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Cailin: Welcome everyone to
Faith and Purpose Podcast.

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Each episode of this podcast contains the
personal testimony of an ordinary person

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transformed by an extraordinary guide.

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My name is Kaylyn, and I'm
here to introduce this podcast

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for my friend Jesse Duke.

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Jesse is a husband, father,
author, life recovery guide, lay

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counselor, and small group leader.

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But his most important role is
disciple as a disciple of Jesus.

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Jesse created this podcast to help other
believers tell their faith stories.

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We'll be hearing the personal
testimonies of all sorts of people

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who have one thing in common.

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Jesus has transformed their lives.

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Jesus used parables because he created
us to learn best through story.

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And as we listen to how God has worked
in others' lives, we find encouragement

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and inspiration for our own faith walk.

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Whether you are already a believer or
just a curious seeker, we believe that

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as you listen to these stories, you will
be encouraged on your own faith journey.

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We are sure that God can speak to you
through one of these episodes and that

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you will see that our Heavenly Father
truly works all things together for our

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good when we simply love and trust him.

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If you are currently going through a
trial, we believe that you will come

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to see that your troubles, heartbreaks
and failures are not gravestones, but

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stepping stones into new life in Christ.

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Here's Jesse with today's guest.

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Welcome everyone to Faith
and Purpose Podcast today.

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I'm very happy and grateful to my
friends Johnny Burbank and Pastor

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Zach Terry, a First Baptist Church,
Ferna Beach, Florida, for allowing

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me to include an episode from
Pastor Zach's podcast, code Red.

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I had asked Johnny Burbank to be on my
podcast but Pastor Zach had already gotten

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to him and had done a great interview.

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it was so well done.

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I knew I couldn't add anything to it, so I
asked, and they both graciously agreed to.

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Let me use the audio of that interview
for Faith and Purpose Podcast.

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You can see the video.

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On any podcast platform at Code
Red with Zach Terry, that's ZACH,

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Terry, and he has some excellent and
expiring interviews there with other

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believers that I know you would enjoy.

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So check it out.

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I'll put a link to it in the show notes.

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But for now, here's the
audio version of Zach Terry.

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And Johnny Burbank.

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I didn't do any editing,
so here's the entire story.

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I know you'll be blessed by it.

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Johnny Burbank, it's good to have
you in the Code Red Studio today.

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I'm glad to be here.

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Well, we came down almost eight years ago.

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Our family came down and I met
you as a leader in the church that

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I was soon to be pastor of, and.

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From all I knew.

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You just had the perfect
background, perfect childhood.

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You had always walked with Jesus and kind
of assumed a role of leadership as a, a

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deacon in our church and all those things.

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But I've come to know, 'cause if anybody's
met you, you tell your story pretty quick.

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Little did you know, little did
I know it wasn't quite as rosy.

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It was as I assumed it was, but
I don't regret regret any of it.

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And, uh, it was quite a journey.

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So still ongoing.

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Yeah.

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Awesome story of redemption as
we are all trophies of grace.

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Amen.

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But it's, it's really, uh, as I
came to hear the old Johnny, uh,

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I think, I think people kind of
considered you a, a lovable drunk.

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Right?

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Right.

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It's probably kind of an Otis.

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Oh, we, yeah.

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Around here had many a good
time, you know, and, uh, yeah.

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How, how did you end up in
that, in that situation?

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Well, uh, growing up at the docks,
you know, in a, uh, netting and we was

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building shrimp nets, you know, our whole
life grew up, which is a big industry.

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A big industry.

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Yeah.

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I mean, at eight years old, my grandfather
was teaching me the business and,

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and later went in and worked with my
brothers and my father, and we were

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the largest net makers in the world.

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And, uh, built nests for n Rockwell, El
Salvador, Honduras, all the east coast.

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And, and uh, and in, in that though, it
was also a lot of, uh, alcohol involved

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in that environment down at the docks
so the largest net manufacturers in

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the world, international operation.

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And you grow up around, um,
those kind of guys, which.

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Alcohol's involved in that.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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It, you know, parties and, uh, we'd have
parties at the net shop and, uh, all

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the shrimpers would come and everything.

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And so alcohol was involved and,
and really and truly, I, uh, my,

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my mother and father were both
alcoholics and I, did they know, did

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they know that they were alcoholics?

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We didn't even know what
alcoholics was back then.

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We, you know, it was just a, a normal way.

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It was a way of life.

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We thought everybody, you know, kind
of growing up, we thought everybody

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was kind of like that, you know?

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Yeah.

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And, uh, great people, don't get me
wrong, they called my dad Captain Daddy,

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and they called my mom, captain Mama.

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The, the locals and the young people
were always welcome at our house,

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and you got thrown outta your house.

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You come live with us, that type of thing.

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Right.

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I was the youngest of four brothers
and, uh, and our household was

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like that, but we hit, you know,
they worked, we grew up working

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hard and we had like a keg of beer.

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And the refrigerator would tap on side.

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So three o'clock every day.

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It was just a normal thing.

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We had to wait on Daddy to get one.

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Soon as daddy got got him a colon, then
everybody keep, it was pregame then.

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But what'd you say?

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About three o'clock?

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Yeah, about three o'clock.

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Yeah.

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That's called.

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How old were you when
you had your first drink?

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Uh, probably at one of those shrimp
boat parties, probably around, I

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don't know, nine or 10 years old.

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Okay.

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Uh, and did it start out with, uh, beer?

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Was it hard liquor or beer?

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We start, you know, drinking beer
and, uh, and then liquor and then,

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you know, just whatever down the road.

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And, and did, did you, did you
sense at all the, the danger that

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could be connected with, with
alcohol at an early age, or was

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it just culturally what you knew?

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Just culturally what we
knew, you know, it was.

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But I, well, I knew it was, you
know, you knew it was dysfunctional,

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but it was something that you,
you, you needed to work through.

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I mean, in our household, if, you
know somebody run into the house

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with the car, you know, they'd,
oh, we gotta get the brakes fixed.

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Or somebody fall down the steps coming
down off the deck or the next, they'd

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have you out of paint the steps.

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Right.

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Putting sand in it.

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The steps was slippery, you know?

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Yeah.

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And things of that nature,
you know what I mean?

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They never had nothing to
do with alcohol, but, right.

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But there was, I knew there
was something wrong with it.

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I mean, my mother and father at night,
after all of my other brothers had

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left at, uh, at night, they would,
they would just about sometimes fight

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and about kill each other, you know?

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And then the next morning we're
sitting at the table, they're asking

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me about school, you know, and I'm
like, school, you know, Hey, hey, we

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about killed each other last night.

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Now we're gonna talk about,
you know what I mean?

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Right.

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It was dysfunctional.

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Totally.

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How, how was your dad able to,
to grow that business and run

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that, operate that business?

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Well, he had four boys that.

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That I look back on it, you know, he
had us there and, and uh, and picked

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up the slack and he worked hard.

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I mean, don't get me wrong.

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I mean, we, we all worked hard and it,
it was a great business to be in as far

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as fulfilling from, you know, we, uh,
shrimpers all the way down the east coast.

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That was their livelihood.

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And, uh, and when the, during the
season and all, sometimes they'd

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go out and tear up all their nets.

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I'd be going in the next day, had a
game plan of all, everything I was

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going to do, you know, and I'd get
there, there'd be some shrimper backed

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up there to the door, been there all
night, maybe drove from South Carolina,

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North Carolina, Pam Co sound, you know.

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But he'd be sitting there and, uh,
with every, all his nets in the back.

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And so, you know, it was on us.

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I'd get him all fixed back up,
get him going back to take care

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of his family, you know, and
that's, that's how we got known as.

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And, and, uh, we, we made friends with
all those Trumpers all those years.

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And the, our background, you
know, a little bit of my story,

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my, my dad's father was a severe
alcoholic and they had 12 children.

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And it was the kind of thing,
you know, it affects different

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people different ways, right.

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But he was, he was mean.

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Right?

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So when he would drink, he, you know,
some people, life of the party, whatever.

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Yeah.

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Um, he, he brought a violence out in him.

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Yeah.

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And growing up, as you said in that
context, it's just normal to you.

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But, you know, he dad said he never,
never heard his father say, I love you.

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Right this entire life, you know, I
had a uncle, uncle Frank, he was an

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alcoholic too, and, uh, uncle Frank.

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Uh, wound up in Texas and he
finally left Texas and he came

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back to live here and work with us.

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And, uh, he, he came in one day and,
you know, and, and he called my dad,

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dad, it was actually his brother, but
he said, Hey dad, he said, I need help.

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And Daddy said, what's the matter?

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Yeah.

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Outta liquor, you know, that was buying
him cases of gin at that time, you know?

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And, and Frank said,
no, I got, I gotta quit.

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And, and my dad, I remember that quit.

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You know, how do you do that?

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They don't, didn't, nobody
knew that concept about quit.

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So, but there was a, there was a
gentleman in town that, that we knew.

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I just call him Nick, and
he was like the town drunk.

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He was the oldest back then, and he got
sober and then he went on and ran a whole

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fleet of boats for Solomon down in Key
West and all just a real brilliant man.

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And, uh.

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After he got sober.

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After he got sober.

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Wow.

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And, and so Daddy knew we
knew him, you know, knew that.

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Yeah.

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So he called him up and, uh, so me, he
came, got my uncle and took him to a

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charter by the sea, his place up on St.

00:10:51.531 --> 00:10:51.946
Simons Island.

00:10:51.946 --> 00:10:52.346
Mm-hmm.

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And my uncle went in
there, 28 day program.

00:10:54.711 --> 00:10:56.301
He came out and never drank again.

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And, uh, so then we, we rock on.

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And, uh, and then, so by this time,
I'm about 27 years old, married two

00:11:06.591 --> 00:11:12.291
children, and I've done alcohol, had,
doesn't consume my life, you know, it's

00:11:12.291 --> 00:11:17.001
just, and alcoholics we call, when you
cross that line, there's no going back.

00:11:17.511 --> 00:11:19.011
And it doesn't happen for everybody.

00:11:19.101 --> 00:11:20.451
Everybody's not an alcoholic.

00:11:20.571 --> 00:11:21.771
Everybody's not an addict.

00:11:22.221 --> 00:11:24.621
They don't, you know, they
never cross that line.

00:11:24.651 --> 00:11:30.051
And, uh, and some people can drink
and they, they might find a, a problem

00:11:30.051 --> 00:11:31.731
with it or whatever, and they can quit.

00:11:32.301 --> 00:11:35.541
But a true alcoholic or addict,
whatever, once they cross that line,

00:11:35.541 --> 00:11:37.281
there's no going back, you know?

00:11:37.731 --> 00:11:38.271
So.

00:11:38.321 --> 00:11:38.351
Okay.

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Were there periods of sobriety
or was it just Oh, yeah.

00:11:42.056 --> 00:11:42.296
Yeah.

00:11:42.396 --> 00:11:50.501
It, and when, and actually at, uh, at age
27 and, uh, me and me and my wife Robin,

00:11:50.501 --> 00:11:53.171
we decided it was time for us to grow up.

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Now Robin was raised in church.

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She was raised at First Baptist Church,
and, uh, my family was Episcopalian

00:12:01.151 --> 00:12:06.191
and, uh, when we went, you know,
and, uh, my mother though, she was a

00:12:06.191 --> 00:12:11.171
Baptist from way cross Georgia, and she
sang around the piano, sang gospels,

00:12:11.171 --> 00:12:15.071
hymns with her, her mother playing
to Oregon with her brothers and all.

00:12:15.551 --> 00:12:17.771
But she came down and married my dad.

00:12:18.311 --> 00:12:21.941
And, and she, that's when
she became an alcoholic.

00:12:22.001 --> 00:12:24.251
And she also had back injuries on her.

00:12:24.311 --> 00:12:28.661
She had back problems and she was
on Valium, on prescription drugs.

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And they, they took her out at age 42.

00:12:31.916 --> 00:12:35.636
Alcohol and then, uh, and
prescription drugs, kidney

00:12:35.636 --> 00:12:37.406
failure is what took her out.

00:12:37.681 --> 00:12:38.461
How, how old were you?

00:12:38.581 --> 00:12:38.996
I was 16.

00:12:38.996 --> 00:12:40.136
16 years old.

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And it was a big blow in my life.

00:12:42.986 --> 00:12:47.006
But I remember my, Jay, I remember
mama when she would try to,

00:12:47.066 --> 00:12:50.066
we didn't know anything about
alcoholics or even addicts back then.

00:12:50.306 --> 00:12:51.626
It wasn't taught much.

00:12:51.986 --> 00:12:53.096
And it was ironic.

00:12:53.096 --> 00:12:58.766
We went by a AA building downtown behind
the library, drove by it every day, going

00:12:58.766 --> 00:13:00.686
to work, didn't even know what it was.

00:13:00.686 --> 00:13:01.496
Mm-hmm.

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And didn't know, you know, didn't
know anything about alcohol.

00:13:03.866 --> 00:13:04.976
That's anonymous or anything.

00:13:05.306 --> 00:13:05.996
But anyhow, I.

00:13:06.446 --> 00:13:10.466
When my mother would try to clean
herself up, or when she try to quit

00:13:10.466 --> 00:13:14.846
on her own, I would, you know, I'd
immediately, immediately notice it and

00:13:14.846 --> 00:13:16.676
she'd ask me to go to church with her.

00:13:17.186 --> 00:13:20.666
And I was the youngest, uh, of the
boys, you know, and I was her baby.

00:13:21.176 --> 00:13:24.146
And I, here it was when we'd go to
the Episcopal church and we'd go in

00:13:24.146 --> 00:13:26.036
there and she'd light that place up.

00:13:26.186 --> 00:13:26.366
Mm-hmm.

00:13:26.456 --> 00:13:30.416
I mean, sing like an angel,
and everybody in there knew it.

00:13:30.416 --> 00:13:32.996
And they tried to get her to join
the choir and everything else too.

00:13:32.996 --> 00:13:40.016
But, and I can, all I can remember then
Zach was the Jesus, the stainless windows

00:13:40.016 --> 00:13:41.846
behind the altar and the Episcopal church.

00:13:41.876 --> 00:13:45.656
It was Jesus Peter on one
side and Mary on the other.

00:13:45.671 --> 00:13:47.711
I think that's how it is,
you know, uh, up there.

00:13:47.981 --> 00:13:49.601
And that's who I was praying to.

00:13:50.021 --> 00:13:54.311
And I all, I can remember praying, I was
like, God, please keep my mama like this.

00:13:54.341 --> 00:13:56.411
You know, please keep my mama like this.

00:13:56.416 --> 00:13:59.831
And that and her sober moments,
you praying that the Lord would

00:13:59.831 --> 00:14:04.001
keep sober, praying, keep, keep her
sober, but it didn't, and the end.

00:14:04.001 --> 00:14:06.971
And uh, and she ended up
it, she ended up dying.

00:14:07.151 --> 00:14:12.521
And, uh, you know, you mentioned with
your uncle and, and also with your mother,

00:14:12.731 --> 00:14:19.451
the, that they had such talent, gifts,
and ability when they were sober, but,

00:14:19.451 --> 00:14:24.191
but alcohol and, you know, any addiction,
I don't wanna make it all just alcohol.

00:14:24.191 --> 00:14:29.291
It could be so many things that people
just give their life over to slowly.

00:14:29.471 --> 00:14:29.861
Yeah.

00:14:30.071 --> 00:14:38.021
And one of the things I found with men is
if they're not motivated to say, well, I.

00:14:38.021 --> 00:14:39.461
You know, Hey, my family's fine.

00:14:39.461 --> 00:14:40.901
My wife tolerates it.

00:14:40.901 --> 00:14:41.951
My kids love me.

00:14:41.951 --> 00:14:43.661
They'll forgive me if I mess up.

00:14:43.661 --> 00:14:46.511
Or, uh, whatever, whatever
the motive may be.

00:14:46.811 --> 00:14:56.531
If a man can see how much potential is
being robbed from him through alcoholism

00:14:56.531 --> 00:15:04.271
or pills or whatever it might be, uh,
that in itself can motivate a man if they

00:15:04.271 --> 00:15:06.161
see it, if they see it, if they see it.

00:15:06.161 --> 00:15:06.461
Right.

00:15:06.466 --> 00:15:07.211
And some do.

00:15:07.301 --> 00:15:07.631
Right?

00:15:07.631 --> 00:15:08.831
Some do, but a lot don't.

00:15:09.011 --> 00:15:12.611
What is it they used to say of the
Irish, if it hadn't been for alcohol,

00:15:12.611 --> 00:15:13.721
they would've ruled the world.

00:15:13.961 --> 00:15:14.141
Right.

00:15:14.471 --> 00:15:15.671
And really, there's a lot of truth.

00:15:15.816 --> 00:15:16.451
And, and you know.

00:15:16.451 --> 00:15:16.841
Yeah.

00:15:16.841 --> 00:15:21.191
And, uh, you find out that, that a lot
of people that I've helped and, and,

00:15:21.191 --> 00:15:25.661
you know, alcoholics and addicts, their
personality, they're smart people.

00:15:25.661 --> 00:15:28.931
They're, and not saying that I am,
I, I might be one of the few, but

00:15:29.021 --> 00:15:31.181
that's not, but I'm just teasing.

00:15:31.181 --> 00:15:33.581
But you find out that they are.

00:15:33.926 --> 00:15:35.276
Uh, productive.

