Cannon Family Stories | Episode 1 - Blaine Ashburn

We're excited to launch Cannon Family Stories, a new podcast from Cannon United where Pastor Tim explores the faith journeys and life stories of members from our church family. Each episode offers a chance to hear how God is working in their lives through moments of faith, challenge, growth, and hope.

Blaine Ashburn shares his faith journey, how he became involved at Cannon United, and the ways God has worked throughout his life. In this episode of Cannon Family Stories, Blaine reflects on the experiences that shaped his faith and the importance of community, service, and following Christ. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to Canon Family Stories, a limited series just this summer, 2026, designed to help us get to know uh members and friends of Canon UMC, uh, hear their stories, how God has been at work in and through them and the life of this church. Welcome to Blaine Ashburn. Um, you are the guest of honor in our inaugural episode. Yes, you're the guinea pig, but you're also the fearless uh prototype.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Well, thank you, Tim. Um and uh correct me if I'm wrong, but uh this is of my own doing because I shared a thought about this type of uh uh conversation and with Jan Dwyer, and she said, Ooh, I'm gonna take that to Tim, and then you kind of came to me and said, I think I want to do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

So Well, yeah, you are uh you are one half of the idea, as it turns out, because uh because Miles had said something to me about doing a podcast like this where we just um really kind of hear people's stories. Okay. And so we had talked about that, that was kind of kicking around, and then it did seem kind of providential that you said that you know you really would like an opportunity to kind of share your story um, you know, with with the congregation, and that just seemed like too it was not a coincidence. That seemed like you know, that seemed like a providential thing, like, hey, let's bring these two ideas together.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

I I've if if it isn't my strongest uh belief in my Christian faith, uh I I don't know what would surpass it, but I truly believe God has a plan for each and every one of us, and some of what I I'd like to share in this uh reflects that.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Well that's great. And um so let's kind of start with just kind of how you first got connected with canon, kind of when that was, how that came about.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Yeah, I was in 1997 um I had been going through not just that year, but of for a couple of years, a very di difficult uh marriage um at that time and plain English falling apart. Yeah. Um and um I I had not been a churchgoer to speak of um for many years. Um and not to make an excuse out of it, but um just to sort of set the table a little bit, um my previous wife uh was Jewish. And so most of my faith journey, if that's the way or the phrase to use, uh, was more in the synagogue. But she wasn't strong, real strong. I mean, she was reformed. So other than holidays and things like that, we you know, I was at all the Satyrs for 20 years. Yeah, I had been married or coming up on. And um so uh it reached a point for me personally that the um uh uh with my marriage going south, um I I I I just needed to get back. And um I had grown up uh in the United Methodist Church. Actually, ironically, um, and I often wonder how many folks know, I'm sure you do, but um, you know, the United Methodist was a merge of two different yeah, you know, yeah. And my parents went to the other church that merged then with the Methodist Church and became the United Methodist Church.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah, the Evangelical United Brethren EUB. Right, United comes from them, it doesn't always known.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

That's right. And I was hoping that that might come up in conversation. That's where I that's and then of course we stayed, my parents and and me, of course, then we stayed with when it through the merger with the United Methodists. So uh, you know, in the hometown I grew up in, which you're familiar with, and maybe we'll talk about that. Um you know, I that's where I was. Well then I went off to college and then became a college kid and just kind of went away from it all. Got married in uh 1979 and uh to my previous wife who I've mentioned was Jewish. So I I just I really wasn't part of the church. But in October of 1997, I was at a point where I just needed. I I just I felt like I I I just felt compelled that I needed to get back into my own faith. Yeah. And um so uh I lived uh close to here, very, very close to here, uh at the time, uh still married, but in in a subdivision very close to here. And um so I just started coming in here and uh uh Pastor Terry Walton's just got a got a hold of me. Yeah, and I I I couldn't wait for the next Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Okay, that's yeah, that's wonderful. Well, first of all, um I just want to say, I mean, we've talked about your divorce a little bit before personally, but but just to say again, I'm sorry for the the pain that you know that that you experienced there. I'm just saying anyone who's been through divorce, there are a lot of members and friends at Canon who've been through that, and it's very difficult. And um and and also it's it really occurs to me, it you know, I've heard it said that the the things that the two things that most often bring kind of deep transformation into our life are great suffering or great love. Yeah. And how those kind of challenges, that kind of relational trauma can actually kind of open our hearts and our lives to God in a way that maybe we weren't open before. And so that's obviously a a part of your part of your story. Um I am kind of curious when you came back to the Christian faith, the Christian church, having spent a couple decades maybe not totally immersed, but still active in the life of a synagogue.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Did that did that kind of sojourn through the Jewish community, did that affect your understanding of the Christian faith, your experience of the Christian faith? And I'm just kind of curious if that if that how that affected things at all.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

