Avodah Talk w/ Matt Walton
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Avodah Talk w/ Matt Walton
From Prison to Purpose: Jon Ponder’s Transformational Story
What does it take to transform your life when you feel all is lost? Join us as we delve into the heartwarming journey of Jon Ponder, a man who escaped the clutches of addiction and crime to find purpose and hope. Raised in challenging circumstances in New York, John grappled with the realities of a fatherless family and the harsh streets, leading him to a life of crime from a young age. After multiple incarcerations, it was in the darkest hours of his life that he would encounter a message of faith that would change everything.
Jon's story illustrates the immense power of redemption and divine intervention as he recounts his time in prison and the pivotal moment when he chose to embrace a new path. With prayer guiding him, he turned his life around and devoted himself to helping others who had walked similar paths. As the founder of Hope for Prisoners, Jon's mission focuses on preparing incarcerated individuals for life beyond the walls of the prison system. Through mentorship and community support, he actively works to ensure that transitioning back to life outside is empowering, holistic, and sustainable.
This episode is a testament to the transformative power of faith and the importance of second chances. Listeners will take away not only inspiration from Jon’s life but practical insights into how we can help others in their journeys. Explore how Jon has built paths of opportunity for formerly incarcerated individuals and learn how you can be part of this life-altering journey of hope and recovery. Let’s engage in meaningful conversations about redemption, community impact, and making a difference. Don't forget to subscribe, share your reviews, and engage with us to help spread the message of transformation!
Follow Jon Ponder here: https://www.instagram.com/jondponder/
Check out the incredible work he is doing at Hope for Prisoners! https://www.instagram.com/hopeforprisoners/
Website: https://hopeforprisoners.org/
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Thank you for choosing Avodah Talk w/ Matt Walton
What's up, guys? This is Matt with A Vota Talk, or the Real Matt Walton. This is your hub for all things Kingdom business business as ministry business strategy. My goal is to provide as much value, minute by minute, each podcast that you listen to. So let's get to it. What's up guys? This is Matt Walton with A Vota Talk, or the Real Matt Walton, depending on how you found me.
Speaker 1:And today I've got a very special guest which I'll introduce here in a moment. But, man, I, just God, is doing some incredible things and I would really want to encourage everybody with this man. I've been waking up early and exercising, really focused on dieting or my diet not so much dieting and really dialing in my sleep and dialing in the things that I am consuming, whether if we're talking food or content, and it's equating into me being more present with my daughter, me having more present time with my wife and some incredible times with the Lord, and so, man, it's awesome, feel incredible, and so just want to encourage everybody with that. And today I want to get into. We've got a really special story today of just redemption and the power of God's redemption, redemptive power, and John Ponder is who is visiting us today, man, so welcome.
Speaker 2:Matt, thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be here. Hey brother, thank you for being here.
Speaker 1:So we met at one of my guys. So most of you know I hire. Pretty much all of my guys are coming from prison and most of them are coming through a program called Hope for Prisoners, which John founded, and he's a CEO of it now and he's operating on a day-to-day basis, and so all of my or most of my guys are coming from there. I was actually at a fatherhood graduation that was affiliated with Hope for Prisoners and that was where me and John met. So I was getting a laptop from one of my guys while John walked up to my family and I think y'all gifted them a laptop at graduation. And then I come walking up and I had a kingdom-minded shirt on and the next thing, you know, john and I were out to breakfast and we've just stayed in touch ever since. And so, man, it's awesome to watch how you know in touch ever since. And so, man, it's awesome to watch how we have very similar hearts in regards to people that are incarcerated.
Speaker 1:I am a big believer on if we can impact those that are incarcerated. That's where we really can affect this world, because for some reason, we are wired if we know somebody's got a crazy past or some felonies. We respect that or look up to that, even before the radical change can happen in their life. And so I believe that when we pour into these guys, that we can affect families first, we affect the man first, the families second, and then that affects the neighborhoods and the cities and the states and our world, and so this is a world changer right here, man. So thanks again for coming on. So I really want to get into the early years and talk about kind of what happened in your early years, briefly, before you were incarcerated, where you met the Lord and then what it looked like kind of leading up to you being released. Right, okay, Well.