00:15:35.276 --> 00:15:39.746
And when I say that the disease,
alcoholism and, and drug

00:15:39.746 --> 00:15:43.466
addiction and all of it, and
it, it could even be depression.

00:15:43.946 --> 00:15:45.896
It's a slow, it's a slow fade.

00:15:45.896 --> 00:15:45.986
Mm-hmm.

00:15:46.226 --> 00:15:49.706
You hear that song about it and
it just happens over time, time

00:15:49.706 --> 00:15:52.136
it gets worse and worse and worse.

00:15:52.226 --> 00:15:54.026
I mean, there's signs
that start happening.

00:15:54.026 --> 00:15:55.946
It gets worse and worse and worse.

00:15:56.006 --> 00:15:58.706
And for me, that's when
it was about 27 years old.

00:15:58.706 --> 00:16:04.436
They did an intervention on me and, uh,
my wife and my, my oldest brothers, my

00:16:04.466 --> 00:16:06.626
bro, all my brothers, and even my father.

00:16:06.626 --> 00:16:07.586
And they were still drinking.

00:16:07.586 --> 00:16:08.396
They're alcoholics.

00:16:08.396 --> 00:16:11.726
They still, but they knew,
you know, that I needed help.

00:16:12.056 --> 00:16:14.216
Well, that's what I was telling
you about my uncle, that he

00:16:14.216 --> 00:16:15.086
went and charter by the sea.

00:16:15.086 --> 00:16:16.226
He got sober, come out.

00:16:16.226 --> 00:16:20.306
So naturally they gonna load me up
and take me to charter by the sea.

00:16:21.341 --> 00:16:24.581
And of course, so I go to
Charter by Sea, 27 years old.

00:16:25.301 --> 00:16:27.671
And so how so they, they
staged the intervention.

00:16:27.671 --> 00:16:29.771
How did, how did it hit you?

00:16:29.891 --> 00:16:31.241
Was it offensive to you?

00:16:31.241 --> 00:16:32.501
Was it No, I knew.

00:16:32.501 --> 00:16:32.951
You knew?

00:16:33.011 --> 00:16:33.791
I already knew.

00:16:33.941 --> 00:16:38.261
And, and I'd already tried to quit
on my own, uh, in that, in, uh, just

00:16:38.261 --> 00:16:40.271
wasn't able to do it even at that age.

00:16:40.271 --> 00:16:42.791
And, uh, and they did
an intervention on me.

00:16:42.791 --> 00:16:47.891
And I thought, okay, so I went and I went
and told by sea and I knew, uh, without

00:16:47.891 --> 00:16:49.601
a shadow of doubt, I was an alcoholic.

00:16:49.691 --> 00:16:53.591
I mean, everything they
said made sense, everything.

00:16:53.591 --> 00:16:56.771
And I was introduced to
Alcoholics Anonymous then.

00:16:57.431 --> 00:16:59.171
And, uh, everything knew.

00:16:59.171 --> 00:17:03.256
I, I knew and I had all the good
intentions, but I came back and, and

00:17:03.261 --> 00:17:05.951
I, I, I didn't stay sober long at all.

00:17:06.401 --> 00:17:06.941
You know what I mean?

00:17:06.941 --> 00:17:07.696
I got back out.

00:17:07.696 --> 00:17:08.016
Mm-hmm.

00:17:08.101 --> 00:17:09.131
I went back to drinking.

00:17:09.131 --> 00:17:11.411
And when you, when you
would go through that.

00:17:12.026 --> 00:17:14.996
Did you think to yourself Just one
drink and then I'll get my phone?

00:17:14.996 --> 00:17:15.416
Wh Oh yeah.

00:17:15.416 --> 00:17:17.036
Just it's, it's, right.

00:17:17.336 --> 00:17:22.166
Well, well, and it's different stages,
you know, that first you always think

00:17:22.166 --> 00:17:27.026
you can control it and it, and uh, for
me that's, that was one of the biggest

00:17:27.026 --> 00:17:32.666
things is, is I was, it was embarrassing
that something like that could whoop me.

00:17:32.666 --> 00:17:35.156
'cause I, I just, I was
raised up to be proud.

00:17:35.156 --> 00:17:36.476
Work hard, man, man.

00:17:36.506 --> 00:17:36.806
Big guy.

00:17:36.806 --> 00:17:37.016
Yeah.

00:17:37.016 --> 00:17:37.706
You know?

00:17:37.711 --> 00:17:37.951
Yeah.

00:17:38.276 --> 00:17:42.206
And, uh, I, I always wanted to be the
best net maker, I mean, a competitor.

00:17:42.206 --> 00:17:43.796
I wanted to be better than my brothers.

00:17:44.246 --> 00:17:46.916
I wanted to be better, you know, I
wanted to be as good as my grandfather.

00:17:46.916 --> 00:17:50.606
I wanted to be, we always, always wanted
to be the best we want, and we wanted

00:17:50.606 --> 00:17:52.106
to have the best business, you know?

00:17:52.856 --> 00:17:54.746
And, uh, so it was, it was like that.

00:17:54.746 --> 00:17:56.126
And it was just a struggle.

00:17:56.456 --> 00:18:00.866
But, you know, that was my first rehab
and then it, then it, from, from that age

00:18:01.076 --> 00:18:03.056
until I didn't get sober till I was 40.

00:18:03.836 --> 00:18:05.336
I mean, it was a battle.

00:18:05.576 --> 00:18:06.836
I mean, rehabs.

00:18:06.836 --> 00:18:10.466
And finally, I, I forget
exactly when, but.

00:18:10.661 --> 00:18:10.721
Yeah.

00:18:11.261 --> 00:18:15.731
One day, Robin, my wife, she says, you
know what, he, she knew I needed Jesus.

00:18:15.731 --> 00:18:16.571
That's what she knew.

00:18:16.571 --> 00:18:18.251
She, she drug me to church.

00:18:18.791 --> 00:18:21.611
I mean, literally the church was downtown.

00:18:21.611 --> 00:18:23.741
It was the old church on
fifth Street down there.

00:18:24.251 --> 00:18:28.361
And I remember walking up those steps,
those big steps going, that was the hard,

00:18:28.361 --> 00:18:29.861
one of the hardest things I'd ever done.

00:18:30.506 --> 00:18:34.301
'cause I, I told her, I said,
Rob, those people know me.

00:18:34.331 --> 00:18:38.171
They said, I said, I knew just enough
about the Bible that I said they

00:18:38.171 --> 00:18:39.971
might take me out back stone me.

00:18:39.971 --> 00:18:43.061
You know, because, uh,
and, but they didn't.

00:18:43.361 --> 00:18:44.321
They loved me.

00:18:44.321 --> 00:18:47.321
And I'm gonna tell you, I
actually, I wore that church out.

00:18:47.771 --> 00:18:49.331
I wore out three pastors.

00:18:49.391 --> 00:18:49.481
Mm-hmm.

00:18:49.721 --> 00:18:53.411
James Dunham and, uh, Danny
Morris and, and all that.

00:18:53.441 --> 00:18:55.841
They, they try all tried
to help me and help me.

00:18:56.411 --> 00:19:00.791
And it's just like, so, so when you,
when you came into church, not, not being

00:19:00.791 --> 00:19:02.771
from that kind of background, right.

00:19:03.821 --> 00:19:04.571
Did you.

00:19:05.216 --> 00:19:10.406
Did you come in with the idea that,
hey, I've got a, I've got a problem

00:19:10.766 --> 00:19:12.686
and I want, want you to know about it.

00:19:12.716 --> 00:19:19.016
I'm, I want to get right, or did you
come in with, um, trying to, to fool

00:19:19.016 --> 00:19:20.516
'em or kind of what was your just Yeah.

00:19:20.521 --> 00:19:20.541
Yeah.

00:19:20.906 --> 00:19:24.776
You first come in, like, then you
just kind of wanna fit in, sweep

00:19:24.776 --> 00:19:27.746
it under the rug, you know, back in
them gener back in those days, that's

00:19:27.746 --> 00:19:29.096
about what you did with everything.

00:19:29.096 --> 00:19:31.676
Anyhow, back in those day, everybody
sweat everything under the rug.

00:19:31.731 --> 00:19:34.886
Tell, tell me this, at that time,
like something like this, we

00:19:34.886 --> 00:19:36.266
would've never done back then.

00:19:36.266 --> 00:19:37.766
You wouldn't admit you would.

00:19:37.796 --> 00:19:38.246
Yeah.

00:19:38.366 --> 00:19:40.676
That, you know, and that your
weakness, that's changed.

00:19:40.706 --> 00:19:41.186
Oh, yeah.

00:19:41.516 --> 00:19:41.876
Oh yeah.

00:19:41.936 --> 00:19:43.166
We're thankful for that.

00:19:43.436 --> 00:19:47.936
But, but at that time,
what were you ashamed?

00:19:48.566 --> 00:19:48.926
Yeah.

00:19:48.926 --> 00:19:51.236
To admit your problem or Ashamed.

00:19:51.236 --> 00:19:52.286
Yeah, ashamed.

00:19:52.286 --> 00:19:56.006
That, and I was still at that
point to where, yeah, I was

00:19:56.006 --> 00:19:57.381
ashamed that I couldn't, I.

00:19:57.986 --> 00:19:59.006
Handle it on my own.

00:19:59.066 --> 00:19:59.246
Yeah.

00:19:59.306 --> 00:19:59.726
You know what I mean?

00:19:59.731 --> 00:20:02.366
I, I, I couldn't admit
that I really needed help.

00:20:02.846 --> 00:20:02.936
Mm-hmm.

00:20:03.176 --> 00:20:08.306
But, but I wanted to, I I was always tried
to do the best When they got, they, uh,

00:20:08.636 --> 00:20:10.886
I'd show up, I'd wear a three piece suit.

00:20:11.336 --> 00:20:13.046
I'd look like a church person.

00:20:13.076 --> 00:20:13.166
Mm-hmm.

00:20:13.406 --> 00:20:15.296
That's why I don't like to
wear suits today to church.

00:20:15.656 --> 00:20:15.746
Right.

00:20:15.926 --> 00:20:20.126
And, uh, because I did that, I
was dying on the inside, wearing

00:20:20.126 --> 00:20:21.356
a three piece suit at church.

00:20:21.836 --> 00:20:25.646
They, they, we started up the
TV ministry, James Dunham did.

00:20:25.646 --> 00:20:25.706
I.

00:20:26.021 --> 00:20:30.221
I'd film him, go around town, film
him, help him with the TV ministry.

00:20:30.701 --> 00:20:31.901
I was, I was over it.

00:20:31.961 --> 00:20:34.451
I was probably one of the
best directors they ever had.

00:20:34.451 --> 00:20:37.211
Not bright or nothing, but
that's why they let me do it.

00:20:37.211 --> 00:20:41.741
And had we had four cameras
and we was filming live, we, we

00:20:41.771 --> 00:20:43.331
boom, it, it was over that day.

00:20:43.331 --> 00:20:44.801
There wasn't no editing, no nothing.

00:20:44.801 --> 00:20:45.101
Boom.

00:20:45.101 --> 00:20:46.061
It went to the air.

00:20:46.451 --> 00:20:48.731
I've heard some stories from back then.

00:20:48.851 --> 00:20:53.921
Um, you, you weren't always on the
wagon when you were behind those

00:20:53.921 --> 00:20:55.271
cameras, from what I understand.

00:20:55.271 --> 00:20:58.841
Well, well, I'd be drunk on Saturday
night and be in there in church

00:20:58.901 --> 00:21:02.231
the next day trying to, trying to
do, I wanted to do what's right.

00:21:02.231 --> 00:21:03.851
I always wanted to be a good husband.

00:21:03.851 --> 00:21:05.171
I wanna be a good father.

00:21:05.171 --> 00:21:05.261
Right.

00:21:05.591 --> 00:21:07.181
I wanted to do things right.

00:21:07.211 --> 00:21:09.131
But that, that, that hangup.

00:21:10.316 --> 00:21:12.266
That, that was in my way, you know?

00:21:12.266 --> 00:21:16.676
And, uh, Lord had great people,
Steve Simmons, you know, he'd be

00:21:16.676 --> 00:21:20.306
slipping me a peppermint, shaking his
head, and Jimmy wrote it for, was in

00:21:20.306 --> 00:21:21.746
there with me back then, you know?

00:21:21.746 --> 00:21:24.896
And, uh, Robin would be wanting
to kill me and all of them, you

00:21:24.896 --> 00:21:29.546
know, for putting up with she,
she, oh yeah, she stayed with you.

00:21:29.546 --> 00:21:29.548
She did.

00:21:29.553 --> 00:21:33.656
And for that, that better or worse, she's
just, and, and Zach, it was her faith.

00:21:33.716 --> 00:21:38.396
You know, we, we get onto this
story, so this rocks on and rocks on.

00:21:38.486 --> 00:21:42.536
And, uh, and it eventually
just got worse and worse.

00:21:42.536 --> 00:21:47.216
And, I mean, and I went to gateway
rehab and, uh, uh, you know,

00:21:47.216 --> 00:21:51.896
just, just everything, detox and
I mean, and I did quit for like.

00:21:52.451 --> 00:21:55.661
I think the longest I ever
made it was like six months.

00:21:55.961 --> 00:21:56.291
Wow.

00:21:56.501 --> 00:21:58.986
And at a time, and then,
you know, something.

00:21:58.986 --> 00:22:00.551
Did you feel better
during that six months?

00:22:00.551 --> 00:22:01.451
Oh yeah.

00:22:01.571 --> 00:22:02.081
Yeah.

00:22:02.081 --> 00:22:04.901
And, and you know, and just, and it's
just like a rollercoaster boom, I'd

00:22:04.901 --> 00:22:08.771
build my life back up, everything going
good and all, and boom, it, it just,

00:22:09.161 --> 00:22:12.041
would it, would it be a situation where

00:22:14.141 --> 00:22:17.981
stress comes into your life and you
just wanted to have a drink or like,

00:22:18.461 --> 00:22:19.721
could, would something trigger it?

00:22:19.721 --> 00:22:24.251
Or did you get overconfident or what
would cause you to overconfident and all?

00:22:24.251 --> 00:22:28.181
And, and really, you know, what I've
learned now about, about alcoholism and

00:22:28.181 --> 00:22:30.131
I'm just with drug addiction all too.

00:22:30.131 --> 00:22:32.171
It's really a threefold disease.

00:22:32.831 --> 00:22:38.561
And when you, um, when you get
sober, first thing is physical.

00:22:39.701 --> 00:22:44.381
There's physical, mental, and spiritual
first thing's physical, you've gotta

00:22:44.381 --> 00:22:48.431
stay off of it long enough for the,
for the physical craving to go away.

00:22:48.551 --> 00:22:48.701
Mm-hmm.

00:22:48.911 --> 00:22:52.181
Because your body will actually
physically crave it gets used to alcohol.

00:22:52.181 --> 00:22:53.171
It wants alcohol.

00:22:53.201 --> 00:22:53.321
Yeah.

00:22:53.531 --> 00:22:57.461
If it's drugs, it'd be drugs, you know,
whatever your drug drug of choice is.

00:22:57.791 --> 00:22:59.021
Mine was alcohol.

00:22:59.501 --> 00:23:02.291
And, um, your body CRAs it.

00:23:02.291 --> 00:23:05.651
But if you stay off of it long
enough, that craving will go away.

00:23:05.861 --> 00:23:06.041
Go.

00:23:06.041 --> 00:23:09.341
You have to detox yourself,
but then it's mental.

00:23:09.641 --> 00:23:10.511
It's a mental game.

00:23:10.511 --> 00:23:14.771
Then you still got the mental
obsession you want to drink, you

00:23:14.771 --> 00:23:17.681
know, but, you know, it's just kind
of, but you know better, you know.

00:23:17.921 --> 00:23:21.281
But if I, if I drink, Robin's
gonna throw me out the house again.

00:23:21.701 --> 00:23:23.981
You know, things is going
to go downhill quick.

00:23:24.431 --> 00:23:28.571
So, and, but then what, then
what you do to, in recovery.

00:23:28.916 --> 00:23:30.206
Then you go spiritual.

00:23:30.236 --> 00:23:30.596
Alright?

00:23:30.596 --> 00:23:34.826
If you go to aa, the God of you
understanding, you know where

00:23:34.826 --> 00:23:38.936
you start getting some spiritual,
you know, or you go to church

00:23:39.116 --> 00:23:41.216
start, you get spiritually filled.

00:23:41.666 --> 00:23:44.936
And that helps you, that gives
you strength to overcome.

00:23:45.746 --> 00:23:47.996
And then what'll happen
is you clipping along.

00:23:48.326 --> 00:23:52.136
If you quit going to church, quit
reading your Bible or quit going to aa,

00:23:53.906 --> 00:23:56.126
you know, quit calling your sponsor.

00:23:56.126 --> 00:23:59.816
Quit going to fellow quit fellowship
with got people in recovery.

00:24:00.236 --> 00:24:02.126
The next thing you know
you're back mental.

00:24:02.966 --> 00:24:05.306
And then that mental obsession kicks in.

00:24:05.636 --> 00:24:07.496
Then the next thing you know, you pick up.

00:24:07.556 --> 00:24:07.706
Mm-hmm.

00:24:08.031 --> 00:24:10.736
Once you pick up, boom, it's on again.

00:24:10.946 --> 00:24:11.066
Mm-hmm.

