Chewing the Fat: Austin Gardner & Rickey Howard on Seeing God’s Goodness

In this episode, Austin Gardner welcomes Pastor Rickey Howard to "chew the fat" and share a story that will change your perspective on what God can do. Rickey is the pastor of Solid Rock Baptist Church in St. George, Utah, but his life hasn't always looked this way.

From the oil fields to the pulpit, Rickey and Austin discuss the "complete 180" that happens when grace takes root. They dive into the importance of family in the ministry, the challenges of starting a church from scratch, and why Rickey says his wife, April, is the "mortar" holding it all together.

Whether you're a ministry leader or someone looking for hope in your own "180" journey, this conversation is a reminder that God’s goodness is meant to be seen, not just talked about.

Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction to Pastor Rickey Howard
2:24 - The "Complete 180" Story
3:18 - Family, Marriage, and the Mortar of Ministry
7:10 - The First Three Years of Solid Rock Baptist

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Transcript

Welcome And Why This Story

Austin Gardner 0:27

Well, I am excited today to have with me Pastor Ricky Howard of the Solid Rock Baptist Church in St. George, Utah. I had the privilege of preaching there. Beautiful, beautiful building, beautiful city, beautiful people, just a most wonderful time together that I had to get to spend with them. And I've known Brother Howard for a long time. I call him Ricky. He's my friend. And he calls me Austin. He called me Austin anytime he wants. I file with that. And we're just going to chew the fat. And I learned all about a story of how God has worked in his life, and I believe it's going to change your life. And so, man, I am grateful that you're here today, brother. And I don't want to rush it. And I want people listening to really get the story. And I want them to hear their story in your story. I want them to hear their story and your story. So before we get started here, maybe you'd just like to give a greeting and then when as soon as you finish that, kind of describe what your life is like today. What's your life like right now?

Rickey Howard 1:37

Yes, sir. So my name is Ricky Howard, and uh I've heard I heard about Brother Austin Gardner years ago, probably uh 2015, uh 14 or 15, first time I ever heard his name. And uh, and I say that now, knowing that probably growing up I heard his name because some of my family members went to his church plant in Cartersville, Georgia years ago. But the first time remembering hearing your name was uh 2014 or 15, somewhere in there. And uh as I was preparing my life to come off the road working in the oil and gas industry into uh local church, serving in the local church, trying to get my life in order so that I could do that. But I am now currently uh church planner pastor here at Solid Rock Baptist Church, St. George, Utah. And uh we are uh thankful that God's used us out here uh at this point, so far to this point. Uh thankful for what he's done to get us here and what he's done since we've been here. Uh right now, our our life is a complete 180 from what it was 15 years ago uh when my when my oldest son was born. It's a complete different uh life than it was 13 years ago. Uh 10 years ago when my youngest son was born. And I'm just thankful for what God can do in our lives when we when we turn it over all to Him. It's it's just uh it's an amazing thing to know how good God is and not just to know it, not just to hear it, not just to talk about it, but to see it in your life. What an amazing thing it is.

Austin Gardner 3:20

Well, brother, tell them about your wife, how long you've been married, your children, how old they are, and anything you might want to just throw in real quick about Solid Rock.

Rickey Howard 3:30

Yes, sir. So my wife, April, maiden name's Woodall, but April Howard, and uh she is uh she she is she's my everything outside of Christ, it's it's her. And uh she is the workhorse of the ministry, she's the workhorse of the family. Without her, I don't know what we'd do, where we'd be, if I'm being honest. And most most men who watch this or that you talk to will probably say the same thing about their wife, at least we hope so, right?

Austin Gardner 3:56

I hope so.

