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SpeakLifeAZ
Dale Snipes Testimony
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A truck driver who used to run “California turnarounds,” a widower who held his wife’s hand as she said she could see Jesus “on the other side of the river,” and a man who still calls himself a “boogerhead” sits down with us to tell the whole truth. Dale Snipes doesn’t clean up the story, and that’s exactly why it carries so much weight. If you’ve ever wondered whether your past disqualifies you from God, this conversation answers with a loud no.
We talk through Dale’s childhood and the identity shock of learning he was adopted and raised by his grandparents, the years of instability that shaped him, and the way grief and unresolved pain can feed generational patterns. Dale opens up about infidelity, alcohol, and the slow drift that happens when you keep crossing the same lines. Then we move into the moments that marked his faith: a teenage revival, a later Holy Spirit awakening, and what it looks like when God starts calling you into surrender instead of self-protection.
From there, the story goes into the trenches: trucking life and temptation, his wife Darlene’s cancer battle and hospice at home, the fear of becoming a single father, and a heart attack behind the wheel that led to open-heart surgery. We also dig into forgiveness, blended family leadership, serving the homeless, mentoring others, and why GriefShare became a turning point for purpose and healing. Along the way, we keep coming back to the big themes: Christian testimony, redemption, grief support, discipleship, and what it means to be a steady presence for others when life falls apart.
If this episode helps you, do us a favor: subscribe, share it with one person who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find these stories. What part of Dale’s journey hit closest to home for you?
Welcome And Why Testimonies Matter
SPEAKER_01Welcome 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 Rowdack.
SPEAKER_08Jesus!
SPEAKER_09What up, dude? Let's go, bro. Good to see you. Yeah, buddy. It's good to be back.
SPEAKER_01It's been a minute, man. It has. It has. The break's nice, but it's also like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_09What's going on, networker?
SPEAKER_01Come on, buddy. So check this out. This is what I was thinking today, right? I was like, gotta spend a minute. This is gonna be kind of cool again, you know what I mean? But I'm also like, these things are heavy sometimes, you know what I mean? They sure are. So I don't know. Just do your thing, God. Yep. You have my yes. If it's one every couple months, if it's four in a month, whatever, God.
SPEAKER_09It's like what you said when we were just praying about God, let us not grow weary in doing good. Yeah. This is good, this is good doing. This is good works. This is good ministry, man.
SPEAKER_01We ain't got much time left, so better start lining them up, player.
SPEAKER_00We're moving to the Philippines.
SPEAKER_09I am. Praise God, man. 18-hour flight does not sound like farm movie.
SPEAKER_01Amen. Oh, God is good. So you got what do you got, man? Let's do this.
SPEAKER_09Dude, I just want to say, Brother Dale, I'm so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_05It's my pleasure to be here. I I'm just blown away that you ask, and I'm blown away that I get the opportunity to talk about what we need to talk about. Amen. Let it be God's word, not mine. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Uh so for me, Dale, I just want to thank you that God made it very clear to us to uh you know when you it's hard to find people that are willing to do what you're doing right now, brother. And when one of his children say yes, he made it very clear to honor that person. So I just uh I honor you, bro. You're you're a man of God, and I know you've been through some things. We've had some conversations, and to see you here today and and to sit see you sitting there getting ready to testify the goodness of God, uh I thank you for that. And and I honor you for that, and I pray that God just uh blows you away. Maybe you can find some more healing through the process of sharing your story, you know what I mean? Things like that. But most of all, I just I honor you for your time and thank you for that, sir. Thank you.
SPEAKER_05You know, the thing that God really blows me away with uh you guys know yesterday I celebrated a birthday, and there were so many people who said so many things. Like, God, I'm not even close to being worthy of this praise. This is you, man. This ain't me. This is you, God. And I if I'm half of what those folks think I am, and I'm I'm good with that, because it's not about me, it's about him. That's right. What he's allowed me to do in my latter years, if you will. Uh I ain't done. He ain't done with me. And uh as long as you know he's taught me a lot of lessons.
SPEAKER_01I tell people all the time, anything you see good in me is him. I'm just gonna say I'm I'm dirty, filthy, nasty.
SPEAKER_05So if you see anything good in me, it's Jesus, baby. Amen. You you want to see the booger head, you're gonna go back a little bit.
SPEAKER_09All you gotta do is watch for a couple hours.
SPEAKER_05You're gonna say, and there's probably some that that's gonna hear this and they're going, yeah, I remember that guy. Yeah. And I don't know where these who these people meant, but the guy I meant's not that guy. And they're right. Yeah, I'm not that guy.
SPEAKER_01Because what I do know is I have this track record of Eddie. Yeah, you know what I mean? And then I have this track record of Eddie and Jesus, and Eddie and Jesus looks a lot better than Eddie does. Come on, you know what I mean? Yeah, I got I got 35 years of just hell in high water and just you know what I mean? And I got 20 years of Jesus, whatever God's been doing, because it's been good.
SPEAKER_05You know what I mean? Same here. It's just like, you know, this one's this one's just stupid. Yeah, stupid on steroids. Yeah, and then this is this is God going, watch this. God's got a great sense of humor. He really does. He cracks me up all the time. I'm like, dude, I don't know where you get some ideals you come up with, but so for me, come on, let's go.
SPEAKER_09For me, Dale, having having you come in. Um, I remember when you guys first showed up to Lifelink. I think it was 2021. Yeah, about that. End of 20 beginning of 2022, something like that. Yep. Um, and when you guys showed up, man, I just saw a husband and a wife that showed up that love God and that wanted to serve God in any way that they could. Yeah, yeah. And for me personally, bro, I have not really like had a grandpa kind of relationship. I have grandpa. If you watch this, grandpa, I love you. Um, but I haven't had the best relationships with my grandparents. Um, uh addiction and a lot of those great choices that were made. Um but so when I remember when I saw you guys and uh Heather, and I really started to connect with Heather, I really started to feel like almost like a grandson kind of thing. And it was like, wow, dude, I really love these guys. And then we started to connect, and you're like, we want to go into the jails. It was like, okay, dude, we can make this happen. Yeah. And it was just at the season where it was where I was in that season, yeah, and it was the craziest thing, man. It was like, we got you in, we got you approved. Next thing we know, they yanked my card. I was like, this is crazy, man. I really it was all for them. Amen. Amen. So that they could go in there and experience that. Yeah, um, but so it would just having you here today coming on to talk about some real stuff. Yep. Um, that it I know a little bit about you, but I don't know a lot about you. And like Joan and there's different brothers that are uh are like, man, I can't wait for that one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_09Because you're you're a really good storyteller and you're really good at sharing your life with people um in a way that is captivating and really draws us in. Um so I'm excited to see what God's gonna do with this and through this, because it it all is the Lord. Oh, and um this is this is a three-chord strand, man, that God gave to us, and this is something that it's a it's a God moment. Um but so
Honoring Dale And Setting The Stage
SPEAKER_09speaking of, let's pray. Yeah. Um gee, are you you want to pray? No, that's you, buddy. Don't break, don't break tradition and routine, man. Amen.
SPEAKER_04There's just people will freak out if we do something different.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Jesus.
SPEAKER_09I love you, bro. Thank you for joy, God. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for life. God, I know that there was days that all three of us sons, God, were at a place where we didn't want to live life no more. Um so we just thank you, God, that you've given us life and a good life that that we that we want to live now. Yeah. Um, God, I just pray for first and foremost for your son, Dale. Jesus. Um, I pray, Holy Spirit, that you just come right now. You just rest on your son. I thank you that what is getting ready to be shared is from heaven. It is literally God's story that He's been writing with Dale. Um, so Jesus, I pray for clarity in words. I pray for clarity in thought. I pray for direction, and I pray, God, that um what gets shared speaks to your people. Thank you, Lord. Um, there's people that are gonna get encouraged, there's people that are gonna come back, there's people that are gonna go back to church and go back to God because they hear this story. Thank you, Lord. Um, so Lord God, I just pray you just anoint your son right now from heaven, and we thank you for what's getting ready to happen in Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Who am I?
SPEAKER_09Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Who am I? Question pin in the hands of the author.
SPEAKER_08I love you, dude.
SPEAKER_01So if singing's involved.
SPEAKER_08Thank God we're gonna take it. It's okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I think oh, I lift up my hand.
SPEAKER_08There's worship leaders right now to come to drink. Oh god.
SPEAKER_09When when God gave this to us, um, it was 2020, COVID. It was he God gave a lot of people podcasts during shutdown, it seemed like. Um, for a couple of years, man, we we weren't obedient and doing what God wanted us to do. Yeah, um, it wasn't until the end of 2022, the beginning of 23, when we're like, God, what do you want? What is this supposed to be? And he showed us um a three-chord strand, and he he gave Speak Life A Z podcast, the testimony of Jesus and everyday people. Yeah, uh, it doesn't matter if you are a pastor at a church, if you are a truck driver and a father, if you are an auto mechanic and a dad, or like myself, man, get ready to move to the Philippines. We all have a story, man. We've all got a testimony, and when we come from things and we have an encounter with God, things change. Yeah. Um, so that's really that's really what we're gonna do today, bro, is just kind of give you a platform and a place where you can literally kick the devil in the face. Yeah, yeah. And those things that we used to hide, that stuff that we told ourselves, we are never gonna tell anybody about this. These are the things, man, that at this place, this is where we we take our power back. This is where, like dad said, um, we get a little more healing. Yeah, um, because healing happens when we share and when we open up.
SPEAKER_06This is your eight-mile moment.
SPEAKER_09This is your eight-mile moment, bro. That at the end, dude. You're it's like you said, nobody's gonna be able to talk about you. You shared all the stuff, man. Um, but so we just want to know who Dale is. We just want to know what your childhood was like growing up, man. What brothers and sisters, relationship with mom and dad, family. Um, was God in the home? Was God something that that was modeled in the home that a faith? Was that uh something they experienced as a kid? What was your childhood like growing up? Um dad, he he didn't grow up in a church and uh with a family that was in the faith. So but we want to know about yours. What was your growing up and your childhood like, man? Um get into your childhood. But I think the cool so working in recovery now we have seen that a lot of adults, a lot of their struggles later in life are from things and traumatic experiences and stuff that happens as kids. Um so just let Holy Spirit lead you, man. Um, but we want to know kind of the the hard stuff, man. The the stuff the the crap. Yeah, um, because if we're if we're being honest, man, that's where the stuff, but God is the only one who can take our crap and turn it into gold. And that's literally what he does, man. He takes the very things that were like this distinct, and I don't want anybody to see this or know about this, and he like polishes it up and shines it off so everybody can see. Look what I've done with this one. So we just we want, but I think the cool thing today, Dale, is we want to know your like personal encounter with God.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_09Um, because everybody's just different. It's personal, it's very personal. The way that God got you, the process that He got you, the way that the Lord Jesus met you, it's different than mine. It's unique, yes. Mine, mine was in a in a drug rehab in Phoenix at Teen Challenge, in a prison cell a prison cell in a lockdown yard in ADC. But we want to know your experience and your process that God used to show himself to you when it became real. It was like, whoa, God is real and God loves me. Yeah, he's got a plan for my life.
SPEAKER_01And it shows that God's personal, that he's that he's not just some cosmic grander thing, that he knows exactly what it's gonna take to get you. Yeah, and I think that's what we the importance of catching that is so that people can see that God is a personal God. Yep, that he knows Dell enough to know the time, the moment, the place that it's gonna take to get you, just like he did with everybody else. You know what I mean? And I love that we get to capture that. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05The funny thing you say God knows you personally. I always get this image that when my time comes and I cross that river. Um be sitting there with God. See, there's eight billion people sitting there with me. He's looking at me. If you're standing next to me, he's looking at Eddie. God is so intimate that he's looking at me. I'm standing with eight billion other people. Let's say the number's eight billion, whatever it is. But he feels like it's just me and him in the room. And I mean, it don't get no better. It's just me and you, God. You know me and I know you, and it's just me and you. There are times I wake up in the morning when I'm my favorite time to pray, believe it or not, is when I'm laying in bed before I wake up. Because my mind's clear from a night's sleep. And I there's some more I say, God, just let me crawl up in your lap like a little kid and just sit here a minute. That's all I want to do. Man, I don't want to think about today, I don't want to think about yesterday. Yeah, I know I need to pray for my brothers and sisters, and I know when we'll get to that, God, but can I have 30 seconds to sit in your lap? Just have that peace and quiet and that moment. Daddy time.
SPEAKER_09Yeah. Yeah, buddy. Uh also after at the end, when when we're getting ready to close this thing up, man, um what we really want, Dale, is what you're hoping for, because you guys have just transitioned to a new place and a new house of prayer out there in Phoenix. Um and you you're sharing a little bit, um, but we want to know what you're believing for in this next season. Um, because God ain't done with you, buddy.
SPEAKER_04There's more ahead. Even though you walk the streets with Jesus, he took out time for you, brother.
SPEAKER_09He's crossing a river. Amen. He's making fun of his age. I know, buddy.
SPEAKER_02We can do it.
SPEAKER_05That's all.
Adoption Truth And Family Separation
SPEAKER_05I was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Nice. And uh my parents are you a Cardinals fan? Die Hard Cardinals fan. Oh, God. Not them ones you got here playing football with these codes from St. Louis. You know, you got what you deserve. So there's that. You steal, you get what you deserve. Yeah. But anyway, uh yeah, St. Louis Cardinal baseball fan forever. Uh did to go to the Diamondback game last night and enjoyed it. Um born in St. Louis. Uh, the day I was born, my father was getting in a car with another woman. My mother was getting in a taxi to go to the hospital to have me. I have three siblings, my older and a half sister. I have an older sister who passed away a little over a year ago. I have a brother who passed away at age 47. He was uh 10 months and two weeks older than me. And then I have another sister still alive, lives out in Kansas. Um after I was born, my parents were together for another nine months and then finally they they split up. My mother had four children, and I was bitter. My mother left the scene. I was taken in by my grandparents and my father's my biological father's parents took me in, tried to take all four of us in, or three of us. My older aunt took my older sister in and adopted her. My grandparents tried to adopt myself and my brother and sister.
SPEAKER_09I don't know why, but with the way that you explain that about your brother, I have a brother who passed away at 47 who was ten months and two days older than me. Is that what he said? Ten months and two weeks. Two weeks older than me. Was for some reason that just stuck out to me. Was that when was him dying something in your life that kind of was whoa because he wasn't that much older than you?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, he he uh he died of uh kind of suddenly. He had uh was living with our half-sister in Georgia, and he had went he'd had a heart condition. Uh he had decided to go back to Springfield, Missouri and see his wife and an adopted family. He had married, they were strained, he had adopted her two children, and they had a son of their own. He was going back to to see them, and he got from Macon, Georgia up to around Chattanooga, Tennessee, and he'd eaten five uh nitro pills because he was having chest pain. So he decided, well, maybe I ought not make this trip. So he goes back. He doesn't tell my half-sister anything about that. Uh the next morning they're sitting there watching TV, the price is right. I think she told me that it's a show they were watching anyway. She heard a grunt, she didn't pay much attention. They were sitting in reclining chairs, and then she looked over and he was gone. So it was that sudden. Just basically he didn't take care of himself the way he properly should. I mean, you know, we're men, we don't have we don't have to see the doctor. The doctor doesn't know anything. So we had a find out a little later in the story that so when after we were split up, uh my grandparents tried to take me, my brother, and my middle sister in, and uh the system isn't wasn't 1957, wasn't like it is. It was a lot different back then. There were no safety nets like there is today. And so they told my parents, they Pastor Dave and I talked about it, we kind of laughed. Um they told my parents you're too old to have three children in your house. My grandfather was six forty-five at the time.
SPEAKER_07They told your grandpa you're too old to have three children. You have three kids in your house?
SPEAKER_05My grandfather at the time was forty-five, my grandmother was forty. Oh, Jesus. And they said, at that time the rules were you're too old. We need it. So they moved my sister and my brother into the foster care system. Oh, wow. And then they got separate. They were very close, very, very close. And then they were together for a few years, a few months, and then they split them out because they thought they were too close and they needed to become individualized and not have that close relationship. So they split them. My grandparents got to keep me, so they took me at night. Were you the only one? I was the only one that they got to keep. Well, they had a choice, and they said we're gonna take the baby. We'll take the 'cause they knew they were getting the best.
SPEAKER_09So did that ever mess with you? Yeah. Like it really has. Because they've they've they gone out and who knows what they experienced and the life that they lived. Yeah. But yeah, you were like chosen and picked.
SPEAKER_05Right. And so I went through, you know, we went through that. They were separated. I never got to see the middle children. My aunt adopted my older sister, so I seen her regularly. Okay. But at the time So the older one. At the time, our parents didn't share that we were actual biological brother and sister. I knew her as my cousin.
SPEAKER_09Oh, so you didn't even know she was your sister.
SPEAKER_05No, I was always like, she's my cousin. Oh, wow. And until uh my parents never really talked about me being other than theirs. I thought they were my parents. I didn't think they were my grandparents. At age 10, 9, 10, 8, 9, 10, somewhere in that neighborhood, I had a school teacher who made the fatal mistake. She told my told me one day I had something was going on in school, and I'd said something. She goes, Oh, I understand because you're adopted. And I'm like, huh? And so I went home and I told my mom, I said, so you're really my grandma, you're not my mom, which shattered her and kicked her off to the max. That's how you found out. That's how I found out. Yeah. Wow. And so I told her, I said, uh, you know, I don't I don't get this. And she was And you're 10. Yeah. And she was devastated and she was fired off. Now my grandmother was five foot nothing in an attitude of somebody. Oh yeah. And uh she asked me and questioned me, Well, where do you get this information from? And I told her, you know, the whole story. She's like, okay. So she got with my grandfather. Oh, they went to that teacher. The next morning that teacher found out who Marge Snipes was real quick. She was like, lit her up. Yeah. She walked in about that far off the ground. And so my grandmother, then after that, that next night, her and my grandfather sat me down and started unfolding the story. And then that's when I found out my cousin Debbie was actually my sister Debbie. Wow. And that I had two siblings, Doug and Diana. And uh L D. All DLS. We all have the same name, DL, same initials, DLS. Everlyn, Diana Lee, Douglas Lee, and Dale Lawrence. And the funny thing is, when they first named me, I looked in my mother's family Bible and it said Dennis Dale under my name. So then it scratched out and it put Dale Lawrence. And I said, What's that all about? And she said, Well, when you were born, we called the hospital, your mother said that she named you Dennis Dale. And then three days later, she changed your name on the birth certificate. Dale Dennis. To Dale Lawrence. Dale Lawrence. And I started laughing. I said, Oh, she must have figured out, well, his initials don't match the others. How would I keep them afraid? I don't know. But my grandmother, after they explained it, at age 10, they finally legally got to adopt me. Okay. And I became their legal son. Yeah. Well, so paperwise.
SPEAKER_09Up to you like how was your childhood since you were the only kid basically in the house and didn't know that you were adopted? But you were growing up over in St. Louis in the 50s and 60s. You had that's when the St. Louis Cardinals were at their heyday.
SPEAKER_05The big red machine and 64 World Street beating them Yankees.
SPEAKER_04Nice.
SPEAKER_05And so they adopted me and then they started the process because things were changing legally. The social services started looking at people a little more closely, you know, about maybe we shouldn't be so strict about the age thing. And that's what Pastor Dave and I laughed because he said, Man, I'd have never got to we'd never had Tory in our life without that. And I said, Correct. If you'd have been 40 years, well, in this case, almost, you know, 60-something years ago, you'd been out. Yeah. And so uh they started letting us have visitations with me and my brother Doug. He could come every other weekend, kind of seeing how it worked out. You know, we now knew we were brothers. He'd been in foster care his whole life, so he'd never had an established family. He'd been bounced. I know we know people in this church that do a wonderful job. And as much as we think the system is terrible now, it was worse than. Because if a kid acted up a little bit, they bounced you off to the next family, the next family. And some families unfortunately do it for the money. Yeah. Okay, so uh he started coming with us, then they allowed him to live with us. Oh wow. He never got adopted by my grandpa. Oh, so now you had so him and I were starting to. So for me, he was 11, I was 10, and then uh 1968.
SPEAKER_09Up up to this point, is there any God? Do you think that's a good idea? No, my parents.
SPEAKER_05Grandma and grandpa, is there their religious was if there was a crisis, we're gonna start going to church on Sunday. Yeah. My grandfather worked in construction. It wasn't like construction is today, where it's a year-round no matter where you live. Back then he was a plaster stucco work. Uh so he never had study winter employment, so um they just kind of let it float, you know. Yeah. And he he did what he did, but as far as they believed in God, but they didn't go to church, they didn't, they didn't chase it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Was life up until 10 decent for you?
SPEAKER_05Oh, it was great. Yeah, it was wonderful. What was that like? Was it just I was just treated like I was a normal kid. I had neighbor kids that were my friends. Yeah, you know, they were all their big family lived next door to us, so we I kind of bonded with their family as far as my friendship goes. I wouldn't uh, you know, I had somebody ride bikes with, I had somebody play ball with, that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_09Did you ever feel like you were needy or poor, or did you have everything you needed growing up? Uh in your eyes?
SPEAKER_05Uh in my eyes, it was fun. You know, I didn't know we were broke.
SPEAKER_09Okay.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. We were pretty established until we moved to Michigan. My brother came to live with us in 1968. Um, the whole United States was under attack. I mean, there was racial riots all over this country. They burnt Detroit. This is right in Vietnam. Yeah. They burnt Detroit down, they burnt Chicago, they burnt Watts, they burnt Brook, uh, you know, Harlem. Oh wow. And so, I mean, it was a racial war. You know, it was a turn. Dr. King was his high high point of bringing this to society's uh vision. Thank God he did. The only thing that I'll say off of my story, I'll devert for a minute, is we're 60 years later from those days, and we're still fighting the same fight. And there's no reason to be fighting the fight between my black brothers, my white brothers, my brown brothers, my yellow brothers. It makes no difference. I do not understand why 60 years later we're still fighting the same stupid fight we started 68.
SPEAKER_09It's hate, man.
SPEAKER_05You know, because the government wins when they keep us divided, man. Right. Yeah. The last thing, you know, I'll skip another second here. Uh, when the insurrection happened, I don't particularly uh subscribe to it. Yeah, but just think what that Congress would have felt like if they'd have looked over that hill and seen a black guy and a white guy, a red guy and a yellow guy and a purple guy and everybody else walking up that hill, ticked off. Yeah. Then people think they seen something that day, that day would have really got their goat. They'd have been going, uh-oh, they figured this out.
SPEAKER_01You ever seen the image where they have like this board, this map? And underneath it is everybody holding up the map, and it's like the government like playing on the map, and it says all we got to do is stand up together and they lose. That's it. And that's really what it is, man. Yeah. We can all just get united and come together and be like, hey, look, it's us against them. Yeah, they're hosing us all. What can they do? You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05They don't care about color, they're holding, they're hosing every one of us. But in 68 they burnt Detroit down. So
Detroit Years And Church Apartment Life
SPEAKER_05my uh my uncle lived for lived in Michigan. My grandmother's family was from Michigan, and so my uncle was like to my parents, once you move to Detroit, there's plenty of work for my dad and construction because I gotta build the city back, right? So we moved to Detroit, and we lived there in 1968, which is even funnier. You're kidding me about being a Cardinals fan. Big Cardinals fan, won the 67 World Series, right? We beat the Boston Red Sox 68 World Series. It's about two months before we moved to Detroit. We're playing the Detroit Tigers in the World Series, and we're getting ready to move to Detroit. My dad's already there, he's just waiting to move us up there, and the Tigers beat the Cardinals. I know. I'm like, well, it's only because I'm moving to Detroit. That's why I want I took the 68 series because of me. But uh so we moved to Detroit. We lived there from 68 to 72. It was an experience. My dad had a lot of work for about two and a half years, then things started slowing down. My father, you know St. Louis. From St. Louis to Detroit.
SPEAKER_09Was that a culture shock?
