebody rejects them, it's not them that they're rejecting, it's the spirit in Jesus that they're rejecting. Because a lot of times I know the first few times I went out and shared, and somebody was like, ah it was like really why are you doing that? That's me. And somebody had to tell me, it's not you, dude. Get yourself out of the way. Yeah. It's it's the spirit you're carrying that they're rejecting, and it's demonic. You know what I mean? It's got nothing to do with you at all. You know what I mean? So make sure they know that what they're when they share and they're being rejected, it's not them that's being rejected. Yeah. It's the spirit that they carry that's being rejected. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:04:00

And we we talk so much about especially in light of recent events that about the spiritual warfare that's going on. Because I I told him I was like, you know, the days are gone when you're not gonna get like uh ridiculed and uh John Cooper from Skillet the day after Charlie, he goes, I really feel sad about my high school self. I'm almost mad about it because I was scared to preach the gospel because somebody might make fun of me. Yeah, yeah. He's like what they would think. Yeah, yeah. Like, and and we're getting closer and close. I mean, we're we're seeing assassinations. We're getting churches getting firebombed and stuff. We're there. And you know, I I told him I was like, there's a very good possibility that either we're gonna die or like me and Pastor Ben, we're gonna be thrown in prison for things that we say because we're not gonna shut up and you know, go the happy way about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 3:05:09

I love you, Keith. Man, this has been this is really good, bro. Yeah. Um we've got you've shared a little bit about what you're hoping for in the future. You you talked about uh maybe one day planting a church in Texas with your wife and your boys and full-time ministry as a senior pastor. Um, you've talked about this young man coming into to youth, um, somebody that you can really disciple and pour into so he can run with this thing and uh make it whatever God's gonna make it. And so you stepping into young adults, um, is there anything outside the the church walls? Any ministries? Um, because you know what we say around here, everybody's got a ministry in the church, yeah, but we got a mission in the world. Yeah. Is there any missions that God's put on your heart and things you want to do out in the world?

SPEAKER_00: 3:05:58

Yeah, actually, it was it was crazy. We were up at uh we did a men's retreat, and I stand back there and I was like, man, hey, God just gave me this vision of just like what you said, there's so many people that go to like pride festival, like pride parades and stuff, and they like, you need to repent, and all which is right. Right. But I just want to go set up a prayer tent.

SPEAKER_09: 3:06:25

Oh, that's good. Just pray for people.

SPEAKER_00: 3:06:29

I'm just like, hey, if you're hurting, if you need healing, if you're depressed, whatever we just want to pray. Just pray for them. Like that that's that's that's been big. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 3:06:42

Because I mean, as is So you're talking about a prayer tent at these rallies? At like a prize rally or a parade or whatever, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 3:06:52

I just want to go love on them. Yeah. Yeah. I just want to go get my big old hug. Exactly. And tell them that my God loves you.

SPEAKER_00: 3:06:58

Yeah. I I really do. Yeah. And and that that's why it's just a prayer tent because it it's just we're just there to love on people. Yeah. And um, you know, we might set it up directly opposite from the guy that screaming over the house. So it's just drive them all over towards us.

SPEAKER_09: 3:07:17

The big sign that says Jesus loves you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The love of God, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:07:23

So yeah, that I mean that that's a big thing, but also, I mean, I'm I'm not I'm not restricted.

SPEAKER_09: 3:07:31

Whatever God's gonna do. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:07:33

Like there, there's there's so many things, there's mission trips I want to go on, and um I I've been in yeah, I'm I'm vetting sources, but I I've been invited to go do some ministry in Pakistan and stuff like that. Come on, buddy. So yeah, um, there there's things like that that I need to vet and make sure it's legit. Yeah and I was talking to one of the guys, and I'm like, dude, like I I want to be all about this, but your part of the country is kind of known for doing scams. Yeah. So he's like, yeah, he's like, yeah, I I get it. Yeah. So um, but yeah, just doing whatever, like it's like past Pastor David Shree just instilled that heart of having a yes.

SPEAKER_09: 3:08:24

Come on, buddy. Open palms, yeah. Whatever you want to do, God. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:08:30

Man, stinking towel card, man. That yeah, it's like the the second version of the Ten Commandments. Like it's 11 through 20. Yeah, right. I love you, dude.

