Ep 6: The Passing of Ozzy Osbourne and the power of prayer

Pat and Richard discuss the passing of Ozzy Osbourne and Richard shares his experience with a UK based faith based recovery organization. 

Transcript

Pat: 0:21

Good morning, rich. How you doing, buddy?

Rich: 0:25

Good morning, pat. I'm all right. Good afternoon, pat. Yeah. yeah, it's little bit later in the day here, but yeah, I'm doing all right, mate. How about you?

Pat: 0:33

Uh, I'm doing good. I'm, I'm suffering in the heat. We, we've reached the time of year where it is just insufferable, you know, we, we like the heat and the summer we, we boat, you know, I live on a lake and, but when you get to the end of July, uh. Hundred five degrees. There's a heat dome outside. That's, um, that would be, that would be Fahrenheit here, I guess. Y'all use Celsius for my, for my, my British buddies.

Rich: 1:00

I'm just, I'm gonna look that up. Let me gimme one sec. So 105 degrees. Barren height incel seas is,

Pat: 1:17

Yeah.

Rich: 1:18

40. Dig? Yeah. That's

Pat: 1:19

We should be.

Rich: 1:20

hot. And you got it. You got that humidity

Pat: 1:22

Yeah, we got like 85. Yeah. My, my dogs don't even wanna walk. I'm like, I opened the door this morning and the dog I haven looked up and he's like, no bro, I'm not doing this. He's like, I want you to go down there. Use the bathroom on the third mailbox on the left. I want jump to the bark at the ready spaniel two houses down and harass the guy in the blue truck if he comes by. But I'm not going to do that this morning. Just hanging here. Because it's, uh, yeah. Well, so I just wanted our British friends to know we weren't dead. If so, what, what, what would that be? Celsius.

Rich: 1:55

That's 40 degrees Celsius. so that is the record we had over here was 41.9. In London a few years ago. So that was, um, and that, I mean, in, in London, that was, that was really quite something that was very, very unpleasant. But yeah, that's, that's hot. And we don't have the air con over here, pat, we don't like, that's like, it's very, very, very rare that anyone would have air con in the house, you know? Whereas you guys, it's like. We'll have it in the car, but like in, in a domestic home, we don't have it an office block. They might have it, you know, or, or like, you know, a restaurant might have it, but like, at home. No way. So that, you know, when it's that hot, we, you know, we, we suffer. Um, plus we haven't really needed it. Right. We haven't really needed it until quite recently, you know, like as everything kind of heats up. Um, yeah, we haven't needed it so much

Pat: 2:50

Well, we didn't have it here for a long time, and if you ever talk to, you know, you go to older people, like you go to your grandparents' house over here that would be 80 something years old and you sitting there and they just got it toasty, that doesn't, doesn't seem to affect them. Now I just, I don't, I don't know how people survive. And even up north, uh, you know, I know you were, you know, telling me the, the temperature is similar, but you're more similar, you know, New York and along the mid the, um, Midwest and the South, it just gets, that's why nobody lived here till they invented air conditioning. Everybody, that's a pretty cool place since we can, since we can now go inside. But, uh, but.

Rich: 3:30

So do, do you have it in your, like, how do they put it into a, into a trailer though?

Pat: 3:38

Let's put a block of ice in the window

Rich: 3:42

Okay.

Pat: 3:43

then we put the box fans that we, that we had at our grandparents' house, and it just, and it blows the, and it just blows the ice in there. That, that, that's how,

Rich: 3:53

Nice.

Pat: 3:53

that's how we do it actually. That's what you had when you visited, when I was growing up and you visited your grandparents. They, they might have, they might not even have the ac. You'd be sleeping in the living room and they'd have some one big box fan blowing, and you're just in there like, for the love of God, and I please survived this. But ac without that, I don't know, but it's, it's, this is as hot as it's been here for quite some, you know, it's always been that way, but it's just people aren't used to it. We used to practice football out in this stuff two days. Uh, we had what we call August two a days, hottest time of the year. We'd practice one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and the coaches thought that they were helping us build stama by stamina, by depriving us of water. We'd get one cup of water, we'd be so thirsty, we'd have the trainer dip a towel in a water bucket and throw it into the huddle so we could all suck on it to get a little moisture out. And they, they would arrest a coach that did that today. But that's kind,

Rich: 4:53

Yeah. yeah. But for sure that would be like human rights

Pat: 4:56

yeah.

Rich: 4:57

Like, like, and like. Right,

Pat: 5:00

I

Rich: 5:00

right.