00:24:11.156 --> 00:24:15.026
And my, my uncle Fred used, used
to say is like a little bitty, like

00:24:15.116 --> 00:24:19.226
right now, I haven't had a dream
24 year or February 1st was 20.

00:24:19.226 --> 00:24:20.846
I picked up my 24 year chip.

00:24:21.626 --> 00:24:25.886
And, but I got, I know there's a flame
in there, there's a little bitty flame.

00:24:26.636 --> 00:24:31.736
And if I was to douse it with
alcohol, it would just, and you know,

00:24:31.736 --> 00:24:36.776
that sounds crazy, but I relapsed
enough over that, over those years.

00:24:36.776 --> 00:24:40.106
And you can talk to other
people and alcohol and that,

00:24:40.316 --> 00:24:41.996
uh, AA and stuff that's done.

00:24:41.996 --> 00:24:45.656
It, it, no, that, that
flame would ignite it.

00:24:45.656 --> 00:24:47.636
It'd be, it'd be the
scariest thing in the world.

00:24:47.966 --> 00:24:52.526
But today, I mean, it doesn't bother me
because the Lord took that away from me.

00:24:52.526 --> 00:24:53.396
He took that.

00:24:53.396 --> 00:24:56.306
Well, you have to and, and I want to, I
want to get to that part of the story.

00:24:56.306 --> 00:24:58.046
'cause that that's the
glorious, that's the good part.

00:24:58.046 --> 00:24:58.286
Yeah.

00:24:58.706 --> 00:24:59.936
But, but I really do.

00:24:59.966 --> 00:25:01.466
'cause there's people watching this.

00:25:01.841 --> 00:25:06.431
Uh, you know, most, most guys who are
alcoholics, they're the last ones to

00:25:06.431 --> 00:25:08.921
figure out that they have a problem.

00:25:09.011 --> 00:25:09.221
Oh, yeah.

00:25:09.281 --> 00:25:14.501
You know, and so I, I, I don't want
to glorify that stage, but at the

00:25:14.501 --> 00:25:19.271
same time, just sharing the way you
remember it, there'll be somebody to

00:25:19.271 --> 00:25:27.731
go, man, I felt that way, or, you know,
I, and, and it creates a cycle where.

00:25:28.481 --> 00:25:32.531
Something stressful comes into
their life and they, they turn to a

00:25:32.531 --> 00:25:36.401
drink, uh, then it escalates, right?

00:25:36.431 --> 00:25:39.251
They have, then they have marriage
problems and that's more stress,

00:25:39.251 --> 00:25:43.061
which the, the drink relieves the,
you know, so it creates this, this

00:25:43.061 --> 00:25:45.011
cycle that just puts 'em in the bed.

00:25:45.016 --> 00:25:46.061
That's, that's exactly right.

00:25:46.061 --> 00:25:47.111
It is a cycle.

00:25:47.561 --> 00:25:50.621
And you know that, that's the one
thing, that's why somebody that's

00:25:50.621 --> 00:25:55.031
been through it, um, can help
somebody, because I understand.

00:25:55.091 --> 00:25:55.721
Mm-hmm.

00:25:55.961 --> 00:25:57.011
I know, I know how they feel.

00:25:57.311 --> 00:26:01.451
I know what they're up against and it's
okay, you know, that they're there.

00:26:01.451 --> 00:26:05.531
But, you know, I had somebody in
church, um, actually Sue Ellen,

00:26:05.531 --> 00:26:10.511
told me one time, said, uh, says,
you know, it is not a shame.

00:26:11.591 --> 00:26:12.791
To be an alcoholic.

00:26:12.851 --> 00:26:15.821
It's not, you shouldn't be
ashamed to be an alcoholic.

00:26:16.151 --> 00:26:18.791
The shame part is knowing
you're an alcoholic and not

00:26:18.791 --> 00:26:19.781
doing something about it.

00:26:20.111 --> 00:26:21.311
That kind of stuck with me.

00:26:21.311 --> 00:26:21.401
Right.

00:26:21.401 --> 00:26:24.641
You know, and uh, and just
little things like that.

00:26:24.641 --> 00:26:26.981
God put so many people
in my life to help me.

00:26:26.981 --> 00:26:29.291
And so generally just
got me on the mission.

00:26:29.351 --> 00:26:34.181
And I think that's something special
about our church is, you know, Baptists

00:26:34.181 --> 00:26:37.991
don't have the best track record of
being nonjudgmental and, and that

00:26:37.991 --> 00:26:43.151
sort of thing, but it's a unique thing
that nobody can take credit for it.

00:26:43.211 --> 00:26:49.901
But it's something about our church that
they really do have empathy toward people.

00:26:50.291 --> 00:26:56.891
And if they see somebody who is in
a pit of their own making, they'll,

00:26:56.921 --> 00:26:58.841
they'll try to toss him a lifeline.

00:26:58.871 --> 00:26:59.561
Exactly.

00:26:59.561 --> 00:27:02.111
And, and love him until he takes it.

00:27:02.111 --> 00:27:02.171
Yeah.

00:27:02.171 --> 00:27:02.741
Oh yeah.

00:27:02.801 --> 00:27:03.281
No doubt.

00:27:03.281 --> 00:27:06.971
And you know, I think my
situation in our church.

00:27:07.496 --> 00:27:10.586
Helped a lot of people that,
that, that are not alcoholics

00:27:10.796 --> 00:27:13.286
or not as to understand Yeah.

00:27:13.286 --> 00:27:14.936
And, and to, to be more open.

00:27:15.056 --> 00:27:15.176
Yeah.

00:27:15.176 --> 00:27:18.176
You know, we, we're open,
we're open door at our church.

00:27:18.176 --> 00:27:18.266
Mm-hmm.

00:27:18.296 --> 00:27:21.656
I mean, we, we not going to
condemn anybody and all, all we

00:27:21.656 --> 00:27:23.096
gonna do is try to love them back.

00:27:23.276 --> 00:27:23.366
Right.

00:27:23.396 --> 00:27:27.896
But at the same time, just like they
were loving me, I needed somebody to look

00:27:27.896 --> 00:27:29.516
me in the eye and say, Hey, whoa, whoa.

00:27:30.056 --> 00:27:31.316
What you're doing is not right.

00:27:31.346 --> 00:27:32.816
We gotta do something about this.

00:27:32.816 --> 00:27:36.176
You know, don't just, you know,
don't keep sweeping under the rug.

00:27:36.716 --> 00:27:39.956
And, uh, you know, that's one thing I say
about alcohol and that, and that's love.

00:27:40.166 --> 00:27:40.616
Yes.

00:27:40.616 --> 00:27:44.816
You know, you, words of a friend, you
learn that you, you know, you learn that.

00:27:44.816 --> 00:27:49.016
And, uh, and that, that, that,
that's, that's how it is.

00:27:49.016 --> 00:27:50.186
You learn that by the word.

00:27:50.186 --> 00:27:50.246
Yeah.

00:27:50.246 --> 00:27:51.776
The power's in the word Right.

00:27:51.956 --> 00:27:54.686
Is what I learned and,
uh, and been learning for.

00:27:55.196 --> 00:28:02.486
So when, at what point did you go
up to the Mennonites and, okay.

00:28:02.486 --> 00:28:06.536
I, um, 40 years old and, uh.

00:28:07.151 --> 00:28:11.381
I don't know exactly how it
happened or whatever, but about

00:28:11.381 --> 00:28:17.051
that time, Robin, I, I, I was, you
know, wasn't doing good at all.

00:28:17.076 --> 00:28:19.391
Had they, had they got you out
of the business at that point?

00:28:19.396 --> 00:28:20.711
Yeah, yeah, at that point.

00:28:20.711 --> 00:28:21.161
Right.

00:28:21.491 --> 00:28:27.041
At that point, I was kicked out of the
business kind, or I just, I really just

00:28:27.041 --> 00:28:29.351
kinda walked out, to be honest with you.

00:28:29.351 --> 00:28:33.641
It ain't like they, they, they,
I just, I just had to get out and

00:28:33.641 --> 00:28:38.261
Robin threw me out the house for
another, but I knew something.

00:28:38.261 --> 00:28:40.331
This ta this last time, she threw me out.

00:28:40.631 --> 00:28:41.231
Bless her heart.

00:28:41.231 --> 00:28:44.951
She tried, I mean, she tried to
do, and, and that's the thing

00:28:44.951 --> 00:28:46.991
about an alcoholic or, or a addict.

00:28:47.081 --> 00:28:49.391
They, they think they're only
hurting herself, you know?

00:28:49.931 --> 00:28:50.801
But, okay, so.

00:28:52.031 --> 00:28:54.641
So you kind of hit, you kind
of hit a place, hit rock, hit

00:28:54.641 --> 00:28:56.231
bottom again, hit rock bottom.

00:28:56.291 --> 00:28:58.001
Your, your marriage is struggling.

00:28:58.031 --> 00:28:58.451
Yeah.

00:28:58.661 --> 00:29:01.241
And she had to do what she
was been told she had to do.

00:29:01.451 --> 00:29:01.541
Mm-hmm.

00:29:01.541 --> 00:29:03.401
She had to turn me loose, you know?

00:29:03.401 --> 00:29:04.001
That's what I'm saying.

00:29:04.001 --> 00:29:05.381
Now that I help people.

00:29:05.831 --> 00:29:10.151
That's the hardest thing is helping
the parents, helping the, the spouse

00:29:10.151 --> 00:29:12.251
not being able not to enable it.

00:29:12.251 --> 00:29:13.181
It's so hard.

00:29:13.211 --> 00:29:13.301
Mm-hmm.

00:29:13.541 --> 00:29:16.751
Because Robin loved me and,
you know, it was her faith.

00:29:17.381 --> 00:29:20.441
Her faith that she finally
had to turn me loose.

00:29:20.861 --> 00:29:25.091
And it, it about destroyed her
to, to, to have to do that to me.

00:29:25.091 --> 00:29:26.141
How did she come to that?

00:29:26.411 --> 00:29:29.706
Did somebody just counsel her, or
how did she come to that conclusion?

00:29:29.711 --> 00:29:30.011
Yeah.

00:29:30.131 --> 00:29:34.451
Uh, you know, over that time, yeah,
she, I'm sure you know, people invested

00:29:34.451 --> 00:29:38.591
in her life and it was probably some
of, some of the people I'd come in

00:29:38.591 --> 00:29:42.371
contacted with, you know, like from
my first rehab, I'd been to aa, I

00:29:42.371 --> 00:29:46.266
picked up 10,000 white chips in aa.

00:29:46.511 --> 00:29:47.831
That's the surrender chip.

00:29:47.891 --> 00:29:48.131
Yeah.

00:29:48.221 --> 00:29:50.231
That's when you crawl back up the stairs.

00:29:51.101 --> 00:29:55.781
Push the door open, crawl in
there and say, I surrender again.

00:29:55.781 --> 00:29:59.831
I, so I surrender and over and over
and trying, you know, and I'm sure

00:29:59.831 --> 00:30:03.791
somebody's counsel counseled heard
that you've gotta let him hit bottom.

00:30:03.791 --> 00:30:03.941
Yeah.

00:30:04.151 --> 00:30:05.801
You know, that's, that's
the thing in recovery.

00:30:05.801 --> 00:30:09.401
They, they, they say, uh, yeah, they
gotta hit bottom, they gotta hit bottom.

00:30:09.401 --> 00:30:11.291
Everybody's bottom's different, you know?

00:30:11.291 --> 00:30:11.381
Mm-hmm.

00:30:11.676 --> 00:30:15.311
But, but the promises are that
they tell you in there are true

00:30:15.821 --> 00:30:18.971
jails, institution and death.

00:30:19.481 --> 00:30:24.071
I mean, that's your three promises
of alcoholism, drug addiction.

00:30:24.641 --> 00:30:28.541
And, and I, you know, I would dare
say depression, whatever, if you don't

00:30:28.571 --> 00:30:31.691
help you help, it can take you out.

00:30:32.141 --> 00:30:38.021
The, when, when my grandfather was, was
on one of these, you know, they would,

00:30:38.021 --> 00:30:45.251
for him less about maybe two and a half
weeks to where I'm talking 24 7, he

00:30:45.251 --> 00:30:48.671
was drinking something, you know, and.

00:30:49.406 --> 00:30:51.086
I mean, he looked like a different person.

00:30:51.086 --> 00:30:52.076
He didn't shave.

00:30:52.076 --> 00:30:54.056
He, you know, he, he did, didn't bathe.

00:30:54.596 --> 00:30:58.256
I mean, he had a, would, would
really go through a bad spell.

00:30:59.636 --> 00:31:03.536
And I, I went to the pastor and
he, and he gave me that advice.

00:31:03.536 --> 00:31:05.996
He said, you know, he probably loves you.

00:31:06.026 --> 00:31:07.826
I was the only grand grandchild.

00:31:08.276 --> 00:31:12.656
And he said, he probably loves you
more than anything in his life.

00:31:12.656 --> 00:31:15.176
And if there's anything he loves
more than that bottle, it's you.

00:31:15.386 --> 00:31:15.716
Right.

00:31:15.716 --> 00:31:19.796
And so you, you've got to be the person
that says, I can't be around you.

00:31:20.036 --> 00:31:20.456
Right.

00:31:20.456 --> 00:31:21.446
When you're this way.

00:31:21.506 --> 00:31:22.106
That's right.

00:31:22.106 --> 00:31:26.066
And, and that, you know, that,
that will at least give him some

00:31:26.066 --> 00:31:28.016
motivation to say That's right.

00:31:28.141 --> 00:31:31.766
And, and it was a big factor that
last, there was something about the

00:31:31.766 --> 00:31:33.626
last time that Robin threw me out.

00:31:33.631 --> 00:31:33.801
Mm-hmm.

00:31:34.076 --> 00:31:39.146
And my, and my daughter, and Amelia
and Lance, both my children, they, they

00:31:39.146 --> 00:31:43.166
turned me loose and, uh, and I, I, I
kid How old were they at that time?

00:31:43.196 --> 00:31:47.636
Johnny, uh, me was, they
were in high school.

00:31:48.626 --> 00:31:51.296
Uh, Amelia was in high school
and Lance right behind her.

00:31:51.296 --> 00:31:55.166
So, and that, that gets to a stage
where that can be embarrassing for them

00:31:55.556 --> 00:31:58.976
just having a father just not at the
events or if he's there, he is not who.

00:31:58.976 --> 00:31:59.366
Yeah.

00:31:59.366 --> 00:31:59.636
Yeah.

00:31:59.636 --> 00:32:02.876
Matter of fact, you know, they're
funny stories and I, we, we skiing

00:32:02.876 --> 00:32:06.836
around and everything, but the funny
stories is when I was in, uh, rehab,

00:32:06.836 --> 00:32:10.286
or I call it summer, we, they,
the kids name call it summer camp.

00:32:10.406 --> 00:32:12.776
Dad's a summer camp, you
know, just kidding around.

00:32:13.286 --> 00:32:16.496
But I was up there and they
had the father daughter banquet

00:32:17.366 --> 00:32:19.736
and uh, I guess little women.

00:32:19.796 --> 00:32:20.006
Yeah.

00:32:20.066 --> 00:32:21.176
Father daughter banquet.

00:32:21.236 --> 00:32:21.476
Yep.

00:32:22.106 --> 00:32:26.201
And, uh, uh, Bruce, Mr.

00:32:26.201 --> 00:32:31.016
Bruce in our church, he took
her to the father daughter bank.

00:32:31.106 --> 00:32:31.256
Oh wow.

00:32:31.526 --> 00:32:32.996
And I, at first I was mad.

00:32:33.026 --> 00:32:33.176
Yeah.

00:32:33.176 --> 00:32:33.716
I was mad.

00:32:34.136 --> 00:32:35.606
I was like, dang, go on Bruce.

00:32:35.606 --> 00:32:39.176
Take, you know, but I was
so forever grateful for him.

00:32:39.176 --> 00:32:40.406
He just, another.

00:32:40.691 --> 00:32:41.561
Part of church.

00:32:41.561 --> 00:32:41.831
Yeah.

00:32:41.921 --> 00:32:47.141
Where somebody in there steps up and was
ta and was being a dad role in my place.

00:32:47.141 --> 00:32:47.471
Wow.

00:32:47.531 --> 00:32:51.296
Not not to to bash me, but to help
me, you know, to help my daughter.

00:32:51.296 --> 00:32:51.551
To help her.

00:32:51.551 --> 00:32:51.881
Yeah.

00:32:52.061 --> 00:32:53.921
And, uh, and what a, what a blessing.

00:32:53.921 --> 00:32:56.171
You know, it was funny,
but, uh, things like that.

00:32:56.921 --> 00:33:00.161
But, you know, so here, I, so here
I am, I, I say they kicked me off

00:33:00.161 --> 00:33:03.791
the island, but, uh, but I ended up,
you know, and I said, you know what?

00:33:03.791 --> 00:33:04.811
I'm gonna show them.

00:33:04.931 --> 00:33:09.791
I'm gonna show, uh, my brothers in
the net business or show everybody

00:33:09.816 --> 00:33:14.051
I said, so I went, I got me a job in
a plastic factory in Jacksonville.

00:33:14.831 --> 00:33:16.301
You know, that was a nightmare.

00:33:16.301 --> 00:33:18.491
But I'm living in the Pine Forest motel.

00:33:18.731 --> 00:33:22.001
Everybody needs, every alcoholic
addict ought to live out there.