The way I would uh answer that is um in a weird way, I I wouldn't say that it it um what it did for me was uh it taught me a lot about the Torah.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Yeah. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Yeah. And and so um, you know, what is it, the first five books uh uh of the Bible, which I in a weird way I think kind of fed my I mean did it did it you know, did it educate me any further in my Christian faith? No, I I wouldn't say that. But what it did was it it it cemented a foundation that maybe I hadn't had before. But you know, I mean, I l you know I went through, as I say, you know, a a lot of visits and a you know, a lot of uh uh you know uh I guess you could call it just uh exposure to you know with you know to the Jewish faith and and their beliefs and then and then relating them. I I'll I'll add to that, yeah, actually, ironically, it definitely planted a seed of some kind that still exists for me because um there's a couple of on Sunday afternoons on a couple of the of the streaming channels, a couple there's the the uh uh a couple of the uh Jewish rabbis who who are preaching about Jesus and the Christian faith.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

And I find if I'm channel surfing, waiting for a ball game to come on or something or a race to come on, you know, being a big NASCAR guy, right? Um, I'll stop and watch. Okay. And I do. So they're messianic Jewish. Well, no, it's it's um I'm trying to think of the one that uh I I kind of catch most of the time when I do catch one. Um uh he I think he calls himself the Chr Christian Rabbi or something like that, you know. I mean but it but he he he brings the two together uh very well. He's very articulate.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

And I find that um I I guess I'm just it just interests me that that that was rooted all those years in in my uh exposure, if that's the right word for it, but you know, just being in that in that realm. Yeah. And um so it but but the truth be told, I I don't think I ever lost my complete connection to my Christian faith. I don't feel like it ever went away entirely. Um it it's just it kind of went to sleep for a lot of years. Yeah, and um and it awakened big time when I came back in October of 1997 and started attending this church, canon, on a regular basis. I couldn't wait for every Sunday. I I I was uplifted. But that's only a part of the story, which we'll get to here shortly.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Yeah, so I want to hear more about that for the and before we do, I want to jump back. As you mentioned, you didn't grow up in Georgia or the South. Um you are from the great state of Pennsylvania. Not only are you from the great state of Pennsylvania, but you're from the right third of Pennsylvania, which is to say western Pennsylvania. Um Beaver County. Beaver County, which is Beaver High School, Beaver County. So tell us a little bit about you know uh family upbringing, you know, tell us just tell us a little bit about your story, get to know you in that way, kind of started.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

I mean uh I'm very uh I'm very proud of my roots in in western Pennsylvania, growing up in Western Pennsylvania and Beaver and Beaver County. Um uh I I I even went, I don't know if some folks watching this may or may not be aware, but I'm um, you know, I'm a nittney lion, so you know, we are. Right. Um and ironically, uh one of the first at Penn State, they they don't have they've done away with them actually, but they had uh I think it was like 18 Commonwealth campuses across the state. Oh yeah, and they were two-year, two-year campuses, and then you had to go to state college to finish your to get your degree. Um so you know, grew up in Beaver, Pennsylvania, Beaver County, and then I spent my first two years of college um at Penn State Beaver, okay, which was the the the two-year Commonwealth campus. And that meant living at home and commuting, and I had I was thanking God at that time that I had to go to state college for my last two years. I was ready. You're ready. Ready, yeah. Um, but uh, but I still have uh a brother, my brother and sister-in-law. Uh they actually my when my dad was in bad shape and everything, my brother bought the house we grew up in, and that's where he's living with my sister. Yeah, that's where he lives with my sister-in-law, and then I have a sister uh in town in in in Beaver proper. Uh and she's been there her she won't leave ever. I mean, she doesn't even take trips. She made everything. I think she's making one coming up with my wife, actually, so that could be trouble. But um, but um uh yeah, so you know, um, you know, we lost our parents a few some years ago, and um but my mother was strong in her faith. Yeah, very strong.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

So not my dad so much, but my deep roots in the EUB, the un the Evangelical United Brethren Church, or was that kind of something that came along later?