Rickey Howard 3:57

And uh and so she she is the uh as some of the some of the men and women even here at Solid Rock Baptist Church, uh, you know, they say that she she is the uh she's the mortar or the glue that holds it all together. And so uh I'm thankful for her. What she and I were married uh in March of 2007, and so we just celebrated 19 years, going on 20 now, and I'm not old enough to be married 20 years. Uh you can probably look at me and say, Yes, you are 20 years old. No, I'm just but you know, it it I don't feel like I'm old enough to be married 20 years, but we have two two boys, two wonderful boys, Cash. He is our oldest, and he's just turned 15, and all he wants to do is drive around. He wants Daddy to get in the truck and let's go ride. And I love it because that's all I want to do at that age. And we got Carter, our 10-year-old, he'll be 11 here in a few months. And uh he is he's a piano player. He well, he's let me say this, he's training to play piano, and uh he plays piano a little bit here at the church, and uh he he loves to play. Everybody says, where does he get his musical talent? And I just kind of I'm like, from me. And they're like, Well, what do you play? And I'm like, nothing, but I could if I wanted to. Yes, I but I do have a little a little bit of music, just my mind, if I can't do it instantly, I just put it put it away. And so I I've always played instruments all through my childhood, all the way up till I started working, and then I just didn't have patience for it anymore. But that's where it comes from. You know, I have a little bit of musical understanding, and I believe that's where he gets it from. And uh he's doing a wonderful job with it. He does, he does great. He's a great piano player, he plays by ear, reads music, all these things. And I'm I'm just so I'm proud so proud of my boys. They both work hard at what they do. Cash has been working since he started working before he turned 15. Got him a job at a gelato shop here in town, and he went from just going in there to be a to be a stock boy behind the the counter to now he is pretty much the second man over there. Everybody left, and it's just him and the owner kind of running things. He's the production, he's he does everything he can to keep the place going. Uh and with what little hours he can work as a student, a homeschool student, that and uh ministry and stuff like that. So very proud of him, very proud of Carter. You know, he he stays busy doing the music and other things. He likes playing the video games, which I don't really care for, but he uh but he enjoys doing it. He and he enjoys he wants he's got aspirations for life and things like that. And I will say uh Cash is uh Cash has a passion for bus ministry. He's heard my story so much that he said that when he gets married and you know, whether it's here or somewhere else, he wants to be a part of the bus ministry. And uh Carter has talked about wanting to be a missionary. Every every country we visit, he wants to be a missionary there. Every missionary that comes through, he wants to be a missionary where they're going. He is he's I I let it I let him get up and give uh uh a little devotion when when possible. And uh he's I told him, I said, you're a little young to say you've been called to preach. Not that God can't use you, but you can start developing that uh that skill set now and give little devotions and develop some little outlines and things like that. So he's done that. I think he's um a couple of times back at our home church in Georgia and a couple of times here he stood up and uh gave a little encouragement to the church and gave a little challenge. I don't know if he gets it from me or uh our pastor, Pastor Kyle Coker, or even knowing Brother Gardner here, but every time he stands up to preach, it's always we gotta go tell him. We gotta go tell him. He's always preaching missions and the gospel. And so I I'm I'm thankful for that. But our church here, uh, we started our church, we just celebrated three years. We started January 29th of 2023. Fifteen of us and uh and a little storefront here. God you God used this little church in a mighty way. At our three-year anniversary, we had I had just for a little encouragement, I had everybody who was saved in this ministry to stand up. And uh I would say probably about eighty percent of our church stood up, and there not everybody was here either. And so it it was kind of amazing to see that the church is not made up of a bunch of disgruntled church members. I I learned this from somebody not to build your church off a bunch of disgruntled church members, church off converts, and uh thankful for you teaching me that and my pastor continuing to to pound that, that you want to reach people, not steal people. And so that's been uh it's been a blessing here. We've seen some lives change, we've seen families change, and uh we've seen families put back together, we've seen marriages helped, and I I honestly believe a lot of the people here I can relate to in some way, whether it's past struggles, work-related, things like that. It's it's very easily relatable people that we've got in our in our church right now.

Austin Gardner 9:25

That's the question I think some people might be wanting to know. Where in the world did Cash and Carter get their names? Come on now.