00:33:24.366 --> 00:33:26.416
It's one of those fine,
that's one those jokes, right?

00:33:26.591 --> 00:33:30.071
That's one of those jokes, you know,
that, uh, that that's where you end up.

00:33:30.071 --> 00:33:31.331
And, uh, but.

00:33:31.676 --> 00:33:36.926
So I'm driving over to Jacksonville,
working and for peanuts, well, you know,

00:33:36.926 --> 00:33:39.206
best heart, not, not a whole lot of money.

00:33:39.776 --> 00:33:43.466
And, uh, and drinking
and driving over there.

00:33:43.466 --> 00:33:45.116
I mean, it was just a struggle.

00:33:45.806 --> 00:33:53.936
Uh, the check you'd get, you would pay
the rent there like $165 a week, and

00:33:53.936 --> 00:33:59.156
by the time you bought a half gallon
of vodka and some lamb of beans to

00:33:59.156 --> 00:34:01.046
survive off of, that's all you had.

00:34:01.046 --> 00:34:01.646
You was broke.

00:34:02.096 --> 00:34:05.276
And the gas to get back and forth to
work, that's all you had, you know?

00:34:05.366 --> 00:34:05.516
Yeah.

00:34:05.516 --> 00:34:07.106
So that's the type of life I was living.

00:34:07.106 --> 00:34:11.936
And then it was just, and I was, but
I was bent that I was going to go

00:34:11.936 --> 00:34:15.656
out and show him, show, you know,
trying and it, it was just like up

00:34:15.656 --> 00:34:17.456
against the wall and still drinking.

00:34:18.026 --> 00:34:24.506
And finally, um, Luke Daniels that owns
the bail bonds place out there newly, I.

00:34:24.956 --> 00:34:25.526
What a friend.

00:34:25.526 --> 00:34:29.366
A friend, the whole Daniels family was
a friend of mine, mutt Daniels, Luke

00:34:29.366 --> 00:34:34.226
Daniels, and no friends of mine back then,
family, friends that I knew all my life.

00:34:34.256 --> 00:34:37.556
But Luke let me stay in the
bail bonds place for free.

00:34:38.066 --> 00:34:40.526
So boy, I had a little
more money then, you know?

00:34:40.531 --> 00:34:42.866
So I'm thinking, you know, I'm
think and and see people just

00:34:42.866 --> 00:34:43.676
trying to be good for you.

00:34:43.706 --> 00:34:44.096
Yeah.

00:34:44.096 --> 00:34:45.806
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:34:46.136 --> 00:34:46.706
Mud.

00:34:47.546 --> 00:34:48.086
Mud.

00:34:48.086 --> 00:34:51.176
He gonna bring me a 12 pack thinking
that's what I needed, you know?

00:34:51.686 --> 00:34:53.006
You know, bless MU's heart.

00:34:53.036 --> 00:34:53.186
Yeah.

00:34:53.191 --> 00:34:56.816
And he a good friend of mine,
and I hope he, he watches this,

00:34:56.816 --> 00:34:57.327
but people, people don't know.

00:34:57.332 --> 00:34:58.766
Yeah, they don't, they don't, you know.

00:34:58.796 --> 00:34:59.126
Yeah.

00:34:59.126 --> 00:34:59.696
No, no.

00:34:59.696 --> 00:35:01.256
Mud and mud gave me a truck.

00:35:01.286 --> 00:35:05.246
He gave me his truck and the 12 pack
said, come on Johnny, you can do it.

00:35:05.246 --> 00:35:08.396
You know, you can go not
understanding fully, you know, either.

00:35:08.396 --> 00:35:08.456
Yeah.

00:35:08.636 --> 00:35:12.356
I didn't fully understand
alcoholism then either other than.

00:35:12.881 --> 00:35:15.821
It was, it had me and, uh, I knew it.

00:35:16.271 --> 00:35:21.221
And, and, and, and, you know,
and, uh, Zach and the alcohol,

00:35:21.221 --> 00:35:22.541
and the alcohol is anonymous.

00:35:22.546 --> 00:35:24.311
The, the 12 Step program.

00:35:24.911 --> 00:35:29.381
See the right off the bat, you know, step
one admitted, I'm powerless over alcohol.

00:35:29.381 --> 00:35:32.981
Admit, I admit that Step
Twos came to believe.

00:35:33.251 --> 00:35:35.021
I look back on it all now.

00:35:35.231 --> 00:35:39.101
I wanted to believe that there
was a power greater to myself

00:35:39.101 --> 00:35:40.721
that could restore me to sanity.

00:35:41.081 --> 00:35:41.891
That's what it is.

00:35:42.461 --> 00:35:46.001
I look back on that and I thought,
oh yeah, I believe, I believe in God.

00:35:46.001 --> 00:35:48.911
I remember we had a Bible under
there that, and my mama always

00:35:48.911 --> 00:35:52.421
said, uh, uh, oral Roberts used
to say, I believe in miracles.

00:35:52.421 --> 00:35:55.781
And the Bible Leonard, with all
the pictures with dust on it.

00:35:55.841 --> 00:36:00.191
You know, I mean, I always thought
I believed, but I look back on it, I

00:36:00.191 --> 00:36:05.291
don't, I didn't know after my mama died,
remember I asked him to save my mama.

00:36:05.291 --> 00:36:05.351
I.

00:36:06.266 --> 00:36:06.851
And he didn't.

00:36:06.851 --> 00:36:07.106
He didn't.

00:36:07.466 --> 00:36:07.946
Right.

00:36:08.006 --> 00:36:09.326
So I wasn't sure.

00:36:09.806 --> 00:36:13.076
And then step three is turn your
life and your will over to care.

00:36:13.076 --> 00:36:14.546
God, did you understand him?

00:36:14.906 --> 00:36:16.526
I mean, but that's, that's commitment.

00:36:16.976 --> 00:36:21.926
That's, that's a salvation
step if you do it, you know?

00:36:21.956 --> 00:36:22.196
Yeah.

00:36:22.286 --> 00:36:23.366
Then, then you worked.

00:36:23.366 --> 00:36:25.556
So I, I had, I skipped over all those.

00:36:25.556 --> 00:36:29.336
That's why in the 12 step prob, and
that's why Alcoholic Anonymous never did

00:36:29.336 --> 00:36:32.516
work for me because I never surrendered.

00:36:32.726 --> 00:36:32.816
Yeah.

00:36:32.816 --> 00:36:33.476
I never turned.

00:36:33.476 --> 00:36:40.466
And uh, so anyhow, I'm living in the, uh,
bail bonds house out there and I just,

00:36:40.616 --> 00:36:45.056
at one point after it was over with,
I kind of just gave up and I remember

00:36:45.536 --> 00:36:47.936
Luke had these, uh, appliances in there.

00:36:47.936 --> 00:36:51.056
He had a reclining chair and
there was a big screen TV in

00:36:51.056 --> 00:36:52.616
there without no cable hook to it.

00:36:53.006 --> 00:36:54.506
He just had a fuzzy picture.

00:36:54.776 --> 00:36:55.886
But that's what I'm looking at.

00:36:55.976 --> 00:36:58.496
I'm looking at a big
screen tv, fuzzy picture.

00:36:59.096 --> 00:37:00.986
I got a half gallon of vodka over here.

00:37:00.986 --> 00:37:03.866
I'm drinking and I was,
I drink a little bit.

00:37:04.241 --> 00:37:06.821
And I'd cry and I'd cry out to God.

00:37:06.881 --> 00:37:08.291
I started crying out to God.

00:37:08.741 --> 00:37:09.911
God helped me.

00:37:10.451 --> 00:37:15.071
You know, God helped me and I'd drink a
little bit cry, and that's where I was at.

00:37:15.071 --> 00:37:16.151
I was just doing that.

00:37:16.211 --> 00:37:18.821
I mean, I was just in that chair.

00:37:18.821 --> 00:37:20.171
I couldn't hardly get out the chair.

00:37:20.171 --> 00:37:20.591
I know.

00:37:21.371 --> 00:37:26.861
And just lo and behold a man that
I haven't seen, I call him Ed Kay.

00:37:26.861 --> 00:37:30.431
I hadn't seen him in a couple years,
but I knew him from Alcoholics

00:37:30.431 --> 00:37:31.361
Anonymous, knew him from aa.

00:37:33.116 --> 00:37:36.626
He happened to go by, seen my
little red truck and the places

00:37:36.626 --> 00:37:38.306
lit up at night in there.

00:37:38.696 --> 00:37:43.676
He see, he could see me sitting in there,
but you know, his first thoughts was, oh

00:37:43.676 --> 00:37:45.506
no, I don't want to get involved in that.

00:37:45.566 --> 00:37:46.226
You know what I mean?

00:37:46.736 --> 00:37:50.966
And because he knew, they all knew that
I'd been trying to get sober a long time.

00:37:51.536 --> 00:37:55.016
But Ed's story was, he turned
the corner at Ulee and made

00:37:55.016 --> 00:37:56.576
it almost to Lofton Creek.

00:37:57.236 --> 00:37:58.736
And God turned him around.

00:37:59.576 --> 00:38:03.476
He drove all the way back out
there and come beat on that door.

00:38:03.566 --> 00:38:05.696
And it was all I could do
to get up outta that chair.

00:38:05.696 --> 00:38:09.296
And I got over there to the door,
unlocked it, and he opened the

00:38:09.296 --> 00:38:10.646
door and he just looked at me.

00:38:11.396 --> 00:38:13.826
And, uh, he says, you need help.

00:38:13.886 --> 00:38:16.616
And I, I just, I, I think
I just nodded at him.

00:38:16.616 --> 00:38:18.896
I don't know, you know, but
he didn't know what to do.

00:38:18.896 --> 00:38:23.876
But he called a, he called a lady named
Ellen, LNS, that worked at Willing Way.

00:38:24.986 --> 00:38:26.996
And, um, she knew me.

00:38:26.996 --> 00:38:29.186
She says, oh, Johnny Will,
is Willie, is that a rehab?

00:38:29.186 --> 00:38:30.326
Willie Ways Rehab.

00:38:30.356 --> 00:38:30.446
Okay.

00:38:30.506 --> 00:38:30.896
Yeah.

00:38:30.956 --> 00:38:31.286
Yep.

00:38:31.766 --> 00:38:34.556
And, uh, she says, Johnny, Johnny Burbank.

00:38:34.586 --> 00:38:36.896
He's been trying to get sober a long time.

00:38:37.706 --> 00:38:41.126
And, uh, she said he needs,
he needs long term help.

00:38:41.516 --> 00:38:45.986
So the only place she knew of was a place
in Georgia called The Bridges of Hope.

00:38:46.676 --> 00:38:51.296
And a man named George Sermons that
on that, uh, ran it started them.

00:38:51.566 --> 00:38:53.036
He was an alcoholic himself.

00:38:53.036 --> 00:38:55.046
That started the, the Bridges of Hope.

00:38:55.556 --> 00:38:57.206
And that's another whole story.

00:38:57.206 --> 00:38:58.616
You know, what a, what a man.

00:38:58.676 --> 00:39:03.566
And, uh, that, that, uh, God used to
build the bridges of hope up there.

00:39:04.076 --> 00:39:08.006
And, uh, so they get on the phone
with him and all, and the first thing

00:39:08.006 --> 00:39:09.656
they ask you, does he have any money?

00:39:09.656 --> 00:39:11.096
And I said, no, I ain't got no money.

00:39:12.116 --> 00:39:17.091
Uh, you know, he don't have nothing, you
know, and, uh, they said, well, we don't,

00:39:17.091 --> 00:39:18.836
we don't know if we got a bed or not.

00:39:18.836 --> 00:39:21.356
You know, they talked
to the guy and they, Mr.

00:39:21.356 --> 00:39:24.746
George happened to be at that
particular Bridge of Hope.

00:39:24.746 --> 00:39:26.606
It was the one in, uh, Chauncey.

00:39:26.756 --> 00:39:27.956
He happened to be there.

00:39:28.046 --> 00:39:30.326
Just, you know, all these coincidence
just happened to be there.

00:39:30.866 --> 00:39:31.841
And they said, Mr.

00:39:31.841 --> 00:39:34.076
George, we got a guy, he ain't
got no money and all that.

00:39:34.076 --> 00:39:35.156
And they said, what is his name?

00:39:35.431 --> 00:39:36.956
He said his name Johnny Burbank.

00:39:37.016 --> 00:39:37.766
Burbank.

00:39:37.826 --> 00:39:40.256
Ask, ask him if he knows Billy Burbank.

00:39:41.096 --> 00:39:43.286
And uh, and he said,
yeah, that's his daddy.

00:39:43.616 --> 00:39:44.306
And he says.

00:39:45.041 --> 00:39:46.031
Send him on up.

00:39:46.151 --> 00:39:49.886
Bring him on and turn
to come to find out Mr.

00:39:49.886 --> 00:39:56.831
George, before he got sober, he spent
the last $30,000 he had on a shrimp boat.

00:39:57.491 --> 00:40:00.491
And we used to, I used to fix
his nets when I was a little boy.

00:40:00.551 --> 00:40:00.611
Wow.

00:40:01.031 --> 00:40:02.651
Is they tear him all up.

00:40:02.651 --> 00:40:05.951
And we helped, my daddy helped
him out time after time.

00:40:06.281 --> 00:40:07.391
But he ended up in favor.

00:40:07.451 --> 00:40:09.761
He ended up losing his
house on Crooked River.

00:40:09.791 --> 00:40:13.601
Alcoholic, lost his
boat, all lost $30,000.

00:40:13.601 --> 00:40:14.861
That's before he hit rock bottom.

00:40:15.671 --> 00:40:19.451
And, um, so, but anyhow,
what a coincidence.

00:40:19.451 --> 00:40:19.931
So here he go.

00:40:19.931 --> 00:40:21.251
They, they taped me up there.

00:40:21.371 --> 00:40:22.511
Let me, let me pause you right here.

00:40:22.511 --> 00:40:22.541
Okay.

00:40:22.541 --> 00:40:23.261
Just for a second.

00:40:23.531 --> 00:40:30.941
Just, just pointing out, um, you,
you're drunk watching a fuzzy tv.

00:40:32.471 --> 00:40:32.981
What'd you say?

00:40:32.981 --> 00:40:34.121
Half gallon of vodka.

00:40:34.301 --> 00:40:34.631
Half.

00:40:34.661 --> 00:40:35.021
Yeah.

00:40:35.081 --> 00:40:36.636
It was probably, and you're
praying, God help me.

00:40:36.816 --> 00:40:37.356
God help me.

00:40:38.316 --> 00:40:38.396
Somebody.

00:40:38.466 --> 00:40:41.381
They said the Lord turn their car around.

00:40:42.011 --> 00:40:43.481
So, so, even.

00:40:44.036 --> 00:40:45.731
The prayer of a drunk.

00:40:46.111 --> 00:40:48.236
Of a drunk, the Lord will hear it.

00:40:48.236 --> 00:40:48.386
Blessed.

00:40:48.386 --> 00:40:48.476
Yes.

00:40:48.806 --> 00:40:52.856
If it's, if it's a prayer of
faith, crying out to the Lord in a

00:40:52.856 --> 00:40:55.916
moment of despair and desperation.

00:40:56.666 --> 00:41:01.376
Sometimes I think as men especially,
we can say, well, I'm not gonna

00:41:01.376 --> 00:41:02.996
talk to him while I'm like this.

00:41:03.176 --> 00:41:05.156
You know, he deserves better than that.

00:41:05.156 --> 00:41:09.356
Or, or I'm ashamed to talk to him just
like Adam running from God in the garden.

00:41:09.566 --> 00:41:09.866
Right.

00:41:09.866 --> 00:41:13.166
But even in that moment of desperation,
he wants you to call out to him.

00:41:13.316 --> 00:41:13.796
Amen.

00:41:14.036 --> 00:41:14.456
Amen.

00:41:14.456 --> 00:41:16.346
And he hears, and he'll, he'll respond.

00:41:16.376 --> 00:41:19.556
He heard me and uh, and he,
and he turned it around.

00:41:19.556 --> 00:41:21.596
It just so happened that he get that.

00:41:21.656 --> 00:41:29.021
He calls her Ellen, and Ellen hooks me
up with Bridges of Hope, and there's Mr.

00:41:29.021 --> 00:41:32.516
George saying, send that
Burbank boy up here.

00:41:32.516 --> 00:41:33.656
I know that family.

00:41:33.656 --> 00:41:34.646
They helped me, you know?

00:41:35.096 --> 00:41:39.836
And so here I go and I get up there
to the Bridges of Hope and uh.

00:41:40.676 --> 00:41:42.296
Start sobering up now.

00:41:42.371 --> 00:41:43.886
Now, is this the Mennonites?

00:41:43.976 --> 00:41:44.276
No.

00:41:44.281 --> 00:41:45.431
At this point no Uhuh.

00:41:45.431 --> 00:41:45.671
Okay.

00:41:45.686 --> 00:41:47.816
No, this is not, this is
just the Bridges of hope.

00:41:47.816 --> 00:41:48.056
Okay.

00:41:48.056 --> 00:41:49.256
In Chauncey, Georgia.

00:41:49.526 --> 00:41:53.246
There's one in Argyle, there's
one in Chauncey, and, uh,

00:41:54.206 --> 00:41:55.466
which is near like Eastman.

