BeTempered Episode 78 – Robert Rogers Lost His Entire Family in a Flash Flood and Still Chose to Praise God

Some stories knock the wind out of you and then hand you back your breath. On this episode of BeTempered, hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr sit down with Robert Rogers, who in one devastating moment lost his wife and four children in a sudden flash flood and yet, in the very room where he identified their bodies, chose to lift a hand and trust God. This is not a tidy arc. It is a raw, lived map through catastrophe where scripture becomes a lifeline, counseling becomes a compass, and service becomes medicine.

Robert’s story begins in a large Cincinnati family where music and faith shaped the rhythm of life. As a teen, he fell in love with the Bible and memorized verses that later became anchors in the storm. Marriage brought joy and testing, including an ectopic pregnancy that nearly claimed his wife, the birth of Zachary with Down syndrome, and a step of faith to adopt Alina from China. After a summer focused on family and simplicity, tragedy struck. While driving through Kansas, rising floodwaters surrounded their van. The family prayed Psalm 46 and sang “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High.” Moments later, a wall of water swept them away.

Survival brought the hardest hours of Robert’s life and the first acts of surrender. He held on to Job 23 and Psalm 71 and built a daily rule that kept him close to God when nothing else made sense: no Bible, no breakfast; no Bible, no bed. Grief counseling helped him work through trauma, and invitations to share his story soon became a calling. He founded Mighty in the Land Ministry with a simple mission: face it, embrace it, replace it. His work now supports orphans and children with special needs while teaching others how to honor their pain without becoming defined by it.

There is restoration too. Robert later married Inga, welcomed new children, chose to homeschool, and kept family first. He poured his journey into books that weave story with scripture, including Into the Deep, Seven Steps to No Regrets, Rise Above, Stay Pure, and Father Your Family. If you are walking through fire or feel like you are being pulled under by your own storm, this conversation offers more than inspiration. It offers practical handles to hold on to. Open the Psalms. Ask for help. Serve someone. Let God meet you where your heart is heaviest.

If this episode moved you, subscribe and share it with someone who needs hope. Visit www.betempered.com
for past episodes and resources, or support the mission directly at www.patreon.com/betempered

To learn more about Robert Rogers, his ministry, and his books, visit www.mightyintheland.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Sponsor Messages & Housekeeping
• 0:29 Community Invitation On Patreon
• 2:09 Welcome & Thematic Setup
• 2:39 Robert’s Childhood And Faith Awakening
• 10:37 Meeting Melissa And Building A Family
• 17:04 Zachary’s Birth And Down Syndrome Journey
• 22:40 Adoption From China And A Simple Summer
• 25:35 The Flash Flood Night
• 31:24 Hospital Identifications And Surrender
• 36:15 Clinging To Scripture And Job’s Example
• 41:54 Grief, Counseling, And A New Call
• 45:51 Founding Mighty In The Land
• 49:57 Restoration: Marriage To Inga And Children
• 55:18 Triggers, Resilience, And Honest Lament
• 58:38 Practical Steps: Face It, Embrace It, Replace It
• 1:01:46 Books, Resources, And How To Connect
• 1:04:17 Closing Gratitude & Sponsor Return

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:04

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SPEAKER_03: 0:29

I want to share something that's become a big part of the BeTempered mission: Patreon. Now, if you've never used it before, Patreon is a platform where we can build community together. It's not just about supporting the podcast, it's about having a space where we can connect on a deeper level, encourage one another, and walk this journey of faith, resilience, and perseverance side by side. Here's how it works. You can join as a free member and get access to daily posts, behind-the-scenes updates, encouragement, and some things I don't always put out on other platforms. And if you feel called to support the mission financially, there are different levels where you can do that too. That support helps us keep producing the podcast, creating gear, hosting events, and sharing stories that we believe can truly impact lives. And here's the cool part. Patreon has a free app you can download right on your phone. It works just like Facebook or Instagram, but it's built specifically for our community. You'll be able to scroll through posts, watch videos, listen to content, and interact with others who are on the same journey. And at the end of the day, this isn't just about content, it's about connection. It's about building something together. Not just me and men putting out episodes, but a family of people committed to growing stronger through real stories and real faith. So whether you just want to hop on as a free member or you feel called to support in a bigger way, Patreon is the door into that community. Because at the heart of Be Tempered has always been simple. Real stories, real truth, resilient faith, so that even one person out there that hears what they need to hear, and Patreon helps make that possible.

SPEAKER_05: 2:09

Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, where we explore the art of finding balance in a chaotic world.

SPEAKER_01: 2:14

Join us as we delve into insightful conversations, practical tips, and inspiring stories to help you navigate life's ups and downs with grace and resilience.

SPEAKER_05: 2:22

We're your host, Dan Schmidt, and Ben Sparr. Let's embark on a journey to live our best lives.

SPEAKER_01: 2:29

This is Be Tempered.

SPEAKER_05: 2:30

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, episode number 78. Good job, Ben.

SPEAKER_01: 2:37

Thank you. My job is complete.

SPEAKER_05: 2:40

There are moments in life that test the very limits of faith. Moments that shatter everything we thought we knew about love, loss, and God's plan. Our guest today has lived through one of those moments. In the blink of an eye, his world was swept away. Everything he cherished, everything he worked for, gone in a single night. And yet, out of the depths of the unthinkable tragedy came something extraordinary. Not what followed was not bitterness, but belief. Not despair, but devotion. And through it all, a new purpose was born. A ministry that has touched hundreds of thousands of lives, carrying a message of hope, healing, and the power of living with no regrets. Today on the podcast, we welcome a man whose story reminds us that God can bring beauty from ashes, that faith can rise from the flood, and that even in our darkest nights, his light still shines. Robert Rogers, welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast.

SPEAKER_02: 3:52

Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Ben. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05: 3:54

Honored to be here. You know, I heard your story, it's been a couple years ago, when you spoke to a large group up in Mercer County, Ohio, and uh it's a story that uh once people hear it never forget. And it's a story that that you have retold, I think you just said thousands of times, right? And this is a uh it's a it's a tragedy, but I think what everybody will gain from this is the amazing power and love that Jesus has for us as his people. So before we get into that, how we always like to start the podcast is we like to start from childhood, to lay that foundation to learn about what life was like for you growing up, where you grew up, and what your family was like. So give us a piece of that.

