Ep 18 - Hope in the middle of the storm - Pastor Charlie Mitchell

On this episode of the 3 Doves Podcast, Pastor Charlie Mitchell shares his journey from growing up in Key West and Fort Myers, to losing his father to cancer at just 13 years old and stepping into adult responsibilities far too early. Charlie opens up about finding faith through youth ministry, missions work around the world, marriage, family, grief, and the challenges of building a life while carrying deep loss. He also shares his battle with stage four kidney disease, the life-changing kidney transplant he received in 2023, and how suffering taught him dependence on God, the importance of community, and the hope (Jesus) that can still be found in the middle of the storms.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome everybody to the Three Doves Podcast. I'm your host, Jason Pulowski. And today, Pastor Charlie Mitchell joins us to share how losing his father at the age of 13 and then later facing kidney disease led him to discover real hope in the middle of life's hardest storms. Well, I'm sitting here with Charlie Mitchell. Charlie, welcome to the Three Dose Podcast.

SPEAKER_04 0:31

And it's a pleasure to be here with you, Jason.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Oh, it's great to have you. Charlie, let's start like we always do on my podcast. Where did you where were you born? Where were you brought up at?

SPEAKER_04 0:39

Uh so I was born in Key West. So very rare for folks to be born in Key West, Florida.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Never heard that before.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Yeah. So I was born there and um raised a little bit in St. Augustine and uh grew up here in uh Fort Myers.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Love St. Augustine, by the way, Charlie. That's where my it is. My wife and I were married here in Fort Myers. Okay. And then uh we went up on our honeymoon to St. Augustine, and boy, did we have a blaster. That's that's one of my favorite cities of Florida, right there, bro. Tell me a little bit about uh your childhood.

SPEAKER_04 1:11

Uh yeah, so you can hear already. We moved around quite a bit. My dad was a uh shrimper uh by trade, and so the reason I was born in Key West was because of that, you know. So that's where he was working from in that particular season, those several years. And then from there we moved up to St. Augustine. He poured it out of there. Um, and then my mom had a dream that we would get a home. We would become homeowners. So, you know, we'd rent from place to place, place to place. And I always had, you know, as a child that grew up in these rental homes, can we get a dog? Can we, you know, can we put the picture on the wall? And it was like, nope, nope, you know, nope, because you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:51

And um, but she had a dream that the Lord would provide for us a home where we could own it, and then I would get a dog and all those things. And so she grew up and was raised here in Fort Myers in a neighborhood called Harlem Heights.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:05

And so um she had that that kind of awakening that moved her back here when all of our friends, family members that were in Harlem Heights were starting to get homes through Habitat for Humanity. And then that's what brought us back here, our home in '93.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

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SPEAKER_01 3:05

Now, some of the folks listening right now don't know that you are a pastor of a church here in Fort Myers. Yep. Yep. And we'll get to that. Yep. But uh, I want to just kind of lay that out first of all. Um, and second of all, tell me, did you ever get to go out on the boat with your dad and do any shrimping?

SPEAKER_04 3:22

Yep. What was that like he died when I was 13, so it was very young childhood that I was able to be a part of that um part of his life. He shrimped from probably the 40s, uh, 50s, all the way up until the 90s. And uh so yeah, that was a big, huge part of our life, culture, everything. Um, so yeah, you got to go out there uh, as they say, offshore. So you had to go offshore. But he would port between at times Key West or Fort Myers or whatever in Texas. And so he'd go to Texas, he'd drag, they do all the things, and then drop a load, get paid in Texas, send the money back to the family, then he'd do another 13, 14 days across the water, and then uh come back home for a few days.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Did you ever get tired of shrimp? That's because I love shrimp. I'm a big shrimp lover.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

No, it was everything, but it was more than just shrimp. So we had every rock shrimp, pink shrimp, and all of that type of stuff. But we had lobster tail, we had squ uh squid, but we we call it squid, but it's calamari. Yeah. So all the fish, all the things. So when he came in, there was just a feast of all the different things that he had caught.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

It's almost like a Florida low boil kind of thought, right? You know, like you have that Cajun, like is that kind of what you guys got into. Yeah, yeah. But that was just our life. It was just life. That was life, yeah. Tell me a little bit about losing your father.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

13, um, when he passed away, uh, he knew it was going to happen. He had had cancer in his intestines and then um reluctantly did the surgeries to, you know, remove whatever there was. Uh there might have been a year in between, but it came back with a vengeance. And so he he knew, hey, I'm not gonna be able to beat it this time. And uh that began kind of a obviously a unique journey in our relationship. My mother struggled to read, so so she was functionally illiterate. So his and I's relationship meant that he was teaching me and training me to be a helper to my mom at a higher caliber. So a lot of those months in preparation for his passing, he's like, literally, I'm not going to be here. So you gotta help your mom with the bills, you gotta help her, and main mainly like managing the household books, you know, water bill, light bill, all those things. So it was literally um every day we would have these different little training sessions, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Um And I know you're on the other side of that. But back then, how did that like where were you with that? Because that's a lot, that's heavy, man.

SPEAKER_04 5:55

Uh yeah, it's it is for a child. Yeah. Um and your age was 13 when he passed. So this is me 12. Even 11. Yeah, 11, 12, 13, um, eighth grade. He passed away. Wow. So you're in middle school going through all the things that happened during that that season of a child's life. Right. So I remember distinctly coming home and working with my mom on bills. Or uh, if we went to the grocery store, I would help her write checks, you know. We had a little system to where it would not embarrass her. I would just kind of take the lead. Hey, mom, I learned how to do this in school. Let me, you know, write this check or whatever. But that was our way of doing it. And then going to algebra class during the day and struggling. But you're thinking, this kid is he's navigating serious complexities that a lot of adults still struggle with. You know what I mean? Yeah. Uh, and this is uh mid-90s. Wow. To then go into class and really struggling to navigate my work. But all that to say, the pressure was real. I started to have ulcers. Um at 12, 13 years old. Yeah. Because um I'm uh holding on to the stress of it. One of the things um my dad had confessed to me was several there were several significant moments in our relationship in that particular time, especially when he got closer to the end. Was um I don't like all these women taking care of me. So at this point, like is it's really getting closer, and he just said to me, I I I'm gonna get a 22 and I want you to blow my brains out. Wow. So he's confiding this in me. Wow, Charlie. And so I'm just like, you know, how you supposed to, and I and I and I have to encourage him like, dad, listen, it's all right, you know what I mean? We're gonna make it. Like, I'm just trying to, but but I don't, I absorb that, you know what I mean? And then I end up going to my mom. Maybe I became emotional. I forget what the transaction was, but I ended up going to my mom and telling her that, and she came back and kind of uh, you know, rebuffed him. Like, Charlie, you cannot say that my dad's name was Charlie.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 8:16