00:41:55.826 --> 00:41:59.156
And, uh, I, I'm all, I
didn't know where I was at.

00:41:59.156 --> 00:42:01.106
I just knew I was in the
middle of Georgia up there.

00:42:01.106 --> 00:42:05.936
But I get there and I'm, I remember
just trying to eat scrambled eggs.

00:42:05.936 --> 00:42:10.556
I got there, so I'm detoxing, you
know, so I'm going through it.

00:42:10.916 --> 00:42:14.066
It took me two or three days just to
where I could even get it outta here

00:42:14.066 --> 00:42:16.256
system just to chase and you going on.

00:42:16.256 --> 00:42:21.746
And they had me on, uh, I was going
around scooping up dog poopoo.

00:42:21.986 --> 00:42:24.176
That's your first job
at the Bridges of Hope.

00:42:24.326 --> 00:42:27.506
You go around, clean the yard up a
little bit, give something to do,

00:42:27.506 --> 00:42:31.076
and, uh, but I'll never forget, after
about three days, they finally said,

00:42:31.256 --> 00:42:33.086
uh, they called me and they said, Mr.

00:42:33.086 --> 00:42:33.926
George won't see.

00:42:34.406 --> 00:42:37.076
So I went in there and I'm sitting
at, just across from the like

00:42:37.076 --> 00:42:38.996
table, like you sitting there, Ms.

00:42:38.996 --> 00:42:39.836
George says, uh.

00:42:40.541 --> 00:42:42.491
Alright, tell me about yourself, boy.

00:42:42.521 --> 00:42:44.051
And I said, I, I said, okay.

00:42:44.051 --> 00:42:45.761
And I start, he said, I'll shut up.

00:42:46.031 --> 00:42:47.381
He said, let me tell you.

00:42:48.041 --> 00:42:52.271
And he says, you, uh, you know, he,
he just flat out told me, you know,

00:42:52.751 --> 00:42:57.791
that I was drunk and I was, you
know, self-centered, egotistical,

00:42:57.851 --> 00:43:02.861
you know, and just like thousands of
others, you know, and I mean, he, he

00:43:02.861 --> 00:43:04.931
busted my bow, he ripped me up, down.

00:43:05.381 --> 00:43:08.321
But then he says, all right,
but now we going to get sober

00:43:08.321 --> 00:43:10.421
now, you know, and, and go.

00:43:10.421 --> 00:43:11.921
But he sent, sent me on out.

00:43:12.461 --> 00:43:19.121
So I, I'd go out and I think my first,
my first, uh, job was on the garden crew.

00:43:19.961 --> 00:43:21.971
Uh, yeah, I think it was in the garden.

00:43:21.971 --> 00:43:28.811
And, uh, but I, I wasn't, I hadn't been
there two weeks, but as I got sober,

00:43:29.201 --> 00:43:30.341
here's what started happening to me.

00:43:30.341 --> 00:43:36.521
As I sobered up, my mind started
replaying over and over in my head.

00:43:37.556 --> 00:43:39.386
The reality of what was happening.

00:43:39.776 --> 00:43:45.836
So here, the, the reality was, here
I am 40 years old, all my dreams,

00:43:46.646 --> 00:43:52.076
everything I'd worked for my whole life,
all everything I've done and all those,

00:43:52.106 --> 00:43:56.426
all that I, you know, I went through
to try to get sober, to quit, to try

00:43:56.426 --> 00:44:01.826
to do, try, you know, the TV ministry,
just everything, you know, all that.

00:44:01.826 --> 00:44:04.976
Just playing through my mind
and I was about to go nuts.

00:44:05.216 --> 00:44:09.146
I mean, I was really, was about to read
about me in the newspaper or something.

00:44:10.136 --> 00:44:10.646
I don't know.

00:44:10.646 --> 00:44:10.651
You know, I don't know.

00:44:10.651 --> 00:44:14.996
You felt like I went suicidal,
but you know, I don't remember.

00:44:14.996 --> 00:44:17.696
You just felt like you were too
far gone to reveal, too far gone.

00:44:17.696 --> 00:44:19.286
I thought physically life was over.

00:44:19.286 --> 00:44:23.696
I thought physically, mentally, and at
this point really, I thought it was over.

00:44:23.756 --> 00:44:27.896
I mean, really, I was sitting there and
I hadn't slept in about three nights.

00:44:28.766 --> 00:44:30.416
And I'll just remember this one night.

00:44:30.446 --> 00:44:33.836
It was a couple weeks in one
night I finally, about three

00:44:33.836 --> 00:44:36.746
o'clock in the morning, I got
up off, I was on the top bunk.

00:44:37.136 --> 00:44:41.456
I climbed outta there and I went
outside and I got, went up under

00:44:41.456 --> 00:44:45.566
them trees and I'm looking up at them
stars and I called, I called God out.

00:44:45.566 --> 00:44:46.826
I said, okay, God.

00:44:47.681 --> 00:44:49.781
What, you know, and I started blaming him.

00:44:49.991 --> 00:44:54.911
I was telling him, I says, I, I felt
like Lieutenant Dan and Bubba Gump, but

00:44:54.911 --> 00:44:56.531
I didn't do all that cussing he did.

00:44:56.831 --> 00:44:58.511
But that's how I felt
me and God was having.

00:44:58.806 --> 00:45:00.431
And I, and I was trying to tell God.

00:45:00.431 --> 00:45:04.241
I says, I said, I was head of
your TV ministry, you know,

00:45:04.301 --> 00:45:06.011
I joined the Awanas Club.

00:45:06.071 --> 00:45:06.671
That's what I told him.

00:45:06.786 --> 00:45:10.841
I said, I was coaching the All Stars,
you know, after all the good things

00:45:10.841 --> 00:45:14.651
that I did tried to do, you know,
and I was telling him, and, and,

00:45:14.951 --> 00:45:16.961
and look at how you let it turn out.

00:45:16.966 --> 00:45:18.066
You know, I was blaming it all on him.

00:45:18.566 --> 00:45:21.791
And I said, you know, I don't, that's
how our mind works, you know, really.

00:45:21.851 --> 00:45:22.541
It really is.

00:45:22.541 --> 00:45:26.471
We, we, we blame shift and we put
it, you know, it's never our fault.

00:45:26.591 --> 00:45:30.071
But Zach, I'm telling you,
he let me get through.

00:45:30.221 --> 00:45:34.331
And I, and after I got through, I'm
sitting there and it was kind of quiet and

00:45:34.331 --> 00:45:39.281
I heard him and he said, Johnny, you know,
my name's John, but my friend called me.

00:45:39.281 --> 00:45:41.291
Johnny was, boy, God called me Johnny.

00:45:42.041 --> 00:45:43.481
He said, Johnny, you know what he said?

00:45:43.901 --> 00:45:45.371
I said, I don't care about all that.

00:45:46.586 --> 00:45:48.836
And I'm thinking, don't
care about all that.

00:45:48.836 --> 00:45:51.506
You know, you supposed to love
me or whatever, you know, I'm

00:45:51.506 --> 00:45:52.826
thinking You don't care about that.

00:45:52.826 --> 00:45:54.206
I'm thinking and myself.

00:45:54.506 --> 00:45:57.326
And then he said it, I want you.

00:45:59.006 --> 00:46:01.046
And I, I said, you want me?

00:46:01.646 --> 00:46:04.256
I said, I want, he said it one more time.

00:46:04.256 --> 00:46:05.576
He said, I want you.

00:46:07.226 --> 00:46:09.146
And that was, that was all he said.

00:46:09.241 --> 00:46:11.756
And I, and I remember
saying, well, you got me.

00:46:12.416 --> 00:46:14.786
And I surrendered and I meant it.

00:46:15.116 --> 00:46:15.656
And you know what?

00:46:15.656 --> 00:46:17.006
I surrendered everything.

00:46:17.546 --> 00:46:18.866
I surrendered my family.

00:46:19.046 --> 00:46:19.166
Mm-hmm.

00:46:19.186 --> 00:46:21.476
I surrendered the net business.

00:46:21.626 --> 00:46:21.956
Wow.

00:46:22.016 --> 00:46:23.276
I surrendered everything.

00:46:24.206 --> 00:46:25.586
I, I'm just, yeah.

00:46:25.586 --> 00:46:29.936
It's not, it's not that I want, I,
I'm concerned about this one area.

00:46:29.966 --> 00:46:30.956
I've already done all that.

00:46:30.956 --> 00:46:31.226
Yeah.

00:46:31.226 --> 00:46:32.966
You know, he wants everything.

00:46:32.966 --> 00:46:33.821
He wants it all.

00:46:34.001 --> 00:46:34.436
He, yeah.

00:46:34.706 --> 00:46:37.076
So when you say he spoke to you,
'cause you've said, I've heard

00:46:37.076 --> 00:46:38.456
you tell this story many times.

00:46:38.516 --> 00:46:40.076
I heard always tell it the same way.

00:46:40.316 --> 00:46:43.466
Was it audible y Yeah, but
you know, it ain't like.

00:46:44.096 --> 00:46:47.366
You hear it, but you don't know
if you really heard it in years.

00:46:47.366 --> 00:46:48.266
But you hear it though.

00:46:48.266 --> 00:46:48.506
Yeah.

00:46:48.806 --> 00:46:51.111
I mean, I heard it, I heard
him say, I want you, it was

00:46:51.111 --> 00:46:52.376
more I heard him call my name.

00:46:52.616 --> 00:46:52.991
It was just an passing thought.

00:46:53.156 --> 00:46:53.546
Yeah.

00:46:53.546 --> 00:46:54.806
You, this was the creator.

00:46:54.806 --> 00:46:55.436
Oh, no, no.

00:46:55.436 --> 00:46:59.636
He said to you, said, when he said,
Johnny, I, I immediately knew.

00:46:59.636 --> 00:47:04.106
He, he caught my attention and, and
I, so I knew when he talked and I

00:47:04.106 --> 00:47:07.196
knew when he, when he quit talking
'cause it wasn't there, you know.

00:47:07.316 --> 00:47:07.646
Wow.

00:47:08.066 --> 00:47:12.116
And, um, so, and I'm going
to tell you just, hey, that

00:47:12.116 --> 00:47:14.636
piece, I mean, it fell on me.

00:47:14.876 --> 00:47:17.516
I went back in there and I
ain't slept three nights.

00:47:17.726 --> 00:47:21.026
I went back in there and got
in that bunk and I slept.

00:47:21.026 --> 00:47:22.616
They come wake you up seven o'clock.

00:47:22.616 --> 00:47:25.886
So I ain't slept long, but
I'm telling you, when I got up

00:47:25.916 --> 00:47:27.686
that morning, I felt different.

00:47:27.806 --> 00:47:28.076
Mm.

00:47:28.496 --> 00:47:30.806
I felt, I mean, I just felt different.

00:47:30.806 --> 00:47:34.376
I got up and I went on out and there
was a bunch of men sitting on the porch.

00:47:34.406 --> 00:47:38.186
They're out there smoking and like they
do in the mornings, you know, but there

00:47:38.186 --> 00:47:40.136
was a dock down there on the lake.

00:47:40.196 --> 00:47:41.516
There's a little bitty lake down there.

00:47:42.416 --> 00:47:43.106
And, uh.

00:47:43.706 --> 00:47:47.336
I'd been down there that late before and
in the mornings, didn't really know what

00:47:47.336 --> 00:47:49.616
to say, you know, to pray or anything.

00:47:49.616 --> 00:47:52.707
That's when you're supposed to do
your devotional and go, yeah, right.

00:47:52.707 --> 00:47:52.708
Yeah.

00:47:53.096 --> 00:47:56.006
But I went back down there this
morning and I'm sitting there on

00:47:56.006 --> 00:47:58.856
that dock and, and on a bench.

00:47:59.126 --> 00:48:01.136
And that water wasn't a ripple in it.

00:48:01.976 --> 00:48:04.076
The sun's coming up over the trees.

00:48:04.346 --> 00:48:07.466
There's not, it's quiet,
there's not, you know what?

00:48:07.466 --> 00:48:09.626
The bird, you couldn't hear anything.

00:48:10.046 --> 00:48:14.906
But I'm seeing that sun's kind of
shining in that water and kind.

00:48:14.906 --> 00:48:19.376
There's something about light, the
sun, the light with God every time.

00:48:20.036 --> 00:48:23.816
A couple times in my life when
God's really moved in my life, the

00:48:23.816 --> 00:48:27.296
light's been there and that light
was in that water that morning.

00:48:27.296 --> 00:48:32.726
And uh, and I sat there and I says,
I said, Lord, I says, I don't know.

00:48:32.786 --> 00:48:34.106
I don't even know what to say.

00:48:34.706 --> 00:48:35.966
I don't know what to pray.

00:48:36.356 --> 00:48:40.016
I said, but I'm, all I know is
I meant what I said last night.

00:48:40.556 --> 00:48:41.786
And I said, I Jesus.

00:48:41.786 --> 00:48:42.956
I don't know where we're going.

00:48:43.586 --> 00:48:44.546
I'm following you.

00:48:44.906 --> 00:48:47.606
I said, I don't know where we're going
from here, but I'm going with you.

00:48:48.056 --> 00:48:49.106
And that's all I know.

00:48:50.666 --> 00:48:51.956
And that was my prayer.

00:48:52.046 --> 00:48:54.866
I didn't know anything else, you
know, wasn't, and that's all I knew.

00:48:54.866 --> 00:48:57.356
I said, I'm going, I meant what
I said and I'm going with you.

00:48:58.016 --> 00:49:05.516
And when I went to get up a wild gobbler,
just gobbled seven times, I remember

00:49:05.516 --> 00:49:09.581
he double gobbled, he gobbled once
and then double gobbled three times.

00:49:09.581 --> 00:49:10.226
I remember that.

00:49:10.466 --> 00:49:12.836
And it set me back down
on the, on the seat.

00:49:13.136 --> 00:49:14.906
The her on the back of my neck stood up.

00:49:15.416 --> 00:49:18.206
Uh, 'cause it, I'm like, what Andy World?

00:49:18.956 --> 00:49:20.906
And I'm looking at Ain't no Turkey.

00:49:20.936 --> 00:49:21.986
Where did that come from?

00:49:21.986 --> 00:49:22.406
You know?

00:49:23.516 --> 00:49:26.756
And I'm telling you, I get so
I, but I knew it was God, I.

00:49:27.086 --> 00:49:27.686
I knew God.

00:49:27.686 --> 00:49:31.676
He just answered my prayer through
a gob, a Turkey, and that's what

00:49:31.681 --> 00:49:33.146
I, and I immediately got up.

00:49:33.146 --> 00:49:36.836
This is what I'm talking about, the
belief, you know, come to belief.

00:49:36.866 --> 00:49:40.826
And I, you know, it says, what does
this say in the Bible says, when you

00:49:40.826 --> 00:49:43.466
believe that's what salvation is.

00:49:43.466 --> 00:49:48.986
Belief that who he is, let me say, because
people watching, they don't know you.

00:49:49.496 --> 00:49:55.016
And, and I know that that can probably
sound to some people like, so you heard a

00:49:55.016 --> 00:49:56.906
Turkey and you, you knew it was the Lord.

00:49:57.506 --> 00:50:01.766
And people who don't know you,
I can say, I can vouch for your,

00:50:01.826 --> 00:50:07.646
your character and your sanity to
say, no, this, this is legitimate.

00:50:07.646 --> 00:50:13.766
Like Johnny, whatever happened that
day that you, you sincerely believed.

00:50:14.261 --> 00:50:18.761
That was somehow God was using
that sound and that moment to

00:50:18.761 --> 00:50:20.621
convey his presence in your life.

00:50:20.651 --> 00:50:21.281
Exactly.

00:50:21.281 --> 00:50:27.551
And you know, now I had doubts right
then, you know, I, when I got up after

00:50:27.551 --> 00:50:31.121
that happened, so I started going up
the hill and, and let me say, you're

00:50:31.121 --> 00:50:34.211
not the kind of person that comes
up with this stuff all the time.

00:50:34.211 --> 00:50:36.821
You don't walk around and
go, oh, that's all Bluebird.

00:50:36.826 --> 00:50:37.586
That must mean something.

00:50:37.646 --> 00:50:39.306
No, that's not you at all.

00:50:39.446 --> 00:50:40.146
No, no.

00:50:40.301 --> 00:50:45.341
So, you know, I just wanna give 'em
the context is to hear this and, and,

00:50:45.341 --> 00:50:50.021
and immediately as I'm walking up
that hill though, there's this voice

00:50:50.771 --> 00:50:53.801
telling me that, that that wasn't him.

00:50:54.821 --> 00:50:58.571
There's a, there's a voice telling
me that wasn't him and I'm going.

00:50:58.946 --> 00:51:00.746
You know, where's that coming from?

00:51:00.746 --> 00:51:01.706
You know, that wasn't him.

00:51:01.706 --> 00:51:03.566
There's this little doubt hanging on here.

00:51:04.046 --> 00:51:04.136
Mm-hmm.

00:51:04.436 --> 00:51:05.996
And I'm, I am thinking, no, that was him.

00:51:05.996 --> 00:51:06.326
You know?

00:51:06.686 --> 00:51:11.456
But I, I, I just remember it was almost
like Satan immediately was trying

00:51:11.456 --> 00:51:17.216
to, I think he knew, I think Satan
knew I'm fixing to lose this guy.

00:51:17.216 --> 00:51:17.426
Yeah.