SPEAKER_05Uh not too bad. The culture shock comes a little later, but it was something of a difference, more colder weather, that kind of thing. Uh it's kind of upper Midwest people. People were saying were you in the industrial area? Uh yeah, we were in the inner city of Detroit. What was that like? Uh it gets interesting. Yeah. I bet. The funny thing is, is we lived there from 68 to 72. You were asking me, did I ever know if I was broke or not, or poor? I didn't know behind the season behind the scenes, my father and mother were very protective of my brother and I. They used to go to people and my dad was in construction work, so he'd find an old rundown house, a fixer-upper, if you will, and he would go to the landlord and say, Hey, I want to barter with you. If I fix your house up, can I live here for free? Wow. And they would go, Yeah, that's fine. And my dad would take it down to the inside walls and build it back and take it and make it a beautiful home. And then the guy would come along and go, Okay, uh, you need to move now because I'm gonna sell this place. And my father would move off to another house and barter his his labor for our rent. And uh, or at least a portion of our rent. So it worked out pretty good for us until it started getting slow. Then my dad really had to start looking for and he got a job as a custodian for the first Baptist Church at downtown Detroit. Now, the first Baptist Church, in fact, I looked it up a few years ago, or a few weeks ago, even uh it's no longer there. The church is gone. It's they mowed it down, it's now a Walgreens drugstore. Oh, geez. But the time we moved into that, the church literally had an apartment built inside of it. It was that big of a structure. Upstairs was four stories high. The upstairs had a full gymnasium, basketball court, everything. My brother and I were the very popular boys in the neighborhood. But uh, we lived in the church. The basement was the kitchen, the second first floor was my father and mother's living room and bedroom, and then two floors up, they take a they took an old Sunday school class and turned it into a bedroom for me and my brother. Nice. And that's how we lived. Wow. And we lived in the church and and uh while dad was working, my dad worked there. 68 to 72. Yeah, okay. And the funny thing is, is I can remember still as a child, we still don't have this is probably the only time that we had a steady diet of Jesus. Yeah. Okay, because you're living at a church. You're living in his house, you better straighten up. Yeah, yeah. It was funny because my father was a construction worker, yeah, and my father had colorful language. He was in the Navy in World War II. Yeah. Uh so dad would, I'd hear dad go, gosh darn it. Went, hmm, that ain't what he used to say. Oh, dang it. I never heard that one either. So it was funny to watch my dad try to watch his tongue, if you will, because he never knew when the pastor might come around the corner or one of the office people or whatever. Well, at least he had the respect for that. Oh, he did. You know what I mean? My dad was a very respectful person. Yeah. And uh, but the funny thing is I would go up instead. Dad would go like, all right, you boys go vacuum the sanctuary out and get it ready for Sunday, blah, blah, blah. Of course, we had pews, so we didn't have chairs to move or anything. But I would go up and get behind the pulpit. Nice. And I was preacher Dale. Nice. Look out. I'm on my way. Even as a kid. Even as a kid, man. I was I could see myself doing that. And I'm like, this is not a job you pick. This is a job he picks. Yeah. That's right. So, you know, it was that moment, that time in it. But the funniest thing is to show you the difference between Southern Baptist and Northern Baptists, Southern Baptists are pretty current, you know, conservative type. They only smoke and drink in the bushes, they don't do it in front of everybody else. Northern Baptist was a little more Baptist or a little more liberal. So 1960s, early 70s, there was a program on uh Broadway called Jesus Christ Superstar. Yeah. So our youth pastor decided, you know, we need to put on a production of that. Oh Jesus. So they did. My brother and I were in it. Uh we had an African-American friend who played the part of Jesus. Yeah. And we went through the whole thing. The youth pastor was very fond of my mother because she babysitted his child. So he came over to my mother afterwards, and again, he shouldn't have asked if he didn't want to hear the truth. He said to my mother, he goes, So, Marge, what did you think of our performance? She said, It'd be great if I was in a tavern. Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, the Southern Baptists come out of her. She's like, No, man, that's not for the church. Wow. You do that somewhere else. That's not biblical. Wow. And man, he it blew him up against the wall. He was like, okay, well, I'm not asking her any more questions. My mother was a very You're gonna get the truth out of my mom. Mama didn't ask if you don't want to know. And so uh in Detroit, we did we were involved in a very serious car accident. Um we were hit head on at an intersection. Oh, Jesus. My mother went through the windshield two times and was headed up the third time when my father stretched his arm across and hit her in the chest and knocked her back in the seats. Now you have to remember seat belts weren't a thing then. We had a 1965 Chrysler, two-door, and evidently I flew up and where the seats used to split on the car. I hit it with my mouth and pushed my mother through the windshield, as best the investigators could figure out. Well, knocked all my bottom teeth out, blah, blah, blah. Mom and I both ended up in the hospital. My brother was, he got thrown in the floor where a little scratch dad had a little cut on his lip, and that was it. My mother received 150 stitches in her face, both inside and outside. Oh, Jesus. And when they got her to the emergency room and they were trying to, you know, pat her, figure out the blood, they kept saying, Where's all this blood coming from? Where's all this? And they finally got her mouth open and her she had dentures and they had broken, and it was like a knife inside of her mouth, just cutting it up. So they got those out. So they sewed her up, they put about 150 plus stitches in her face. And the doctor told my dad later, uh, probably an eighth of an inch further down, because it came down a jawline back up across her nose. Had that gone another eighth of an inch lower, it would have cut her juggler. Yeah, she wouldn't have been in the hospital, she'd have been in the morgue.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_05Now you can imagine, and the lady's a little gonna relate to this, walking around the rest of your life with that scar on your face. Yeah, man. You know, my mother was never she didn't emotionally, she probably could have used some assistance. Uh it never changed her, but it changed her. Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. When she would, you know, it was months before she'd even get in a car. It was even longer than that before she would drive a car again. Dramatic. My father, we were I can remember it, we were sitting in the house watching Saturday afternoon baseball, game of the week. And my mother said, Willie? My father's name was Wilford, and they called him Willie. I said, uh, she said, Willie, I'm ready to go to the grocery store. And he goes, Go ahead. You got keys to the car, take yourself and go. Oh wow. She goes, You know better than that. And he goes, I'm watching the ballgame with the boys. So she said, She went out to the car. We heard it start, we heard it turn off. We heard it start, we heard it turn off. We heard her come back in the house. Willie, I need somebody to take me to the grocery store. He goes, Marge, you have you have your own car keys, you got a driver's license. If you're going to the store, you better go because we're gonna get hungry next week. So she went back out to the car, and I, you know, she said a few more minutes, and I'm like, Dad, are you gonna go out there? And I ain't going nowhere. You boys ain't going out there. Don't look out the window, leave her alone, watch that ball game. Yeah. And finally the car started, backed out, off she went. Yeah, wow. And so, you know, she got over that stage.
SPEAKER_09That's how people dealt with trauma back then, man.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we didn't, you know, it's it's so funny when you look at things that we have today, and
Arkansas Culture Shock And Racial Reality
SPEAKER_05yeah, we're not appreciative. All the classes and the meeting, the help, and the resources. So then we left Detroit in 72 and we moved to a town called Gassville, Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas, northern Arkansas. Right. You know, the first day of school, my brother and I, we were in high school. We start in high school then. We showed up to class, and we're wearing clothes we wore in Detroit, which were double-knit pants, checkered pants, wide-collared shirts. I mean, we're talking just at the brink of the disco age. Yeah. And everybody in that classroom is wearing bib overalls, flannel shirts, yeah, blue jeans. Yeah, you went from the city to the country. And they looked at me and my brother like, okay, so you guys just uh come in with the carnival and forgot to get on the forgot to get on the bus when it left. And so we went home and told our mother, I said, Mom, we gotta have some new clothes. And she's like, Why? And I said, Because this is not what they wear here. And this is what they wear here. She goes, You will not wear blue jeans. Because she came from an era. Now, my my father was my grandfather, I call him my dad. He's the only dad I know. He was born in 1913, she was born in seven, nineteen seventeen. They lived through the depression, wow, they lived through World War II, they knew what poor looked like, and they knew what prosperity looked like of the 50s. Yeah, so they were they they instilled in it. The biggest blessing I ever got out of my family is my roots date back to those people. Yeah. The people that lived through that. Some things. And so, you know, you learn to be real thankful for that much stuff. Yeah. And if you get this much stuff, it's even cooler. Yeah. But so she's like, no, no child will wear blue jeans in this house because that's a sign of being poor. And I said, Well, it's either gonna be that or there's gonna be a fight every day. Yeah, because we're gonna have to fight our way in and fight our way back out. She's like, Okay, so she finally gave in to that, much to her chagrin. And then um, so we finished up our high school in Michigan, excuse me, in Arkansas. I did. I played foot uh football in Detroit. We didn't have football, we only had basketball and uh uh baseball. In Arkansas. In Arkansas. So my brother played uh basketball. He was a better b ball player than I was. Uh I played baseball and I wasn't good at it. Uh my brother and I joined a boxing club. Nice. So we tried that for a while. We weren't good at that either. At least I wasn't. He had a left hook, he was left-handed, he had a left hook. All I had was a fat chin, a black eye. But he gave us something, and it and it the people from that area I loved to death. But one of the craziest things that ever happened to you, I was about 14. Had my very first job. I was working in a gas station, and an African-American gentleman came up from Little Rock with a steak bed truck. Yeah. And he came into the gas station, he says, Excuse me, kid, or you know, gun man. He said, Where can a guy get a motel room in this town? It's Mountain Home, Arkansas. And I went, Well, there's a holiday, and a guy put his hand on my shoulder. He said, Son, I'll take care of this. I said, Well, okay, you know, you're a grown man, I'm a kid. Yeah. And he goes, You can't stay in this town. Your people aren't allowed here. So you take your that way or back to Springfield, but it ain't gonna be in this town. And I'm thinking, Wow, dude, you wouldn't even got uh out your mouth in Detroit before somebody stuck you. Yeah. But that was a culture change. Wow. You talk about culture changes like that. But you know what? As a sign. That same well, the show the funny thing is, Mountain Home, Arkansas's name was named by African Americans. They picked cotton in the Delta of Southern Arkansas. They would come north and pick fruit, apples off the apple trees up north. And in the fall, they would say, We're going to our mountain home. And that's how it got named, Mountain Home Arkansas. Well, when you remind the locals of that, they would, no, that's not true. Yeah, if you look in the history books, it's pretty true. But now it's a town, it has it's mixed, has you know, they've they've adapted, if you will. Yeah, and I'm very proud of that. I'm glad they did. But you know what? Again, you have to remember the era, and that's what aggravates me when I say that I can't figure out how we are in 2026 and we're still fighting the same dumb battles. Yeah, but uh finished our high school up there.
SPEAKER_04Uh graduated, what were your grades? Pitiful.
SPEAKER_05Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Did you graduate though?
SPEAKER_05Uh I did
Dropping Out And Losing Mom
SPEAKER_05not. No. Not many people know that. I did not graduate high school. In fact, my uh there's some family members are gonna hear this and go, What? My bad. No, no, that's part of being truth, man. You know what? I've been carrying that a lot of years. I did not. Uh 19, uh, the the year of my high school, senior year, about halfway through, we moved back to St. Louis. My parents moved us back to St. Louis. It was one of the biggest things that broke my mother's heart. I can remember her sitting on her bed when I told her, Mom, I'll go back. I got a job in a gas station in the big city. It got, you know, pay me $2.15 an hour, man. I'm I'm working. I'm getting money, mama. I'm on it. Yeah. And I told her, I'd always promised her I'd go back. Yeah. And I never did. And it broke her heart. It really did. I seen it in her face. There's very few times you can look at your mother and know you broke her heart. And I I broke her heart because it was a big deal. Yeah. My brother didn't graduate, it broke her heart. Yeah. Um, it is what it is. My wife today still, Heather's like, when are we going to get that GDE? Yeah, I was just thinking that same. You promised your mom you would amen. And I'm like, I'm 69 years old. Now she goes, Who cares? Better baked than never, bro. Are you alive? Come on. And she I said, Yeah, and she goes, get it.
SPEAKER_09Let's honor mama. I'd like to see that, bro. I would love to see that.
SPEAKER_05No, seriously. Really? I would like to see that. I do too. I mean, it there are times it bothers me. Yeah. And uh it just, you know, it I I can picture my mother right now sitting in her bedroom on her bed. When I I was on my knees when I told her, I said, Mother, I'm gonna do this. And she's like, tears rolling down. I don't want that for you. I want better for you. And uh I, you know, I'm like, sorry. Moving on. Amen. And I still lived at home until I was about uh 18 years old, and then my mother had a stroke, and two weeks later she was gone. Oh, Jesus. And I had just met my my first wife, and we had planned to get married in March and or in June of that year.
SPEAKER_09Hold on, bro. So you you grew growing up and mom is strong and full of piss and vinegar, and she has a stroke, and two weeks later she's gone.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. The stroke was strong enough that it she couldn't speak, she could couldn't form words. Yeah. And when I was in the hospital visiting her, she would get so frustrated because she couldn't form the words. She knew what she wanted to tell me, but couldn't tell me because she couldn't form the words to say them. Yeah. And um, you know, it was in again, we're talking 77. Yeah, medical care was a lot of people. Didn't have the shot. If you get the shot now and they got a better chance, you know. Yeah. We live in an era now that we should just be jumping up and down thinking, God, man, God, thanks for sending these doctors with this, giving them the abilities and the pharmacy. I mean, we all have our complaints about those things. But she passed, and um Linda and I, it was my first wife, we had decided we had already had a a uh family get together. I'd already asked her to marry me, already got the blessings. We were planning it in June, and uh mom had the stroke, and we lost her. And this shows you, and this is one of the reasons why I wanted to teach grief share when I when I approached Pastor Dave, because it'd been on my heart for many years. Families get weird when mom or dad dies. They lose their stuff. Oh, yeah. I can remember my sister and ugly comes out of them. My my my sister and my biological father coming into my dad, my dad, what I call him, my dad. He earned the title, he got the title. My biological dad asked me, and my my siblings still get mad at me because I never called him dad. I always called him Bill. Yeah. And we were good with that. We had a great relationship after I met him when I was about ten. From ten on, he was in my life in a you know, and we had to But he was Bill. He was he wasn't dad. He wasn't dad. Yeah. And you know, my siblings get mad at me. Well, why didn't you call him dad? Because he didn't earn it. Yeah. How much clearer you want me to be? And him and I had that understanding. You want the job, you got to earn it. Yeah. You didn't earn it. And he's like, right, I didn't. My dad did. Your grandfather earned that that title through me. And I gave it to him. Yeah. And that's fine. We had a great relationship all the way until he passed. It was good. Yeah. But they came in, man, and they're taking everything off the walls or tearing down the bed. I'm like, Dad walks in, he goes, What are you guys doing? My sister's like, or my aunt, she's like, You're gonna move in with me, Dad. And he goes, Who said so? She said, I did. You don't need to be out here by yourself. You need to live with us, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, I didn't say nothing about moving in with you. And she goes, and he looks at me and he goes, What are we gonna do with him? She goes, Oh, he's 18, almost 19, he'll figure it out. He's getting married in three months anyway, or six months. And dad's like, No, that ain't a way to, but hey, they had it loaded in and gone. Wow. So uh kidnapped dad pretty much. Yeah, and so how old was your dad? My dad was early 60s. Oh, he was that old, isn't it? Yeah, and he was still working. I mean, he was still taking care of he wasn't feeble by no means or anything. My mom my grandmother was 59, so dad was 64. Yeah. She was 59. So I figured it out because my you know, my family told me I'd figured it out. You do. Uh Linda and I pushed our wedding up from June to March because her parents went, her dad went stupid. He accused me and her of having relationships while we were at my mother's funeral, because my mother was buried in an over by Kansas City a couple hours away, so we were there for three days. That's in the old funerals were three days long, and they had your visitation, visitation, and the service. Yeah. So she stayed with my family. Yeah. And he we come back, he's like, Oh, yeah, I know you guys are over there doing, you know, sexual stuff and everything. I was like, Are you stupid? Yeah. I'm burying my mother. Yeah. If I want to do that other business, I'd have done that a long time ago. Yeah. And he's like, I know that's what you are. I said, You're just ignorant. And I'm done with you. So I just put it on her. I said, We either get married or, you know, this thing's gonna end right quick because I'm not putting up with that. And she's like, Nope, we'll get married. So we took off. How'd you meet her? I met her at a place we worked at. We worked at a restaurant together. Nice and uh and we got married there. She was a waitress, I was a cook, and I met her whole family and hung out with them for we had a great year and a half until that moment. Yeah. And um, you know, like so we got married, come back from the one night honeymoon, yeah, and we're working. Her mother worked there as a waitress, I was there as a cook. Her two sisters worked there. Her dad always came in there and hung out and wouldn't go home because he was lazy. And her dad and her mom and dad were outside at the counter talking about it, and her dad's like, Oh, I'm you know, I ain't afraid of him, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So her mother comes in the kitchen area where I'm at, and I'm a whole 19 years old that's full of myself. Yeah. Because I'm a married man now. I know it all. If you don't believe me, ask me. Oh my God. So I walked up to her mother and I said, This is how this is gonna be, Shirley. You either back out and accept this, or I will make you a promise today. You will never ever see your grandchildren, you will never see your daughter. I'll move so far away from here it'll take a search warrant to find me. You understand what I'm telling you? You can have a relationship or you can't. But I'm not gonna put up with your stupid. And they're like, she's like, I love you and I will I don't want to lose my daughter. I said, then start acting like it. Yeah. Your daughter and I didn't do anything. Your daughter was a virgin when I married her. Yeah. And I got news for you, she still is because she was so scared last night at our honeymoon. Yeah. We didn't have the honeymoon. Yeah. And we'll wait till she's ready. Yeah. But in the meantime, I'm not putting up with your stupid. Either you accept your daughter in the situation it is, or else, hey, yeah. Boogity boogity, as they say, on NASCAR. We're out of here. And being being a tough wife, she went out and told her husband, knock it off, fix it. Yeah, yeah. Fix it on your side, buddy. I fixed it on mine. You better fix yours because and my and she happened to be her dad's favorite daughter. Yeah. And uh, we were married. We were married about 1980. We married in 82. We divorced. We had a son, my oldest son, who I loved to death. Um, Rock? No, Rocky's the baby. He's Heather. Okay, Danny's my oldest. Okay. And uh really weird, kind of a funny side story. My my grandfather's name was Wilford. My real biological father's name was Wilford Jr. Yeah. So when we had Danny, I said, Well, let's name him Willie. I mean William. Yeah. So wait a minute. So we name him William Daniel Snipes. And he comes out a couple of days later, Linda and I were sitting there thinking, wait a minute, they called my dad Willie. They call my biological dad Bill. Yeah. What are you gonna call Danny? There's nothing left. Will? Yeah. So we just start calling him Danny. He's been Danny his whole life.
SPEAKER_09Oh, but his name's William.
SPEAKER_05But his real name, yeah. He had he had bought a car here a while back, a few years ago. And and he went to sign for it. And the kid that looked at him and said, William, I thought your name was Danny. He goes, because they went to high school because Danny's like, William's my given name. He goes, Really? All this time I thought you were Danny. Oh wow. And he still goes by Danny. So we had we had, you know, my infidelity.
Infidelity, Alcohol, And Hitting Bottom
SPEAKER_05I own up to it. I'm gonna own it. You know. Uh I was I with your first wife, Linda. Yeah. Yeah. I was very, I had it, you know, well, you were nice.
SPEAKER_09You knew everything.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And um, you know, the thing was, uh Chevy and I have talked about this. Uh generational things. Yeah my father getting in a car with another woman the day I'm born. Yeah. Um kind of a side story. And I found this out after Linda and I were married. My mother had a very good friend. Her name was May. And she was like a second mother to me, grandmother to me. And after Danny was born, he was about six months old, Linda and I took him to see May. So we were sitting there, this is family secrets that just drive me nuts. We were sitting there, uh, May and I talking, and she was loving Danny up. She goes, Oh, your mother would have been so tickled to hold this baby, and I'm and I'm crying because that was my I'm like anybody. And I've told my grief share class this many a time. The biggest hurt I had in my life losing my mother was that she never got to see my babies. Yeah. She never got to hold one of my children and tell my children stories or pray over my child. She never got to do that. Yeah. And that's probably a big hurt that she never got that pleasure. Yeah. But, you know, God had a different reason. So anyway, we're visiting May, and May's talking about how mom would have loved to hold him and everything. And she goes, you know, after your mother was shot, she was, you know, she changed her life. And I went, Huh? My mother was shot. What are you talking about? And she her eyes looked just like Rowdy's did right now. They got real big. And she goes, You don't know. And I go, I certainly don't, but I'm about to find out because you spilt the you took the lid off the jar. We fixed it to find out where the pickles are. And she looked at me and she said, I shouldn't have said anything. I said, May, mom's dead, dad's dead. It doesn't make any difference.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Okay?
SPEAKER_05It's here. It's here's a story. Yeah. And she said, back before you were ever born, back when your dad was littler, younger, teenager, your mom and dad were split up for a while. And your mom had met this other gentleman. And your dad was in the Boot Hill of Missouri working, and he'd met another woman. So everybody thought they were Splitzville. Well, it worked out it wasn't Splitzville. So the guy was with your mother, and your mother was telling him that, hey, I'm going back to my husband. I'm going to work this out. We're going to make it happen. And this guy couldn't take it. Oh wow. So he pulled a revolver out. He shot her right behind her ear. He thought he killed her, and then he shot himself. Oh, Jesus. And he didn't kill her. He had just it caught her and it caught in the bone somehow or another. She survived the shot. For years, my mother, when she would lose her balance, she would tell me, Oh, it's my equilibrium. When I was a little girl, I got a June bug in my ear and it's been off ever since. Well, I'm a kid. You believe your mama, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And that's why her equilibrium balance was getting off, is from where she still had some bullet fragment in there. And so, you know, talk about a shock. Here you are, 20 years old, find out your mom had been shot. Wow. And that's family secrets, if you will. Yeah. So my infidelity, Chevy and I have talked about this, about generational. Yeah. You know? Who's going to break that curse? Yeah. That's right, buddy. Unfortunately, I didn't break it. And unfortunately, my two sons haven't broken it. Yeah. But my prayer is somebody in this family will. Amen. Amen, buddy. So we divorced, and from 1982 to about So you guys divorced because of the infidelity.
SPEAKER_09Infidelity. Yep. I came home. Then there was like, I'm not doing this with you.
SPEAKER_05Well, I came home and uh I had a job as a salesman, and it took me out overnight as a coffee salesman. And, you know, forgot full of myself. Some chicky told me, man, I'm the greatest thing since Clark Kent. You know, go get him, kiddo.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And I did. Yeah. And I did again.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And you know, it's like anything else. You tell a lie, it's easy to tell the next one. It just gets worse. You step over that line. Yeah. It's easy to step over that line again. And I did. Yeah. That's right. And so it happened so easily.
SPEAKER_09Yeah. And then we're just entrapped in it and entangled in.
SPEAKER_05It's like that's so easily entangled. Easily entangled you. And that was mine because all through high school I never dated. I wasn't very good looking. I had glasses and I had pimples and I had no personality. Yeah. Much like I am today.
SPEAKER_09I'd say you got quite the personality, bud. And you're decent looking. You know, you know. You kept Heather around for a while. Got cooled.
SPEAKER_05I keep showing her something. I put it on plexus. I love you, sis. But the funny thing is, is uh so uh you know I found somebody that made me feel like I was, you know, the thing. And uh then the next one made me like I'm the thing. Man, I'm like, look out, boys. There's some competition in the room. Yeah. And so I went home and I've never lied to my ex to my ex-wife. I I owned it.
SPEAKER_09You always tell the truth.
SPEAKER_05And I think it was from May telling me about my mother being shot. I'm like, man, ain't and Rowdy and I were talking about this prior to this. I have made it a life's work. When I die, nobody's showing up to start telling stories. Yeah, I've told them all on myself. Yeah so when you somebody starts to tell you a story about me, they say, uh-uh. I heard it from the horse's mouth or the other end of the horse. It doesn't matter. Yeah. I know the story. He told me. Dale told me that story. He owned it. Yeah. So I owned it. And she's like, I can't deal with that. And I said, That's cool. I get it. So we split, she went back home to her family.
SPEAKER_09And so you at this time you only have one kid.
SPEAKER_05I just have Danny. Your boy. Yep. And so I'm like, Who took Danny? He went with his mother. Mama. Yep. And uh where'd you go? Man, look here for the net from 1982 from about 1982 to about 1985, son, it was on. Yep. Oh. There wasn't. Playboy. 8 to 89. Didn't make me no difference. 8 to 80 blind, crippled or crazy. I was out there doing it. Jesus. I mean, I was drinking. Yeah. The only thing my mother told me, and you guys can laugh at this because of your past. My mom and dad had instilled me, if you do any drugs, your brains are going to fall out. You ain't got that many to give up. Yeah, yeah. Whether it be marijuana, you know, any drug. Yeah. But when it came to alcohol, when I quit drinking, Budweiser sent me a letter and said, either you got to go go back to drinking or the third shift's getting laid off. I would wake up from about 1982 to about 1985, 86. I would wake up every morning with a pint of Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, or something sitting on my nightstand in my bed. My first drink in the morning was I rinsed with that. What were you? 30? 30, 31? No, I was in my late, it's still in my mid-20s, 20, 2025. You thought you were born 57. I was. Oh, 25. Okay. Man, I was having a time. At least I thought I was. Yeah, right. I don't know if you're very much of a country music fan. Oh yeah. But a lot of the songs that Hank Williams Jr.'s talked about, son, I was living them out. He was on the that was his high time, and I was following every move he was making. You know, I just didn't have the money or the charisma he had. But you know, I was you know, I was partying it out. Where were you at this time? Still in St. Louis? I was in, yeah, I was in the Missouri area. Had my own little apartment in the town of West Plains, Missouri.
