Cailin: Welcome everyone to Faith and Purpose Podcast.
Each episode of this podcast contains the personal testimony of an ordinary person
transformed by an extraordinary guide.
My name is Kaylyn, and I'm here to introduce this podcast
for my friend Jesse Duke.
Jesse is a husband, father, author, life recovery guide, lay
counselor, and small group leader.
But his most important role is disciple as a disciple of Jesus.
Jesse created this podcast to help other believers tell their faith stories.
We'll be hearing the personal testimonies of all sorts of people
who have one thing in common.
Jesus has transformed their lives.
Jesus used parables because he created us to learn best through story.
And as we listen to how God has worked in others' lives, we find encouragement
and inspiration for our own faith walk.
Whether you are already a believer or just a curious seeker, we believe that
as you listen to these stories, you will be encouraged on your own faith journey.
We are sure that God can speak to you through one of these episodes and that
you will see that our Heavenly Father truly works all things together for our
good when we simply love and trust him.
If you are currently going through a trial, we believe that you will come
to see that your troubles, heartbreaks and failures are not gravestones, but
stepping stones into new life in Christ.
Here's Jesse with today's guest.
Welcome everyone to Faith and Purpose Podcast today.
I'm very happy and grateful to my friends Johnny Burbank and Pastor
Zach Terry, a First Baptist Church, Ferna Beach, Florida, for allowing
me to include an episode from Pastor Zach's podcast, code Red.
I had asked Johnny Burbank to be on my podcast but Pastor Zach had already gotten
to him and had done a great interview.
it was so well done.
I knew I couldn't add anything to it, so I asked, and they both graciously agreed to.
Let me use the audio of that interview for Faith and Purpose Podcast.
You can see the video.
On any podcast platform at Code Red with Zach Terry, that's ZACH,
Terry, and he has some excellent and expiring interviews there with other
believers that I know you would enjoy.
So check it out.
I'll put a link to it in the show notes.
But for now, here's the audio version of Zach Terry.
And Johnny Burbank.
I didn't do any editing, so here's the entire story.
I know you'll be blessed by it.
Johnny Burbank, it's good to have you in the Code Red Studio today.
I'm glad to be here.
Well, we came down almost eight years ago.
Our family came down and I met you as a leader in the church that
I was soon to be pastor of, and.
From all I knew.
You just had the perfect background, perfect childhood.
You had always walked with Jesus and kind of assumed a role of leadership as a, a
deacon in our church and all those things.
But I've come to know, 'cause if anybody's met you, you tell your story pretty quick.
Little did you know, little did I know it wasn't quite as rosy.
It was as I assumed it was, but I don't regret regret any of it.
And, uh, it was quite a journey.
So still ongoing.
Yeah.
Awesome story of redemption as we are all trophies of grace.
Amen.
But it's, it's really, uh, as I came to hear the old Johnny, uh,
I think, I think people kind of considered you a, a lovable drunk.
Right?
Right.
It's probably kind of an Otis.
Oh, we, yeah.
Around here had many a good time, you know, and, uh, yeah.
How, how did you end up in that, in that situation?
Well, uh, growing up at the docks, you know, in a, uh, netting and we was
building shrimp nets, you know, our whole life grew up, which is a big industry.
A big industry.
Yeah.
I mean, at eight years old, my grandfather was teaching me the business and,
and later went in and worked with my brothers and my father, and we were
the largest net makers in the world.
And, uh, built nests for n Rockwell, El Salvador, Honduras, all the east coast.
And, and uh, and in, in that though, it was also a lot of, uh, alcohol involved
in that environment down at the docks so the largest net manufacturers in
the world, international operation.
And you grow up around, um, those kind of guys, which.
Alcohol's involved in that.
Yes.
It, you know, parties and, uh, we'd have parties at the net shop and, uh, all
the shrimpers would come and everything.
And so alcohol was involved and, and really and truly, I, uh, my,
my mother and father were both alcoholics and I, did they know, did
they know that they were alcoholics?
We didn't even know what alcoholics was back then.
We, you know, it was just a, a normal way.
It was a way of life.
We thought everybody, you know, kind of growing up, we thought everybody
was kind of like that, you know?
Yeah.
And, uh, great people, don't get me wrong, they called my dad Captain Daddy,
and they called my mom, captain Mama.
The, the locals and the young people were always welcome at our house,
and you got thrown outta your house.
You come live with us, that type of thing.
Right.
I was the youngest of four brothers and, uh, and our household was
like that, but we hit, you know, they worked, we grew up working
hard and we had like a keg of beer.
And the refrigerator would tap on side.
So three o'clock every day.
It was just a normal thing.
We had to wait on Daddy to get one.
Soon as daddy got got him a colon, then everybody keep, it was pregame then.
But what'd you say?
About three o'clock?
Yeah, about three o'clock.
Yeah.
That's called.
How old were you when you had your first drink?
Uh, probably at one of those shrimp boat parties, probably around, I
don't know, nine or 10 years old.
Okay.
Uh, and did it start out with, uh, beer?
Was it hard liquor or beer?
We start, you know, drinking beer and, uh, and then liquor and then,
you know, just whatever down the road.
And, and did, did you, did you sense at all the, the danger that
could be connected with, with alcohol at an early age, or was
it just culturally what you knew?
Just culturally what we knew, you know, it was.
But I, well, I knew it was, you know, you knew it was dysfunctional,
but it was something that you, you, you needed to work through.
I mean, in our household, if, you know somebody run into the house
with the car, you know, they'd, oh, we gotta get the brakes fixed.
Or somebody fall down the steps coming down off the deck or the next, they'd
have you out of paint the steps.
Right.
Putting sand in it.
The steps was slippery, you know?
Yeah.
And things of that nature, you know what I mean?
They never had nothing to do with alcohol, but, right.
But there was, I knew there was something wrong with it.
I mean, my mother and father at night, after all of my other brothers had
left at, uh, at night, they would, they would just about sometimes fight
and about kill each other, you know?
And then the next morning we're sitting at the table, they're asking
me about school, you know, and I'm like, school, you know, Hey, hey, we
about killed each other last night.
Now we're gonna talk about, you know what I mean?
Right.
It was dysfunctional.
Totally.
How, how was your dad able to, to grow that business and run
that, operate that business?
Well, he had four boys that.
That I look back on it, you know, he had us there and, and uh, and picked
up the slack and he worked hard.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I mean, we, we all worked hard and it, it was a great business to be in as far
as fulfilling from, you know, we, uh, shrimpers all the way down the east coast.
That was their livelihood.
And, uh, and when the, during the season and all, sometimes they'd
go out and tear up all their nets.
I'd be going in the next day, had a game plan of all, everything I was
going to do, you know, and I'd get there, there'd be some shrimper backed
up there to the door, been there all night, maybe drove from South Carolina,
North Carolina, Pam Co sound, you know.
But he'd be sitting there and, uh, with every, all his nets in the back.
And so, you know, it was on us.
I'd get him all fixed back up, get him going back to take care
of his family, you know, and that's, that's how we got known as.
And, and, uh, we, we made friends with all those Trumpers all those years.
And the, our background, you know, a little bit of my story,
my, my dad's father was a severe alcoholic and they had 12 children.
And it was the kind of thing, you know, it affects different
people different ways, right.
But he was, he was mean.
Right?
So when he would drink, he, you know, some people, life of the party, whatever.
Yeah.
Um, he, he brought a violence out in him.
Yeah.
And growing up, as you said in that context, it's just normal to you.
But, you know, he dad said he never, never heard his father say, I love you.
Right this entire life, you know, I had a uncle, uncle Frank, he was an
alcoholic too, and, uh, uncle Frank.
Uh, wound up in Texas and he finally left Texas and he came
back to live here and work with us.
And, uh, he, he came in one day and, you know, and, and he called my dad,
dad, it was actually his brother, but he said, Hey dad, he said, I need help.
And Daddy said, what's the matter?
Yeah.
Outta liquor, you know, that was buying him cases of gin at that time, you know?
And, and Frank said, no, I got, I gotta quit.
And, and my dad, I remember that quit.
You know, how do you do that?
They don't, didn't, nobody knew that concept about quit.
So, but there was a, there was a gentleman in town that, that we knew.
I just call him Nick, and he was like the town drunk.
He was the oldest back then, and he got sober and then he went on and ran a whole
fleet of boats for Solomon down in Key West and all just a real brilliant man.
And, uh.
After he got sober.
Wow.
And, and so Daddy knew we knew him, you know, knew that.
Yeah.
So he called him up and, uh, so me, he came, got my uncle and took him to a
charter by the sea, his place up on St.
Simons Island.
Mm-hmm.
And my uncle went in there, 28 day program.
He came out and never drank again.
And, uh, so then we, we rock on.
And, uh, and then, so by this time, I'm about 27 years old, married two
children, and I've done alcohol, had, doesn't consume my life, you know, it's
just, and alcoholics we call, when you cross that line, there's no going back.
And it doesn't happen for everybody.
Everybody's not an alcoholic.
Everybody's not an addict.
They don't, you know, they never cross that line.
And, uh, and some people can drink and they, they might find a, a problem
with it or whatever, and they can quit.
But a true alcoholic or addict, whatever, once they cross that line,
there's no going back, you know?
So.
Okay.
Were there periods of sobriety or was it just Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
It, and when, and actually at, uh, at age 27 and, uh, me and me and my wife Robin,
we decided it was time for us to grow up.
Now Robin was raised in church.
She was raised at First Baptist Church, and, uh, my family was Episcopalian
and, uh, when we went, you know, and, uh, my mother though, she was a
Baptist from way cross Georgia, and she sang around the piano, sang gospels,
hymns with her, her mother playing to Oregon with her brothers and all.
But she came down and married my dad.
And, and she, that's when she became an alcoholic.
And she also had back injuries on her.
She had back problems and she was on Valium, on prescription drugs.
And they, they took her out at age 42.
Alcohol and then, uh, and prescription drugs, kidney
failure is what took her out.
How, how old were you?
I was 16.
16 years old.
And it was a big blow in my life.
But I remember my, Jay, I remember mama when she would try to,
we didn't know anything about alcoholics or even addicts back then.
It wasn't taught much.
And it was ironic.
We went by a AA building downtown behind the library, drove by it every day, going
to work, didn't even know what it was.
Mm-hmm.
And didn't know, you know, didn't know anything about alcohol.
That's anonymous or anything.
But anyhow, I.
When my mother would try to clean herself up, or when she try to quit
on her own, I would, you know, I'd immediately, immediately notice it and
she'd ask me to go to church with her.
And I was the youngest, uh, of the boys, you know, and I was her baby.
And I, here it was when we'd go to the Episcopal church and we'd go in
there and she'd light that place up.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, sing like an angel, and everybody in there knew it.
And they tried to get her to join the choir and everything else too.
But, and I can, all I can remember then Zach was the Jesus, the stainless windows
behind the altar and the Episcopal church.