Rickey Howard 9:36

Everybody wants to know if it's Johnny Cash, June Carter. And we've started playing along with it. And and honestly, I'm I'm gonna be 100% honest. Okay, good. I'm glad to hear that. Outside of the Bible, the first book I ever read on my own was Johnny Cash's autobiography. Now that was that was in 2007. First time I ever picked up a book on my own outside of the Bible. I I used to hate to read. I I hated reading. And then I heard somebody, I was, I was listening to somebody teach one day, and they said leaders are readers, and I said, Oh, that stings. And so I started reading, and I and I enjoy reading now. But we uh, you know, I read that book, but our kids' names, honestly, we sat down while we were we were on the pipeline job out here, actually. We were sitting at our at our apartment. We had rented here in this town, and we were going through baby names, and she she settled on three names. Three names. There was uh Camden. And I I liked that one because I'm a baseball fan, and all I can think about is Camden Yards uh up in uh Baltimore. And then there was another one, and then I threw in Cash. We wanted a strong male name. His name is actually Richard Cash Howard. Uh my dad was Richard, I'm Richard. None of us are juniors or seconds or thirds or anything like that. We all have different middle names. His is Richard Cash, mine's Richard Lewis, my dad was Richard Bruce. Uh and so we we went with I went with that uh Cash because we wanted him to have a strong presence when he introduced his name. And we thought Cash, given that strong presence, you know, in the introduction. And uh and and I think it fits too. You know, I I couldn't imagine him being named anything else. But Carter, yeah, and uh Carter, his name came about. Again, we had three names picked out. April wanted to, you know, she wanted to stick with the C's. And we had Corbin, Carter, and another name I can't even remember. And uh Cash said Cash narrowed it down to Corbin and Carter, and he's like, I don't like Corbin. I think that sounds weird. So we went with Carter. And as soon as he did that, me and April looked at each other and we said, you know, we're gonna get a bunch of comments on this, right? And she goes, Yeah.

Early Trauma And Family Chaos

Austin Gardner 12:08

That's all right. It doesn't hurt any. But, you know, I am I am really blessed by your family, and I had a wonderful time out there. And boy, I loved uh Utah a lot more than I thought I would. And just I am very honored to have this opportunity to talk to you. But I know that God has done a tremendous work in all of our lives, in all of our lives. And if you're listening to this today on the podcast or on YouTube, I want you to know that we are followed by mercy. Surely, goodness and mercy do follow us. They pursue us, they chase us. That's God working in your life. And if you don't know him yet, he's chasing you. And if you do know him, he's right there with you, and he's running with you. Fact is, he's in front of you as your shepherd, he's behind you as goodness and mercy, and he lives in you because we live and move and have our being in him. And so I just want to brag on Jesus today and tell you some of the story of Ricky Howard. So take us back to the beginning, brother. What was life like for you as a little bitty guy?

Rickey Howard 13:14

So uh listen, look, all the way back to the beginning, I'll give you the full scope. Um, I am the I'm the first born of my mom and dad, but I wasn't there first. There were two aborted before me. I was the first one that wasn't aborted. So I'm the first living child of my mom and dad. And uh honestly, if I sit here right now and I tried to tell you about, you know, my early childhood, it's very spotty. They say that a lot of times uh you put things out of your mind that you don't want to remember, things like that. I don't know. My my earliest memory of my dad was him and my mom. I was born in a Daresville, Georgia, or in Cartersville, Georgia. We lived in a Daresville, and uh my first memory of my dad, my mom and dad were fighting, they were standing at the front door of a single-wide trailer right there on Highway 41 in Daresville, Georgia. My dad picks me up and is holding me, and my mom takes a pair of scissors or a knife one, I can't remember which one it was, and stabs him twice while he's at me. And then all I can remember from this event, I was small enough that, you know, I was probably maybe three years old. Three years old. And uh I can remember seeing the blood. And then that's I don't remember anything after that, but I remember throughout my childhood, throughout my life, there was always turmoil. There was always commotion. Um yeah, I grew up in a I grew up in a home where it was my grandparents had a young age, I had two uncles living in the house, plus my mom, myself, and uh my other brother eventually when I was he was born when I was two. And uh during our childhood, it was like I said, it was always a bunch of turmoil, always fighting, always something going on. My granddaddy was a World War II vet. He was a you know, worked CCC camps through after, you know, during the depression. They they both lived through the depression, lived through World War II. My granddaddy after he came out of the war, decided he'd never worked for another man. Became a moonshiner, uh started moonshiner, he was from Kentucky, so I guess that was in his roots. And he there was a long history of it before I was born. But you know, my childhood where we lived, he he had car lots, he had station, you know, gas stations. He would have anything that could be a cover for it. Where I was born the house I was raised or the trailer that we lived in when I was first born was connected to a station, and I can remember the coolers he used to keep the keep the jugs in. Even as a young child, I can remember him keeping the jugs over there in the station in the coolers for when people would come by or when he had to load up late at night and things like that. But it was always there was always a fear that somebody's gonna get arrested. There was always a fear that somebody was gonna come in and rob us. There was always a fear of the unknowns, always a fear of trouble. Even even when I was real young, I can still remember those fear. Who are you talking about your granddad, correct? Yes, this is my mom's dad.