SPEAKER_03 12:02

I well my mother and father together when it was still EUB, um, yes. But when it when it merged with the Methodist Church, became the United Methodist uh church, yeah, I don't know, for some reason my dad sort of pushed away. Yeah and I I'm not sure whether it was I I was too young to know whether it was relation uh issues or whatever. Not so much with my mother, but just he either had a a gang to run around with, uh, you know, men's group.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:34

Uh but my mom, she seemed to go the opposite direction, and she really she really became very rude about it.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

So she got more engaged. She never left. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

She never left. I mean, she in in the United Methodist Church in Beaver, uh, she became very active.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

So for those who don't know that history, uh the the United Methodist Church was formed in 1969 through the through the merging of the Methodist Church with the Evangelical United Brethren Church. Um EUB, again, this is really more of a northern thing. I don't feel like in the South there were EUB churches. It was a German language church, German culture. Yeah. You know, German immigrants who had formed this. They didn't have a direct connection with the Wesleyan revivals, but the kind of shape of their faith, the theology was very, very, very similar. It was like a German version of the same faith. Right, right. Um, and it's interesting to hear about your dad because I've grown up where I did, like my the bishop who ordained me came from an EUB background. Oh, wow. And I ran across EUB people periodically. And there was, you know, frequently a sense that the EUB, which was a pretty small denomination, just kind of got swallowed up by the Methodist Church. It did. And you kind of it's like it was institutionally necessary, but it was somewhat traumatic. Maybe it could have been handled in a different way.

SPEAKER_03 13:47

Um well and the German heritage connection. It connects also with uh the heritage in in my family tree. Right. Um because my mother's side had a lot of German roots and heritage going way back. So um, you know, it it it it it and that may have been some persuasion, but you mentioned the the the year of the of the merger, which was 1969. That was when I graduated in ice from high school. Yeah, I'm old. Um and so um uh y I had other things on my mind at that time. You know, colleges coming around the corner, you know, I just applying to colleges and getting accepted. And so I you know, for me it was okay, you know. And I frankly, I I did stay going for a while uh while those first two years at the Commonwealth campus. I continued to go to the church because I was interested in girls and there were a lot of cute girls and and it was it was just it was a lot of fun, actually. It was fun. Um so uh but then it like I say, once I went off to uh to state college, and that was that was I I I was I was done. I I shouldn't say done in the sense of deliberately but you just didn't engage a church ex when you were in college.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Right, well said. And that's that's kind of the way my life that's not uncommon. So so then like so you finish up at in Happy Valley. I have to call it Happy Valley. My dad graduated, my older sister graduated from Penn State. Oh, is that right? Yeah, so we're learning new things here on the phone. Penn State family. Um we used to go to games when I was growing up. Okay. And so um I've got some great memories of football games at Pennsylvania. Oh, yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Um can't be can't be talked about on this podcast. We had some good ones. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Um but uh so so tell us a little bit about uh kind of after college, kind of where life took you, and then how you ended up in Georgia in October 9 to 7.

SPEAKER_03 15:50

Um I'll I'll I'll I'll make it a short version, but um I um I you know I uh as many folks have quizzed me about in our congregation here, uh when I do scripture readings and whatnot, my deg my my uh bachelor's is in broadcast journalism. So I spent 10 years um in radio news, uh different radio stations, uh one in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where I was born.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Uh and I did a midday talk show. Uh I interviewed uh a lot of people. But even before that, when I got to state college, um I was the um it was the college station I was on, and I was the uh public affairs director. And um I got sent off uh in 1972, I got sent off to the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Because that was the first year that 18-year-olds could vote in the presidential election. Okay, and I got sent off to the Shoreham Hotel for the Richard Nixon um inaugural, and um I interviewed people of national uh prominence.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

Bob Dole.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Really?