SPEAKER_09Working in a restaurant?
SPEAKER_05Nope. I was still working for the coffee company.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_05And man, I was having a time. Yeah. It was fun. Yeah. At least I thought so. Yeah. And then I married, you met my second wife.
SPEAKER_09She was one, she worked in a up to this, so up to this point, no church, family.
SPEAKER_05Well, there was a church experience, and I and I kind of skipped over that. When I was a kid in
A Teen Revival That Marked Him
SPEAKER_05Mountain Home, Arkansas, it was my real first encounter with Jesus and me. Yeah. There was a group of us in my high school. There was only 17 in my high school senior class, and one of them was my brother. So there's only 16 that wasn't related. A small town. A small town. Little town of Cotter, Arkansas. Well, a bunch of us got together. There was a youth, there was a revival. This is back when churches used to do year week-long revivals. Oh, yeah. Well, Wednesday night was going to be the youth part of this revival. So, man, we all piled in a car and we drove over to Mountain Home, which is about 15 miles away. And, you know, we're boys. There's a reason why we went to the thing. Yeah. Because there's girls. Yeah. Let's not lie about it. Our attention was girls. Yeah. Yeah. And we had some girls in the car with us. Yeah. And we're in a small car, so where do girls get to sit? On your lap. That's right. So now this is really a good time. We get to the church. Cannot tell you what the man preached on. Have no idea. But let me tell you something. When that cat gave that altar call that night, man, my eyes were closed. That's old school. Everybody's eyes all closed, heads all bowed, nobody looking around. Put your hand up if you feel the conviction. I'm like, nah, I don't feel nothing. Except Peggy Sue. We go right back to anyway. So I'm sitting there and man, all of a sudden, man, that heart's beating. Not me.
unknownBoom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
SPEAKER_05Get off me. Next thing I know, preachers. Now he we're talking old timey preachers, them ha preachers. You know, they get it going, uh, uh, in between them words. And this was it, and this was the Church of Christ. So there wasn't a lot of music to get the emotion going. This was straight up you and God time. There's no music blowing in the background getting your emotions going. Yeah. It's you. And man, my heart's about to pop out of my chest. He goes, All right, anybody want to get saved tonight? Come on down. I'm like, well, let me out of here. I'm going down. And I went down. Wow. And I think that's the first real encounter with Jesus. You know, and I lived it for, you know, probably six months. Yeah. And then I started being a kid again. Well, were you a teenager? Yeah, I was a teenager. I was junior, junior, you know, sophomore junior in high school. Yeah. So it was just, you know, that type of thing. And so that was my first encounter. So from 82 to about 86, man, I was tearing it up. Yeah. Just having a time. And then I uh one of my customers was a convenience store selling coffee. And um were you a bar guy? Oh, yeah. You like to go on the bars? Oh, all night long. Yeah. And I had a girlfriend, I'd met a girl, and I was l kind of living in and out of her place with her. So she was kind of my steady, but not my steady.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Because there's other women out here. So in Springfield, Missouri, where our company was, and I had to go back every Friday and do company stuff. And then I'd spend the night. But I'd get my load on on my driving home. Yeah. Well, then some of the other guys, salesmen, we'd all go together, and then some of the office girls started going out. And uh I met one of the office girls. We had a little fun time together. And it was funny because she's like, Oh, I can't let the other girls know about this. I said, Hey, it's fine. It's not like we're gonna get married, and then we'll just keep it on the QT. Well, she left her wristwatch in my motel room one night. So I told her, I said, Hey, you left your wristwatch in my motel. She said, Let's bring it in next Friday when you come. It's like, okay, remember if we're still on the QT. Fine with me. Yeah. So I go home and say, and I gotta hide this watch for a week from my girlfriend, so she don't see it. And so I'm hiding the watch. That Friday I go back up. I walk in the office. She goes, Did you bring my watch? in front of all the other girls. I said, Yeah, and you shouldn't have left it in my motel room. And I laid it on her desk, and all the other girls were like, Hey, you want to open that beat? You know, I'm fun. I'm I like it. So yeah, I thought I was a cat of the walk and and everything. And uh so then I met my second wife, Darlene, and uh we started dating, and now we're in the same small town, so you know, small towns you can't hide nothing. So we're up at the club, we're dancing, we're having a good time. And some of the ladies from around the club that knew me from being their coffee man, yeah, they also knew the other girl that I was dating, also. Yeah, yeah. And by the next morning, she knew. Oh son, let me tell you, she knew. Darlene knew? Well, dark. Oh, the other girl found out about her. Donna found out about Darlene. Well, I thought, well, you know, not a big deal. They'll get over it. So I go do my coffee thing. I come back in that night now. Donna worked at the Romata end. So I whipped in there, check her out. You know, hey, how's it going, girl? She goes, I need to see you upstairs for a minute, one of the rooms. I said, Oh, okay. So I'm thinking, woohoo! Yeah. We get up to the room, she she opens the door, I walk in, I turn around. You know how hotel rooms you get a little owl in the bathroom tier. I turn around, she's standing there with a 12-inch cook's knife. Oh, Jesus. And she's about to run that bad boy through me. Now, son, let me tell you, talk about talk about getting on that sales horse. I'm like, girl, what's wrong? Whoa. She goes, so-and-so told me you and Darlene were out clubbing last night, and that's why you didn't come by my place, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said, No, I think they got it kind of wrong. They didn't. They were dead on. Yeah. And I'm like, no, I think she's got it wrong, you know. Now I'm telling I'm using every sales tactic I got. Now I'm on the second floor and I'm looking at the window thinking, I can go out that window. I can live with a broke leg, broke arm. Yeah. I'm good. She cuts me, especially if she cuts me where she's thinking about cutting me, it ain't gonna be good for me. Yeah. Where the hell did she have the knife at? She had it behind her back. She pulled that thing out like a pro. Really? She pulled that bad boy out, and I'm like, uh-oh, something we're fixing to get filled. She thought she was Mick Dundee, huh? When I got done the random bonnet. That's exactly what it was. So man, I got on my sales horse and I calmed her down, got her back in the fold, so to speak. Jesus. So I I left and I went right over to Darlene's. I said, Look, we've we gotta kind of find me. Yeah. You know, she wasn't in, she wasn't hooked in tight. So I was being a nice guy, and then tomorrow I thought about Darlene. The more I thought, you know, I really kind of like her. Yeah. She's a lot of fun. Yeah. So the coffee company ended up firing me. I've only been fired from one job in my entire life. And my Playboy styles would done it because I was stealing from the company. I'd had cash customers, I'd put them down as charge customers, and I'd settle the books, you know, a couple of weeks later when I had the cash and floating the money, if you will. And they caught me floating money. So they called me in the office on Friday and they inventoried everything on my truck, and then they said, Okay, you still owe us, I think it was like $157 back in the 1980s. That was a lot of money. Yeah, a lot of money.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05So I'm like, Well, I ain't got it. And they said, Well, you better find it, because if you don't, you ain't, you know, we're gonna have to talk about some incarceration. I'm like, well, let's talk about something different. So I got the money up, I paid them off, and uh they terminated me. Well, the guy that happened to be the vice president of that company came from another company, coffee company out on the west coast called Farmer Brothers Coffee, they're out of Torrance, California, and they were moving back east. And he said, You know, you're one of the best salesmen we've ever had, and you got a personality that could sell ice to Eskimos. And I don't want to see you fall because of one failure, one bad judgment. So I got a friend at Farmer Brothers, he's in St. Louis. I've already talked to him, he's willing to give you an interview. So I went up and met him. His name was Tom Tarter. Very nice man from Minnesota. He'd he'd moved to Torrance and he was the regional director. He'd moved out to California, and the owner of Farmer Brothers Coffee told him, Mr. Farmer, said Tom, you just don't seem happy in California. Yeah. And he goes, I hate it here. And he goes, Well, how bad do you hate it? He goes, Well, let's put it this way if I had a house in California and hell was home, I'd sell my house in Move home. That's how much I hated out here. So he's like, Tom, pick out somewhere in the Midwest. You're a Midwest guy. Pick it out. We'll make it happen. So he picked out St. Louis and he went back there. So he called me into his office. I made an appointment, went up to St. Louis. I was living in West Plains, which is about four hours from St. Louis. I drove up there, had a meeting with him, interviewed him.
SPEAKER_09What is the difference in the Midwest? What is is just living is different? The people, culture? Yeah, it's just slower?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Just a slower pace. Slower pace. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um cool thing I know about the Midwest is they have like areas that are Polish. Yep. Areas that are Jewish, areas that are German.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, they have areas that are tornado alleys. They have areas that are like Really? That's what you want to focus on? Yeah.
SPEAKER_05But it's funny you should say that because Linda and I, my first wife, we lived in Inner State Louis. Yeah. And we live by a place called Tire Grove Park. It's the big city park. Anything north of Tire Grove Park is African American. Wow. When you get on this side of Tire Grove Park, the first section is the hillbilly section. People who come up from Mississippi, Alabama, uh, Arkansas, Southern Missouri, Tennessee, and worked in the car plants. Get south there, they call it the Scrubby Dutch. It's because the Dutch people live there and they call them Scrubby Dutch because most of them are they own businesses, and every morning they'd be out scrubbing their sidewalks and doing their windows before they opened. So they were called. And then you have what they call Dago Hill in St. Louis. It's where all the Italians live. Dagos. Yeah. And they called it Dago Hill. It's where Joe Gargiola grew up. It's where Yogi Bear grew up. It's that area. Yeah. And great Italian restaurants.
SPEAKER_01You can go to like places and go and find like Polish restaurants and that are specifically authentic Poland food or authentic German food. Right. You don't find that in Arizona. Right. Same thing in Detroit. Is it Mexican or American?
SPEAKER_08Or Mexican American.
SPEAKER_05It's like in Detroit, they have ham tramec. That's always been the Polish section. Dearborn's always been uh Arab. Yeah. It's very it's been Arab for years, way back when. Uh then you got taking it back. It's ham tramec. Thank you. It's Polish. My uncle used to know people, funny thing, they didn't get offended uh like they do crazy, you know, it was different era. Yeah, yeah. Like my uncle, he dated a woman, she was a Polish, and you know, he called her Polak all the time. Yeah. And you didn't up there, you didn't like here. You tell, you know, you got how do you know of a guy that goes to the U of A? You know, you tell those kind of jokes. Back there, you know, you hear about the Polak. Have you ever seen the movie Grand Torino? Yeah, yeah. Good movie. The barber shop scene. Yeah. That was me in 19 in the 60s. Between 60. That barber, when that show came out, Heather and I were watching. She she's like five minutes into you. I'm not watching anymore. This is racist. I said, shut up and watch the movie. Yeah. I said, that's where I grew up. That barber looked like the guy that used to cut my hair when I was like 10, 11 years old, go in there and sit in a chair. He gets a straight razor out and he's shaving my neck, and I'm like, is this guy going to cut my throat or what? Yeah. But it was the same way. Guy walks in and goes, How you doing, you dumb Polak? How you doing whatever you're national? People's nationality was cool. You had your section, German section, whatever. And it's cool. People were proud of it. They were proud of where they came from. They blended with the others, but when they went back, it it's you know, it's kind of like uh uh small groups. Yeah. You got your small group, there's this small group, this one focuses, whatever. It's kind of that's kind of that. Yeah, you you blend in on Sunday, and then on the rest of the week you live in your small group. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's one thing. That's one thing I'd like to go experience, though, is those kind of neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, and they're still there in St. Louis and Detroit and the major cities.
SPEAKER_01My buddy's girl's in Ohio, and they were he was just there visiting, and we did a video chat, and he's driving through the neighborhood, and he's like, This is the Polish area. Oh, this got great food right here, you know. And he's like, show me all the different like I'm like, dude, that is so friggin' cool, dude.
SPEAKER_05You know what I mean? So, so after my crazy, then Darlene and I started seeing each other.
SPEAKER_01When you say you sell coffee, what do you mean you sold coffee?
SPEAKER_05We sold coffee to restaurants, hospitals, wholesale coffee. Yeah, you know, uh restaurants, hospitals. Like a supplier. Yeah, like a supplier. Really? Yeah. So I went to Mr. Tarter.
SPEAKER_01Coffee drinker? Oh, yeah. Are you? Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_05I had to have been truck drivers, you know, drink that 40 weight. Yeah. That 40 weight. You gotta get that 40 weight in you. So after I went to uh see Mr. Tarter, yeah, did the interview, it went well. He looked across the table at me and he said, I'm gonna tell you something. I lived your life, buddy. I had the alcohol problem. I had the girl problem. Really? You give me your word, you're not gonna have an alcohol problem and a girl problem. I got a job for you.
SPEAKER_01So the guy that gave you the thing was honest with that man about what you did.
SPEAKER_05He told him what he's getting. And he told me, he said, Jerry told me to what, he also told me you were a great salesman. Yeah. And I'm willing to hire you, but you got to give me a commitment. Yeah. And I went, I'd say anything, right, to get a job. Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah. So he said, now you can't be in your old territory. How old are you? How old am I now? Oh, at that time, 26. I'm early 30s. Early 30s. Yeah. And so, you know, you'll tell anything, get the job, right? So he gives me the job. He says, You can't be in your old territory when you have a non-compete agreement. You got to go to Little Rock, Arkansas. Fine. I always like Little Rock. What the heck? So how close is Arkansas to Missouri? Right next door. Oh, really? Yeah. Missouri's up here. Arkansas's right below. So I go to Little Rock, get an efficiency apartment. Still got my girlfriend Donna, still got my girlfriend Darlene. And they're driving. It's so funny. Well, it's not funny, but it's funny. Yeah. It's funny looking back on it, huh? Oh, yeah, it was funny. What I knew then was kind of funny too. Donna came down on a Friday. She comes down on a Friday, spends the night. She gets, oh, I gotta go back home Saturday to work. It's okay, see you bye. So I've already called Darlene. This is four cell phones, so you have to actually use the phone. Darlene coming up on Saturday. And they literally pass each other and don't know it on the highway. I mean, they could have, they they knew each other for years. They used to work together. So Darlene comes down for the next. So Darlene, I'm I'm starting to figure out real quick in my heart of hearts, this chick's for me. Yeah. This is my, this is mine. Yeah. So I'm like, yeah, we're gonna go this route. So Darlene, I asked her to move in with me. She's like, okay. So in but before she moved in, she came down for a weekend, and unexpectedly, you know who showed up. Oh no. Because somebody told you know who that Darlene was in Arkansas. So about eight o'clock in the morning, ding dong on the doorbell. Well, our bedroom faced the door. That's because it's efficiency apartment. You know, it's bedroom, kitchen, out there, out the next door. So she raises up, she looks out the curtain, she goes, uh, guess who's out at the door? And I said, I don't know. She goes, Donna. I went, Oh crap, here we go again. Here comes that knife out again. So open the door. She walks in, her and Darlene are face to face. She goes, What are you doing here, Darlene? Well, good morning, Donna. And she went in the restroom. I'm back on that salesman's pitch. Yeah. So I'm like, nah, you know, she just there. So finally I told her, so then they both confront me. Yeah. Pick it. Said, okay. One of you going home crying, one of you going to both may be crying for it. So now I'm to the point I get rid of both of you. You know. So I told Donna, it's done. I picked her. Yeah. You lose. Yeah. So she goes home. Darlene moves in. We probably live together from about 84 to 80. Late 85. In Arkansas? Well, Arkansas then we got transferred. Mr. Tartar came down one day and he said to me, He goes, You got a son that lives in Missouri, right? That you drive up to every other week to see. I said, Yeah. He goes, You know, and your son lives like what 30 minutes from me? I said, Yeah. He said, I how would you like to live back in Missouri close to your son? I said, I'd love that. Yeah. He said, Okay, and we'll make it happen. He goes, We hadn't planned on opening a new branch in Columbia, Missouri, which is middle of the state. Yeah. But we'll open one for you. Really? And so he opened the branch up and made a position for me. Wow. And we moved back up.
SPEAKER_09And you're one good coffee seller, bro.
SPEAKER_05I guess, but so he made that position for us. And he loved Darlene. He absolutely loved having her around. And he always gave me crap. When are you going to marry this girl? When are you going to uh someday? So um we moved to Columbia. Um came home one day from work and I said to her, I said, I want to marry you. She's she washing dishes, and she said, Yeah, right, whatever. She just kept worshiping. I said, I spun her around. I said, I'm serious, I want to marry you. And she goes, Okay, here's how this is gonna work. If you tell me you want to marry me, her uncle was a assembly of God pastor. If you want to marry me, uncle's gonna do the ceremony, and I'm not calling him and getting him excited, or my mother, and then you lie. So you better be on it, big boy, or else I said, I'm dead serious as a heart attack. So we got we went down there, and her uncle married us, and uh we started going to
Getting Filled With The Holy Spirit
SPEAKER_05church. It was funny, I met another guy out on the job, he was a restaurant guy that put uh uh installed equipment in new restaurants, yeah. His name was Russell Hart. And so Russ was witnessing to me quite a bit, and I'm like, Yeah, I know a little bit about Jesus, but not enough.
SPEAKER_09This is 88, 80, 30, 30, 30, 29, 30. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05It's about 19 late 85. Okay. So I said to Russ, I said, Yeah, I know about Jesus. He keep every time you see me on a job somewhere, I'd run into him. He'd, you know, make his pitch. Yeah. So finally one day I ran him down at a job. I said, anybody know where Russell's working? Yeah, he's opening it, he's working at kind of new. So I drove over there and I said, uh, hey Russ, you go to first assembly of God church right over there by the high school, right? He goes, Yeah. I said, What time's church service? 104 9 45, whatever it was. I said, uh, I think I'll come Sunday. And he's like, Great, man, love to have you. We got a new pastor. We got a brand new pastor. It's his first Sunday. He came up from Oklahoma. I said, Okay. So I went home, I told Darlene, I said, Okay, so we're going to church Sunday. She goes, This is like the married thing. Don't start this if you ain't gonna play. This ain't a play. I don't play about Jesus. If we're gonna start down this path, yeah, we're gonna follow this path. And I went, I'm telling you, that's a good woman, that's where we're going. So Sunday morning came. Now uh we showed up in church, both of us were smokers. Yeah, um, you know, this is 86, 85. So in the assembly of God, the big picture is Jimmy Swiger, that type, you know. Uh a kid a pastor Dave one time when he I asked him, I said, You come out of Assembly of God or UPC. He said, I'm a UPC or I said, Why assembly of God? You guys are a little more strict. Dresses gotta be a little further down, hairs got to be a little higher up. But I mean we were but we were still pretty strict in the assemblies, you know. We did allow the women sometimes to wear lipstick and earrings, not very often. We had a um uh revival one time, and the pastor's the revival preacher's wife came, she had on makeup and earrings. Deacons and the elders pulled our pastor to the side after the first night and said, This revival's over. And he's like, Huh? Why? We don't need her on stage with all that makeup and stuff on. And they cut it right there. Wow. So this is back the way they felt about it. They cut it right there, it was done. You know, they they sent him on his way. Amen. So we started going to church there, started kind of having a little involvement. Um, and then all of a sudden, God really started playing with me. He's like, Okay, you're starting to come. Come on, come on. Yeah, so uh we had another revival, and it was pretty much on the Holy Spirit. And uh first time I went to assembly God, some guy in the back talking in tongues, and I'm standing up, who's that dude? I'm looking around. Is he reading that out of something? Is somebody what it what Darlene's giving me the elbow? She goes, He's talking in tongues, shut up. So I waited until he got through and I'm like, okay, now what? And then somebody else interpreted it because he stopped during the whole service and just you know let it out. And so there was a moment of silence, and somebody interpreted what he said. Okay. Now we're talking old-fashioned altars. And I love, let me tell you something. I love old-fashioned altars, man. I love them. So going to church, um, guy comes into church uh for a revival based on Holy Spirit. First night, Sunday night, man. I'm I'm into it. I'm in the choir. Get out of the darling and I are both in the choir. We get out, and uh I'm sitting there and church is going on, and man, my heart's starting to stir. So I said, God, I'm gonna give you a caution here. Think about what you ask God for sometimes. I say, Father God, I need you to humble me. I've read I've been pretty wretched. I need to be humbled. Son, let me tell you, so when you ask God to humble, you better get ready for a ride. So altar call came, man. I'm down there on the altar, and one minute I'm just bawling like a baby. Yeah, I mean, it's just rowing. The next night, the next minute I'm laughing like somebody's tickling my feet. I'm just there's two ladies sitting on the front row that became friends of mine, and they're praying steady. Two and a half hours, they never moved. Yeah, they're praying in the spirit, they're praying in the Holy Ghost, they're they're getting to it. They're right there with me, man. I'd jump up, I'd I'd fall down, I'd get back up, I'd laugh, I'd cry. Man, we rustled for about two and a half hours. Me and God was having a conversation. Yeah, man. Never spoke in tongues. Yeah. The next night they asked everybody, anybody, and at this time Darlene was working, we had a uh a daycare center during the week in our church. So she worked there with the little ones. So, and she was pregnant with our daughter. So it's funny. That night they asked anybody done anything to church, we want to lay hands on you. So we come down, they laid hands on man. That pastor laid hands on me, and I took off like a rocket. I ran across the front of that scripture, turned around, went back across the other side, hit my hit that uh altar bench, and down I went. And again, we're back to being humbled. God was talking. Yeah, so I got up, and the next morning I was leaving Columbia to go down to Jeff uh down to Lake of the Ozarks. That was my route that day. And I just came out of Jeff, Jefferson City, Missouri. I'm on a four-lay highway and I'm Father God, I'm praying, you know, just having a time. God, if this tongue thing's really good, man, give me a give me a good dose of the Holy Spirit. Shut that up, okay. And at that time my eyes went closed. The next time my eyes opened up, I was 15 miles down the road, and the whole world looked like it was a lot brighter. And I was blue, I was in tongues, man. I pulled that car over because this is back four cell phones, and I went to the first uh telephone I could find. I called my pastor, and him and the guy preaching the revival were having breakfast at the pastor's house. And he goes, Hey Dale, what's going on? I said, Pastor Benny, it happened. He goes, What happened? And I could hear this little giggle in his voice. He goes, What happened? I said, Man, I got filled with the Holy Ghost. He goes, Really? Where was you at? And I told him the whole story and he started laughing. He goes, How when was that? And I said, I'm about 15 minutes ago. He goes, Really? Because Brother So-and-so and I were just praying over breakfast, and we mentioned he's I he when we got through praying, he looked at me and said, That guy last night with so-and-so, yeah, he's gonna get the Holy Ghost before this is over. Yeah, and I said, Man, let me tell you, that was the weirdest stuff. My eyes opened, I'm talking in tongues. I'm like, holy smokes, what the what's going on with this? Yeah, amen. And so um, yeah, and then Darlene and I continued on. Uh changed jobs.
SPEAKER_09I love how the first encounter and the first experience you had with God was when you're 15 and your heart's pounding and it's at the revival, and then here you are 30, 25 years later, and you're in a revival, hearts pounding.
SPEAKER_05You know, I I know it's not fashionable, but some of them old time revivals, yeah, but man, there was a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I wish we could have some of them. I do too.
SPEAKER_05I mean, we don't have the evangelists like we used to. I guess television streaming and everything's kind of taking that. I mean, some of them old old-fashioned, or you know, a lot of the churches back in the day used to be.
SPEAKER_01I miss an old screamer, dude.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah, me too.
SPEAKER_01Give me a pastor who's up there hooting and hollering, and I'm like, yeah, I'm on that bandwidth.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah, bro. Well, the funny thing is I love a good hooter. Yeah, the funny thing is, um, why uh today I'd like to see that again. We used to have what we used to call homecoming. You know, the church would say, hey, sometime in June, July, we're gonna have a big old homecoming. People who have moved away, we're gonna let touch out, reach out, maybe they can come back. This is like a family reunion. Yeah, that's cool. And they'd bring in a an uh maybe an evangelist for the couple of days, and you had meals on the ground, you shared meals together, just fellowship and bringing bringing the family back in. Yeah, yeah. The old you know, but you know, times change, people are more.
SPEAKER_01I may be the only one who feels this way these days. I think we should get I think we need a little more fire in Brimstone again. I like it. I think we got too many Christians that are just soft, grace filled, and think that grace just means they can do whatever the hell they want. Yeah, they need to be reminded that hell is still real, the fire of God still burns hot as hell. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05Yep. And my old pastor back there that I was talking about, the the new pastor, his name was Benny Ferguson. It's funny, his children at the time, his daughter, she was about probably five, his son was eight, and he's he was just learning to play the drums in the band. Well, little Benny is now the uh lead pastor of of uh Calvary Assembly of God in Frederick, Virginia. Amen. And I and I I send him messages every time, man. I remember when you were eight years old trying to figure out how to play the drums. And he was worship leader, he's done, he's gone through the whole, and you know, he's got a little, he's not as fiery as his dad was. He don't have the huzz like his dad did. His dad's still alive, his dad mother's still alive. And his sister's married to a pastor of a church in St. Louis, or executive pastor. But anyway, so I kind of I'm like you, I miss, I miss the old days. I miss the hey, let's get it on. So Darlene and I got married.