Charlie, you can't say that to him. Like you can't. You can't do that. But I could tell now, yo, he had been at such a point, you can think, all these ocean on the ocean, captain of your own boat, you're living life free, you know, nobody can tell you what to do, and now you like people are having to wait on you hand and foot, and you you're like, I want to do this, I want to eat that, I want to. He just felt like I'd rather die than to be in this kind of vulnerable position.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

But still, but still confess that to your son.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:50

That's a heavy weight to bear. It is. I remember weeping, maybe crying in his presence one time. And he's saying to me, uh, save the tears for when I'm gone. So, like, don't cry right now. Oh man. And now as a dad, my kids are 15, 13, and 11. Yeah. Um as a dad, I can see now he's protecting his own heart from the grief in that moment. But at but I don't know, I can't hear that then, you know. This is my dad. We used to ride together in the car on Saturdays. He takes me to work with him at night, and we get a cup of coffee at 7-Eleven. So there's all these moments of him and I together interacting and hanging, him saying, Hey, don't, don't cry, don't, don't cry until I'm gone. It was hard to hear. So I just think, oh, you don't cry. That's the interpretation.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:45

So that by the time you get to the funeral and after the funeral, you know what the uncles come up and say, You're the man of the house now, son. Charlie, you're the man of the house now. You make sure you take care of every, you know. They say all these little words of quote-unquote encouragement, but as a child, they're not supposed to take on that kind of responsibility.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:05

And so I had absorbed it, Doc.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

And literally, um, what was the status of your faith at that time? Where were you guys as a family?

SPEAKER_04 10:14

Yeah, my mom had been, when I was a very young child, um, my mom and dad lived the party life, you know. So he'd leave, come back, it was high time. We got money in the bank now, we buy what you want, eat what you want, you know, all those kinds of things until it dried out, and then he's uh back out again. So it was kind of every month was his up and down kind of roller coaster. But every Sunday, hey Charlie, here's a dollar. Walk down the church to the little neighborhood church, go to Sunday school, my dad, you don't gotta stay for the whole thing, at least sit through Sunday school, and then come on back home. So there was this kind of religious structure that was there, but it was not, you know, they're still living their life doing whatever they're doing. My mom then gets radically saved by a woman in Key West. Little storefront church. Her name was uh Elder Williams. And um prophetic woman, powerful woman of God, whatever, radically transformed my mom's life. From drinking, partying, smoking, cussing, all the things, to cold turkey, God's changed my life, saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost, like rolling around at church, foaming at the mouth, that type of stuff. So went from no church, go to church on, go to Sunday school, put 50 cents in the plate, 50 cent, you can get some candy on the way back, to now, Tuesday night, Thursday night. Holy rolling. Oh, bruh, Sunday morning and Sunday night. So you're like, yo, what the heck? So, and then my dad, he ain't about this at all. So he's like, Lucy, what what is what is happening? I don't like my son in there with all these women shouting and going on. And and so it was a whole deal. So there was years of tension in the house between her holy rolling and uh, you know, my dad just kind of living the fisherman lifestyle or whatever, um, until he got sick and then he ended up coming to faith.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

What was one of your fondest memories being hanging out with your dad? If you could describe it, yeah. How would you describe it?

SPEAKER_04 12:29

Uh it's still what I do to this day. What is that? We they um they had a contract to uh clean the causeway. Oh. So the Sanibel causeway. So when you're driving over to Sanibel, you got the causeway there before, people used to actually be in the booth and do the thing, and then there's an office over there and all that kind of stuff. So they would clean that causeway offices, and they would clean the bathroom that was there on those little islands, and then we had a couple of banks on the off on the island that we would uh clean. The library we would clean, different things like that uh after hours. So he would take me with him at night to the causeway, and I can go out there and sit on the co like just sit on the water and all this kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

So you you uh stop me for a second because I'm trying to track you. You went from shrimping to cleaning. So he came off the boat. So you so off season. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 13:25

So he quit.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Okay. Oh.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

What was that? We moved here in '91, '93. Yeah. My mom was like, hey, you got to come off the boat because Charlie, me, is getting older. So it's one thing for me to take care of Charlie when he's a little boy, but now he's 10, 11, he's getting taller. Gotcha. I need you home.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

I gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

My dad was a diehard fisherman.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 13:47

In that, hell or high water, I'm going back on the water in 10, 15, 20 days. Doesn't matter. Whatever it takes, I'm out there.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:56

So for him to come off the boat was a big deal. So he sold his boat, the whole deal moved back and like became full-time on the land to be with be with me, essentially.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Gotcha. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:09

So uh they would, so he had to restart his life. I mean, he worked at McDonald's, he worked at Win Dixie, he worked at whatever, and then um was a part of a cleaning company that had these contracts. So, hey, let's get in the car, let's ride, go with me tonight, stop at 7-Eleven or a little gas station, get you a little coffee, a little creamer, whatever. He smoke a cigar, we get to the place we had to do, he do his thing, and I'd be out there sitting out by the water, chilling, throwing rocks, whatever. Then we go to our little destinations. So it's still, if I want to recalibrate, I can drive from my house and ride and park under the causeway, sit out on the water, talk to him, talk to God, talk to, you know what I mean? And it helps me to just kind of go, hey, God's got it all under control.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:03

Because the water tells you he's given limits to it. Come on. You know, it puts things in perspective of like, man, my problems are massive, but they're nowhere big the scope of the ocean. And so when you're sitting in front of it, it's humbling.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

When was that transformation for you as a boy, though, into knowing Jesus? When did that come into your faith?