It was Jesus Peter on one side and Mary on the other.
I think that's how it is, you know, uh, up there.
And that's who I was praying to.
And I all, I can remember praying, I was like, God, please keep my mama like this.
You know, please keep my mama like this.
And that and her sober moments, you praying that the Lord would
keep sober, praying, keep, keep her sober, but it didn't, and the end.
And uh, and she ended up it, she ended up dying.
And, uh, you know, you mentioned with your uncle and, and also with your mother,
the, that they had such talent, gifts, and ability when they were sober, but,
but alcohol and, you know, any addiction, I don't wanna make it all just alcohol.
It could be so many things that people just give their life over to slowly.
Yeah.
And one of the things I found with men is if they're not motivated to say, well, I.
You know, Hey, my family's fine.
My wife tolerates it.
My kids love me.
They'll forgive me if I mess up.
Or, uh, whatever, whatever the motive may be.
If a man can see how much potential is being robbed from him through alcoholism
or pills or whatever it might be, uh, that in itself can motivate a man if they
see it, if they see it, if they see it.
Right.
And some do.
Right?
Some do, but a lot don't.
What is it they used to say of the Irish, if it hadn't been for alcohol,
they would've ruled the world.
Right.
And really, there's a lot of truth.
And, and you know.
Yeah.
And, uh, you find out that, that a lot of people that I've helped and, and,
you know, alcoholics and addicts, their personality, they're smart people.
They're, and not saying that I am, I, I might be one of the few, but
that's not, but I'm just teasing.
But you find out that they are.
Uh, productive.
And when I say that the disease, alcoholism and, and drug
addiction and all of it, and it, it could even be depression.
It's a slow, it's a slow fade.
Mm-hmm.
You hear that song about it and it just happens over time, time
it gets worse and worse and worse.
I mean, there's signs that start happening.
It gets worse and worse and worse.
And for me, that's when it was about 27 years old.
They did an intervention on me and, uh, my wife and my, my oldest brothers, my
bro, all my brothers, and even my father.
And they were still drinking.
They're alcoholics.
They still, but they knew, you know, that I needed help.
Well, that's what I was telling you about my uncle, that he
went and charter by the sea.
He got sober, come out.
So naturally they gonna load me up and take me to charter by the sea.
And of course, so I go to Charter by Sea, 27 years old.
And so how so they, they staged the intervention.
How did, how did it hit you?
Was it offensive to you?
Was it No, I knew.
You knew?
I already knew.
And, and I'd already tried to quit on my own, uh, in that, in, uh, just
wasn't able to do it even at that age.
And, uh, and they did an intervention on me.
And I thought, okay, so I went and I went and told by sea and I knew, uh, without
a shadow of doubt, I was an alcoholic.
I mean, everything they said made sense, everything.
And I was introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous then.
And, uh, everything knew.
I, I knew and I had all the good intentions, but I came back and, and
I, I, I didn't stay sober long at all.
You know what I mean?
I got back out.
Mm-hmm.
I went back to drinking.
And when you, when you would go through that.
Did you think to yourself Just one drink and then I'll get my phone?
Wh Oh yeah.
Just it's, it's, right.
Well, well, and it's different stages, you know, that first you always think
you can control it and it, and uh, for me that's, that was one of the biggest
things is, is I was, it was embarrassing that something like that could whoop me.
'cause I, I just, I was raised up to be proud.
Work hard, man, man.
Big guy.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
And, uh, I, I always wanted to be the best net maker, I mean, a competitor.
I wanted to be better than my brothers.
I wanted to be better, you know, I wanted to be as good as my grandfather.
I wanted to be, we always, always wanted to be the best we want, and we wanted
to have the best business, you know?
And, uh, so it was, it was like that.
And it was just a struggle.
But, you know, that was my first rehab and then it, then it, from, from that age
until I didn't get sober till I was 40.
I mean, it was a battle.
I mean, rehabs.
And finally, I, I forget exactly when, but.
Yeah.
One day, Robin, my wife, she says, you know what, he, she knew I needed Jesus.
That's what she knew.
She, she drug me to church.
I mean, literally the church was downtown.
It was the old church on fifth Street down there.
And I remember walking up those steps, those big steps going, that was the hard,
one of the hardest things I'd ever done.
'cause I, I told her, I said, Rob, those people know me.
They said, I said, I knew just enough about the Bible that I said they
might take me out back stone me.
You know, because, uh, and, but they didn't.
They loved me.
And I'm gonna tell you, I actually, I wore that church out.
I wore out three pastors.
Mm-hmm.
James Dunham and, uh, Danny Morris and, and all that.
They, they try all tried to help me and help me.
And it's just like, so, so when you, when you came into church, not, not being
from that kind of background, right.
Did you.
Did you come in with the idea that, hey, I've got a, I've got a problem
and I want, want you to know about it.
I'm, I want to get right, or did you come in with, um, trying to, to fool
'em or kind of what was your just Yeah.
Yeah.
You first come in, like, then you just kind of wanna fit in, sweep
it under the rug, you know, back in them gener back in those days, that's
about what you did with everything.
Anyhow, back in those day, everybody sweat everything under the rug.
Tell, tell me this, at that time, like something like this, we
would've never done back then.
You wouldn't admit you would.
Yeah.
That, you know, and that your weakness, that's changed.
Oh, yeah.
Oh yeah.
We're thankful for that.
But, but at that time, what were you ashamed?
Yeah.
To admit your problem or Ashamed.
Yeah, ashamed.
That, and I was still at that point to where, yeah, I was
ashamed that I couldn't, I.
Handle it on my own.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
I, I, I couldn't admit that I really needed help.
Mm-hmm.
But, but I wanted to, I I was always tried to do the best When they got, they, uh,
I'd show up, I'd wear a three piece suit.
I'd look like a church person.
Mm-hmm.
That's why I don't like to wear suits today to church.
Right.
And, uh, because I did that, I was dying on the inside, wearing
a three piece suit at church.
They, they, we started up the TV ministry, James Dunham did.
I.
I'd film him, go around town, film him, help him with the TV ministry.
I was, I was over it.
I was probably one of the best directors they ever had.
Not bright or nothing, but that's why they let me do it.
And had we had four cameras and we was filming live, we, we
boom, it, it was over that day.
There wasn't no editing, no nothing.
Boom.
It went to the air.
I've heard some stories from back then.
Um, you, you weren't always on the wagon when you were behind those
cameras, from what I understand.
Well, well, I'd be drunk on Saturday night and be in there in church
the next day trying to, trying to do, I wanted to do what's right.
I always wanted to be a good husband.
I wanna be a good father.
Right.
I wanted to do things right.
But that, that, that hangup.
That, that was in my way, you know?
And, uh, Lord had great people, Steve Simmons, you know, he'd be
slipping me a peppermint, shaking his head, and Jimmy wrote it for, was in
there with me back then, you know?
And, uh, Robin would be wanting to kill me and all of them, you
know, for putting up with she, she, oh yeah, she stayed with you.
She did.
And for that, that better or worse, she's just, and, and Zach, it was her faith.
You know, we, we get onto this story, so this rocks on and rocks on.
And, uh, and it eventually just got worse and worse.
And, I mean, and I went to gateway rehab and, uh, uh, you know,
just, just everything, detox and I mean, and I did quit for like.
I think the longest I ever made it was like six months.
Wow.
And at a time, and then, you know, something.
Did you feel better during that six months?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
And, and you know, and just, and it's just like a rollercoaster boom, I'd
build my life back up, everything going good and all, and boom, it, it just,
would it, would it be a situation where
stress comes into your life and you just wanted to have a drink or like,
could, would something trigger it?
Or did you get overconfident or what would cause you to overconfident and all?
And, and really, you know, what I've learned now about, about alcoholism and
I'm just with drug addiction all too.
It's really a threefold disease.
And when you, um, when you get sober, first thing is physical.
There's physical, mental, and spiritual first thing's physical, you've gotta
stay off of it long enough for the, for the physical craving to go away.
Mm-hmm.
Because your body will actually physically crave it gets used to alcohol.
It wants alcohol.
Yeah.
If it's drugs, it'd be drugs, you know, whatever your drug drug of choice is.
Mine was alcohol.
And, um, your body CRAs it.
But if you stay off of it long enough, that craving will go away.
Go.
You have to detox yourself, but then it's mental.
It's a mental game.
Then you still got the mental obsession you want to drink, you
know, but, you know, it's just kind of, but you know better, you know.
But if I, if I drink, Robin's gonna throw me out the house again.
You know, things is going to go downhill quick.
So, and, but then what, then what you do to, in recovery.
Then you go spiritual.
Alright?
If you go to aa, the God of you understanding, you know where
you start getting some spiritual, you know, or you go to church
start, you get spiritually filled.
And that helps you, that gives you strength to overcome.
And then what'll happen is you clipping along.
If you quit going to church, quit reading your Bible or quit going to aa,
you know, quit calling your sponsor.
Quit going to fellow quit fellowship with got people in recovery.
The next thing you know you're back mental.
And then that mental obsession kicks in.
Then the next thing you know, you pick up.
Mm-hmm.
Once you pick up, boom, it's on again.
Mm-hmm.
And my, my uncle Fred used, used to say is like a little bitty, like
right now, I haven't had a dream 24 year or February 1st was 20.
I picked up my 24 year chip.
And, but I got, I know there's a flame in there, there's a little bitty flame.
And if I was to douse it with alcohol, it would just, and you know,
that sounds crazy, but I relapsed enough over that, over those years.
And you can talk to other people and alcohol and that,
uh, AA and stuff that's done.
It, it, no, that, that flame would ignite it.
It'd be, it'd be the scariest thing in the world.
But today, I mean, it doesn't bother me because the Lord took that away from me.
He took that.
Well, you have to and, and I want to, I want to get to that part of the story.
'cause that that's the glorious, that's the good part.
Yeah.
But, but I really do.
'cause there's people watching this.
Uh, you know, most, most guys who are alcoholics, they're the last ones to
figure out that they have a problem.
Oh, yeah.
You know, and so I, I, I don't want to glorify that stage, but at the
same time, just sharing the way you remember it, there'll be somebody to
go, man, I felt that way, or, you know, I, and, and it creates a cycle where.
Something stressful comes into their life and they, they turn to a
drink, uh, then it escalates, right?
They have, then they have marriage problems and that's more stress,
which the, the drink relieves the, you know, so it creates this, this
cycle that just puts 'em in the bed.
That's, that's exactly right.
It is a cycle.
And you know that, that's the one thing, that's why somebody that's
been through it, um, can help somebody, because I understand.
Mm-hmm.
I know, I know how they feel.
I know what they're up against and it's okay, you know, that they're there.
But, you know, I had somebody in church, um, actually Sue Ellen,
told me one time, said, uh, says, you know, it is not a shame.
To be an alcoholic.
It's not, you shouldn't be ashamed to be an alcoholic.
