My New Life Ep. 3 w/ Jesus Hernandez

Join MOTFPDCST for a powerful episode as Jesus shares his profound testimony of survival, transformation, and faith. From navigating a perilous childhood in the housing projects to enduring a high-stakes military deployment in Afghanistan, Jesus has faced down incredible adversity. 

Now, he channels those lived experiences into ministry as a licensed minister with the United Pentecostal Church and a mentor for addiction counseling. 

Above all, his devotion to God, his wife Mel, and his three children serve as the foundational guiding stars of his life. ]

Be sure to share, like, and comment this powerful episdoe so everyone can hear it. Thanks. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

If you have noticed on the show page, there is a section where you can share your testimony, ask for prayer requests, anything like that. And also leave us a review. Please do so. Share the show. Tell your friends about it. And be on the lookout for more episodes of My New Life. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Middle of the Fire podcast. I am Steve, and across from the table for me, I have my very good friend Jesus. What's up, bro? Man, it's been a while since you've been on the show. It has been a while. So good to have you back. I love it. And guys, if you if you want to uh listen to Jesus' last episode, I believe it was um with you me in Dallas, wasn't it? Yes, it was. Dude, that's been forever ago. It's been a while. Yeah.

unknown 0:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

So go back and check that out. Look through the catalog. But uh today, Jesus is going to be sharing his story with us. We are continuing the series on my new life. And uh, so Jesus, I'm gonna it it's basically the format is three questions. Let's hear them. Where were you before you met God? Meaning, like what what was going on in your life? Gotcha. The the shenanigans you were into, all that good, all that good stuff. How did you meet God? And where are you now? And you just kind of fill in the gaps in between.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Gotcha. So I'm gonna need you to ask me these questions as I'm going through this thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

I will I will probably poke you as many times as as it takes.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

But I'm gonna go ahead and hand the reins over to you, and you go ahead and tell us about your new life, buddy. All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Well, everybody, like Steve had said, I'm Jesus Hernandez. Um, currently living here in Smithville, Tennessee. Beautiful, love it. Smithville. So just going back to where I came from, uh actually, I was born in Massachusetts. A lot of people don't know that. You did not know that. Yeah, so I was born in Massachusetts at a very young age. I had really bad asthma. So my family decided to uproot the whole family because of little old me and moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. Way to go. And I'm telling you, Wes, if you haven't been there, it's a good place to vacation to.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Not a not a bad transition, Massachusetts to West Palm Beach. Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Cold weather to having nice year-round weather. Beautiful. Beaches everywhere. And the hurricanes are just exciting. Uh, you know, it's a hit or miss. It's good family bonding time, that's for sure. For sure. If you if you need that time to spend with family, having having that time with in a hurricane with family, it you get close.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Did you ever cook spaghettios on like a little camp camp stove? Well, hurricane.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

We had a little gas stove. Oh, okay. So we're easy. Our gas never went out, so we were able to utilize that and everything. And you know, it all turned out really good. Like I said, we bonded one way or another. It was volunteer bonding, and sometimes it was forced. Because, you know, I mean, if the room the house is dark, there's only one room that usually had the fans, the lights, and everything you needed to survive. So we stuck in a room all together, all seven of us, both my mom and my dad. I had an older sibling, and I was the second oldest, and then I had three younger siblings. Uh, yeah, so we were all stuck on air mattresses, mattresses from our beds that we pulled all into the living room, and we stuck it out, hung out.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

And you're gonna like it.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

And you're gonna like it. That's the way that dad always put it. But, you know, living out there in uh West Palm Beach, Florida, I actually grew up in a city called Lake Worth, Florida. Very challenging place. You know, uh, it was the poverty level was very uh bad. You had a lot of people that migrated from, you know, Cuba, Mexico, uh, Haiti. Yeah, Haiti. And, you know, just Dominican Republic is right there as well. You know, you had people coming from all walks of life, sure, trying to find that better lifestyle than what they had growing up. Yeah. And, you know, it was challenging. It was challenging just growing up and uh going to school at times. Um it was difficult. Me and my siblings had to walk to school at least a mile. Okay. Mile a day, you know, kept our legs fresh and time. Exactly. Exactly. But it was it was great, you know. I looked back at it and I wouldn't have changed it. It kind of built who I am today.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Good.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