SPEAKER_09: 3:08:43

But like it's not a title, it's a towel. Yeah, man. There's a lot of them. Yeah, and and they're doing a podcast right now where they're talking about all of it.

SPEAKER_00: 3:08:52

That's cool.

SPEAKER_09: 3:08:52

Yeah, really letting people into the why. Yeah, yeah. Because a lot of people love the church and they but they don't understand the why. Yeah. We've had Pastor Cherie on here, she explained the behind the scenes of the machine.

SPEAKER_07: 3:09:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 3:09:05

If you've never listened to her podcast, I strongly recommend go to Pastor Cherie, right?

SPEAKER_04: 3:09:10

Audio.

SPEAKER_09: 3:09:11

Audio. It's on Apple and Spotify. Check that out, man. It's a powerful testimony of just how sometimes the church can just come become a machine. Yeah, you know what I mean? And that's not at all what it is, man. It's about his people. Yeah, it's a house for the hurting and the broken.

SPEAKER_02: 3:09:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 3:09:27

Like I showed up here in 2020 after I got out of rehab, and this guy was like, dude, you're not sitting on my couch all day, every day, all week. I'm gonna drop you off at I'm gonna drop you off at the church. I'm like, all right. So he dropped me off at 6:30 out there, man, and I just sit there at the front door, usually reading my Bible till Pastor Tom showed up at 8.30, because it don't start till nine. And I would, I, dude, it was just Tuesday. And then it was Tuesday and Thursday, and then it was young adults on Friday night, and then it was, hey, we're gonna put you into an internship for Theos Bible College. We're gonna, we're gonna pay for you. And I'm like, what, dude? What's going on? And then they're freaking giving me keys, bro, and an alarm. This guy's like, you guys know what you're doing, you know what he went to prison for. But you know what, you know what's crazy, bro, is I've never had anybody believe in me. I've never had anybody see something. No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take a chance. Everybody took a chance at me before it was all I'm gonna give him the weed, I'm gonna give him the dope and see what he does with it. Yeah now it's like, no, let's give him some keys and see what he does.

SPEAKER_00: 3:10:37

The keys to the back.

SPEAKER_09: 3:10:39

And then they asked me to start a ministry for celebrate recovery. I'm like, I don't even know what to do. How do we do this? And we go through that process, man. Now here we're coming up on our three years for CR. We've seen how many people come and just receive healing and new faces. And man, it's just cool to be to be a part of the kingdom and watch to be a small piece and watching people's lives change. Come on, man. Man, it's so powerful because there's a lot of times where it's like, man, God, is this what is this? So when you get those, oh wow, look at this. It's like those are the moments you really gotta cherish and snapshots, those ones, man. Um Jesus.

SPEAKER_04: 3:11:28

Like, I don't want to say altars, but they're like these mile markers, mile markers, signposts that you can look back and be like, man, look what God has done here, look what he did there.

SPEAKER_00: 3:11:38

Yeah. It's the the mantles that God places on you. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 3:11:45

He he always says, We've got to be our own best pastors, yeah, yeah, we've got to be our own best encouragers. Yeah, yeah, because the the life we're living, a lot of times there ain't people coming up to us, dude. You're doing so good, man. You're great. And if there are those ones, thank God it's all God, you know what I mean? But most of the time, usually they're trying to pull us down back down here with me. But a lot of times, man, we we find ourselves needing to be encouraged, needing to be needing to be lifted up, and that's that's God literally telling us to to step into it. Um sorry. All the devices are connected, they're all going. Um but no, I yeah, it's just but that's what that's what the community that's what dude last night, you know Josh Nave, bro. Yeah, this week I was supposed to go over for dinner and I wasn't feeling the best with him. Or I wasn't feeling the best this week, like I said, and um it was supposed to be a Wednesday night dinner with him and his wife and his girls, Leah and Lily. Yeah, and I didn't show up. And so last night, dude, about 7:30, I get a phone call. Josh Nave, hey, what's up, Josh? Hey, I got you on speaker phone. My girls want to ask you a question. Mr. Rowdy, can we pray for you? I'm like, oh, dude, I just melted, bro. These two little girls just lift up a prayer to God that I feel better. And I woke up this morning, I'm like, text Josh, dude, I feel great, bud. But man, that's the community. That's the stuff, dude, where it's just like, thank you, God. I never would have imagined that me just being crazy all Jesus on Sundays had such an effect on these little girls that they rowdy didn't come on Wednesday. Oh, he wasn't feeling good. Can we call him and pray for him? Yeah, oh, dude.