The shame part is knowing you're an alcoholic and not
doing something about it.
That kind of stuck with me.
Right.
You know, and uh, and just little things like that.
God put so many people in my life to help me.
And so generally just got me on the mission.
And I think that's something special about our church is, you know, Baptists
don't have the best track record of being nonjudgmental and, and that
sort of thing, but it's a unique thing that nobody can take credit for it.
But it's something about our church that they really do have empathy toward people.
And if they see somebody who is in a pit of their own making, they'll,
they'll try to toss him a lifeline.
Exactly.
And, and love him until he takes it.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
No doubt.
And you know, I think my situation in our church.
Helped a lot of people that, that, that are not alcoholics
or not as to understand Yeah.
And, and to, to be more open.
Yeah.
You know, we, we're open, we're open door at our church.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, we, we not going to condemn anybody and all, all we
gonna do is try to love them back.
Right.
But at the same time, just like they were loving me, I needed somebody to look
me in the eye and say, Hey, whoa, whoa.
What you're doing is not right.
We gotta do something about this.
You know, don't just, you know, don't keep sweeping under the rug.
And, uh, you know, that's one thing I say about alcohol and that, and that's love.
Yes.
You know, you, words of a friend, you learn that you, you know, you learn that.
And, uh, and that, that, that, that's, that's how it is.
You learn that by the word.
Yeah.
The power's in the word Right.
Is what I learned and, uh, and been learning for.
So when, at what point did you go up to the Mennonites and, okay.
I, um, 40 years old and, uh.
I don't know exactly how it happened or whatever, but about
that time, Robin, I, I, I was, you know, wasn't doing good at all.
Had they, had they got you out of the business at that point?
Yeah, yeah, at that point.
Right.
At that point, I was kicked out of the business kind, or I just, I really just
kinda walked out, to be honest with you.
It ain't like they, they, they, I just, I just had to get out and
Robin threw me out the house for another, but I knew something.
This ta this last time, she threw me out.
Bless her heart.
She tried, I mean, she tried to do, and, and that's the thing
about an alcoholic or, or a addict.
They, they think they're only hurting herself, you know?
But, okay, so.
So you kind of hit, you kind of hit a place, hit rock, hit
bottom again, hit rock bottom.
Your, your marriage is struggling.
Yeah.
And she had to do what she was been told she had to do.
Mm-hmm.
She had to turn me loose, you know?
That's what I'm saying.
Now that I help people.
That's the hardest thing is helping the parents, helping the, the spouse
not being able not to enable it.
It's so hard.
Mm-hmm.
Because Robin loved me and, you know, it was her faith.
Her faith that she finally had to turn me loose.
And it, it about destroyed her to, to, to have to do that to me.
How did she come to that?
Did somebody just counsel her, or how did she come to that conclusion?
Yeah.
Uh, you know, over that time, yeah, she, I'm sure you know, people invested
in her life and it was probably some of, some of the people I'd come in
contacted with, you know, like from my first rehab, I'd been to aa, I
picked up 10,000 white chips in aa.
That's the surrender chip.
Yeah.
That's when you crawl back up the stairs.
Push the door open, crawl in there and say, I surrender again.
I, so I surrender and over and over and trying, you know, and I'm sure
somebody's counsel counseled heard that you've gotta let him hit bottom.
Yeah.
You know, that's, that's the thing in recovery.
They, they, they say, uh, yeah, they gotta hit bottom, they gotta hit bottom.
Everybody's bottom's different, you know?
Mm-hmm.
But, but the promises are that they tell you in there are true
jails, institution and death.
I mean, that's your three promises of alcoholism, drug addiction.
And, and I, you know, I would dare say depression, whatever, if you don't
help you help, it can take you out.
The, when, when my grandfather was, was on one of these, you know, they would,
for him less about maybe two and a half weeks to where I'm talking 24 7, he
was drinking something, you know, and.
I mean, he looked like a different person.
He didn't shave.
He, you know, he, he did, didn't bathe.
I mean, he had a, would, would really go through a bad spell.
And I, I went to the pastor and he, and he gave me that advice.
He said, you know, he probably loves you.
I was the only grand grandchild.
And he said, he probably loves you more than anything in his life.
And if there's anything he loves more than that bottle, it's you.
Right.
And so you, you've got to be the person that says, I can't be around you.
Right.
When you're this way.
That's right.
And, and that, you know, that, that will at least give him some
motivation to say That's right.
And, and it was a big factor that last, there was something about the
last time that Robin threw me out.
Mm-hmm.
And my, and my daughter, and Amelia and Lance, both my children, they, they
turned me loose and, uh, and I, I, I kid How old were they at that time?
Johnny, uh, me was, they were in high school.
Uh, Amelia was in high school and Lance right behind her.
So, and that, that gets to a stage where that can be embarrassing for them
just having a father just not at the events or if he's there, he is not who.
Yeah.
Matter of fact, you know, they're funny stories and I, we, we skiing
around and everything, but the funny stories is when I was in, uh, rehab,
or I call it summer, we, they, the kids name call it summer camp.
Dad's a summer camp, you know, just kidding around.
But I was up there and they had the father daughter banquet
and uh, I guess little women.
Yeah.
Father daughter banquet.
Yep.
And, uh, uh, Bruce, Mr.
Bruce in our church, he took her to the father daughter bank.
Oh wow.
And I, at first I was mad.
Yeah.
I was mad.
I was like, dang, go on Bruce.
Take, you know, but I was so forever grateful for him.
He just, another.
Part of church.
Yeah.
Where somebody in there steps up and was ta and was being a dad role in my place.
Wow.
Not not to to bash me, but to help me, you know, to help my daughter.
To help her.
Yeah.
And, uh, and what a, what a blessing.
You know, it was funny, but, uh, things like that.
But, you know, so here, I, so here I am, I, I say they kicked me off
the island, but, uh, but I ended up, you know, and I said, you know what?
I'm gonna show them.
I'm gonna show, uh, my brothers in the net business or show everybody
I said, so I went, I got me a job in a plastic factory in Jacksonville.
You know, that was a nightmare.
But I'm living in the Pine Forest motel.
Everybody needs, every alcoholic addict ought to live out there.
It's one of those fine, that's one those jokes, right?
That's one of those jokes, you know, that, uh, that that's where you end up.
And, uh, but.
So I'm driving over to Jacksonville, working and for peanuts, well, you know,
best heart, not, not a whole lot of money.
And, uh, and drinking and driving over there.
I mean, it was just a struggle.
Uh, the check you'd get, you would pay the rent there like $165 a week, and
by the time you bought a half gallon of vodka and some lamb of beans to
survive off of, that's all you had.
You was broke.
And the gas to get back and forth to work, that's all you had, you know?
Yeah.
So that's the type of life I was living.
And then it was just, and I was, but I was bent that I was going to go
out and show him, show, you know, trying and it, it was just like up
against the wall and still drinking.
And finally, um, Luke Daniels that owns the bail bonds place out there newly, I.
What a friend.
A friend, the whole Daniels family was a friend of mine, mutt Daniels, Luke
Daniels, and no friends of mine back then, family, friends that I knew all my life.
But Luke let me stay in the bail bonds place for free.
So boy, I had a little more money then, you know?
So I'm thinking, you know, I'm think and and see people just
trying to be good for you.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mud.
He gonna bring me a 12 pack thinking that's what I needed, you know?
You know, bless MU's heart.
Yeah.
And he a good friend of mine, and I hope he, he watches this,
but people, people don't know.
Yeah, they don't, they don't, you know.
Yeah.
No, no.
Mud and mud gave me a truck.
He gave me his truck and the 12 pack said, come on Johnny, you can do it.
You know, you can go not understanding fully, you know, either.
Yeah.
I didn't fully understand alcoholism then either other than.
It was, it had me and, uh, I knew it.
And, and, and, and, you know, and, uh, Zach and the alcohol,
and the alcohol is anonymous.
The, the 12 Step program.
See the right off the bat, you know, step one admitted, I'm powerless over alcohol.
Admit, I admit that Step Twos came to believe.
I look back on it all now.
I wanted to believe that there was a power greater to myself
that could restore me to sanity.
That's what it is.
I look back on that and I thought, oh yeah, I believe, I believe in God.
I remember we had a Bible under there that, and my mama always
said, uh, uh, oral Roberts used to say, I believe in miracles.
And the Bible Leonard, with all the pictures with dust on it.
You know, I mean, I always thought I believed, but I look back on it, I
don't, I didn't know after my mama died, remember I asked him to save my mama.
I.
And he didn't.
He didn't.
Right.
So I wasn't sure.
And then step three is turn your life and your will over to care.
God, did you understand him?
I mean, but that's, that's commitment.
That's, that's a salvation step if you do it, you know?
Yeah.
Then, then you worked.
So I, I had, I skipped over all those.
That's why in the 12 step prob, and that's why Alcoholic Anonymous never did
work for me because I never surrendered.
Yeah.
I never turned.
And uh, so anyhow, I'm living in the, uh, bail bonds house out there and I just,
at one point after it was over with, I kind of just gave up and I remember
Luke had these, uh, appliances in there.
He had a reclining chair and there was a big screen TV in
there without no cable hook to it.
He just had a fuzzy picture.
But that's what I'm looking at.
I'm looking at a big screen tv, fuzzy picture.
I got a half gallon of vodka over here.
I'm drinking and I was, I drink a little bit.
And I'd cry and I'd cry out to God.
I started crying out to God.
God helped me.
You know, God helped me and I'd drink a little bit cry, and that's where I was at.
I was just doing that.
I mean, I was just in that chair.
I couldn't hardly get out the chair.
I know.
And just lo and behold a man that I haven't seen, I call him Ed Kay.
I hadn't seen him in a couple years, but I knew him from Alcoholics
Anonymous, knew him from aa.
He happened to go by, seen my little red truck and the places
lit up at night in there.
He see, he could see me sitting in there, but you know, his first thoughts was, oh
no, I don't want to get involved in that.
You know what I mean?
And because he knew, they all knew that I'd been trying to get sober a long time.
But Ed's story was, he turned the corner at Ulee and made
it almost to Lofton Creek.
And God turned him around.
He drove all the way back out there and come beat on that door.
And it was all I could do to get up outta that chair.
And I got over there to the door, unlocked it, and he opened the
door and he just looked at me.
And, uh, he says, you need help.
And I, I just, I, I think I just nodded at him.
I don't know, you know, but he didn't know what to do.
But he called a, he called a lady named Ellen, LNS, that worked at Willing Way.
And, um, she knew me.
She says, oh, Johnny Will, is Willie, is that a rehab?
Willie Ways Rehab.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yep.
And, uh, she says, Johnny, Johnny Burbank.
He's been trying to get sober a long time.
And, uh, she said he needs, he needs long term help.
So the only place she knew of was a place in Georgia called The Bridges of Hope.
And a man named George Sermons that on that, uh, ran it started them.