You know, it helps you build character, you know, getting forced into doing some of the things that you didn't want to do. And just along with that, just you know, the environment of trying to have a family that was trying to, you know, make it. You know, my mother was a daycare, she worked at a daycare probably until I was probably like 25, 26, and she finally retired out of that. But I remember as being a kid going to daycare with my mom, summer camps were at daycare and everything, got to a point that I was just like, this ain't for me anymore. Yeah. And I think I was probably around 13, 12, 13 years old, and I got into other things, got into the the drugs, the drinking, um, at a very young age.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

And now how did you how did you start that? Was that influences from friends or just something that you were just curiously drawn to?

SPEAKER_00 5:58

You know, I was just curious about it. Um you know, the environment that I was like I said, the environment that I grew up in, it was very, I mean, it was a poor environment. Not a lot of people had money like that. You didn't have people going to work or anything. People were struggling left struggling left and right. Yeah. So, you know, uh when people struggle, they get drawn to other people that struggle. That's true, and then you just do what you do. You barely just if you had nothing to if you had nothing else to do, you basically just went out and drank. You had a lot of these uh these Hispanic, this Hispanic culture. I'm Puerto Rican. Both my parents are Puerto Rican, just to let you guys know. But you know, the Hispanic culture is, you know, you're very drawn to family. Yeah. You're very heavy on partying and Hispanic heritage, background and everything. With family. With family, yeah. And then other, you know, obviously you get with other families and you just end up having a big old party. Block party. Block parties, it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

So that's it. That's big in Florida in that area, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 7:15

It really is. Like all the time. I mean, the weather's nice. Why not crack a cold one and just go out and chill out on the beach and everything. So that was the go-to thing. But, you know, like I said, you know, in that environment, you didn't really have much else to do. I didn't really get into playing football until I was probably in middle school. I was a I'm a really big athlete. I love I love sports. Yeah, you do. I really do love sports. And growing up, I found my my outage, my thing to get out of the environment that I was in was playing football.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Your escape.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Yeah, my little escape was take out that aggression, baby. Exactly. And uh, you know, doing doing drugs and drinking and all that kind of stuff, it kind of took uh a precedence in my life at that time when I was young. And then when I found that football, that escape outside of those other things, I was able to step into that. You know, I had a a football coach that actually spoke into my life when I was younger, and he kind of you know guided me into another direction. And, you know, it was it was a heavy thing at that point. He might not have felt like it was a life-changing moment, but for me it was. And the way that I looked at it is you know, he pulled me from the streets and put me in football cleats. Oh, okay. And once I landed on that football field, it's it feels like it felt like everything else just disappeared. All my problems, all the worries of life and everything were just gone. Yeah. Simplified things. Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, it kind of helped me gain a little bit more structure in my life. Okay. Because at that point I started focusing more on hey, I need to be a better athlete. Yeah. I need to improve my skill and everything that I was doing on the field, tackling, catching, running. If I got faster, I could do this. If I got stronger, I can move this person. Yeah. You know, and then that turned into instead of it being people, to being life decisions and everything. So once I ended up graduating from high school, I ended up meeting my beautiful wife. We just completed 14 years of marriage May 5th. I appreciate it. And um, you know, when we met each other, I don't know, from the very moment that I set eyes on her, I kind of felt like, you know, this might be it. I was gonna seal the deal. Same thing with me and Alyssa. Same thing. And I'm telling you, we were dating for probably three months. We were dating for three months. And we ended up getting married. Same thing with me and Alyssa. Um, and like I said, things had to change in my life. So, what better way for me to leave that environment that I was in to get a little bit more structure? I ended up joining the military and joined the signed my little contract for the U.S. Army. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

What do you guys say? Is it it's not hoorah, that's Marines. It's hoo-ah. Hooah, that's it. That's right. Yes, sir. But hoo is hard. That's right. But give us a big hoo-a. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Let's get it going. Rough terrain, baby. Yeah, I hope that didn't shed that uh that base in there didn't shake your windows. Let's go. But, you know, like I said, I needed that structure in my life. I need something different that my son can, you know, look up to because I knew at a young age, you know, I didn't want my kid to have that, you know, that feeling that, oh, it's my dad gonna make it back home tonight. I gotcha. And everything. And I remember like I'm I know I'm jumping back and forth and everything, but just stories just keep on going through my head as I'm speaking and everything. Um, you know, at a young age, I remember seeing my first like drive-by shooting. No way. I like I think I was like eight years old.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Oh my goodness. Yeah. And I was with her outside.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