Austin Gardner 16:48

Or my mom not Well, where's your dad and mom right now? You're you're with your grandparents, correct?

Rickey Howard 16:54

Yeah. So I really I'll be honest, I don't I don't have many memories of my dad outside of him being in prison until his last six months when they let him out to die.

Austin Gardner 17:09

So how old was he how old were you when he went to prison?

Rickey Howard 17:13

I'm not sure. I want to say probably very small. Yeah. Yeah, because there there were it's it's funny now, you know. I think about it and I'm like, man, they they really uh they they tried to tell us anything but the truth. Of course, it was always uh, you know, he's he's off at boot camp or he's working on the road or something like that. But then I come to find out, you know, later on, the whole time he was in prison. He apparently he went to prison for uh well, not apparently, but he he went to prison for armed robbery. He robbed a store at Knife Point. He got off work, he ro uh went and spent all his I guess he went and spent all his money on drugs. And that Sunday before he went home, he knew his he knew that my grandmother would be mad, so he had to have something to take home, so he went and robbed a store at Knife Point. I don't remember how much it was. It was a measly little amount of money. Went to prison for he got a 12-year sentence. I don't know how much he served of it because they let him out in December. He died in that following July. How old were you when he died? I just turned 10, uh, two weeks before he died. So you didn't know your dad very much at all? Not really. Not really at all. I had uh fascination of what he was or what he could be, but never really knew it.

Austin Gardner 18:33

So uh that may play into part of what I saw you doing as a dad and working so hard at being a good dad. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. But maybe because you didn't have a dad that might help you want to be such a good dad. And so I thank the Lord for that. But so you you went from your mom and dad's place to your granddaddy's place.

Rickey Howard 18:54

So my mom and dad never had a place. Um she stayed, she was with my grandparents the whole time. Uh I guess they had a place for a short amount of time, but uh I I lived with either a set of grandparents or an aunt and uncle my whole childhood. Uh and 90% of that was with my mom's, my my grandparents on my mom's side.

Austin Gardner 19:21

Now you told me you really loved and admired your granddad.

Rickey Howard 19:25

Yeah. Well, I I called them mother and daddy. That was uh that was my my names for them, or mother and daddy. Uh but and I don't know if that was because what I heard other people call them, but that's really what they were to me. They were mother and daddy. I mean, they if it wasn't for them, you know, we would be who knows where we'd have been or what we'd have been going through.

Austin Gardner 19:47

Now, if I remember right, you have you know what it's like to set at a kitchen table, and I will let leave it there and you take it. You know what I'm talking about?