Speaker 2:Again, thank you so much for the opportunity. Let's talk about the early years, because I think that that is really important. You know, I grew up in the streets of New York, product of a single parent home. Dad left home at a very early age, leaving my mom to raise five knucklehead boys and one knucklehead girl all by herself, and growing up in that environment without the father in the home. My story is not much different from other stories in other urban communities.
Speaker 2:Without that father in the home, we turned to the streets at a very early age to kind of validate masculinity and for me, the streets led me to the drugs. Drugs led me to the gangs. Gangs led me to the criminal activity and that criminal activity led me to my very first set of handcuffs at the tender age of 12 years old and life just kind of spiraled out of control from there. I caught my first felony conviction at 16 years old, didn't learn my lesson in and out of jails and in prisons. I had became addicted to everything known to man at a very early age and I left New York back in 1989, and I moved out to Las Vegas, right and hoping that the grass was greener on the other side.
Speaker 2:But for me I tell everybody that I went from the frying pan smack dab into the middle of the fire and all those things that Las Vegas is famous for. That became a very big part of my life and I became a very big part of it Continued on that trajectory in and out of the Clark County Detention Center. You know criminal thinking, criminal behavior. I did two prison terms here in the state of Nevada, didn't learn my lesson and then I got stretched out in the maximum security United States federal penitentiary.
Speaker 1:OK, and that's where. Is that where you met the Lord? Was in there while you're fighting the case, or when did you meet the Lord and what was that? I don't know if this is a little bit before, but what was that prayer that you prayed? Oh, absolutely For God. Yeah, I know unmistakably the day that I met the Lord Right.
Speaker 2:No, unmistakably. The day that I met the Lord right, it was before I got sentenced in prison. I'm in the detention center and I'm upset. I'm withdrawing from a drug addiction and I'm facing the potential of spending the next 23 years of my life in prison. And I'm sick, I'm angry, I'm fighting everybody. They threw me into solitary confinement and in that moment I had the chance to look back over the last 37 years of my life. And not only did I never accomplish anything of great significance, but I'm playing these thoughts out of my mind that I left the path of destruction. You know, I destroyed the lives of people that I profess with my mouth that I love and I'll never forget.
Speaker 2:One day was a chaplain who came by my door and I'm upset. He opened up the tiny little food flap, looked through the door and said something like you know, hey, brother, jesus loves you. And I cursed him out and ran him away from my door. I wasn't trying to hear it, but before he left and closed the food flap, he dropped the Bible through the food flap and was set on the floor. I left it on the floor. I'm on a hunger strike. I'm facing. My life is over. I have the you know, the potential to spend practically the rest of my life in prison. And I left the Bible on the floor. Two weeks later, chapman comes back again and he opened up the food flap, said hey, jesus loves you, brother. And I cursed him out again and chased him away from the door. But before he left he dropped another book through the door. It was a daily devotional. I didn't even know what a daily devotional was back then. It was a daily devotional by Kenneth Copeland and the title of this book was the Pursuit of His Presence, and I left it on the floor. And then two, three weeks after that, out of complete boredom, I picked up the Daily Devotional. I opened it up to what date I thought it was, and I read the little story and something began to leap on the inside of me. And then at the top corner there was oh my gosh, it was this passage of scripture that was in there. And I reached out on the floor and I picked up the Bible and turned to that passage of scripture and I began to read the Bible. And as I began to read the Bible, man, I couldn't put it down. The next day I got up and I grabbed the daily devotional again and I went back to the Bible and I started reading the Bible. And then something began to the Bible and I started reading the Bible and then something began to crack wide open in me.
Speaker 2:But I have to tell you that back when we lived in New York, in an effort for my mom to get a break, she used to send us down to Mississippi, right to my grandmother's house. Her name was Medea and this was the real Medea, it wasn't this Tyler Perry and we used to get down to Mississippi and Medea had this incredible love for Jesus and we'd be going back and forth to church and I can remember the days of her sitting us in front of that dusty black piano and she's cracking open these hymn books and we're singing these songs Jazz, jesus Loves Me and Amazing Grace. What Medea was doing all those years ago is Medea was sowing seeds into us every summer, but at the end of the summer we'd be back on the Greyhound bus back up to New York and back into the streets. But it wasn't until that moment, when I cracked that Bible open, that all those seeds that Medea was sowing began to bring forth the harvest and I couldn't put my Bible down and I stood in that holding cell and I asked God to forgive me for all those things that I've done and unmistakably I know he did. But then I made the quality decision. I changed my life. I asked Jesus to come into my heart and be the Lord of my life.