We were outside. Me and my older brother were outside, and I remember me and him jumping into a bush together and just waiting, waiting to see if you know they were gonna come back, what was gonna happen. There was a a man that ended up getting shot not too far from like 20, 30 feet away from us. Wow. And he's laid out in the street, and me and my older brother just quiet as can be, laying in the bushes.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

And you could see him from the bushes.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

We can see him from the bushes laying down on the in just in the middle of the street. And I'm just like just as shocked as could be. Yeah. At a young age, and I and I look back and I'm just like, man, eight years old, you shouldn't have to have to witness something like that happen. That's but astonishing. But it's sad to to think back on it and just be like, you know, hey, this is just a way of life. Yeah. This is just, hey, you either make it or you don't. And you know, that's what I'm I'm grateful for my wife. My my wife actually grew up in the in the UPCI and everything. So she actually attended a uh Pentecostal church out there in West Palm Beach. Okay. And during the time that we were dating and everything, you know, just one regular Sunday, she was like, hey, you know, I'm going to church today. I'll I'll come and see you at later on and everything. And I was like, you know, I always thought that there was something bigger out there. Yeah. There was always something more.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Like more as in more more uh like a different way of community or like a higher power. There was a higher power out there. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

And I didn't know if I really believed at that time. I didn't know if, you know, he saw me, but I was like, you know what? Man, I gave everything else a shot in this life. You know what? I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna give him a shot and see what's up. So church was not something that you were familiar with now. Nothing to me. Okay. I never went to church, really wasn't then girl. I remember attending a church one time, and my parents were just attending it, uh-huh, and they ended up signing me up for like a it was like a camping trip over at the pastor's house. So I ended up going to it, and I brought my boys with me. And let's just say the youth pastor ended up approaching us and asking us a question. He was like, Hey, did you guys bring drugs here? And I look over at him, I'm just like, No, I didn't. Why are you asking that question? And sure enough, you know, we ended up leaving. Yeah. Just, you know, it wasn't the place that I wanted to be at at that point in time. Yeah, that's a little weird getting interrogated. Exactly. At a camping trip. Like immediately. Yeah. But, you know, I get it. You know, just where I was where I grew up at, it was a normal thing. Sure. It was a normal thing.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Now, did you look the part?

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Did you look like a I did. Yeah. I did play the part too. Okay. I did. So we didn't have anything on us. Or anything. That time. That time. It was in the car. In that mode. It was in the car. But we didn't bring it out onto just out of respect. You know, it's a pastor's house. So, you know, I was like, I don't want to bring anything into this. I still had respect for, you know, those that were pastors and everything. So, you know, I was like, I'm just gonna let that be. Let's just leave it in the car. We'll just go out here and make our parents proud. Yeah, sure. And everything. So at the moment, you know, we ended up just leaving, packing up our stuff. We left and we went and did drugs and drank and did our own camping trip. There you go. And everything. Our parents weren't pretty happy about it, but I don't know. I don't know. It is what it is, isn't it? At this point, I mean, we couldn't change none in the past, but I feel like it was a learning experience, you know what I mean? Yeah. So, you know, I ended up jumping into the that military life. And my wife was at the time, I think five, four or five months pregnant. So me going through basic training and everything, having letters of her going to these doctor visits, not knowing that I was gonna have a son and everything. And, you know, come to find out during graduation time was when they let me know information. Our commander came out and he was like, by the way, Hernandez, you're having a boy. And I just look over at him just like what a pretty uh confused face. Who told you? Like, who how are you getting information before me? But anyway, he let me know, he gave me a chance to, you know, call my wife, Melody, and you know, just you know, talk to her a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

And you had so well, let's back up a little bit. You guys, you guys started dating and then she invited you to church.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Or she told you she was going to church.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