Moonshine Life And Fear

Rickey Howard 19:57

Yeah. I I can remember uh I was probably about between nine and twelve years old, um my granddaddy wouldn't come in and he would he would always carry two wallets, but when he would come in off a big run, a moonshine run, he would have three wallets. And uh he would come in after his big runs, you know, he'd leave on like a Friday and come back on a Sunday night. And he'd always take his nice car, you know, he'd always do something like that. But he'd come back and he would he would take the coffee table in the living room and put a wallet on it, and then the kitchen table, he'd throw two wallets down on it, and we would stack money in stacks of a thousand. And I never understood, I can remember one day we didn't have anything to eat, and uh my grandmother was scrounging up and she was making things up to make cornbread, and uh she had some strychline in the refrigerator and so or fat back, whatever you want to call it. And so our dinner that night was cornbread and fatback, and you just chew on the fat back and need cornbread. And I looked at her and I said, Mother, just the other night we counted out over ten thousand dollars. Why ain't we got no food? She said, 'Cause that ain't real money. I said, Well, it felt real to me. And she said, Yeah, but when it's liquor money or drug money, it ain't never real. You never you can't expend it. And I was I I confused me more than anything. But I just didn't I didn't grasp. I touched this money, I held this money, this was real money. But and it was in our hands, it was in our pocket or in his pocket, it was in our home, but it wasn't for us to use. It was it was okay.

Austin Gardner 21:53

So so what did it feel like? Do did all this just feel normal to you when you were a kid?

Rickey Howard 22:00

I honestly I don't remember when it was that I started kind of uh lying about what you know what it what was going on or what people did or any of that. Now I do I do know that, you know, when I got up in high school age and things like that, I thought, oh, it's cool, I got an outlaw granddaddy, and you know, our house runs on the outlaw. Lifestyle and all that. I I thought it was cool and I tried to uh look it up, you know what I mean? But that probably around middle school, um, you know, realizing what you I guess it's about that age, you get about 12, 13 years old, and you you start realizing what other people have and you understand what you don't have. Oh, it we used to watch watch these guys uh, you know, when we were early teenage years, the BMX box were real big. Everybody was going out buying these real expensive BMX bikes and things like that. Uh me and my brother, we we couldn't afford those. So what me and my brother would do is we would go and we would find the BMX box that people had thrown out, and we would take four or five BMX bikes and we would take them all apart and then build our own. And everybody would be like, Where'd you where'd you get that bite? That's an expensive bite. And we're like, oh yeah, man, this is, you know, this this is my birthday present, this is my Christmas present or something. Uh, but really, and then we started, you know, there was a couple of them we were able to build and we were able to sell. And uh, you know, we sold some to some other uh and I don't mean this, uh I don't mean this in a bad way, but you know, we would we would find the other trailer park kids and uh we'd set we'd be like, hey, twenty dollars you can have us bite, you know? And then twenty dollars, you sell a bike for twenty dollars, you can eat for a couple of days.

Austin Gardner 23:49

And so when you were a little boy, let's say under the age of ten, did you feel warm love? Did you have enough to eat?

Rickey Howard 24:01

Was life good? How was life? Those were what we want. Tell the truth. Those were probably the worst years. That was uh we had just come out of uh probably five years of custody battles moving around not knowing not knowing anything. Uh my brother and I, you know, we'd go to we'd have an appointment at family court and and so for two, three, four nights we'd have to go stay at this group home in this little foster home in in Atlanta. And we went you know, we moved to a couple of different homes, uh, a couple different family members over a couple year span until we finally got back into my my granddad's home, my grandmother mother and daddy's home. And uh not long after we got back in their home, we found out that my dad was gonna die with cancer. And uh just a reminder, I didn't really know him. I I knew who he was, I I knew and uh but I had this I had this uh fascination about what he could be. And my my grandmother in South Georgia, who we lived with for a moment during all the custody battles, she taught my mother down not my grandmother mother, but my mom, she taught my mom down so much that I without understanding why I had a hatred for my mom. And I can remember this at a young age. And uh and uh when we go back to live with when we go back to that home with her parents and her and my stepdad, I had no respect for her. And uh and I know this now, I look look at it now and I understand this and I know this, and I probably made it harder on her than what it what I should have, but it was the information that was fed to me from my grandmother there. But those years were I feel like a daily fight. Between eight years old and probably eleven or twelve. I feel like every day was I didn't want to go home. I didn't want to go home. I I would get out of school and I didn't want to go home. I spent most of my days down at the park, down from our house, and uh I spent most of my days around people I shouldn't have, with people I shouldn't have. At a young age, I was I was hanging out with some much older, much older people who were doing some things that I didn't want to go home be around, but I didn't mind being around them doing it. Is that makes uh I don't know if that makes sense? Uh so you know uh not that I I did what they were doing, but I I would rather have been there with them doing it than at home with them, with the people at home doing it. But like I said, it what about I'm sorry? No, go ahead. But those those those years right there, I say there was a four-year span there between moving in that house back it back to that house in Adairsville with my grandparents, my mom, my stepdad, moving in there till a couple years after my dad died. Those were probably some of the worst up until I was probably about 16 or 17. Those were probably about the worst.