SPEAKER_04: 3:13:46

He really does. When he sees these little kids, he sees them. I love the kids. You don't just see their mom and dad. He sees those kids too.

SPEAKER_00: 3:13:52

And to a kid, that's all that's he's not nice to them just because he's with their mom and dad. No, I get down on the knee. I'm like, give me some big kids. That that is a special gifting, brother, because I I don't care like that for people uh other people's kids. Yeah, that's why I'm not in children's ministry. Amen, buddy.

SPEAKER_09: 3:14:15

I tried my season of preteens, and that was a lot, man. Kids are special, bro. Yeah, it really takes a special to do that week in and week out. So I honestly I commend you, bro, because I know I would love to be in the big service on Sunday morning, but you're with you know what I'm saying? Yeah, and so it's a sacrifice that God sees that he's using right now to prepare you for what's coming in the future. Amen. Or one day you're gonna be on the Sunday message sharing with his flop. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:14:45

And it's so great, like, like I could never have seen all the stuff that you know I love about this church and it's prepared me for. I would never foresee doing what I'm doing now here. Yeah, because it's it's different.

SPEAKER_09: 3:15:07

Yeah, and look at Chris and Jessica Campbell, yeah. They went over to Legacy and they're flourishing now. You and Erica, you go over to Living Water and you're flourishing now. Yeah, I guarantee you to at first it was probably hard for Pastor, but now they're like, Yes, you go, look at what God's doing.

SPEAKER_00: 3:15:27

I actually ran into I I was uh doing a meeting for my my job, my other job, the the work, the secular work, yeah. You're a tent maker. Um I was doing a meeting at Chili's over there on uh Gilbert and 202. Yeah, and I was sitting there in a meeting, and Pastor David Sherye went and said, I was like, hold on a second. So I ran over. I was like, hey guys, yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_04: 3:15:53

Um they're wonderful people, man. They really are.

SPEAKER_00: 3:15:55

Yeah, but yeah, God God is preparing and moving things that I mean, we're we're in the middle of finishing out a building that's been it was built in 2005 when it was a school. Yeah. And we're in the middle of finishing that. It takes time, it takes money, but it takes people. We've had dozens of prophecies that once we get in there, we're gonna have to start planning the next building because we're gonna blow up real quick. Um it's funny, I was I was uh you were we're talking about the uh Harvest Fest that you snuck into. It was like actually don't tell about her. And uh last year I was I reached out, I was I I to texted uh Donnie and Kayla and James and Lacey and um Chris and Holly, and I was like, hey, this harvest fest, y'all come by. It's a big thing for the Canadian kids and stuff. And they all showed up. Come on. Oh, I love that. And then we we uh we've been having family life family life radio out there. Yeah uh Andrew and Yesse heard it on Family Life Radio and then they showed up and I was like dude, thank you, God. Yeah, and and then uh James and Lacey are gonna do coffee at this year's yeah, come on. We're doing a little we're we're saving the money to put into the building, so we're doing like a little like family kind of church, so we're not opening up the community that we normally do.

SPEAKER_04: 3:17:31

We'll be back next year, but yeah I've been I've been speaking pastor over Andy and Yessey.

SPEAKER_08: 3:17:36

Yeah, oh yeah, Pastor Yesse and Pastor Andy. Every time I see him, I'm like what's up, Pastor Andy? Oh, you're funny. I'm like, no, I'm not, it's coming, dude. They just got pulled into the their leading preteens now in Queen Creek.

unknown: 3:17:46

You need to look in the mirror.

SPEAKER_08: 3:17:47

Yeah. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_04: 3:17:50

There's a reason why I haven't got my bastard. He's running from the bud. I got a lot of work, dude.