SPEAKER_02: 4:49

Sure. I'm the youngest of eight children, grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, into a beautiful family. We live on the west side of town. So five boys, three girls. My parents began naming them all with single syllable names, Paul, John, George, and you know, Paul, John, and George, if I was Ringo, we could have had the Beatles, right? But uh Ann, Mary, Ellen, Markin, and Robert, so branch off into two syllable names by the time they got to me. But kind of a 12-year gap between the top and or 12-year spam between the oldest and youngest, and and just a lot of fun growing up. You know, we lived simply. Um remember my mom would go to the Kroger store there in Cincinnati and ask for their dented canned goods. And they would sell her whole box for a dollar. And they were either dented or the labels were missing or something. So what's for dinner tonight? Well, I don't know, let's open the can without the label. Uh, is that tuna fish? No, it's cat food. Okay, you're kidding. You never knew what you were getting, but you know, we never were hungry, and God always provided. And uh my mom, incredible hardworking lady, she um she was married at 18. My father, I think, was 23. And thanks, thanks be to God, they celebrate 60 years of marriage. Wow. In 2012, I believe it was. So we come from good stock by God's grace and great example. And my father often talked about the power of good example, and they gave that to us, thanks be to God. And so uh growing up, my mom had all 12 of us, all 10 of us, sorry, all eight of us in uh about 12 years before she started going to school. So after I was born, she began school at the University of Cincinnati for her uh education degree. And as soon as she graduated, my father took her by the hand to the bursar's office and said, now sign up for your master's program. She wanted to punch him and slug him. I'm kidding, I've finally finished my bachelor's, you know. But uh she finished her master's. She was so glad she did. Uh truly no regrets decision. And she went on to teach over 30 years in the Kentucky, Northern Kentucky public school system. Wow. So uh part of her, she taught initially special needs children in uh Newport, Kentucky, and then went on, got qualified and gifted, and then uh taught at a treatment facility in Northern Kentucky University, Northern Kentucky for youth felons, youthful offenders. So taught the whole gamut, really. But as part of her special led, uh she led the Northern Kentucky Special Olympics one year. And she was in charge of it, and of course, a ton of details. And I was, I don't know, um, eight, ten years old, something along those lines. And I just remember there being a lot of children with Down syndrome and special needs, and the people at the end of the 100 yard dash would wear a big, I think a red t-shirt that said, I'm a hugger. And so they would run down and just full of joy and just bam into their arms, it's a great big hug. That made a big impression on me and started kind of tenderizing my heart toward those with special needs. And God was going to use that later in life. And so um my father had been a three-pack a day smoker until his doctor said, Do you want to live to see all eight of your children grow up? And when he picked his jaw up off the floor, he quit cold turkey. And that's amazing. It's a tough thing to do. It's a very addictive, of course, substance. And uh he used to drink uh occasional beer here and there, and then he you know quit all that. And so they challenged us to stay clean, to stay pure. And they kind of bribe each one of us to say if you don't smoke by the time you're 18, we'll give you 100 bucks. A lot of money then. Yeah. All right. Well, with the 12-year span between the oldest and youngest, by the time my sec my b brother, two years older than I reached that time of his life, he said, Hey mom and dad, you know, with inflation, uh, doing some calculation. Can you make it 125 instead of 100? So they did sure, Mark. So I got 125. But never touched it. Just never needed to. I don't like alcohol, never touch you know cigarettes or any of that garbage or drugs. And I don't brag on me, I brag on God. I was just saying no regress decision looking back, that I guess I just respect this body too much that it's not mine, it's God's, it's God's temple, and I'm to use it for his glory, however that may be. I don't know where, when, or how, but I want to be an instrument in the hands of God that he can use. And so I try to, you know, take care of myself and just watch what I eat and all that stuff. So growing up, we'd all go to church together, and we fill up an entire pew at church, and I went to um uh parochial grade school and uh Jesuit High School, St. Xavier in Cincinnati. And uh all ten of us would fill an entire pew at church, and I called God Lord many, many times. I was an altar server and you know just loved serving at church and being involved. But I hadn't yet made him Lord. And there's a big difference, whether what no matter what denomination we grew up in, we could all be guilty of just going through the motions and just paying God lip service. I was sitting in a pew and I just didn't have a clue. And as a teenager, I started asking all these questions. You know, God, are you there? Are you real? What does all this mean? What am I doing at church every week? And it brought me on a spiritual journey where I had started going to a non-denominational church in northern Kentucky, and and uh they had a moment where you could just publicly just completely surrender your life to Christ. I thought, you know, I've always loved the Lord, I've always believed in Him. I've known of God, but have I known God intimately and personally? Have I made a public profession of my own will to do so? And I thought I want to do this. And so I went forward and I did that. And I didn't feel any tingles or this or that, but it was a stake in the ground to say, yea, verily, as for me and my future, my life, I will serve the Lord, and he is my Lord. Because so many people want to be their God, but don't always want to be their Lord. There's a big difference. We like him to be our God, our Father, but Lord means he calls shots, means I align my life under his rule, under his authority. And uh, up to that point I never much owned a Bible or read the Bible on my own. We would hear to church. And I've told most people today barely hear to church. About 80% of the people don't read their Bible outside of church of all denominations. And so I was certainly guilty of that. So I got my first Bible, and it wasn't this one, but I fell in love with the words on these pages. I started studying it, started reading it, signed up for a Bible study class called the Navigators 2-7 series. And we'd have these little pocket scriptures, put in your pocket, pull it out, read it, memorize it. For God so love the world that he gave, you know, John 3 16. For it's by grace you've been saved through faith. And I just started to memorize the word and get the word into my heart. And boy, that really took root, and that solidified me and put down a deeper root into the soil of the good Lord. And of course, little did I know how much I was going to need it later on in life. And so I thank God for that moment. And when you fall in love with the written word of God, with his scripture, you'll fall in love with the living word with Jesus Christ. And it just seemed to blossom my faith and make it come alive in ways I never had experienced before. And it was beautiful. So growing up was great. It was uh beautiful time of family. We'd all pile into a VW bus and head out east to the beach and uh just spend time on the surf and sand and pick in a basket and good clean, just family fun. We'd pitch a tent and stay stay there overnight and just have a lot of fun as a family. So I just remember good memories, and my father worked incredibly hard, as did my mother. In fact, my mom, when she was going to school for her college degree, she'd come home on a dinner table, just a little bit bigger than this table here. She would have her textbooks trying to do her homework, have the checkbook, trying to balance the checkbook, and have dinner going ready all at one time. How she did it all at one time was just incredible. It still amazes me. Uh, my father was working during the day, and he was also getting his master's degree at night and teaching at night at Zave University, teaching some of their broadcasting uh classes when they were just beginning the program. And his mother was all was a pianist, and um, I play the piano as well. And I guess I get a lot of my talent from her. Her name was Alice Rogers, and um, I would sometimes go and she never drove a day in her life. So when I got my license, I would go and pick her up from the hospital because she would work at the Veterans Hospital as a music therapist. Very fascinating field. She's one of the pioneers in the field. It was very new then. She taught at the New England Conservatory of music and elsewhere in the field of veterans and music therapy. And again, that just opened my heart, not only to fulfill a commandment honor your father and your mother, that includes your grandparents, of course, as well. But also for those in need, because she would always look people in the eye. Say, hi, Mr. Smith, how are you doing today? She was always called a Mr. or Mrs. until she had permission to use her first name. Very respectful. She never wanted to be a bother to anybody, never wanted to be in the limelight or get the attention. Don't bother with me. She had a thick Bostonian accent. I'm all right, dearie. Don't bother with me. Robert, my dearie, how are you doing, dialing? Great Bostonian accent. I loved it. So I miss her very deeply. But uh she encouraged me to play the piano in public at family gatherings at uh Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I was shaking at the piano and shaking at my knees, and I learned to kind of, you know, get a grip on nerves and just go with it. And you mess up and just keep on going. And those are all life lessons that we learn. You know, life is not always easy. And a lot of times being courageous is not the absence of fear, but knowing there's something more important. And you keep your eyes fixed on that. You keep on trudging through. And you mess up along the way, but you keep on flowing through. So I wasn't a big sports guy. I played soccer a bit here and there, but you don't want me on your baseball team. I'm not good at tossing the ball and all that, but I was good at piano. And I I taught as I learned as a youngster at the Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. And uh that taught me a lot of discipline where you just lock yourself in a practice room and work at it and learn all the music and get it down. And I taught me discipline to be with the word, you know, with the word of God. And I found the word that means this quiet time in God's presence, reading scriptures every morning. It begins as a duty and evolves into a discipline, but then it become a delight. And I look forward to it every morning. And several years ago, a wise man challenged me with these words. He said, No Bible, no breakfast, no Bible, no bed. And those are good words to live by, real simple. I like simple phrases. So, in other words, I start my morning with the word of God before I feed my stomach or fill my foal with fruit loops or frosted flakes. You know, fill your soul with the bread of life.

SPEAKER_05: 16:45

And you did that even as a as a young kid?

SPEAKER_02: 16:48

As a teenager, yes. After I bought my first Bible and started reading it on my own.

SPEAKER_05: 16:52

Was it was there ever a time in in those high school and and maybe college years that you wavered away from that? Things pulled you away. I mean, that that's a you know, as kids are growing, going through puberty, and you have all these different outside influences. Were you able to continue to stay on that path?