Speaker 2:A month after that, it's time for me to go to court. And I'm at the federal courthouse down in Las Vegas Boulevard and I'm shackled by my hands and feet and I played let's make a deal with God. And what I said was God, listen, I know that. I know that. You know that you're real because you revealed yourself to me in that solitary confinement. And what I'm asking you to do is to go before me in this courtroom right, move the judge out of the way, judge James Mahan, who is my dear friend today. And what I asked God was to climb into the robe of Judge Mahan and I said God, you be my judge. And then I said to him whatever time I get, whether it's 10 years or 50 years, I said God, search the meditation of my heart. I am going to spend the rest of this life, into eternity, serving you. Let whatever time I get come from you and I stepped up in that courtroom and, unmistakably, I stepped up into the presence of God, right, you just felt the presence of God in this courtroom.
Speaker 2:And after I got finished saying what it was I was saying, judge Mahan said to me you know, mr Ponder, I've sat on this bench for X amount of years. I've never heard anybody say what it is you're going to say. Right, and I had not known at the time that Judge Mahan had a relationship with Jesus. And he said to me that listen, and I'm not. And he says I'm going to do this and I don't know why I'm doing it. But he said to me I'm not going to give you what you deserve. And it was in that moment that I know that my father heard my prayers because he sent his son that I might not get what I deserve. So he said, instead of me giving you this, I'm going to give you this. And oh my gosh, it's not the 50 years, 23 years. I thought it was going to be.
Speaker 2:My God showed up and then, as the US Marshals were escorting me back into the holding cell, I heard them behind me saying man, I don't know what happened in there and I said I know I did. My father showed up. So, as they put me back in the holding cell, took the shackles off my feet and my hands, I fell down on the floor and I'm thanking God and I'm saying, oh my goodness, god, thank you, and I'm weeping and I'm crying. I'm on this stainless steel floor and thank you, jesus. Thank you, jesus, thank you for showing up. And I felt God like the lips of God came right to my ear and he said to me my son, I honored what you asked me to do. He said never forget the promise that you made to me that I'm going to spend the rest of this life, into eternity, serving you. And I got up off that floor and Jesus took my life in a 180 degree turn and never looked back. Now I still got to go to a maximum security United States federal penitentiary because I have to pay my debt to society.
Speaker 2:But in my mind, in my heart and in my spirit, I did not walk into a United States federal penitentiary.
Speaker 2:I walked into a United States Bible college and I walked up in there and I went to school.
Speaker 2:I spent every waking moment of my time, number one, getting to know this God that I just surrendered my life to, and the more and more I began to understand who he is and the magnitude of what it was that he's done for me, the more and more I began to understand about me and who it is that he created me to be.
Speaker 2:And that's when I had come to the realization that I'm not the name that the streets gave me. I'm not the name that those girls thought I was. I'm not the name that the streets gave me. I'm not the name that those girls thought I was. I'm not the name that the gang thought I was. I am who my God says that I am, and I can do everything that my God says that I can do. And it was in that moment that he impregnated me with this vision of Hope for prisoners to be able to turn right back around and help the other men and women that were in bondage to the same things that I was in bondage with, and give me the opportunity to be his hands and his feet, to untie them from them things and help to escort them up to the next level of life.
Speaker 1:So then you still had to finish out the sentence right there You're basically in Bible college at this time, continuing to pursue after the Lord every single day. Yeah, and then you get released. Was that all of a sudden thing? Did you have a target date? Did you know how did that happen?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I had to finish out the rest of my sentence and I was released from federal prison May 9th of 2009. And that's when I began to hit the ground, running, you know, digging trenches in this community, trying to give birth to this thing that God gave me, and it was a challenge. You know, much like women giving birth, this is a struggle and pain. It's just that my labor lasted for the next two years and it was. It was when I when I tell you it was challenging, whereas every door that I was trying to open up listen, I come home. I'm fired for Jesus. I'm on fire for this vision, and every door that I tried to open up got slammed in my face. I couldn't raise any funding, nobody wanted to touch me because I had all these X's on my back. And here I am telling people I'm starting this reentry organization and I had nothing coming. But I share that and I'd like to encourage people this whenever God gives you a vision and you know that it's a vision and God said yes when the world around you is telling you no one's slamming doors, you got to always hold on to that yes that God gave you. Amen, speaking probation. There's probation in the feds.