Austin Gardner 28:55

What about food? Did you have food and clothes?

Discipline Abuse And Fighting At Home

Rickey Howard 28:58

How was that? Just about once a week, I'll walk into my closet here in Utah and I'll look at how many pairs of pants and how many shirts I have, and remember having to do this mismatch roulette with my clothes growing up because I would always have two pairs of pants and three shirts. Until I started working and buying my own clothes, I would I would have maybe a t-shirt, maybe a polo, maybe a couple t-shirts, maybe you know, something like that. But I can I can remember in school somebody saying, Didn't you just wear that shirt yesterday? And it my anxiety, I I just got up and walked home. Because I I really only lived about a half mile from the school. And so when somebody somebody asked me that one day, I just walked out of class and walked home. And I can remember stopping by the the goldfish pond. There's a house on the way between the school and my house, had a little goldfish pond. And I remember sitting there trying to, I was so mad I was trying to hit gof goldfish with a rock. And uh I thought that wouldn't solve something. It was just uh, you know, one of those things. Food, um, I mean, you look at me now, you can tell I I made it. But uh food is food was one of those things where that, you know it was very rare that we didn't have cornbread in the house. I guess in, you know, then and being in Georgia, that was a cheap thing you could do. At least you can mix up some cornmeal and water. But we we seemed to always have cornbread in the house, but I can remember I remember days and I remember nights that, you know, it would be dinner time, there's nothing on the table, there's nothing in the refrigerator, and it was like, what are we gonna do for dinner? And uh there were there are nights that I took, my grandmother used to save every condiment packet that came from a fast food place she would save. And uh we there was some tartar sauce from Loneson Silvers or something, the packets in there. And I remember taking saltine crackers and tartar sauce and doing about four or five of those, and that was dinner one night. I happened more than once. More than once. Mayonnaise crackers, tartar sauce crackers, you know. I never eat ketchup, so it never was ketchup crackers. But though those were some dinners some nights. But I I'm thankful my dad's sister, my aunt, she lived she owned we lived on a loop, and she owned about four houses on that loop at that time. I think she owns everything but two now. And uh there were times growing up when we could and when I really wanted to get away, I really wanted to disappear and not be in that home. I could I could just go there. There were there were times where, and I'm not gonna lie, I love her to death, and uh she's always tried to take care of us, but there were times where she was overwhelmed and she didn't answer the door. And I understand that now. There were because she had you know she had four kids of her own and she had grandchildren and she had other other responsibilities, and I told her just the other day, I said, you have raised five generations of children. It's time for the people to leave you alone, let you stop. But yeah, that we we had people around, and I'm thankful for that, but but there were some there were some rough times, there were some hard times. What about any what about any kind of physical abuse? You know, in all honesty, uh I I'm gonna be 100% honest with you. We we were we didn't we didn't get disciplined when we did things wrong. We got disciplined when we inconvenienced. Does that make sense? My my grandparents didn't didn't really discipline us. Uh I and I see that a lot. Um when people ask me about uh grandparents raising children. I I my advice is if you can get away from that, get away from it because the grandparents have already been through the discipline and the grandparent just wants to love. They don't want to go through that discipline stage. And I know that because I was raised by grandparents. They never raised a hand, they never disciplined nothing. They even made excuses when we were when we did dumb things, you know. But my my mom, she disciplined for inconvenience, not for wrongdoing. You inconvenience my day, and you're gonna pay. Uh now, yes, some unconventional things, wire hangers, I don't think is unconventional. I mean, this is me talking. This is my opinion. In those days, I mean a wire hack I needed a strap. You know what I mean? Uh I needed every one of them I got. I deserved every one of them. Drop cords, you know, some of some of it maybe a little over the top. Probably the one thing that really sticks in my head about a over-the-top discipline was I don't and I this breaks my heart to this day, but my brother just under me, he he was sitting in front of the TV and I I think somebody asked him to move and he didn't move and move. My mom grabbed a basket, uh like a a woven wooden basket had a large base on it, and swung and hit him on top of the head and his head just split open and I can remember thinking, why would you do that to your child? But that was probably now my stepdad I didn't I didn't respect him and uh and I I really hate to say this, but rightfully so. He he didn't provide, he didn't care. He he's he was and is a drug addict. He you know, he's he's very I say is, I don't know what he's up to now, but you know, I he he wasn't he didn't take the place of the father as a stepdad. And but I didn't respect him and him and my mom fought a lot, and there were so many times, even though my mom wasn't the best mom, when he would raise his hand to my mom, I would go in swinging and I would get my butt whooped so many times. Uh I've told I've told a lot of people there there's only two people in this world that's ever whooped my butt and that was my brother under me and my stepdad. That's the only people that's ever ever beat me up. And so but I will say he was he was he was a compassionate drunk fighter where he would lay a he'd lay a couple of licks and then he'd apologize for it. He was very remorseful for what he did because he was, you know, he was always drunk when he did it, and and I'm not not taking up for him or anything like that, but it was I don't know. You you could tell, you know, certain people you can tell that they could be good people if they would just let God do something in their lives.