He was an alcoholic himself.
That started the, the Bridges of Hope.
And that's another whole story.
You know, what a, what a man.
And, uh, that, that, uh, God used to build the bridges of hope up there.
And, uh, so they get on the phone with him and all, and the first thing
they ask you, does he have any money?
And I said, no, I ain't got no money.
Uh, you know, he don't have nothing, you know, and, uh, they said, well, we don't,
we don't know if we got a bed or not.
You know, they talked to the guy and they, Mr.
George happened to be at that particular Bridge of Hope.
It was the one in, uh, Chauncey.
He happened to be there.
Just, you know, all these coincidence just happened to be there.
And they said, Mr.
George, we got a guy, he ain't got no money and all that.
And they said, what is his name?
He said his name Johnny Burbank.
Burbank.
Ask, ask him if he knows Billy Burbank.
And uh, and he said, yeah, that's his daddy.
And he says.
Send him on up.
Bring him on and turn to come to find out Mr.
George, before he got sober, he spent the last $30,000 he had on a shrimp boat.
And we used to, I used to fix his nets when I was a little boy.
Wow.
Is they tear him all up.
And we helped, my daddy helped him out time after time.
But he ended up in favor.
He ended up losing his house on Crooked River.
Alcoholic, lost his boat, all lost $30,000.
That's before he hit rock bottom.
And, um, so, but anyhow, what a coincidence.
So here he go.
They, they taped me up there.
Let me, let me pause you right here.
Okay.
Just for a second.
Just, just pointing out, um, you, you're drunk watching a fuzzy tv.
What'd you say?
Half gallon of vodka.
Half.
Yeah.
It was probably, and you're praying, God help me.
God help me.
Somebody.
They said the Lord turn their car around.
So, so, even.
The prayer of a drunk.
Of a drunk, the Lord will hear it.
Blessed.
Yes.
If it's, if it's a prayer of faith, crying out to the Lord in a
moment of despair and desperation.
Sometimes I think as men especially, we can say, well, I'm not gonna
talk to him while I'm like this.
You know, he deserves better than that.
Or, or I'm ashamed to talk to him just like Adam running from God in the garden.
Right.
But even in that moment of desperation, he wants you to call out to him.
Amen.
And he hears, and he'll, he'll respond.
He heard me and uh, and he, and he turned it around.
It just so happened that he get that.
He calls her Ellen, and Ellen hooks me up with Bridges of Hope, and there's Mr.
George saying, send that Burbank boy up here.
I know that family.
They helped me, you know?
And so here I go and I get up there to the Bridges of Hope and uh.
Start sobering up now.
Now, is this the Mennonites?
No.
At this point no Uhuh.
Okay.
No, this is not, this is just the Bridges of hope.
Okay.
In Chauncey, Georgia.
There's one in Argyle, there's one in Chauncey, and, uh,
which is near like Eastman.
And, uh, I, I'm all, I didn't know where I was at.
I just knew I was in the middle of Georgia up there.
But I get there and I'm, I remember just trying to eat scrambled eggs.
I got there, so I'm detoxing, you know, so I'm going through it.
It took me two or three days just to where I could even get it outta here
system just to chase and you going on.
And they had me on, uh, I was going around scooping up dog poopoo.
That's your first job at the Bridges of Hope.
You go around, clean the yard up a little bit, give something to do,
and, uh, but I'll never forget, after about three days, they finally said,
uh, they called me and they said, Mr.
George won't see.
So I went in there and I'm sitting at, just across from the like
table, like you sitting there, Ms.
George says, uh.
Alright, tell me about yourself, boy.
And I said, I, I said, okay.
And I start, he said, I'll shut up.
He said, let me tell you.
And he says, you, uh, you know, he, he just flat out told me, you know,
that I was drunk and I was, you know, self-centered, egotistical,
you know, and just like thousands of others, you know, and I mean, he, he
busted my bow, he ripped me up, down.
But then he says, all right, but now we going to get sober
now, you know, and, and go.
But he sent, sent me on out.
So I, I'd go out and I think my first, my first, uh, job was on the garden crew.
Uh, yeah, I think it was in the garden.
And, uh, but I, I wasn't, I hadn't been there two weeks, but as I got sober,
here's what started happening to me.
As I sobered up, my mind started replaying over and over in my head.
The reality of what was happening.
So here, the, the reality was, here I am 40 years old, all my dreams,
everything I'd worked for my whole life, all everything I've done and all those,
all that I, you know, I went through to try to get sober, to quit, to try
to do, try, you know, the TV ministry, just everything, you know, all that.
Just playing through my mind and I was about to go nuts.
I mean, I was really, was about to read about me in the newspaper or something.
I don't know.
You know, I don't know.
You felt like I went suicidal, but you know, I don't remember.
You just felt like you were too far gone to reveal, too far gone.
I thought physically life was over.
I thought physically, mentally, and at this point really, I thought it was over.
I mean, really, I was sitting there and I hadn't slept in about three nights.
And I'll just remember this one night.
It was a couple weeks in one night I finally, about three
o'clock in the morning, I got up off, I was on the top bunk.
I climbed outta there and I went outside and I got, went up under
them trees and I'm looking up at them stars and I called, I called God out.
I said, okay, God.
What, you know, and I started blaming him.
I was telling him, I says, I, I felt like Lieutenant Dan and Bubba Gump, but
I didn't do all that cussing he did.
But that's how I felt me and God was having.
And I, and I was trying to tell God.
I says, I said, I was head of your TV ministry, you know,
I joined the Awanas Club.
That's what I told him.
I said, I was coaching the All Stars, you know, after all the good things
that I did tried to do, you know, and I was telling him, and, and,
and look at how you let it turn out.
You know, I was blaming it all on him.
And I said, you know, I don't, that's how our mind works, you know, really.
It really is.
We, we, we blame shift and we put it, you know, it's never our fault.
But Zach, I'm telling you, he let me get through.
And I, and after I got through, I'm sitting there and it was kind of quiet and
I heard him and he said, Johnny, you know, my name's John, but my friend called me.
Johnny was, boy, God called me Johnny.
He said, Johnny, you know what he said?
I said, I don't care about all that.
And I'm thinking, don't care about all that.
You know, you supposed to love me or whatever, you know, I'm
thinking You don't care about that.
I'm thinking and myself.
And then he said it, I want you.
And I, I said, you want me?
I said, I want, he said it one more time.
He said, I want you.
And that was, that was all he said.
And I, and I remember saying, well, you got me.
And I surrendered and I meant it.
And you know what?
I surrendered everything.
I surrendered my family.
Mm-hmm.
I surrendered the net business.
Wow.
I surrendered everything.
I, I'm just, yeah.
It's not, it's not that I want, I, I'm concerned about this one area.
I've already done all that.
Yeah.
You know, he wants everything.
He wants it all.
He, yeah.
So when you say he spoke to you, 'cause you've said, I've heard
you tell this story many times.
I heard always tell it the same way.
Was it audible y Yeah, but you know, it ain't like.
You hear it, but you don't know if you really heard it in years.
But you hear it though.
Yeah.
I mean, I heard it, I heard him say, I want you, it was
more I heard him call my name.
It was just an passing thought.
Yeah.
You, this was the creator.
Oh, no, no.
He said to you, said, when he said, Johnny, I, I immediately knew.
He, he caught my attention and, and I, so I knew when he talked and I
knew when he, when he quit talking 'cause it wasn't there, you know.
Wow.
And, um, so, and I'm going to tell you just, hey, that
piece, I mean, it fell on me.
I went back in there and I ain't slept three nights.
I went back in there and got in that bunk and I slept.
They come wake you up seven o'clock.
So I ain't slept long, but I'm telling you, when I got up
that morning, I felt different.
Mm.
I felt, I mean, I just felt different.
I got up and I went on out and there was a bunch of men sitting on the porch.
They're out there smoking and like they do in the mornings, you know, but there
was a dock down there on the lake.
There's a little bitty lake down there.
And, uh.
I'd been down there that late before and in the mornings, didn't really know what
to say, you know, to pray or anything.
That's when you're supposed to do your devotional and go, yeah, right.
Yeah.
But I went back down there this morning and I'm sitting there on
that dock and, and on a bench.
And that water wasn't a ripple in it.
The sun's coming up over the trees.
There's not, it's quiet, there's not, you know what?
The bird, you couldn't hear anything.
But I'm seeing that sun's kind of shining in that water and kind.
There's something about light, the sun, the light with God every time.
A couple times in my life when God's really moved in my life, the
light's been there and that light was in that water that morning.
And uh, and I sat there and I says, I said, Lord, I says, I don't know.
I don't even know what to say.
I don't know what to pray.
I said, but I'm, all I know is I meant what I said last night.
And I said, I Jesus.
I don't know where we're going.
I'm following you.
I said, I don't know where we're going from here, but I'm going with you.
And that's all I know.
And that was my prayer.
I didn't know anything else, you know, wasn't, and that's all I knew.
I said, I'm going, I meant what I said and I'm going with you.
And when I went to get up a wild gobbler, just gobbled seven times, I remember
he double gobbled, he gobbled once and then double gobbled three times.
I remember that.
And it set me back down on the, on the seat.
The her on the back of my neck stood up.
Uh, 'cause it, I'm like, what Andy World?
And I'm looking at Ain't no Turkey.
Where did that come from?
You know?
And I'm telling you, I get so I, but I knew it was God, I.
I knew God.
He just answered my prayer through a gob, a Turkey, and that's what
I, and I immediately got up.
This is what I'm talking about, the belief, you know, come to belief.
And I, you know, it says, what does this say in the Bible says, when you
believe that's what salvation is.
Belief that who he is, let me say, because people watching, they don't know you.
And, and I know that that can probably sound to some people like, so you heard a
Turkey and you, you knew it was the Lord.
And people who don't know you, I can say, I can vouch for your,
your character and your sanity to say, no, this, this is legitimate.
Like Johnny, whatever happened that day that you, you sincerely believed.
That was somehow God was using that sound and that moment to
convey his presence in your life.
Exactly.
And you know, now I had doubts right then, you know, I, when I got up after
that happened, so I started going up the hill and, and let me say, you're
not the kind of person that comes up with this stuff all the time.
You don't walk around and go, oh, that's all Bluebird.
That must mean something.
No, that's not you at all.
No, no.
So, you know, I just wanna give 'em the context is to hear this and, and,
and immediately as I'm walking up that hill though, there's this voice
telling me that, that that wasn't him.
There's a, there's a voice telling me that wasn't him and I'm going.
You know, where's that coming from?
You know, that wasn't him.
There's this little doubt hanging on here.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm, I am thinking, no, that was him.
You know?
But I, I, I just remember it was almost like Satan immediately was trying
to, I think he knew, I think Satan knew I'm fixing to lose this guy.
Yeah.
This guy's fixing it.
Mm-hmm.
This guy's going the other way quick.