Speaker 2:I got a job working full-time at a local company here in town that we partnered with and they hire people to this day, and this was an incredible family that had given me the opportunity that when I started putting Hope for Prisons together and I have to take meetings, they would give me the flexibility to come in a little bit late or have an extra long lunch and I'm having meetings and put it together. And I worked for this company for about a year and a half and I'll never forget the day I'm in the office and I'm working and I hear clearly from God you know, get up and give you a two weeks notice. I'm like, wait, what you know? Here I am sitting here saying you know, I just got married, I have a new wife, I got a family to support, and here it is God telling me to get up and give them my two weeks notice. I'm like, oh my goodness. And when I heard it again, I said, okay, I'm going to do this, but first I had to call my wife and I had to say honey, listen, this is what, right, right. I got to get her to confirm it. And when I shared that with my wife, my wife said hey, listen, I heard the same thing two weeks ago but I did not want to tell you because I don't want you to think it was coming from me. She said I was waiting for you to hear it from the Lord. But I'm good with it, because I heard the same thing and I get up that's the scariest thing I ever did and went in this office and gave my two weeks notice and then I leaped full fledged into Hope for Prisoners and started, you know, putting everything together, okay, completely stepping out in faith. Right, and not that I had the money to do it, because I didn't, I just got married. We're practically broke, living paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 2:But I think that when God wants you to step out in faith in something, if you're going to have true faith in him, you don't make the decision based off of what it is you have in the bank account. You don't make it based off of what you can see. Because you step out in to what God is calling you to do based on what you have in there, then you have faith in that. That true faith is stepping out to the edge of a cliff and looking down at the bottom and you can't see the bottom. You're staring into the abyss and when you do a Peter Pan off that cliff, blindfolded, can't see the bottom, and as you're jumping off the cliff, you just close your eyes and say God, I'm doing what it is that you have asked me to do. I need you to show up right now, because if you don't show up right now, it's over. That's the true faith. I think that that's the faith that God wants us to be able to move in.
Speaker 2:So it's nothing that John Ponder did. It's not anything that I saved up in this bank account. I know that. I know that. I know God gave me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so did you have at this time? Did you have mentors? Did you have people that were coming alongside you, that were helping you formulate business plans? How did that look? Or were you simply going off the vision, making relationships, networking, but prior to me getting out, god was revealing to me, even in biblical principles, right?
Speaker 2:that I needed to surround myself with people that were getting the results that I wanted to get out of life. I hit the ground and I sought those people out Even before I took my wife's hand in marriage. Right, I sought out people that were married, that getting results, that I wanted to get a life. And I sought out those people in the church. This person was married 40 years. This person married 25, 18. And I slid up underneath them and I walked with them for a period of time as they allowed me to come into their life and I had to learn from them Because, to be transparent, I didn't know how to love my wife.
Speaker 2:Every relationship that I had been into up to that moment, either two things happened it ended in destruction or ended in divorce. So what would happen if I would have taken my wife's end in marriage? The only reference point that I have up in here is destruction and divorce. So I had to put things on timeout and slide up into the lives of people so they can show me how men ought to love their wife, so they could show me how to have conflict but bring resolution, until I learned well from them. That's when I said to my wife time in, let's go do this. But it was important to keep those people there to help me to navigate those different choices. So what I had to do when I was putting together Hope for Business, I had to take that mechanism that I learned and then drop that into every compartment of my life, every compartment of the ministry.
Speaker 2:I have a phenomenal board of directors, right that you know they're my go-to people. You know Hope for Prison's got all this national attention and all this success and everything like that. I do nothing without going to my go-to people and saying, hey, listen, what do you think right? And I take their advice. Now, sometimes, even in my marriage mentors, just like in the ministry mentors when I go to those people, sometimes they don't tell me what I want to hear, right, but they always tell me the truth. But I always do what it is that they tell me to do Right Because you know you surround yourself with people that are getting those results that you want to get out of life. My personal life, the ministry itself and other compartments of my life would not be what it is today had I not had my I still have my go to people to be able to tell me what it is that that you know to do.
