A Journey of Resilience and Redemption with David Mike!

🎙️ In this powerful episode, we sit down with David Mike, author of Dishonor: One Soldier's Journey from Desertion to Redemption. David shares his incredible story of resilience, redemption, and faith. From a military upbringing to incarceration in Fort Leavenworth, and ultimately finding his identity in Christ, his journey is nothing short of inspiring.

We discuss identity, forgiveness, and the role of faith in overcoming life’s most challenging moments. David also opens up about his battle with cancer, family loss, and the power of community and relationships in helping him rebuild his life. Along the way, he offers insight into his ministry, teaching career, and the impact of sharing his story to inspire others in similar circumstances.

Stay tuned until the end to learn how you can get a copy of David's book for free and support his mission of spreading hope and redemption.

📌 Key Topics:
✅ Spiritual awakening and finding forgiveness
✅ Military life, desertion, and incarceration
✅ The power of identity and God's grace
✅ Rebuilding life after prison
✅ Overcoming cancer and family struggles
✅ Ministry, mentorship, and giving back
✅ Navigating Veterans Day and personal identity
✅ Reflections on reintegration and community impact

This episode is a testament to the idea that your past does not define you and that redemption is always possible. Don’t miss it!

Transcript

Started reading more into the Bible and started to see that theme over and over again. it's almost like somebody went in and rewrote the whole Bible just to show me that God cared for me and didn't care about what he had done in the past. And it was pretty cool. from that point on, I had left a little bit more of a spiritual reasoning. So now we just finished recording with David Mike and his book. I already got a copy, he gave you a copy and signed it for you, but, his book dishonor and kind of his story of joining the military from military background to, going to jail, being 11 worked for three years and did almost twice as long in jail as he did in the military. Just kind of his redemption story, you know, finding God or he always knew God, or knew of God, but he didn't know God. Story after that, know, come out this story with cancer and not only his story with cancer, but yet three family members at the same time going through cancer and his mom passing away and all that stuff. So it's kind of a very event filled life.

You just kind of that walk and how God has led him through that. So well, you didn't know his story. He hadn't read the book before. So it was kind of, how was that for you? No, that was phenomenal. I think this is probably one of our best podcasts yet. And just being able to hear his story and hear how much he gives it all back to Christ. know, you we talked a lot about identity, which we talked about on multiple other podcasts, but him talking about how important that identity is to him now. And, you know, looking at the book and what he identifies as is, know, Christian first father, husband, you know, that, I just think it was such a good conversation. It's cool to hear, you know, perspective as someone who lived this life that almost is outcast from society typically and see him reintegrate and thrive and really create this ministry and impact so many people. It's incredible. Yeah. I think his story, let you know that. One successful thing or one failure doesn't define you you screwed up pretty good. You got since the five years in Leavenworth. mean, they don't just hand those out for no reason. So, um, it's, uh, but here he is, know, father five and husband and, all that stuff and active member in society teaching young kid, you know, John, 18, 19, 20 year olds, you know, give them a trade and all that stuff. it's.

Don't let one thing define you. guess that's absolutely one of big takeaways. Yeah, absolutely. And he talks, you know, a lot about drug addiction issues and you know, the personal where he was at internally going through all this process and the things that he did to get through it. And I think one of the most impactful things was not even what was within his control, but his, his parents and how they still, you know, were there for him and stuff and how, important it is to have those people or be those people for someone else. And so I am very grateful for this conversation. think it turned out terrific. Cool. Well, I think on that note, we just sent people in and let them enjoy. Absolutely. And I advise everyone to stay to the end, listen to how to get a hold of him because he does give these books away for free. So listen to the end and find out how to get one for free. On that we'll see you into that. So with David Mike, welcome, David, appreciate you showing up and, coming here with us and kind of wants a dive into your story. got a different story than, lot of people that we've talked to. you have a military background. However, show the name of your book, your book dishonor. You, didn't have a, a great military experience. from there ended up in Leavenworth for a number years and you've already the second part of your name. book is dishonor one soldier's journey from desertion to redemption. And so kind of your story from Leavenworth being redeemed out of that. You walked with Christ after that and kind of where you're at today. So, uh, I don't want to too much of your story, but, uh, kind of he starts off. I know you were a military bread and kind of general upbringing there and kind of go from there. Okay.

So I do appreciate you guys. Let me share my story with your your I appreciate you sharing story not only to us but also in the book. Yeah So I grew up as a military kid my Dallas career Air Force and drove around the world for years and so when I was in high school I took ROTC and wanted to like do the military thing so I prepped up for that and was super gung-ho to join the service and he was also music director and so grew up in the church and kind of had a faith background. But you know, think all of us when we were young, we don't really understand what they're saying half the time. But in my experience, I was spiritually deaf and just kind of went because I knew I was supposed to and it was the life that we lived. So I did that. And then once I joined the military, kind of got off on my own and I was dating somebody and went south and...

I got real depressed, real sad, and some of my friends took me out to a club one night, like, hey, let's go and hang out and forget about your depression and sadness. And next thing you know, I'm taking a pill and my whole life changed. Somebody gave me a hit at ecstasy and I after that, I just couldn't get enough of it. So I just started taking it. I think just numb the pain of life and escape the feelings that I was having. And once I started taking it, my friends... saw me getting it pretty quickly and they're like, let me just give you some money. You can go get it for me. I'm like, yeah, no problem. So I was on after duty at the time. So I would take the money. I go to the dealer and get it. And next thing you know, I'm dealing it. And then I'm taking trips to Houston, Texas from Fort Worth, Louisiana, and bring a big shipment of it. It just kind of snowballed from there. So you're driving three hours roughly to go get drugs, shipments of drugs, not like you were mule-ing it and bringing it back to the base area.