Pat: 5:01

think so.

Rich: 5:01

so.

Pat: 5:02

Yeah. Not, not a lot of human rights on the, on the, uh, on the football field. You just came, went out there and did and toughed it, but we, we handled it. But, uh, anyway, it's good to see you and, and I think, I know you had a, a, a great meeting that you had had just attended. Uh, before we get to this, uh, I wanna mention the passing of a great British icon. Um. In Ozzy Osbo, uh, was that kind of a big deal in Britain when he, uh, with his passing.

Rich: 5:32

Yeah, for sure. So Aussie was from, um, from a place called Aston in a city called Birmingham, which is, I, lived there for a while, like I actually cleaned up in Birmingham. And Aston is a, it's a troubled, very poor part of what. Has been a troubled and quite poor city historically. And, um, yeah, I mean they did amazing. Those guys. They, you know, they, you know, they, they, they came from nothing, you know, and Ozzy was, you know, I think saying national treasure wouldn't be, wouldn't be too far off. So, um, I know that he was quite ill for quite a long time. He was obviously very, uh, impacted by his drug use. Um, and, um. Like, I, I think it's, it's really, you know, it's a sad, sad moment,

Pat: 6:19

Yeah,

Rich: 6:20

Sad

Pat: 6:20

I, I mentioned for,

Rich: 6:22

great

Pat: 6:22

yeah, I mentioned, uh, well, you know, you, that's one of the things that was so cool about these guys that came from, that came from England and had such an impact. You mentioned those guys. You had guys like Ozzy and, and, and they came from these, you know, like Birmingham. Of course, we've heard of Birmingham. We, we have Birmingham and Alabama. We stole all the English names, every English every, I lived in Bridgewater, New Jersey, you know, we, New Jersey by the way. We just started, you know, the, uh, in Somerset County by the way. You know, there's a Somerset County. Yeah. We, we, we, we hack, we, we hack all the Bri actually,'cause it was the British doing all the naming until we decided, hey, we, you know, we, we've, we've pretty much got this, uh, but we're not paying any money anymore. Um, but to think of those guys, you know, they were just guys in going to London or whatever, playing the van, going up and down, what do they call it? The M five, the main highway.

Rich: 7:22

It would've been the M five. Yeah. M five or M 40. Yeah. I mean, we

Pat: 7:27

Yeah.

Rich: 7:28

different ones like lot your interstates, But, Yeah, they would've, yeah, they would've toured all

Pat: 7:33

but to make such an incredible impact, uh, you know, you know, they're playing 60,000, 70,000. I mean, they have these, these young guys that they all kind of, uh, they all kind of knew each other. And, uh, uh, before I get on what I was gonna talk about, you know, that's one of the things that. That Mississippi here has in common with, with, uh, with the English, with, um, its music because we call ourselves in Mississippi the birthplace of music in America. Now people will dispute that, but it's on the sign when you enter the state, so it must be true. And, and we started with, uh, probably on the internet too,

Rich: 8:16

probably,

Pat: 8:17

country music, um. We had people, Jimmy Rogers,

Rich: 8:21

we have some,

Pat: 8:22

Pride. Uh, so a lot of, so country music actually kind of, uh, uh, uh, got a lot of its base in Mississippi and, you know, uh,

Rich: 8:31

you

Pat: 8:31

uh did you ever have an Irish country music, country western, uh, partnership called Logan McCool?

Rich: 8:42

Rings a bell, but that's

Pat: 8:44

Kind.

Rich: 8:44

it.

Pat: 8:44

I, I say that'cause I've noticed that we, we have, we, we have some listeners from, from Ireland and, um, could be my, some of my people that, that stayed there when we ran out of potatoes. But there was a country western, uh, group called Logan McCool and Pat McCool was the, um,

Rich: 9:05

the,

Pat: 9:06

was in a wheelchair and lo was blind.

Rich: 9:09

and Low

Pat: 9:10

But they were really good. If you ever Google them and listen to when the Cowboy rides away,

Rich: 9:15

the

Pat: 9:15

it, you know, it was my wife's favorite country song. But, but these one, one was blind, one was in a wheelchair and there was, there were these big country western singers in, in Ireland and Pat McCool died.

Rich: 9:27

Pat

Pat: 9:28

Seven or eight years ago and my wife started getting all of these condolences. There were condolences on Facebook. People contact, I'm so sorry. Sorry to hear about Pat. She's freaking out. You know what's happening.'cause I was off on the, out on the road, you know, doing comedy. She thinks I'm dead. Well we found out this guy died over in, in, uh, over in Ireland named Pat McCool. So obviously you've never, obviously they weren't that big over in, over in England.