Austin Gardner 36:00

So how old were you, you think, when you figured out something ain't right here? This just ain't the way it's supposed to be. Life ain't supposed to be like this.

Rickey Howard 36:08

Probably about eight or nine years old when the preacher at the church beside us, our yard's full of police officers, and I don't remember what happened, but the the yard's full of police officers, and we're outside in the midst of it, and he comes down there and grabs me and my brother and takes us to the to the church fellowship hall. And uh he just says, Y'all, he fixes us something to eat, and he's just sitting there with us, and uh, and we're worried, you know, and I keep kept saying, I need to be down there with mother and daddy. I need to be down there with mother and daddy. And he said, they're okay. He said, let let everything pan out and you can go back. And uh that's when I knew, uh, you know, if I feel this as a kid, I feel like I need to be there to protect my grandparents and uh not thinking about who's taking care of me, who's taking care of my brother. That's when I realized I was like, that this ain't this is this is a different dynamic than what it should be.

Austin Gardner 37:15

Who do you think most shaped you? Who would have been and and we're still 10 years old and um younger right now, but who do you think had the most influence on your life? At that age?

Rickey Howard 37:30

I don't know, because I I feel like I got to a certain point in life and I I made a complete change in in everything. But I I would say the most influence in my life up to that point were both of my granddads. Um both of my grandads really shaped who I was, and then thankfully there were other people mixed in that. The the preacher that lived next to us was a very kind man, spent time with us, played ball with us, all these different things. Uh my granddad, who lived down in South Georgia, uh was a kind man, a loving man. He was funny. He was the funniest person you'd ever meet. Uh you know, our last name's Howard, and he always told me that he was the fourth three stooge, uh, but they kicked him out because he wasn't pretty enough. And so uh that was uh he was funny. He he would have fit right in with the with the three stooges. But uh he was a very funny man, and I, you know, my brother just under me, he has a lot of that sense of humor, and I feel like the older I get, the more I pick that sense of humor out of myself and let it go. But now I see it in my my youngest son now, I see that sense of humor in him.