SPEAKER_02: 17:10

Not religiously every day. Sure. But I never lost my love for the Lord. I never strayed way off the reservation. Um my parents had a rough patch where they were separated for about six months. And so I I didn't rebel, but I just, you know, spent a little more time away from home, and I was just learning to drive. And so we were all just trying to find our way because suddenly my older siblings were out of the home, and I was there, I think just my older, one older brother and myself, and it felt very disjointed. I'm so thankful my parents came back together and reconciled, and and I stayed at home even uh through most of my college years. I commuted from home. So that was terrific. So yeah, I I continued my love for the Lord, and I got involved in musical theater and playing a piano here and there, and playing piano at the conservatory for dance classes and children's theater, you name it. So I was very involved in that way. But um I did well in high school and graduated with good numbers and so forth, and wanted to pursue music in college. And I went to uh here in Indiana, Anderson College for a few years, studying piano and music ed and also computer science, because I I had a good uh scientific bent and engineering kind of bend. So I was doing a dual major computer science and music. And it was it was good for a while, but I wanted to really challenge myself more educationally. I knew electrical engineering was a really tough curriculum. And I was still taking piano lessons and doing what I wanted to do music-wise. So I thought, you know what, I think I better switch gears and go back to school in Cincinnati and study engineering. Well, that was a big kind of sell to my parents to say, I want to kind of start my college all over, mom and dad. And by the way, I spent two years studying music. This curriculum is five years. That's seven years for a degree. That's a long time. Five-year curriculum because one and a half years of it is spent co-oping as an intern at a company. Six months on, six months in classes, another six on, back and forth a few times. So a year and a half total co-oping. And um it was a big, it was a long haul. I had to dig my heels in again, and just that tenacity and discipline that I learned uh with piano and music, I had to apply it to engineering and just lock myself in the library and just put my nose to the grindstone and learn the material. I wasn't a natural at it. I mean, I got good grades, I graduated modnicum laude, but I had to really work at it. It didn't just come naturally, and I hadn't, I wasn't one of these guys who had a um a tinker toy set and you know, messed with electronics and a soldering iron and everything as a youngster. So I had to learn it all going along. But I did well and I co-oped up in the Boston area of all places where my father had grown up and his parents, and so it was great to be up there. I was on the um western outskirts of the Bostonian kind of big circle freeway out in Marboro and Hudson area. I worked on a high-tech company helping to design computer chips during the day. Well, on evenings and weekends, I got a job in downtown Boston playing a piano of all places at a Sidewall Cafe. My buddies and I, there were four of us together in one house, uh, four, three classmates. We had just kind of wandered around Boston for some sightseeing, and I saw this uh piano player at an uh outside, uh, just baby grand in a cafe. It just looked like a lot of fun. So I walked up to him and he said, Hey, just play me a song. So, okay, so I played something. He said, Hey, give me your number. Can I uh have you come in for a substitute every now and then? So uh he gave me a lot of work. Just uh after hours or on weekends, I would play four hours, six hours. Six hours was a typical shift. Sometimes you do a double shift because somebody called in sick. I'd do 12 hours playing the piano. It's a long time. My fingertips, my fingerprints were gone at the end of the day. But I built up my chops and met a lot of neat people because it was at uh Quincy Market Fannual Hall area, so very touristy area of Boston. People came in from Germany and all over the country and all over the world, so it was beautiful. Got a lot of tips and saved up money and bought some music gear and that kind of thing. Uh and of all places, God chose somehow to intersect my life with this beautiful blonde from Kansas named Melissa. And she had had a rough time with her father. Turned out he had uh apparently evidently molested her when she was very young. And uh they struggled through that. They went to counseling together as a teenager, but she was trying to just find herself and needed to get away from the her roots in Kansas for a time and uh find herself. And so she was a nanny for three young children in the Boston area. And uh she just plopped down a piano bench next to me, and it never happened to me. I'm kind of a geeky nerdy engineering type. I'm a shy, reserved introvert. I didn't date a whole lot, I didn't know what to say. I was shaking to my boots again, just trying to keep my fingers on the right notes. But we just started talking and we started laughing together, and the words just started flowing. And uh she kept on laughing, probably because at that time I had a mullet. She kept on looking at my hair, which was disgusting. But uh it was great. And uh we dated a bit at first, and then I had to go back to school for six months. I came back and we dated more, and we essentially fell in love over a big huge honking ice cream sundae at Friendly's ice cream. Peanut Reese's peanut buttercup ice cream sundae, I believe it was. Okay. That's a good one. Yeah. And so I thought, boy, if she likes ice cream like I like ice cream, I better marry this girl. So um we married in Cincinnati on New Year's Eve on the Ohio, on uh sorry, I proposed on New Year's Eve on the Ohio River on a riverboat cruise. And she said yes. And one full year later, so through my senior year, we were planning our wedding and saving up our money because we paid for the bulk of it. We also married on New Year's Eve in Cincinnati. And so, after seven long years, I finally graduated with one degree, yay, one job offer. It was during a recession, and so the offer is from California and Silicon Valley area. So I thought, well, I guess I better take it. So we packed up our cover wagon, moved west, and started our lives together. And we always wanted a big family, and God blessed us with children, but none ever came easily. Our first we named McKenna. She was over two weeks late. So we we had wanted to do a um home birth and we and a water birth. So we had a midwife, we had a big inflatable little swimming pool, like a tub thing, and uh very small apartment, 600 square foot apartment, very expensive in that part of uh central California. And things were progressing along, but uh she wasn't dilating like uh the midwife had hoped. And after two long days of tough labor and delivery, after actually after about a day and a half, the midwife said, I think we better get some help. So we went to the hospital, and after 12 more hours of trying, they were just we were exhausted, excruciating. I don't know how Melissa did it. But I finally had a C-section and gave birth to a beautiful girl named McKenna. Nine pounds, eleven ounces, twenty two inches long, upside down. So it's no wonder she didn't come out naturally. Yeah. That's okay. At the end of the day, you still have a baby, and that's what matters. And she was healthy and whole, thanks be to God. So when she was about a year old, uh I was uh gonna go to church go to work early that morning, and Melissa had collapsed on the floor at our apartment. Had no idea what was happening. Turned out she was bleeding internally and she couldn't move. Had I gone to work early that morning, I most likely would have come home to a dead wife. And I didn't know what to do. This was actually before cell phones. And I got her into the car and just raced to the hospital. And they admitted her for emergency surgery, transfusion. Turned out she was pregnant, which we didn't know. And the baby apparently lost in one of her tubes and exploded. It was an ectopic rupture. She lost a huge amount of blood into her abdominal cavity, so she was bleeding eternally. And what I really stretched our faith, because here we wanted a big family. I'm from a big family, we're hoping to have many children. And suddenly we lost a baby. I almost lost my wife. She lost uh almost half her reproductive organs. You know, it's gonna be at least twice as difficult going forward to even have another baby. So I just kind of threw my hands up and said, Lord, uh, what do I do? What what is this? What why are you stretching us like this? Why would you let this happen? I mean, we're passionate followers of Christ, we're reading the scriptures, we're going to church regularly, we tithe faithfully, you know, we do all these things, and life still happens, right? So you do don't you do all you know to do, and it rains on the good and the bad. No matter what happens, life still has its course. And so it stretched our faith to really trust God even more when it doesn't make sense. And so we said, Well, Lord, we still want a big family, and lo and behold, within about half a year we found out we were expecting again, thanks be to God. By then it was about five years in California. We had had enough of the West Coast and wanted to move back to the Midwest, be closer to family. We could have moved to Cincinnati, close to my parents, or to Kansas City area, closer to Melissa's family. And we intentionally chose Kansas City for a reason uh just to help foster reconciliation between Melissa and her father. Because uh their relationship was still strained a bit. There was forgiveness, but just needed to repair and restore that relationship over time. And that proved to be a very uh blessed and fortuitous decision. So I'm glad we did. So I found a job in the Kansas City area, and we bought our very first home, and we just found out we're expecting another child a few months before. So a few months later I gave birth to our very first boy, and we named him Zachary, another eight-pound whopper, another day and a half of tough labor delivery, another tough uh undergoing, but he was born naturally, thanks be to God. But uh the day after he was born, the doctor said, We believe your son has Down syndrome. And we had not done an amniocentesis, we were just willing to take whatever God had given us. And boy, that was like a sucker punch to my gut, like a four by four to my head, just saying, Lord, what what's going on here? Why is it so tough to get each child here? Why does each one have his own challenges? And suddenly we had to face the fact that life would never be the same. You know, our son may never learn to drive, may never get married, may not have children. Who knows? But it was developing us, developing our faith, developing our trust in God. Because trusting God is really faith in action. And he was stretching us, and trials have a way of doing that. And I've come to really see that trials are really divinely appointed uh difficulties, detours, delays that God either causes or allows in order to develop us, to make us more like him, to conform us into his image. And so it's tripping myself away and filling myself with more of him. As I heard a pastor say, marriage is a long, slow death. That's the truth. It's the death of myself, me dying to myself. Because especially husbands are to love our life, our wives as Christ loved the church. He gave himself up for her, he died. So I'm a dead man. I have to lay down my life for my wife, for my children. And we were learning that one step at a time and one shot at a time, because you lay down your life for your children, certainly. And so it was a whole new world of therapy visits, hospital visits, um, being involved in the Down syndrome guild of Kansas City, the buddy walk around Arrowhead Stadium and all that. And he went to teach them sign language to communicate and gross motor therapy, fine motor therapy, feeding therapy, all these things. It was very challenging. But now I see how God tied in my mother's love for special needs children as a teacher, as an educator. And my exposure to the special Olympics in northern Kentucky. And now we had a special child. And the verse from Ephesians chapter 2 that says, You are God's workmanship, his masterpiece, his handiwork, his majestic splendor, one translation says. You're not an accident, not a mistake. No, you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He has prepared in advance just for you to do. That verse really came alive off the pages of Scripture and was truly the word made flesh, literally in our lives, with our son's acry. So we learn a lot of great things. Disability is really not a, you know, that horrible of a difficulty, but it's an opportunity to grow closer to God and grow closer to each other. And so we did this as a family. And you know, the national divorce rate is somewhere around 50%. And for families with, which is horrible enough, for families with special needs children, it's around 80%. How much more they need mom and dad intact. And so we had to work at our marriage. You know, you had to work at still having a date night with my wife, and still writing her notes, and still telling her I love her. When there's a messy diaper and our son had a colostomy bag for a while, and that thing would explode and have a great big mess, and nights at the hospital for surgeries and so forth. It was very tough. But it was a tempering process, truly, of our character and of our faith, of our trust in God. And so a few years later, we found out we were expecting it again by God's grace, gave birth to another son, we named him Nicholas, another nine-pound whopper, another day and a half of tough labor and delivery, another C-section, but another miracle. And uh and then uh we found out we were expecting again, but then we miscarried again. And uh remember Melissa even passed what she believed was part of the tissue of that baby. And so we put it in a little box and buried it alongside the house and just kind of had our own moment with uh what was what remained of our child. And again, that stressed our faith even more. We just said, Lord, why is it so difficult to have children? Why is it so tough to get them all here? And uh we didn't receive a text or a facts or an email from God, but we have his holy word, right, who speaks to us through the scriptures, and we have his holy spirit in our hearts. And we just had an unction to adopt, just a little inkling, adopt. So we just went for it. We went to an informational meeting at an adoption agency in the Kansas City area, and with these tears rolling down our cheeks, we knew this is for us. Long story short, 11 months later, we're on a 747 airplane flying from San Francisco all the way to Beijing, China, because we heard about a little orphan girl that nobody else wanted because she was special needs as well. She had a heart defect. We thought, well, hey, we have a special needs boy. Let's go get a special needs girl. She's perfect for our family. So the whole adoption process was about 11 months. It was relatively uh short. And so in January 2003, we brought home this beautiful bundle of joy from China. We named her Alina, Alina Wenying Rogers, and she was just embraced by her siblings. And so here we were, finally with two boys, two girls, beautiful family. We had two missing carriages along the way. A lot of work, but a lot of joy, a lot of fun. And uh we had made up our minds we wanted to start homeschooling our children. We hadn't yet up to that point. But um that summer of 2003, we just kind of pulled back from all the extracurriculars from the soccer and other involvements, and just said, you know, let's just be a family. Let's just hang out and have fun. Pitch a tent in the backyard, you know, do the inflatable swimming pool on the deck, and get out some popsicles in the backyard or on the front porch, and just simple stuff, nothing real glamorous. But it was just fun. We just had great times with each other. And uh Melissa kept a journal. And she wrote in that journal, this summer's been the best summer of my life. I'm so glad that we simplified everything and just spent time with our family. She said, I wonder what God's gonna do next. And that was her last journal entry. And uh towards the end of the summer, it had been a long, dry summer in the Midwest, uh, kind of a big drought, and everybody was praying for rain. Well, we got it, but we got it all at once. It was the uh Hurricane Isabella storm system that came up from, I think, the Gulf Coast and parked over the Midwest and dumped a huge amount of rain over Labor Day weekend. And we had traveled three hours from Kansas City to Wichita, Kansas for a relative's wedding. We had a great time at the wedding and the reception, and our kids were playing with their cousins and running around and grabbing slices of cake and so forth and just having fun. Well, as you can tell, ice cream is very important to our family. It was how I met my wife Melissa, and we would all often have it as a family together. And in fact, let me back up a little bit. Um, I was a field applications engineer in the Kansas City area by that