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Yes, one-on-one.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

Um I uh during the campaign had interviewed John Connolly before he was assassinated, or not assassinated, but shot with President Kennedy after, of course, not before. Um but I interviewed a lot of prominent people. Matter of fact, one quick story was I've never forgotten. Jim Brown, by the way, was there and I got to meet him. Us guys wait, yeah, the football player, Jim Brown. The Jim Brown? Yeah, okay. Um but um I was watching a speaker up at the podium, and there was a woman standing next to me, and she said, uh, and I said, Wow, I said, this guy's really, you know, he's he's he's all into this and everything. And she said, Yeah, he's he's he's pretty well committed. And uh and I said, I don't know who he is, but I said, you know, I don't recognize his his face or anything. And she said, would you like to meet him? And I said, sure. What what who is he? And she said, it's Richard Klein Deans. That's my husband. Now a lot of folks in here will know who that was. Okay. A lot of the young generations won't, of course. But uh I spent a lot of years in radio, eventually kind of drifted off out of news after several radio stations. I was and what um I was um uh a news director uh at a radio station and it just wasn't working out. And so um I was still in New Jersey where I had gone for my first radio full-time radio job.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:43

And um I uh mm changed careers, but I was still doing uh I was DJing on the weekends in in at a radio station in a couple of places, and of course I was in New Jersey, right um, and one of the radio stations that I was a country DJ at was in Florida, New York.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Huh. I don't think I've ever heard of Florida New York.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

Nobody ever, and then and then I remember one time telling that to somebody and they overheard me, and the person that I was telling it to goes, Come on now, you're making that up. And the person who overheard the conversation said, Oh yeah, it's for real.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:23

So um, but I I moved out of that, I moved out of that business altogether. Uh and um uh a guy that I worked with at one of the radio stations in New Jersey, he said he owned a small side business where he did private parties DJing. So I I did that for another 10 years. I I left the radio business altogether. But to answer your question about what how we got down here, I had actually moved into uh insurance claims and claims adjusting for a company and was a claims manager for a company, and the person that uh was my boss moved on to another company and asked me if I would and I was actually working in New York City for this insurance company. I worked in Lower Manhattan for three and a half years, brutal commute as you can imagine. Um and he came to me and said, uh, hey, uh how about running an office for me in Richmond, Virginia? Made an offer, sounded good, um, and so my previous wife and I, uh we moved to we moved to Virginia. And I was there about three plus years, and he moved on and became president of another company and said to me, I I I got I could use you. I could he said you do a great job for me.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:47

How about coming with or how about coming back to where I'm at or coming to where I'm at? And I said, and where would that be? And he goes, uh, he goes, Well, that uh is in I have an office in Norcross, Georgia. Would you be willing to move?

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

Uh I said, again? I just, you know, and uh and my ex-wife wasn't real a real, she wasn't real fond of Virginia. Okay. She said, Well, where's Norcross? I said, It's an Atlanta suburb. And she said, Let's go. Yeah, let's go. 19, July 5th, 1992, I I loaded up my old Pontiac J2000 with a rebuilt engine and drove down with everything I owned till we could sell the house in Virginia.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

And I came down here and lived in a motel for three weeks and uh in Nor, you know, running this office in Norcross. And uh and then eventually uh by November uh we sold the house in Virginia and been here ever since.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah, that's uh that's like a big step of faith. Thirty four years coming up, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Uh and and I'll even mention something funny. I won't mention the specifics, although a couple folks in here know. Him uh or aware of them, David Freeman being one of them. But when I got down here being, and you can appreciate this, being a Yankee, I got I was uh took over this office of all females and one male, I'm marketing guy, yeah, and said to me, they came in and uh came to me as a small group and said, you know, we a little a little worried about Yankees coming in here to so they gave me their definition of Yankees twofold. I won't repeat it for for especially being in the Lord's house. But they told me if I lasted 30, one of the things they told me is if I made it 30 years here, I could apply for Southern citizenship. I told that story to David Freeman one time.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:49

And it was I'd already passed my 30 years, and David goes, I now bestow upon you your southern citizenship. I still laugh every time I think of that.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Yeah, I uh I honestly uh didn't know I was Yankee until I went to school in the South, and then some people pointed it out to me that I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah, they were concerned, um, yeah, I was gonna make sure you're aware of it. And it wasn't just a Yankee, it was a something Yankee. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, so you had that same speech. Oh, you got that same speech. Okay, yeah. So uh so let's go forward then to uh to kind of where we started, which was 97. Um and so you kind of you you find your way to this church in a difficult place in life. Um worship and Terry's preaching were really important to you. I know that there was also an experience with the prayer room um here at the church. I don't know that a lot of people know we have a prayer room. It's um let me bridge yeah, yeah. So if if you would share that experience, let me bridge that for you.