She told me she was going to church. But you know, every guy that you know is following a girl, yeah, you know, I'm trying to I'm trying to win her over now. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Oh yeah, babe, I love church. Let's go. So let's go.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

I ended up making it. I ended up getting all dressed up, still had my earrings in my ears. I remember coming into the church and Did you have the the chain and everything? I don't I don't remember if I wore a chain at church that day and everything, but I came I remember walking in, introducing myself to her mom and everything, and you know, it seemed like everybody liked me at the time, you know. And but what was your first uh impression of a UPC church? Hey, they're live. Yeah, they sure did bring life to the party. I'm just saying. And it was uh it was very is it was different. It was different because some of like I said, my parents, my parents are both uh Jehovah's Witnesses right now. Okay. So, you know, my dad growing up and being a Jehovah's Witness, it was uh it was different, yeah. Very different. And you know, having the kind of worship that they had there, I was like, okay, I can I can vibe with this a little bit, you know. And uh yeah, so I remember Pastor Kyle getting up and preaching and everything, and it was uh at that moment it was kind of life-changing because as service ended and he opened up the altar for everybody to come up, you know, I was like, my wife went up, yeah, and I want to be the only one sitting in the seat. Yeah, so of course I'm gonna go up front too and say, hey, you know, what is all this about? So I had a couple people come up to me and talk to me, and you know, just hey, you know, God can forgive you for everything that you've done. You know, your sins are all they're washed away, you know, all you gotta do is get baptized. You could do this, you could do that. But I was like, there was a reason why he drawed me there. And like I tell my wife all the time, I was like, at the time that she had found me, she was struggling as well. She had she says that she's bac she backslid. Okay, but I look at it as more of a rescue mission. And you know, because you don't never leave a fallen soldier behind. Okay. And I always felt like I was meant for more in life. Okay. So when she backslid, what she says backslid, when she came back, when she had her rescue mission, when she had that mission that God had assigned her to, to come and save one of his soldiers, which was me, to come to see who he really is. You know, and from that moment, you know, I kind of just started changing a little bit of things in my life. You know, I started reading the Bible a little bit more, looking into what he's really doing. Did he he really sent somebody for me to save me, to help me, to help guide me through this new journey of life that I was going to be taking. And I knew for a fact that it's hard to say that you could do it on your own when you really can't. It's hard to, you know, do this life by yourself. It is, you know, but to have him send a companion like my wife, somebody that grew up in the church, knew what it was all about, and bring me to that as well, it was like a life-saving moment.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

It was that life-saving moment for me. And I'm forever grateful. And now to this day, I always tell myself, you know, I lived outside of the church for like 20 plus years. Now, any moment that I have, I'm devoting it to him. Yeah. And I'm gonna utilize that time to spread the word. Sure. Spread, spread the good word and just reach as many people as I can. Spread your testimony. That's it. And this is what we're doing. Here we go. And, you know, I'm forever grateful for you know, my past because my past wouldn't let me reach. If I didn't go through what I went through, I wouldn't be able to reach some of the people that I'm reaching. Of course. So, and I wouldn't be able to relate to them and everything. They'll just see me as, oh, you're just one of those church going people. You had it all.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

You're one of those holy rollers. Exactly. How could you possibly know what it's

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Like exactly. Yeah. So for me to be able to relate to them, I think opens up doors that you know some people may not have been able to walk through. Yeah. So, you know, and here I am doing what he's called me to do and everything. So we need to figure out this next question so I can roll into that.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Well, it uh it was how the next question was um, how did you find God? Yeah. So you had attended church with with Mel. Yeah. And you go up to the front, they're telling you about uh basically essentially about salvation.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

And did you jump right into it from there or was there some hesitation?

SPEAKER_00 22:46

There was a little bit of hesitation. Okay. You know, obviously this is.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

How long did it take you to kind of warm up to that?