SPEAKER_09: 3:17:56

I literally was talking to Pastor yesterday and cussed in front of him. He's like, let's start working on that bug. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:18:03

But the funny thing is, like, back when when uh I think it's either first, second year that we were here, we did a lifelink softball team. Yeah. And we're sitting, Pastor Dave was on the team, and we're sitting in the dugout, and uh someone hits a screaming line drive, and uh uh Jim Jr. leans down to get it, and it hits a rock and comes up and jams his finger. And he goes, Oh sh.

SPEAKER_01: 3:18:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:18:34

And I'm sitting right next to Pastor Dave, and I'm like, he goes, you know, that's what I just love. Like, we're just all people that love Jesus and try and do better each and every day.

SPEAKER_08: 3:18:47

And I'm like, That's right, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00: 3:18:50

There's not a pastor I ever met before in my life that would have reacted that way.

SPEAKER_09: 3:18:55

A moment to correct or tea or something. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, dude, like that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_00: 3:19:00

He's a special man, bud.

SPEAKER_09: 3:19:02

It's not religious, bud. Yeah, it's relationships, I'll be religious, it's about people, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:19:09

Yeah, so yeah. Uh I'm so blessed to have been here for I mean, you've been prepared for what you're doing now, bud.

SPEAKER_04: 3:19:17

Yep. I gotta imagine as being a pastor like Damon Shriar, to see Carrie and his wife and what they're doing, to see you and you guys and what you're doing, to see what Chris Peterson and them are doing, yeah, to see all these people that were under there. What better reward than to see look at these leaders that we raised up?

SPEAKER_08: 3:19:36

Come on.

SPEAKER_04: 3:19:37

Come on, you know what I mean? That's a reward, bro. Yeah, is to see we that's fruit. We poured into that. That's fruit. Look what that is doing.

SPEAKER_00: 3:19:46

And that and that's gonna be accounted to them.

SPEAKER_04: 3:19:48

Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 3:19:50

You you are their fruit.

SPEAKER_04: 3:19:52

That's a sign of good leadership, bro. Yeah, is when you can see the potential in somebody and God calls them to go that you can say, Let me bless you as you go. Yeah, I did what you were my season with you. I hope I did enough with my season with you. But here, please go and and and and do do good.

SPEAKER_00: 3:20:10

It's so crazy. You know what I mean? There are so many lives that they they will never even know that we're touched because of the leadership that they poured out.

SPEAKER_04: 3:20:22

But there are but there are pastors who will yeah, I've been with them, bud. Oh don't you can't leave me.

SPEAKER_09: 3:20:30

You I need all your fundraising.

SPEAKER_00: 3:20:32

And I and I'm God bless them. I I and I know for a fact in that season that that was an initial re knee-jerk reaction. Yeah, I remember um gosh, when was it? Maybe 2021. Yeah. They had a city pastors conference, and I came to that and I sat in on Pastor Sheree doing her her deal, and it was all about that season. Yeah. And I was like, wow. I just sat back there and I was crying because I was like, oh, I feel so bad for her. Yeah, how horrible, yeah. Yeah, I it was a lot, but it was literally because there there were other people that left because they were offended and they were all bad, and it was hard not to get lumped into all into that together. Yeah, and and man.

SPEAKER_09: 3:21:23

So right at that time, LifeLink was thriving with three services and over 800 people. Yeah, and they take that sabbatical, and you know what God told Pastor during that sabbatical? 300. 300. What did this church get down to? 300. Yeah, crazy, bro. But it was literally God telling him, but with this 300, we're going to war. Yeah, yeah. And now the way the church is, the culture, the work just there's freedom.

SPEAKER_00: 3:21:53

There's freedom here now, but it's crazy. And there's there was correction in a lot of stuff that happened. Yeah. Like, I mean, it's a great, great time being, but there were things that needed to be corrected. Yeah. And and it happened. Oh yeah. And clipped. There were uh me and James had a had a conversation because it's like, why don't y'all open up your coffee shop at Life Wink? And he's like, well, we're not there yet, but we're also trying to get keep our ducks in the line so that nobody can claim nepotism.