SPEAKER_04 15:22

Probably 15.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Okay. So this is after your dad passed away.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

Passed away. So up to that point, my mom's my mom's expression of the faith, Pentecostal, charismatic, hot, you know, um, a lot of rules. Don't do this, don't do that, don't play cards, don't listen to secular music, don't watch rated R movies, don't, you know, so a lot of don'ts.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Um, a lot of spiritual warfare.

SPEAKER_04 15:56

So there's also demons around every corner. And so everything's got this demonic air to it.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 16:02

So you learn, for me, it was either two pathways, and she told me this years later. She saw that there were two pathways. Most teenagers would get to a point where they'd be like, Man, screw you guys. Y'all are in here shouting, doing all this stuff, sweating every Sunday, but your lives are a wreck. You know, it's inconsistent. Y'all are talking about God's gonna send all these blessings, and it ain't working. So they go to the streets. And so they would go to the streets, or you would do like I do, learn church lingo, but I'm not interested in this. I just don't want y'all like bothering me. So you know you learn how to play the game. Uh hey, you get good grades, and it the the bar ain't high. Stay out of trouble, get good grades, um, and you, you know, you're all right. You show up when they tell you to show up. You go to Sunday school, you know John 3.16. Yeah. Oh man, I mean, God's got his hand on Charlie, and Charlie's just great. And but I want to be out there with my friends just like everybody else. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:07

And so by the time my mom, my dad passes away, is a bit of a, it's just a, all right, this happens. I know the lingo, I know church. I've been reading the Bible. Um, but my mom switched us from the church we were in to a different church because she said they're not going to be able to translate the gospel in a way my son can understand it. And I can't lose him to this. So I'm grieving at home or you know, doing the different things that it's showing up, however, it's revealing itself, whether in anger or fits of rage or whatever, all the different things. So she was she was insightful enough to kind of say, hey, I need to, I need to figure out a way for somebody to be able to translate this. Now, mind you, at the church we were at, if you're under 40, you're a youth, and it's the grandmas of the church with the you know, with the little velour, little uh stick-on velcro, little Moses, and all this. Yeah, once a quarter, they do something for the youth, and it's all the people under 40. So she's like, This ain't gonna work for my son and what he's navigating. So she brings us over to First Assembly and they have a youth group.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:24

And it's in that experience that I understand that God is not just here to save or rescue the drug addict, the, you know, the the crisis, the, you know what I mean, all those stories I would hear in testimony service as a child. Life was a wreck, I was smoking crack and I was doing all of this, and da-da-da-da-da. But God, God was actually there for the brokenhearted as well. And that's me.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:53

So I'm a 13-year-old, eighth, uh, eighth grader, um, who's lost his dad. Now I'm 15, 16, on the back side of that, helping my little brother and sister. You know, I'm in 10th grade, I'm seeing the world a little different, I'm getting a little bit more exposure. And now I'm going, oh, the gospel is good news for me, for the good kid, not just the bad ones. And uh that radically changed my life.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Going back a little bit with you, just jump with me for a second. You said you're brother and sister. Um, when your dad passed, obviously that was a very difficult time. How did it affect the entire family in that? What I know you switched the role. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:34

You became man of the house.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Yeah, the man of the house. Yeah. How did that affect with your brother and sister and you?

SPEAKER_04 19:41

Um, so I've got three older siblings that my mom had before I was born.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

Uh, with another man. Okay. Um, and then I have my younger brother and sister, uh, Danielle and Isaiah. So uh I was 13, my sister was seven, and I think Isaiah was three. So these are little, you know what I mean? These are babies.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:06

Um, so for them, especially now that we've been able to talk, they they have very little to no recollection of my dad. You know what I mean? And so Charlie's always been leading or in some type of leadership position in their life or a position of influence. So um, so yeah, so Danielle lived her life, she's doing her thing, my little sister. Isaiah, he he pretty much goes in my hip pocket, you know. So he's 10 years younger than me. Okay. So we shared the bedroom together coming up, we, you know, so all those different things, he and I had a different connection than Danielle. You know, Danielle had her own room for good reason and all of that.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

But um, but yeah, I like I didn't do a lot of afterstool sports because I needed to be home to make sure they were good. Yeah. Different things like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

A lot of sacrifice.

SPEAKER_04 21:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially in those early years.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

And a and a quick lesson in growing up fast.

SPEAKER_04 21:07

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it was, and it's so interesting because it's like there was no like shock. It wasn't until I was probably in my mid-30s going to therapy that my my therapist stopped in the middle of a session and said, Charlie, I need you to know that that's a big deal. And now I know, you know, a big part of counseling and therapy is having an empathetic witness, somebody that can just affirm the craziness of your story, you know, and going, Oh, and it was it was so um impactful. Cause you know, it's my life and it's my brother and sister's lives. It was my mom, it was, and it was the neighborhood. Like it was like everybody's a part of that. It wasn't unusual, it wasn't strange. So to have in my 30s or, you know, whatever it was. My therapist goes, okay, hold on, slow down. So you telling me all this happened and you did what? And how did that? I this is a big deal. And you navigating that and still being sane at some level. God has been really gracious to you. Like, I need you to know a lot of people don't make it through that. That and I go, oh, oh, okay, thank you. And I mean, it just wrecked me for months. Being able to kind of go, yeah, that that was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Even before you made a decision to follow Christ, God was already there in the midst of all that with your dad.

SPEAKER_04 22:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

All that with your mom, all that with your siblings, yeah. Older ones and younger. He was already kind of like, and I did a podcast on this, and I don't mean to interject with my stuff, but I did a podcast called Um Who's Gonna Roll the Stone. God does. And God was already moving stones before you even got there.