Rich: 9:56

I may have just missed it, pat. You know, I, I was, you know, I was taking a lot, taking a lot of drugs, taking a lot of drugs for a long time. There's, there's a period from about 98 through to about 2010 where like, it, it, there were many cultural phenomenon that I missed, put it that way. Do you know what I mean? So if it, if, if it, if it happened in that period, there's no guarantee

Pat: 10:19

be about, that'd be about 70, 75 and 80 for me. But, but, but, but back to the, to the, the, the musical influence. So music, you know, it, it starts in the Delta. The, uh, these poor black guys, the Blues, the Howling Wolf, Robert Johnson, they, they, the blues are all coming out of the Mississippi Delta. Um. Which is about three hours north of me. I've actually never been into the Delta. I've, I've, I've driven past it. But, so this view Blues music was coming out of there, and it wasn't, not a lot of people knew about it, but the records were being made. You know, this is, as the, as the, you know, music was kind of growing a little bit, and then the Beatles come along and, you know, and then the whole British invasion starts. Well, when you talk to most of those guys. They will say that their biggest influence were the blues musicians, were the BB Kings and, and the Howling Wolfs and the Robert Johnsons, the guys that came out of that, came out of the Delta. So it starts in these poor little juke joints up in, up in the Delta. I. The British start picking up on it, start hearing it, and then they take the blues and turn it into the big popular rock and roll. Which also,'cause some people said, well, you, you kinda came in and, and, and took from them. But that in turn caused these guys to get more famous because, you know, they would give credit to, to the BBB Kings and the people like that. So there was kind of a symbiotic relationship between Mississippi. It going over to England, and then they turn around and bring it back over here, which started the whole music revolution that we have today, which, uh. Which Ozzy was part of, and, and I bring him up for a couple reasons. He, you know, he has a sentimental place in my heart. One, one of the first albums I ever had was Black Sabbath paranoia. I actually, I stole it, uh, from my British friends. I nicked it from, uh, did I get that right? I, I nicked it from a Eckerd's drug store, and, and it would come in, it would come in albums. So me and my friend would get in and one of us would pick it up and move towards the front, and the other one would keep moving to the other, grabbed it and walk and went out the door with it. But, uh, black Sabbath paranoid was, was one of my first albums. And then, as I've told you before, I played Ozzy on a, um, on the biography channel, on celebrity ghost stories. On the, uh, Jack Osborne edition, and I actually looked just like him. I, as I told you, they dyed my hair solid black and,

Rich: 12:44

solid

Pat: 12:44

uh, told me it'd wash out in a couple of weeks, but, uh, it didn't. I walked around New York for, you know, seven or eight months looking like the creepy old guy at the concert, you know,

Rich: 12:54

guy.

Pat: 12:54

but, uh, but, but I had the, I had the Oz look, but,

Rich: 12:57

had, I had

Pat: 12:58

uh, one of the reasons I bring him up, yeah, it, it was a big D

Rich: 13:00

him up.

Pat: 13:01

he had no idea the impact that he made, but.

Rich: 13:04

he

Pat: 13:04

When Ozzy passed, and I don't know if you know, as, I don't know how you

Rich: 13:08

know.

Pat: 13:08

think, you know, as a believer, but many of us Christians a lot, the, the first thing we think about when someone like that passes,

Rich: 13:16

someone,

Pat: 13:17

did they know Jesus does? I don't know if that pops into your head, but let me tell you a a an interesting thing that my wife, uh, showed me.'cause after he passed, she said, you know, um.