Speaker 1:I want to park there real quick, because just some of the things that I take is the obedience, and the obedience comes from like pursuing the Lord, and one of the things that happened whenever I came out here was I started to go to the mountains and just get along with the Lord. Early in the mornings or late in the afternoons I'll go up there and just pursue the Lord. That was when God gave me the vision which ultimately landed you and I having a relationship Absolutely. And so you know it's that. It's understanding that I don't have all the answers. I don't want to be the smartest guy in the room, I want to be the dumb guy in the room, I want to be surrounded by people that have been there, done that, and that's one of the.
Speaker 1:That's one thing that it takes somebody with arrogance or with ego or pride. It's nearly impossible for us to progress in life whenever we can't get through and can't get over our flesh, and impossible for us to progress in life whenever we can't get through and can't get over our flesh, and that manifests itself with ego and pride. But when we actually lay that down at the foot of the cross and whenever we say, okay, god, it's not my will, but it's your will. Show me who you want me to be around, what you want me to say, give me questions to ask and give me the heart to hear what it is that they have to say. Oh, absolutely, and trusting that God's going to speak through other people. Yeah, not just speaking to you, that's right.
Speaker 1:That was a struggle for mine. Yeah, like, for some reason, I had it in my mind that God was only speaking to me about my vision that God had given me. Yes, and I could not be further from the truth. That's right. And so I want to park there in the sense of what did? Did your relationship like your relationship with God? How did that look? You were pursuing God, like what did that look like? Now, I'm not talking about church and all of that I'm talking about those, those quiet times, right, those, those times along the road, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I I say that, usp, allenwood, in the hills of Pennsylvania, right, was, was, was my, was my, my, my learning time, that was my time with the Lord, where I spent every waking moment of my time and God was training me. I was being trained to get down on my knees every morning and surrender my to the Lord. I was trained to still myself in the busyness of what's happening in a tough prison, to still myself to be able to always, always, hear from the Lord. God taught me in that time that he is always speaking. It's just sometimes it's us that we're not listening.
Speaker 2:You know my dear friend Scott Harold, who used to be with SOS Radio. Right, it was 90.5 on the radio station and it's set on 90.5 all times. And in my house, in my car, and I'm listening to my friend Scott Harreld in the morning. And if one morning I got in the car and my daughters, as I'm taking to school, turned it not off 90.5, but they turned it to 90.6. And I get in the car and I can still hear Scott Harreld speaking it might be a little fuzzy, right, because it's not dialed in. And if one day I get in the car they turn to the 98.8, right, I still might be able to hear him, but it's not so clear because I'm not dialed in. And if one day they get in and turn it to 89.3, I can't hear my friend Scott Harrell because I'm not dialed in.
Speaker 2:Well, the kingdom, and just because I can't hear him, that doesn't mean he's not talking. The kingdom of God works the same way. God is always talking, but it's up to us to make sure that we are completely dialed in. So I learned in prison how to shut the noise off from the world around me and just stay dialed in to God, because he is always talking and I always want to be in a place where I'm going to hear from him. I don't even want to take a step. I take a step in anything, matt, on my own, I'm going to crash.
Speaker 2:Does that make sense? Oh, percent. So I too escape up to Red Rock Canyon and climb up on the backside of the Spring Mountain Preserves. Man, I put my earplugs in and there's a little ledge there. I sit there, look over that Spring Mountains Reserve, crack my Bible open and I have this alone time with my Lord. See, that's what it is that God calls us to do, because when you look throughout the Bible, before Jesus started doing miracles, the Bible said that he disappeared and went into the mountains and prayed, and then he came home. And when he came down, this is when he said hey, lazarus, come out. Right, blind man, get up. When he called Lazarus out of the tombs, jesus didn't go like this Lazarus come out. He knew what it was, because he says that I always hear from my father.
Speaker 1:I know, for me, when I'm not hearing from the Lord, it's because I have sin in my life, and that is the thing, the very thing that I'm still hearing from the Lord. Hey, matt, I need you to stop this. I need you to stop this. No, no, no, no. But come on. We're doing so many good things over here, we're doing this, I mean everything's kingdom.