SPEAKER_01I think our I think our church world is in for a big shock, buddy. Yeah. There's a lot of people who come to church and that they think they're a Christian that are not gonna get into heaven, buddy.
SPEAKER_05Well, I had a pastor, Pastor Benny one time said, he was preaching. He said, you know what? You're gonna be surprised if you make heaven. Yeah, you're even gonna be surprised who made it and who didn't. Yeah. You're gonna walk in there and go, how'd that guy get in here? And then you're gonna look around and go, wait a minute, where's so-and-so? Where'd that guy go? He goes, he goes, it's a real deal, folks. It is. And you know, pastoring then was different. Yeah. Um I think we need to put the fear of God back into some people these days, brother. I yeah, I uh it's a funny thing. Heather and I look at pastoring differently. Imagine that, right? Yeah, Heather's more maybe because I didn't finish high school. Heather's more, she likes, she went on to college. Obviously, I went on to Boogerhead. She likes to be taught. I know that college. Yeah. So do I think that's the college of Boogerhead. You gotta see our family, you gotta bring a reunion with a reunion with her. Uh she likes a pastor who's like Pastor David or Pastor Dave. A teacher. She likes a teaching type of pastor. Our very first pastor, and we'll get into him a little later, was more like Pastor Dave, more of a teacher. Nothing wrong with it. I enjoy it. I enjoy it. You need to be taught. I'm the guy. Man, look, I'll fire up the TV or the YouTube and get out RW Schonbach out. I get RW Shinebach jumping out again. Come on. I'm like, she's like, what's that? I said, man, these old schools, these are pretty. I said, these guys, if you sit on the front road, you got a mouthful of spit and sweat. Yeah, your towel wasn't for wiping their head, it was wiping the spit and sweat off your. Everybody was kids heading up. We know she likes to sit up front. Well, that's because if I go to the ball game to see the diamondbacks, I gotta spend a lot of money sit up front. I can sit up front for free. Yeah, that's right, buddy. And besides, now the worship team wishes I'd sit further back and sing, and that way it'd push people forward. Because they're like, man, we can hear him. We'd rather he didn't sing. But uh, so that's not true you were on the choir. I was. Yeah. Well, actually, it was on the choir, and then we had uh we did have a little quartet. It wasn't too bad. Come on, baby. If I start singing right now, the worship team would throw me right out in the front row.
SPEAKER_09Well, you said they'd start drinking with here. Yeah. It wouldn't be the the the wine.
SPEAKER_05Uh so we moved on. Uh we started in the first assembly God, uh, changed jobs, not didn't get fired, quit, uh, moved around. Then we ended up back in West Plains, Missouri, where uh Darlene was from and where I met her. And uh we moved in with her mom just because her mother was old and widowed, and it it was financially good for us, it's financially good for her.
SPEAKER_09Have the Darlene's pregnant, or she had the girl.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, she had our daughter, and then we moved to a town for Raleigh. We had Amanda, and uh we owe the night Amanda was born, and Amanda, I know you're listening. You're gonna kill your dad later. When Amanda was born, first of all, Darlene didn't have our children until late in life. She was 38 when she had Amanda, she or excuse me, 37, 39 when she had Chris. So that's late pregnancy. Yeah. So especially for your first. Yeah. So everything's great. Went through the Lamaz class. I I was fun at the Lamaz class. You are who Oh, trust me. The second night we were there, they said, okay, now dads, what we want. Moms get on all four, dads get behind them and rub their back. I said, Well, this is how this started. This is how we got here. Our doctor was leading it, and she's like, You behave. I said, I'm just saying. So we go through that and we have Amanda. And Amanda's born. Everything, the delivery's good and everything, but she's not breathing. Now we've got a brother and sister from church there waiting in the waiting room, and she's not breathing. And Darlene's like, What's wrong with her? I said, I don't know. I'm looking over the side, you know, at the doctor. Man, he's, you know, banging and beating and stuff. And he finally tells the girl, uh, give me a suction thingy. You know how they suck their nose and everything. Nothing's going on, nothing's going on. And finally, he puts this little tube down her throat and sucks it out. She starts squalling. I'm like, thank God. And I holl out, Praise God! And my friends down the hall could hear me and they're like, Oh, that baby's born. And what she did is uh just before she was born, she had a um a um bowel movement and it's stuck in her throat. And so they put her in intensive care for a couple of days because sometimes that'll streak in the lungs and cause pneumonia. Yeah. But she's fine. She's she's been squalling ever since then. She's a good kid. She's a great mother. I'm so proud of her. She's a she's a good mom. Yeah. And uh, but she hates that story because when her brother came along, he reminds her every every story.
SPEAKER_09That's exactly what he said. I love you, Amanda. Keep raising those kids, man.
SPEAKER_05But the funny thing was is we figured out when Chris Chris is trying to call me now. We figured out when his ears are ringing. Yeah. When Chris, we kind of figured out when Chris was conceived, we'd went to a company um Christmas party. Yeah. And we had some adult beverages, and when we got home, we did what adults do. I was like at the party, bro. So Amanda's comeback to Chris is, yeah, I may have had that problem, but you you've got alcohol syndrome because mom and dad were drunk when you were conceived. So it's a good pick. They're they're they're great kids. I love them to death. I'm so proud of them. Yeah. Uh Chris has our has a baby now. It's a miracle baby. And uh she wasn't supposed to be here. She's nine months old now. Come on. And uh, they're both parents that their mother would be so proud of. Yeah. Amanda looks just like her mother, has her mother's everything. Um I'm I'm I'm I'm a very blessed and proud father. But we had Amanda, we had Chris when we moved back to home to West Plains. Um, started thinking, what's my job choices? So I'm 32 years old, 33 at this time, and I decided, you know, I've always wanted to drive a truck. So I went truck driving to school and became a truck driver. And I was telling Rowdy, I've
Trucking Life, Pills, And Temptation
SPEAKER_05always been a nomadic spirit, and I'd always move my family around. So when I decided to become an over-the-road trucker, one of my best friends says, Thank God, now you don't move your family all over, you just move you. I guess it's still you just run around. So I became a truck driver, and for the next 30 years, that's what I did. I drove a truck. And um in the eight, I started driving in 1988. I'm still in the business today. It's been 31, well, 88 to 20, 30, 30, 38 years almost. Yeah. Uh we I always tell that I know how long I've been driving because Chris was a month old when I started driving a truck. And he goes, Dad, you left right after I was born. I said, Yeah, I looked at you and decided this one. I'm leaving this one to the mother. So I went to drive in a truck, drove over the road, had uh, you know, truck driver stuff, man. You learn to do drugs, you learn to you know, backrosses. Oh, yeah. California turnarounds. I mean, I'd load up in Salinas, California. I'd pop a few pills and keep popping them until I got over to about um Amarillo, Texas. And then what was that?
SPEAKER_09That was the quaaludes?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we just call them little Bennies and keep you going. Yeah. And you run over there to uh around Amarillo, Texas. I take about an eight-hour nap and I'd get up, pop a few more, and then the next time be somewhere out in Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, somewhere around there, get a little nap in, and I go on out to New York and turn around and do it again. That's why I call them California turnarounds. Yeah. Um, a lot of temptations on the road that I fell for. Uh, did a lot of stupid. Darlene was homekeeping the fires burning, and she didn't give up on me. She was a fighter. Wow. As I tell Rowdy earlier, a couple of people have asked me, does it bother Heather that you talk about Darlene in such a passionate way? And Heather will tell you, no. Yeah. Because he loved her because she was Darlene. He loves me because I'm Heather. Yeah. It's not the same love. I have never once looked at Heather and said, Darlene used to make tata salad like this. Yeah. Or Darlene used to do that. Or Darlene used to do this. Yeah.
Darlene’s Cancer Fight And Passing
SPEAKER_05Darlene died January 23rd, 22nd at 123 in the morning in 1997. Wow. From cancer. She fought cancer for five years. Amanda. Dang, bro. So I had taken time off the road, got a local job driving to be with her. She uh fought the battle up and down for about five years, from about 92 to 97. You guys met in 85. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, dang, bro. And the funny thing about it, not funny, ha ha, but the weird thing about it is, as I was telling Roddy earlier, I have never been in a cancer war and found a coward. Yeah. There are fighters, man. You want to meet some fighters? I don't care if they're kids or if they're an 80-year-old man. These folks fight. Oh, yeah. We recently, as we know, both know, we celebrated one of the most precious people I got the pleasure to meet. Yeah. I wish that had more time with her, was Renee. Yeah, man. And when we went to her celebration of life, man, it was off the charts. Yeah. It was off the charts. When your family can get up there and speak about you in that way, you are the real deal. And like I told Riley, the last few times I got to see Renee, she was doing what Renee did best. Worshiping Jesus. Worshiping Jesus. Yeah. Going through treatment, worshiping Jesus. Hair loss, worshiping Jesus. When that band hit the first note, that girl was in lock. She wasn't worshiping band to me back to band. She was worshiping band to me to God. Father God, I'm looking. I know my time is numbered. I'm going to see you soon. I'm going to lock it up and lock it in. I was so inspired by that. And I told our new pastor, DQ, I said, man, I went to a wake last Sunday. I told him I went to a wake yesterday, and he was like, Man, I'm sorry to hear that. And I said, No, you need to understand. This was a celebration of life. This is a woman who lived a life. And as Pastor Dave said, was it the perfect life? No. The only one will lived the perfect life. But it was an ex it was an inspiring life. Yeah, it was. It was a life that fought the fight. It was a life that took her her nieces and nephew under their wings like they were their own. Spoke truth over them, spoke over them. Yeah. Took them in. Man, you don't get no better than that. Everybody should have an Aunt Renee. Right. Amen. Everybody should have an Aunt Renee. Yeah. And uh I wish the time I known her was longer.
SPEAKER_09The last time I seen her, man, I came here and she it was it was actually her life, I didn't know, but it was her last time here. And I I had come in, I think I was late or saying hi to somebody when I came in. She seen me and she's all you're gonna worship with me? Say, yeah, man. She said, Amen. It's just blessing me. No, we're gonna worship together this morning.
SPEAKER_05Well, you know, uh, we came, Heather needed to pick up her um her uh thing from being Thail's her graduation material, uh her certificates and stuff, and her diploma. And uh Renee wasn't here, and I told Heather on the way home, man. I miss my Renee. I did we didn't know, we've been away from church, so we didn't know that she was going down that path that finally was come, that time had come. And uh and I missed her.
SPEAKER_06And she used to stop me and say, You you put the craziest dad jokes on Facebook. You you're just nuts.
SPEAKER_05I wish I'd have got to know her in Longer, but I'm thankful for the time God gave me with her. Yeah, she was a unique, special person. Like I said, I've never met anybody in cancer treatment that's a sissy. No, they're all tough, man. To see the little ones go through it breaks my heart. Yeah, but so uh I started driving and uh Darlene contacted the cancer, fought it for five years. Uh she died at home. Uh we had made that she was still living with her parents, her mother, uh, or in her mother's home, and we had uh we were sitting there and Friday morning hospice came to me and said, We're in a 72-hour window. So if she's got any family, it's time to call them home if they want to spend some time with her. She was very lucid, she was there, she was active, she was you know, of sound mind and just tired from the treatments. And so I called her brothers and I called her niece and nephew that are that lived out in California, and they all came in. Um I asked my friend, I said, How do they know to predict this 72-hour window? And they said, they look at their feet, they call it modeling. They can tell by the color of the toes and toenails that blood circulation starting to pool and start not going back up. And I said, Okay. Um they told me at like eight o'clock in the morning on Friday. We lost her at 1 23 uh Sunday morning. It was funny. Her brothers all got to see her. They everybody about five o'clock on Thursday night. She said, She told my sister-in-law, her sister, she said, Go get Dale. So she came in. I was in the living room smoking cigarettes and hanging out with my brother-in-law. I walked in, I said, She goes, Dar, dar one. She we all called her dark. She goes, Dar once. She said I went in there and said, Yeah, baby. She said, It's time. She said, I'm about to go. So we called the kit, everybody around the bed. And I said, And I'm holding her hand, I says, How do you know it's time? She said, I see him. He's on the other side of the river, and he's waiting for me. That's why you said the river. Yeah. That's why you said the river.
SPEAKER_09A lot of people say the bridge, yeah, but you said the river, and I was wondering where you got that from. I was from Darlene.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, just on the other side of the river. He's on the other side of the river. And she goes, He's standing there waiting for me. I'm ready. And the more she told me this, the man, I could see her face brightening up. It's like, man, I'm out of here. It sucks to be you guys. And we talked and we talked, and it never happened. And finally, she's like, it went on for about 30 minutes. We're all sobbing and they're waiting. And she goes, Well, guess it ain't gonna happen. That was her way. And so everybody kind of filled her out of the room. I said, What do you think? She goes, I don't know. She said he was right there, but he never put his hand out for me. And she goes, I don't know. And she said, But I know where I'm going. I said, Well, we've known that forever. She goes, I know, but now I know where I'm going. And about 20 minutes later, an ambulance went by our house and the sirens were going. She goes, You didn't call the ambulance, did you? And I said, No, why? She goes, I want to die at home. I said, That's the pro that's the plan, unless you get pain so bad that we have to take you to the hospital. She goes, No, I'm gonna die here. So they went on. I've been up since Friday. Now we're into Friday Saturday night. Finally, everybody goes back to the motel, their brothers and sisters and the nephews and everything. And he says, nephews, and we're waiting. And I finally went in our room. It was a big bedroom, and I threw down some blankets, and her sister was sitting on the bed that I usually slept on next to her hospital bed. And I said, Honey, I'm gonna lay down here by you. I'm gonna hold your hand. If you need me for anything, just squeeze my hand, I will wake up. You know that. And she goes, I know, I know. So I kissed her on the forehead and I laid down, and I had no sooner laid down than her sister Bonnie said to me, She goes, Dale, I think she's gone. And I went, What? She goes, I think she's gone. So I jumped to my feet, I looked at her, I reached down, closed her eyes, I pulled the cascade up to her neck, and I said, Yeah, she's gone. The kids were in the back bedroom sleeping. At this time, Amanda's 11 and Chris is nine. So we had already made arrangements with the funeral home. So I called hospice, the nurse came out, did what she needed to do. We called the we called the um uh mortuary, they sent their guy out. Uh shows you how God works really crazy and has a sense of humor. We had a back bedroom and you went out of it and you went on a wood porch and out to the backyard. So she had she'd weighed maybe 98 pounds. She lost all that kind of weight. So Tim Cherry is his name. He comes in the house and he goes, Okay, Dale. You know, he goes, I think I'm gonna take her out the back door. Now this is December 23rd or 22nd, just before Christmas. And he opens up the door and he walks out to, you know, see, and next thing I knew, down the steps he goes and he's out in the backyard because it's all iced over. And I'm thinking, oh my God, I got a dead wife in here, a guy out there with a broke leg. Now what am I gonna do? So I go out there, Tim, you okay? Yeah, I'm okay. Get something, kind of hobbles back in. He goes, that's not a good alternative. I said, Yeah, you think? He goes, I said, I'm glad you didn't break something. He said, I'm gonna take her out through the front. And I said, Okay, I'll keep the kids in the back. So we kept the kids in the back bedroom. He carried her through the thing and out to the front, put her in a uh the sack and put her back, put her in the little uh wind star van that he brought. And we had a wind star, and she hated that van because the heat never would warm up. So they're pulling away, and I was kind of chuckling. Her niece goes, What are you laughing about, Unc? Her last rides in a wind star. I said, Yeah, last rides in a wind star. She's probably going, Hey, Tim, turn that heat up. It's a little cold bag here, buddy. So I go back in the house and I'm with the kids and I explain to them. Now, working with the cancer people, I ask them many times, I said, How do I explain this to my children that they understand without spooking or scaring them? I always believed my children had already been to funerals. They knew what funerals look like. I am one that from my parents took me to every aunt and uncle funeral we ever had. They thought the exposure was significant. So I made sure my kids wouldn't, even when my mother-in-law would gripe at me about it. Why are you doing that? That scares the kids. I said, because that's life. Yeah. It's part of life. And I'm glad I did because they experienced it the hardest way you can. So uh hospice had told me you talk to their level. Yeah, you don't over talk them, you don't undersell it. You talk, and as their level gets better, you explain more and more. So they had the concept, they knew what to expect. So we talked about it. They went back to bed. And I'm sitting there about 3 30 in the morning and I'm smoking a cigarette, drinking a cup of coffee to my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law. And I'm like, dang. Like, what? I said, I just realized I'm a single father of an 11-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy. Yeah. And I got no support. Well, they're like, We'll support you. You know, we'll be there. And I say, No, you don't understand. I don't have mom support no more. Your granny and your auntie. I don't got mom no more. And I got an 11-year-old daughter that's about to go through girl things that guys don't know nothing about. Yeah. And I'm scared. Wow. I'm scared of scared. I've never been scared. That scared in my whole life. Wow. And I've I've been threatened with a knife. That didn't scare me as bad as this did. Yeah. So we went through, we did the funeral, and and I explained to her brothers and sisters, I said, we're going to get this funeral done on the 23rd if she passes. And we did the next day. And I said, please don't think I'm trying to run your sister into the grave because I'm not. But I got Christmas coming up. And the last thing I wanted to do was have the kids have that high of Christmas, and then the next day have to bury their mother, and then that week before they go back to school. Yeah. I want them to have the worst, get that Christmas high in there, and then just kind of work our way to, you know, the New Year's. I mean, they supported every decision I made. They were like, yep, no, that's a good call, blah, blah, blah. So we went through and then we struggled through over the next few years. And
Single Dad Years And Rebound Marriage
SPEAKER_05in 2002, I was working for a company called Heartland Express. I went there, worked there. Did you stay living at her mom's? Yeah, I stayed there for living for a while. With with her sister and her mom. Well, no, her sister lived back in Kansas. You know, this is something you find out in Grief Share. Yeah. And uh in Grief Share, you find out people are always good to be your buddy. Oh, I'll be there for you, Rowdy. Man, I'm with you, brother. You you pick that phone up, you call me, I got you. Yeah. Until you call. Yeah. And then I ain't got you. I got things to do. Yeah. And it's the same way with family. You know, we're with you, but you know, I gotta take Junior to the ball game. I got my family. It's not a slam on those. No. It's not. No. But when you're the left one behind. Now my mother-in-law was there. She was cool. She was there. Amen. I married another woman by the name of Candy after that off the rebound just to have somebody. Didn't work out. Divorced her.
SPEAKER_10I told you I was a boogerhead.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_10I'm just I want to know what the mascot looks like.
SPEAKER_05The funny thing with the Candy relationship is she had a grown daughter and a granddaughter. Her granddaughter calls me Jeep Paw. Yeah. And in our couple of weeks ago when we were back in Missouri, that granddaughter was with us. And uh I love them both, Tracy and Megan and Eddie, her husband. They're great, they're family. Yeah. They're family. They'll always be family, even though their mother and I didn't. Candy later passed away. Shortly after we divorced, she um started getting early dementia and she passed. So I met met Heather. She was married. I met her uh at Heartland Express. She was a customer service rep. I was a driver. In Missouri? In Iowa. So Oh, you moved you moved to Iowa? No, I was still living in Missouri, but the home office was in Iowa. Oh, okay. And that's where Heather lived. Yeah. And um, I did her a favor on a run one time, and she goes, oh, next time. Hawkeyes are cyclones. Oh, Hawkeyes, man. Cyclones. Well, gotta give a little credit. Two of the kids went to Iowa State and were cyclones. Rocky went to Iowa, so did Maddie, so or Iowa State. But Maddie now goes to Iowa getting her doctorate. So, you know, she she she got converted.
SPEAKER_04But we um apparently apparently in Iowa this is a real sun devils. Devil worshipper. What can I say?
SPEAKER_05Well at least it's a sun devil. Yeah. But uh no, in in Iowa, you're either one or the other. Oh yeah. Uh now when they don't play each other, you know, the once a year they play each other, it's like Arizona does. But uh the rest of the year you can be a clone the rest of the year, you're you're changing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But my boss is a transplant. I'm sorry. My boss is a transplant. Oh, is he? So he's from Wisconsin, moved to Arizona, and now his family all lives in Iowa. Oh, yeah, I remember you telling me. So they I want to say they're cyclones. You know what I mean? I think I asked him one time what which way he went. I think he said cyclones. And he was explaining to me the severity of this rivalry that they have because they don't because they don't really have no professional sports. So for them, it's all college. Yep. They're that's their That's the deal. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05And the funny thing is, is uh for a few years there, they had to quit having the game because it had gotten violent. Really? I mean, they had people going at it in the stands. Wow. So for a couple of years, they're like, okay, we need this back. Yeah, yeah, these boys are good, these big boys are starting to get to it. So uh um he said green beans and green beans and potatoes? Yeah, well, corn.
SPEAKER_01Corn, there you go. Yeah, corn and soybeans. He said, uh he said, man, I need to learn how to grow beans and corn, man, because them dudes are yelling at man.
SPEAKER_05They do uh it's probably one of the top three states for corn production and soybean production. So uh met Heather. I did her a favor on a load. She said, next time you're in Iowa, I want to meet you. I said, okay. So I showed up and I walked in in all my swagger. I had on a I had on how old are you? Uh 40s. I'm in my mid-40s now. And uh so you have been humbled a little bit. Yes.
SPEAKER_09Some reason you hit that 40 mark, man. We it's like we hit the same.
SPEAKER_05We used to be. So I had on a black satin jacket with a big eagle on the back of it.
SPEAKER_09Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05I had a mullet. Something. It was Jerry Reed was looking for going for it. It's bounding down. Oh no, he hit it. So I uh I had this uh had a mullet and we had a company policy, no hair, and uh but I'm an owner operator. I just got my truck leased on my own truck and it's leased at a company. So I thought took it a little liberties. Company policy was no hair below the collar. I got my hair tucked under my hat just like the old song, go in with my hair tucked under my hat. So I got my hair tucked under and I'm literally literally because if I let it out, it's down past my shoulders. So I walked in, so I'm racking a mallet, man. I'm looking good. I mean, you can't get any better looking at me, right? So I walk in, I meet Heather, and we chat a few minutes. Well, the vice president of sales comes down and he goes, Hey Heather, who's your new friend? She goes, Oh, it's Dale, he did me a big favor and everything. So, or the owner did. I'm sorry, it was the owner, Russ. Great, great man, great man. Comes down, introduces him to the owner. He goes back up to his office. Next thing the vice president of sales comes down, his name, Rich Meehan. Rich walks up to Heather and goes, Is this your friend Dale? And she goes, Yeah, yeah. So we shake hands and he goes, You telling him where to get a haircut? Like, dang, I mean the president said something. Yeah, the president ain't fooling him. This dude ain't running a billion-dollar company unless somebody with hair get by him. Right. So I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, we'll take care of that. So we went out and had a had dinner. Heather was in a most her family and everybody around us didn't realize she was in a shaky relationship. Wasn't violent or anything like that. It was just not working. Yeah. There was no God in it. Yeah. There was no anything. I'm not a God guy right now. I'm still back to being a boogerhead now. And I'm kind of back at that boogerhead end. Yeah, yeah. So her and I it never was sexual. It was right from the jump. It was, hey, let's go out and have dinner, let's do these. We had a few dinners together. This converse she'd call me, I'd call her. It just evolved. Yeah. A friendship. Yeah. It started out as a friendship, and it's like, man, this is but it went on steroids really quick. I mean, it took off. And so when she did leave her husband, uh, she moved in with me for for about six months, and then we got married. Um, so she ended up divorcing him. She ended up divorcing Sam. He's a great guy. Okay. He's a Sam and I have been friends. We've only had two incidents where we had to have a conversation about something. Yeah. One I will never tell you about because it's doesn't need to be told. No, it wasn't. It's not that kind of thing. The other was Sam took the divorce very heavily. I understand that, been there myself. Um, and he was drinking a lot. And when he'd have the kids, he'd go out to some friend's house or his relatives and he'd drink and drive home. Well, the children were all minors. Yeah. Rocky was like three, the girls were in their, you know, nine and eleven, somewhere in that neighborhood. Yeah, we're gonna have to talk about it. So I went and told him, say, we've got to have a conversation. He goes, Well, what's the conversation? I said, conversation is you ain't driving with the kids in the car drunk. That's right. If you're somewhere and you got that problem, call me. I'll come get the kids. I'll come get you. I don't care, but you don't have the you do not have permission to chill kill these children or cripple them. Yeah, you understand what I'm putting down. He's like, Yeah. I said, You need to understand. I don't play. Yeah. So he's like, okay, okay, dude. You know, and I said, Sam, this goes for you personally. If you go somewhere and you can't drive, call me. I'll come get you. Heather and I'll come get you. Yeah. Sam is a wonderful person. He's been a great father. Yeah. I have nothing bad to say about this man. He's been a friend to me, and we'll get into that in a few minutes. He's been a friend to me like a brother. Yeah. And it's just the way it is. Amen. You know, it's just that it worked out the way it worked out. But I will you will never catch me put this guy down. Amen. And uh so we did our thing, we got married. You know, the kids kind of adjusted to it a little bit. What year are we at here? We're in 2000. See, I know Rowdy the day I got married. We were on honeymoon in Mexico and she had it tattooed on my arm.