point. And I would drive to Wichita, Kansas about every three weeks. On the way back, I would stop at this ice cream product called Brahms Ice Cream. They have their own dairy farm in Oklahoma. And so they only deliver within a day's drive of that dairy farm. So it's really good, fresh, delicious ice cream. So I pick up a few tubs of ice cream, wrap it in paper sacks, and zip home. And by the time you get home, you can just skim it off the top, and it was like a little slice of heaven. So we we thoroughly enjoyed that as a family. Well, after the wedding reception, we thought let's go to Brahms Ice Cream, because they had a like grill and chill ice cream shop, and uh Melissa's brother and his family, and we all just enjoy the time together and had an ice cream and talking and so forth. But it was starting to get late. We still had a three-hour drive home and it was still raining, so we thought we better get started. So we filled up on gas and Melissa said, I like to drive first, and then we'll switch about halfway home. I said, Okay, so I'll try to rest my eyes while you drive. But the wife was going full blast. It was a heavy rain, and she was being very careful on the turnpike, Kansas turnpike. And uh I, of course, couldn't keep my eyes closed because it was pretty treacherous conditions. And uh somehow we splashed into this. Turned out to be a flash flood, but at that point it was a river flowing across the turnpike from right to left. And the cars were slowly going through it, and so we were following the vehicles. It didn't appear to be that deep. The raindrops were pounding off the surface of the water, and there was a semi going through as well in front of us, so we tried to follow his tracks and stay with him. And uh he paused for some reason, and we we couldn't go around him. It was pretty much one-lane traffic going through, and he was not moving. And Melissa started getting hysterical. Why isn't he moving? We've got to get through this, and and the water kept rising, and now it had sleep seeped into the floorboards, and it was getting very scary. And we figured it was getting into the engine, the engine could stall. What do you do? Your mind is racing. But this time, several of our children had fallen asleep, and of course, now we're stopped. Wipers still going full blast, rain's pounding down, the water's seeping in. It's getting scary. And what do you do? And now the water is rushing by pretty quickly. There's about a 30-inch, 33-inch concrete median that we're kind of right up against, and the water's starting to flow over that. So it's getting extremely deep. And now, really, too deep to try to get out with two kids, one in each arm, to try to navigate through the waters on foot when it's up to your waist, knowing that ankle-high water can knock you over. It's moving water is incredibly powerful. And so Melissa and I were in agreement that we just gotta say, put, at least here we're pinned against the median. The water is overflowing the median. It'll go down by the grace of God, and we'll get towed. We'll be all right. And so, looking back, three things were very important that we were doing. Number one, we are saying scripture. I turned to Psalm, not turned to it, but I recalled Psalm 46, that says, God is my strength, God is my refuge, an ever-present help in time of trouble. We will not fear though the earth give way and the mountains fall to the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and the mountains quake, the Lord our God is with us. He is our fortress. So he's an ever-present help in time of trouble. That means he's here. He's with us. He will not leave us nor forsake us. So we're saying scripture because we had taught our children scripture and taught them to memorize scripture. That's number one. Number two, we're singing a song of praise of all things. I mean, music was very important in our household. And our children have woken up, their feet were touching the water now, and we're just trying to calm them as best we could. We're singing a song that says, uh, Lord, I lift your name on high. Lord, I love to sing your praises. I'm so glad you're in my life. I'm so glad you came to save us. It felt real right then. Lord, please save us. So we had scripture on our lips, we had praise on our lips, and thirdly, we had Jesus on our lips. We were crying out, Jesus, save us, Jesus, save us. And this wall of water, apparently the eyewitnesses say about seven feet tall, washed our minivan off the road, took out, I think, over a thousand feet of that concrete median, just tossed it like splinters, like toothpicks. And took our minivan and several other vehicles with it and plunged us into the deluge. And at that point, the minivan, as best I could tell, started turning, floating. I just said, Well, I gotta get everybody out of here. So I kicked the driver's side window out, and it was like popping balloon. The force of the water flushed everyone, everything out that wasn't tied down, including now me, Melissa. We were out of our seatbelts at that point, and our oldest daughter, McKenna. We were just sucked into the torrent. And I just remember tossed into water like a ragdoll in a washing machine. I couldn't see, I couldn't breathe. I could feel things flying by my fingertips, I just grasping for whatever. And strangely at that moment, Dan, it felt very peaceful. And that makes no sense. But people who have had a near-death experience can probably relate that God is there. He says, though you go through deep waters in great trouble, I am with you. I believe he was there with me. And it felt as if we were all six of us going up to heaven, like he had his hand around all the six of us lifting us up to heaven. But my head bobbed above the water, and I could see treetops whizzing by, and I again trying to grasp for anything I could and to no avail. I could kind of make out the shore to one side, but I was at the mercy of the current, but more the mercy of God. Somehow I washed up against the left-hand shore. I don't know how, but by God's grace am I here to this day. I crawled out on my hands and knees. I felt my stomach tighten. I threw up all the stuff I had apparently ingested. And just cried out for my family. Cried out for the Lord, just complete desperation, just with rain pouring down, tears pouring down, just mud everywhere. And I couldn't see them, couldn't hear them. It just sounded, if you've ever been to Niagara Falls, it sounded like that. Just torrential. Water rushing by. I think they said that afterwards it was 30,000 gallons per second. It's like a swimming pool every second just rushing by. But I could make out lights on the freeway, and I was about, oh, half or three-quarters of a mile away. So I just slowly made my way and slipped and slid and went over a barbed wire fence, had to go up an embankment, and found a police officer. I said, My wife and four children are still down there. They're down there. You gotta help me, you gotta find them. And so he ushered me to a car before an ambulance was able to come. And then they ushered me into the ambulance, and uh I was in shock, of course, and they wrapped me and put something on my finger to take some vitals and so forth, and it just felt like an eternity. I just was praying that those doors of the ambulance would swing open. I'd hear, Daddy, daddy's okay, we're okay. They'd found him. But uh nothing ever happened. And uh after a few hours, they took me in the ambulance to a nearby hospital in Emporia, Kansas, and uh checked me over. I may have nothing, just the clothes on my back. And uh amazingly, I had no broken bones. It was very strange. I don't know how that even happened, but they officially released me, but I had nowhere to go, nothing I could grasp at that moment. And uh Melissa's brother, who was with us at the ice cream parlor, his name is Matt. He also had four children at the time. They were also in a Ford windstorming van like ours on the same stretch of highway, only about two minutes ahead of us. I think because we had stopped for gas, they hadn't. So we both left the ice cream parlor at the same time. They went through the water much like we did. And uh Matt's wife said, you know, Matt, should we stop? He said, We're already in it, we gotta keep going. And uh cell phones had just kind of started becoming popular then, so we had a crude, simple phone. They tried to call us, but without speed dial, phone book, all that stuff. By the time they got us, it was too late. We were already stalled in the water. So they kind of knew our whereabouts, but didn't know what had happened. And uh somehow he got with the Kansas Turnpike Authority and found out I was at the hospital. And he and his father, Melissa's father, met with me at the hospital. Boy Matt and I just embraced and just cried and just prayed. He was a he's a very God-fearing man, a very strong Christian. And he just said, I remember his prayer to say, Lord, what are you doing? Lord, what are you doing? And my only prayer was, Jesus, I trust you. Jesus, I trust you. Real simple prayer for prayer and divine mercy, saying, I place my trust in Jesus. If they find him, they're okay, we're gonna be reunited. All is well. If they find him, they've already passed away. Then they're with you. Because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And I just had a sense in my heart they were already with the Lord. And so, middle of the night, an officer and a chaplain came to my room, they had their hats and their chests, very solemnly walked in with the news I'd feared the worst. They said, Robert, we found your minivan. It was upside down a mile and a half from the freeway. They said three of your young children were still in their car seats and they are dead. And Robert, we need to ask you to identify their bodies. And what do you do when you hear those words? Every parent's worst nightmare. All my blood just went to my toes. I felt numb. I mean, our first day, and I couldn't even cry. They just led me down this long hallway to the emergency room and pulled back the drape. And every form of Zachary. A little big guy with Down syndrome, just five years old. I mean, we had poured everything into him, our lives, everything, just to try to help him be everything he could be. Nicholas, our buddy boy, just three years old. Alina, a precious little sweepie from China, still only one year old. We only had her for eight short months. Never got to celebrate her birthday or Christmas together. And suddenly the flug eats of my tears just burst forth. I collapsed over each of their bodies and stroked their wet hair and cried and groaned and wailed from my gut as if I was going to throw up again. And somehow I believe only by the Holy Spirit, with one hand on each of their chests, I raised my other hand up to heaven. I said, Lord, into your hands I commend their spirits. The very words of Jesus on the cross, just before he breathed his last, exemplifying his lifetime of surrender to the Father's will. And so must we. One of the hardest things to do as followers of Christ is to surrender all, right? And yet he's not Lord at all, if he's not Lord of all. That means everything. My family, my time, all that I am. After all, we own nothing. Everything, every one we have on this earth is unloan, a gift from Almighty God. How many times have we sung with our children? Jesus loves me, this I know little ones to him belong. Yeah, they don't belong to us, they belong to him. And looking back, I can see that really helped in the healing process. To surrender at that very moment of identifying them and seeing them at the worst moment of life. Because I've met many people, and so often we grip the pain of the past, we hold on to it, and we don't want to let it go. Or we hold on to our loved one and want to keep them or love them the way they were and not love them where they are. And that can be a tough transition because we always no one likes change and we want things to be the way it was, you know, with intact household or family. And thank God I had surrendered then by God's grace. And um, a few hours later they came to my room again and said, Robert, we found McKenna. She apparently caught on a barbed wire fence a short distance from a minivan. So I had to go down that long hallway once again, identify Daddy's first little girl. She had just turned eight years old, only two weeks before. We had a great birthday party and everything with her. In fact, I had taken her on a business trip to Wichita just shortly before the flash flood. Just a daddy and daughter, and so we had a beautiful time together. And I thank God that we spent that time with each other. No regrets. And so that that day they had died, I'd hugged them all. I told them I loved them. Our hearts were clear, thanks be to God. But for days we prayed and hoped they would somehow find my wife Melissa intact, and okay, somehow. By this time, my parents, my siblings had all descended on the Emporia, Kansas area. And they went to the local Walmart and bought some muck boots and started traversing the Flint Hills there themselves, just trying to find her, just trying to find anything. They found some of our belongings and my wallet and other things from our minivan and from other people's vehicles. And but on a third day, they came to my room and said we found Melissa. And her body was two miles from the freeway. And the retention pond had a tripled in size from all the flood waters. It was just enormous tragedy. I had to identify my wife of over 11 years. And what do you do? Where do you run? And what's going to hold you up at a time like that? I'm here to testify it can only be the sheer grace of Almighty God. The power of prayer, because so many people across the country, I mean, all walks of life, all denominations were just lifting us up in prayer because it had gained some news coverage, and people found out about it. And people were silently praying. They've told me over these past few decades how they prayed for me then. So I know it's God's grace, the power of prayer, and the power of God's word. I love God's word. And the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3, that he upholds the universe by the power of his word. Okay, so if God can keep the planets in orbit, then he can keep my world from spinning apart when it feels like it might go out of control. I ran to his word. To um that Psalm 46, God is my strength, God is my refuge. I run to him, to many other verses, like Job 23, verses 10 through 12. You know, Job had it all. And he lost it all. He lost his health, lost his wealth, lost all ten children, seven boys and three girls. And he had his moments with God. You know, he had a few choice words for the Lord. He mouthed off and all that, but he still stayed there. He still stayed in contact with God. That's what's so important is to stay in his presence. You know, no matter what the words are, at least stay talking to him. Let your tragedy not drive you further from him, but draw you closer to him. I think Job did that. Even after his friends who first came at least to be with him in his grief. But then they started pointing a finger at him. Hey, Job, maybe this is your fault. They started blaming him, right? That's tough too. But in Job 23, he says, he's trying to figure it out. He says, Lord, I don't get this. I look north, south, east, and west. I can't find you, I can't figure it out. But I know this. He says, I know the way that I take. No, I'm sorry, he knows the way that I take. When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. That's a great statement. Much like your logo on be tempered. That's he's being refined in a fire. When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. Then he goes on to say, My feet have closely followed his steps. I have kept to his way without turning aside. I've not departed from the commands of his lips. But here's the key. I've treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. More than my daily bread. No Bible, no breakfast, no Bible, no bed. That was Job's secret, I think. He treasured God's word even more than food. I kept him in touch with God. Sometimes we just have to get a bulldog grip on God and his promises and say, Lord, I don't get this. It doesn't make sense. It's excruciating. My heart is hemorrhaging. But I still take you at your word. I heard a wise pastor say that a lot of times faith is just acting like God's telling the truth. And that sounds simple, but it's true. It's just proceeding forth as though God's word is true. Because it is. Do I feel like it? Not always. Heck no. But I still trust God. I take him at his word. His word that says in Psalm 71 that you have allowed me to suffer much hardship. We could probably all agree with that. Yes, Lord, you've allowed me to suffer a whole lot of hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again. That's a great verse of hope for anyone who's lost. Their loved ones, their spouse, their parents, their children, their home, their livelihood, their health, anything. God is a God of restoration. And He has a great plan through it all. But it's oftentimes a development process. God allows us to go through the fire many times or the flood. When that fire goes through us, it can reshape our souls, it can forge our faith. It can cultivate our character and make us more like Him.