Speaker 1:You got a sin in your life, matt. You need to stop. You need to stop. And when we rid ourselves of that by being covered with the stage of repentance, and then it opens up the floodgates. This is like a personal story in my life. Whenever God just starts speaking and speaking and showing me visions of what's coming next and it says in John that the Holy Spirit will go before you, it will tell you what is coming next, and so it's being dialed into that. How can we be dialed into that? And it starts with obedience of ridding ourselves of our flesh and the sin. That that's incredible. So now I want to go to the kind of those beginning years of when Hope for Prisoners started. I would imagine there was a lot of difficult times, maybe making payroll, maybe getting some money. How did that look? What was the tipping point there? And then we'll get to the other side of that.
Speaker 2:Matt tell you a great story in that I remember I quit a thousand times. I quit a thousand times and questions like God, was this you or was this me that was doing this? I'll never forget the time I quit. I remember I'm in my office and we're expecting this money to come in and I got some. I don't even have people on the payroll this time. I got volunteers in the office and I was supposed to get this email on Monday. It didn't come and I'm starting to get discouraged, waiting for it all day. Tuesday it didn't come. Wednesday, it didn't come. Now. Thursday I told the volunteers that you know, don't even come in today, Right, and I stayed in the office by myself and I'm praying. And Friday I get the email and it said the money ain't coming. And in that moment, man, I quit, I'm not doing this.
Speaker 2:I stopped playing these conversations off in my head. That number one what am I going to say to my wife? Right? And number two what am I going to say to the people that I'm accountable to? That's holding me accountable, right? So I get up and I start walking over to the door and I went to shut the light off to go. And I hear clearly from the Lord to sit down. And I sit down on the couch and then God hit me with this. Remember when. Then God hit me with this, remember when.
Speaker 2:And he took me back to a time when I first got out of prison, in my very first meeting with Metro, inside the Clark County Detention Center. There was a chaplain there that I knew. Her name was Bonnie Polly, who worked in CCDC, and I knew Bonnie Polly from all the times I'm in and out, but they invited me in to build something out for them, a reentry portion of it. I was like, yeah, I'm all in. And then she asked me you know, can you, you want to go upstairs and let me show you where you're going to be working? I was like, oh sure, and they take me over and they give me a little escort badge up in here.
Speaker 2:I clip this thing on and I start walking over this elevator and the elevator that was using to go upstairs. I was like, oh my gosh, I've been in this elevator 67 times, but every time I walk in this elevator you have to face the wall. But this time I'm looking at the door and I hear God say to me do you see how. I turned you around and as the elevator's going up and Bonnie Polly and a couple of programs off, they're talking, the higher this thing goes up. I can't hear anything they're saying, I'm just watching their lips move. And we get up to the floor that we're going to go to, right, and I step out and I look down the hall and I was like, oh my gosh, I see a line of inmates walking, being escorted by the officers to go where they're going, and I walk right past them and, matt, I get into the sally port of the unit that we're going and they're standing there having a conversation with me and I can't hear nothing they're saying. But it's in that sally port.
Speaker 2:You have the ability to see what's happening in all the units, right? So as I'm standing there now listen, I'm watching people do jail. I'm watching to see people sitting over there drinking coffee. I see people under the pill line, people waiting for the telephone. I see guys leaning up against the door having a conversation with somebody as they're sipping that little cup of coffee. And I heard God say to me do you see what I set you free from? And I'm like my gosh. And then he said to me that there are people that are in there that are just like the prodigal son and I love them and I want them. Then he said to me that there are people in there that don't even know my name. He says I love them too. And he said John Ponder, I chose you, go in there, untie them and bring them to me.
Speaker 2:And he said I know it's a tough time right now it says that no good soldier engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life. That he might please him. Who enlisted him as a soldier? So, sitting in that office where I quit that day, and God said to me that you're in the middle of this war, if you walk off the battlefield right now, you're going to be absent without leave. And he said, since I'm the only one who ordered you in, only one can order you out. And I got up off that couch, matt, and I never quit again, understanding that, understanding that as people get into the ministry with you, that there comes a time that they're not even on the battlefield with you, no more. They were only there for a season, but until I hear clearly from God, it's time to tap out. Man, I got to stay hard in the paint to please him. Who enlisted me as a soldier in this army of the Lord?