And, and I went up that hill and those guys sitting there smoking
those cigarettes, I asked them, they said, oh, how you doing Johnny?
Whatever.
I said, fine.
I said, I said, boy, that Turkey Goggled didn't he?
They looked at me like I was nuts.
Like I had three eyes, you know.
I said, they said, what tur, what are you talking about?
I said, y'all didn't hear that Turkey?
They didn't hear it.
Oh man.
And I looked, there's two guys standing outside the kitchen over there.
They had to have heard it.
That Turkey was out.
I took off over there.
Same thing.
They ain't heard nothing.
I went in there and I ate my breakfast, and I'm thinking about that.
So, do you know I'm processing this?
I mean, it happened.
And I'm thinking, where in the world?
You know?
So my last ditch e effort to prove that, that it wasn't God.
I, I was going to put my tray up and the manager was sitting there, Mr.
Perry.
And, uh, Mr.
Perry said, how you doing Johnny?
And, but you know, Zach, he said, I said, I'm doing good after I'm, and uh, he says,
you know, he looked at me, he says, you know, you look like you're doing better.
He saw something in me immediately.
I just surrendered to the king the night that night.
You know, the next day all this is going on.
But he, he said, you look like you're doing better.
He said, but I said, let me ask you something.
He said, what's that?
I said, how long you been here?
And he said, I've been here about five years.
And I said, have you ever, uh, seen a, have you ever
heard any turkeys around here?
And he looked at me laughed.
He said, no, ain't there, ain't no turkeys around.
I hadn't.
I said, you ain't seen a feather a track, you ain't not a Turkey ring anywhere.
He says, no Uhuh.
He laughed and he said something about, uh, about 20 miles down
there that that horse farm we gonna lay some sod at and all that.
They got turkeys down there, but I hadn't seen anything here.
He said, why?
I said, oh, no, no problem.
I went on over there and I put my tray down and I walked outside.
Zach and I, I just looked up at Sky and I said, God, I heard you.
And, and I looked back.
That was a covenant.
God made a covenant me through a wild Turkey.
But, and I always looked back to that day, any, any of my baddest days.
Now, in 24 years, I walked, I can look back to day.
That was, that, that was the moment that me and God and, and
that he, he spoke back to me.
But the, the proof in the pudding is.
As I go out to work that day, I go out to work in the garden
and I'm hoeing cantaloupe.
They, uh, they, they called my name over the loudspeaker,
Johnny Burbank to the office.
Johnny Burbank come to the office.
So now I ain't been there, but what, two weeks, right?
So I go to the office and the little guy up there, the office says, uh,
just wanna let you know you're gonna be going out to work in the morning.
And I said, going out to work.
I said, you're not, you can't go out to work till you've been here like
90 days, three months, you know?
And, uh, the bullet boys said, I, I don't, Mr.
Burbank.
I don't know.
Uh, I'm just telling you what they told me to tell you.
So immediately the rules were getting broke my favor.
Mm.
Somehow.
So the next day I, the, the, the way that you responded, I, I'm just reminded, you
know, we're in Luke studying through the Gospel of Luke right after, you know,
Jesus has been raised from the dead.
Which is just as bizarre to them as God speaking through a Turkey.
Right.
You know, and Jesus has been raised from the dead.
Two of the people that they knew and trusted came back
and said, I, we've seen him.
He comes through the wall into the room that the disciples are sitting
in and he says, behold the scars.
Even with him, right in front of him, it says that they were bewildered and not
sure exactly what was going, you know?
Right.
It's just, that's how our mind works.
We're not accustomed to the supernatural.
We're not accustomed to divine encounters.
And what you, the, the struggle you were having is, is typical when
somebody has that kind of Right.
That kind of sign.
Yeah.
But, but you, you, you got confirmation.
You're verifying it.
Then this opportunity opens up.
What then?
I, I immediately, I go out to work.
Um, first day on the job, you know, I meet, uh, CL Tucker at,
uh, feed the largest feeding seed in McCrae, Georgia, or the largest
area seed store right there.
Um, Tucker Seed and, um, throw, he, he, for immediately CL
Tucker tells me his story.
He's a recovering alcoholic.
He was on the, he is on the board at the Bridges of Hope.
And, uh, he's passed away now, but, and I go back to work.
So I'm back there sweeping floors, stacking seed, checking
rat traps, and who'd I meet?
I meet, his grandson happened to be there and they called him Little Tuck.
Mm-hmm.
So here's Little Tuck.
And it dawned on me that that school was in session and I asked Little Tuck,
I said, how come you ain't in school?
Well, turned out he was suspended, alcohol and marijuana.
So my first day on the job, I'm, when, when I say first day on the job, I
ain't talking about the seed and feed.
I'm talking about my first day on the job with Jesus.
Yeah.
He's got me witnessing to a teenager and I told him, and I, I told him the story.
I said, well, you ain't gonna believe this.
I just surrendered to Jesus Christ last night and then this morning of,
or it was two days, two days ago.
And then, uh, he answered me through a, a wild gobbler and now I'm, I'm walking
with Jesus, you know, I'm telling you the first day on the job, you know, here we
go, my testimony, and, and here we, and.
If things got good, God blessed me there.
You know how you get, I tell Robin, get mad at me because
I said I was exalted in rehab.
You know, I got to where I could take, I had my own truck.
I could take any of the guys with me that wanted to work.
We'd doing all kind of stuff.
We was working at C'S house, doing that kind of stuff.
I mean, I was just kinda exalted rehab, making money.
Yeah.
Sending some money home, you know?
Well, that's the nature of when God's favor is on you and
you're fully surrendered to him.
You know, we could see, we can see Joseph exalted as Prime Minister
of Egypt, but also as a prisoner.
Right.
And, but God's favor.
It, it expresses itself in different ways like that.
Exactly.
And you know, then one day I come in, um, from Word and they said, uh.
Mr.
George wants to see you.
And I said, oh, no, Mr.
George wants to see you.
And I, I thought maybe he wanted me to do my fifth step.
And alcohol is no four steps.
You make a search in the fearless moral inventory of himself, and the fifth step
is you share it with another human being and God, the exact nature of your wrongs.
And, but I hadn't done before step yet, and I, oh, he's gonna get on me.
But that what it was.
I came in, he sat down and he says, uh, he said, boy, let
me, let me tell you something.
He says, um, I know you're doing good.
And sobriety comes first.
I know you're doing good here.
He said, but I'm building a new Bridges of Hope in Louisville, Georgia.
And he said, I'd like for you to go.
And, uh, I said, okay.
I said, but I said, Mr.
Georgia, I don't know nothing about.
I said, I'm a net man.
I said, I don't know nothing about building any buildings and all that.
And he said, I know, I know.
He said, but I just feel you got some leadership qualities.
I want you to go.
And, uh, but he said, but you don't have to.
He says, uh, but make your mind that they or I was leaving.
I said, I said, I think about it, you know, he said, well, think quick.
I noticed they was loading the truck with bricks out there.
When I came in.
He says, that's your ride out there.
I said, oh.
So I was walking back to the dorm and I was thinking, wait, if I go
there, I'm gonna be working for the Bridges not making no money.
God's blessing me here.
You know, I'm being blessed.
But that I heard the voice.
I heard it again.
And he called me right at it.
And he said, Johnny, he called me on, he always calls Johnny.
Johnny, you said you would go and do something like that, you
know, to that, I mean, I knew.
I stopped in my tracks.
I said, oh, you're the, you're the one wanting me to go.
I said, I understand.
So I turned right around.
I went back in there.
I didn't tell Mr.
George that I, I said, Mr.
George, if you want me to go, I'll go.
But I was going because I knew it was what, right.
I, I thought it was what the Lord wanted me today.
And I, so I went in there and packed my stuff up.
Boom.
I was in that truck, ended up in Lewisville, Georgia.
I get to Lewisville, Georgia and it's hot.
Oh, it's 110 degrees.
We dig footers to fix, to pull concrete, to, uh, raise this big building up on.
And, uh, I don't know, it was just, and it was these other 12 guys there.
They was all, you know, I don't want to judge.
I don't want to judge 'em.
But they were all lost.
They was worried about watching wrestling on tv, arguing over
what tv, you know what I mean?
And, but anyhow, I started questioning God again.
I was like, it's almost like.
You know, and I quit praying, kinda, I don't know, I kind of got downhearted.
I just was going through a season there and I, I just remember it
and I, I almost came to blows with a guy and he didn't wanna be there
no more than I wanted to be there.
And we almost came blows.
And, but through that, it made me realize how far I'd slipped from God.
You know?
I was, I was in there walking with Jesus and everything's good.
I get over there, run against some opposition things on, and
immediately I, I, I, I backslid, you know, but I realized it.
And the Holy Spirit, I, I, it.
And I went in there that night and got on my knees, and I asked God to forgive me.
I said, Lord, I said, Lord, forgive me for feeling like this.
I, I, you've been so good to me.
You know, what am I doing?
You know, but I, and I'm gonna tell you something.
The grace fell back on me that, I mean, immediately I felt that feeling again.
You know what I mean?
It's like he let me drift.
But when I came back and when I repented, boom, that grace was back on me.
So the next day, I just went out with a new attitude.
Let's dig, let's build this thing, you know?
And, uh, the mud was coming.
I had my boots on.
We getting ready to pour some concrete.
Well, about 10 o'clock that day, just how quick everything's happened.
The manager comes by and said, Johnny, the, uh, do you know something about nets?
Somebody said, you knew you knew something about nets.
I said, yeah, I know a little bit why I.
And, uh, he said, well, there's some Mennonites.
I said, some what?
He said, Mennonite.
I said, what in the world's a Mennonite?
He said, well, they got beards and the women wear long dresses and they
got their own church, you know, and, uh, that's about all I really know.
But they got, they got these catfish ponds and they got a catfish scene
and they called a big stump in it.
And I heard him talking at, at the hardware store, and I thought
you might could help him with it.
And, uh, I said, yeah, I probably could, you know?
So he said, okay.
And, uh, that night he told me, he said, uh, the Mennonites gonna come
by and pick you up in the morning.
So this little old bitty man with a beard, come pick me up the
next morning in this old truck.
And we get back over there and here's about seven or eight Mennonite men.
They got the net spread out on the side of the road, big rip in it.
And they said, can you, can you do anything with that?
And I, I said, yeah.
I said, uh, I said, y'all have any, uh, twine?
Uh, a needle or you go, ain't twine to patch it with, you know?
And they said, we got, well, we got a patch kit they sent with a net, and it was
a ball of twine with a needle stuck in it.
So I got that and, uh, and I said, anybody got a knife?
Which they all had knives in there.
So I got a knife and I threaded that needle and I mended that rip in
that net and just a matter of time.
And they're all, where'd you learn that?
What'd you do?
And I said, well, I've been doing this since I was eight years old.
You know, that's what I am.
I'm, I'm a professional net baker.
Been building nets my whole life.
What are you doing here?