SPEAKER_00 22:52

I'll tell you from me and Mel got together. This was we got married May 5th of 2012. And you know, I was in it, not fully devoted into it yet, but like I said, I was learning a little bit here and there, and it really took me about like two years. Oh wow. Took me about two years, because like I said, I we got married May 5th of 2012.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

I went to basic training May 15th of 2012. That's true. So my little honeymoon was was cut short.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

It was cut short. And then you've got AIT. And then I had basic AIT, learning my job in the military and everything, and then, you know, trying to still, you know, embark on that journey that God wanted me to be on.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

So were you at that time, you know, being separated from basically all of your um good influences? Yeah. Because let's just uh, you know, we can go ahead and admit it, military doesn't have a whole lot of good influences. You're right about that. You're right about that. It's like it's like uh it's like college with guns. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Yeah, it's just a big old frat party to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Yeah. So were you still trying to walk a good line, or was it more like I'm gonna have some fun? You know what?

SPEAKER_00 24:25

I tried to walk that good line, and you know, I struggled. We all do. I struggled a little bit. And but you know, I still found myself trying to go to services on Sundays and trying to get fed one way or another. Divine hours. Exactly. Trying to get fed one way or another and trying to be like, hey, you know what? I need to hear something. I need to feel that, you know, he's here with me throughout all this craziness that's going on.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Was that more uh I hadn't see I had never been to divine hours, that's what they call it is divine hours. Yeah. Church is divine hours. And so was it like uh was I had never been to divine hours. So was it kind of like uh non-denominational teaching?

SPEAKER_00 25:13

It was a it was a non-denominational teaching and everything. And you know, they just like I said, it was you either stayed back in the barracks and you cleaned, right, or you got information and you went to service. Right. And these basic these drill sergeants are like, you know what, we want to get as many of them out of here so that we don't have to deal with them. So they were kind of, you know, hey, you should go to service. You should go to service. And they had different denominations out there for people to choose from and everything. So, you know, there was options and stuff. So I ended up finding myself going to a non-denominational service and just, you know, getting fed one way or another, like I said. Sure. Getting something. Sure. And, you know, that's where I got to meet other guys and asking questions, talking to them and everything. And some of them were on track on what I was trying to learn.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

And some of them weren't. Some of them were just trying to get out of exactly cleaning the s the the squad back. Yeah, exactly. And you know, hey, I I felt I felt pretty good about it, you know. I felt good that we can I had those battle buddies is what we called them to go out there and you know, try to get try to learn something, trying to get better and everything. So we ended up going to service, coming back to the our bays, and still ended up cleaning and everything. So, but it was it was good. It was a good little learning and everything by you know chaplains in the military.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

So let's fast forward just a little bit. Yeah, what's up? So we go you you f you graduate basics, yeah, you go through AIT.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Um, how long was it before you shipped out? So when I ended up graduating, it was in August. Okay. It was late August when I graduated from Fort Leonardwood, Fort Lost in the Woods, Missouri. Ended up going to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Oh my goodness. You had basic in Missouri.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

I did in the summer.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

I'm talking about they had these nice little breeze waves, and they were like, yeah, there's a lot of wind coming through here. You know, you guys get you out of the heat a little bit. Dude, it felt like I was sitting behind uh a jet engine, and all the heat is getting blown directly into your face. I was like, Misery. This is it was misery.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