Rich: 13:29

know

Pat: 13:30

I've been praying for Ozzy,

Rich: 13:31

I've

Pat: 13:32

my wife does. She has this, she has this prayer lift and it, it impacts a lot of people. My wife gets things where she'll wake up and say, I. Um, I, I, I felt this urge to pray for so and so, and it'll happen for two or three days. Then she'll find out something was going on in this person's life. That was, you know, that was really, you know, it, it's spooky how it happens. She's not just kind of making this up. She said, you know, I've been praying for Ozzy for a long time, and then she showed me this guy, and his name is Dylan Novak. And he goes by, uh. Celebrity evangelist. I think on Instagram. I don't do a lot of Instagram, but he interviewed Ozzy, I don't know how long ago, year, two years ago, and he said that Ozzy at the time said he mainly identified himself as a Christian, and he asked him, did he read the Bible? And he said, well, I try, but I can't understand it. And he said, well, I, I, uh, he, he somehow translated a bible for him. And Ozzy read it, said, yeah, I read it. I can, you know, I, yeah, I can read it. I can under, I can understand this. And, and after the first. Episode that guy did. After interviewing Ozzy and saying Ozzy had claimed to be a, you know, Ozzy said he mainly identified as a Christian. He, he asked, everybody said, I want everybody to pray for him and his family. Now, five or six years ago, they, you know, they had that show where they were, Jack would do the ghost, not the, not the TV show that I was in, but the one, they would sit there and they would rate, you know, whether they think this is real or whatever, and they. I asked them this, on a scale of one to 10, who, who do we think would be more likely to believe in God? You know, and I think Ozzy said he was a six or a seven or whatever. So at, at the time, I, I, you know, I don't think he was, but this guy said at that time, he said, I mainly identify. Myself as a Christian and that guy asked all these people to pray, well, he said he got 24,000 likes on that particular interview. Well, a lot of times when people, you know, they're liking it doesn't mean they're all praying for'em, but a lot of the people that would be liking that post means they're doing that. So thousands of people. Praying for Ozzy in his final years of his life. I'm convinced that he knew Jesus by the time he died because this guy came back out and had another interview, uh, with him and it was about the Bible and where he translated read the Bible and it was very important. He said it was very important to him, and he ran into his son Jack. At, at some convention and Jack came up to him to tell him how important that Bible was to him. So I think, uh, there might be a lesson there to folks. It's never too late. I know people think that Ozzie, go ahead.

Rich: 16:42

Thank you. But it's like, it's never too late, is it? You know, you look at the, you know, the guy on the cross next to Jesus, you know, like in, you know, with his last breath, you know what I mean? He, he, he believed with his last breath, you know, and it, I, I think that's, that's the wonderful, like, the amazing thing about Grace, you know, it's like, it's, it's never too late, you know? And, um, you know, and my, my dad, um, my dad on Jesus in the last

Pat: 17:05

Right.

Rich: 17:06

Um, and, um. You know, we were all by his like, deathbed and like a priest turned up, you know, And, it was like, was like the priest we didn't know.'cause that was my dad. He's very kind of compartmentalized kind of guy. But yeah, like this priest turned up and, he, you know, he'd come to know him at, at the end of his life. and um, I, I just think, you know that. In a way that sums up grace, doesn't it? You know, that the, you know, the, you know, if the criminal on the cross next to Jesus with his last breath, you know, could confess that like, yeah, you, you are, you are the king of kings. You know, the son of, you know, the son of God made man. You know, there's, uh, there's hope for all of us, right? There's hope for everyone. So yeah, I really hope that, I really hope that he did. And you know, of course, like, you know what Zy represented and kind of. You know, it was, know, it was the opposite of the like strong like OC cult references and stuff like that, you know? But then we, you know, but to hear that that's where he went at the end of his life is like, it's beautiful, man. You know? It's beautiful.

Pat: 18:06

And, and, and some of that, those guys, when they're young, they're just rock and rollers trying to have success and make, and make money. Ozzy, throughout the years they. Ask him about the devil worship. He said, I just wanna make music. Um, when they had, you know, they all wore these crosses and people, people, uh, misconstrue that they, they, they think they're just wearing these crosses to mock. And he said no. In an earlier interview, he said, what, what that was, was one of our, one of our band mates mothers was a devout, you know, Christian, I don't know if she's Catholic. What? But she said. When the guy was gonna go out and they were starting the band and they were going off, she, you know, she didn't really want him to do it, but she said, well, look, take this cross. And she said, wear this around your neck. And she said, and if you always wear this, everything will work out. And he said, and the rest of'em were like, yeah, okay, well, we'll do, we'll do it too. They were trying to mock anything. They just wore the crosses. And they said what happened on, on their, they had an album where there was a cross upside down. On the album cover, so people think certainly this is what they're mocking. He said, no, we didn't. We were, we were very upset about that. He said, the guy at a record company, we didn't know anything about that. The album comes out and there it is. And the guy that, that band member was very upset, his mother was very upset. And he said, but no, it was never about that. We were just making, you know, even, I mean, even though they did have references in their, in, in their, you know, in their music. But, um, you know, in talking about Ozzy, 70 something years old, but you and I. Both. I'm the least likely guy after my teenage years, uh, to become a follower of Jesus, you're the same way. And it's one of the reasons why we're doing this, but just wanted to share that to people. If the celebrity evangelist, the guy's named Dylan Novak, if they wanna go watch those two, those two interviews, uh, seemed very sincere. And, and I have, I am pretty convinced that the Prince of Darkness is now with the Prince of Peace. And so if he.