Speaker 1:And I'm reminded I was reading Psalm 51 and I was reading in the NASB and it has his loving kindness, it combines those two words, yes, and it's, it symbolizes in the Hebrew it's I think it's called Shishesh or something like that in the Hebrew but it's his, it's his covenant loyalty, right, right. And there's times whenever we we think about it in our worldly minds and we forget about the supernatural power of this book and the words that he has given to us, and it's so easy for us to look and for us to give up and just say you know what? Yeah, I don't see it happening. But he says that he's the alpha and the omega, he knows our beginning and he knows our end. So why not trust him? He's sovereign and good to bring to fruition.
Speaker 1:And we see this happen with Joseph, I mean, it took 13 years. It happened with Daniel, with David, I mean, there was incredible visions and promises that were given to them. Absolutely, it took a lot of time. Yep, and man, that's just speaking to my soul. Yeah, for the sake of time, man. I want to go to two more things. I want to go to kind of after that, in the vision of where things are at right now, what's being worked on right now, and then if there's something that is coming that y'all are working on, absolutely, and then maybe mix in there, if you can, maybe a supernatural something this whole thing has been supernatural, right, but something along those lines and then we'll start to, we'll get to the end of it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're in an incredible spot right now. One of the things that we're really proud of is we, because we've learned that. We know that that reentry starts day one right, and a lot of times in prison systems where they're failing miserably, they come up with these pre-release programs and it starts 90 days before the person gets out. Right, it's too late If that person is laid down in prison for 10, 15 years and done absolutely nothing to prepare himself for them get for him to get out and all of a sudden, 60, 90 days you're going to put him through some pre-release program. It's not going to work right. So we start working. We built the program out at Southern Desert Correctional Center where Governor Joe Lombardo had given us the opportunity. We have our own unit out there, so we have 120 men inside a unit where we have a chance to work with them up to 18 months before they get released. And we go in and we do leadership development, substance abuse counselor, marriage, family therapy, addressing trauma 101, bible studies. We stream church in there and just being able to connect with them, to have them address all the issues surrounding the circumstances that led to their incarceration and help them to arm themselves against those things never happening again so they can get back to the business of life. The thing that we're really proud of is that at the six month from release mark right, we have them 18 months, but six months to the gate we get them enrolled in our vocational village, matt, where we stood up in HVAC, electrical welding, plumbing, masonry, warehouse logistics and we dropped the commercial driver's license school in the prison and that gives us the ability to number one first get their mind right and then, from the training, get those certifications so that we can tie that directly with employment where they're going to earn a sustainable wage, where they can take care of themselves and be able to take care of their family. But when they walk out the back door they're not just out in the community by themselves.
Speaker 2:Now they get dropped into the 18-month post-release that God has built up and we've been running for 14 years. We're truly, truly excited about that. We know that it was some supernatural things that made that happen because you know, anytime you're dealing with corrections, it's this custody thing and this safety and security thing. But you know we're very grateful that they thought outside the box and enabled us to be able to build that up. So that was phase one. Phase two that we're working on, we're going to build out a diesel and auto mechanic school right there at that facility and then simultaneously, god is calling me up to Northern Nevada to build another one up in Northern Nevada. We're going to be up there at the end of the second quarter of this year doing some exploratory things.
Speaker 2:But we know that the minute that we break around on it, god does things at an accelerated rate. Because how many times in the Bible does it say that there was a suddenly Right? Because I just feel the suddenly coming. And once we get that done, matt, we're going to pluck that up out. It's a statewide model now and that's when we're going to pluck that up out of that model, up out of Nevada, and begin to drop that in jurisdictions all across the country. Dallas-fort Worth is probably next. You know, I know that God is calling us there. It's opportunity, there's people there, there are funders that want to fund it and I will not move until I hear from God so we can make the perfect time. Because you move before you hear from God, you run the potential of creating an Ishmael and we don't want to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, okay. Well, I know we're up on time, but before we go I just want to honor you because this was when I came out here. It paves the way for me to do what I do and because of what God is doing in your life and through the ministry and all the people that serve and that work with you and work for you, it's most of my guys are coming through Ponder's program and so and now that we're talking about going into other states, as I buy businesses in other states come on this ecosystem we're going to be following. But it's because of that that we have the ability to bring these guys in and to continue and compliment the mentoring and discipleship that they're already doing and give these guys and eventually women and discipleship that they're already doing and give these guys and eventually women. Like I cannot wait till this grows and we have nonprofits and we're able to start bringing in women to the mix as well.