I said, well, I'm an alcoholic, you know, and I'm trying to
get my life straightened out.
Well, here we go.
Well, the, that particular saying belonged to one man, but there was a
community, Mennonite community saying that they had been praying about because
it was about to fall out the lines.
It was old and, and they didn't have the money for a new one.
And, uh.
They was just, and they knew, and to take it back and get it fixed and
Mississippi was gonna be about $6,000.
They really didn't feel like they had that.
So they've been praying about this thing.
And uh, Allen was one of the pastor's sons, and, and he happened to be
kicked out of the fold at that time.
Now he's still saying in Catfish, he still can go to church, but he's
kind of outta the fold because he had fell off of one of those big
sprinkler systems and hurt his back.
He got hooked on pain pills and he is flying around acting like a nut.
And the elders, they called him in.
They, they, they called him in and addressed the situation and he didn't
repent like they wanted him to.
And so he kicked out a fold.
That's the way the Mennonites do.
So here we go.
I meet Alan, he's out the fold with a, with a drug problem.
But we, but the problem is they got this old, this net.
He takes off and go, gets it, and brings it back, spreads
it out, say, can you fix this?
And I looked at it, I said, well, yeah, it's going to need a lot of mending,
probably going to need some webbing, needs to be rehung, you know, and
we're talking 1600 foot long net now it's going to take a little while.
So they said, will you do it?
I said, well, yeah.
I mean, I don't got nothing else to do.
I said, but I belong to the Bridges.
I'm over here at the Bridges of Hope.
You gotta go ask them.
So Allen, when he go takes me back, he's asking what after to call Mr.
George.
And they, they said, Mr.
George, the Mennonites want Johnny to come fix their catfish
saying and work with them.
And, uh, would that be all right?
And he's laughing on the other end, I can hear him.
He said, yeah, yeah.
Let him go.
I ended up, I have my own net shop rehab.
Wow.
And, but I started going with those Mennonites every day, but then I
started going to church with 'em.
I'm in Sunday school with the Mennonites and we're talking about
whether sin or not to have air condition in a tractor, or is it, yeah.
Is it increasing production, theological, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, radio was definitely out.
Young guys wanted radio, that kind of stuff for them.
That's a, those are big, big because, and, and what they do, one thing I really
like that those communities do is if something new comes along like that,
rather than everybody adopted, they'll have one family and they'll let the,
like, like for example when, um, when cell phones came out, they would let one
family have a cell phone and they'd watch and see how did it affect their marriage,
how did it affect them as parents?
All this kinda stuff.
And if it seemed like it was a positive spiritually right, then
they would spread it to more people.
So I, I've always thought that's kind of a brilliant way to.
You know?
Yeah.
Test something out.
Well, you know the tv, they called it the One-Eyed Devil.
Yep.
Yeah.
So that was not allowed.
Right.
But they all had cell phones.
Yeah.
They knew if the Atlanta Braves was winning and they knew.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And all that kind of stuff.
And, uh.
But it was just neat and, and going, you know, we'd, uh, go to church with
'em and they'd, you know, they had three pastors and every one of 'em
was ready to preach every Sunday.
But they would, they'd get, but those three pastors would gather
back there and they would pray.
And they were one that felt led.
That was the one that gave the sermon that week.
And, uh, and I mean, they was preaching the word and, and, uh, I didn't know it
at that time, but God showed me later on.
I, I know.
Or we could talk for days, but God showed me later on that the power's in the word.
Mm.
And uh, and I, I need to really tell that.
But those menonite, so I have built a relationship with 'em, and
we sain and I rebuilt that scene.
I built 'em a new one.
And you know, I'll tell you something else that happened.
It's really, really unique.
While I was in there, I'm over there building a brand new
scene in Allen's backyard.
And this one particular day, I'm there by myself.
Allen had to take Liz to the doctor.
So I'm at their house by myself in the backyard.
I got a tractor, got the sane pulled, tied to a oak tree over here and pulled tight.
And I'm hanging, I'm putting floats on the top line, putting lids, and then the bunt
on the bottom line, you know, and all.
And as I'm going, I hear this loud noise.
I hear this truck.
And I could, and I started smelling, uh, chicken manure.
Here's this truck over there spreading this ammonia or
chicken manure on a, in a field.
I could see him over there.
And, but when he gets through with that field here, he comes flying up in
the, in the yard, that big truck, and this big old huge man gets out with his
overalls on, and he walks over there and he says, whoa, what are you doing?
I said, I'm, I'm building this catfish thing for Allen.
And he said, Hey, and he's watching me.
And Where'd you learn how to do that?
I said, well, I've been building nets my whole life.
And I told him a little bit about the nets.
He said, well, what are you doing here?
You ain't no Mennonite?
I said, no, I'm, I said, I'm an alcoholic, an alcoholic.
I said, yeah.
I said, yeah, I'm over here at the Bridge of Hope, trying
to get my life straight down.
I mean, know, you know, and he, we talked a little bit more and all that, but
right before we left, he says, hang on.
He says, he says, you want to not never want to drink again.
I said, I said, well, do I, I said, yeah, that's what I'm up here for, you know.
And he said, hang on.
So he goes back to the strut and he comes back with this little
one of them little old flip pads and a little wore out pencil.
Looked like a pup putt pencil.
And he said, write your name on there.
I wrote John Burbank.
And, uh, he folded it up and put it in his, in his overalls and, and
left, you know, didn't say nothing else and just said, I see you.
And then he left.
That's all he, and I'm, I go back and hang on my dad.
I, I'm thinking the twilight.
I ne ne, you know what I mean?
And, you know, I forgot about that for, and, and, uh, but it was about
two weeks later, couple weeks later, happened to be the same situation.
Allen and them had to go somewhere.
Some, I was by myself again in that backyard hanging on that net.
I smelled fertilizer.
I looked over there.
There he is on another field over there.
I see him over there, you know, and I'm wondering if he's
going to come or not today.
You know?
And sure enough, he gets through, he comes out in that big old
truck, and, uh, he gets out and he says, you in the same place?
I said, yeah, but there those big hydraulic reels.
So as I hang the top, whoop, excuse me, you're okay.
As I'd hang the top, and I thought with my hands, you know, I'd
hang the top and bottom line, you'd reel it up on that thing.
So I'm in the same spot.
Looks like you.
But I, yeah, he was a kid with me.
He knew.
I said, all right, that's bunching that up there.
And, uh, so we talked a little bit and all that, and he said, oh, by
the way, so he went back to his truck and he come back with that little
thing and he, he opened it up and he tore it out and handed it to me.
He said, the elders of my church prayed over your name, and they anointed it,
and there was an oil print on my name.
He says, you won't never want to drink again.
I said, okay.
And he messed around and then left, you know, left me holding that, holding
in that thing, and I'm thinking, so I folded it and I got my wallet out
and I had a million, and Robin's picture in there is one of those,
I had her picture on this side, me, I put it in between their picture.
That's where I put it.
And I put it while and, and didn't think much more about it.
But you know, you look back on it and I never did after that.
The phenomenal we call it in the, in, uh, alcohol No, or in in recovery.
We, it is called a phenomenal craving.
And that, that it is phenomenal.
That's the thing that gets you, that's the one that takes 'em to the grave
and, uh, drugs, alcohol, whatever, is phenomenal craving of the, of that.
But, but God took that away from me and that was just one thing
that happened and I went on.
Well, it's, it's, it's fascinating to see when, when you have these moments
where you get back in sync with the Lord.
You, you surrender to him.
Life is is ordinary life.
Oh, it's, it is, but it's beautiful.
Yeah, it is beautiful.
Raku the last 24 years has been absolutely, you just wake up
wondering what's he going to do?
You know, that's what he did.
He kept just putting people, you know, before I, before I ever went
to Louisville, I forgot about it.
There was a, they brought a Sunday school lesson.
A blind Baptist deacon had lost his sight to diabetes, and his and his
partner would walk him in, bring him in.
He taught his Sunday school.
And, you know, that was before then.
I just, different people God puts in your life.
And I'll never forget that.
I'll never forget the, the day that, uh, I, I came in there and I was a little
bit down and I did, I, I didn't say anything but that Blind Baptist deacon.
He, he, he just, he, he said, Johnny.
What's wrong?
I mean, he just sensed it, just sensed my f you know, and whatever.
But, and that was just another person, but then I want to tell you about this.
So I did all that would've Mennonites and, and, uh, going through all that time.
Stay.
John, what, what time do you have to be done?
I just wanna make sure I don't, uh, 4 45.
Alright, we got, we got about 30 minutes.
Okay.
I just wanted get an idea.
I don't want Jack to be mad at Yeah, no, I just gotta tell you.
And, uh, and, uh, so, uh, the deacon, blind Deacon, yeah.
Blind, but, but, uh, yeah.
How God puts different people in your life that old way.
But, but so this is, so I walk in with, with all, with the Mennonites
and God's discipling me and going, you know, and I'm gaining his faith and his
strength and, you know, that was the one thing that I knew God, the Mennonites
needed a net man, but I needed faith.
Mm-hmm.
You know what I mean?
I, I needed some faith to get me through this, you know?
And so, but it came time by time for me to go home.
Now Robin started coming up, brought the kids, and when I was
over with the Mennonites, we kind of broke the rules a little bit.
'cause your family ain't supposed to be able to come
see you except on family days.
But they came up and stayed with the Mennonite.
Oh.
And you know, funny, it's funny about the Mennonites and Robin.
So here, here comes Robin.
You know I told Robin, I said, don't be wearing your leopard up there.
Yeah.
And your jewelry and all.
I said, you gotta come plain.
You know, plain is Robb.
She's a southern debutante and the plain is robbing.
Could be.
We go.
And, uh, of course the women sit on one side of the church and men on the other.
So Robin's sitting over there with them.
But afterwards, we all went and, and had dinner at one of the midnight's house.
And, uh, I could hear them in the kitchen, the women, and they was, they
was grilling Robin, checking Robin out.
Robin was telling 'em all at that time, she was director, Jack and
Jill men, you know, and everything.
Well, Robin excused herself to go to the restroom, and I could hear
those Mennonite women in there.
One of 'em said, oh, she's going to heaven.
Oh, she's, she's going.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
They was in there taking her inventory, you know, bless my heart.
But, uh, but anyhow, Robin and the family got to come and see me.
So when I got out, I was coming back home.
I mean, God had done restored.
That was that scary.
Going back into real life.
Well, here's, let me tell you, as, as, as it came down to the wire, okay?
I'm going home in a.
In two weeks, man, I started getting scared.
Oh, buddy.
I started my mind, you know, you, and this is one thing Mr.
George taught me.
You know, your mind's a powerful thing.
Yeah.
All of us.
It's our own worst enemy.
Yeah.
We're, we're our worst enemy.
If we, if we leave our mind.
And that's, I guess, that God te teaches us, you know, to
control your thoughts, you know?