SPEAKER_08You're never gonna forget that. No. We both had the same tattoo.
SPEAKER_05Well, she told me there's only three ways I can forget my anniversary. One, I get dementia. Yeah, two, I lose my arm in an industrial accident. Or three, I quit taking a bath. And if I ain't taking a bath, I don't need to worry about coming home for no anniversary. We can't get in no bed with no stinky man. So that took care of that part.
SPEAKER_08I love that. She got the same tattoo.
SPEAKER_05So, anyway, that's the first and the first tattoo I got, and then I got this one at Sturgis, but got that one there. And uh so we got married. Um, we've always had a um a rule in our house. We have no stepchildren. Amen. We have children. Yeah, that's right, buddy. We don't step on people and they're not half a brother. There's no stepdads, there's no stepmoms. Amen. Now, I don't expect Heather's children to call me dad. They have a father. Yeah, he's earned the title.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05He didn't give he didn't relinquish his title. They called me Dale. My children call Heather Heather most of the time. Yeah. You know, it's just that simple. Yeah. We we had a couple rules from the get-go that we've always lived by. Rule one was there's no step anything in this house. Rule number two, if Heather and I can't decide if if she's disciplining one of my children, I'm good with it. If I'm disciplining one of hers, I'm she's good with it. If I'm not doing it the way I she does it the way I don't think she should, we'll talk it in the bedroom. Yeah. We will never discuss discipline in front of the children. Yeah. That's not the place for it. Amen. Because children aren't stupid.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, we're gonna play here against each other. That's right.
SPEAKER_05You put the wedge in there, they'll start to hammer hammer. So we that's always been, I can honestly say we have children that we can
Meeting Heather And Blended Family Rules
SPEAKER_05we're so proud of because the three things we've never had to experience so far. Yeah. We've never had one in rehab.
SPEAKER_01Nice.
SPEAKER_05We've never had one in jail. Nice. And we've never had to go to the morgan identify one. Yeah. They've all become two great, two great children.
SPEAKER_01Well, generally, if you avoid the first two, the third one usually doesn't happen. Yeah. Usually.
SPEAKER_05And and unfortunately, Heather and I didn't get into God until about 2010, 2013. Yeah. I mean, into God. Yeah. So when we started out, you know, we're riding motorcycles, we're hanging out in bars, we're doing going to sturges. We're creeping up the sturges. Um and we're just doing it, right? You're in your 40s.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Here's the dumb thing. I'm 46 years old at this time, and when we get married, and Heather says, I'd like to have a baby. I say, You're crazy. First of all, you can't have one because you you had your tubes tied. And she's like, No, right. I'd really like to have your baby. I said, You're really crazy. You understand that if we have a child, I'll be 66 when this little booger goes off to I'd be dragging an oxygen bottle down. I'll be really cranky. This is not gonna look good. She's like, No, I really do. And she started calling around. Duke University wanted 10 grand to reverse everything. And I'm like, Well, we're broke. Well, I can borrow some money. No, we can't. We're not doing this. Oh man, I was just thinking yesterday. I'm 69. I'm thinking that kid would be like 23. I don't know if I have patience. We may have to visit one somewhere. But when we got married, it was a very stressful time. Her father absolutely loved Sam. Heather and her ex-husband lived right next door to her parents. He brought Sam in as the manager of his grocery store he owned. So he was not happy about this deal at all. He was very family-oriented dad. Heather's dad. Heather's dad. And he didn't talk to us for a year. He didn't talk to Heather. Only time we had communication was through her mother. Really? Yep. The only time he let her in the house was when her aunt came back from Pennsylvania. His sister and Heather and her aunt were very close. She went over, he let her in the house long enough to visit with the aunt for Day Daddy evening. And he was very cold. He wasn't mad as much as he was hurt because his ideal of a family is you stay together no matter what. And I was not his favorite. If he was picking, it sure wasn't going to be me. And the ironic thing is my birthday is on their wedding anniversary.
SPEAKER_01Oh no.
SPEAKER_05So that even was more gas on the fire. So anyway, we went through the first year. He found out I wasn't going to break. And just out of the blue, he calls up one day and he says to my mother-in-law says, Hey, I want the kids over. She goes, over for what? He goes, Sunday. Sunday afternoon in his family was a big deal to have family get-togethers. He goes, So I want Heather, Dale, Dale's two children, Heather's three children, and I want um her sister Grace and her uh boyfriend at the time, and I want Sam. They're all gonna be here at my house. Okay. So we all showed up, and I'm you know, I'm sitting there thinking if this goes off the rails, I'm the guy. Yeah. Because I'd rather I'd rather fight than eat. Yeah. So doesn't make me no difference how this goes down. Yeah. I I'm in for either. So we get there, have a great time. Her dad says to the kids, hey, uh to the little ones, why don't you go out and play or go over your dads for a few minutes? So just all the adults in the room and my two kids. He goes, Okay, we've had a year of separation. It's time to heal this mess. It's like, okay. It's on you, dude. Yeah. And he looks at Chris, he goes, So Chris, you're what, 16? He goes, Yeah. Your dad, you need a job, don't you? And he goes, Yeah. And he goes, Sam, tomorrow I'll put Chris on the schedule at the store. We'll start working him at the store. That's why he's going to high school. Sam's like, okay, I'm good with that. And Sam treated Chris like gold. Come on, man. And Chris thinks the world of Sam. And then Amanda was already working. He goes, if you need some work, we can work you part-time too. She was getting in the healthcare stuff. And she's no, I'm good. And so, you know, it just act like it never happened.
SPEAKER_06Really?
SPEAKER_05And we started having, you know, I miss my father-in-law tremendously. Yeah. We had a lot in common. Politically wise, family-wise, we see things a lot the same. We came kind of from the same generation. I was raised by my grandchildren. We're the same, or my grandparents were the same age as his parents. Yeah. Lived through the same things. They grew up in the he grew up in the West Virginia coal mines. He was a great man, a great mentor to me. I love him. I miss him terribly. I can hear it in your voice. I wished I would have had the last time to talk to him, but he was already down that side by the time I got back to Iowa to be with him. He hadn't passed yet, but he had got to the where you couldn't communicate.
SPEAKER_09So you need to know that you'll get that opportunity again.
SPEAKER_05Oh yeah. And uh he was just a good dude. And and I never hated him or was never mad at him for protecting his family. That's all he was doing. It wasn't it was personal, but it wasn't personal.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_05He he just knew somebody broke up his family and that kicked him off. And then he found out the guy that broke up, and then he found out how happy his daughter was, then it started changing.
Heart Attack In New York
SPEAKER_05When I had my heart attack behind the wheel, and how old were you? I was fift 49. I uh I was 49 on August 3rd. I turned 50 in August 21st. And when I had my heart attack in New York behind the wheel of the truck.
SPEAKER_01Oh shit.
SPEAKER_05Yep. And then they then they took me to the hospital. First turn, they come and got me.
SPEAKER_01And uh Wait, hold on a second. Like my idea of a heart attack is is you're kind of like out of it, right?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I'm I'm going down. Well, back the story up. I just emptied out in Syracuse, New York.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, he was able to like call and stuff.
SPEAKER_05It was crazy. Uh and uh I I got me a meal.
SPEAKER_01So you knew it was coming on.
SPEAKER_05Uh I knew something was happening. Yeah. So I got me a McDonald's meal. I called Heather. I said, uh That's where you went wrong. Yeah, she calls it to death meal now. That's right. She said, What are you doing? I said, I just picked up some McDonald's. I'm headed to Rochester, New York to load in the morning. And she goes, Okay. She goes, uh, so what'd you get? And I said, Yeah, you know, the usual, oh, a quarter pounder with cheese, large fry, and two cheeseburgers and a diet coke. I'm on a diet, honey. I'm trying to lose a little weight here. She goes, Okay, well, I'm getting ready to clean, move the furniture out because we're going to shampoo the carpets this weekend. Me and the kids, I said, okay, so don't call me back because I'm going to be busy. I says, Fine, I won't call you back. You know, so hang up. I'm driving down the road, finish my meal, and about 10, 15 minutes afterwards, I'm having some real discomfort in my chest. And I'm like, man, this ain't this ain't indigestion. Yeah. So I'm like, hmm, hmm. So it's getting more tight and more painful. And I'm not going to lie to you, this is honest God. I said, and I'm not going to church regular. I'm just a boogerhead still. I said, God, if you will save me from killing anybody else, get this rig off the road in a safe spot where I don't kill anybody else. You can do what you you want. And as God's my witness, it wasn't a half a mile later. I seen a sign that said, rest area, one mile. And it wasn't a rest area that had bathrooms and all that. It was just a big pull-off area for trucks. I pulled in there, I called 911, I told the operator where I was at and what was I thought was going on. She said, Don't lay down. I said, I've already taken an aspirin. I'm sitting in the seat. I'm just waiting. The pain, she's, you know, nine to ten. It's it's probably a good solid nine, headed to ten really quickly. She's all right, I'm in a rural area, so I've got to wait till people go to the fire station, get their gear, and come out. I'm not like they're on duty all the time. I call Heather back. I'll call the company and have them ping me with my computer to make sure I've given them the right location and let them know what's going on. Then I call Heather and she answered for them, what do you want? I told you that's cleaner. Pull it up fridger, I said, uh just thought maybe you'd like to know. I think I'm having a heart attack. I'd like to visit with you a little bit before I go out. And she's like, What? So now we're on the phone for like 15 minutes. Wow. And it's going on. She goes, You feel like you're gonna pass out? No, just hurts like hell. And she goes, okay. She goes, Why aren't they there? Why aren't they there? And I'm like, honey. It's a rural area. It takes them a minute. These guys just got off the job, you know. So they get there, they help me out of the truck, the guy goes, puts me on the gurney. He goes, You sure it's not indigestion? I said, Nah, I'm pretty sure. I said, So he lifts my tongue, gives me two squirts of nitro, and I wait about 10 seconds. I said, Oh, by the way, I said, I'm not getting a headache. He goes, Oh, so you know. I said, Yeah, if somebody squirts nitro under your tongue and you're not having a heart attack, you'll get a massive ice cream headache real quick from it. And I wasn't getting a headache.
SPEAKER_09Oh, the the cold brain freeze? Yeah, the brain freeze headache.
SPEAKER_05So I'm like, yeah, because somebody told me that, and that's when I told him that, he goes, Yeah, well then we need to go. So we go to this little county hospital in Odina, New York. Walk in, they kind of prep me up. Doctor walks in, he's on a cane. Oh shit. Yeah, I look at him and I go, Whoa, this ain't good. He looks at me dead in the face. He goes, son, there ain't a thing I can do for you. And I'm like, What? This is a real deal. You better get right, buddy. You're about to see some light or not. Yeah. And uh he said, I'm gonna pull you full of morphine, I'm gonna send you back to St. Elizabeth in uh Utica, New York. That's the number one uh cardiac hospital in the area. Okay. So man, they load me up with morphine. I'm like, what hurt? This is the deal, buddy. Where's this stuff been all my life?
SPEAKER_09Now you see why I like getting high. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So we get back in the ambulance, we start heading back, and the guy's talking to me. He goes, How do you feel? I feel great, man. I think I can go ahead and drive that truck now.
SPEAKER_08How far are we away? You got any more of that stuff?
SPEAKER_05I did find a line my parents told me to. My brains are still here and I'm cool as beans. So we get back over, they do a quick assess of me, and they and the guy goes, I think we're gonna have to do some stint, but we'll know more tomorrow. So they make me comfortable the next morning. They load me up, take me down to ultrasound, and they're looking at my heart, and I'm watching this guy look over my shoulder, going, You're making all kinds of weird faces. And I'm like, hmm, that don't look good. Put me on a gurney, man. I blow chunks everywhere. I'm sicker than a dog. I'm like, wow. Warping. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what it is, but man, I'm sick as I mean, I'm I'm hitting people as they walk by. I'm projecting so good. Yeah, yeah. So we get up to the room and the doctor comes back and he says, Um, well, we can't, we're gonna we're gonna give you stunt uh stents. So we're gonna take you down right now and do the stents. I'll call your wife and let her know. Heather's on a plane now from Iowa City. From Iowa back to Detroit or back to New York. New York. And so she's already on the plane, so he leaves her a message, hey, we're doing the stints. So she gets off the plane in Detroit and she's got a little layover, and she says, uh, she calls the doctor, and he said, Yeah, well, we tried to do stints. He has two heart, two blockages at about 98 and one at about 99. We're gonna have to do open heart surgery. Probably gonna be it's gonna be bypass surgery. We're gonna do it tomorrow morning. So she gets on the phone to Amanda and Chris says, Hey, your dad's getting opened up tomorrow. You need to be in New York. You know, and they drove all night and day and got out there. So back upstairs we go. More morphine. Woo-hoo! Now I'm in intensive care and I don't care about nothing. Yeah, I'm just whoop-de-doopy dude. Yeah, the nurse's name is Heather. So we're we're just chilling, telling jokes. All right, they tell me I was telling jokes. I don't really remember a whole lot about it.
SPEAKER_09I can see that. I can see that.
SPEAKER_05So she's probably a hoot, dude.
SPEAKER_09I can see you. Loving him, bud. So anyway, he's the favorite patron on the block. Yeah, buddy. He needs a dude.
SPEAKER_05So they get there. Heather walks in, and so the guy comes from the anesthesia, and I'm wearing a goatee like I am now. And he goes, You know, it's really easier to keep that tube in your mouth if we can tape it to skin and not hair. I says, What do you mean? He goes, I can I shave it? I said, Oh, yeah, shave it as clean as a baby's butt. I don't care. Man, I'm now I'm slick. I ain't been this slick in years. Yeah. So uh Heather comes in and she goes, Oh my God, you look like your dad, my real dad, my biological dad. She'd take pictures of him. She goes, You look like your father. She goes, So we're gonna have bypass surgery. I said, Yeah, triple bypass, maybe quadruple. She goes, No, what? I said, Yeah. She goes, No. Doctor said bypass one. I said, No, doctor said three, maybe four. Yeah. Now she's lost her mind. She's on her and this heather are going back and forth, not arguing, just getting the lowdown. And so the whole night they both sit with me. And evidently I was quite entertaining to both of them. I can bet. Because they were telling talking about it later. Yeah. So the next morning, it's uh August the 3rd. It's my son's birthday. They're there. They get there about 15 minutes before I roll in. Wow. And uh they both, you know, my son-in-law. And uh Chris looks at me and goes, You better not die on my birthday. You're really gonna piss me off if you do. Say, hey, dude, I'm gonna do my best, you know. But right at this point, we're pretty much up to me and God on this one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So we walk back, and this is the weirdest thing that happened to me. And I hope people don't misunderstand what I'm saying. They get me on the table. I remember moving me to the table, I remember being almost butt-necked, and they're strapping and they're putting, they're all busy doing stuff. And they take my arm and they take this one and they strap it down, and then they take my left arm and strap it down, and they put kind of a thing around my head to hold my head still, and I'm looking up and all and sees that bright light hitting me in the face. Yeah, and the weirdest thing come over my mind, I said, God, this must have been what Jesus felt like when they strapped him to the cross. You feel so I can't do nothing about it. It's on. I can't stop this. I can't say, Whoa, can we think about this? It's done. Yeah. And that I'm not trying to compare that situation to Christ's. But you know what I'm saying? All of a sudden the realism starts to settle in. Yeah. And so they do the surgery, I come out, everything's good, stay a week, fly home. Heather almost ends up in jail in New York. And then I know it's hard to believe. I can see that. But we're we're on our way to the airport. I'm in the wheelchair, we got my luggage, her luggage, and we're just kind of too. She's pushing me. So we get across out of the car parking garage where we drop the rental car off. I'm sitting on the sidewalk. She goes, I can't carry all this in you two. I said, Well, that's fine, honey. Just we'll figure it out. And she goes, I'll go inside and get one of these guys' help. I said, Okay, so I'm sitting out, but I can see inside the, they got glass up, so I can see in the tournament area. And she's got her finger in this dude from TSA's face. She goes, Oh, doop, doop, doop, doop, doop. And I'm like, oh, crap, she's gonna end up in jail. So I'm pulling myself along, trying to walk this wheelchair into there before she ends up in jail. And so finally this other guy, Skycapped, comes out and helps her push me in and everything. I said, What the heck was that all about? She goes, Well, I told him, I asked if he could help me. He said, I can't go out there, I don't do that. She's like, My husband's right there. Take you two seconds. Just wheel him in the building. That's all I'm asking. I'll carry the luggage. I don't do that, blah, blah. And she goes, Oh, so you just rather stand there and not do nothing, just be lazy instead of just walking out and helping somebody like, chill, baby girl. It ain't good. So we get in there, we fly, we get back to Iowa, and my father in law. Who I dearly love is sitting there and my mother-in-law waiting to pick us up at the airport. So my father-in-law's pushing me through the airport. He goes, I bet you never thought I'd be pushing you. You thought you'd be pushing me. I said, Yeah, kinda. And he goes, You need to use the restroom? I said, Kinda. So he pushes me up to the urinal. He goes, You're on your own from here, buddy. This is where this is where you figure it out, buddy. You figure it out from here, buddy. Because I'm not a trained professional. I said, I appreciate what you've done. We're good. We get back home, and about a week or so afterwards, my father and mother-in-law walk over to me, or walk come into our house. My father-in-law is sitting there, and he looks at everything and he says to Heather, He goes, I want you to do me a favor. She goes, Okay, Dad. He goes, I want you to write down all your bills for the month and tell me the amount. She goes, Okay, I'll do that. And he goes, No, right now. So she writes them all out. She goes, Well, it's this amount of money, Dad. Why? He goes, Marty, that's my mother-in-law. She said, Marty, write him a check. We got him. We got you. We don't need you worrying about paying bills. Dad, we're all right. We we got this. Nope. I don't want you to worry about paying bills. The end of the month comes and we still need help. Call me. We'll figure it out. We'll write another check. That's the kind of guy he was. Wow. Now I'll tell you the kind of guy Sam is. When Heather needed to fly out that Saturday morning for me, she went to Sam and she gave him a check for $500. She said, Sam, can you hold this check for me for a week until we get paid? Sam's like, oh yeah, sure, not a problem. This is the kind of dude this dude is. About three months, maybe a month and a half later, Heather goes to Sam and says, Sam, you forgot to cash that check that I gave you. You're screwing up my bank account. He goes, I didn't forget anything. She goes, No, you need to cash that check so we know where we are on our bank account. And he goes, Okay. I didn't forget anything, Heather. I'm not taking your money. That's exactly right. He scratched that check off for her to fly out there and never asked for another dime back. Wow. Now, most families don't end up that way when there's that kind of situation. You don't have that. This is another reason why our children are as good as they are, because they didn't see dad hates this guy, dad hates mom.
SPEAKER_09Come on. You guys co-parented very well. Very well.
SPEAKER_05There were things that you know needed a little rub, everything needs a little sand on it, a little sanding. And so we got through the heart attack. We still were burger heads. We started back to riding bikes, doing everything. We went to Sturgis once, acted like jackasses. Yeah. Come back home, and our daughter and son-in-law said. What are you?
SPEAKER_09In your 50s?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I'm in my 50s. Okay. My best friend in Iowa, I call him my called him my little brother. He called me Big Daddy because that was my CB handle and what people call me on the bikes. I know I don't look that big, but that's what they saddled me with. His name was Jerry. His son married my daughter, married Amanda. They had a son, my grandson, Jace. Shortly after Jace was born, my son-in-law was infidelity with my daughter. And it ended up with them divorcing. And it tore Heather's heart out. Didn't do much for me. Because when we were there at their house, my friend Jerry was there and he he looked at me and he knew what I'm capable of. Yeah. And I'm not proud of it. He said, Big Daddy, don't kill my son. My answer to him was, Your son has stepped a line, he shouldn't have stepped over. And if he crosses it anytime, comes around me or anything, all bets are off, Jerry. I love you like my brother, but all bets are off. I'm not playing. And he goes, I'm just asking this one favor, and it's the only time I'll ask a favor of you ever again. And I said, I'm just telling you, anymore. And it I don't know where this goes. So shortly after that, uh Amanda moved in with my in-laws, and her and Jace stayed there for almost a year. They loved it. They loved having Jace in the house. It kind of brought life back in the house. They loved mentoring to Amanda. They loved her like she was their own granddaughter. And in that year, we started going to Iowa City Church.
Back To Church, Deacon To Elder
SPEAKER_05And uh Heather said, I think we need a church. And I'm like, out of all the people I know, you're the last one I would have thought says anything about church. Because she never had much of a church I was bringing. You guys heard her testimony. So we started going to Iowa City Church. We went there like the pastor, very quiet guy. His name's Pastor Tom Steele. He's a lot like Pastor David, very low-key demeanor, uh, very more of a teaching pastor, not the rah-rah guy. Yeah. And that was what Heather needed, and I'm comfortable with. So we started going to church there pretty regular. And we started, you know, gave our lives to Jesus again. And uh Christmas rolled around that year. And Jeremy had moved into an apartment above one of the houses in the small town we lived in. This is our son-in-law that divorced my daughter. Yeah. And um we're out at Ron and Marty's house doing the Christmas thing, Christmas Eve. And I didn't know it. Heather had bought a leather Bible. And so we're driving back home and she said, Uh, I need you to contact, tell Amanda to contact Jeremy and tell him to meet us downstairs where he's living. I said, Okay. So she goes, We need to run home. So we run home, she ran the house, come back out. So Amanda contacts Jeremy or gives me Jeremy's phone number. I call him and I said, I need to meet you downstairs outside your house in about five minutes. You're not gonna kick my butt or kill me or anything. All right, no, no, I'm not. But I need to see you. He goes, okay. So I got there and he was standing outside. And we walked up to him. We said, Jeremy, I don't agree with you did to my daughter. The other doesn't agree to it. It's been very painful, both of us. But God tells us to forgive you, and that's what we're gonna do. And what you do from this point on is on you, buddy. But you have our forgiveness. We're not happy about what happened, but we are told to forgive you as Christians. And Heather gave him the Bible. She said, Your answers will be found in this if you search it, because we're searching it and we're finding our answers for this. And we left. We hugged him and left the world, and we went back home. And Amanda calls me and she goes, Dad, so you guys gave Jeremy the Bible? And says, Yeah. He called me and he says, Man, this Bible is really cool. It's real leather. I can smell it. And I went, I don't need him to smell it, I need him to read it. But it started the transformation, and they started talking, they started working, it healed their family. Yeah. They moved back in together, they started raising Jace, and then she got pregnant and had Josie. Come on now. They're still just living together at that time. We're still just figuring it out. We're still now we're hooked into Iowa City Church, and Heather decides she's ready to be baptized. Nice. And she's like, I want you to baptize me. I'd been baptized as a child. Yeah. And uh when I was about uh 1967, the year Heather was born, I was baptized. So she goes, I want Dale to baptize me. So we called the whole family in, Ron Marty. Now they're not real religious people. They don't have it, and the kids are all there. It was on a Saturday afternoon. I took her in. So I asked Pastor Thomas, I said, How long did I get to hold her? How long did I get to hold her under? I know some of the things she's done. She needs to be under quite a while. And he goes, Well, I guess that depends on how far out in that doghouse you want to sleep. Well, you got a point, or how long you want to be on the couch. So I had the privilege of baptizing my wife, and it was one of the coolest things I've ever done. I've I've baptized other people since then. But I baptized her, and our life started to change. We started to get involved in the church. And Heather came up to me one day. She said, I think they're going to ask you to be a deacon. I said, I think you're nut. Yeah. That's what I think. Three weeks later, a guy approaches me off the deacon board and says, Would you like to be a deacon in our church? And I was like, Uh, you do know my background, right? Yeah. Yeah, we know your background. But would you like to be a deacon? Yeah. Okay. Let me think about it. Let me talk to God about this. Yeah. So I did.
SPEAKER_09Just so you know, we had one of those before you ended up transitioning out. You were on my list, buddy.