00:51:17.816 --> 00:51:19.211
This guy's fixing it.

00:51:19.211 --> 00:51:19.531
Mm-hmm.

00:51:19.616 --> 00:51:21.896
This guy's going the other way quick.

00:51:22.431 --> 00:51:25.766
And, and I went up that hill and
those guys sitting there smoking

00:51:25.766 --> 00:51:29.006
those cigarettes, I asked them,
they said, oh, how you doing Johnny?

00:51:29.006 --> 00:51:29.306
Whatever.

00:51:29.306 --> 00:51:29.811
I said, fine.

00:51:30.266 --> 00:51:32.996
I said, I said, boy, that
Turkey Goggled didn't he?

00:51:33.806 --> 00:51:35.366
They looked at me like I was nuts.

00:51:35.366 --> 00:51:36.716
Like I had three eyes, you know.

00:51:36.716 --> 00:51:39.506
I said, they said, what tur,
what are you talking about?

00:51:39.566 --> 00:51:40.916
I said, y'all didn't hear that Turkey?

00:51:41.456 --> 00:51:42.056
They didn't hear it.

00:51:42.356 --> 00:51:43.196
Oh man.

00:51:43.706 --> 00:51:46.376
And I looked, there's two guys standing
outside the kitchen over there.

00:51:46.376 --> 00:51:47.336
They had to have heard it.

00:51:47.336 --> 00:51:48.236
That Turkey was out.

00:51:48.686 --> 00:51:49.766
I took off over there.

00:51:49.916 --> 00:51:50.516
Same thing.

00:51:50.516 --> 00:51:51.146
They ain't heard nothing.

00:51:51.986 --> 00:51:55.586
I went in there and I ate my
breakfast, and I'm thinking about that.

00:51:55.586 --> 00:51:57.356
So, do you know I'm processing this?

00:51:57.566 --> 00:51:58.436
I mean, it happened.

00:51:59.246 --> 00:52:00.896
And I'm thinking, where in the world?

00:52:00.896 --> 00:52:01.106
You know?

00:52:01.106 --> 00:52:07.226
So my last ditch e effort to
prove that, that it wasn't God.

00:52:07.226 --> 00:52:11.996
I, I was going to put my tray up and
the manager was sitting there, Mr.

00:52:11.996 --> 00:52:12.416
Perry.

00:52:13.286 --> 00:52:13.886
And, uh, Mr.

00:52:13.886 --> 00:52:15.326
Perry said, how you doing Johnny?

00:52:15.416 --> 00:52:20.036
And, but you know, Zach, he said, I said,
I'm doing good after I'm, and uh, he says,

00:52:20.036 --> 00:52:23.066
you know, he looked at me, he says, you
know, you look like you're doing better.

00:52:23.366 --> 00:52:25.676
He saw something in me immediately.

00:52:25.676 --> 00:52:28.286
I just surrendered to the
king the night that night.

00:52:28.316 --> 00:52:30.986
You know, the next day
all this is going on.

00:52:30.986 --> 00:52:32.936
But he, he said, you look
like you're doing better.

00:52:32.936 --> 00:52:35.696
He said, but I said, let
me ask you something.

00:52:35.696 --> 00:52:36.266
He said, what's that?

00:52:36.266 --> 00:52:38.216
I said, how long you been here?

00:52:38.216 --> 00:52:39.956
And he said, I've been
here about five years.

00:52:41.306 --> 00:52:44.816
And I said, have you ever,
uh, seen a, have you ever

00:52:44.816 --> 00:52:46.136
heard any turkeys around here?

00:52:46.931 --> 00:52:48.161
And he looked at me laughed.

00:52:48.161 --> 00:52:50.171
He said, no, ain't there,
ain't no turkeys around.

00:52:50.171 --> 00:52:50.591
I hadn't.

00:52:50.621 --> 00:52:55.211
I said, you ain't seen a feather a track,
you ain't not a Turkey ring anywhere.

00:52:55.691 --> 00:52:56.681
He says, no Uhuh.

00:52:56.771 --> 00:53:00.761
He laughed and he said something
about, uh, about 20 miles down

00:53:00.761 --> 00:53:04.001
there that that horse farm we
gonna lay some sod at and all that.

00:53:04.001 --> 00:53:06.611
They got turkeys down there,
but I hadn't seen anything here.

00:53:06.941 --> 00:53:07.601
He said, why?

00:53:07.601 --> 00:53:09.161
I said, oh, no, no problem.

00:53:09.581 --> 00:53:13.481
I went on over there and I put my
tray down and I walked outside.

00:53:13.481 --> 00:53:17.321
Zach and I, I just looked up at
Sky and I said, God, I heard you.

00:53:17.921 --> 00:53:18.821
And, and I looked back.

00:53:18.821 --> 00:53:19.661
That was a covenant.

00:53:19.751 --> 00:53:21.701
God made a covenant me
through a wild Turkey.

00:53:22.181 --> 00:53:26.711
But, and I always looked back to that
day, any, any of my baddest days.

00:53:26.711 --> 00:53:29.886
Now, in 24 years, I walked,
I can look back to day.

00:53:29.886 --> 00:53:33.101
That was, that, that was the
moment that me and God and, and

00:53:33.106 --> 00:53:34.661
that he, he spoke back to me.

00:53:34.961 --> 00:53:36.761
But the, the proof in the pudding is.

00:53:37.526 --> 00:53:40.676
As I go out to work that day,
I go out to work in the garden

00:53:41.216 --> 00:53:42.716
and I'm hoeing cantaloupe.

00:53:43.616 --> 00:53:46.256
They, uh, they, they called
my name over the loudspeaker,

00:53:46.316 --> 00:53:47.996
Johnny Burbank to the office.

00:53:48.146 --> 00:53:49.766
Johnny Burbank come to the office.

00:53:50.336 --> 00:53:52.976
So now I ain't been there,
but what, two weeks, right?

00:53:53.306 --> 00:53:56.576
So I go to the office and the little
guy up there, the office says, uh,

00:53:56.906 --> 00:53:59.546
just wanna let you know you're gonna
be going out to work in the morning.

00:54:00.506 --> 00:54:02.156
And I said, going out to work.

00:54:02.426 --> 00:54:05.126
I said, you're not, you can't go out
to work till you've been here like

00:54:05.186 --> 00:54:07.196
90 days, three months, you know?

00:54:08.066 --> 00:54:10.436
And, uh, the bullet boys
said, I, I don't, Mr.

00:54:10.436 --> 00:54:10.826
Burbank.

00:54:10.826 --> 00:54:11.516
I don't know.

00:54:11.666 --> 00:54:13.946
Uh, I'm just telling you what
they told me to tell you.

00:54:14.636 --> 00:54:18.536
So immediately the rules
were getting broke my favor.

00:54:18.806 --> 00:54:18.986
Mm.

00:54:19.046 --> 00:54:19.676
Somehow.

00:54:20.036 --> 00:54:26.186
So the next day I, the, the, the way that
you responded, I, I'm just reminded, you

00:54:26.186 --> 00:54:30.686
know, we're in Luke studying through the
Gospel of Luke right after, you know,

00:54:30.686 --> 00:54:32.456
Jesus has been raised from the dead.

00:54:33.926 --> 00:54:37.316
Which is just as bizarre to them
as God speaking through a Turkey.

00:54:37.526 --> 00:54:37.796
Right.

00:54:37.796 --> 00:54:40.766
You know, and Jesus has
been raised from the dead.

00:54:40.856 --> 00:54:43.916
Two of the people that they
knew and trusted came back

00:54:43.916 --> 00:54:45.116
and said, I, we've seen him.

00:54:46.436 --> 00:54:52.226
He comes through the wall into the
room that the disciples are sitting

00:54:52.226 --> 00:54:55.616
in and he says, behold the scars.

00:54:56.876 --> 00:55:02.516
Even with him, right in front of him, it
says that they were bewildered and not

00:55:02.516 --> 00:55:04.226
sure exactly what was going, you know?

00:55:04.286 --> 00:55:04.586
Right.

00:55:04.916 --> 00:55:07.316
It's just, that's how our mind works.

00:55:07.586 --> 00:55:09.656
We're not accustomed to the supernatural.

00:55:09.656 --> 00:55:11.906
We're not accustomed to divine encounters.

00:55:12.296 --> 00:55:18.266
And what you, the, the struggle
you were having is, is typical when

00:55:18.266 --> 00:55:20.636
somebody has that kind of Right.

00:55:20.666 --> 00:55:21.626
That kind of sign.

00:55:21.686 --> 00:55:21.926
Yeah.

00:55:22.016 --> 00:55:25.736
But, but you, you, you got confirmation.

00:55:25.736 --> 00:55:26.966
You're verifying it.

00:55:27.446 --> 00:55:30.266
Then this opportunity opens up.

00:55:30.626 --> 00:55:31.106
What then?

00:55:31.691 --> 00:55:33.686
I, I immediately, I go out to work.

00:55:34.376 --> 00:55:39.026
Um, first day on the job, you
know, I meet, uh, CL Tucker at,

00:55:39.296 --> 00:55:43.406
uh, feed the largest feeding seed
in McCrae, Georgia, or the largest

00:55:43.616 --> 00:55:45.956
area seed store right there.

00:55:46.556 --> 00:55:52.136
Um, Tucker Seed and, um, throw,
he, he, for immediately CL

00:55:52.136 --> 00:55:53.636
Tucker tells me his story.

00:55:53.756 --> 00:55:55.196
He's a recovering alcoholic.

00:55:55.466 --> 00:55:57.746
He was on the, he is on the
board at the Bridges of Hope.

00:55:58.556 --> 00:56:03.026
And, uh, he's passed away now,
but, and I go back to work.

00:56:03.026 --> 00:56:06.326
So I'm back there sweeping
floors, stacking seed, checking

00:56:06.326 --> 00:56:09.326
rat traps, and who'd I meet?

00:56:09.446 --> 00:56:13.436
I meet, his grandson happened to be
there and they called him Little Tuck.

00:56:13.736 --> 00:56:13.826
Mm-hmm.

00:56:13.886 --> 00:56:15.026
So here's Little Tuck.

00:56:15.146 --> 00:56:19.886
And it dawned on me that that school
was in session and I asked Little Tuck,

00:56:19.886 --> 00:56:21.266
I said, how come you ain't in school?

00:56:21.956 --> 00:56:26.396
Well, turned out he was
suspended, alcohol and marijuana.

00:56:27.281 --> 00:56:32.891
So my first day on the job, I'm, when,
when I say first day on the job, I

00:56:32.891 --> 00:56:34.451
ain't talking about the seed and feed.

00:56:34.961 --> 00:56:37.601
I'm talking about my first
day on the job with Jesus.

00:56:37.721 --> 00:56:37.781
Yeah.

00:56:37.871 --> 00:56:42.791
He's got me witnessing to a teenager and
I told him, and I, I told him the story.

00:56:42.791 --> 00:56:44.051
I said, well, you ain't
gonna believe this.

00:56:44.051 --> 00:56:47.921
I just surrendered to Jesus Christ
last night and then this morning of,

00:56:48.281 --> 00:56:49.991
or it was two days, two days ago.

00:56:50.471 --> 00:56:55.241
And then, uh, he answered me through a,
a wild gobbler and now I'm, I'm walking

00:56:55.241 --> 00:56:58.661
with Jesus, you know, I'm telling you the
first day on the job, you know, here we

00:56:58.661 --> 00:57:01.121
go, my testimony, and, and here we, and.

00:57:02.846 --> 00:57:05.516
If things got good, God blessed me there.

00:57:05.726 --> 00:57:07.856
You know how you get, I tell
Robin, get mad at me because

00:57:07.856 --> 00:57:09.926
I said I was exalted in rehab.

00:57:10.256 --> 00:57:14.486
You know, I got to where I
could take, I had my own truck.

00:57:14.786 --> 00:57:17.306
I could take any of the guys
with me that wanted to work.

00:57:17.336 --> 00:57:18.656
We'd doing all kind of stuff.

00:57:18.656 --> 00:57:21.776
We was working at C'S house,
doing that kind of stuff.

00:57:21.836 --> 00:57:24.326
I mean, I was just kinda
exalted rehab, making money.

00:57:24.506 --> 00:57:24.656
Yeah.

00:57:24.686 --> 00:57:26.816
Sending some money home, you know?

00:57:26.816 --> 00:57:30.086
Well, that's the nature of
when God's favor is on you and

00:57:30.086 --> 00:57:31.526
you're fully surrendered to him.

00:57:31.526 --> 00:57:36.386
You know, we could see, we can see
Joseph exalted as Prime Minister

00:57:36.386 --> 00:57:38.996
of Egypt, but also as a prisoner.

00:57:39.326 --> 00:57:39.806
Right.

00:57:39.986 --> 00:57:41.396
And, but God's favor.

00:57:41.651 --> 00:57:44.516
It, it expresses itself in
different ways like that.

00:57:44.521 --> 00:57:44.631
Exactly.

00:57:44.876 --> 00:57:45.626
Exactly.

00:57:45.626 --> 00:57:51.086
And you know, then one day I come
in, um, from Word and they said, uh.

00:57:51.686 --> 00:57:52.031
Mr.

00:57:52.031 --> 00:57:53.096
George wants to see you.

00:57:53.366 --> 00:57:54.746
And I said, oh, no, Mr.

00:57:54.746 --> 00:57:55.621
George wants to see you.

00:57:56.186 --> 00:57:58.856
And I, I thought maybe he
wanted me to do my fifth step.

00:57:59.426 --> 00:58:01.286
And alcohol is no four steps.

00:58:01.286 --> 00:58:05.666
You make a search in the fearless moral
inventory of himself, and the fifth step

00:58:05.666 --> 00:58:09.806
is you share it with another human being
and God, the exact nature of your wrongs.

00:58:10.406 --> 00:58:13.976
And, but I hadn't done before step
yet, and I, oh, he's gonna get on me.

00:58:14.366 --> 00:58:15.326
But that what it was.

00:58:15.416 --> 00:58:18.686
I came in, he sat down and he
says, uh, he said, boy, let

00:58:18.686 --> 00:58:20.036
me, let me tell you something.

00:58:20.036 --> 00:58:22.376
He says, um, I know you're doing good.

00:58:23.006 --> 00:58:24.596
And sobriety comes first.

00:58:24.596 --> 00:58:25.556
I know you're doing good here.

00:58:25.556 --> 00:58:28.646
He said, but I'm building a new
Bridges of Hope in Louisville, Georgia.

00:58:29.156 --> 00:58:30.866
And he said, I'd like for you to go.

00:58:31.706 --> 00:58:34.736
And, uh, I said, okay.

00:58:35.066 --> 00:58:37.196
I said, but I said, Mr.

00:58:37.196 --> 00:58:38.786
Georgia, I don't know nothing about.

00:58:38.876 --> 00:58:40.046
I said, I'm a net man.

00:58:40.481 --> 00:58:43.091
I said, I don't know nothing about
building any buildings and all that.

00:58:43.091 --> 00:58:44.351
And he said, I know, I know.

00:58:44.681 --> 00:58:47.291
He said, but I just feel you
got some leadership qualities.

00:58:47.291 --> 00:58:48.221
I want you to go.

00:58:48.941 --> 00:58:51.011
And, uh, but he said,
but you don't have to.

00:58:52.031 --> 00:58:55.691
He says, uh, but make your mind
that they or I was leaving.

00:58:55.691 --> 00:58:58.691
I said, I said, I think about it,
you know, he said, well, think quick.

00:58:58.991 --> 00:59:01.361
I noticed they was loading the
truck with bricks out there.

00:59:01.361 --> 00:59:01.961
When I came in.

00:59:02.471 --> 00:59:04.451
He says, that's your ride out there.

00:59:05.021 --> 00:59:05.891
I said, oh.

00:59:05.891 --> 00:59:11.201
So I was walking back to the dorm
and I was thinking, wait, if I go

00:59:11.201 --> 00:59:13.751
there, I'm gonna be working for
the Bridges not making no money.

00:59:14.171 --> 00:59:15.761
God's blessing me here.

00:59:15.791 --> 00:59:16.841
You know, I'm being blessed.

00:59:17.441 --> 00:59:19.211
But that I heard the voice.

00:59:19.991 --> 00:59:21.131
I heard it again.

00:59:21.401 --> 00:59:22.361
And he called me right at it.

00:59:22.361 --> 00:59:25.481
And he said, Johnny, he called
me on, he always calls Johnny.

00:59:25.481 --> 00:59:29.921
Johnny, you said you would go
and do something like that, you

00:59:29.921 --> 00:59:31.301
know, to that, I mean, I knew.

00:59:31.301 --> 00:59:32.591
I stopped in my tracks.

00:59:32.591 --> 00:59:36.191
I said, oh, you're the, you're
the one wanting me to go.

00:59:36.326 --> 00:59:37.391
I said, I understand.

00:59:37.391 --> 00:59:38.291
So I turned right around.

00:59:38.291 --> 00:59:39.041
I went back in there.

00:59:39.491 --> 00:59:40.331
I didn't tell Mr.

00:59:40.331 --> 00:59:41.996
George that I, I said, Mr.

00:59:41.996 --> 00:59:44.051
George, if you want me to go, I'll go.

00:59:44.501 --> 00:59:46.691
But I was going because I
knew it was what, right.

00:59:46.836 --> 00:59:49.211
I, I thought it was what
the Lord wanted me today.

00:59:49.871 --> 00:59:51.551
And I, so I went in there
and packed my stuff up.