SPEAKER_04 22:59

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

That's right. I mean, that's that's amazing, Charlie. And we haven't even touched on the part that's coming.

SPEAKER_04 23:05

There's more coming.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

There is more coming. This is like it's so rich and cultural.

SPEAKER_04 23:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Let's let's let's push a little ahead.

SPEAKER_04 23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

All right. You're uh you're going over to First Assembly.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

God's stirring in your life. Yep. Something's happening. Tell us what's going on there.

SPEAKER_04 23:21

So I I come to faith. Obviously, this is very radical for me because now I'm starting to see the scriptures for myself, starting to engage. Um, and one of the big things that they uh that First Assembly was known for, especially in that era, was their mission's emphasis. So if you went in the sanctuary, the Silverdome, there's all these flags all over in the um in the worship space. I like the sanctuary. Yeah. And um, and so that was a big part of their just DNA of the church. So I'm in there playing basketball after youth group, my youth fast comes up. Charlie, you want to come to Belgium with me? Sure. Uh, you know, happy to I like this church, it's very cool, very different from where I've been, you know what I mean? We got youth group, it's cool. There's lights camera action. Yeah. Yeah, I'll go to Belgium with you. So we go into this room and he introduces me to this group of people that are already in their meeting. Hey, everybody, this is Charlie. He's going with us to Belgium this summer. I'm like, okay, cool. Hey, we got to get permission from your mom, you know, that you can go to Belgium with us. Okay, great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She loves me being at church for sure. Like, so we meet my mom, tell her, hey, we're gonna do this mission trip this summer, and um, we all we want Charlie to come to Belgium. He it's all covered, somebody paid for it, and so we think it'd be great. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. We love her, yeah. Charlie, that'd be great. Oh, praise God. So we're driving home. Where's Belgium? I thought that was coming, man. Bruh, because I'm like, we're I'm a little kid from Harlem Heights. Like, we don't go far. Like, Miami was a big deal. Like, oh, you went to Miami this weekend? Oh my gosh, how was that? You went to Temp, and then we never went to South Beach. Like, Will Smith came out with a song and it was like, South Beach? What is that? You go to Miami to go to the flea market. So, like, our worldview was this, even though my dad was a shrimp boat captain and all of that, yeah. That's work. But that's not like That's not Belgium. That's not Belgium. So I get to school, pull down the map. I'm looking all over the United States. There is no Belgium. So I'm asking my teacher, where's Belgium? Oh, it's over here. That's a long way. That's over the ocean. That's all the deal. So literally, I get back to the bus stop. Man, I'm gonna go to Belgium. This is crazy. And I tell them where it is. We're looking at the map and all this, and I'm like, man, yeah, it's it's I gotta get on an airplane. I've never been on an airplane. Like, I don't know how this is. So now it's all the whole the reality of this is happening. All that say, the white people are gonna leave you. That's what my friends and family tell me. The white people are gonna leave you over there. Don't do it. What? I'm like, nah, it's it's free. I mean, I've already committed. I'm here, you know. Anyway, I get to Belgium, we go on a missions trip there.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

I mean, obviously that's not true. You're here now. So they didn't leave me.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

They didn't leave me. We go to Brussels, we serve there, spend the day off in Paris.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

What an opportunity.

SPEAKER_04 26:35

God calls me into missions.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Come on.

SPEAKER_04 26:38

Because it was just like when I realized, oh, the gospel is not just up to that point, soul transforming. Get you out of hell, you know what I mean? Stop the devil from bothering you. Whatever that that kind of elementary 101 level, understand it, right.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:55

To it actually transforms your life. Like it, it has deep implications for how my life can turn out. Like the future of I have a I have a bigger worldview. Um Harlem is is no longer the the extent of what my life can be. Being a shrimp boat captain like my dad. I would have never done that, but that's not the extent of it. Or being, you know, a house cleaner. Like these are the that's the lineage of my family, you know. Um, in no shade. Like that's we were hardworking people of the soil, of the sea. We served all of that kind of stuff, but there was no lid on my capacity now once I realized that the gospel was what gave me this opportunity. And so, yeah, I got called in the missions. I mean, that changed my life. So you're talking about 15, 16, 17, um, I went all over the world. So I went from there to Belize, to Venezuela, to South Africa, and then after high school graduated, lived in Copenhagen, Denmark for two years. After Copenhagen, moved back here, and then that's the beginning of another era. That's amazing. But um, but yeah, it was like, oh yeah, my life has no rails because Jesus gave me this opportunity of like the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I have come to bring you life and life to the full. And I that life to the full part, like I I experienced that at 15, 16 years old.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

That's amazing. Yeah. Then something happened, right? Uh, some kind of lady came into your life.

SPEAKER_04 28:35

That's right. So I met my uh then girlfriend in Copenhagen.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 28:40

Uh we met on the missions trip in South Africa. Okay. She's from a small town in Wisconsin. So a group of kids from Wisconsin and a group of kids from Fort Myers worked that same summer camp in South Africa. So she was in that group, and then when I moved to Copenhagen, she was a part of that group. So I was half Danish, half American, about 25 students. And um, she was in that group and we started dating there. And uh, so we've been together uh longer than we were apart in life.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

How many years have you been married now? 20, it'll be 22 this year. 22, man. Great. Oh, wow, that's amazing. That's a blessing, bro. Uh Amy and myself have been married, uh, we'll be 27 soon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I don't know how she's put up with me for all these things. You know, if you need a proof that God exists, that's it right there. Um tell me a little bit about the marriage.

SPEAKER_04 29:36

Yeah, it's unique. You know, I um, you know, she's from a small town in Wisconsin town of 5,000. Obviously, I'm black from the South and all of that. We meet in Europe, date, and all of that for a couple of years, get married here uh um after Hurricane Charlie, 2004. Wow, yeah. And um, and so we can't be more different. Like Taylor Swift, Swifty, all the things, and I'm hip-hop, rap, like, and there's no crossover. There's no like, oh yeah, this was no, there's no, now I can, I'm a flex, I'm gonna do some 80s pop, I'm gonna do some. My dad was heavy in the country. So my range is great, yeah. Incredible range. Yeah. Hers is I'm a Swifty. Like, now my daughter's into the Swifty thing and bracelets and the whole deal. So, like, it's it we're very distinct.