SPEAKER_03 23:49

So so I um ultimately um well, first of all, um you know, and I pr got involved in other things here. Uh I uh separated in 1998, my wife and I. Uh I started coming, we had a singles group here at the time. Um and I started coming to the singles group, and it's for the life of me, I can't remember the associate pastor's name who was here at the time, loved the guy, um, and he he participated, he was single, okay, and he participated, and several folks who are still part of our congregation here, they know who they are. Yeah, um they uh were in that group, and so I was, you know, so I I I was doing more than just coming on Sundays. Yeah. So I was ultimately divorced in 1999. Um I'll just put it this way, uh Tim, that um I well, first of all, I I had lost my job in the meantime. Um and uh I was just I was working three part-time jobs just to make ends meet and to meet my um uh calling it what it is, my my court uh obligations, what what was handed to me, which was extreme to put it mildly. Okay. Extreme. Um and I was in I was I was in really bad shape uh financially, emotionally, and um the prayer room that we uh still have in this church, although utilized for other things, as you know, uh now. Um I had never actually, and it kind of uh your sermon this past Sunday uh kind of is a pr pretty it's a pretty good connecting uh source in a way because um I uh my s my my my renewed strength uh strength in God was was uh not as deeply cemented as it probably at that time, right? At that moment, as uh it is today. How did I get there? I came to the prayer room, I I had uh obligations, child support and other obligations that were handed to me by the court, paying rent somewhere to live, put eat once in a while. Um and I came, I came in one day, middle of the day, the church was open, I came in, went into the prayer room, and for the first time in my life, I did what is often preached, talked about. Yeah, I truly, truly, I I said, God, I'm leaving it in your hands. I'm fighting it now a little bit if you can tell me. I left it in his hands. I truly left it in his hands. I had no job, I had a lot of resumes out, I didn't know how I was gonna meet my financial obligations, and for the first time in my life, I truly, truly left it in God's hands. And I I can just I'd never really done that with sincerity before, as as is often preached.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

Right.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

But I got up from there and I prayed, and I got up from there, and I walked out, and I can truthfully say, Tim, that I I felt relief. I I I I I mean I didn't I didn't I didn't walk out saying, oh, I know it's all good now, it's all fixed. I just felt relief. I felt I I I had genuinely left it at God's hand in God's hands, at his feet, for him to pull me through. And that's why um he is I mean, he had never failed me to that point. And with things that we don't have time to get into now, uh with uh me getting my kids every other weekend and and things like that. I mean, I I firmly believe in my heart that he wasn't gonna let me uh he was gonna make sure my my two kids had their dad.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Um but he never has failed me. And and that is in my heart, that is is the thing that I would most communicate. Um I left there that day, two weeks later, two weeks later, I had a job offer.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

Wasn't and I and I which I took, you know, because I needed to. And it wasn't that a job that I kept for years and years. I mean, I continued to look for better opportunities and things, which ultimately I did. I reached a very, very uh I've reached a good uh, you know, I became um uh uh I was you know, in fact my my uh my associate uh professional degree from Georgia Tech uh is in uh safety and health program management. I risk management, loss control.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

And uh I really uh and then spent the last 17 years of my corporate life in that in risk management and safety and health and loss control. And um which also back to the thing I said about uh God really has a plan for us all um after a few years of just kind of getting back on my feet and trying the dating world a little bit, which wasn't going real well, and all that kind of stuff. He put me in that last job that went 17 years in the last corporate 17 years. And um uh one of the first persons I met didn't work at that company, was a was a subcontractor for the company, and well, you know her. You know her.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Yeah, so that's how you met Julie.

SPEAKER_03 30:13

That's how I met Julie. That's how you met Julie. Yeah, that's how I met Julie. Wow. And you know, it's funny, she and I uh we were she was my fiance in February of 2004. Okay. And she was a little unsure about well, she was unsure about me in the beginning, but that's neither here nor there. But at that point she had already committed. Um so um in February 2004, you know, she was like, well, okay, well, I guess I need to leave her church where she was, which was a big church. Okay, and for her, Canon, believe it or not, was relatively small. Okay, and she's like, Oh, she was so nervous about that. She really wasn't sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

But in February 2004, we weren't married yet, we were engaged, and she uh we became members, actual members. Okay, and Pastor Terry used to tease me, he said, You will hold the record that shall never be broken of the longest visitor before ever becoming a member of this church. Seven years. Seven years. Or just about. So um, and then of course she and I married uh at at uh at the end of May of 2004.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