SPEAKER_05So we did, we did uh become a deacon. And I was on the deacon board for about a year and a half. And then Tim, uh, one of the elders came to me one night and he goes, Hey, I want to talk to you about something. I said, Yeah. He said, Would you consider being actually Heather had said something about two weeks before that? She goes, I think you're gonna be an elder. I said, I think you're gonna be nuts. Stop pushing things. And Tim came to me, he goes, We're looking at some guys to be elders. Uh would you consider it? And I said, Uh, you do know my background, right? And he goes, Yeah, but would you consider it? And I said, Okay. Let me think about it. Let me talk to God about this. So I spent about a month and I said, if it's the church's will and God's will, I'm good with it. It was a very hard transition for me because everybody wanted me to be a deacon, or excuse me, an elder. We had one person in the church who had who was an elder who thought I was a racist. I'm a lot of things. That ain't one of them. But what it was was a miscommunication. This guy is a professor at the university. He's from India. He's been a professor at Florida State University. Uh he had gone to India, flew back through Toronto, back home. Donald Trump had just been elected the first time. And so I just asked him, Did you have any trouble getting back in the country? Because the first time there was some of that going on, and I I knew he was a U.S. citizen. His kids are the whole nine yards, but I just was wondering if he was getting profiled, and he misunderstood what I was trying to say, and he thought I was trying to be racist about it. I said, No. So I, you know, I went to the pastor and I went to Tim and I said, Hey, look, man, I don't want to upset the apple cart. You know, if this guy feels that way, then, you know, it's not my time. And they're like, no, it's your time. And so they went to him and there was conversations and and and he, you know, he's like, okay. He and I had a one-on-one. I said, Man, look, dude, I wasn't trying to say anything. I was just trying to say, Did you have I, you know, I was thought you were getting profiled. And I didn't want that. That's not right. I know you're you, you know, you have dual citizenship or whatever he has. So he kind of was all right with it, but he never has been. But that's okay. That's not on me. Yeah. I know what I am. So I became an elder. And part of that job being an elder is we did weekly communion communion. And even as a deacon, they asked me to do it. They'd asked me to get up and do the communion stuff. And every time I did, you know, pastor would come to me and goes, Man, you know, it's really funny. People always comment about your communion, you know, because you're a great storyteller. And I said, you know, the thing about Jesus that I really relate to Jesus is the parables. I love telling a story. I'm not the you guys know I don't have a high school education. I have no theology background. But my wife, Darlene's uncle, told me one time, he said, Let me tell you something. If God calls you, you don't need a theology, you don't need to go to seminary, you don't need to go to none of that crap. If he calls you, you're in. So I'm like, whatever, Unc. But so, you know, but I'm a good storyteller. Like God would tell parables. Jesus told parables, I do too. So I become an elder. My first time to do the communion, I told Pastor, I said, uh, this is gonna be one really different. He goes, Yeah, I'm afraid D's going to say that. So we had two services. So the first service, I'm in, in service, and I sneak out because we always did to do the communion. Or, you know, the communion uh meditation. So I sneak out, I get in the car, put my leathers on. I got my chaps on, I got my do-rag on, I got my tie pad on, got my leather on. I'm dressed to get throw my leg over that bike and let's go. Now, Tim, the other elder, is a chair at the University of Iowa statistics. This cat, if the wind started blowing, we got a haboo, his hair ain't moving. That stuff's plastered down, it's perfect, his suit's perfect, ties on tight. This cat's tight. Yeah. He's tighter than Dick's hat band. I come in the back way, I come up on the, they introduce me and I come up onto the page, and here I am looking like I just left Sturgis last week. Yeah. I grabbed the mic and the whole church is gonna go, we're in for a good one this week. So I said, uh I said, Tim, would you mind joining me up here on the on the platform, please? He's like, because I didn't tell him. Yeah. He's got this look on his face, like, oh, what's this hillbilly up to now? Walks up and I put my arm around him. I said, There's a video out there of it. I said to Tim, I said, now, everybody out there in the audience, look at me and look at Tim. You look at me, what do you see? Biker, boogerhead, troublemaker, hide the children. You see Tim, what do you think? Banker, lawyer, chair at the university. You see us walking down Iowa City, you see me coming toward you, you hide your children, you may even cross the street because you don't know what kind of person I am. You see Tim coming, you're not scared of nothing. Guess what? God looks from heaven, he doesn't see any difference. Yeah. What he sees is two guys that are brothers now in Christ, that love each other. And it doesn't matter what we look like or where we came from. Yeah, we're brothers. Yeah. That's right. And I said, Tim, you got any tattoos? He goes, no, not. I said, your mother'd be surprised if he did. And I said, but God looks at us like that. And that's what the communion's about. Yeah. That's what the communion's about. God knew that Judas had already Jesus knew Judas had already turned on him. Yeah. The rest of them didn't. Yeah. And I got more people sending me messages after that. Because, you know, my point was, yeah, stop judging people because they walked through the door not looking like you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And so then I did the second service. His mom was in the service. She got a hoot out of it. She was 90, 98 years old, full of fire. So I continued on and then passed.
SPEAKER_01You know what's funny about that? Is in all the things you just said, you were the only one who could not see what others saw in you. Right. You were the one that said, Don't you know my past? Yeah, that's what I always kept saying. You know what I mean? It seemed like you kept bringing that up, and these people are like, Yeah, we don't care. God's got something else. You know what I mean? And that's how that's what we do to that's how we see ourselves, man. We always see the things that we've done. We don't ever see what God has done for us. We always have that picture of just we always shortchange ourselves. We do, man. We do. And God's up there going, like, yeah, I don't know. You're not that man anymore. Right. I see all that too, but look, right. We got things to do, man.
SPEAKER_05So then uh Pastor Tom came to me and he goes, Hey, I need some help on Thursdays. I said, Okay. He done um next door to us was a big care center, pardon me, with um uh apartments and stuff like that, people who needed a lot of health care or you know, elderly care. It's a nursing home, plus it had people just needed assistance. Yeah. He's every Thursday I do uh a ministry over there, but I one Thursday a month I've got other commitments. Could you fill in for me? I'm like, again, do you know where I came from? And he says, Yeah, I do, but I also know what you're what's available. Yeah. So I said, Yeah, I can. So I went over shadowed him a couple of times, and then I went and I started doing the preaching, if you will. Um, it was funny, it was great, it was fun. There were two ladies in there, 104 years old. Come on, and they were as into it as you and I are today. They did not lose their memory. Heather went with me one time and sit for 20 minutes with these ladies. She was like, God, it was like sitting with an open history book.
SPEAKER_06Well, they lived it and they could tell it. Yeah. And it was great.
SPEAKER_05I had one lady, I always did communion with them. I had one lady, she goes, I would do can I love you and I love the way you talk, but I'm Catholic and I can't do communion because you're not a priest. And I said, That's okay. You know, if you're comfortable, do it. If you're not, that's fine with me. I had one old man every time after I got through pastoring, he would shake my hand and slip me a $10 bill in the palm. He palmed me the $10 bill. First time he did that, I thought.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05He was in he was an old farmer from Iowa. And uh I told Pastor Thomas, man, he slid me a 10. What do I do with that? He goes, It's up to you, it's your 10. It or you can spend it on ice cream. I don't care. He goes, he does the same thing to me. It's just he he was from old school. And then there was another guy who seen him palm me 10, so he palmed me 20 the next time I seen him. I thought, man, there's money in this gig.
SPEAKER_09Not as much as you think. Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_05So uh so anyway, I did that for a while, and then uh the ultimate came. Pastor
Preaching Moments And Mercy In Action
SPEAKER_05Tom walked up to me one day and he says, I need a I want to ask you if you could do something. I said, Well, you are an elder in the church now. I said, Yeah. Yeah, he goes, Are you ready to preach? Oh, are you crazy? Don't you know what I've been? That's exactly what I've been. We're going back to this line, buddy. Don't you know where I've been? Don't you know what I've done? So he he says to me, he says, No, he goes, I'm starting a new series. You know, I always take 4th of July weekend off, and I go for vacation. Okay, he goes, let's sit down and talk about it. Now I'm a good storyteller. I ain't a good preacher.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And he told me, he said, you know how many people I've got that's already been on me about you? I did one night service, one Thursday night service one time upstairs with a short group. And he goes, You know how many people in this church want to hear you preach? And I said, There's a bunch of dummies in this church. We need to pray over these folks. And he said, I want you to do this. And he goes, We're gonna start this series off, and it's gonna start with Zacchaeus. I said, Well, why don't we just find one of the most obscure dudes in the whole Bible? Won't you give me somebody easy? Yeah, this cat's just obscured as they can be. Nobody knows who Zacchaeus is. I can't even spell it. So I worked through it, kind of give him my outline. He goes, Well, you're on your own. I won't be here. I said, Well, the tomatoes start to fly, here we go. So it just happened that we had a family reunion on my side of the family. My aunts and uncles and cousins are all coming from Michigan to Iowa City. Oh, Jesus. Heather put this together the year before. Yeah, let's all meet in Iowa City. You know, we'll we'll we'll do the hosting. Yeah. Your family's all there to see you preach. Yeah, they all show up, and they're not church folks, none of them, not real church folks. Amen. So they show up. Yeah. We do the family, then they come to church that Sunday morning. Now I'm already nervous. Now I'm on hyper nervous. Yeah, I'm nervous on steroids. Yeah. And I had lost a little bit of weight. I'd been on a diet and I'd lost quite a bit of weight. And so my opening remark, and I don't I am a fly by the seat of the pants guy. I I Pastor Dave, you know, he's got his lap, his iPad, and guy's got sheets and stuff, and Dale comes with three by five cards just to kind of keep him in line and going down the road. And it better be God's word because I ain't got nothing. I'm just talking. So I started and I opened up and I, you know, I walked out and I got I'm I'm not nervous. All of a sudden, nerve is gone. Yep. And I said, There's two things that's happening here this morning that nobody in their life would ever expect. And there's about 25 people that really would never have expected me to be here. Two things happening. Number one, I'm wearing skinny jeans. Because Heather bought me a pair of skinny jeans because I lost enough weight. And I said, that'll probably never happen again. Number two, there's nobody in this room who thought that Dale Snipes would ever be standing in front of this crowd ministering to them, including him. So from this point on, folks, it's all God. Yeah. I'm just, I'm just the vessel. Yeah. It's all him. And I talked about Zacchaeus, and you know, and I ended it. I said, I'm going to end this a little different. Think about Zacchaeus. He crawled up through the crowd, getting kicked and beaten because nobody liked him because he was a tax guy. So he probably took a few punches and a couple of kicks, crawled up that tree, crawled out on that limb to see Jesus. Yeah. It is your turn to be a tree. Yeah. Support somebody. Lift them up. Help that single mother. Help that drug addict. Help that homeless guy. Be the tree that holds that person up so they can crawl out on a limb and see Jesus Christ. So good. That's what you need to do. You need to be a tree. And about two days on Wednesday that following week, one of the deacons called me and goes, Hey. I said, Oh yeah. He goes, I got to be a tree today. I said, that's cool, man. I said, that's cool. Come on. And he told me the story about what he had to do. So that kind of started things. And then we we did several things. We were on the prayer team there. We were uh Heather worked with domestic uh violence for women. Yeah uh we worked with the homeless. We got to expose Hump Rocky to homeless people. We took him down there when he was about 16 to go with us. We used to make backpacks up and we picked up. Pass out Bibles to all the people in church to write notes to the homeless people, encouragement. And we've put in toiletries and things that they needed, you know, socks, underwear, stuff like that. Yeah. And we'd go down. Heather had a friend that uh ran one of the homeless shelters. So we'd go down there and Rocky went with us, and he got exposed to what shelters smell like alcohol, urine, feces, the whole nine yards, man. And he's like, you know, guys like, I'm not staying here because they won't let me drink. I'll go out and freeze out. And Rocky's like, dude, you need to stay in here. And he'd like, no, I'm going. I'm you know, I don't want to live under their rules. So he got exposed to it. And and what was really weird, because Rocky, small town Iowa kid, he's like, This only happens in Phoenix and Detroit, Chicago's. It don't happen in Iowa City. Yeah. And now he's saying, Man, this is right out my door. Yeah. This is my deal. Wow. So then we moved to Florida and I retired. I thought I did, but I worked part-time. And we got hooked up with What made you move to Florida? That's what we wanted to retire to. I was going to retire. I retired in 2019 the first time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And we had an office there, Heartland did, so Heather could continue to work. She always wanted to live by the beach. Nice. So that's what we did. And so we lived there and we got hooked up with RCC, Pastor Nathan Freeman, great guy. We did some things there. We'd worked, uh, we worked a prayer team with them. We worked on uh we every Thursday we'd open up the lobby of the church and we'd have food. We had a kitchen out there, and everybody bring hot food and we'd we'd invite people in, homeless people, yeah, whatever. Yeah. And now we weren't in part of Jacksonville where there was a lot of homeless people, but there were a lot of just poor people that needed a meal. We even sheltered, shut shut in, we made up stuff, eight or six of us would go out and into their home, deliver food for them for meals and stuff. They'd say, Hey, we got four people. We'd go out and take four people. Nice. So we did that, and that's that was our ministry there. One of the weird things was, and this is gonna sound where do you think you got a heart for that?
SPEAKER_01Uh where where do you think that came from?
SPEAKER_05I don't know. I really don't.
SPEAKER_10Uh the elderly and the shut-ins and yeah, it just it just you've mentioned that kind of ministry a few times already.
SPEAKER_01Where do you think that heart comes from?
SPEAKER_05I I really don't know.
SPEAKER_01But I know we think it comes from your upbringing and knowing what it's like to be poor properly to me.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and being being having elderly grandparents and losing them at such a young age. Yeah, you know. Um it's been really a a passion thing for Heather and I both. Yeah. Uh hers with the homeless. I don't, she was the one that really drove the homeless thing. I was, you know, I got on board with her. Yeah. It was funny. The the prayer team thing, we've always wanted to be in a prayer team.
SPEAKER_01We've we it takes a heart for something like that, brother. That's not something you just like just decide you want to go do one day. No, it takes a heart, something usually you're tied to or something.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and it may be. It may be psycho, whatever they call that in my psycho association. Yeah, some kind of crazy thing in my brain, one of them smart guys know about.
SPEAKER_01Uh that's not me, bud.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, me neither. I can look at this group and say, we ain't got enough brains to get out of here. But the the funny thing is, is those were all rewarding, had a great time. Yeah. Uh loved when we were back in the Iowa church. I forgot we had a young guy who got busted for drugs. He'd been in our small group, in and out. He got busted for drugs in his house with a shotgun with his eight-year-old son in the house. Now you guys know what that looks like. It's not good. Yeah. Drugs. Drugs, child endangerment, gun in the house. Keep going, you know. He got out of it. So he came to our church, or he came back to church. So funny. This is where God just blows my mind up. He comes to church, Heather and I are on the prayer team. He comes forward with his girlfriend. He said, okay. Start praying. Well, we had a little room to the side we would take people to, you know, try not to embarrass them, let them open up a little bit. So we sit down, he's on the couch, him and his girlfriend, Heather and I were talking to him. Hey, man, what's going on? He's telling us about this thing. And he starts dropping F bombs in the church. He starts dropping F bombs to me. I say, Hey, you don't talk in my father's house like that. Yeah. You don't cuss in my father's house. You sure don't do that. Now you got two choices. We can continue this conversation, or you and I can go outside and, you know, you can cuss all you want, do whatever you want, but you're in my father's house. Yeah. You're going to respect my dad's house. You understand me? He's like, Yes, sir. And so we got into a regular conversation. He broke down, cried, we prayed over him. Everything worked out. Funny thing is, about a year ago, I was back in Iowa at Iowa City Church. I walked in and I'm up front. I don't realize who's in the room. We're praising. Church's over. We're walking out the back, and guess who's standing there? Him and his girlfriend. Wow. And he introduces me to her. And I shake her hand. And she goes, So you're Dale. I said, Yeah. She goes, You know how much I've heard about you? And I said, I'm like routing my eyebrows one up. And about what? And she goes, How you talk to him. Yeah. Like a dad. Yeah. That you weren't letting him get by with that. And I said, This is my father's house. You will not, you will respect my dad's house. When you go up on stage and be asked to do something, remember you're on holy ground. Yeah. Remember where you're standing. Yeah. Remember who you're standing in front of. And he goes, Man, you don't know what you did for my life. And I'm sitting there in the car going back to the airport, going, Man. We have no idea. I was he just made me mad because he was doing that. It's like, dude, not in God's house. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Save that stuff or somewhere else. Yeah. So But you had enough respect to say something and stand up for something that you believed in. Yeah. And that that means a lot to people, brother. Yeah. A lot of people are just pushovers. Someone stands up for what they believe in and what they care about. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And you know, it's not that I don't I haven't cussed or still do something.
SPEAKER_01The cool part is that young man was still in that church.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And he's actually, you know, he's um doing quite quite a few things in the church still that I found out later. He's doing a lot with the production, that's his background. Graphic design to his background. So he's doing a lot of a lot of great stuff. Yeah. Um Jesus. That's that blessing my heart, dude. So then we moved to Florida, did all that with Florida, and then uh my former boss at Heartland called me and said, Hey, I need you to move.
SPEAKER_01I'd like you to move to were you the one that showed me the video of the guy with the bald head and the goatee? Uh you and your wife, about a pastor back in Florida.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Goate guy. Yeah, wears a beard and goatee. Yeah, sometimes goatee. Yeah. Kind of stocky, bald headed dude. Yeah, actually, he had once uh before he went back to Florida, he was actually here in Phoenix. Really? As yeah, he had a pa uh church up on Campbellback. He was out here for about eight years and then he got called back to Jacksonville. I can't remember it was you and your wife that used to send me videos ahead. Yeah, that was probably oh, you're talking about Joey uh um uh Joby Martin. Yeah, yeah, Joby.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_05Uh we've went we went to Joby's church a couple of times, but not as members. Yeah. Just because we like Joby. Yeah. But the funny thing is, so then Mike Jardine called me and said, Hey, I need uh like you to come out to Phoenix and open, come out of retirement and open up this school for me for
Arizona Move And GriefShare Ministry
SPEAKER_05truck drivers. And I'm like, so he made the I said, Man, it took me all these years to get Heather to the beach. She's a beach girl. Yeah, now you want me to take her to the dirt. So she said, okay. So we we he he made his proposal and we moved out here. And we went to a church over here. We lived when we first moved here, we were off of Cooper and Chandler right there. And we went to that church right there, and it wasn't a fit. Life community. Yep. So I jumped on YouTube and I just started YouTube and some churches and watched some sermons. And I said, hey, this place looks pretty cool, this lifelink thing. Yeah. So we started coming over here. Yeah. Obviously, you know the story since we've been here. We did a few things and then we moved to Sun City and we tried a couple of churches up there. Wasn't a good fit. I mean, uh, nothing against Sun City, but it's for old people. I don't like old people. I love you.
SPEAKER_00Why'd you move there, bro?
SPEAKER_05But you know, the churches are unfortunately they're old. I mean, when you go to a church and there's no children's ministry, no daycare. I I need kids. I need young people around me. I love I love young people.
SPEAKER_01When I first started, when I first got out of jail and I wanted to start going to church, we went around Tempia searching for churches. And I walked into this one church, gray hairs, just straight gray hairs, and wonderful people. They were so happy we were there, but we're looking around and we're like, there is nobody our age here. You know what I mean? Wonderful people. Yeah. They were very nice people, but it was just we were I'm 30 something years old.
SPEAKER_05I'm not trying to be a and I'm in my 60s and retired at that time. And it's like I'm not trying to be a brother. So then Heather love you, bro. Then we then we then we went to Pillar and we liked it, but it was it was about the same distance to come in here. Yeah then Heather had her incident with breast cancer. Yeah. And she woke up one morning, Sunday morning, we're getting ready, we're going to go out to Pillar, and she goes, I want to go to LifeLink. Is it okay? She goes, today. I said, okay. Well, let me tell you something, girlfriend, you need to kick it in gear a little bit because it's a little bit of a further drive than what we're normal to. She I'll be ready in five. Yeah. So we come back here, and what was really cool and unique when we walked up, Edgar and Veronica were like, Hi Dale and Heather. Like Dale and Heather had never been, I mean, we only went here like two and a half, three months. Yeah. And we'd been gone that long. And it was like, Hi, Dale and Heather, how are you guys? It's like, huh? Yeah. Same way with Roger and Anna and some other people in this church. So we felt like, okay, we're kind of home. This I want my wife to be comfortable. She's going through some stuff. And then we really started asking God. We're like, God, you know, we've been in, we've been in the valley almost a year, a little over a year now. What's our mission? Why did you bring us? We have never married moved to anywhere since we've been following God since 2013. We didn't move to Florida until we had an idea of what God had in mind for us. And so we're like, so God, you brought us to the dirt. What's the mission here?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Where do you want us? Find us a place to build the kingdom out. Yeah. And you know, I goes, You think you think it's ministry for you? And I said, I don't think so. I mean, you ministered in Georgia, in Florida, you ministered in Iowa and everything. I said, Nah, I'm not that smart a guy. I'm not that useful. Yeah, you're a pretty good storyteller. So I said, I don't know. So we're just finally like, God, just show us, show us where you want us and how we can enhance the kingdom. Yeah. Well, when I was a when we're in Florida, we're exposed a lot to grief share. We had some real good friends that ran grief share. We didn't have anything to do with it as far as part of. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, God started sinking that seed in my heart. Let's talk about grief share. Let's talk about grief share. So about February, a couple of years ago, I went to Pastor Dave. I said, Can I have some of your time after her server? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Went to the green room and I said, So this is what's on my heart. I don't know if it's on your radar or anything. And he goes, Well, I hadn't thought about it. Show me what it looks like, and let's let's start developing, see what it looks like. So we started going through everything over a course of time. He's like, Yeah, yeah, I think it's something our church could use. Yeah. And so we started Grief Share. Yeah. And Grief Share was off the chart. You always had a good crowd. Good crowd. Learned about people in the church and people who came here. Yeah. And Grief Share changed me and Heather. It really did. Yeah. We, you know, it gave us life because now we've got something to do in the valley. And we were like, Father, we know you brought us here for a reason. You didn't send us out here just to work. You brought us here to uh you know be on a mission. Kingdom business. Everything's a mission. Yeah. I don't have to go to the Philippines. I don't have to go anywhere else. The mission's in the valley. Yeah. My mission. It's nothing against people to go to the Philippines. Everybody's called to somewhere. Yeah. We got to do a mission trip with Pastor Tom up to Chinley and that group. That was a great time. We got to contribute with the truck and everything. But then we did the grief share and we started really digging in and the people we met and the stories we heard and and and walking people through hard seasons. Yeah, the probably the worst season of their life. Hard season. We've made so many good long-term friends from there.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I think the timing of it was perfect too. Yeah. Because there was a lot of people going through things at that particular moment. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05And uh you always ask yourself, Am I equipped for this?
SPEAKER_09God's always like I'm still asking myself, are you sure, God?
SPEAKER_01But you know, if God it's I quit asking. Well, I started believing what I would like. You're calling me to a God, you gotta do it. That's it. Because I'm just I got my yes, but if you're this is what you want me to do, then you need to show up, dude, because I'm like you. I'm I'm let's do it.
SPEAKER_05Well, I just finally, you know, I told uh told somebody, I said, you know, here's the weird, crazy thing. If God brought you to it, he'll bring you through it. Yes, sir. So that's my new go-to or since proof chair.
SPEAKER_01I learned one time I went to the team challenge to speak to some men, and I told God, I said, I I prepared all week for a message, and then Saturday, God was like, Who does that sound like? I'm like, that sounds like me. He's like, Yeah, I just need to keep you busy. You know what I mean? He's like, just show up, I'll talk. Yeah. And so I showed up to the team challenge, man. I had no idea what I was gonna say, dude. And I got up on that stage, and I still don't to this day have no idea what was said. Yeah, you know what I mean? And that showed me in that moment that if God is asking you to do something, you just gotta say yes and show up. Yep, do some preparation because it might keep you busy. It might keep you busy. It might keep you busy, you know what I mean? But you might find what you're preparing for is actually for you, right? And not for the people that are gonna be hearing it, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, more times than not when I did the meditations and and when I've preached, uh, I've put together something. Yeah. And then like Saturday afternoon, God's like, man, I don't like that. Let's do this. I'm like, Oh yeah. Huh? Yeah, what? Wait, hold him. But you know, it's God's sense of humor. He just is funny. He likes to keep us occupied, so we're not thinking too much. So I uh you know, start doing a grief share. We've made had one, it's weird to say wonderful times, but wonderful healings. Yeah, made made some great friends. We call them our Arizona family. There's there's some of them that's our Arizona kids, and Nicole's one, Katie's one, Sarah's one. We get together every six weeks or so and just go out and have dinner or lunch on a Sunday afternoon and just chat it up. Logan, I mean Logan wasn't in grief share, but he's part of the the Arizona kids as we call them. Yeah. And uh love them to death. And I will tell you if I can get through this. Yesterday was my birthday, and some people wrote some stuff on there. Man, I couldn't even begin to live up to what these people think about me. I cannot, I'm like, God, just make me half of what they think I am. Yeah, this ain't me, dude. It's you already are, buddy. He is these people, when they when I put on there last night, man, I am humbled and honored that you people would take the time to make my day by wishing me thing, but then to come back and say these things about how I had an influence in your life, man. I'm just like, come on. But you know, God always reminds me of, hey, you did what I asked you to do. Yeah. And sometimes that's easy, sometimes it's not. Um we met some great friends. One lady I'll never forget, she looked at me and she said, in grief share, she said, one of my best friends had lunch with me the other day, and she told me that maybe I shouldn't believe my husband went to heaven because I don't really know. She goes, What do you think? Do you think I'll see my husband in heaven? My answer to her was, I don't know. I don't know your husband. Yeah, but this is what I will tell you. If he didn't make heaven, you'll never know it. And she said, Why is that? I said, Because God's not gonna bring you to heaven and break your heart. The Bible says there'll be no tears, there'll be no pain. That's so good. Why would he bring you to heaven and make you suffer eternity with a broken heart and a hole in it? Yeah. When he gets you to heaven, he's gonna heal both of those. Yeah, they're not gonna be there. And if your husband made it, good. If he didn't make it, you ain't gonna know it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_05That's good. And one of the last things she said, and I told Heather the same thing when her dad passed away. She said, I'm not sure if dad made it. What do you think? I don't know. I don't know the last conversations that God's having when you're when he's in community. He didn't share that with me. God didn't let me in on that secret. It wasn't for me to know. But I do know this. If he didn't, you'll never know it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And you never know what people have a conversation they have on their deathbed. That's exactly right. You never know whether like, God, man, I'm I've messed this up, dude. You don't know that. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_09I I recently we experienced a suicide in our family, and I was praying, and God literally showed me he was on the edge of his bed with the gun in his hand, talking and crying and arguing and wrestling with God before he pulled the trigger. I was like, wow, yeah, you really never know where someone's at.