SPEAKER_03 30:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:40

She is who she is, and a lot of times that we've had in our marriage, people assume because you're in an interracial marriage, yeah, that somebody culturally has assimilated to the other. So either she's become more ghetto and acts more black and talks more black and has assimilated closer to my culture or what they think.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

Or I've turned into Carlton from the Fresh Prince. I've lost my edge, there's no cool factor, he's all in with this white girl, and da da da. Oh, man. We are not. Like, I am me, and she is her. And if you didn't know we were married to one another, you would not guess in a million years. But what it has proven is um what I believe about the body of Christ. These different parts, these different cultures, these different things unified under one banner. That's our covenant with one another. We we got tight, we became best friends based on when she the three or four months before she moved to Copenhagen, her father passed away. And then my dad died, you know, what was it, five years before that, when I was 13. So my best friend tells me, hey, you might want to hang out with Erin, because she's processing a lot of the things that you went through. So our bond is built on shared experience, shared pain, shared like process and grief together. Not, you know, oh, she was just the hottest, smoking as thing. Like it was not passion driven, it was friendship and relationship driven.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

That's pretty healthy there. That's a lot of health there in that friendship, relationship. You know, it's not that external, it's that internal bond that you're, you know.

SPEAKER_04 32:27

Yeah, so it's interesting because yesterday she was questioned about our marriage because we're so different. And they were like, so y'all don't do things together. Yeah, we like eat dinner in like hot, like it's hard to find a show. It's hard to find you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

You sound like my wife and I too. This is I don't think you're abnormal at all.

SPEAKER_04 32:47

I don't think so either.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

We're in the same boat, too. That's true.

SPEAKER_04 32:50

We love each other, that's who we're into. Yes, but outside of that, it's like do your thing. You do your thing. Yes, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

So in fact, Amy loves it when I go do my thing. Like, she's like, good, more time for me to relax. Exactly. I'm a chatter.

SPEAKER_04 33:03

Right, exactly. So my wife would uh uh an audiobook and a puzzle at night is great, you know what I mean? It's like I'm like, nah, there's some alarm orders on or whatever, and you know, she's let's just sit and chat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's like, nah, nah.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Anyway, we got a lot in common in that.

SPEAKER_04 33:21

So I'm super, so I'm like, man, that's the basis of our relationship, but that's what the body is. Yeah, it's distinct parts, but it's the covenantal love that holds us together.

SPEAKER_03 33:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:34

And it creates a new culture. So it's not my culture or her culture, it's our Mitchell family culture. It's just what it is, it's just what it is. So Gabby's free, my daughter, free to listen to the Swifties and do all the things that they do. Yeah. And my boys are free to listen to the stuff they like to do.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

All the things they like to do.

SPEAKER_04 33:54

Yeah, whatever it is, you know. And so, but it's a new and distinct culture that we've created together versus there being some sort of so yeah, on uh holidays. God's good. God's good on that. Holidays is a mix.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

It's good. God's good. Yes, that's all I can say on the relationship. You know, there, you know, I always made a joke before like Amy and I have been married, and like in the day it was like 25 years. I said, but happy too, you know. She was happy too, you know. And then she's like, Whoa, I got a lot of training to do with this guy. That's right. There's a lot of training needed. And uh boy, she stuck with me. I'll tell you, bless her heart. Something that is in your story, I want to get to. Yeah. Ready to feel unstoppable? Hit chill cold plunge in Cape Coral. Now with two locations on Del Prado and Chiquita. Cold plunge, recovery, and total reset, all in one place. Boost your energy, crush inflammation, and get back to your best. Well, get to chill in Cape Coral. Take the plunge today. Their phone number is 239-204-5778. That's 239-204-5778. A little bit of a health crisis comes up.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Um, now, are you pastoring at this time or what's going on as far as your ministry-wise? Because uh currently you're you're a pastor, and you could talk about that and tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_04 35:12

Yeah, so I was called to ministry, obviously, when I was 15, 16, and then never stopped. So whether it started with Sunday school, teaching different things, yeah. And then when I went to Copenhagen, we were doing ministry there, studying missions and all of that. Um, then came back with the intention to go to Bible college and uh just got in the workforce instead and wanted to make money. So, but I was serving still at First Assembly on the team, starting ministries, creating different stuff. So doing all of that kind of stuff. Um my mom passes away at 22. Um, so we were me and Aaron were newlyweds at that time. So that put a pause on some of the things that I was doing because that's when I had my crisis of faith. Um just to say, God, I thought I did everything right. Here I am, a teenager that comes to faith. All right, I understand my dad died. Hey, you lose some, you win some, you lose some, okay. But you can't take my mom too, and then end up having to raise then Danielle and Isaiah, my younger brother and sister. Wow. And then my wife gets sick with Crohn's disease. She was diagnosed that same within a day of my mom passing away. Wow. So all of that creates the perfect storm for a crisis of faith. What is it that I actually believe? Who is God? Is he really good? All of those things.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

And who's he say I am?

SPEAKER_04 36:41

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

It's identity.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

Right. And I don't know because so much of what I've been taught is just like the more you do, it's kind of like weighing the scales. If I put more on the good side, then I can I can count on blessings coming my way. When the praises go up, the blessings come down, or whatever cliche you want to add, those are the theological kind of uh constructs that people a lot of Christians live within until there's a crisis. So for me, I was like, all right, God, uh I'm not really feeling you right now. Because I've done all this this good stuff, and um my mom's gone now. Like my mom's gone, my my wife's sick, and my brother and sister.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

A lot of performance and all that. Yeah. A lot of performance.

SPEAKER_04 37:29

But you don't think uh and I don't think I'm performing, it's not conscious, yeah. But you're just weighing the scales. You're like, man, I'm doing what's good. And there's you know, there's a lot of weird theology out there.