And, uh, because your mind, so my Board of Wills started turning my mind, and
I started crying out to God again.
I started praying.
I said, Lord, I, I need something else.
I, I don't know, I don't know what else you got for me, but I need some, I don't
feel like I, and I, I was reminding God, I said, there's a liquor store on
every corner, you know, in front of me.
Well, and it's funny how.
So many people avoid rehab because of fear.
Yeah.
They're afraid to go into it.
But, but once you've recovered to, to some degree, real life, boom.
Now, now that's that.
I've got you in the shape to begin with.
I'm not, I'm just, you know, I'm like, I'm telling God, I said, God,
you know, I, I'd just soon, let's stay up here with the Mennonite.
I'll be a farmer.
I didn't learn how to drive a tractor dog, you know, but, but I
knew, but where does God send me?
He sent me right back, you know, and I told God, I says, I said, Lord,
I fell on my face time after time.
They all know me.
There is the town drunk, you know, they all know to fail.
I'm a failure, you know, the big loser.
I used to do like that.
I put the big loser on my head, but.
But that was, you know, and, and I didn't hear nothing from him.
Didn't hear nothing from him while, and then one Saturday on
the weekends, I didn't work with him, Mennonites just a week.
But this one particular Saturday called me in and said, Hey, the Mennonites is here.
Wanted to know if you'll work, go help 'em in Augusta today.
I said, oh yeah, 'cause I love being around them.
I said, oh yeah, I'll go.
So we went to Augusta, me and Allen and his daddy, they had some rental
properties in Augusta, Georgia, and they had this big gas tank up, up the
hill, and they wanted to run a gas line down to the rental unit down below.
And, uh, so we was just digging a, a line, gonna run a line underground
down there, doing that all day long.
And I was too embarrassed to tell 'em that.
I was embarrassed to tell 'em that I was scared about going home.
Now here I was, all that I was supposed to be full of faith, them
been walking with 'em in the word, you know, supposed to be strong.
And here I was scared to death that about failing.
And, uh, and I didn't, I didn't wanna tell him back.
Allen.
So we get in the truck to go home.
Allen said, Hey, before I take you back, I'm going to feed you a steak.
I said, that sounds good.
So we went to the Western Sizzler in Augusta, and uh, we're sitting there,
Allen's sitting over there like you are, and we're looking, talking and each other,
and Allen starts grinning and laughing.
I didn't know what he was doing.
And all of a sudden this huge black man walks up and he's just
chiseled out of a piece of granite.
Turns out that he's an ex St.
Louis Cardinal football player.
He owns, he owns half the Gold's Gym and he owns that Western Sizzler.
And he sits down and Alan introduced him.
We start talking.
He was a, as the guy was telling you, he's like a walking king James.
He quoted scripture to everything we went to say he had a scripture
that related to what was going on.
He just, just just kept on and on.
And I'm sitting there listening and listening and there was another gentleman
sitting over here eating a steak.
He kind of got in on a conversation.
Next thing I knew, this man led him to the Lord.
And they, at then, they was exchanging phone numbers.
He was gonna pick him up and take him to church Sunday.
Mm-hmm.
And he, but he accepted to Christ right in front of my, and, and
that, and I just never forget it.
And, and we were going home, uh, Allen taking me back.
It just dawned on me how power it just, it, I was intrigued.
Power of the word.
I was just went to bed that night thinking, and I was
just laughing about it.
I said, Alan, you ever heard?
He says, no.
That guy, he, he knew the scripture, didn't he?
I said, oh, yeah.
I went to bed that night thinking about, uh, how powerful the word of God is.
The next morning, Sunday, here come the Baptist Deacons in
with a Sunday school lesson.
But, uh, this particular, uh, doodle wasn't with him this week.
It was just Barry and, uh, but he had a, had this skinny white boy with him,
with long blonde hair, and he had on a Jesus Freak T-shirt, and he kinda remind
my brother during the surfing days, Tommy, you know, and, uh, but guess what?
He, he started interacting with those guys in there.
He could, he was quoting scripture.
Just off the top of his head, like it was nobody's business.
And just, and I was sitting there listening, and then I heard that voice
again, that voice, that same voice.
He said, Johnny, he says, my word is going to keep you sober.
My word is your strength.
And, and it was like, oh, that, that same feeling, same feeling as
when I, when I received salvation.
Same feeling that, that night at three o'clock in the morning, same one when
I, I kneeled down and surrendered again, you know, and asked for forgiveness.
That same feeling, just, just that warm feeling fell over
me and boom, I was at peace.
That was, that was it.
I knew.
So, so going back to, going back to Fernandina, coming back into reality.
Did, did the family and the business receive you back with open
arms and say, now you're sober.
You did good before, but you're gonna do so much better?
No, not right off.
Not right off the bat.
When I, when I first, when I first came back, I started working
for a, a boy that I had trained in the shrimp, that business.
It had his own business.
And I went, so I started, I went back and I was working with him.
We was building shrimp nets.
He, and, uh, that's a whole nother long story, but that's where I was at.
But the key to the thing about what happened was though, is me and
Robins driving back from up there, I'm thinking about what God told me
about the power of being his word.
I'm already kind of thinking, planning out what I'm gonna be
doing, you know, and I really didn't know where I was gonna work then.
But I told, I said, well, you know, I don't need to go back to aa.
Because they, they're not teaching the word over there.
You know what I mean?
The word's being taught at church is where we go, so I need to get my Bible out.
I need to go back to church.
But that voice, Jesus says, oh, no, no, no, no.
He stopped me, dead my tracks when I, by that thought, he said, no,
you're going back over there because you're going to tell 'em about me.
Mm-hmm.
And I said, I said, Lord, I'm gonna tell 'em about you.
I says, you know, they don't talk about Jesus over there.
You know, not saying that some, that's not their higher power.
Right.
But it's not, it's not pushed.
Yeah.
And, and the Bible's not open over there.
Whatever.
Jesus said, no, you're going back over there to tell 'em about me.
You know?
I said, okay.
And I did.
And I remember when I went over there, and as, as time went on, it was just,
but here's what, here's what, and this was the biggest big, one of the
biggest things in my whole recovery, and walked my walk with God two weeks.
I what?
It was about two weeks.
Well, it was about two weeks in.
I'm going over there to the mail room, that's what it's called.
And, uh, I'm breaking all the anonymities.
But, you know, I feel like one, one of the things wrong with alcohol is anonymous.
It's a little too anonymous.
Yeah.
That's, that's something I've noticed in this community especially, um, you
know, culture's changed and the way that the taboo of alcoholism, but, but that's
changed in this community, in, in region.
It has changed.
Yeah.
And you're probably a lot of the reason for that is just I take the
blame, you know, you've got to at some point, um, you recognize that,
that we're all broken somehow.
And, and it's, it's not something to hide in shame, you know, it's
the kind of thing that, that the light bring it into the light.
And, and there's a lot of hope there.
I'm glad that there's anonymity to start with.
'cause some guys would never go Right exactly for that.
And I think that's, that's the reason.
But eventually it's, there's not shame, but that's, there's healing.
And that's when you get healed, right?
That's when, when you admit and, you know, and, uh, there's
a funny story about that too.
But, but this big thing, Jack, so I'm going about two weeks in, I'm going to
the mail room and I'm sitting there and I'm looking over there and there's this
chalkboard and you could barely read it.
And, and, but I think I'm looking at that thing, trying to figure out what it says.
And, uh, finally I asked this old timer in there, I said, what, what does that
chalkboard, what does that say up there?
He said, he said, oh, that's the jail ministry.
I said, what?
The jail ministry?
He said, yeah.
He said they used to carry a meeting out to the Nassau County Jail on
Tuesday nights at seven o'clock.
And I said, they don't do it anymore.
He says, ah, it ain't nobody's been in a couple years that I know of, you know.
And he said, why?
I said, oh, oh, don't worry about it.
And I.
When I heard the jail, I said, well, I'm trying to stay outta jail.
But that thing called my, every time I went in there, I'm going,
and finally I said, I said Jesus.
I said, Lord, you want me to go to the jail?
I didn't hear nothing this time.
I didn't hear nothing, but I knew, I said, I said, I'll go to the jail.
And as soon as I said that, that feeling, it just like that was my reaffirmations.
It's just like fresh wind.
I always think about, well, Jim Sim, fresh Wind.
Fresh fire.
Mm-hmm.
That's what it remind me of is, uh, boom, he just kicked me out.
I said, I knew it was right.
Yeah.
So what I do next Tuesday night, I grabbed the alcoholics, no book
grabbed the big book they call it.
And uh, I go out there and I, and it's do jail.
And I knock on the, I knock on the door and the guy comes and I said, uh,
I, they used to have a, a jail, uh, alcoholic Anonymous meeting out here
at seven o'clock on Tuesday nights.
I was just wondering if I can have one.
And the guy, you know, he kinda, he said, I, I don't know.
He said, but I, I'll check, see, well, about 10 minutes
later he comes back, come on in.
I went in there.
They didn't ask me for my driver's license, didn't even
ask me for my name, nothing.
I go back there and there's a picnic table outside the pod.
In the old jail.
You could see in the pod, you see all the guys in there.
So I'm sitting down at the picnic table and the guard goes over there, opens
the door, and he hollers aa, aa meeting, you know, and, and they all looking
at it, you know, one guy comes out.
So me and one guy have a meeting and, and we just talk and, and, uh, and
just had a AA meeting, you know, share.
There's just two of us.
So we had a long time to talk.
Then we got through, at, at the end of every AA meeting, we all hold
hands and say The Lord's Prayer.
Our father, we are in heaven.
So me and him held hands and said The Lord's Prayer.
All those guys watched it.
So there, there we go.
Next week I go back out there again.
Well, this time there's about 12 guys came out.
We had a meeting, went on next time, about 17, next time's about 30.
Next time it was getting big.
So just, just there we go.
Having meetings at the jail.
And then we moved from the old jail to the new jail when out there and the new jail,
you go out there and get buzzed in ya going and you gotta sign up there walking
the mile over the, over the old pod.
And so I did that for 16 years.
Wow.
And uh.
I'll never forget the first time I really, the really big breakthrough
is one, I took Tony Nolan in there and, uh, you know, he's an evangelist.
Evangelist, yeah.
And Tony was coming to do a, a crusade, or a revival revival at our church.
And I asked Tony if he'd go to jail with me.
He said, ah, sure.
He put his leather jacket on, kind of kicked his hair up.
Crazy.
And we went in there that night and 27 got saved.
Wow.
I mean, he, he just, you know how he does, you know, he just,
he's telling him how he grew up.
His mother was a prostitute and he was a drug dealer, sin city.
That's where Tony grew up, is in, uh, Atlantic Beach over there.
Sent what they call Sin City in Jacksonville.
And, uh, he sucked 'em all in and all then he just flipped the switch and who,
what he is now, what he's doing now, and how much God loves him and all that.
And you could just see him, you know, he just, just, the guys just remember.