SPEAKER_05The first funeral I preached for a young man who committed suicide would have been my nephew, my first wife's sister's husband uh son. Uh we're very I'm still very close with her her family. Yeah. And his mom, we were living in Florida, his mom called me and said, Can you do my son's funeral? I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_09So this is Linda's brother? Linda's sister. Linda's sister.
SPEAKER_05Sister's Yeah, it would have been my nephew if Linda and I were still together. He was the same age as Danny. Okay. Uh he had went to the gun range, had had an argument with his ex-wife about financials and what he's a this and that. And he stepped out of his pickup and that was that. And nobody really knew it because guns are blowing all the time, right? So it was a minute before anybody realized what was what happened. Yeah. So I went up and did his funeral. And I was really torn. I talked to a couple of my mentor pastor friends, and I said, Man, you know, because the church used to look at suicide and say, Yeah that's a slippery unforgivable sin. Yep, you're on your way to hell, man. Just get on the zip slide and go. You know, get on the zip line right to hell. And they both they they both said to me, said, You don't know. Yeah. And one of them said, My best friend could not quit having infidelity and sexual problems and porconography. He was a cop. And he he you know, had seeked professional help, he'd had seeked biblical help, everything. And he'd get straight for a while and then he'd slide back to it. Yeah. And he just in his suicide note to his wife and family and friends was, I'm sorry, I can't whip this devil in my heart. This evil spirit's got control of me, and this is the only way I know to get rid of it. And he offed himself. And he's like, I'd like to think that my friend settled that piece before he pulled the trigger. I don't know. You know, there's some mysteries we're not told to know. Um the weird part of that, when um Linda's mother passed away. The one I told that if you mess with me, you'll do it. She had told me at her grandson's funeral, she goes, When my time comes, I want you to preach my funeral. I was like, Yeah, okay. You know, he was thinking of passing. Yeah. A few years after that, the girls called me. Mom passed. So I said, Okay. Uh no, we want you to come, if you will, come up from Florida and do our funeral. And I said, Okay. So my son Danny called me a couple of days a day or so later, and he goes, Would you do me a favor? And I said, Yeah. And Danny and I were estranged for quite a few years. We've just started repairing this because I was a crappy dad. I was a dad like my dad was. I was out of the picture.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So uh, and I I tell Danny today, you don't have to call me dad. You can call me Dale. I'll take whatever you give me because I haven't earned anything. Yeah. So uh he he said, Hey, mom, would rather you didn't preach grandma's funeral. I said, Okay, I'll think about it. I thought about it overnight, and I called him back. I said, I'm preaching your grandma's funeral. And he goes, Well, okay. And I said, Your grandmother asked me to. This isn't about your mother and I being divorced. This is about your grandma. Yeah. He's like, he was cool with it. He's like, okay, well, just mom wanted me to call and say that. Yeah. So I went up, she and her husband came to the funeral. Her and her mother had had a strange time over years. And I walked up to her and I said, Is there anything you would like to mention me to mention about you and your mom? Funny story, anything like that. And her husband's like, Hey, no. We told you once we don't want to. I said, Hey, you need to shut up or there'll be two funerals. Over there and behave yourself. And I told him, I told her, I said, Linda, do you think no, no, no. Okay. So a few minutes went by and I went back later, about 20 minutes later, and asked her again. She's like, No, I'm good. Uh she goes, just don't mention anything about me and you. I said, Linda, it ain't about me and you. It's about your grandma or your mom. So I went up and told stories that I knew of Shirley. Nobody ever knew she was my mother in law. I never mentioned it. Important. It wasn't about that. So we went through it and I'm standing at the head of the casket as the people walk by. Linda walks by and shakes my hand and goes, Thanks for honoring my mother. I said, You thank you for being here to honor her. And then we went to the grave site and then uh we went and had family dinners and stuff together. Um yeah. So you never know what God's gonna do with you. Yeah. And I just I just go crazy. So once we got into grief share, yeah, it was it was a it was a great season. Yeah. It was a tough season to let go of. Uh I asked Nicole to step in, which I do not regret. Once I knew she was ready, I just didn't know she wanted to. If she if she felt she was ready. She her and uh uh they did a wonderful job. Her and Kayla did a bang up job. I'm so proud of what they did. Um it was a season for us. Uh when we left Lifelink to pursue a church closer to home, God started walking on our more heathers than mine, but he's brought me along as well. Of I need hands and feet closer to home. You need to serve the community you live in. We're still part of Lifelink community, yeah. You are, but I need you here. And we had to have a very clear again, just like when we moved out here, God was the mission. God was the mission we would leave lifelink. How would why would we leave LifeLink? We got brothers, sisters, we got a support group, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And God's just like, it's time. Yeah. I need hands and feet, and I need it in, you know, in your your community. Surprise. Yeah. Yeah. Need it in surprise. So we got up there and again started looking around for churches, and this one on YouTube found Pastor, his name's Pastor David Quaid.
New Church Call And Art Of Marriage
SPEAKER_05Um, the church is called Reveal.
SPEAKER_09It um I love that in Iowa City it's Pastor Tom, and you get to LifeLink, and there's Pastor Tom. Yeah. And then you got Pastor Dave, and you get to reveal, and there's Pastor Dave. Yeah. It's like, oh, oh, okay. I hear you got it.
SPEAKER_05I see you got two times in the day. I didn't do a Nathan in there in the middle just for fun. But we we we we got up there and we went to the first service and kind of liked everything. The music's a little quieter than it is here. They got a great worship team, but they're just quiet. And I've been on them every Sunday. I said, Man, you need to you need to pump that volume up, raise the roof, kids. Let's go. Uh I said, You already got the earplugs out, so let's make people use them. Let's make it louder. If they can't hear them, you know, it's in El Mirage. If they can't hear it out there on uh Des Art, then we ain't getting it done. So uh we started going there. Uh we he's called Pat everybody calls him DQ instead of Pastor Dave. Um he called us the very first Monday after we went to church on Sunday. He called me at work and he said, Hey, my name is Pastor David Quaid. Glad you guys were there yesterday. Uh we're in transition. We're leaving, they were part of uh Vineyard Church North Phoenix, and we're gonna be a Thomas come next week. We're gonna we're setting up our own church, and you know, we're gonna be church revealed. It's like okay. They've kind of been our sponsor for a few years, but now we're gonna break away and be us. Nice. So okay, just kind of gave us the background what to expect, and if we wanted to continue to go there to know what was about to happen. Yeah. So yeah, that's fine. And he goes, Hey, he said, uh, any chance you guys would like to get together and have coffee? Yeah, I like coffee, man. So a couple of weeks later, we went on a Saturday and spent about two and a half hours in a coffee shop with him. Just, you know, he wanted to know if we had any questions about the church, church philosophy, doctrine, and so on and so forth. It was pretty much a mirror of what we do here, non-denominational. I asked him about talking in tongues. He said, Well, if you talk loud in tongues and interrupt my sermon, you better hope somebody can interpret it. Because I'm not doing it if God doesn't tell me to interpret it, you're on your own, big boy. Uh, if you feel a need to talk in tongues, you know, we're we're good. Yeah. So we went through some things like that, and then uh shortly thereafter, we went a few more times and we decided, yeah, this is gonna be our new home. Uh they quickly ask us if we'd like to come to the ministry, um ministry leadership. Like, what's that look like? And it's like, well, you know, we just kind of like to talk to people who would like to be on a prayer team or have any kind of mis ministry function in the church, just what our expectations are from them and their walk and find out what their walk in life is and make it. It's not like growth track? Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like growth track on steroids. Yeah, yeah. They have growth track, but this is kind of like growth track on steroids. You're actually wanting to do something leadership-wise in the church, and they want to know where you feel your calling may or may not be, and how that mirrors up with their their thing. So we did that for four weeks, and now we're in week three, I think. Yeah, and this next Wednesday be week three of uh leadership, how to lead small group. Nice. Um about three weeks ago, they come to Heather, or the associate Pastor Isaac said, So I gotta, we were going through the ministry thing before it started. I Pastor Isaac says, So I don't know if you guys would be considered if you'd consider leading a group. What kind of group? Yeah. Uh The Art of Marriage. And I'm like, I'm over here kind of giggling to myself. Heather's like, yeah, we'll do that.
SPEAKER_08I love you, Heather.
SPEAKER_05And I look at her, she goes, Oh, wait a minute. Maybe I should ask my husband. I said, Yeah, that's the first part. Communication, dear. Yeah, yeah, I guess we'll go there. So we yeah, let's talk about this. Don't just say yes. God bless her heart. I know you give God your yes, you didn't give it to Isaac just yet that we're in this, yeah, we're in this leadership deal now where it prepares you how to handle small group and everything. And we're week three of that, week four after that, and then we'll start this uh Art of Marriage up uh the ninth. Come on, buddy. And uh Pastor Isaac told me the other day, or told us the other night last Wednesday, he goes, Oh, by the way, your group will probably be meeting in the sanctuary because so far you're the largest. There's three starting at night. One's uh how to live with God or you know, what's your purpose with God, and then there's another one. And he goes, Your group sign up is blowing it up. Yeah, so we're gonna move you guys to the sanctuary. I took looked at Heather and I said, Man, you better start praying, girl. My son, Christopher, has his dad's sense of humor about things. His answer was, So you when we were in Branton a couple weeks ago with all the kids, we were telling them about it, and Chris goes, leans back, says, Well, you're you're the perfect one, Dad. I mean, you have been married four times, you ought to know something about it. Thanks a lot, buddy. Thanks. And you know, that's just his sense of humor. He's the one we're gonna write out of the will. I told him, I said, You're about to lose that two shiny nickels, you were gonna get it.
SPEAKER_08Get in line, Chris. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05But uh, so we're gonna do the autumn marriage. So, God, you know, when we got the reveal, we're like, okay, God, you give us a church like a person. And we asked one of the young, one of the younger guys, we were talking to him, one of the uh deacons, I believe, at the church, and he goes, and we we started there like April, May. He goes, take a season. He said, as we're talking, he goes, God just told me for you guys to take a season rest. You've been very busy, you've been an emotional roller coaster with whatever you've been doing at your other church, whatever your leadership program probably drains you a little. God wants you to rest and he'll give you your mission when he's ready. That's what he spoke to us that day. And I'm like, Well, this guy's pretty rude. I want to do something, I want to be part of something. And uh sure enough, you needed the rest, but yeah. God gave us another thing to do with this uh art of marriage, which ought to be a hoot, especially when I read chapter five. It's the sex talk. And I'm like, dude, we've already had that one with you know the children. I don't want to have that with adults, right? Uh but uh it's a good program. I kind of we've been walking through it and getting prepared for it. Good. Uh we did do a backpack deal up there. They they uh we packed about 200 backpacks for the kids for in the local area for the uh elementary schools, you know, just basic supplies. So they're very involved. They do it once a month with um once or twice a month with St. Mary's. Nice. They go up there because St. Mary's got a big distribution center on the north side of Levine. Or not Levine, but um surprise area right there. So it's yeah, it's a good time. I mean, we're having fun. Uh we deeply, deeply miss our lifelink family. We'll always miss them. Yeah, you never know when God's ready to move you. Yeah. And but you know, I I heard a pastor say this the other day. Yeah. So sometimes when God moves you, it's not because of what you've been doing. It's because where you've been is not ready for where you're going. They're not ready, they're not ready, or they're they're going in a different direction. Not not mean spirited or to to divide the kingdom in any way. Yeah, but it's like I need you here right now. Maybe I need you back in lifelink later, yeah, but today I need you here because this church is dislaunching. This church needs some some people to come along and start taking some spots in the in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01I heard fill familiarity breeds discontent. Yeah, you get too comfortable in one place, and then you're like, well, I don't want to do that, God. It takes me out of my comfort zone.
SPEAKER_05Right.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01This guy over here. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that is true.
SPEAKER_09God has to move me to the Philippines.
SPEAKER_01It's funny. Uh when God's calling you to something and your responses, but I'm comfortable. Yeah. You know what I mean? And a lot of people are like that. And then they sit it somewhere comfortable and they miss out on everything that God really has for them.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And it's it's really weird because um, but I'm home.
SPEAKER_04I'm home. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I'm i I'm in my comfort zone. And I don't think God wants us in a comfort zone. Never. I think he wants us in a building kingdom zone. Yeah. And sometimes you got to get a nudge or two. It's kind of like when we took Rocky to the you know, uh homeless shelter. You got to smell what that smells like cigarettes, urine, all that. And it's like, yeah, but this ain't this is my hometown. It's not supposed to happen here. This is in the big cities. No rocket happens outside your door. Yeah. The guy next door is beating his wife. Yeah. He might look like he doesn't beat his wife, but we know something is not right. God will open your eyes to these things. And so I I am an overly blessed man. Uh, I tell my wife all the time, no smarter than I am, the lack of education that I have, the things that I've achieved, and people have given me to be in charge of blows me away.
SPEAKER_01You mentioned something before we started about trucking, motorcycling.
SPEAKER_05And I was a I was an elected official. Yes, I was elected to the city council. So I've probably been at the bottom three scummy. People look at truck drivers and they think, you know, women chasing pot, smoking, pill popping, pill popping. And for my for my friends, that used to be when I started the industry in the industry, it was that way. It's not that way today. There's a lot of restrictions. The industry has cleaned itself up. The government's had to help clean them up. Yeah. It's a better industry. Still has it. It's like anything else. We got our burger heads in the middle of it. Everybody does. Yeah. But yeah, and then I rode motorcycles, not with Hell's Angels or anybody, but I've been with some pretty scamky guys. But you know, the second trip to Sturgis, Heather and I met, it was weird. I'm walking down Main Street. I got to walk in with God now. Okay, we're in the church walking with God. And I walk up and this guy from chariot to fire hits me up. Nice. And we're talking. And he goes, So, so you got a Christian bike rider on your lapel of your vest? I said, Yeah, my wife and I, she's actually getting some other patches put on our bike, our vests right now, on her vest. And he goes, Come with me. I said, Okay. Well, I didn't get a chance to tell Heather where I was going. Yeah. Okay. We walk up Main Street at Sturges, bikes all over. Yeah. Just enough room for bikes to get by. It's it's crazy. We walk up on the podium that looks down the whole bike lane. I said, What are we doing here? He goes, We're getting ready to pray. And I said, Okay, who's we? He goes, me and you and a couple other guys. I said, Oh, okay. So I'm like, okay, Father God. He goes, No. We're gonna be behind the microphone parrying. I said, What do you mean like where people can hear? He goes, Yeah, we're about to get their attention. So get ready. Never thought it. Amen. Later in the day, I'm up in Deadwood, which is one of my favorite towns to go to. I'm a real history bust about Westerns. I love Westerns. I always tell Heather, I said, Man, I wish I was born back in Dodge City days. She said, Yeah, you can't even go a day without taking a shower. I can see you. I said, Well, back then I wouldn't have known what a shower was. If you don't know, you don't know. So we're up in Deadwood. Charity Fire walk up beside me. And they go, Hey, you want to walk with us and do some ministry? Yeah, I ain't got nothing else to do. She's spending money at the souvenir shops, you know, buying t-shirts or whatever. We're walking up and down Deadwood, just hitting people up. Man, how you doing, brother? Everything all right? You know? It is amazing when you just stop people and just ask them how they're doing, how you can start that conversation, and next thing you know, you got a hand on their shoulder and you're leading them, you know, somebody's leading them to God. Yeah. And so that was a cool time. I've had some cool times in Sturgis. The first time versus the last second time was way different. First time was, you know, we're a booger head. Yeah, being a boogerhead, screaming, shouting, girls riding around, half dressed, all that crazy. And the second time was just hanging out with some peeps, you know. Yeah. And uh, and uh just God's like, God's got a weird sense of humor, man. When he when anything he's ever called me to, you're not supposed to question him, but I'm like, uh, you sure you got the right? I Googled God, and there's a lot of Dale Snipes in there. Did you mean one of them? Did you God, did you mean one of the other Dales? Like, no, I meant you. And you know, I told you, I don't have it much of an education. I'm not the smartest cat in the world. And but God has put me in places that crack me up. One that cracked me up just here a month ago, I was flying back from Georgia about three weeks ago. I get on the plane, I fly up from Chattanooga to Charlotte. I see this guy getting on the plane from Charlotte to Phoenix. And I thought, man, that cat looks familiar. It gets closer. I said, Man, I know that guy from somewhere. He sits down next to me. I look across the aisle, I said, uh, Chaplain John. He goes, Yeah. He goes, I thought I knew you. I said, Yeah, we did jail ministry down at Pennell County. Yeah, so we start shaking. Wow. Who'd a thunk it? Wow. All them people on that plane, he puts Chaplain John right across from me. And I ain't seen a guy in over a year. Yeah. It's like, I'm a thinner thing, man. I know that cat from somewhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But you know what's cool about you, brother, is I think you need to know is that the impact that you have is not because you're some theologian, not because you're smart or you know what I mean? Just because you're you, but it's because you're authentically you. Yeah. And people can people can tell when you're faking, people can tell when you're not real. You know what I mean? And when someone comes along and is authentically themselves and fire for God and love with God, that has more of an impact in the ability to quote scriptures or preach or whatever, you know what I mean? But when you're authentically yourself, that moves the heart of people, brother. So my encouragement to you is whatever you're gonna do for God, just be yourself, just be authentically Dell, bro. That'll move more mountains than than what you think the law theology will do for people, brother.
SPEAKER_05My wife is my greatest supporter. I God has blessed me with two beautiful women. And my first marriage wasn't that she wasn't a good person, just that I was stupid. Yeah. And you know, we got you could say there was other circumstances. My mother passed away unexpectedly. Uh let me I've always said this to dudes we don't do good without women. Yeah, we don't. Married guys, it statistics prove it. If you if if a woman loses her spouse, there's a 99% chance she's probably gonna continue on, even if she's 30s, she's gonna probably finish her life as a widower, a widow. She's still gonna have a relationship with different guys, but she's never gonna probably get remarried. Yeah, dudes. Our wife passes away. We get lost. Statistics show that within the first year we either we're either living with somebody or we're married to somebody. And the reason I always blame it on the women. Sorry, ladies. It's their fault. We're born, our mama take care of us. We get a wife, they take care of us. We lose a wife, all of a sudden we're just wandering like Moses in the wilderness. We like, well, we don't even know where our shoes are or who how do you turn this microwave on? Uh how do you get that dishwasher to work, how do you get this uh wash machine to work. Yeah, but men don't do well good without women. Women are very important to us in more ways than not. We all know that. Better halves. Better halves, buddy. And one thing I've already found out in this brief study of the um art of marriage, oneness is a big deal. Oh, yeah. You put God here, you put couple here. Yeah, couple wants to become one. God wants them to be one, yeah, but you got to be God first. And I heard a guy say the other day, just oh, Joe Joe V. Martin said the other day, says, look, man, if you get married and you don't know if your wife is, you know, a Christian woman, or you haven't had a Christian relationship type thing with her, it's a crapshoot. Yeah. And you might get lucky and get the right one. But if you want that thing to grow and strengthen, you need to put God in the center so the two become one. Because God's God's word says, I want you to be oneness, right?
SPEAKER_01You want to know what's crazy, Dell? Check this out, right? So when God made Adam, he said, Let's make man in our likeness, right? So Adam was the fullness of God in human flesh, right?