SPEAKER_03 37:40

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 37:41

You know, um, that would kind of edge to that. That you know, God helps those who help themselves, and none of that stuff is in the Bible, but you know, God helps those who can't help themselves. That's the whole point of grace. But people are still out here performing. I'm gonna go to church, I've gotta pay my tithes, I gotta da da da da da da da. I gotta be there Wednesday night, Sunday morning, I gotta serve on the team, I gotta like as if God, this whole thing isn't based on grace. So I have to come to the realization to what you said earlier in this conversation. Charlie, I chose you, you never chose me, bruh. You never came looking for me. Like Jesus is explicit with the disciples. I you listen, guys, guys, you didn't choose me, I chose you.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:32

And not in the weird uh Calvinistic, we you don't have choice, yeah. But he so loves us, we would never go looking for him. So once I kind of came to that realization of God, why can't I reject you and die in this dark season? Why can't I know my mom said that, you know, apart from the body is to be present with the Lord, and but she should be here with me in this grief. She should be here and all these different things. It's like, Charlie, listen, where would you be without me at all? And I'm like, oh man, okay, um, never thought about it like that. And that's where I think a lot of people really need to sit with Job sometimes, because I felt like Job in that season. And justify.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

But interesting enough, you were sitting in the seat of sonship where you're able to hear God's voice to be into that season of Job.

SPEAKER_04 39:36

Well, you you gotta go through it. Like it's the fire.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Yeah, it's the refinery's fire.

SPEAKER_04 39:42

Because some people try to spiritually bypass it and try to dismiss it, some people try to suppress it, some people give God both middle fingers. And it's like, listen, he can handle all of it, but if there is that aspect of you, because I would go to church, I would not go to church, I would skip church. I would not, you know, you do all the things in those weird seasons, right? And I'm I'm at some point, I might be driving down the road and I'm like, man, why do I even care about this? My brothers and sisters, like my brothers and my older siblings, my brothers were selling drugs, my sisters were living their life. Like, they had no care about God, no care of responsibility, no, so I had a model for what life could look like without this pressure or this thought. So here I am. Well, God, why am I even talking to you about this if the if the mechanism doesn't work? It was like, yeah, because the mechanism is not you working, it's me holding you. It's me carrying you, it's me supporting you. And so I just said, Oh, okay, once I came to that, and then that's when you walk through Job's story and you see, yeah, he he accuses God of all these things, which from his vantage point, he doesn't know what's happening in the spiritual, why he's there, and he didn't do anything, it wasn't his fault per se. But then God retorts to him and says, Okay, now where were you? Because I've got receipts of my own, you know.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:14

And so I'm like, oh, yeah, well, let me put my receipts away now that we've had our conversation.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

I mean, this is the king of kings, this is the god of the universe, the creator of all things, right? Come on, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:26

So, Charlie, you go out to the ocean to recalibrate, and I'm the one who sustains the entire universe. What are we talking about? And I'm like, oh, oh, oh yeah, Jesus, yeah, that is you. My bad. I, you know, I did. I'm a little sad though. And he can handle the sadness, yeah. He can handle the grief.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:45

But I was able to, that's where real, genuine faith, I believe, is developed. Because it doesn't make it comfortable. And it doesn't mean that I like the stuff. I don't always like the answers that God gives. But now, as a father, I gotta give answers to my kids that they don't enjoy, but I know it's for their good. Like they don't know that I'm thinking about their ultimate good, and they're reacting to me as if I'm a bad father. Yeah. Why can't I go? Why can't I do? Yeah. Why can't I get? And all these different things. We should just. How can how about this? So there's all these negotiations, but they should. Right. Yeah. But they don't know the context with which I'm looking at this situation, or I'm creating environments for them to be able to grow in their character, their development, all these things. I I got a wider range of a context. But I don't, they don't know that. Des just won't let me, you know, do what I want to do right now. But that's where I'm like, okay, now, Lord, yeah, I'm able to then live into the calling of ministry to your to your point.

SPEAKER_03 43:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:02

Versus perform the ministry.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

And then you get into the season that you talked about going through some health issues yourself. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that and God's hand and all that. Because this is this is amazing.

SPEAKER_04 43:18

Yeah, so we planted a church, moved from here, went up north, planted a church in Baltimore. Uh within a week, uh, within three to four weeks of moving to Baltimore, I was diagnosed with stage four kidney disease. 35% kidney function, no friends, no family, no relationships in this strange city that I'm there to start a church from scratch. We don't know where Target Walmart is. We like there's boxes still in the house. Wow. So you get this diagnosis. Uh, the prognosis is not good. It was, they don't know why my kidney disease accelerated at the rate it. Did I didn't know? Like I knew I had high blood pressure back from, you know, a lot of that. My therapist would go back and say, I think you just can't, you, you just learn how to navigate with a lot of pressure on your and your body absorbed it. So back to the ulcers when I was a kid and all of that. So it just shows up in your kidneys for whatever reason, high blood pressure. Like you just you keep it cool on the surface, but beneath the surface, um, your body's racking up all these scars, you know. I'm like, okay, the prognosis is not good. It's like, hey, you got about two years and you're gonna have to go on dialysis or get a transplant. And you're very young, you know, you can live quite a long time on dialysis. Now, I'm thinking now, Erin, my wife is a nurse. I'm thinking to myself, dialysis changes your lifestyle. It's three to four days if you go into a facility on a machine for five, six hours at a time. It's a lot of recuperating time, so on and so forth. It like, it really debilitates your body. It's a miracle drug for cancer pain, no, for kidney uh failure.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:18

But if you're if you're relatively healthy, it does it's just it's just a hard way to live. Um or I can attach myself to a machine at night while I sleep, and it'll clean my blood while I'm sleeping. I don't like needles, I don't like none of that. So none of this is looking good. Or you got to get a transplant. And so, yeah, man, it was that was a two-year prognosis. Mind you, we don't have friends, we don't have nothing, and I'm supposed to be there to start a church that would then support us in so like there's no job, I'm fundraising.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

And you spoke about pressure? Yeah, yeah, right. And you're getting kidney problems, too. Right. Yeah. Like this is a double double-edged sword.