SPEAKER_09: 3:22:30

Yeah. Yeah, okay. Very yeah. Pastor will say it from the pulpit. He did on Sunday. I don't want to show no favorites. You know what I mean? But chapel's my favorite. It's like, yeah, you can't go ahead, dude. Your daughter started a coffee business, bud. That's okay, Pastor.

SPEAKER_00: 3:22:46

I I told I I did a social media post about I'm like, these guys are for real. Yeah. Like, it's so good. Yeah. Love you, James and Lacey. And, you know, that's the thing, is like, I I've I've always like one of the greatest things, like, and going into like this next season now, like we're gonna we're gonna adopt the the um the uh focus church model.

SPEAKER_03: 3:23:16

Come on.

SPEAKER_00: 3:23:17

That's one of the greatest things I ever churches need to need to pray for other churches.

SPEAKER_04: 3:23:24

I literally did a thing for like three months, dude, where every Sunday, yeah, the Sue were praying for, God bless, and I was sharing it on social media, yeah. And so many people was like, Man, I love that. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_00: 3:23:35

I uh all churches need to adopt it.

SPEAKER_04: 3:23:39

Why would they not? Are we not the body of Christ? Yep. Are we not the hands and feet of God? It's not just lifelink.

SPEAKER_00: 3:23:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 3:23:46

We're not the only church that's that's the body of Christ. Yeah, why are we not praying for our brothers and sisters?

SPEAKER_00: 3:23:52

We we need to do that, and I mean, also the I mean the financial disparities between some of these churches. Yeah, I mean it's it's uh and like I'm I'm I'm believing for full funding so that we're where I can where I can focus primarily on all ministry stuff, yeah. Um where I'm not gonna have to have another job.

SPEAKER_09: 3:24:18

And uh Yeah, let's talk about that for a minute because I saw a post recently about you um inviting people who may have resources, who may have money, who may be blessed in life, um inviting them in uh because what's it say in the word? You don't you don't have because you don't ask. Yeah um and you literally are asking now. Yeah, um you're trying to become a full-time missionary through the aid through the assemblies of God church. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00: 3:24:47

Oh no, through uh basically uh it it's ne I've never seen it done this way. I've heard that it has been done, but to fund me being a pastor at Living Waters full-time because the size of my church, like we can't and and literally some some people like I put a dollar, I put four thousand dollars a month on there, which some people are like, oh man, that's a lot of money, like that's a little over 20 bucks an hour on a 40-hour work week. Yeah, there's not a pastor in this country that works 40 hours a week.

SPEAKER_09: 3:25:25

No, you're 60, 80 hours. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:25:27

No, no chance. So that that is the whole uh thing behind it. Um it it's it's really um it kind of breaks my heart sometimes because there's a lot of there's a lot of especially youth pastors that are all by vocational. Yeah, like um for a longest time the the the couple that was here before Josh and Tiffany took Pastor Josh and Tiffany, Pastor Tiffany took it over, they were bi vocational. Yeah, you know, so and not every church has a ton of leftover money. I know LifeLink is very frugal and they do they have their budget and they do everything. And I love you, DA.

SPEAKER_09: 3:26:14

Yeah DA is a you know Dave Allen. Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:26:18

And and and they keep it tight and right. Yeah. There's a lot of churches that have a lot of money that is being just and so I I praise God. I I really pray that they get a heart to help out other local churches. Okay. And like it's like it's not for me. It's so that I can carry out the vision God has for my life.

SPEAKER_09: 3:26:43

So if somebody if somebody wants to help you in that goal, yeah, or how can how can somebody that's listening to this or watching this sow a seed into your ministry?

SPEAKER_00: 3:26:53

Really, uh, so it goes straight to me. Um, it's pastor stephenkeithjohnson at gmail.com uh for Zell. Um, that's the only way we have forgiving right now. Um, I'm still working out the whole like tax thing and how that works. Um, but yeah, and I've had a couple people give so far, and I'm very, very thankful, whether it's you know five bucks or fifty bucks, five bucks a month from you know if you had a thousand people give four dollars a month, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 3:27:25

Exactly.