Speaker 1:But this is the whole reason why we have the ability to pull them from prison.
Speaker 1:Like, while they are in prison, like most of my guys are going to take public transportation I get goosebumps Public transportation back to prison today at 2.30, 3 o'clock value, and it's just one of the most incredible things I want to encourage everybody out there to really, if you don't have a program like this available in your state, but you are able to bring people, maybe from other programs or off of the streets, to start to explore hiring people based on their values instead of based on their skillset, and grow them like do on the job training.
Speaker 1:That is the way that we can really get to those people that nobody else is going to get to because it's too much work, absolutely, and I welcome that and I know you welcome that a little bit like bring it on, like I'm willing to do that out of obedience to God, for glory to God, because I know his word and I know God is sovereign. So, man, I thank you for that. And these men I know I told them this morning you were coming. They were so excited, yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm just honored that you would come on and do that.
Speaker 2:And so, man, thank you for what it is that you do with these men and mentoring them and so forth and so on.
Speaker 2:And you know, because the thing that I've learned and I speak from my own personal experience is that the vast majority of people from this segment of the population they want to change, they want to do better. They have no idea how to do it. So when we come alongside them and provide them with the tools to not only be able to get a good job and maintain that job and grow in that job, but when we lay down the foundation and that's what it is that you're doing here, helping to lay down the foundation to where they can build up this brand new life, and we blow wind underneath their wings, release them into their destiny, and by doing that watch this we have the ability to reach down and touch the next generation of the family. That's the level of impact, because children are going to grow up and they're going to do what they see mom and dad doing. So when we help them to make the decision to improve the caliber of how they're going to live the rest of their life, we got little eyes watching them.
Speaker 1:Come on, amen, if you don't mind. I would like to, if you don't mind, praying for everybody that's listening share a 30 second story. Two of my guys that were coming from your program Surrender to Life to the Lord. We were on the clock. We were a part of the last one with Taylor, and that's so special because I know you've known him for a long time.
Speaker 1:But I believe that we're going to start seeing just this wave of salvations happen in the marketplace and I believe that God is calling those that are listening to step up to the plate. And I know there's a vision one time that was given of this warehouse that was full of these crowns of people that did not answer the call. And so just some encouragement there to listen, seek the Lord and answer that call and just move out of obedience and know that you're gonna run into a lot of uncertain times You're gonna struggle with how are we gonna do this? But seek the Lord, analyze everything and then act on it and just be obedient to God. So, man, if you don't mind, man.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, father. We just come before you this morning in the name of Jesus, god. We first and foremost want to thank you for waking us up this morning with you in our mind, god, and you in our heart, giving us another breath of life to live for you, father. We want to thank you, lord, god, for the positions that you have placed us in, both Matt and I, god, and the great privilege that we have to love one, to serve, to help to grow the people that you have entrusted us with. God, father, I want to pray for Matt's endeavors and his visions. Lord, god, we pray that you just open up heavens, god, over the visions that you have given him. Lord, god, I pray for a double portion of your anointing to be on his flesh, god, and let that anointing on his flesh be you on his flesh, enabling his flesh to do the things that are possible for his flesh to do.
Speaker 2:God, we want to pray for the people that might be listening right now. If there was something that has leaped up into your spirit, we just ask you to take that to the Lord in prayer. And, God, we ask you to continue to breathe on them. Breathe on businesses, god. Let the businesses thrive here in 2020. As those businesses begin to thrive, you open up doors to be able to serve more people. Bring people in from this segment of the population, god, and help those businesses make decisions to be able to grow them. God, we just love you, we worship you. God, pray this prayer in the matchless name of your son, jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we said amen, amen, all right, All right, brother, oh yeah, absolutely. God bless you, brother. Bless you as well, man.