SPEAKER_04 46:04

Oh, bruh. So we do the deal, we plant the church in 2017, um, it goes well. I changed my lifestyle. Say, all right, Lord, if you called me, you'll make a way. Um, because we're here now. I parachuted into the city and I can't tucktail and run.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

That's a good way of saying it.

SPEAKER_04 46:24

You know, and so I'm just like, Lord, if you called us, you'll sustain us. You knew this was gonna be here. And so I changed my lifestyle. I did everything I I could do. So lost uh probably about 100 pounds, walked every day, drank tons of water, did all the things you were supposed to do, extended the life of my kidneys. So extended them, what was that, 2017 to 2023? So made it through COVID. COVID, I was at 20% at the beginning of COVID, got COVID, and it took them down to 10%.

SPEAKER_01 47:03

Now these are both of your kidneys. Yes. Not just one. Not just one. We're talking two. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 47:08

I was at 35% kidney function in total.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 47:13

So extended the life of those jokers. Just like, hey, if y'all work with me, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the treatment. You know what I mean? Hey, listen, just roll with me, fellas. You know what I mean? And they did. They they went they went the distance.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 47:34

I got down to 10% kidney function.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:38

Still a lot of pride, still a lot of, I saw how my dad was treated when he got sick. You know how you you know now I have a church. If I tell these people the reality of what I'm going through, you know what's going to happen. Oh, Pastor Charlie, oh, do you can't do this? And so I'll have all these people policing me. I've already got my wife, I've got my three kids, like they're in the know. Maybe select friends are in the know, but I've not told everybody this is my weakness and vulnerability.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

You shared that at the last men's conference I went to. Your story, you're like, Yeah, you don't want to tell anybody what you're going through when it first started, right? Right.

SPEAKER_04 48:19

But what a good analogy, though.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

Yeah, they're gonna treat you because of how they're going to treat you. But your sermon on that, yeah, from the state, you remember it? Yeah, yeah. Can you parallel that just a little bit for the listeners? Just a little touch of that, because that was so good about hiding your sin, hiding your stuff. Like it it's gonna come out.

SPEAKER_04 48:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Either way, and it's a lot to do with your testimony, too. Yeah, yeah. All that stuff is that little boy, that little Charlie, dealing with trying to hang it, trying to hold it all together. Come on. And then here it comes.

SPEAKER_04 48:52

Yeah, so wow. When I therapy, my wife, my doctor, yeah, Charlie, you gotta tell people. You're at the point now where you gotta get a transplant or you're going on dialysis. Like, you've done great, you've extended the life of your kidneys, that's doing good, but 10%, the fact that you're not on a machine already is a miracle. You gotta start telling people. I go to my co-founder, Trevor. Trev, I can't do it, bruh. Man, I can't do it. Like, these people, they're gonna treat me weird and all this. And uh he's like, Charlie, you've raised so much money for this church, you've raised money for us. Like, bro, you can you can raise a kidney. I can't raise no kidney. A body part? Like, people give you money, but not a kidney. Like, what is this, the black market? I know I'm pretty good at doing my job, but not that good. Yeah. Literally, he goes, All right, we're gonna turn on the camera and we're gonna record. I'm gonna I'm gonna share a bit of your story because people don't know how you navigate this. So I don't know, it might still be on YouTube or Facebook somewhere. And he tells my story of what it's like for me, the mental load that I carry is today to day that my kidneys fail and I gotta go get on dialysis. We share a story, send it out, post it. A woman is driving on the road, she sees a bumper sticker, unbeknownst to me. Sees a bumper sticker that says, My son needs this kind of blood, you know? Because sometimes families will do these kinds of campaigns for a loved one. So she comes home, she says, The Holy Spirit tells me I need to give a kidney. I'm healthy, I don't know who, I don't know when, but would it be okay if I if I give a kidney if it if there's a need? And her husband, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It'd be fine. The next day, my video pops up on her feed on Facebook. She said, the kidney's for Charlie. Now, we were we're we're friends, but kind of loose acquaintances. People you see at the grocery store, oh, we should get together.

SPEAKER_03 50:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:58

You might have dinner that year, once or twice that year. Yeah. Because they're really cool, but for some reason, they're just not in your orbit all the time. So those were days, they were those kinds of friends. And um so for her to respond in that way, I'm like, I don't remember us being that tight, but she literally said, Charlie, when we were in our relationship dating, her and her now husband, you were very kind to me and warm to me entering into the friend circle. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Charlie's just out there being Charlie.

SPEAKER_04 51:39

Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean? He's got a girlfriend, new girlfriend, won't be a jerk. Like, I like the last one. Like, what is that? But anyway, but she said also, I I I loved your passion for the Lord and your genuine and authentic relationship with God.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_04 51:57

And so I'm just like, okay. And um, so she went through the whole process, and so that's whose kidney I have right now today. Wow. 2020, March 29th, 2023, um, was my kidney transplant.

SPEAKER_01 52:12

Hmm. So God rolled another stone out of your way there.

SPEAKER_04 52:18

Oh, Doc. Big one.

SPEAKER_01 52:20

Someone going through the similar thing, what kind of encouragement would you have for them? Um they're listening today, they're having some of that kidney health issues or just holding it all in.

SPEAKER_04 52:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

What would you say?

SPEAKER_04 52:37

The scariest part is being honest about where you are. Like just be honest. And and so, because one once you're honest about where you are, then we can take steps in whatever direction.