So well that's when I say canon members and friends, uh, the friends piece for me is i is people like you for those seven years, folks who are here who are part of the life of the church, who haven't yet joined. Yeah, but they're so they're not members per se, but they are clearly friends of the church. Regulars. Friends in the church, they're regulars, they're active. Yeah. Um so uh the you know, something I want to go back to the prayer room because your experience there uh resonates for me with something um that I hadn't really been thinking about until recently, and that is the difference between commitment and um surrender, and how uh and I was reading something where the author pointed out that older generations of pastors talked about surrender and surrendering to God and surrendering to Jesus, and the trend lately has been to talk about commitment. Yeah. And we need to be committed, and of course we do, right? But that's really an outgrowth of out of out of surrendering. And surrendering doesn't mean we become passive and you know, we don't do anything, we just throw up our hands, we give up. No, it's just yielding to God's grace, yielding to God's love, really kind of letting go of control and then living in response to God's grace, which is it sounds like that's what happened, because you were acting, you were like you didn't become a bystander in your life, you remained an active participant. It's just that you were more consciously, intentionally really you were you were you were living your life together with God and in response to God's I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but that seemed like the key thing there was that God became intimate and central in your life in a way that perhaps he hadn't been prior to the You know, and and oh very much so.

SPEAKER_03 33:04

Very much so. I mean, I I well let me say two things about that. First of all, um the I I I never really liked it when when uh ministers would would use the word surrender. Okay. I got the gist of it, yeah, but I didn't like it uh the terminology. Yeah that just didn't work for me.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:32

But yet I understood that um what it meant, as I've said already, to to really lay it, put it in his hands, lay it at his feet and trust and obey, yeah, which is one of my favorite hymns. Okay. Uh and to trust God. Um I have you know, uh Julie has given me um little uh things that sit on my on one of my nightstands and stuff, you know, trust, you know, trust God with your whole heart and things, you know. And I that's what it was for me as opposed to surrendering. But but I understood again giving it giving it to God. Yeah. And then the other part of it, kind of in in uh conjunction with what you're asking, is um uh, you know, I the for a long time, born again, born again, you know, a lot of that was really, you know, the the verbiage. Right. Born again.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

I mean, I I never I didn't object to that. Right. Um and maybe in a sense that's what it was for me. I was born again, but I wasn't, I was I was maybe born again prior to my visit to the prayer room.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

By virtue of the fact that I became uh I felt need uh a need to be in in service every Sunday in church, uh you know, to hear God Terry and and God's word uh and participate. And um, you know I I so I think in a sense maybe that was when I became quote unquote born again. But the difference being when I truly laid my troubles, laid my my problems, gave them to God. Yeah, and it it was a point in my life where I I thank him every day in prayer um for the abundant blessings that he has given me uh every day for in many, many ways. And you know, um prior to you um coming uh to Canon, um I've narrated many, many uh uh holiday events. Uh there was one that I did quite a few years ago that we actually spread over three days. And for the life of me, I'm right now um can't think of the name of it, which I should.

SPEAKER_02 36:14

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

Um Was it part of Holy Week? Did they do it like it was uh yeah, I mean it was it was leading up to it was leading up to maybe a couple of weeks before uh Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Um it was forever.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Yeah. But it was a three-day. Yeah, yeah, we did it three days. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:38

We had uh it was packed in here and um and I narrated it all, you know, all the all the performances. And um I just I I felt like like I do when you ask me to read scripture, yeah. I pray and I ask God to uh he he's given me a gift that I am able to use and give back for him because he's given me so much. That's how I view it when I read scripture and when I was doing those those uh narrations over the holidays and other times, and you've asked me, you've had me uh uh or asked me to do it, and it's just it's every chance I have to give back because he's given me so much. And and it and and I can really say in all truthfulness, it began that that that desire began that vi with that visit to the prayer room when I left all of my problems in his hands. Yeah. And uh I'm I'm totally thankful for so many ways bringing uh Julie into my life.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

Um she's so strong in her faith. And uh when I go a little sideways from time to time, she reminds me. But I don't mind it.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Yeah, well, she's a blessing to many of us. Everybody knows her would would count her a blessing. Absolutely. Um well, I'm glad you mentioned your experience with reading because I did want to kind of wrap up with that. You've already touched upon it, but um, yeah, many people will know you as the voice of the Christmas story because you have previously. Forever Gloria. Okay, that's that's what it was. So um, so yeah, you have often read the the the Christmas story for us on Christmas Eve this past Lent, holy week. Um you you led us, you you really narrated the passion story um beginning in the upper room and then taking us through the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. And you've already kind of touched upon this, but as we wrap up, just kind of wanted to anything else that you want to share in terms of what that experience is like for you spiritually, how um it is part of your response to God, but I would assume that it's also part of how God works in you is that you receive you yeah, like others receive from God through you, but I would imagine you also receive from God through that. So I'm kind of curious what what the other side of that is. Yeah, no, that ministers to you.