Rich: 20:03

Wonderful man. Yeah. Well there's like, um, the, I'm rereading a book I've mentioned to you before called the Ragga MA and Gospel and, um, there's a, there's a quote in it and I've looked it up. It's like an unattributed quote. There's some ideas about where it might come from, but it says, you know, the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. You know, and it's like, you know, like that I, I, I often think this, you know, it's like if Jesus came today, like

Pat: 20:29

Yeah.

Rich: 20:29

he be sitting breaking bed with people probably in a crack house, you know?'cause those really, you know, he sat with tax collectors and, you know, you know, like le you know, he, he touched lepers, you know, like, and you know, the equivalent today is like a crack addict, you know, like a, you know, a prostitute, you know, a street prostitute. You know, those that are kind of, you know. The woman at the, well, you know, like married five times, living with a husband, living with a man that wasn't her husband. You know, like we would, that would raise eyebrows today, but in like scenario in like, you know, like 32 ad or whatever it was, you know, like that it's really something, you know, so it's like Yeah. it's the, it's exactly, that's exactly, you know, the, he comes for the,

Pat: 21:11

Yes.

Rich: 21:11

and the

Pat: 21:12

Well, he goes, yeah.

Rich: 21:13

the so-called already righteous.

Pat: 21:15

He's, he's, he's come for the, come for the lost sheet. And that's, uh, people just need to realize that there's so many people that have people in their lives that they think that may be too far gone. Never stop praying. Um, the guy talking about all those people praying about Ozzy. I'm telling you that stuff that I'm telling you, it has an effect. I mentioned in my book, I don't, you probably don't recall, but the day that I was walking, I'd been out drinking my car, ran outta gas, I'm walking in the rain home. And I encounter a guy standing by a car by the road. And this was back in the middle of my, all of my, you know, everything that I was doing and at, at the, you know, I was in the despair and the, and the drugs and the crime. And I walked by the guy and said, Hey, how are you doing? And, you know, we talked for a second and he asked me, but now I said, pat McCool. He said, I've heard of you. He said, we've been praying for you. And this was just, this was a student at USM'cause it was over by the, it was over by what? I was coming from a party off, off the campus. And um, and I went and these people knew who I was. I stuck my head in there and it was. That's Pat. Oh, that's Pat. Hey, you know, I mean, I'd been, I'd been drinking. I didn't stay long or anything, but that never left me, somebody was praying for me. So if, if you've got people out there that you know, or people in your life, pray for them. If you, the people that my wife prays for, blows my mind. I'm, I, I, you know, she starts mentioning, I'm like, I don't, gosh, I, I don't even like that person. She says, yeah, I know. That's why, you know, that's why I'm praying for him. But it's, it's powerful. And I think that had an impact on Ozzie's life. I know it had an impact on my life. Probably had an impact on yours. You probably had people along the way and it's impacted all of her lives. So, so, so, never ever give up. And speaking of never giving up, that's kind of, uh, something where you were today. You were supposed to speak at a prison today, and you're gonna do that at a later date. Did you say?

Rich: 23:12

No, it was, so there was a complication unfortunately, so I was asked to go and speak alongside a pastor friend of mine at, um, a recovery, uh, like speaker event. Unfortunately, my details didn't make it to the prison governor. The prison, I dunno, I think you had the same time over there, the prison governor.

Pat: 23:29

wait a second. I don't wanna, I don't wanna interrupt you. Could you clear up at one point, I mean, clear up once and for all. What does governor mean? I watch all these British show, British shows and it's, Hey, gov. What's up? Gov? What a governor.