SPEAKER_05: 55:29

Do you know we you know we we lean on a Bible verse that be tempered and it's Isaiah 43, verse 2. Do you are you familiar with that verse?

SPEAKER_02: 55:38

I know 43. Remind me, verse two, which one that is.

SPEAKER_05: 55:41

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. Yes. And through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

SPEAKER_02: 55:52

I love that. I can testify firsthand. You can't be part of that.

SPEAKER_05: 55:57

Yes. Did you did you ever question that when all that happened? Did you ever question God?

SPEAKER_02: 56:03

Sure. I didn't question my relationship with Him. But I asked why? Why God? Why would you do this? Why would you allow this? Doesn't make sense. I mean, one minute, two minutes, any direction, we we could have missed it. Have we not gotten out for ice cream? Have we not gotten gas, we did? Maybe if I had been driving. I mean, as an engineer, I'm thinking through all these minutiae, all these details, the shoulda, coulda, woulda. Just have to say, somehow God allowed this to happen. I don't get it. But thank God we were ready. I mean, my family was ready to go to heaven. We lived a full life, not as long as I would have liked, but they loved the Lord. We loved each other. What if it happened to a family that wasn't ready? At least I know where they are. I have complete confidence they are in heaven. I will meet them one day. So I went from asking the Lord, why me to why not me? Why not me? Why did I survive? Well, perhaps so we can be here talking today. Perhaps it wasn't just a blip on the news cycle. Well, too bad for that family, and keep on going. The police had asked me to give a press conference because there was so much media attention. I went to my father and said, Dad, what in the world do I say? I don't know where to even begin. Again, I'm the shy, reserved introvert. I'm not good in behind microphones and all that normally. So I think when you face your worst fear, you have to face death, the death of your loved ones. Every other fear just kind of melts away. So my dad said, Robert, just give it straight. Just share your heart. Just talk about your family, talk about your faith. That's what I did. And so I gave two press conferences over, I think three days, and one in Emporia, Kansas, one up in the Kansas City area. I said words like, We will get through this, we will rise above this. And by God's grace, he will somehow bring good through this. Because we knew Genesis 50, verse 20. It says, But as for you, human evil against me, but God meant it for good. God means it for good. He can turn all things around. Romans 8 28. God causes all things to work together for good. Not of everybody, for those who love him and those that are called according to his purpose. So you maintain that relationship with him, then he can turn your misery into a ministry. He can turn your tragedy into a triumph if you trust if you trust him through it.

SPEAKER_05: 58:40

So how do you pick up the pieces from that? Life still goes on, right? You still have work. You, you know, and now instead of having this family, now you come home to an empty home. How do you pick up those pieces? How do you keep going? Where do where does life go from here for you?

SPEAKER_02: 58:58

Right. That was a long ordeal, very excruciating. And we all grieve as differently as we all look. I've learned never to tell someone, I know how you're feeling, because nobody does. We all have unique experiences. Every loss can be uniquely devastating when you're the one going through it. And uh for me, it was a a deafening silence at our home from all the cheers and noises of our family and the diaper changes and the spills and the bills and everything and cleanup and just everything it takes to keep a family going, suddenly it just halted. I remember trying to drive around town just to get some groceries and seeing all these people in a hurry. I thought, I am not in a hurry. I just am trying to get from here to there and just take my time and just process it all. Because it's overwhelming. I mean, our brain just can't wrap around it. And I think because we weren't created for this, you know, in the garden Adam and Eve, we were. Meant to keep on living forever, but because they sinned, then uh death and suffering are the human condition, and we have to deal with it. But it still catches off guard. When someone dies, it feels like part of your life is completely gone, like you're limping around life without a limb attached, just trying to gain your equilibrium, your balance again. It makes sense of things. So bit by bit I went through our children's belongings into their room and I would just cry, or even you know, in the in the shower area with seeing their tubby toys and things, and just cry over that and see their artwork on a refrigerator, and every tear helps wash away little specks of grief at the time. I would open my Bible and put on the piano and just start playing to the Psalms. I compose many songs right there at the piano or just worship God alone. Being an introvert, I do my best healing, I think, just alone. So a lot of times I just fall asleep with the Bible on my lap and just some soft music playing. But uh I went to counseling as well. So three whole years of professional grief counseling with a uh with a professional. So I highly recommend that to anyone who's been through any kind of trauma, divorce, you name it, loss, it's it's worth going because the the brain is very intricate and it's like peeling back layers of an onion to get to the core. And each layer brings tears, but those tears help to heal over time. It's a good thing. Uh by God's grace, I never had any depression, no nervous breakdowns, never did drugs, no promiscuity or drunkenness or smoking or internet garbage. And I'm not bragging on me, I'm bragging on God. Because humanly speaking, that's impossible. But with God, all things are possible. I stayed immersed in his word, most of all. I did eat lots of ice cream and peanut butter. Chocolate therapy was a real happy place for me. Took me a while to get back to ice cream, though. It took at least half a year or more. I just couldn't take, couldn't taste the sweetness of it and enjoy it. So it took a while before I even gave myself permission to try to enjoy it. And then to the point where it was sweet again. It's a process of healing. But God knew what he was doing because I tried to go back to engineering. And I spent about two weeks doing that. It just felt like this doesn't fit. It's just not right. It's like a shoe that no longer fit. And uh I thought, you know, I just need to go on a journey, a little pilgrimage, as it were, retrace our steps across the country, Boston, California, East Coast, in between. So I hopped on a train, Amtrak train, Kansas City, downtown. Went uh all the way west, across the Great Plains, all the way to California, and visited some friends there that we had known and church we'd gone to, and made my way all the way back through Chicago to the east and through Pennsylvania to the East Coast, and uh spent a few weeks doing that. Brought my keyboard with me and composed some music along the way, and just looking out the window of the train, just seeing the beautiful scenery go by, and the constant rhythm of the tracks just helped the rhythm of my heart kind of like a restart, kind of like a defibrillator, so to speak. That was very helpful. And people just started contacting me from all denominations, just saying, Boy, we saw your press conference. And could you come to our church or we're having a pancake breakfast Saturday morning and just talk about your faith and how you can maintain your faith after something like that? I said, I don't know, I've never done anything like this before. And we had these little poster boards of our family's portraits, pictures that we had up at the funeral. By the way, the funeral was, I mean, five caskets in the front of church. It's a whole nother difficult moment, but you can't even wrap your mind around it. Very difficult for my siblings and parents to behold the bodies of my family members. But I took these poster boards with their pictures to a church afterwards and just held them up and would just tell our story like we are right now. And afterwards, people would tell me, boy, that really impacted my heart. Boy, it really helped me to put my tra my trust and faith in God. That really inspired me. Because I didn't know what to say. I just said, I felt like Moses in a way. You know, Moses stuttered, he wasn't good at this public speaking. Like, not me, Lord, you got the wrong guy, right? But um, I said, Lord, you're just gonna have to speak through me and give me the words to speak. And we find that even in the New Testament where Jesus says, Don't worry about what to speak. You'll be given the right words and such wisdom at the right time. It won't be you doing the talking, but the Spirit of my Father speaking through you. And so that's why I trusted God to do. I said, Lord, I'm gonna open my mouth. You're gonna have to fill it. And he has ever since. It's been beautiful. And uh that first year, I think over a hundred places or people invited me to come share. So I was traveling a lot. Uh Kansas City area, but also across the country. And then a year after that, about 110 places or people. So me, I kind of need a four by four to my head again and just say, okay, Lord, I think I get it. You want me to do this as a full-time ministry? And uh and so I found a good circle of wise counsel and asked them to be a board of directors for this uh ministry called Mighty in the Land Ministry, based on Psalm 112, that says, His children will be mighty in the land. And they truly are. And God wants each of us to be mighty men of God, mighty women of God across this great land, and to bring forth great fruit for his kingdom. And so we became a nonprofit 501c3 officially, and board directors, I wanted accountability, I wanted good transparency and all that. But most of all, just to do what God wanted me to do. And I just prayed, Lord, I'm gonna trust you to open every door, provide every need, and protect me every step of the way. And now, it's hard to believe, 22 years later, it does not feel like it. I've shared over 1,400 times to hundreds of thousands of people in person and many more through media and resources and so forth. And God has brought forth great fruit. And uh we began a foundation as well. In fact, in 2004, I traveled to India after the tsunami that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in those flood waters. So I feel like I had a kindred spirit with them in a in that way. And it was a powerful missions trip. We brought some medical supplies and just cared for them as best we could. You feel like you're a drop in a bucket, like what can I do? But I got to, I brought some bubbles and some balloons, just play with some of the orphan children and just try to have fun, just be Jesus to them and to show them love because we couldn't communicate verbally. So but it's very formative, very powerful. Because when you look into the eyes of an orphan or a child like that, it it'll change your heart. It'll help transform and heal your heart. And so I began a foundation called the Mighty in the Land Foundation, a separate entity, and that's uh to help care for orphans and special needs children around the world. And so we're our goal was to sponsor at least five orphanages worldwide and honored by five heavenly family members. And one by one, God's been bringing them to pass. We've sponsored eight now and granted over$600,000 to help care for orphans and special needs children worldwide, including here in the United States as well. So that can only be God.