SPEAKER_03 39:03

No, absolutely. I mean, as I said, I mean, um uh it the the response because when I when I when I'm about to read w whatever it might be, the response that I get back, I ask God if if others if if it moves them, then you've done you've you've moved me. Right. And and I don't know if that's uh yeah the way to answer what you're asking, but I I I've I don't say this uh egotistically, but the number of people who come up to me afterwards or even a week later or so and say to me, Wow, boy, you you you you brought it out in me. And one gentleman in here who's been a became a member maybe a year or so ago, and I won't mention him by name, but I mean he was in tears. He came to me, he said, Oh my goodness, after the Good Friday readings.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:03

Um so you know, and others have. Thank you for using the gift you've given me and allowing me to to use it for you and for others and to bring out their uh their emotions and their and and and reinforce their strength if in in God, if that's the way to put it. Um I I uh uh you know it's funny too because um I I I would tell you all these years later, you know, in my 70s, I still miss my days um back in the radio business. Um I never wanted to leave it. Yeah, right. Um I I really left it primarily at the pressure of my previous wife um because in in in the in that business you kind kind of you can appreciate this. You really don't get much time off. Oh yeah. Yeah, I mean I the hours are crazy challenge, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

Crazy hard on the city.

SPEAKER_03 41:07

I mean, I'd go two weeks without a day off, or if there was a an urgent news matter that I had to cover or whatever. Uh I just and and she wanted me, she preferred me to be in a nine to five, Monday to Friday, weekends off, so we could start a family and things like that. And I I capitulated. I gave in. Uh I didn't want to leave that business, but I did. And then I hung on doing the as I mentioned, the radio, the the DJ stuff on the weekends. Right.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

You found ways to use the game. Scratch the itch. Yeah. You found it.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

And um so it it it but then eventually that was uh, you know, it was it was just time to move into something more corporate.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

Well, and then to kind of tie some things together as we wrap up, I think, you know, one of the reasons that I appreciate having you read is that you bring your whole whole self to the reading and you heal you help us hear and experience the whole text. I think um for many of us who grew up in predominantly white churches, the practice has been to read with reverence, which can sometimes be almost with a monotone.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

And the reality is that the biblical text, there's a lot of thought there. There are many thoughts that we need to think, but there also are many things we need to, there are feelings to be felt. Well, there are things to see and things to hear, and it's it's a it engages the whole person and and so having people like you and someone with your kind of gifts who will put their whole self into it and let us feel what we should be like there's emotion in the text. We should we should hear that. The reading itself should convey the emotion in the text, the drama in the text. It it is it was written to pull us in. And so I I guess you know, again, your experience through the the trauma and the pain of divorce was really kind of bringing your whole self into a full relationship with God, and then you've brought those gifts and those skills and your whole self into the reading when you do that, and that's not your only ministry, but that is a significant ministry that you have had and continue to have.

SPEAKER_03 43:12

And so, well you've said it you've said it you you're very welcome. You've said it to me yourself, as have others.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:19

After I've read and or they've whatever it might be, and they said, you know, you you read it as if it's a story, and I go, Yeah, yeah. It is it's yeah. It is. Yeah, yeah. And I I've said and I've I've re that I mean I it is. Right. And I read it as a story because it is. It is. Whether it be the Old Testament or the New Testament, right? It is, it's a story. And and it's written by multiple authors. Right. And so that's how I view it.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

Engaging our our minds, our our emotions, our you know, just our all of our senses.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

And that's what I try to convey when I when I read.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Blaine, for being our our first guest on Canon Family Store. I'm very flattered and honored. Thank you. I'm glad that your your desire and uh the conversation you had with Jan and the one that that Miles initiated with me, that those all kind of came together. I don't know that I really expected it was gonna go there, but it did. Yeah, but but thank you so much for sharing your story with me.

SPEAKER_03 44:23

Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure, and I and again I hope others who watch take time to watch came from the