Rich: 23:41

Uh, well, that's, that's. That's the colloquial, like, that's like alright, gov. Like it's just a way of like, it's like saying, alright boss, or, or like, it is like a, it's just a kind of slang greeting, you know, like that you might say to someone that was in some position of authority. potentially, you know, um, it's quite old fashioned, but, um, but yeah, in this instance, this, this would not be the slang term, this would be the prison governor. who, which, so, and like my, basically my, my me and my, my, my details didn't get cleared in time for me to enter the prison, unfortunately. But, uh, over the weekend I, um, was lucky enough to go to, uh, a conference, a Believers in Recovery conference. Um. Which is Believers in Recovery is. fan, like an amazing recovery focused ministry kind of sits between like 12 step meetings in the church. You know, the idea of it is like, the mission statement is it's for people that don't get enough recovery in the church, but don't get enough in their 12 step groups. You know? So it kind of sits in the middle and that's where I, you know, I came to faith by attending believers in recovery, uh, meetings, you know, so that it has a huge. Like placing my heart. I'm very grateful to believe it's in recovery. So we went there. My, you know, my other half and I went there. It was actually in my old hometown part. So like your, your Hattiesburg. Yeah. But to see Southland Sea. So actually where this conference was. I was stabbed about three quarters of a mile in that direction. I used to smoke crack in a house about 500 yards away. Um, there was a gas station just along the road from where I was, where I used to steal food. I got chased outta there by the security guards. Like I remember I threw a, a chicken mayo sandwich at the, at the security guard as so I was running. So yeah, going back there kind of 13 years clean, um, to worship and learn.

Pat: 25:48

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to re interrupt. That's where you were having this meeting was in that

Rich: 25:53

Yeah.

Pat: 25:53

by where all this went on. Well, so go on that. That's fascinating.

Rich: 25:59

Yeah, so it was great, man. And like, you know, like I've got, you know, a lot of friends, a lot of new people there, a lot of people gave their life to Jesus during the worship there. Like there was this kind of moment where the spirit moved and of the pastors just got up on the stage and spontaneously called, you know, did like the auto call and about probably about 12, maybe 15 kind of new, uh, new people. Um, but I think, uh, I've got the impression that just. We were in the recovery community in that town, but had just come along to have a look at Believers in Recovery just because it was a recovery event that happened to be on there. Yeah. And they came forward like this, like these two rows of people just responded to the auto call spontaneously, just went to the front and they gave their life to Jesus. And very powerful, very, very powerful. So for me, you know, a fantastic weekend, you know, obviously nothing better than seeing, than seeing the spirit move in that way and touch people. Um. Some great, some great speakers. Um, you know, it was, you know, they're fantastic, really, you know, really fantastic and, and obviously, and very powerful for me being back in that exact area, know, as a Christian, 13 years clean, you know, with a life that's like, you know, literally, literally transformed, um, from what it was. Yeah.

Pat: 27:15

How did you, how did you get back to that, that, that town, I mean, do you go to services there or is it just a recovery meeting that you decided to go to? I, I mean, back, back in South End by the, by the sea. Because you're living in Oxford, would you, were you in London over the weekend?

Rich: 27:35

Oh

Pat: 27:35

I was.

Rich: 27:35

I traveled from London to, um, to South End. We had some accommodation. We got some accommodation down there. Um, and just, yeah. And then went to the event on Saturday. It was. I spent Friday, showing my, my partner, some of my old haunts, some of the, some of the, um, glamorous locations where I used to, used to hang out, you know, like, uh, I think, I think you'd probably call them dive bars.

Pat: 28:00

Say it again.

Rich: 28:01

yeah. Like a dive

Pat: 28:03

Oh, yeah,

Rich: 28:04

call them

Pat: 28:04

yeah, yeah. Dive bar for sure.

Rich: 28:07

like ropey, ropey pubs basically. And, um, yeah, just a lot of place, you know, a lot of places where a lot of, a lot of, uh, difficult stuff happened. Went to see my mom's grave, um, went and visit my brother and went to this recovery conference. So, uh, yeah, big, big weekend in a lot of ways. Pat, you know, a big weekend and like lots of, like some, you know, the. Of the teaching focused on. Like, basically like living out God's purpose. You know? Like it's not about, it's not about me, it's not about us, it's not about you, you know? It's about align, you know, being willing, you know, like how far are you willing to go for, for him, you know, like how much of your life is about your own? You know, more speak for me, like my own and designs and what I think I need and how much money I need to make and what car I should be driving. And, and you know, how, how able are we am I like actually to just to get out the way and listen, you know, be willing to, you know. Like to listen to what the spirit is prompting me to do, you know? And, um, yeah, it's very, like, I find, you know, getting those kind of reminders is, you know, is, is always, you know, always a good thing. Of course. And there was some, of speakers from Brooklyn, um, I just another shout out to, there's, uh, an organization in Brooklyn that started in Brooklyn called The Recovery House of Worship, which is an American recovery ministry. Um, They. have online meetings every week. If you, uh, Google. R how? RHOW, um, Staten Island now. That'll bring up their website. They have Zoom services and speak, uh, speakers and teachings and stuff. Um, so a couple of pastors from there. Pastor Raymond Ramo, so Pastor Anthony Edwin, I think. Um, yeah. Fantastic man. Fantastic event.