SPEAKER_05: 1:07:59

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:00

But you know, God was really leading me because I found as you serve, as you keep that outward focus and pour out, which sounds backwards. When I'm in pain, I need other support into me. But when you pour out your life and give, you're gonna receive more than you give. It's a giving that you receive, you're gonna reap what you sow. And so I think God was purposely leading me down that path without me knowing it. I just said, Yes, Lord, here I am. Send me. And uh through serving, it came the healing. And then uh I started sharing in the Indiana area quite a bit as well. I had some good friends from college from uh Anderson time, could be great musicians and dear friends. And uh they had me come to their church and a few other churches, and they had befriended another family that they had bought some land from. And uh little did I know behind the scenes, they were playing matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match. I wasn't looking, I wasn't looking to even date to remarry or any of that stuff. I just didn't want to even consider dating by any means. I just felt blessed that I got to be a husband once and happily, faithfully married, got to be a father for eight years, four children. I'm blessed, Lord. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and you lead on, Lord. Uh but we got to know one another, and and uh first time I saw her, her name is Inga. She was eating ice cream, you know, and uh magnificent chef, magnificent cook, and beautiful family. Her parents, before her father passed away, were married 45 years. So my parents 60 years, her parents 45 years, over 105 years of faithful, great godly marriage. So thank God we come from uh great example, great parents. And so um we fell in love, and it took some time because I wanted to make sure I was loving her for her, not for poor old Robert, or I need a companion, someone to be with. No. She hadn't been married before. She maintained her purity. She could have been with any guy she wanted. Why would she choose me? A guy like me with a past like mine. She could have anybody, why me? But I can't explain it. I still ask her, I said, sweetie, why would you marry me? Why do you love me? What do you see in me? But it's it's the good Lord, and it's God somehow planted desire within her. And I want to make sure my my feelings for her were before I said I love you, that I'm hanging for life. And so I even talked to my counselor about it to make sure that these feelings were bona fide and not misplaced or anything like that, because I want to cherish her for the woman that she is and love her fully. And so it was about three years after the flash flood that we married in uh Fort Wayne, Indiana in 2006. And we will celebrate 20 years of marriage next May. Thanks be to God. So God's a God of restoration and healing, because um, we've always been open to life. And God bless us in 2007 with a son. We named him Ezekiel, Ezekiel Thomas. And then in 2008 with the daughter, we named her Estella, Estella Eve. And then we endured a miscarriage where she began hemorrhaging. My wife Inga began hemorrhaging on the cushion of the seat she was on and took her to the hospital. Long story short, turned out we were pregnant. We didn't know it either. And the baby was inside of her and was not moving. They did an ultrasound. I thought I could see the outline of a baby, and uh the doctor had to come in and give birth to a little tiny baby about five inches long, about five months along. I I held him in my hands. Clearly little boy. We need him little Dale. And so we we had a burial and a little ceremony for him. So again, come on, Lord, why? Another death, you know, but I don't know. Perhaps God wanted Inga to experience the loss of a child as well, to be connected in that way to this ministry, because it's really our family ministry. Because now our family now wouldn't be here if it weren't for our family in heaven. And so it's us sharing the good news of Christ through our family story, to bring Jesus to people, bring people to Jesus. That's really the crux of this ministry. And so we had a boy, then a girl, and each one of our children we never found out the gender until the moment of birth. So it was a great surprise. There's very few good surprises left in life, and that's one of the great ones. So I got to be there for each one and say, it's a boy, it's a girl, yay! So it's such a great joyous moment. And then after uh our miscarriage, God bless us with another son. We named him Leo, Leo George, in uh 2010, 2012, another girl. We named her Lola Elizabeth. So here we are, two boys and two girls by God's grace. And previously I had two boys and two girls. You can't make this up. You can't plan it, you can't fabricate this or anything. This can only be God. He says, I will restore, I will raise you up to even greater honor and comfort you once again. Psalm 71. It's beautiful. Then about six years after our youngest daughter was born, my wife Ingo's turn on some pants, saying, Am I getting fat? As a husband, you've got to be real careful how you answer the question, right? You get yourself in big trouble. Yeah. Turned out we were pregnant again. So we found out right away, you were expecting. And in 2018, gave birth to a mighty son. We named him Solomon. Solomon Gideon Rogers. And so we have four teenagers now and one seven-year-old. So life is full. We have a very loud and active household. We home educate our children still. I work out at my home office. We travel together whenever we can. But uh life is challenging, but life is good. And we trust God for every door to be open. Again, I still share at every place that invites me. I don't charge any set fees. I come in complete faith. It's a mystery of faith. When I first started sharing, people asked me, Well, what do you charge? I said, charge? I mean, I can't. If I put a price take on this, you couldn't afford it. That cost me everything. But like Apostle Paul said, you know, I cannot charge for the gospel. And so I just share freely. If people want to give something, we accept support and so forth. But it's amazing, even through the pandemic, through COVID, how God provided. It's like the loaves and fishes, and how he provides our every need and opens every door and has protected us every step of the way.

SPEAKER_05: 1:14:55

That's amazing. Do you do you ever have fears? You know, let's say when we get a bunch of rain, are there triggers in in your life that that take you back to that moment to where it can overwhelm a lot of people? Um, and I know you are extremely strong in your faith, but are are there are there things that happen in life like rain, or have you been out past uh, you know, on that road again? Are those things that you know that bring back those flood of emotions? I mean, we we just talked about before we started recording, you know, and you shared that you've you've shared this message over thousands of times. And I, you know, I say, how do you do it? You you said I relive it every time I tell it.

unknown: 1:15:46

Right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:15:48

That's a lot. Yeah. That's a lot to get through. How do you do that?

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:53

Depend on the Holy Spirit. Because even I told it in a lot of detail right now in this setting, and it's very difficult because it unearthed a lot of memories and details and emotions. And uh I often don't cry in public. I I cry better in private just by myself. But sometimes I still melted to a puddle in front of people. I'll just choke up and can't even go forward. I just roll with it, and so I don't, nothing's contrived by any means, but uh I share our family story because it is heartbreaking. It is tearful, but it's also hopeful. When people hear it, it seems to break open their hearts, and then the Holy Spirit can enter in and do work. And I pray that these scriptures take root. But I'm able to now appreciate the rain. It took a while at first. Um I do vividly remember driving in a Kansas City area, of all things during a snowstorm, kind of a blizzard. And when it's more of a powdery snow and just rushing across the highway from left to right because of crosswinds. And for a while, for a moment, I was it was on a freeway, and I couldn't see the edge lines. And I just almost froze. But that the snow blowing across the freeway really brought forth a lot of the flood memories of the water across the freeway. Uh but uh a rainstorm right now I can appreciate it. And uh even in our home, we like to hear the rain pitter-patter on the roof when we need it. And and our kids like to run out and play in the rain when it's a gentle, peaceful rainstorm, and so it doesn't bother me. But I guess I somehow God has cauterized those wounds and enabled me to go on. I can't explain it, but it's his grace.