00:59:51.551 --> 00:59:51.821
Boom.

00:59:51.821 --> 00:59:54.401
I was in that truck, ended
up in Lewisville, Georgia.

00:59:55.211 --> 00:59:57.761
I get to Lewisville, Georgia and it's hot.

00:59:58.001 --> 00:59:59.681
Oh, it's 110 degrees.

01:00:00.371 --> 01:00:06.551
We dig footers to fix, to pull concrete,
to, uh, raise this big building up on.

01:00:07.541 --> 01:00:13.121
And, uh, I don't know, it was just,
and it was these other 12 guys there.

01:00:13.211 --> 01:00:15.551
They was all, you know,
I don't want to judge.

01:00:15.881 --> 01:00:16.691
I don't want to judge 'em.

01:00:16.691 --> 01:00:17.831
But they were all lost.

01:00:18.311 --> 01:00:21.191
They was worried about watching
wrestling on tv, arguing over

01:00:21.191 --> 01:00:22.271
what tv, you know what I mean?

01:00:22.901 --> 01:00:25.391
And, but anyhow, I started
questioning God again.

01:00:25.391 --> 01:00:27.401
I was like, it's almost like.

01:00:28.316 --> 01:00:32.366
You know, and I quit praying, kinda, I
don't know, I kind of got downhearted.

01:00:32.366 --> 01:00:37.016
I just was going through a season
there and I, I just remember it

01:00:37.076 --> 01:00:41.066
and I, I almost came to blows with
a guy and he didn't wanna be there

01:00:41.066 --> 01:00:42.536
no more than I wanted to be there.

01:00:42.836 --> 01:00:44.276
And we almost came blows.

01:00:44.606 --> 01:00:50.546
And, but through that, it made me
realize how far I'd slipped from God.

01:00:51.086 --> 01:00:51.386
You know?

01:00:51.386 --> 01:00:54.866
I was, I was in there walking
with Jesus and everything's good.

01:00:55.196 --> 01:00:58.796
I get over there, run against
some opposition things on, and

01:00:58.796 --> 01:01:04.046
immediately I, I, I, I backslid,
you know, but I realized it.

01:01:04.406 --> 01:01:06.476
And the Holy Spirit, I, I, it.

01:01:07.436 --> 01:01:10.946
And I went in there that night and got on
my knees, and I asked God to forgive me.

01:01:10.946 --> 01:01:14.006
I said, Lord, I said, Lord,
forgive me for feeling like this.

01:01:14.036 --> 01:01:16.526
I, I, you've been so good to me.

01:01:17.036 --> 01:01:18.116
You know, what am I doing?

01:01:18.116 --> 01:01:19.766
You know, but I, and I'm
gonna tell you something.

01:01:20.126 --> 01:01:27.296
The grace fell back on me that, I mean,
immediately I felt that feeling again.

01:01:27.776 --> 01:01:28.316
You know what I mean?

01:01:28.316 --> 01:01:29.546
It's like he let me drift.

01:01:30.326 --> 01:01:35.006
But when I came back and when I repented,
boom, that grace was back on me.

01:01:35.486 --> 01:01:37.976
So the next day, I just went
out with a new attitude.

01:01:38.006 --> 01:01:40.466
Let's dig, let's build
this thing, you know?

01:01:41.066 --> 01:01:43.256
And, uh, the mud was coming.

01:01:43.256 --> 01:01:44.396
I had my boots on.

01:01:44.396 --> 01:01:46.016
We getting ready to pour some concrete.

01:01:46.556 --> 01:01:50.876
Well, about 10 o'clock that day,
just how quick everything's happened.

01:01:51.476 --> 01:01:56.756
The manager comes by and said, Johnny,
the, uh, do you know something about nets?

01:01:56.816 --> 01:01:59.486
Somebody said, you knew you
knew something about nets.

01:02:00.206 --> 01:02:02.306
I said, yeah, I know a little bit why I.

01:02:02.891 --> 01:02:04.961
And, uh, he said, well,
there's some Mennonites.

01:02:05.051 --> 01:02:06.221
I said, some what?

01:02:06.226 --> 01:02:06.936
He said, Mennonite.

01:02:06.936 --> 01:02:08.111
I said, what in the world's a Mennonite?

01:02:08.681 --> 01:02:13.091
He said, well, they got beards and
the women wear long dresses and they

01:02:13.091 --> 01:02:16.751
got their own church, you know, and,
uh, that's about all I really know.

01:02:16.751 --> 01:02:20.981
But they got, they got these catfish
ponds and they got a catfish scene

01:02:20.981 --> 01:02:22.541
and they called a big stump in it.

01:02:22.601 --> 01:02:25.991
And I heard him talking at, at
the hardware store, and I thought

01:02:25.991 --> 01:02:27.221
you might could help him with it.

01:02:27.281 --> 01:02:30.101
And, uh, I said, yeah, I
probably could, you know?

01:02:30.281 --> 01:02:31.631
So he said, okay.

01:02:31.691 --> 01:02:35.591
And, uh, that night he told me, he
said, uh, the Mennonites gonna come

01:02:35.591 --> 01:02:36.791
by and pick you up in the morning.

01:02:36.791 --> 01:02:40.856
So this little old bitty man
with a beard, come pick me up the

01:02:40.856 --> 01:02:42.251
next morning in this old truck.

01:02:42.311 --> 01:02:45.971
And we get back over there and here's
about seven or eight Mennonite men.

01:02:46.451 --> 01:02:49.991
They got the net spread out on the
side of the road, big rip in it.

01:02:49.991 --> 01:02:53.381
And they said, can you, can
you do anything with that?

01:02:53.381 --> 01:02:54.461
And I, I said, yeah.

01:02:54.461 --> 01:02:58.031
I said, uh, I said, y'all
have any, uh, twine?

01:02:58.406 --> 01:03:01.256
Uh, a needle or you go, ain't
twine to patch it with, you know?

01:03:01.256 --> 01:03:05.306
And they said, we got, well, we got a
patch kit they sent with a net, and it was

01:03:05.306 --> 01:03:07.136
a ball of twine with a needle stuck in it.

01:03:07.556 --> 01:03:10.706
So I got that and, uh, and
I said, anybody got a knife?

01:03:10.706 --> 01:03:12.836
Which they all had knives in there.

01:03:13.856 --> 01:03:17.456
So I got a knife and I threaded
that needle and I mended that rip in

01:03:17.486 --> 01:03:20.156
that net and just a matter of time.

01:03:20.156 --> 01:03:21.896
And they're all, where'd you learn that?

01:03:21.896 --> 01:03:22.586
What'd you do?

01:03:22.586 --> 01:03:25.556
And I said, well, I've been doing
this since I was eight years old.

01:03:25.556 --> 01:03:26.486
You know, that's what I am.

01:03:26.486 --> 01:03:28.316
I'm, I'm a professional net baker.

01:03:28.616 --> 01:03:30.206
Been building nets my whole life.

01:03:30.566 --> 01:03:31.886
What are you doing here?

01:03:32.246 --> 01:03:35.666
I said, well, I'm an alcoholic,
you know, and I'm trying to

01:03:35.666 --> 01:03:36.866
get my life straightened out.

01:03:36.896 --> 01:03:38.281
Well, here we go.

01:03:38.366 --> 01:03:43.256
Well, the, that particular saying
belonged to one man, but there was a

01:03:43.256 --> 01:03:47.966
community, Mennonite community saying
that they had been praying about because

01:03:47.966 --> 01:03:50.066
it was about to fall out the lines.

01:03:50.066 --> 01:03:53.576
It was old and, and they didn't
have the money for a new one.

01:03:54.146 --> 01:03:54.896
And, uh.

01:03:55.496 --> 01:03:59.246
They was just, and they knew, and
to take it back and get it fixed and

01:03:59.246 --> 01:04:01.436
Mississippi was gonna be about $6,000.

01:04:01.736 --> 01:04:03.506
They really didn't feel
like they had that.

01:04:03.896 --> 01:04:05.276
So they've been praying about this thing.

01:04:05.456 --> 01:04:10.826
And uh, Allen was one of the pastor's
sons, and, and he happened to be

01:04:10.826 --> 01:04:13.076
kicked out of the fold at that time.

01:04:13.286 --> 01:04:17.696
Now he's still saying in Catfish,
he still can go to church, but he's

01:04:17.696 --> 01:04:20.876
kind of outta the fold because he
had fell off of one of those big

01:04:20.876 --> 01:04:22.886
sprinkler systems and hurt his back.

01:04:23.186 --> 01:04:27.836
He got hooked on pain pills and he
is flying around acting like a nut.

01:04:28.436 --> 01:04:31.256
And the elders, they called him in.

01:04:31.256 --> 01:04:35.456
They, they, they called him in and
addressed the situation and he didn't

01:04:35.456 --> 01:04:37.256
repent like they wanted him to.

01:04:37.826 --> 01:04:39.626
And so he kicked out a fold.

01:04:39.626 --> 01:04:40.886
That's the way the Mennonites do.

01:04:41.126 --> 01:04:42.656
So here we go.

01:04:42.716 --> 01:04:46.016
I meet Alan, he's out the fold
with a, with a drug problem.

01:04:46.556 --> 01:04:49.346
But we, but the problem is
they got this old, this net.

01:04:49.526 --> 01:04:52.706
He takes off and go, gets it,
and brings it back, spreads

01:04:52.706 --> 01:04:54.296
it out, say, can you fix this?

01:04:55.376 --> 01:04:57.746
And I looked at it, I said, well, yeah,
it's going to need a lot of mending,

01:04:57.746 --> 01:05:02.366
probably going to need some webbing,
needs to be rehung, you know, and

01:05:02.366 --> 01:05:05.666
we're talking 1600 foot long net now
it's going to take a little while.

01:05:06.386 --> 01:05:08.066
So they said, will you do it?

01:05:08.066 --> 01:05:09.146
I said, well, yeah.

01:05:09.146 --> 01:05:10.791
I mean, I don't got nothing else to do.

01:05:11.186 --> 01:05:13.856
I said, but I belong to the Bridges.

01:05:13.886 --> 01:05:15.386
I'm over here at the Bridges of Hope.

01:05:15.656 --> 01:05:16.826
You gotta go ask them.

01:05:16.826 --> 01:05:21.791
So Allen, when he go takes me back,
he's asking what after to call Mr.

01:05:21.791 --> 01:05:22.166
George.

01:05:22.856 --> 01:05:23.936
And they, they said, Mr.

01:05:23.936 --> 01:05:27.656
George, the Mennonites want
Johnny to come fix their catfish

01:05:27.656 --> 01:05:29.036
saying and work with them.

01:05:29.846 --> 01:05:31.556
And, uh, would that be all right?

01:05:31.556 --> 01:05:33.596
And he's laughing on the
other end, I can hear him.

01:05:33.656 --> 01:05:34.831
He said, yeah, yeah.

01:05:34.916 --> 01:05:35.396
Let him go.

01:05:35.906 --> 01:05:38.306
I ended up, I have my own net shop rehab.

01:05:38.366 --> 01:05:38.636
Wow.

01:05:38.996 --> 01:05:41.636
And, but I started going with those
Mennonites every day, but then I

01:05:41.636 --> 01:05:42.751
started going to church with 'em.

01:05:43.556 --> 01:05:46.376
I'm in Sunday school with the
Mennonites and we're talking about

01:05:46.376 --> 01:05:50.276
whether sin or not to have air
condition in a tractor, or is it, yeah.

01:05:50.636 --> 01:05:53.426
Is it increasing production,
theological, yeah.

01:05:53.426 --> 01:05:53.427
Yeah.

01:05:53.427 --> 01:05:53.428
Yeah.

01:05:54.416 --> 01:05:56.546
I mean, radio was definitely out.

01:05:56.546 --> 01:05:59.606
Young guys wanted radio,
that kind of stuff for them.

01:05:59.606 --> 01:06:03.446
That's a, those are big, big because,
and, and what they do, one thing I really

01:06:03.446 --> 01:06:08.546
like that those communities do is if
something new comes along like that,

01:06:08.996 --> 01:06:14.396
rather than everybody adopted, they'll
have one family and they'll let the,

01:06:14.396 --> 01:06:19.856
like, like for example when, um, when
cell phones came out, they would let one

01:06:19.856 --> 01:06:25.526
family have a cell phone and they'd watch
and see how did it affect their marriage,

01:06:25.526 --> 01:06:27.146
how did it affect them as parents?

01:06:27.146 --> 01:06:28.106
All this kinda stuff.

01:06:28.436 --> 01:06:32.816
And if it seemed like it was a
positive spiritually right, then

01:06:32.816 --> 01:06:34.316
they would spread it to more people.

01:06:34.316 --> 01:06:37.466
So I, I've always thought that's
kind of a brilliant way to.

01:06:37.841 --> 01:06:38.141
You know?

01:06:38.171 --> 01:06:38.461
Yeah.

01:06:38.491 --> 01:06:39.301
Test something out.

01:06:39.301 --> 01:06:41.726
Well, you know the tv, they
called it the One-Eyed Devil.

01:06:41.756 --> 01:06:42.026
Yep.

01:06:42.086 --> 01:06:42.176
Yeah.

01:06:42.176 --> 01:06:43.646
So that was not allowed.

01:06:43.646 --> 01:06:43.736
Right.

01:06:43.736 --> 01:06:45.086
But they all had cell phones.

01:06:45.296 --> 01:06:45.356
Yeah.

01:06:45.356 --> 01:06:47.756
They knew if the Atlanta Braves
was winning and they knew.

01:06:47.756 --> 01:06:48.208
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:06:48.296 --> 01:06:49.436
And all that kind of stuff.

01:06:49.976 --> 01:06:50.636
And, uh.

01:06:50.981 --> 01:06:54.581
But it was just neat and, and going,
you know, we'd, uh, go to church with

01:06:54.581 --> 01:06:58.151
'em and they'd, you know, they had
three pastors and every one of 'em

01:06:58.151 --> 01:06:59.711
was ready to preach every Sunday.

01:07:00.161 --> 01:07:03.221
But they would, they'd get, but
those three pastors would gather

01:07:03.221 --> 01:07:04.781
back there and they would pray.

01:07:05.201 --> 01:07:06.881
And they were one that felt led.

01:07:06.881 --> 01:07:08.741
That was the one that
gave the sermon that week.

01:07:08.861 --> 01:07:13.571
And, uh, and I mean, they was preaching
the word and, and, uh, I didn't know it

01:07:13.571 --> 01:07:16.181
at that time, but God showed me later on.

01:07:16.246 --> 01:07:16.811
I, I know.

01:07:17.166 --> 01:07:22.171
Or we could talk for days, but God showed
me later on that the power's in the word.

01:07:22.711 --> 01:07:22.741
Mm.

01:07:23.281 --> 01:07:25.381
And uh, and I, I need to really tell that.

01:07:25.381 --> 01:07:28.741
But those menonite, so I have
built a relationship with 'em, and

01:07:28.741 --> 01:07:30.781
we sain and I rebuilt that scene.

01:07:30.781 --> 01:07:31.831
I built 'em a new one.

01:07:32.431 --> 01:07:34.231
And you know, I'll tell you
something else that happened.

01:07:34.231 --> 01:07:35.461
It's really, really unique.

01:07:35.466 --> 01:07:38.491
While I was in there, I'm over
there building a brand new

01:07:38.491 --> 01:07:40.801
scene in Allen's backyard.

01:07:41.041 --> 01:07:43.411
And this one particular
day, I'm there by myself.

01:07:43.411 --> 01:07:45.331
Allen had to take Liz to the doctor.

01:07:45.961 --> 01:07:48.421
So I'm at their house by
myself in the backyard.

01:07:48.421 --> 01:07:53.401
I got a tractor, got the sane pulled, tied
to a oak tree over here and pulled tight.

01:07:53.401 --> 01:07:59.071
And I'm hanging, I'm putting floats on the
top line, putting lids, and then the bunt

01:07:59.161 --> 01:08:01.741
on the bottom line, you know, and all.

01:08:01.741 --> 01:08:04.081
And as I'm going, I hear this loud noise.

01:08:04.081 --> 01:08:05.401
I hear this truck.

01:08:05.951 --> 01:08:09.371
And I could, and I started
smelling, uh, chicken manure.

01:08:09.671 --> 01:08:12.791
Here's this truck over there
spreading this ammonia or

01:08:12.851 --> 01:08:14.771
chicken manure on a, in a field.

01:08:15.281 --> 01:08:16.481
I could see him over there.

01:08:16.901 --> 01:08:20.471
And, but when he gets through with
that field here, he comes flying up in

01:08:20.471 --> 01:08:25.001
the, in the yard, that big truck, and
this big old huge man gets out with his

01:08:25.001 --> 01:08:29.861
overalls on, and he walks over there
and he says, whoa, what are you doing?

01:08:30.671 --> 01:08:33.701
I said, I'm, I'm building
this catfish thing for Allen.

01:08:33.701 --> 01:08:36.551
And he said, Hey, and he's watching me.

01:08:36.551 --> 01:08:38.351
And Where'd you learn how to do that?

01:08:38.351 --> 01:08:41.501
I said, well, I've been
building nets my whole life.

01:08:41.591 --> 01:08:43.301
And I told him a little
bit about the nets.

01:08:43.691 --> 01:08:44.981
He said, well, what are you doing here?

01:08:44.981 --> 01:08:46.211
You ain't no Mennonite?