Austin Gardner 38:42

Well, we're gonna get around to talking about the solution, but today you have heard Brother Ricky explain to you what it was like growing up for him. And I don't know who you are listening, I don't know what family member you have listening, but God radically, totally changed, rescued, saved, redeemed the life of Ricky Howard. He is now a successful pastor, missionary, church planner, husband, more than anything, husband, and dad, and all of that because of the grace of God. So I want you to come back tomorrow, and I want you to watch tomorrow as we go further into the story and we learn a little bit more about what God has done in the life of Pastor Ricky Howard. And I know you may be starting in a bad place where your discipline is incorrect, where the influences in your life are not right, maybe where you're going hungry and don't have the clothes, maybe where you feel picked on or abused by society of life and kids at school, even, but there is hope. And so I want you to hang in there and listen, and tomorrow we'll be back with more. What I want you to learn out of this lesson is followed by mercy, because from dismal beginnings, God did something great in Ricky Howard's life and is doing something great in his life because it's about how great our God is. Brother Ricky, take two minutes and kind of close this session out. It's about your childhood. We get to the rest of the story, but you say a few things, and whenever you finish, I'll stop this recording.

Rickey Howard 40:32

You know, I today I look back, I look back into my childhood, and I'm not sorry for any of it. I don't, you know, I don't have any, I don't wish I grew up in the the big house down the street or, you know, the nicer family down the road or anything. You know, I through all that, you know, I can anything I say, you know, about how how neglectful of a mother I had or anything like that, at the end of the day, God saved me. And then not not even a year, well, just about a year ago, God saved my mom, right before she passed in September last year. So, you know, I I was forced to in the home, I was forced to grow up a little bit quicker than I I should have. But, you know, I look back and I hear stories from guys who grew up two generations before me, and I'm like, well, they had to do it. So what's the problem with me having to do it? Um at the end of the day, God knew what was going on. God knew what was happening, but he was still there. And every time I can think about going and shutting myself off or walking down the street at night, walking away from a fight, going down to the corner in the dark and sitting sitting in the dirt and just asking God why. Because of now. Everything then had a purpose for now. Whether it's somebody that somebody that I can talk to, somebody that I can counsel, somebody I can lead to the Lord, raising my own children, being being a husband to my wife. All that, all of that created what's going on now. And only because of God. Not because of me, but because of him. And I and I can't be mad about it. I was just I was just I was just talking to my wife the other day. I really sought out to enjoy my life when I was younger, younger, just as I seek to, you know, enjoy it now, joy. He knew what to keep me encouraged. And I think I could go on a are you willing to let him be? I wasn't taught the gospel in our home, but I knew who Jesus was. I knew a little bit about Jesus. And because of that, I had a I had a desire, and I knew that there was something and there was somebody who could take the hurt and do something with it. I couldn't do nothing about it. Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve years old, what was I gonna do about it? I know at 14 years old I did everything I could to get out of the house and go to work. I still couldn't do nothing about the hurt. Still couldn't do anything about the trouble. I still couldn't do anything about people going to jail every weekend. Still couldn't do anything about my grand worrying about my granddaddy dying while I'm thinking about those words. But God could. God could give me peace, God could settle my heart, and he could help me through. And uh I'm if I could just encourage you one thing today, no matter what you no matter what you got going on, what you're going through, or what somebody else is going through, uh there there is hope. We just have to be willing to look for it and accept it.

Austin Gardner 43:53

Now you listen to me, Brother Howard's told you some of the story. Well, we got four or five more episodes going to come out of here over the next few days, but I want you to know that what the devil and the sinful world meant to destroy Ricky Howard. The devil and a sinful world wanted to destroy him. God has turned that to the glory of God and even the good of Ricky Howard, April, Cash, and Carter. His whole God. And I just want you to know that it's available for you. I I know you're hurting, and I know you're like, it won't work for me, but it will work for you. So you keep listening. We're going to give you more of it. Tomorrow, you come back, bring a friend, and listen as Brother Ricky tells the story of being followed by mercy, the story of God's grace. I believe you're going to enjoy it. Give us a like, share this with somebody, and maybe God will bless others. Thank y'all very much for being with us.