SPEAKER_05: 1:18:06

It's a blessing. I mean it's it's an amazing story. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01: 1:18:11

Um one thing that really caught me was Job. Like how you talked about Job and about how to have a conversation, I feel like. Because I feel like a lot of times people always go to God for like thanks and appreciation, and then you read Job, and Job goes there with heartache and with pain, and with like it just I feel like that's when when you read Job, like you really realize the real relationship and the real conversation that God kind of wants from us. And I just love that you you talked about that. I mean, did you lean into Job during that time too?

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:42

You bet. Yeah, big time. I related to him firsthand, absolutely. And I just appreciate Job's honesty. I'm glad you glad you mentioned that, Ben. There's a lot in there. And uh Job had a few choice words for the Lord, and God comes back. You know, God was silent for what, 40 chapters or so? And then God comes back, excuse me, Job, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Do you know better? And Job's like, okay, I get it. I get it. And Job essentially says, you know, before I knew of God, now I know God. And that's the motto of this ministry is to know God personally, to live a life of no regrets. So an experiential knowledge.

SPEAKER_01: 1:19:22

Yeah. I just I love Job so much just because you see the pain. I mean, this world is a broken world. Like we live in a broken world and things aren't perfect, and you're like, well, if God's real, God wouldn't let this happen to me. God wouldn't let this happen to me. It's like, no, like God lets that happen to you for like you you said you always talk about what was it like uh kind of flex like spread, you guys, and it's like a spirit, like you grow. Like during those times, that's when you grow in faith, and you know, you're using it for I mean, I'm sure you say, you know, you talked about you know, talking and sharing with thousands of people. How many people have you saved with that? You know what I mean? Like oh, I'm sure, yeah, exactly. By but by God's grace and by you being a faithful servant. And it's just inspiring.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:06

So I pray people have heard the gospel through it. That's our main focus just to share the goodness of Christ through it, that they might receive it. Just receive his love, receive his salvation, receive his mercy, because most people don't feel as though they are loved by God. I've done so much bad stuff. How could he love a guy like me or girl like me? And uh, God loves you and he wants you to live with him. That's plain and simple, the gospel. He came to earth to live with us, to die for us, so we could live with him. We just have to accept and receive it.

SPEAKER_05: 1:20:41

For someone that might be listening today that feels like they're they're drowning in their own storm, what's the first step for that person to find faith?

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:52

I'd say run to the Lord, don't run away from him. Uh I spent a lot of time in Job, like you mentioned, Ben, also the very next book, book of Psalms. Psalms are like a school of high highs, low lows, everywhere in between. And Job was very honest with God, so is King David. You know, he pours out in despair. God, where are you? Why, God? And yet I will put my trust in God. I choose to put my hope in him. Over and over through the Psalms, King David does that. And it's it's a great teaching moment. And so, you know, David says in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. And that my is personal. So if someone is in that moment, make it personal. Again, we need an experiential knowledge of the Savior to go through that valley of shadow of death with him, to walk through and let him hold your hand, let him hold you. And that it sounds simple, it's not easy because it's counterintuitive. And people want to run to drugs or substances, or their phone, or their vice, or whatever it might be. So much this world has to offer, none of that's going to satisfy. It just doesn't work. But the Bible says in Hebrews that the Word of God is alive and active. It's sharper than a two-edged sword. It cuts all the way through for soul and spirit meet. So this book is alive, and I believe it can enliven our spirit when it feels dead. They can bring it back to life. It can bring life where there was none before. They can bring our faith to life. That's what brought my faith to life as a teenager. I thank God for every single Bible verse I memorized, because I needed it. I need at that moment my life when I was at rock bottom. And I discovered he was a rock at the bottom. So fall into his arms. Don't go the way of the world and allow them to fill that void because something will consume you. Something will fill that emptiness. And too many people try to fill it with a substance. You'll never find the bottom of a bottle of any substance or anything else you stick in your mouth that's going to satisfy that craving. Our cravings for him, our cravings to be held, to be loved, to be whole. And only he can do it. It's true. Too many people run to that as an escape to other things. And yeah, you might forget about it for a moment. Still there tomorrow. Gotta deal with it now and face it head on. This book I wrote called Rise Above goes through three basic steps. I won't call them simple. But number one is to face it. And it's not easy to face it. I had to do that when I identified my own family members. To face it head on, not to brush it under the rug and pretend never happened. Even after they'd found my wife Melissa, I'd asked the police if they could take us to back to the flood scene. I felt like I had to face it. And so they gave us an escort back to the turnpike so we could go there safely, and my parents and our pastor with us, and we got out of the car and walked down the embankment to the waters, which has now subsided. And I just slipped my fingers into the waters. I just felt like a rush of just go through me into the waters. Those waters that ushered my family home. And that was just important for me to face it, to deal with it. All through scripture we see people who had to face certain things. How Jonah had to face Nineveh, right? King David had to face his sin with Bathsheba and murdering her husband Uriah. Even Jesus faced the cross. He said, Lord, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not my will but yours be done. A powerful scene in Passion of the Christ, where he embraces the cross. I love that scene. Because that's a the second step I suggest is first of all, you face it, then you embrace it. You embrace that cross that God has entrusted to you. And Jesus said, if you want to be my followers, you must first what? Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. That's to be his disciple. So I lay my life down, deny myself, take up the cross, whatever it may be. In my life, it may be a difficult testimony, difficult experience, but also the cross that he's my Lord. I place my life under his lordship every day. Say, Lord, I want what you want, plain and simple. And follow him. I follow him by spending time with him in the morning. No Bible, no breakfast, no Bible, no bed. So face it, embrace it, and then replace it. Ask God to replace that sadness with joy. And you can never replace who was lost at all. If you lose things, those things can be replaced. But restoration is God's business, and he can restore like none other can. Psalm 30, I love. It says, um, help me, Lord. You've turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You've taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. Oh Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever. So he replaces garments of mourning and sadness with joy. Why? To give him praise and thanks forever. That's what heaven's gonna be like. So it may as well start now.

SPEAKER_05: 1:26:33

I always end the podcast by asking one last question. If you could sit on a park bench and have a conversation with someone living or deceased, who would it be and why?

SPEAKER_02: 1:26:49

Hard to narrow down to one person. If it's okay, all those three. So I'll end with the probably the one, but at least two others I would love to do that with. Uh one is uh Erica Kirk, Charlie Kirk's widow.

unknown: 1:27:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:27:09

Because here a great godly man was uh assassinated, and she's left with two children, and she's on the public stage and giving glory to God and doing great strides for the kingdom with her work. And I believe God is giving her the words to speak, and I I could just sense through her words at the memorial the same kind of spirit that I felt flowing through me after my family died, and I had to face death, and she had to face the body of her husband uh within moments or hours after he was shot. It's an awful thing to behold. I can't imagine what she has to do with forgiveness. And yet she forgave publicly. That is so beautiful. I mean, that's not just an element of our faith, that is the crux of Christianity. It's forgiveness. I am a sinner. Jesus died to forgive me. I must forgive one another. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. That little word, two-letter word as means to the extent that we forgive others. And she's embodied that and done that. So I'd love the opportunity to talk with her. Another one, totally different, is of all people, President Donald J. Trump. He's a very polarizing figure, and whether people like him or don't like him, you can't disagree that he's endured such amazing adversity. I mean, legally, personally, emotionally, electorally, I would argue spiritually, physically, I've been shot at. At least two attempted assassinations that we know of. And yet here he is almost 80 years old and still going strong. Incredible tenacity, incredible endurance and perseverance. Uh if anybody in the public eye has been tempered, he certainly epitomizes it. Um I understand one-on-one, he's a very funny person. It'd be fun just to sit down on a park bench and talk to him. And I I also understand that he doesn't drink alcohol. And neither do his children. And he uh the way they roll in their home was don't even start. That's pretty good. If you knew your propensity, that I might go down this slippery slope if I even just taste a little bit. It's like trying to eat one Dorito. Can't be done. You eat one, you want to have some more, right? And uh so you just don't even do it. And that's an admirable quality. Uh, to say, I have a weakness or I have a propensity for weakness, so I'm not even gonna start. And when you feel that maybe craving for something with the presence of God, with his word, with the spirit, you find out I just don't need that. So many people when they're at a rough road said, I need a drink. Now I need Jesus. And even after the flood, I knew that's what I needed. I need Jesus. I need him. Only he can satisfy, only he can heal and fill and restore. But uh after my family died, they're at the hospital in Emporio, Kansas. They had a little chapel. And I went to the chapel and I opened up the hymnal. Actually, I asked someone to get me a hymnal because I knew I needed a hymn in particular. And they got me one, and it had the hymn called It Is Well with My Soul. Written by Horatio Spafford.

SPEAKER_01: 1:31:04

His family where I passed away in the sea.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:06

Exactly right. Yeah. So he's the man I like to sit on a park bench and talk with. Because we have uh a few things in common. Yeah. Here he was a man of God. He was uh a businessman in Chicago and partnered with D.L. Moody of Moody Bible Institute, great godly man, who was doing some evangelization over in Europe, apparently. And they were gonna go, he and his wife and four daughters were gonna go on a ship across the Atlantic and be with him. And apparently he got caught up in some business affairs and was detained, and so he said to his wife, four daughters, you you go ahead of me and I'll meet you up there a little bit later. Well, their vessel was struck, apparently, and sank very quickly. And they sent a wire cable to him just from his wife, just said survived alone with your wife, something like that. Just about four words. So she was a sole survivor. And how his heart must have sunk, I can only imagine, right? But um, he took that journey across the Atlantic, and the captain of his ship said, We're approximately at the point where your family died, where your four children died, and the ship went down. And as the story goes, he was on the deck of the ship and wrote, penned those words when sorrow like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well with my soul. So powerful. In other words, no matter what happens, I'm still good. You've got me, Lord. I've got you. We're good. You're gonna carry me through. It is well with my soul. It's like that uh hymn over a thousand years old, be thou my vision. The very last line of it says, Whatever befall, be thou my vision, O ruler of all. In other words, no matter what happens, Lord, whatever befall, I'm gonna keep my eyes fixed on you. You're the author and the finisher, the pioneer, the perfecter of my faith, and you're ruler of all. So you're still on the throne. You're still sovereign over me, over my life, over this planet, over this earth, and so I trust you. I've got you, God, you've got me. We're good. Doesn't make sense all the time. Hurts a lot along the way, but I still trust you. Be thou my vision, O ruler of all. And that was King David's secret, too, I think. Psalm 16, verse 8. King David says, I will keep my eyes always on the Lord. Be thou my vision. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. If he's got me, I'm not gonna be shaken. I may have been inundated, but I'm not devastated.