SPEAKER_09: 3:27:25

There you go, bud.

SPEAKER_00: 3:27:26

I I had so I met someone um online that was is one of the newly redeemed OnlyFan models. Oh wow, bro. And uh because I I messaged her was like, hey, would you come to speak to the youth about like this? And she's like, Yeah, let's try to figure it out and all this stuff. And we just kind of developed a little friendship, and I was telling her about this, and she goes, Hey, if you want to mock something up and I'll put it on my she has 120,000 people that follow me. Yeah, buddy. I'm like, bro, I'll take a dollar, yeah. You know, so it was it's one of those things where um it's just putting it in front of the people like I don't and like it's not like a no, you're not giving, so I don't like send me your prayers, man. Come on, you need prayers just as much. Yeah, and you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 3:28:26

When I saw that thing, I was praying for a fully funded God.

SPEAKER_00: 3:28:30

But but if if if you're if you're gripping on the money because you're afraid of losing it, you're gonna lose it. Yeah, like God wants to bless cheerful givers. And if you're gonna give, it doesn't have to be me. Find a ministry, find something, pour your money back into the kingdom because you pour your kingdom wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart's gonna be. Yeah, and just take it for that, pour some money into these guys.

SPEAKER_09: 3:28:56

Yeah, Jesus!

SPEAKER_00: 3:28:59

So, so so they can start, you know, having Bryce Crawford and stuff. We can get Joe Rogan on here.

SPEAKER_09: 3:29:09

Come on, I don't think he's saved. I don't know. I think he is. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 3:29:15

He's searching. If he's not saved, he's searching really hard. I'm like, oh, talk about going to church then. Yeah, come on, God, give it him. Andrew Tate. Yeah, he was like, Oh we're gonna go to church. He did it in a very uh boasting way. He's like, Me and all my buddies, we're going to church in our supercars. And so like it's like five supercars speeding down the road to a worship service. I'm like, oh my gosh, bro. But that's just who he is now.

SPEAKER_04: 3:29:45

Yeah, come right here to Lively Church. We'd love to see him. We'll love, we'll live on you.

SPEAKER_00: 3:29:50

He's over in like the Middle East somewhere. I don't care.

SPEAKER_04: 3:29:52

Like over here, we'll we'll love on you.

SPEAKER_00: 3:29:53

And he's got the money too. But but that's just things like we we all need. Sharing the wealth of what God's poured out. And uh I mean, we're coming into a time where we need people to be can't take it with you. No. No.

SPEAKER_04: 3:30:14

Amen, brother. Well, thank you for sharing, man. Yeah, dude, this is really good. Really good. I hope your wife ain't mad at you went a little long.

SPEAKER_09: 3:30:21

Yeah, you told her three hours. Three hours and 30 minutes, bud. When you sit down and you start talking, man, we just the Holy Spirit just moved.

SPEAKER_00: 3:30:31

And especially me. Like I could, I could, I could go for another two hours. I love talking about uh ministry and especially to my brothers. Amen.

SPEAKER_04: 3:30:42

Well we love you, friend, and we thank you for your time. And uh can I pray for you? Yes, sir. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_07: 3:30:48

Jesus. Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. Yes, Watter. Thank you, God. Man.

SPEAKER_06: 3:30:59

Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_04: 3:31:03

Man. Well, I just thank you, God. You just sit here in reverence of who you are. Man. We just give you honor, God. We just give you praise and glory. I just thank you for being such a loving, caring God. That you know was so personal, God. And I just thank you for your son, Keith, God. I just thank you for the way that you've always kept him. Even as a child when he didn't really know you, you still kept him, God. You protected him, allowed him to stay fairly safe out of harm's way, God. Thank you, Lord. Or thank you that he has a heart for you, that he has a heart for the youth, God, that he has a heart for the young adults. Not everybody has that, God. So I thank you that he is one of the chosen, that he is one of the called. And that he has a yes in the spirit, God. Lord, I thank you that you found all these years and ministry faithful God, that you would ordain him to be uh a pastor, Lord. Because that comes from you, God. It doesn't come from man. Yeah. It's not just a piece of paper, it's a calling, God.