Pat: 29:57

They They came all the way from Brooklyn to have the event. So again, it wasn't just a service, this was a whole recovery event that people attended.

Rich: 30:08

Oh yeah, it was a whole day. It was like Fri, well, it was Friday night. I didn't go on the Friday night. Friday night worship, one speaker opening prayers, bit of fellowship time, all that kind of thing. And then on Saturday it was like doors open at night, speaker finished at 6:00 PM You know, full day food teachings, worship prayer. You know, fellowship time, it's great, man. You know what I mean? And in fact, some of the guys, they got, they, they, they felt prompted during the service that actually when the service, or during the, the course of the day that when, when it finished, they, they went into one of the local, uh, we call it, states, you would call it housing projects. Yeah. So they went into one of the local housing projects to, to preach and to, you know, try and kind of spread the gospel. So they're very powerful, man. Very, very powerful, Dave. Very.

Pat: 30:57

Name of the, the name of, of this, these people out of the, the outfit out Brooklyn again, that, how do they find it?

Rich: 31:05

Oh, so you got past go.

Pat: 31:09

No, go ahead. You said how they can find it, how people can find it online, people that might be interested.

Rich: 31:15

so yeah, so, so if you put into Google Recovery, house of Worship, or R how RHOW. Um, Staten Island, then that will bring up the Recovery House of Worship website. And then on there has got their ti, you know, their timetable, their, you know, their Zoom codes to get'em into their meetings and stuff like that. So, um, yeah, that highly reckon I've learned a lot. You know, I've, that've done a bit, quite a lot. I've attended quite a lot of their teachings and stuff and, um, it's very power, you know, great vessels. There basically great vessels, man.

Pat: 31:53

That's fantastic. So you're saying this, they they, they're kind of a cross between the 12 step program and the cross and, and, and, you know, and what's teaching in a church, but they obviously led these people to salvation.

Rich: 32:10

Yeah. So it bridges the gap. That's what it does. It bridges the gap.'cause there can be a gap now. 12 step groups can be very secular. Yeah. These days And um, to courses. Interesting. Given the roots of the program. But they can be, can be very secular. Um. So being a Christian in a 12 step group, it's different. I mean, obviously as you know, I've spent time in, in Mississippi, I've spent time in your hometown and actually AA meetings that I attended there uh, much more openly Christian you would ever see in the uk. So, uh, but then in, in other 12 step groups, you know, the fellowship that I attend, I won't name'cause of anonymity and traditions and stuff, but, um, uh. There that's tends to be very, very secular. So if you are a Christian, if you come to faith through working the 12 steps, which many of us do, it's helpful to be able to kind of go somewhere else to get fed spiritually, and of course to serve, you know, to put back into, to, you know, to, to serve, um, where like. You know, you are getting taught about Jesus and, and with other people, you know, with spending time with other Christians. But where there is an understanding of what recovery is, because sometimes there isn't, sometimes that can be lacking the church is the, is the truth, you know? And, and, and that, that can cause problems sometimes, you know,'cause people, you know, there is a point of view that, you know, like, it's like the word addict doesn't appear in the Bible, you know? So it's like, well people. Still referring. So I would go to a meeting and say, man is rich. I'm an addict. You know, from a, from a, there's a theological perspective that would then say, well, you're not an addict. You're a new creation. You've been washed clean, so you need to let go of that identity. Right? But what can happen sometimes is people let go of that identity and they, they lose touch with the fact that addiction is. A lifelong condition that you have to maintain vigilance around to, you know, to avoid returning to, you know, and, and, and that those people sometimes I've seen, you know, I've seen that happen a number of times, but you know, someone very close to me, you know, got three years clean. Um, bought into, bought into those ideas, um, decided that they could, you know, drink socially. You know, and ended up in a, a, I think a two year, uh, a two year relapse in onto cocaine and alcohol and, and kind of made it back by the skin of her teeth. So, yeah, so that's why Recco, that's my take. You know, other, I'm sure other people, you know, will have other perspectives on it, but that is certainly my perspective on the importance of recovery Ministries, why they're, they're an important thing.

Pat: 34:52

Well, I mean, that's part of your occupation as an addiction specialist, so you see it every single day. People that don't deal with people that are actual addicts, it's, it's easy to form an opinion when you're not. You know, when you're not actually seeing it and dealing with it and, and, and, and living with it. And as I told you, mine was more of an emotional type thing, but I know people that were just physic. I, I know people 10 years, 15 years, everything's going fine all of a sudden one night. Binge and they've thrown, you know, there, there goes the family, the wife, this or, and, and, and you know, everything that they had built and that they had worked up. So I, I certainly see what you're saying. So it sounds like a great, great organization. And they came over and held that, and then they did an alter call at the end and they had a number of people find salvation or answer the, the altar call.