But a foreshadowing of where you were gonna be going.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Yeah, true. And then uh after graduation, we ended up moving to uh Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and that's where we ended up uh going to church under uh Pastor Daryl Williams at first church. And yeah, that's where we actually started a little, we actually started our little journey together, me and Melody. You know, helping out in the youth group there. They had a uh a hyphen group there. It was called CYP, College and Young Professionals. Ah, okay. It was pretty good. It was under uh Mandy and Caleb D. Hart. Caleb is now a pastor out in Virginia, I believe. Very good couple, loved them to death. But um, yeah, we ended up going over there and you know, just helping with youth, helping with the hyphen age kids, and that's where you know it all started. And, you know, I had a a lovely couple, uh, brother Rios and sister Rios, Jose and Mari Rios. They were actually our uh assistant pastors of a Spanish church out in in North Carolina right there in Fayetteville, so Vietnam. If anybody's hearing this from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Fayetteville area, and you need a Spanish church, hey, Jose and Mari Rios, that's where to go. Excellent. Over in First Church. But um, yeah, so we ended up helping out there and everything, getting involved, getting Bible studies, giving Bible studies, and you know, just really diving in. And, you know, hey, the military has ways of pulling you away and sending you to different places. They do have they have a reputation for that, yeah. And at the time, I was actually going to civil affairs, special forces kind of stuff and everything. And I was like, you know, I really like it here in North Carolina. Oh yeah. I want to stay. And then the Army heard that. And the Army heard what I was wanting to do. Yep. Hey, if you could if you feel any kind of joy in anything that you do in the military, they will definitely pull it away from you as quick as possible and send you to a place that makes you feel uncomfortable. But, you know, I after talking to a couple, you know, mentors and everything, eat on the military side and you know, my religious side, uh-huh. Uh talking to my pastor, talking to Brother Rios and everything. And I remember Brother Rios talking to me in the back of the church. He told me, he's like, I just want to let you know that God is never gonna fail you. If he's taking you somewhere, it's for a reason. Okay. And a mentor of mine in the military side told me, you know, where you're going in in Fort Leonardwood in Missouri isn't a bad gig. You should definitely go over and get your sapper tab while you're over there, and then you could come back and you're more than guaranteed to get, you know, selected when you go to selection. And I was like, man, the way that you put that made it sound pretty uh pretty good, pretty sweet. Yeah. So, you know, obviously leading leaning on both of those, you know, mentors in my life and everything, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna give it a shot. So we ended up going to Missouri and being a part of a support uh company that supported everything and anything that happened on Fort Leonardwood. So lots of inventory, lots of inventory, lots of uh moving lights for different kinds of chain of change of commands, all these kind of ceremonies that go on. We were a part of it. And you know, I got connected to a couple people there, and you know, still to this day we still talk to them and everything. And then, you know, we were like, well, we need to find a church. So we ended up getting connected to uh, it was called New Harvest in St. Robert, Missouri. I like that name. New Harvest. It was a it was a great little little small little church, 45 people and everything. Got with my uh got with the pastor there, and you know, we got to talking. We got really, really close. All right. And you know, obviously with a smaller church, it's easy to get close with your pastor and stuff, but you know, hey, it ended up working that he needed some help with with his um his marriage class, his marriage classes there. He did a substance abuse class there, he did a lot with um global missions there, he did quite a bit. Yeah, especially for a small church, exactly. And I was like, I'm pretty surprised on how he has his hands and a lot of these things, and you know, just me asking questions and me, you know, just watching what he does, I was like, man, this guy is a real people loving person. Yeah, and that's one thing that really connected me to him was that no matter what walk of life you were a part of, no matter what you've been through, he just embraced you as you how you came. He didn't try and change who you were, he tried to show you the better version of you. Nice and you know, just sitting under him and just grasping that and being like, you know what? I could see myself being a little being like that. And you know, he always told me he's like, hey, the only thing that you could do for people is just love them. There's not enough love that goes around this world and everything. So if I can be that that light for somebody, then so be it. So, you know, just little bits and pieces of things that he's instilled in me that I carry on and everything. So, you know, that's what I'm doing here in Tennessee. I work with a mental health office out in McMinnville. It's called Tennessee Mental Health and Consumer Association, and I go around Tennessee teaching all these mental health classes, and I use that quite a bit whenever I'm in class. Of course. I tell them all the time, I was like, I it doesn't matter where you where you came from, your background, what you got into, what you did. All I want you to know is that, you know, there's I love you, I appreciate you being here, and everything. It takes a lot for somebody to really grasp hold of this new life that you know we're trying to build. And it sucks that sometimes people feel like they have to do it alone.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Where I want you to know that you don't gotta do it alone. Yeah, you really can't do it alone. You can't. You can't.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