unknown: 3:33:00

Sweet. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 3:33:01

So I thank you for the experiences that he has, God, the ministry that he's learned here at Lipelink and all the places that he's been, God. Thank you. He's going into this place that he's been at for a while now, God, and he's bringing experience. He's bringing a different mindset. He's bringing understanding of how things work behind the scenes, God. But this is just a small step in what's coming, God. So, Lord, I thank you that as he brings in these young men and this young woman to help in the youth ministry, God, that you allow him to be encouraging. You allow him to give him the words to build these people up, God, to speak life into these young people, God. Thank you. I know through a few testimonies, God, that the words of our leaders, the words of those that are above us carry so much weight, God, that they can be something that lifts us up or it can be something that tears us down, God. Yes. So I pray that his words are always uplifting and encouraging to these young, these young people, God. Because ultimately, just like with Pastor David Cherie, he's raising up the next generation, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. So just as they rose him up and let him leave, God, that you allow him the opportunity to raise this young man and woman up to be leaders, God. Thank you, God. Because our job as leaders is to raise other leaders. Thank you, Lord. So I thank you that you instill that in your son, Keith, God. Give him the words to say, give him the vision to help these young men and women, God. And Lord, as he steps into this uh young adults ministry, God, that you allow him to be just a shining light. That you allow him and his wife to be an example of what a godly marriage looks like for these people. Yeah. What it means to date, what it means to do all these things, God, as they work their way into uh relationships of their own. Because it seems to me, God, look from the outside looking in, that they have a pretty decent uh marriage, God. Thank you, Lord. And I thank you for that, God. Because that takes hard work, that takes forgiveness, that takes mercy and grace. So I pray that they are this example for this for the young adults to see what marriage looks like. Father God, for this funding that's needed, God. Yes. Your word says that you own a cattle on a thousand hills. Come on, vineyards you didn't plant, mansions you didn't build. Thank you, Lord. So those of us on earth who understand how that works, God, that means financing is nothing to you, God.

unknown: 3:35:35

Amen.

SPEAKER_04: 3:35:37

So I pray right now by the power of your spirit that you're speaking to the right people. You're stirring things in their heart, God. There are people who've seen that post that were touched and moved, God, but they haven't acted yet, God. They're waiting for your spirit to speak. So I pray right now in Jesus' name, speak. Thank you, God. Speak, God.

unknown: 3:36:01

Yes. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 3:36:02

Speak to the right people. Move in their hearts to the right people, God. That He can be fully funded, God. That He can step into this full-time ministry without lack. He can step into this full-time ministry just blown away by what you're doing, God. I'm sure He'll be telling people, my God, look what my God did. So we thank you, God, that you're gonna do it. Lord, I pray for his young boys, uh, Jack, Jack and Gabe, God, that these young boys are just gonna be raised up in the house, God. That they'll see their father be loving and kind, they'll see their father be merciful and gracious, God. That they'll see how a man treats a woman. That they'll see how a man is in a relationship, God. So that when this next generation of Johnsons come up, God, that they're moved, that they're they're men of God, that they're righteous and holy, God, and they know how to act. They know how to treat a woman, they know what marriage looks like, God. So I thank you for their home. Thank you that you're in their home. I thank you for just the words to encourage the young sons, God, that they'll be blessed beyond measure. We thank you for uh living word Bible, God. We pray just bless us over the pastors, over the congregation, God. That each time they gather, that they feel your presence, they feel Holy Spirit move in a mighty way, God. That you'll draw people to that place, God, that that place will begin to grow, that the buildings will have to be duplicated and multiplied, God. That there will just be a new outpouring of just your spirit in that place, God. That that place becomes this beacon of light in that area, God, that people are drawn to it, Lord. Because revival starts in the heart, God. So speak to your people. Thank you for the funding. We'll give you glory and praise and honor for it in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_09: 3:38:02

All right. So I saw a couple of things when you were praying, bro. Um, Keith, I see golf with the young kids. I don't know what it's for or what, but it's like a purpose and it's a it's literally an opportunity for these kids to go on to do things that are available now that weren't when we were younger. Um, so take that and pray in that, and whatever that looks like for you. Um, and then the other one was with uh your son Jax. Or no, Jax is the older one that likes soccer, right? So it's crazy, but I just saw this picture of this football coach coming on the soccer field, talking to your son, going, son, you are so big. What are you doing out here? You need to be on this field. So just trust God because it may be soccer now, bro, but they're gonna come a day with that. Come on, boy! Let's go hit somebody. But do me a favor, man. We pray for Speak Life, A Z and pray for me and Dad.