SPEAKER_03 52:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:55

But the holding it in and trying to contain all those things, it comes out sideways. So, what I mean, it'll come out in sickness, it'll come out in the fits of rage, it'll come out in the depressive seasons, it'll come out in the headaches and the back pains. It shows up in all these different, these weird things, these weird maladies, or show up in your relationships. Why you keep self-sabotaging the dating relationship? Why do you keep self-sabotaging the conversations? Because it gets too close to something that you don't want people to see. So once I was able to, whether it was with the doctors giving me a diagnosis, Charlie, this is where your kidneys are. You might be 35, 36, 37 years old, but your kidneys are at 35%. If we don't do something now, we can't move forward. Now you can keep acting like, oh no, I ain't got no problem. No, I'm like, you see me, I feel great. I don't have any pain. I I would say all of those things. And my and I was on the verge of death. But once I was able to vocalize those things, and so that's the first part. Be honest about where you are with yourself and before God. A lot of times we say, Well, I can't test God's goodness. I can't be mad at him. Yet he can handle you being mad, disappointed, frustrated. Jeremiah is very clear. You lied to me. You in the book of Jeremiah, he's so explicit. You bamboozled me, you hoodwinked me, you like, you got me in a racket because you made me believe this was all gonna be great, and it's not great. He's really angry with God.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:41

And we all, and you know who we quote the most when we have all these hopes and dreams? Jeremiah. For I know the plans I have for you, thus says the Lord. Yeah, 11 years. And Jeremiah in a few more chapters is gonna be so angry with God because the outcomes he wants are not the ones he's experiencing.

SPEAKER_03 55:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:01

So be honest with him, and then we can start to take healthy steps forward. The second, so that's that's that part.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:09

Um, be honest. Uh, second is involve other people, like bring people into the journey with you. Don't do that stuff alone.

SPEAKER_03 55:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:20

Um, I just thought that's how you were supposed to do it. My dad taught me how to do it, so I'm supposed to do it like this. No, get wise counsel, walk with people, um, let them carry your burdens. That's the when we look at the New Testament, the one-anotherings. Love one another, care for one another, carry one another's burdens, all of that. But we live in an atomized uh society. Everybody's their own person, everybody's an individual. Nobody understands what I go through. Nobody gets it. Yeah, you there's nothing new under the sun. And so I know it might be unique to you. My story might sound very unique, but there's people that have lost parents before. There's people that have had kidney disease before. There's people that have been a father of three kids before. Like there's there's these, there's people that lived in Southwest Florida before. So I don't have to come up with everything myself. And when I bring them into it, they're able to carry things in the way. And it was, that was the biggest news I got. Why didn't you tell me? Bro, I thought we were friends. I thought we was, I mean, I had friends from Europe, yeah, to America, to the Northeast, to the West Coast. Why didn't you tell me? And it it made me, it I had to grieve. Because I'm like, I didn't want to put that on you. It was like, you what are you talking about? Put that on me. We are friends.

SPEAKER_01 56:46

Or family.

SPEAKER_04 56:47

This is what we do.

SPEAKER_01 56:49

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:50

So for you to not engage me with this is to diminish what it is I thought we had. So there's always been a question since I was 13, my dad dying, and and and being exposed to death so early and so often. Um, because there were other people that passed away and relatives and all of that, is who will be there at my funeral? Like who will be there? Is anybody gonna be there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see? And I had to go through this moment to see who I think would be there. And I got a glimpse without having to die to see, oh Charlie, you've got real people. Yeah. Like you've got a you've got a real community. And it was it was the strangest thing when I when it when that washed over me. Charlie, I'm answering the question that you can't. I had to allow crisis to come to answer a childhood question. Will anybody be there for me if I go down? Man, I had I think about my friend Chaz. Me and Chaz were tight in high school. He was the high school quarterback, cool kid. He was always trying to recruit me to play football. I never played. But we became best friends. I get a package in the mail when it's time for my transplant. No return address and no nothing. Open it up. It's a custom blanket with Charlie, like Charlie in big letters, and then Psalm 23 written out, like with a little picturesque little landscape. So this is the package that comes. Like you get gifts and well-wishing stuff, cards. But there's no card in the pack. There's no nothing. It's just Charlie custom uh blanket. All right. It is a full-size blanket. So I don't know what to do with this thing. It's white, it's plush. It's like it's one of those Hallmark little gifts. So I'm like, what church woman got this thing for me? Like, uh, and uh so I have to go on Facebook. I'm like, hey, thank you to whoever got me this gift.

SPEAKER_01 59:05

Amen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:06

And uh, because I kind of want to know, so I can at least acknowledge you. Thank you. And then Chaz texts me. Now, Chaz, I don't know, Chaz might go to church, he might not. Chaz has always kind of been like, hey, can you pray for me for this thing? Like, can you do a reading for me? I'm like, what's a reading? Like, you know, you like talk to God, like for me. Uh, yeah, but you can do it yourself, Chaz. So, like, we've always had that kind of, but in a crisis, yo, I could call Charlie and he could rock with me.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

He'd be right there, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:37

So I put that post up, I get a text from Chaz. Hey, bruh, that was from me. I just wanted you to know I love you. I'm like, dang. All these years you've been second guessing and wondering. And so for a person going through these things, they second guess and they wonder. They're sitting in the hospital by themselves, sitting in these doctor's appointments by themselves. But there's a there's a great cloud of witnesses, not just in the heavens, but here on earth that would love to walk alongside you, you know. So those are my two points of do what the doctor tells you. Like, do what they tell you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:14

But man, be honest and then bring people in close. That's good, Charlie.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

Charlie, man, it's been a pleasure. I'm telling you, man, from hearing about you holding it all in and giving it all out to the place of being under pressure and God squeezing that out of you, allowing you to walk in the freedom of who he says you are.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

Thanks for being on the Three Dubs Podcast, bro.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:36

Man, thank you for having me, Jason.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:38

It's our pleasure, man. Thank you. And today's conversation with Charlie Mitchell reminds us that pain can shape us, loss can mature us, and suffering can either harden our hearts or draw us closer to God. Through grief, illness, family struggles, and uncertainty, Charlie kept moving forward one step at a time. And if you're carrying weight, you are never meant to carry it alone. Yet, let this episode remind you that there's still hope. There are people who care and a God who provides for your every need. Thanks for listening to the Three Doves Podcast. And if any portion of this podcast encourages you, please share it with your friends and family. And as always, God bless.