And get any sort of fulfillment out of it.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Absolutely. I've tried. Yeah, and we I've tried too. I've tried so many years and thought that you know what? I could do this on my own. Yeah. Far from the truth, man.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Yeah, I think that is uh a symptom that a uh especially a lot a lot of men uh have to deal with. Yeah. It's because, you know, we we try to we try to run things, we try to make things um, you know, we come in with ideas that, oh, I can make this better, or I can do this in a in a more efficient way or whatever. And we try to we just kind of try to take it all on, and uh it it's not too long where you realize that no, this is uh this is definitely a group effort.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Absolutely, absolutely. And I tell people all the time, I was like, I always refer back to the military. It's what I've done for a a couple, and by a couple I mean quite a bit. I do I was almost in the military for almost eight years and everything. So me growing up as a young man to who I am now, I really, you know, God and the military has instilled it into me. But I always tell people all the time, I'm like, in the military, when I went to Afghanistan for in 2013, I was there for nine months. Yeah. Not once did I go on a mission by myself. Yeah, not once was a mission planned by itself. You know, we there was groups of people that got together and talked about situations that can happen, scenarios that can happen, ways that we could get better and improve, that way we can all make it home safely. Yeah, but when we come back to the states, and this is on the civilian and military side, why is it that when we go through these situations of life, we tend to try and do it alone. We isolate ourselves, separate ourselves from the body, yeah, and think that, oh yeah, I'm I can make it by myself. It's not true at all. No, it's far from the truth, man. We need one another. Absolutely, we need one another to to grow, to get strong. When we're weak, we have our our friends, our pastors, our leaders, you know, those that we rely on to help guide us. Exactly. And everything.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

So iron sharpens iron. Absolutely. And if if you're out there fighting by yourself, you you're fighting with a dull weapon. You've got you got nothing.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

No support, no help, no strengthening to to pull off of other people.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

No iron sharpening iron. Nope. None of that. It gives you it just gives you so much more to to work with.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

And to to under and it's also just such a relief when it finally sits in that, you know, okay, I can't do this by myself and I'm not alone.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Absolutely. And like I said, you can't do it by yourself. We shouldn't. I mean, even in scripture it tells us not to do it. I mean, separating yourself, I mean, from the body itself, from God Himself, yeah, ain't gonna get you anywhere. You know, so if we continue to trust and rely in him, have the faith that, you know, some of the things that we get put through helps build us up to the calling that he's called us upon. So the things that he wants us to do and everything are a part of the calling, I believe, on what he wants us to do in life. So, you know, here I am, good old Smithville, Tennessee, from good old Florida, Missouri, North Carolina. This is it.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

And then you know it doesn't get any better from here. Hey, it gets sweeter. This is the culmination of your life right here, Smithville, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

You know, hey, I think, you know, future holds, you know, he's already written my story. He told he he knows what's gonna happen in the future. You know, hey, if if he calls me to go and go somewhere to do whatever he tells me to do, best believe I'm gonna do it. Yeah. Without hesitation. Obviously, you know, making sure that I'm in the right standing with my leadership here. Yeah, of course, and everything. But, you know, hey, whatever I could do to please him, it's what I'm gonna do. You know, my life has, like I said, it was rough growing up, it was difficult, but I believe that it was all because of him on why I'm still here, why, you know, I'm here in Tennessee, Smithville, Tennessee, doing you know what he's called calling me to. And I'm gonna continue to do it, like I said. Ain't nothing better than just continue trusting in him. Yeah. Knowing that he has the I may not see it at times, but there's a reason for everything that happens. Absolutely. There's always a reason for the season and stuff. So but you know, I appreciate you. I appreciate you too, man. I'm glad that you were allowed me to do this with you.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

I'm glad you agreed to it. Now, before I let you go, I gotta ask if there's um word a word that you could give to somebody right now who's maybe uh that that's in the faith, and maybe they're wanting to join the military, or they have a family member who is joining the military who is of like uh who is of the faith. What what what would you tell them before going in there? Trust in God.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

Um get comfortable with being uncomfortable. You know, there's reasons why things happen to us, like I said. There's reasons why things happen, but just trust that it's for a greater purpose. You know, I always tell I've learned this in the military was hunt the good stuff. You know, no matter what happens in life, there's always a positive that could come out of every negative. That's true. But just it takes a little bit of searching, yeah, but there's always something good. And don't think that you have to do it alone. Don't think that one bit that you have to pull yourself away and think that, hey, nobody's really g nobody really cares, nobody's gonna listen. There's always somebody there to listen. There's always somebody that cares. Right. And ultimately you are loved. Yes. And you know, hey, like I said in the beginning, trust God. Trust God.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

It's excellent direction. Well, Jesus, man, I appreciate you being here. Appreciate you, bro. Thank you for telling us your story. Absolutely. And with all that being said, thank you all for listening. May God richly bless you, and I will see you on the next episode.