SPEAKER_00: 3:38:54

Yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_09: 3:38:55

Yeah, thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_00: 3:38:57

Father, I just uh I just lift this platform up to you, Father God. This is not a platform that is anything without your blessing on it. Jesus. None of our platforms are. And Father God, I just pray that you would anoint this thing to go right to the hearts of the people that need to hear this. Thank you, God. That you go right, it goes right to the the hearts of people that need to hear testimony about your faithfulness and your goodness and your someone that needs to know their worth. That needs to know their value in your kingdom, Father.

SPEAKER_07: 3:39:44

Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_00: 3:39:46

Father, I thank you so much for these two men. I thank you that they have a yes. That they will lean into what you tell them to do. I thank you, God, that you have poured out your blessing on them. Your redemptive purpose. And thank you, God. Your sanctification in their lives. There's now trust.

unknown: 3:40:17

Jesus.

SPEAKER_00: 3:40:26

Father God, I just thank you for the calling that you've put on both of these men. Thank you, Lord, to lead people back to you with love and grace. Thank you, God. And with the power of the testimony. Stomp on snakes by the blood of the lamb and the power of the testimony. Thank you, God. And Lord, we thank you and we praise you, God, that your word does not return void. It does not turn into chafe, Father God, but it always brings it always brings return. It always comes back fulfilling your purpose. Thank you, Lord. Do it, Lord. And Lord, we just thank you for every word that leaves this place, every word that leaves this platform. It's mine or stars or Pastor Shree's or Chris's or everybody that's been on here, Father God. That that word goes out and it comes back and returns a hundredfold. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. And we thank you, Father, for the the blessing of funding for this place. Jesus. Whether it's sponsors or um just people pouring out their their heart to just advance this platform and this ministry of sharing your testimonies. Thank you, Lord. Father Ward, we just give you all the glory for what you're doing in this place. Every time somebody sits down, your glory hits. And we thank you for that, God. We thank for every time from now on, it's gonna just get stronger and stronger and stronger that your Holy Spirit's gonna move through the camera, through the speakers, through the microphones, and land on everybody that listens to this podcast. Thank you, Lord. We praise you and we give you all the glory. Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_09: 3:42:33

Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks, Keith. Appreciate you, bro. Uh, everybody, I don't know where you're listening from, where you're watching at. Um, if you're on Apple or Spotify, uh, do us a favor, man, follow the show. If you're on YouTube, uh, subscribe to the channel, like it, follow it, hit the little bell. Uh, you'll get all the notifications in the future of upcoming episodes. Uh, maybe you yourself know somebody or you would like to come in and share your testimony with us. Uh, you can reach out, speak life a z, all one word, Facebook, Instagram. Um, send me a message and then I'll get back to you. I'm actually getting ready to start the schedule for 2026. I would love to get you on there. Um, if you are blessed and God has blessed you with resources able to sew into the kingdom. Um, first, it's uh Pastor Stephen Keith Johnson at Gmail with the PH.

SPEAKER_00: 3:43:25

Not a V. Steph. Steph. Okay. But but we say it's Stephen, but it's definitely.

SPEAKER_09: 3:43:35

gmail.com. Um you can sew a seed into the man of God. If you would like to help speak Life A Z with new equipment, man, new microphones. We want to get headphones to where we don't people don't have to put them on, especially the ladies. We know they want to have in-ears. Um, but you know, God's got us. Um, but if you want to support the show, you can. Um if you can go and comment, just type one word on the podcast you're listening to. Jesus. It helps so much with the algorithms and stuff in the background. Um, but until next time, we're gonna continue to speak life, Izzy. God bless you.

SPEAKER_03: 3:44:08

Jesus! Jesus, I'm gonna go.