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_01And he took woman out of man. So that shows us that Adam was the fullness of God. Right. He took woman out of Adam and made woman. What he did was he separated himself into two. So when he says that when a man and a woman come together, they become one again. You literally get the fullness of God back together again in a marriage that is with God in it, you get the fullness of God back together again. It's amazing, dude. What happens?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And you know, the the oneness, what does Jesus refer to us as? Yeah, the bride. Yeah. Or the bride.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I you know, the like you're saying earlier, I've had the three worst things happen. I was a politician and I was uh and when I chose not to run, unfortunately, in in Johnson County, Iowa, it's very um Democrat liberal. It's a college county. And most college towns are. Right. And so we lived outside there in a small, very conservative town, but it was still pretty heavily influenced. And when I ran, the mayor, another funny story, the mayor kidding me, goes, Well, you would be the first Republican we've ever had on the city council if you win. And I said, Well, first of all, I'm just Republicans. You know, I'm more independent, I'm kind of center right. Uh, you know, I won pretty easily. Second time, it was all right. So when I decide not to run a third time, the local newspaper says to me, says, Um, how come you're not running again? You know, you people really like you and everything. I said, Well, I don't think I'm doing an adequate job. Why not? I said, Well, nobody's threatened to kill my dog or they have an egg to my house or anything. So evidently they must think I'm a yes man. So, you know, I'll give somebody else a shot at it. But the funny thing is, we had an incident with our fire department, and I stood up for them in the local television station came out and interviewed me. And my pastor Tom back in Iowa still has, well, he lost it in the fire. He did have it on tape. They're interviewing me. And um we're going through it. We're talking, I'm talking about, well, yeah, our fire department's good, you know, we're having this investigation, so on and so on. And I said, Let me tell you something. We're damn proud of our firemen. So, Pastor, we're doing a uh, we just selected some new deacons, and we're all sitting there, and he goes, Oh, by the way, we have our new HR film that we want everybody to watch. He clicks that on me going, I'm damn proud of him. He goes, We don't need to be cousin like that. And he goes, you know, if it wasn't for the fire, I should have had that. Tape for the longest time. I said, Well, God destroyed it because you were being mean with it. What a mean evil spirit. Amen. But talking about that mayor, his name is Steve Stang, and he'll hear this. About uh first year, a little over a year ago. Steve called me out of the out of the blue. Now we we weren't tight friends, but we were friends. And we're, you know, acquaintances. And I mean, we didn't go out together or nothing like that, but we were tight. He calls me and he says, Hey, I need to talk to you if you got a minute. I said, I'll make a minute for you. So I got out of my office, went to one of the other offices. I said, What can I do for you, Mayor? Because I always call him mayor. He'd been mayor for like forever. And he goes, Well, he goes, back in Jan December, around Christmas, uh, this was a year ago, be almost two years now. He goes, I almost died. And he was on the uh fire department EMTs. His body started shutting down on him. He recognized, he got himself, and he was close to death. I don't know exactly what the disease was, it was knocking his kidneys out and everything. And he said, I survived. He goes, Dale, I believe in God. He goes, I need you. I said, You need me to what? He goes, I've been searching for a couple of months, asking God to kind of help me figure out who's gonna walk me to where I need to go. I said, Okay. And he says, all of a sudden on Facebook, you just keep showing up. Instagram, you're on there. And I'm looking at what you've been doing for years now. Walk your walk with Jesus. It just keeps coming to me. Would you consider being my mentor? Yes. I started crying. I'm like, man, dude, are you kidding me? This is an honor for me to do that. It's an honor for me to do that. I can't believe you would call me and goes, I know you're in Phoenix, you know, I'll do whatever you want to do. You know, I said, no, no, no, no, no, dude. Yeah, I'm here for you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Lock me up, man. I'm on. I'm on your I'm on Team Steve now. Yeah. So for the last year or so, we've been walking the Bible together. I bought a couple of books. I sent him one, and it's, you know, devotionals for the week. For for a long time we met every week, every Sunday afternoon. I'd call him, we'd spend 30, 40, 45 minutes, hour just walking it out. So he called me and he goes, I think you're gonna be mad at me. Because I told him to go to my old church in Iowa and City, and it just didn't fit right for him. He goes, I think you're gonna be mad at me. I said, Well, first of all, that ain't gonna happen, so continue. He goes, I think I'm gonna go to the Catholic church. Well, that area is very saturated with Catholics. Yeah, you know, it is what it is. And I said, Okay. And he goes, Are you mad at me? I said, No. Wherever you get fed, you get fed. The only thing I'm gonna ask is that you believe in Jesus Christ, died on a cross, rose from the dead, living in heaven now, and you believe that he did all those things and he can save you. Are you with me? He goes, Yeah. I said, go to Catholic Church. The the coolest thing is he's got an old priest as an old farmer, and this old priest is not my problem with not problem, my feelings with the Catholic Church is they're so pomp and circumstance. Every time I see those cats wearing the robes and everything, I think of the guys that put Jesus on the cross. Yeah. It's like, dudes, just be dudes. Yeah. But that's cool. Nothing against the Catholic Church. Um, because you can find fault in anything if you look hard enough. But they're leading him very well. They're leading him well. We still talk every, we're down now, we talk about every three weeks together, and now we spend about two hours. A couple of months ago, we were back in Iowa. Okay. And he's like, Hey, I want to get together and have coffee. I said, Yeah. So we met at an outside restaurant. He walked up to me, and you know, it's not pol it's not good to cry in public, especially when you're old, you can get by with it. People are like, Oh, grandpa's just lost it. He's emotional. Steve's sitting across from me, he goes, I got a couple of things for you. I said, Okay, what's that? And he handed me a cross and he said, I've had my my priest bless this for you. I was like, Man, dude, thank you. And then he pulled out this, he goes, I also have this for you. He wrote me a poem to me. Yeah. And he goes, Dale, I'm not a writer, I'm not a poetry guy. I'm I don't know nothing about this, but God really put it on my heart. It's a poem about me coming into his life, walking him through his walk, being with him through his walk, and everything. I mean, I'm standing there, tears on my face. I'm in the car after he leaves, and I'm really boo-hooing. Yeah. And I'm calling Heather and I'm like, honey, you ain't gonna believe this. No. So I get to the room and I show her the stuff, and she's like, Oh my God. And I'm like, God, where'd that come from? Yeah, where'd that come from? Yeah. And you know, now my current boss, or he's our tournament manager. I've started with him here, oh, I don't know, four or five weeks ago, six weeks ago. I started sending him some little clips about stuff. And I know his heart's good. He believes in Jesus, he knows there's a Jesus, but he's in a high, stressful job. This cat is one of the most amazing people I know. Yeah, and so I've been trying to walk with him a little bit on some of this. I've been holding one of my challenge coins from a couple of years ago up on the mountain. Yeah, and I've always a couple of times I've almost given it away, and God's like, nope, nope, not that guy. No, I almost gave it to my son. Yeah, like, nope, not him. About three, four weeks ago, challenge coins laying on my nightstand, and God goes, You got a place for that now. I said, Where's that? And he goes, John. Nice. I'm like, What? He goes, John, I want you to give it to John. Yeah. So I come in the other room. Heather knows John real well too, loves him. I said, I can I know who's getting my challenge coin. She goes, Who? And I go, John. She goes, Really? I said, Yes, he goes, What a selection. What a great guy. So the next morning I put it in my pocket and I go up to the to the work and I said, Hey John, when you get a minute, want to go for a golf cart? Right, we got a golf cart. He goes, Yeah. I said, uh, he's everything all right. I said, Yeah, it's fine with me. And I noticed he was kind of stressed out that morning. So he came up to me and goes, Hey, I got a few minutes. I said, You got about 15? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's go for a golf cart ride. So we get about halfway up to the other offices, and I said, Hey, pull over. He pulls over and I said, uh, John, I've had this challenge coin for a couple of years. I've almost given it away a couple of times and God stopped me. Last night God told me this is your coin. I took my challenge coin out and put it in his hand. I said, From now on, I'm walking with you side by side, day, night, weekends. I don't care. I'm a phone call away. You need me, you call me. Yeah. You're just stressed out, you call me. You need prayer, you call me. You need this, you call me. You need money, call your buddy. But you need anything else. You know, you need me. I'm gonna be your mat carrier. I'm gonna walk beside you from this point forward. This guy's 6'6, he used to be a bouncer, got tattoos from his neck to his toes. Most of them are Christian tattoos, Jesus and everything else. And he says, I needed this today. He's got tears in his eyes. He said, I can't believe you've given this to me. I said, John, God put you on my heart from this moment forward. I'm your mat carrier. I'm gonna walk with you, dude. So good. And he's like, Man, he goes, you know, I just got stressed out from work. I got my butt chewed out this morning because our PLs are bad and da-da-da-da-da. Man, there's I'm busting my hump and you know, I think I'm doing right, and I still, you know, I say, hey, that's just a business end. We're talking God end. We're talking life, dude. Yeah from this point forward, I'm your dude. Yeah. And this big cat's bound in tears. I'm about in tears. And I said, when the time comes, God's gonna tell you who to give that coin to. Yeah. Don't give it away until God tells you to, and you'll know it's God's voice. Yeah. He's like, okay. Yeah, man. So he's got the he's got the coin. We've had a great, you know, great relationship yesterday. His son, his 21-year-old son, side-swiped his car, and he called his dad, hey, I knocked a mirror off my car. Your dad gets there and finds out, no, you hit somebody, you side swiped them. He's like, What happened? He wasn't drinking or anything, he just fell asleep behind the wheel. And he goes, So we had the conversation this morning of, you know, are you okay? He said, This afternoon we're gonna have a different conversation. I said, Right. You know, it's gotta be more like, okay, son, you're 21. Evidently, three hours of sleep's not enough. And evidently you need to learn to start doing some adulting stuff. Yeah, and so yeah. So John and I are now tomorrow.
SPEAKER_09Now it's mom, John Steve. What do we call them? Dagger brothers, man. Yeah. People that people that are there that they know that uh we're we're able to walk alongside with them. Yeah. And you're and we're we share those hard things. Yeah, but he shares them with you, you share them with him, and it's just it's a place of growing together and in discipleship, man. Yep, as friends, as brothers.
SPEAKER_05Well, real crazy thing. I've got people in my workspace that one of the girls came to me here a while back and asked me to pray for her back. She's not overly religious, and I said, Okay.
unknownDr.
SPEAKER_05Ibo paid for mine, and I got straightened up. And so I said, Let's go over here to this little office area right here. It's all glass, everybody can see us. And I said, just have a conversation. You know, do you believe Jesus Christ can heal you? Yeah. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? You make you want to make him Lord of your life? Yeah. I said, okay, let's get to it. Nice. I said, now I understand. You may not get a healing. It may that healing may come from the doctor you're gonna see later in this week. I don't know. God didn't give these doctors the ability to be doctors. Yeah. You know, sometimes he heals you through their expertise. So don't don't think that when I, you know, when this prayer's over, you're going out here dancing. You still may be in a lot of pain. Yeah. But it's you have to understand it's God's will, not my will. You have to understand it's, you know, his will all the time. Oh, yeah. So uh I had a friend one time tell me, said some students were kidding him, he said, Aren't you afraid of getting fired talking about Jesus? And his answer was, Man, that's the best way to get fired. Amen. You're gonna get canned. Jesus! You're gonna get canned. That's the best way to do it. I I feel the same way. People ask me, say, you know, you do that praying thing, does that bother you? That doesn't bother me. Does it bother you? Is there are you worried about getting fired?
SPEAKER_09I ain't worried about nothing. So, we've been we've been through quite a lot.
Mentoring, Challenge Coin, And Mat Carrying
SPEAKER_09So, what I want to know is what you're hoping for to come. Whether it's in your family or at reveal with you and Heather. Um, do you feel God calling you to start a ministry or step into something? What do you what do you feel is coming?
SPEAKER_05My biggest challenge is to see all of my children fall in love with Jesus Christ and become followers of Jesus Christ and work in the kingdom. All of them. They're starting, it's taken them since 2013 to see Heather and I 13 years walking this consistently. You know, you guys know. Oh yeah. We're always challenged. Oh, yeah, yes, it's fake. Yeah, it's only gonna last a couple of years. But now we're on year 13. Yeah, now the kids are starting to get, hmm. This ain't changing. Yeah, they these these mom, especially Heather, they're like, man, mom is sold out crazy. And she'll tell you that because she's done some crazy things. Um, that's my first priority. Lead my family to Christ. That's so good. Uh I want to see them all. My daughter Amanda, my son Chris, they're pretty, pretty tight with God, and uh, but not like they should be. They should be working the kingdom, not just playing on the edges. Yeah. My other three, they're I think they're skeptical because they came from a broken family. Uh they're not married, they don't have relationships with uh well, Maddie does. Maddie has a boyfriend now. Um the other two don't. I think a lot of that's seeing their mother go through a divorce situation. So, you know, the prayer is they find somebody in their life that's it can be somebody that helps guide them down that path. That's my number one. I don't know what God has in for me. I keep thinking it somewhere in the ministry. I don't know what that actually looks like. Yeah. We're gonna see how this art of marriage thing goes, and then we're gonna see what what reveal has. And if God says the reveals, you know, uh they're in their infancy, if you will. Yeah.
SPEAKER_09It's a good place to start.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you know, they're someone they're starting. When they're just beginning. They've they're running about 600 people in two services.
SPEAKER_03Uh that's decent. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And it and it's gonna jump. They already told us it's look, and then a month from now when the snowbirds get back, or as I call them double. Yeah. Or as I call them the blue hairs. When they come back. I'm a silver hair, I'm not a blue hair. Somebody asked me, what color's your hair? I said it's two tones, silver and skin, and skin's starting to win. Um no, um when they get back, we're maybe looking at three services up there. So I don't know what that looks like. Obviously, we're the new kids in the neighborhood. Um, you know, you don't just because somebody comes in and says they done stuff, don't mean you turn it loose to them or give them the king's key to the front door. You gotta make sure that, you know, you gotta protect the house. That's right. Uh whatever you've been trained well. Yeah. And I had talked to Pastor Les about this a bunch before I left. This is one thing that God has really put on my heart the last couple of three years. And I had talked to Pastor Les, unfortunately, with his chemo and his health issues. Um, God has really put me on a put on my heart a lot about being a care minister. Somebody that's gonna go out and go to the hospitals, go to the hospital, be on call. And and I've asked God if I am, I I am gonna retire again. That's coming. It's probably gonna happen around February of next year. My wife is getting very insistent. My children are getting very insistent. They're like, uh my boss yesterday says, Well, we're not gonna have anybody quit this next year. And I'm like, You want to bet? I didn't tell her that. Um I will quit sometime after the first of the year, probably state of February, where I can get my um um vacation. I'll be 69 and a half. I mean, fairly good health. I walk goofy and act goofy sometimes. But God is really but God has really put it on my heart about being in the care pastoral thing. You in the hospital. And I think part of grief share is leading that that way. Being there when per people are starting to say their goodbyes, if you will. Yeah, buddy. And being there for the family at goodbye time. Uh in fact, I told uh our group the other night we were talking about small groups, and I referred to Pastor Dave talking about, hey, you know, we had an instance one time where someone passed away, and before I could get there, the grief share leader was already in-house ministering and comforting the family. And, you know, so that's really been a push on me is to be a care pastor, uh, be there for the families. I think grief share set me up for that. I think that was part of God's plan. I didn't see it then, but I've I've seen it a lot since then. You know, God's always can shown me visions in my sleep. It's really weird. I'll see stuff and then it comes to pass. The weirdest one I ever got from God was when the Space Challenger blew up. About two weeks before that thing blew up, I seen it blow up. Yeah. Just like it did. And my wife didn't Darlene says, Well, how do you know it was that? I said, Because there was two women on it, and when it blew, their faces were like right here in front of me. And it was Christy McAuliffe and that other astronaut lady. That's how I'm and I was out on my coffee run and I was at a hospital delivering coffee, and I was standing there watching the TV when they showed the replay, and it was just like the dream I had. I went, This is weird.
SPEAKER_09So you God God speaks to me a lot as well in things like that. And it seems to me that you are a man that likes to challenge other men to be better, to walk closer. And if I had a coin, I'd give you one. I want to challenge you to your GED. There's something to that, you know, success in the honor of mama in that finish. There's something on the other side of that that God has for you.
SPEAKER_05Well, there's a lot of people who hear this podcast just gonna find that out for the first time. Because the only person knows that in this church is Pastor Tom, because he had asked me about Theos. And I told him, I said, I'm gonna tell you something that I don't tell very many people. My wife knows it, my kids know it, you know, close family. I said, I don't have a high school education, man. I'm just a boogerhead and about as dumb as a box of rocks. And he's like, You're smarter than you think you are. He goes, dude, you can still take these other classes. And I'm like, I'm trying to get out of this. I can see you trying to squirm your way away. Pastor Tom is a hoot. He's a good guy. The people in this church are always gonna be family to me. It's always gonna be family to Heather. We're always gonna love our life, lifelink family like no other. God placed us here for a season and for a reason. Amen. He may place us back here again. I got no idea. Amen. But I do know this.
What He’s Praying For Next
SPEAKER_05There's two things I've learned the older I've gotten. Obedience is number one. And number two, and it's the hardest thing that any man does, surrender. You got to learn to surrender. Men, we are not programmed to be surrenderers. We're programmed to be conquerors and fixers, fixer. Yeah, and white knucklers and surrender. And the two things God wants out of us, He wants the toughness, but He wants the tenderness. Amen. And He wants us to learn to surrender, to give it to Him, and have Him walk us through it. And a lot of times we we're not good at that. We're just it's like, I'm a dude, you know, I got testosterone. I'm taking pills and keep it up there. You know, crazy, brother. I love you, Dale. But uh hopefully that's gonna be it. Yeah. Thanks, bro. Oh, thank you guys. It's been great. I'm sorry I didn't give you much chance to talk. Oh no, you're good.
SPEAKER_04It was captivating.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, you had as soon as you started talking, I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna he's gonna draw me in. You got one of those voices, man.
SPEAKER_05I like I said, I uh Jesus always fills me with parables. Yeah, and I think Jesus talked in parables so much in the New Testament is because he wanted to relate to us in an everyday way. He didn't want to talk over us and he didn't want to talk below us. He just went like, hey man, I I get it.
SPEAKER_01That's funny. I was just I don't know if I was reading it or what, but he was talking about how I talk this way so those that can understand can understand, and those that don't won't.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_01You know what I mean? And so he talks that way for a reason, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05He he talks kind of like with my children when their mom was going through the cancer. Yeah, you know, I said, Well, how do I explain this to them? And they're like, Tell them what they can understand and absorb and then leave it and then come back to it when they get older and older and older, and they'll they'll you know, you don't you don't don't shortcut them. No, and that's the big thing. Everybody tries to sugarcoat it and shortcut it. You gotta be real with them, but you don't get real graphic and real and over their head, you get where they're at. And it's a hard thing to do. It is.
SPEAKER_01I love you, man.
SPEAKER_05Man, I love you guys. I love life, Link. I love I love what it did to our lives. Yeah, uh, it answered the question we had when we come to the desert. What's our mission, man? What's our mission, God? Come on, buddy. You give us something. Let me pray
Final Prayers And How To Connect
SPEAKER_05for you, brother. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01All right. Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. But, Father, I just thank you, Lord. Father, I first just want to acknowledge that you are supreme, that you are holy, that you are the creators of the heavens and the earth, God, and that you are the Lord of Lord and King of kings, God. And I just thank you for your son, Dell, Father God.
unknownThank you.
SPEAKER_01Lord, we thank you for the story that he shared, Lord God. We thank you for uh the testimony of what you've done in his life, Lord God, and how you just you took an old booger head, man, and you made him a Bible dumber, God. And I just thank you, Lord, for that. For what you've done in his life, Lord God, because if you can do it for him, you can do it for anybody, God. And I thank you that there are going to be people that hear this, God, and it can relate to where he is, where he was, and that they want to be where he is, Lord God. And I pray that they hear this story and that they can see that Jesus really is the truth, the way, and the life, Lord God, and that that this story will lead people to you, Lord God. Thank you, God. Father, right now, in Jesus' name, God, Lord, I pray that you bring somebody into Chris's life, somebody into Danny's life, somebody into Amanda's life, and Rocky's life, and and all the other children's lives, God, that will begin to speak life into them, Father God. Thank you, Lord. Because we know that people only come to you if you draw them to you, Father God. So I pray that you put somebody in these children's lives, Lord God, that will begin to minister to them in a way, God, that will draw them to you, Father God. And so, Lord, I thank you for the example that Dell and Heather's been to them, Father God, and that this is something that is not moving to the side, God, that this is something that has stuck and it's gonna stay, and they're gonna see wait a minute, this is. This is different. This is not how I remember mom and dad. They've been doing this for a while. And usually they're here and there and they're all over the place. But now this is something that stayed. And so I thank you, God, they're their their lives are testimonies to their children, Father God. And as they as they plant seeds, Father God, we pray that you bring somebody by to water it, Father God. And I thank you that when the time is right, Father God, that you'll bring someone to harvest that soul to your kingdom, Father God. And I thank you for it now in Jesus' name, Father God. And Lord, I thank you that as much as he's trying to run from it, as much as he's trying to hide from it, Father God, Lord, I pray in Jesus' name that you put it on his heart, Father God, to finish what he started. Thank you, Lord. To go get that GED, God.
SPEAKER_06Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01That even at 69, he'll show somebody that you can finish something that you started, that you walked away from, that you can come back and finish it. The example. So I thank you, God, for what that's gonna do for somebody. Yeah, that's right. Somebody's gonna hear that and they're gonna be like, oh crap, I gotta go do something. And I thank you for that, Lord God. And Lord, I thank you that. Thank you, God. Open a door.
SPEAKER_07Yep.
SPEAKER_01That's right. You heard his heart through grief share and all the things and all the troubles and all the trauma that he's been through, Father God. The compassion that he has in his heart to want to stand by someone going through something, Father God, as the form of a care pastor. So Lord, I pray right now that you begin to speak to DQ's heart right now in Jesus' name, Holy Spirit. Begin to minister to that pastor, Father God. Begin to open his heart and mind to see what he has in Dell, Father God, and that he will find a way and just a thing to make this something that comes to pass, Father God. Because I know your son will do a great job.
unknownThank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01That he'll walk into hospital rooms and just bring light and life and joy to a dire situation, Father God. That he'll walk into a home of someone who's going through something, Father God, and he will bring life into that home, Father God. And I thank you that he is the one that you have for this, Father God.
SPEAKER_09Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_01So do it now, I pray, in Jesus' name, Father God. And then there's this new season coming up, Father God. He was talking about retirement again, Lord God. Lord, I pray that when he steps out of the secular world, Father God, in a form of retirement, that he finds kingdom business to be about, Father God. Amen.
unknownThank you.
SPEAKER_01Because when we retire from secular, our job is not done. It just means we're free from the secular to do more kingdom work, Father God. Because I know that when people retire and they retire, life begins to get shortened really fast, Father God. So I pray that you keep him busy in kingdom business and in kingdom activity, God. Because he has a lot of life ahead of him, Father God. And I thank you for it now in Jesus' name. And Father God, Lord, I thank you for this upcoming class, Father God. Lord, I thank you for the art of marriage, Father God. Lord, I thank you for Dell and Heather, Lord God, that as they minister to other couples and other singles who may be looking to be married, Father God, that this class will bring something that'll stir in their hearts, Father God, and they'll see and they'll learn and they'll grow and they'll mature in what it's like to be in marriage, Father God. There are couples that are going to walk into this class whose marriages are interminable right now, Father God. And they're going to get to see and be ministered to by a couple who's been through a lot and can say, man, this is worth fighting for. Marriages is worth fighting for, Father God. Lord, I thank you right now in Jesus' name, Lord. The world has tried to distract what marriage really is. It's just a piece of paper. It's something that you do, Father God. No, marriage is a covenant, Father God. It's a holy covenant before God. And I thank you that people are going to begin to see that and realize that this is not just a piece of paper. This is not just some kind of a financial agreement where we can live together and things will be easier. That this is a covenant. And covenants are sacred, they're holy, things to be admired and built upon, Father God. And I thank you that couples in this thing are going to get to see just what that looks like, Father God, through the art of marriage. And I thank you for it, God. Lord, I just pray blessings over your son right now in Jesus' name, Father God. Bless him, bless Heather and all that they do. Lord, let their lives be just light and life to people around them, Lord. Thank you. And I pray all this in the awesome and mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER_05Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_09Hey Dale, can you pray for us, bro? Pray for Speak Life. Pray for me and Dad, man.
SPEAKER_05Thank you, Lord. And now you're thinking about going to the Philippines? I haven't told you. I have not.
SPEAKER_01Oh, he's going. I already bought his ticket. He just dumb.
SPEAKER_09Thank you so much. I was going to say, sounds like you've been already donation for it, but I'll update you. And you'll see some stuff on social media. Yeah, I got you. Good.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_09Pray for us, bro. Yeah, please.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Thank you, Lord. Father God. Man, God, you are so great. Jesus. We're just thankful. Yeah, we are. Let us always open our prayers with thanks because and the ability to reach out to you, Father, and leave our cares at your feet. Yes, Lord God. Father, I pray over Eddie that you'll keep him, that you'll find a way for him to find more rest where he doesn't have to work so hard. He can take some breath, Lord. Thank you, Lord. And just give him time to just rest his body and rest his mind. The things that he do, he does, Lord, you know what they are. You know what he puts into it. We're just asking you to give him a little bit more rest. He's getting a little bit long in the tooth, Lord, so he needs a little more rest. Thank you, Lord God. We know you have big plans for him, but he has to be rested and ready for those. So we we hope that the opportunities come. Whatever that opportunity looks like. You already know, Lord, you're 75 yards in front of this. You already know where it's at. We're just asking you to show it to us and give my brother some rest. Thank you, God. Father, I ask that you be over rowdy. It looks like he's about to step into something new and exciting in the Philippines. And and Father, uh it's a place he never thought on his map that he'd ever be that you would put him, and you're going to put him there for a reason. Uh, whatever that looks like, we're just praying that you'll oversee it, you'll look at it, you'll give him strength, you'll give him what he needs to make the kingdom bigger through the Philippines and where he does his work. Now, Father, I pray a special blessing over LifeLink. What a wonderful church you've put here. What a plant you've put here. Father, you already know what they've got planned in the Queen Creek area. And I'm asking, Father, that you just light that up and put it on go fast mode. Thank you guys. Don't let us go too fast. Let us take it the way you want us to do it. But I pray over Pastor David and Pastor Cherie that you give them the strength, the vision that you've given, that you'll see it through. I pray a special blessing and a special prayer for Pastor David, Lord. Father, you know his health conditions. We love him so much. As he goes through that fight, he's carrying the torch for the kingdom, he's carrying the torch for this church and the people that you've asked him, the shepherd. Give him strength, give him power, give him healing. Father, don't ever cut him short. He's your son. Thank you. Father, you've give him a special mission in this area in East Phoenix to do. You've given Cherie his helpmate, his wife, his his his one. Father, bless them both, help them get through this, and bless the entire pastoral staff as they walk through these different financial and building plans and everything that they're they've got laid out. Thank you, Lord. Give them the strength, give them the workers. Father, make this is a harvest time, God. We know we're in end times. It could happen any minute. You can blow the horn and we're out of here. But until we do, God, set up that harvest. We're ready to harvest, Father. We're ready to get out and get in the fields and get these folks. Thank you, Lord. Father, it's your mission, it's our mission.
unknownThank you, God.
SPEAKER_05So bless this church, keep them strong, keep them well, and keep your your blessings over them, Father. And thank you for Eddie. Thank you for Speak Life Arizona, where we can come and be real and be ourselves. We don't have to kind of sugarcoat anything or put something on Sunday that you know. Because God, people will figure you out. Thank you, God. They'll figure you out. If you're blowing smoke, they'll figure you out. Just make it a real deal. Thank you, God. And Father, you are the real deal. Thank you, Lord. And without you, we're nothing. So, Father, as your word said, make it on earth as it is in heaven. Thank you. That your will, Lord, make it happen. Father, just give us vision, give us spirit. Let your Holy Spirit be our guidance as we walk through this life. Thank you, Lord. When we see an opportunity to be a witness, give us the courage to witness. Thank you, Lord. Give us rowdies, rowdiness, if you will, Father. To just speak up. Holler Jesus in the middle of the fight. Thank you, God. Father, we just thank you for everything you've done and everything you're gonna do. It's in Jesus' name I pray.
SPEAKER_09Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Dale. Amen. Uh, I don't know where you're listening from, uh, where you're watching from, but Holland, we see you. Asia, we see you, uh, Indonesia, we see you, all the cities and countries around the world, man. God bless you. Uh, if you could please like, subscribe to the channel, follow it. You'll get all future upcoming notifications. Uh, if you yourself or you have a testimony or you know somebody with one, um, please reach out, speak life az, Facebook, Instagram, leave a little message on the YouTube, even comment. Jesus. Um, it helps so much with the algorithms in the background. Um, but until next time, we're gonna continue to speak life a Z. God bless you.
SPEAKER_04Jesus.