Rich: 35:45

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And just to be really clear, plat, so Believers In Recovery is a UK based recovery ministry, but it has links to these guys outta Brooklyn. So these guys outta Brooklyn came to speak

Pat: 35:58

At,

Rich: 35:58

Believers in

Pat: 35:59

at Believers in Recovery. And they knew the, they knew the Pastor Ramos the one that you know from Brooklyn and they're kind of part of the same. So they, they, they came over. So, um. They preach the gospel and you said a couple of whole rows of people.

Rich: 36:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like these two rows of people just kind of got up and, you know, just went straight to the front, responded to the auto call, which is, you know, obviously kind of an amazing thing really to see. And, um, yeah, special, very special.

Pat: 36:34

Well, that's fantastic. Yeah. You, you, you, you did mention it's the, the AA meetings over here. You say were, were leaned more with, with preaching, re leaned more spiritual talking about Jesus. In the, the AA meetings that you were in, in Mississippi, did you say you attended some here?

Rich: 36:51

Yeah. Yeah. So I did, yeah, I did a lot of meetings over there and, um, yeah, like much more, you know, we'll often kind of close with the Lord's Prayer. Um, we'll, I, I, you know, we'll talk about you, you know. That they're happy for people to, um, you know, talk about scripture, Bible verses and stuff during the course of the meeting, all that kind of stuff. And definitely much more open. But of course you are in the Bible belt, right? I mean, you are, like, when I was in Mississippi, like you'd drive past a church, then there was another church in the corner and there was a church opposite that. And then just down the road was a church, know, like all different shapes. And some of the churches, pat, they were like small towns, you know, like,

Pat: 37:32

Well that's, that's why I teed that up. That's what we were gonna talk about next time. We're going to talk about the, the, the differences between, um, church in England and church in America and church in, in the south. And because I've been up north, and then there's a lot of differences, a lot of humorous differences, uh, and what it was like for me and Rich when we first started walking up in a, in a church. But, but there are quite, uh. Quite the differences between England and there's a lot going on, uh, in England. I understand that there's a bit of a rev revival, a bit of a resurgence going on in, in England, which is amazing because some of the roots, uh, of, uh, of the powerful people, you know, the Bible was translated in England because of England, and there's a, there's a lot there. And that's, that's, uh, what we were going to, uh, discuss today. But. We had a couple other things to talk about, and we're gonna, we're gonna have to leave it right here and, uh, but next time join us where we do talk about the differences between the church in England and the church in America. And as you said, we, we have one. That's how you get directions in America. Uh, you, you, you go two miles to the Baptist church and you take a right and go another mile. To the Methodist church, and then you go over here to the pa and then you take one there, and then you, and then the one I love, the people in the south will give you, they'll be like, go five miles down the road and take a left where the old church used to be. Okay. It's a field now, but we got we, we got you. So, uh,

Rich: 39:06

Yeah.

Pat: 39:06

well anyway, rich, well it's good to see you, man. I'm glad you have a good weekend. Are, are you gonna go back to the prison ministry? Are they gonna reschedule that?

Rich: 39:14

Well that? event happened today, but I'm, um, I occasionally go and speak in prisons.

Pat: 39:19

I did not know that.

Rich: 39:20

speak at one next month. I.

Pat: 39:22

I.

Rich: 39:22

Yeah. occasion, get asked to speak in prison. So I've been in maybe 10 different English jails speaking. But, um, yeah, I. think there's, there's another, there's another one coming. I just need to see if it can work date wise. But I'll, I'll definitely keep you and on all our listeners

Pat: 39:39

I never knew about that. You see, again, that's something we have in common. You've been in nine or 10, uh, English jail speaking. When I was a teenager, I was in nine or 10 American jails. I was speaking, when's my dad gonna come? Get me outta here. So, so, so we both had visits to the jail. We were just doing two different things, but fortunately, fortunately, I was able to leave that

Rich: 40:06

Ends of

Pat: 40:07

different, different, different ends of the pro of the process. But, um, anyway, uh, have a good, rich, and let's, uh, talk to you next week.

Rich: 40:18

Lovely,

Pat: 40:19

Alright, love you man. Take care.

Rich: 40:22

Bye. You too.