SPEAKER_05: 1:34:02

Wow. How can people find you? You know, I've got uh you you brought you written many books. That's a whole nother topic, right? For um, you know, being an introvert, now you're spending your life sharing your story with with hundreds of thousands of people. Uh you've written many books. Kind of talk about the books a little bit and how how that got started. Sure.

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:32

Well, um nobody was knocking on my door asking for a book, really. And uh just the more I shared, afterwards people would say, Are you thinking of writing a book? I said, really. No one's no publishers approached me and no offers to that extent so far. And uh but I was journaling, I was writing. I had to give a detailed police report, and I guess that was the impetus for just typing and getting things out and any great specifist specificity and detail. But uh I just kept writing, kept writing. And that helped me to heal because it gets what's in here out to there. And uh I thought, well, maybe I should put this in book form. And I asked some people I knew, how do I go about this? I said, well, try to find yourself a co-writer. And so we wrote this book called Into the Deep, and the co-writer is Stan Finger, a great guy from Wichita, Kansas, who had interviewed me on the one-year anniversary of the Flash Flood. And he really got my heart and got the story and the message. And we just had a, we were like brothers, a kindred spirit. And so I someone just told me, When you write, just put your heart on paper. Plain and simple, just put your heart on paper. And so I wrote about 200,000 words, a whole heap. But that was a very healing process. That was a good thing. So Stan took it from 200,000, cut it in half to about 100,000. Because I thought, who's ever gonna want to read this? It's way too heavy, way too tearful. And then we sent it to four to six publishers, and four of them said, no, thank you. It's oftentimes difficult to for them to sell a tragedy book, as it were. But two of them said yes, and one was focused on the family. And uh Dr. Dobson, Dr. James Dobson had interviewed me about a half year or so after the flood at uh their studios in Colorado Springs. And that was a great honor. He's a great man of God. He just passed away not long ago. Went on to be with the Lord, so we miss him very much. But what a great legacy he's left. He was like America's dad. You know, he was like our dad. He taught family so much. But it just seemed like the right fit with focus on the family, with our emphasis on family and faith. And so that came out in 2007, and it has all the details of the flood and the aftermath and so forth. And then people just started asking me, Robert, what do you do to live this life of no regrets? That's where I wrote this book called Uh Seven Steps to No Regrets. Just kind of encapsulating seven key principles of living a life of no regrets with God and with one another. Getting this vertical relationship right to get these horizontal relationships right. So it's full of scriptures, full of stories of all that God has done. And then that book Rise Above came about. Again, people just started asking me. I'm a really slow reader, I mean an even slower writer. So each one of these is a big labor of love. You saw my nightstand, my nightstand right now is stacked high. I read about one or two pages and fall asleep. So it takes me a long time to get through reading the book, but writing a book is a big labor of love. And so several people have told me that book has been a life changer for them. One guy even said it helped save his life. He was going to commit suicide. It saved him. Thanks be to God. Even one life that's saved is worth it. And in this one, uh Pat's a test. So just how to endure the fire of affliction and emerge like gold. This logo looks similar to your be tempered. I love the idea. So it's we're formed in the valley. Growth takes place in the valley, in that crucible, truly. So full of over 300 scriptures of how to get through uh the test of life, because life is a test, and God can take your test and bring forth a great testimony. All depends how we respond. He doesn't want us to fail the test, like the Israelites in the desert, but to pass a test, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego through the fiery furnace, right? Like so many others. But uh that's I pray is helpful to people. And here's one that I wrote during the uh pandemic called Stay Pure, about how to get pure and in a stay pure, to live a no-regrets, regrets life of purity with God, with others, and with yourself. In this technological age, it's more and more difficult for people to stay pure. There's so much junk out there. As our pastor says, every cell phone is an open door to the pit of hell. And it can be. It's very true. It can be used for good, it can be used for a lot of evil. There's a lot of junk out there. So it's how to get pure and stay pure, not only of substances or addictions, but also pornography and illicit material. It's for all age ranges, because everybody needs it, whether young, old, married, single, clergy, laity, we all need this so that we can be a utensil in God's hand, He can use for His kingdom. And then my heart is for families. And I wrote one about especially for fathers, to father your family, to responsibly raise godly children with no regrets, to inflame our hearts to do that, because we live in an epidemic of fatherlessness. And if we can get the fathers right, then we have a chance to get the families right and our country right. As the family goes, so the world goes. Our family's under terrible assault and attack, as I'm sure both of you can attest to. So people people can find these at our website called MightyIntheland.com, MightyIntheLand.com, or on social media at the same uh tag, Mighty in the Land uh podcast as well and other things. So You do have a podcast? I do, yes, just uh audio so far. So far. Right. Awesome. YouTube channel, you name it. But I'd be honored to come and to share in person at uh anybody's church or gathering or function or community, any denomination across the spectrum, uh anywhere across the country. I'd be honored to come and share. I've even been to a few other countries as well and share it in different lands. So I try to go wherever we're invited without charging fees and come in complete faith.

SPEAKER_05: 1:40:55

It's amazing. It's a it's an amazing story. Um my emotions have been all over the place listening to this. It's it's it's powerful. You are a remarkable man to have the strength and faith that you do. And uh it's it's inspiring. It's inspiring to me. Uh and I don't know how it can't be inspiring to those who are listening. So thank you for your vulnerability because I think that is uh a very important thing that I've realized in the last year and a half of doing this podcast is by people being vulnerable, sharing their story, their test, and that testimony that comes from it, that's where we really help others. Right. You know, that that may not be facing what you have faced. But to hear that story and to think, holy cow, he got through it.

unknown: 1:41:50

Right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:41:50

I can get through it. That's right. And that's what's important. That's right. So thank you for for making the trek down here and for sharing this this story. Thank you for your faith. Uh you're an amazing man.

SPEAKER_02: 1:42:03

Well, we have an amazing God. We do. I deflect all the glory to him. Thank you, Ben and Dan, for thank you the opportunity. If it can help change or inspire one life, it's worth the time, the travel, the commitment to do this.

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:14

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 1:42:15

Always an honor to.

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:18

Anything else you got to add?

SPEAKER_01: 1:42:19

No, I just thank you so much. And hopefully people will see like no matter how dark the story, how matter, you know, no matter how much it it hurts and pains. Like that's that's your testimony. That's what God placed on you to share and changes lives. I just can't thank you enough.

SPEAKER_02: 1:42:34

Uh sure thing. You know, we each have a story. And I often try to encourage people to share your story. Yeah. That's important. God can bring great glory through your story. History is his story. He wants to be glorified through it. The book of Hebrews says we approach the throne of grace with boldness that we might receive mercy, a find grace to help us in our time of need. So for those who are in a point of need that are in a rough patch of life, go to God boldly. Get in his face, you know. Just be connected to him. And he'll give you that grace and mercy in your time of need.

SPEAKER_01: 1:43:14

It's what the Bible's full of, right? That's right. People falling and then they go to God and it's restored, and then there's the testimony, and there's a chapter. I mean, you talk about King David, and I mean, you know, you don't compare sins, but I mean, sending somebody out and I, you know, the wife. I mean, yeah. I mean, uh no matter how far you've fallen, God's not too far.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:36

That's right. I've heard said the saints are just the sinners who fall down and get back up. That's right. Don't give up.

SPEAKER_05: 1:43:43

Yeah. Well, everybody, share this thing. This is this is powerful. Somebody out there needs to hear this story. Get online. Mightyintheland.com. Yes. Support uh Robert, his mission, his books. Um I'm excited to to get into these and to read these and uh just to share them with my family. And uh, you know, just to continue to try to keep keep doing what we're trying to do is just to help that one person, just like you. So thank you again.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:15

You're welcome. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for this opportunity. God bless you both.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:19

Bless you. All right, everybody. Go out and be tempered.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44:23

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SPEAKER_03: 1:44:53

I want to share something that's become a big part of the B Tempered mission: Patreon. Now, if you've never used it before, Patreon is a platform where we can build community together. It's not just about supporting the podcast, it's about having a space where we can connect on a deeper level, encourage one another, and walk this journey of faith, resilience, and perseverance side by side. Here's how it works. You can join as a free member and get access to daily posts, behind-the-scenes updates, encouragement, and some things I don't always put out on other platforms. And if you feel called to support the mission financially, there are different levels where you can do that too. That support helps us keep producing the podcasts, creating gear, hosting events, and sharing stories that we believe can truly impact lives. And here's the cool part. Patreon has a free app you can download right on your phone. It works just like Facebook or Instagram, but it's built specifically for our community. You'll be able to scroll through posts, watch videos, listen to content, and interact with others who are on the same journey. At the end of the day, this isn't just about content, it's about connection. It's about building something together. Not just me and men putting out episodes, but a family of people committed to growing stronger through real stories and real faith. So whether you just want to hop on as a free member or you feel called to support in a bitter way, Patreon is the door into that community. Because at the heart of Be Tempered has always been simple real stories, raw truth, resilient faith, so that even one person out there that hears what they need to hear, and Patreon helps make that possible.