And so that, and that's the way it went over time.
I, I can't tell you how many got saved over there in 16 years.
It was just at, at some point you're, you're clean, you're sober, you're
serving Jesus, and you're, you're faithful in the word and church.
At what point did you look at those shrimp nets and say they could be something more,
you know?
Well, um, before I ever got sober, you know, we had kind of switched
from, uh, or, or we started filling in with baseball during the slow
times of the shrimp net business.
I mean, we were all about, you know, making money and doing what and
survive and doing what you need to do.
So that was already kind of there, but it was in rehab.
It was in, it was up there sitting, sitting on the porch out there with know.
As long as I was thinking, and, and you know, at first when I was in rehab, I,
at Bridge of Hope, Bri, I was thinking, I don't know if I'm gonna do nets.
I, I might be a farmer, right?
Meite or I don't know what I'm gonna to do.
That's all I ever done, but I don't know if I'm gonna do that or, but then what?
But then God hooks me up with the midnight, so I'm building catfish things.
Mm-hmm.
I say, okay, God, I'm gonna be a net man.
You know, I kind of, I kind of took that on.
I'm gonna be a net man until I die.
So, but I gotta thinking, I said, you know what though?
Those long days of building shrimp nets, 12 hour days trying to make it ends meet,
we'd it done been in baseball long enough.
I knew it was more profitable.
And I done I, I and I, but I asked the Lord, I said, Lord, if it's all
right with you, I think I just want to go back and do baseball and sports.
And these are the nets, like at the backstop back, the backstops, the batting
cages, all the screens and everything.
And I'd already started installing.
I, I actually put my first backstop up when I was about 16, about when,
when my mama died, and uh mm-hmm.
So I'd been doing it a long time, but it's hard, you know, it's
hard to install backstops and do anything, drink, you know, drunk.
Yeah.
So it's hard to do a sofa, I Sure, yeah.
But it is a lot easier sofa and, uh, and so.
When I came back, that was, in my mind, that was the vision I had.
But I didn't know how I was gonna get there.
I was just one day at a time, one step at a time.
And, but, and actually I tell everybody now, you know, it's like
I surrendered, I tried to write the story of my life for 40 years, you
know, and I did a terrible job of it.
It, it got bad, you know what I mean?
It, it was a mess.
Yeah.
You know, I didn't wanna read it and certainly nobody else would.
So that night, three o'clock in the morning, I pretty much
just turned a pen over to God.
And I said, okay, you write it.
I'm going with you.
I dunno where we're going.
You write it.
And he, and that's the way it's been ever since.
And he started writing this thing.
And, uh, so I get back and I'm working with this other boy.
And then, and then at, at some point, uh, my brother asked me
to come back to work for him.
I wasn't sure.
Wasn't sure about it, but, you know, and I prayed about it.
I, I actually took Robin and my kids, we all went out and met with him and all,
but it was something, something there.
The family and I'm, I'm a family guy.
Mm-hmm.
Family means a lot to me.
And so I, but I told, I told him, I said, I'll come back.
I said, but I'm not doing shrimp nets anymore.
And nothing again, I love the shrimp and I miss that, you know?
I said, but I'm, I wanna go sports baseball.
I, I done made up my mind that, oh yeah, yeah, that's fine.
So let's do it.
And so we did.
And God just blessed us and, and we built a beautiful business.
And, uh, he put, you know, people in my life, he put a son-in-law in my life.
A great Christian man, as good as gold.
And Utah, one of the biggest blessings of my life has been him.
Hmm.
And, uh, just how, how it is all turned out.
I can tell.
I can tell and I can, I can see the way that you've influenced Eli and, and the
impact that you've made in his life.
And that's been, that's been beautiful to watch.
Yeah.
And, and that works both ways.
Yeah.
What a great, what a blessing.
Tell me, tell me about netting professionals right now.
Not to, you know, toot your horn or whatever, but just to
show what God's done, um, you install for the Atlanta Braves.
Atlanta Braves.
And who are some of the pro teams?
Rockies?
Uh, I did, uh, the Washington National's new stadium when it was built.
Fastest stadium ever built.
We was in the middle of that.
Me and one guy showed up, they want to know where the crew was.
I said, you're looking at it.
And about four days later we were waving by and, uh, division one.
Division one, just about.
Oh, you know, all the A-C-C-S-C-C schools and all over in Oklahoma
and out in that area, Oregon.
Uh, it's, it is unbelievable.
I've seen, I've seen pictures of you with, you know, legendary coaches.
Yeah.
You've met so many people.
So many people.
Just, and just to watch, you know, just like we said earlier, if, if
the Irish had been sober, you know.
Yeah.
What done Exactly.
You know, it's never too late.
No.
And how old were you when you 40, 40 years old when I got sober, 40 years
old and, and didn't, we didn't start netting professionals until I was 50.
So at 50, kind of at 52, I think 52.
This, this, this amazing business that, that you've been
able to build at 52 years old.
Um, our Lord can restore the years, the locust of eating.
He can, he can, you know, and I see you and Robin and, and just a, uh.
I, I, I don't know anybody who would look at y'all's marriage
and not envy what y'all have.
Y'all are best friends.
Oh, we are.
We've, we've been through it, you know, and it was her faith and, you know,
before we even moved there, I wanna say, will, you know, God put Will in
my life, will Miner is, uh, and Eli and Amelia, they're like just best friends.
Mm-hmm.
And when we started that business, God put us together.
You know, Will's a brilliant mind and Right.
And, but he's a great Christian, a good man.
He just talks too much.
That's his, yeah.
He, he don't say a whole lot, but he, he's like EF hu though.
When he does say something, you listen.
That's true.
He is, he's a humble and a brilliant guy and that you really gotta know.
You, you just love him.
And, uh, and Eli, it's, it is been a beautiful thing.
And looking at, looking at it, I mean, from, from your children,
you know, that your associates.
The losing your, losing your, your, your building, uh, and then God
giving you a new, a new, new facility.
That state of the art, a new facility, state of the art.
Um, just seeing all of those things I from, from a a, a man who's not a pastor.
Right.
Um, I don't know many people who've made the impact on the
community and a, a lasting legacy.
Well see, even like, like you see, you don't realize this, but you don't,
you, you got your own ideas of how you ended up in Fernandina, but you
don't realize, I prayed you here.
I'm certain, because it was a, it was a time when, when our,
when our last pastor left and, and, and uh, went somewhere else.
I'm saying like, oh, wait a minute, now here's my, you know, because
the whole time I was sober, I was under his tage, you know?
And I'm like, okay, God, now what?
What's this going on?
You know?
And you always have different seasons, you know.
So, got a new season.
We had an intern, but the whole time I'm praying, I said, alright,
Lord, I know the power's in the word and I need somebody to.
I need that mainstay of my life still bringing me to worse.
I start praying, praying, praying.
And how you got here.
You know, our, our, uh, team, when Sue Ellen, it was a
little miracle to work there.
She ended up being chairman.
Next thing you know, boom.
Here comes, here comes Zach, Terry, you know?
And, uh, and what a blessing you've been in my life.
Well, it's been a amazing for us.
I mean, I've, I've hung on on every word you've said, and
I've learned so much more.
Every, every, every sermon there's something to be learned.
And it is, and other things that you've taught, just like we was talking about
earlier, about being intentional, never think about it and all that,
but when I, you know, in 24 years, that's what God's called me to do.
Help others.
And in that alcohol abuse and drug abuse, a lot of it is marriage.
It's a lot of relational, you know, and I tell 'em all the time, I say,
look, if you want your marriage to be work, you, you know, you
certainly, you gotta put God first.
You gotta be intentional.
Mm-hmm.
And you, you're what with God.
You gotta be intentional, right?
It ain't, you can't just sit back and say, okay, God, do it.
Right.
No, you've gotta seek the word.
You've gotta go, you gotta get up and go to church.
You gotta go help others.
Study the word you got, you gotta be intentional.
And that's what anything, and the business that's netting professionals,
we, we were intentional about being the best and building a good
business, a good Christian business.
And, and we've definitely succeeded in doing that.
And it's, it's been, it's been a joy to watch.
And, you know, a lot of people have preconceived ideas about
preachers, about First Baptist churches, whatever it might be.
And so I hope, I hope a lot of people see this, but I hope that the right
people see it, that see that you and I have a genuine friendship.
Amen.
That it's like family.
Like I, amen.
I never knew you before we came here, but it's just like we grew up together.
I, I'd never forget too, when you first came United quiz you or you came in.
The, the body to ask you questions and all that, right?
Somebody asked, you said, what can we do for you?
How can we help you?
And all I remember, I'll never forget you just said, be my friend.
Right.
Uh, just be my friend.
And, and, and that's what you, I've seen, I've watched you grow.
I've sitting back, you know, I'm.
65 just turned 65.
And, uh, but I've saw, I've seen you grow.
I've seen your family grow.
I've seen your kids grow and there it is been, it's been beautiful.
And it is, it's a ministry That's probably, hopefully,
you know what I've got here.
I've got a awesome congregation that's yes.
Very much filled with friends.
Not every pastor's got that.
And I think, I think preachers just by nature can be peculiar
and difficult to connect with.
But, um, but you know, be a friend of your pastor.
Exactly.
Some lonely people out there, you know, and give 'em some space and go
and help 'em out when they need you.
I know, weird.
They, they're, they're a little weird.
Let 'em be that way.
Love them Anyway.
Um.
You've, you've been good to me and brought me a, brought me a bag of shrimp.
Hey, well that's, you know, I don't, that's like been a tradition of mine.
I used to do it for brother Jeff and all, and that's one,
the only one thing I offered.
I still know the shrimpers.
I, I know what a fresh shrimp is.
That's right.
And, uh, it ain't some frozen store ball thing, you know?
Right.
I like to get 'em fresh off the boat caught that day and, uh, and
like to get 'em to you and that, that's just my way of loving on you.
I don't know.
Well, it's, it's spelt I appreciate it, you know, and, uh, and your family and,
and I tell you, the church has been such a blessing to grow up so many people.
I mean, you see the mentors in there that, that I've, I've held on to,
you know, and, and just growed over the years, you know, just, you know,
you can hold on somebody else's faith so long, but there comes a time when
you gotta cross the Jordan on alone.
Right.
And that's when you grow.
As you grow.
And I, well, my, my prayer in doing this is that there's somebody watching that,
that hopefully they get a little glimpse.
Of what the future could be like.
Amen.
And, and it can.
Mm-hmm.
It can, but you got, and you gotta realize no matter how, how far down
you've gone, no matter what stage of life you're in or what you're doing,
no matter how wrecked your life is and everything, you're just, all it is is one.
Surrender away.
That's right.
One.
And if, if the gospel doesn't work, then it doesn't work at all.
It doesn't work.
Exactly.
Thank you for being here today, Johnny.
It's been a privilege to have you in the studio.
I enjoyed it.
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