01:08:46.931 --> 01:08:50.771
I said, no, I'm, I said, I'm
an alcoholic, an alcoholic.

01:08:51.341 --> 01:08:51.941
I said, yeah.

01:08:51.941 --> 01:08:53.771
I said, yeah, I'm over here
at the Bridge of Hope, trying

01:08:53.771 --> 01:08:54.911
to get my life straight down.

01:08:55.751 --> 01:08:59.531
I mean, know, you know, and he, we talked
a little bit more and all that, but

01:08:59.531 --> 01:09:01.841
right before we left, he says, hang on.

01:09:01.931 --> 01:09:04.991
He says, he says, you want to
not never want to drink again.

01:09:06.026 --> 01:09:09.906
I said, I said, well, do I, I said, yeah,
that's what I'm up here for, you know.

01:09:10.481 --> 01:09:11.291
And he said, hang on.

01:09:11.291 --> 01:09:13.331
So he goes back to the strut and
he comes back with this little

01:09:13.331 --> 01:09:16.691
one of them little old flip pads
and a little wore out pencil.

01:09:16.691 --> 01:09:17.951
Looked like a pup putt pencil.

01:09:18.911 --> 01:09:20.441
And he said, write your name on there.

01:09:20.951 --> 01:09:23.051
I wrote John Burbank.

01:09:24.041 --> 01:09:28.481
And, uh, he folded it up and put
it in his, in his overalls and, and

01:09:28.536 --> 01:09:32.021
left, you know, didn't say nothing
else and just said, I see you.

01:09:32.021 --> 01:09:32.741
And then he left.

01:09:33.011 --> 01:09:36.881
That's all he, and I'm, I
go back and hang on my dad.

01:09:36.881 --> 01:09:38.771
I, I'm thinking the twilight.

01:09:38.771 --> 01:09:40.706
I ne ne, you know what I mean?

01:09:41.771 --> 01:09:45.701
And, you know, I forgot about that
for, and, and, uh, but it was about

01:09:45.701 --> 01:09:50.291
two weeks later, couple weeks later,
happened to be the same situation.

01:09:50.291 --> 01:09:51.941
Allen and them had to go somewhere.

01:09:51.941 --> 01:09:57.191
Some, I was by myself again in
that backyard hanging on that net.

01:09:57.761 --> 01:09:59.741
I smelled fertilizer.

01:09:59.741 --> 01:10:00.881
I looked over there.

01:10:00.881 --> 01:10:02.891
There he is on another field over there.

01:10:03.431 --> 01:10:05.861
I see him over there, you
know, and I'm wondering if he's

01:10:05.861 --> 01:10:07.271
going to come or not today.

01:10:07.271 --> 01:10:07.541
You know?

01:10:08.141 --> 01:10:11.501
And sure enough, he gets through,
he comes out in that big old

01:10:11.501 --> 01:10:16.391
truck, and, uh, he gets out and
he says, you in the same place?

01:10:16.391 --> 01:10:19.931
I said, yeah, but there
those big hydraulic reels.

01:10:20.171 --> 01:10:22.931
So as I hang the top, whoop,
excuse me, you're okay.

01:10:23.591 --> 01:10:27.401
As I'd hang the top, and I thought
with my hands, you know, I'd

01:10:27.401 --> 01:10:31.211
hang the top and bottom line,
you'd reel it up on that thing.

01:10:31.211 --> 01:10:32.141
So I'm in the same spot.

01:10:32.141 --> 01:10:32.591
Looks like you.

01:10:32.591 --> 01:10:34.241
But I, yeah, he was a kid with me.

01:10:34.241 --> 01:10:34.781
He knew.

01:10:34.781 --> 01:10:36.671
I said, all right, that's
bunching that up there.

01:10:37.271 --> 01:10:41.171
And, uh, so we talked a little bit
and all that, and he said, oh, by

01:10:41.171 --> 01:10:44.111
the way, so he went back to his truck
and he come back with that little

01:10:44.681 --> 01:10:48.821
thing and he, he opened it up and
he tore it out and handed it to me.

01:10:48.821 --> 01:10:54.011
He said, the elders of my church prayed
over your name, and they anointed it,

01:10:54.341 --> 01:10:56.711
and there was an oil print on my name.

01:10:57.041 --> 01:10:59.051
He says, you won't never
want to drink again.

01:11:00.146 --> 01:11:00.986
I said, okay.

01:11:01.526 --> 01:11:06.026
And he messed around and then left,
you know, left me holding that, holding

01:11:06.031 --> 01:11:10.466
in that thing, and I'm thinking, so
I folded it and I got my wallet out

01:11:10.466 --> 01:11:13.316
and I had a million, and Robin's
picture in there is one of those,

01:11:13.616 --> 01:11:17.996
I had her picture on this side, me,
I put it in between their picture.

01:11:18.536 --> 01:11:19.136
That's where I put it.

01:11:19.136 --> 01:11:21.656
And I put it while and, and
didn't think much more about it.

01:11:22.106 --> 01:11:24.956
But you know, you look back on
it and I never did after that.

01:11:24.956 --> 01:11:29.396
The phenomenal we call it in the, in,
uh, alcohol No, or in in recovery.

01:11:29.786 --> 01:11:31.706
We, it is called a phenomenal craving.

01:11:32.456 --> 01:11:34.316
And that, that it is phenomenal.

01:11:34.496 --> 01:11:37.646
That's the thing that gets you, that's
the one that takes 'em to the grave

01:11:38.456 --> 01:11:44.456
and, uh, drugs, alcohol, whatever, is
phenomenal craving of the, of that.

01:11:45.026 --> 01:11:48.236
But, but God took that away from
me and that was just one thing

01:11:48.236 --> 01:11:50.366
that happened and I went on.

01:11:50.366 --> 01:11:56.576
Well, it's, it's, it's fascinating to
see when, when you have these moments

01:11:56.576 --> 01:11:58.676
where you get back in sync with the Lord.

01:11:59.396 --> 01:12:01.136
You, you surrender to him.

01:12:02.096 --> 01:12:04.976
Life is is ordinary life.

01:12:05.091 --> 01:12:07.136
Oh, it's, it is, but it's beautiful.

01:12:07.166 --> 01:12:08.696
Yeah, it is beautiful.

01:12:08.696 --> 01:12:14.096
Raku the last 24 years has been
absolutely, you just wake up

01:12:14.096 --> 01:12:15.446
wondering what's he going to do?

01:12:15.836 --> 01:12:17.486
You know, that's what he did.

01:12:17.486 --> 01:12:21.206
He kept just putting people, you
know, before I, before I ever went

01:12:21.206 --> 01:12:22.496
to Louisville, I forgot about it.

01:12:22.976 --> 01:12:25.436
There was a, they brought
a Sunday school lesson.

01:12:25.436 --> 01:12:32.246
A blind Baptist deacon had lost his
sight to diabetes, and his and his

01:12:32.246 --> 01:12:34.556
partner would walk him in, bring him in.

01:12:34.556 --> 01:12:36.056
He taught his Sunday school.

01:12:37.166 --> 01:12:38.426
And, you know, that was before then.

01:12:38.426 --> 01:12:41.006
I just, different people
God puts in your life.

01:12:41.006 --> 01:12:42.296
And I'll never forget that.

01:12:42.656 --> 01:12:47.486
I'll never forget the, the day that, uh,
I, I came in there and I was a little

01:12:47.486 --> 01:12:53.936
bit down and I did, I, I didn't say
anything but that Blind Baptist deacon.

01:12:54.716 --> 01:12:57.416
He, he, he just, he, he said, Johnny.

01:12:57.836 --> 01:12:58.616
What's wrong?

01:12:59.396 --> 01:13:03.656
I mean, he just sensed it, just
sensed my f you know, and whatever.

01:13:03.656 --> 01:13:07.346
But, and that was just another person,
but then I want to tell you about this.

01:13:08.096 --> 01:13:11.906
So I did all that would've Mennonites
and, and, uh, going through all that time.

01:13:11.906 --> 01:13:12.056
Stay.

01:13:12.056 --> 01:13:13.556
John, what, what time
do you have to be done?

01:13:13.556 --> 01:13:16.946
I just wanna make sure I don't, uh, 4 45.

01:13:17.036 --> 01:13:18.536
Alright, we got, we got about 30 minutes.

01:13:18.686 --> 01:13:19.046
Okay.

01:13:19.046 --> 01:13:19.471
I just wanted get an idea.

01:13:19.591 --> 01:13:22.016
I don't want Jack to be mad at
Yeah, no, I just gotta tell you.

01:13:22.976 --> 01:13:29.391
And, uh, and, uh, so, uh, the
deacon, blind Deacon, yeah.

01:13:29.396 --> 01:13:30.596
Blind, but, but, uh, yeah.

01:13:30.596 --> 01:13:33.506
How God puts different people
in your life that old way.

01:13:33.896 --> 01:13:38.696
But, but so this is, so I walk in
with, with all, with the Mennonites

01:13:38.696 --> 01:13:43.736
and God's discipling me and going, you
know, and I'm gaining his faith and his

01:13:43.736 --> 01:13:48.626
strength and, you know, that was the one
thing that I knew God, the Mennonites

01:13:48.626 --> 01:13:51.296
needed a net man, but I needed faith.

01:13:51.296 --> 01:13:51.386
Mm-hmm.

01:13:52.211 --> 01:13:52.871
You know what I mean?

01:13:52.871 --> 01:13:55.541
I, I needed some faith to get
me through this, you know?

01:13:56.051 --> 01:13:59.771
And so, but it came time
by time for me to go home.

01:14:00.161 --> 01:14:04.241
Now Robin started coming up,
brought the kids, and when I was

01:14:04.241 --> 01:14:07.061
over with the Mennonites, we kind
of broke the rules a little bit.

01:14:07.271 --> 01:14:09.011
'cause your family ain't
supposed to be able to come

01:14:09.011 --> 01:14:10.391
see you except on family days.

01:14:10.781 --> 01:14:12.671
But they came up and
stayed with the Mennonite.

01:14:12.761 --> 01:14:13.031
Oh.

01:14:13.391 --> 01:14:15.911
And you know, funny, it's funny
about the Mennonites and Robin.

01:14:16.241 --> 01:14:17.531
So here, here comes Robin.

01:14:17.531 --> 01:14:20.741
You know I told Robin, I said, don't
be wearing your leopard up there.

01:14:21.071 --> 01:14:21.131
Yeah.

01:14:21.131 --> 01:14:22.691
And your jewelry and all.

01:14:22.871 --> 01:14:24.641
I said, you gotta come plain.

01:14:24.641 --> 01:14:26.111
You know, plain is Robb.

01:14:26.231 --> 01:14:30.071
She's a southern debutante
and the plain is robbing.

01:14:30.071 --> 01:14:30.611
Could be.

01:14:30.611 --> 01:14:31.241
We go.

01:14:31.601 --> 01:14:35.081
And, uh, of course the women sit on one
side of the church and men on the other.

01:14:35.081 --> 01:14:36.491
So Robin's sitting over there with them.

01:14:36.491 --> 01:14:40.331
But afterwards, we all went and, and had
dinner at one of the midnight's house.

01:14:40.991 --> 01:14:44.951
And, uh, I could hear them in the
kitchen, the women, and they was, they

01:14:44.951 --> 01:14:47.021
was grilling Robin, checking Robin out.

01:14:47.471 --> 01:14:50.351
Robin was telling 'em all at that
time, she was director, Jack and

01:14:50.351 --> 01:14:52.931
Jill men, you know, and everything.

01:14:53.351 --> 01:14:56.591
Well, Robin excused herself to go
to the restroom, and I could hear

01:14:56.591 --> 01:14:57.701
those Mennonite women in there.

01:14:58.031 --> 01:14:59.981
One of 'em said, oh,
she's going to heaven.

01:14:59.981 --> 01:15:01.026
Oh, she's, she's going.

01:15:01.416 --> 01:15:01.706
Yeah.

01:15:01.706 --> 01:15:02.186
You know what I mean?

01:15:02.186 --> 01:15:04.546
They was in there taking her
inventory, you know, bless my heart.

01:15:05.006 --> 01:15:07.841
But, uh, but anyhow, Robin and
the family got to come and see me.

01:15:07.841 --> 01:15:10.541
So when I got out, I was coming back home.

01:15:10.601 --> 01:15:12.011
I mean, God had done restored.

01:15:12.011 --> 01:15:13.781
That was that scary.

01:15:13.781 --> 01:15:14.951
Going back into real life.

01:15:14.981 --> 01:15:20.801
Well, here's, let me tell you, as,
as, as it came down to the wire, okay?

01:15:20.801 --> 01:15:21.761
I'm going home in a.

01:15:22.226 --> 01:15:25.826
In two weeks, man, I
started getting scared.

01:15:25.976 --> 01:15:26.786
Oh, buddy.

01:15:26.786 --> 01:15:30.041
I started my mind, you know,
you, and this is one thing Mr.

01:15:30.041 --> 01:15:30.776
George taught me.

01:15:30.776 --> 01:15:32.486
You know, your mind's a powerful thing.

01:15:32.516 --> 01:15:32.696
Yeah.

01:15:33.536 --> 01:15:34.166
All of us.

01:15:34.166 --> 01:15:35.396
It's our own worst enemy.

01:15:35.396 --> 01:15:35.636
Yeah.

01:15:35.906 --> 01:15:37.376
We're, we're our worst enemy.

01:15:37.796 --> 01:15:39.416
If we, if we leave our mind.

01:15:39.416 --> 01:15:42.446
And that's, I guess, that God
te teaches us, you know, to

01:15:42.446 --> 01:15:44.366
control your thoughts, you know?

01:15:44.456 --> 01:15:49.646
And, uh, because your mind, so my Board
of Wills started turning my mind, and

01:15:49.646 --> 01:15:51.716
I started crying out to God again.

01:15:51.716 --> 01:15:52.316
I started praying.

01:15:52.316 --> 01:15:54.596
I said, Lord, I, I need something else.

01:15:54.651 --> 01:15:59.636
I, I don't know, I don't know what else
you got for me, but I need some, I don't

01:15:59.636 --> 01:16:04.136
feel like I, and I, I was reminding
God, I said, there's a liquor store on

01:16:04.136 --> 01:16:06.656
every corner, you know, in front of me.

01:16:06.746 --> 01:16:07.796
Well, and it's funny how.

01:16:08.291 --> 01:16:11.681
So many people avoid
rehab because of fear.

01:16:11.861 --> 01:16:12.101
Yeah.

01:16:12.101 --> 01:16:13.601
They're afraid to go into it.

01:16:13.991 --> 01:16:19.481
But, but once you've recovered to,
to some degree, real life, boom.

01:16:19.541 --> 01:16:20.771
Now, now that's that.

01:16:20.771 --> 01:16:22.391
I've got you in the shape to begin with.

01:16:22.391 --> 01:16:25.091
I'm not, I'm just, you know, I'm
like, I'm telling God, I said, God,

01:16:25.091 --> 01:16:28.451
you know, I, I'd just soon, let's
stay up here with the Mennonite.

01:16:28.451 --> 01:16:29.351
I'll be a farmer.

01:16:29.351 --> 01:16:32.561
I didn't learn how to drive a
tractor dog, you know, but, but I

01:16:32.561 --> 01:16:34.421
knew, but where does God send me?

01:16:34.451 --> 01:16:38.111
He sent me right back, you know, and
I told God, I says, I said, Lord,

01:16:38.111 --> 01:16:40.271
I fell on my face time after time.

01:16:40.571 --> 01:16:41.411
They all know me.

01:16:41.411 --> 01:16:44.741
There is the town drunk, you
know, they all know to fail.

01:16:44.741 --> 01:16:46.751
I'm a failure, you know, the big loser.

01:16:47.141 --> 01:16:48.161
I used to do like that.

01:16:48.161 --> 01:16:50.681
I put the big loser on my head, but.

01:16:50.866 --> 01:16:53.681
But that was, you know, and, and
I didn't hear nothing from him.

01:16:53.681 --> 01:16:56.951
Didn't hear nothing from him
while, and then one Saturday on

01:16:56.951 --> 01:16:59.291
the weekends, I didn't work with
him, Mennonites just a week.

01:16:59.681 --> 01:17:02.921
But this one particular Saturday called me
in and said, Hey, the Mennonites is here.

01:17:02.921 --> 01:17:06.491
Wanted to know if you'll work,
go help 'em in Augusta today.

01:17:06.761 --> 01:17:08.831
I said, oh yeah, 'cause
I love being around them.

01:17:09.611 --> 01:17:10.541
I said, oh yeah, I'll go.

01:17:10.541 --> 01:17:14.951
So we went to Augusta, me and Allen
and his daddy, they had some rental

01:17:14.951 --> 01:17:19.181
properties in Augusta, Georgia, and
they had this big gas tank up, up the

01:17:19.181 --> 01:17:22.901
hill, and they wanted to run a gas line
down to the rental unit down below.

01:17:23.681 --> 01:17:27.431
And, uh, so we was just digging a,
a line, gonna run a line underground

01:17:27.431 --> 01:17:29.171
down there, doing that all day long.

01:17:29.801 --> 01:17:32.207
And I was too embarrassed
to tell 'em that.

01:17:33.221 --> 01:17:36.431
I was embarrassed to tell 'em that
I was scared about going home.

01:17:36.851 --> 01:17:39.521
Now here I was, all that I was
supposed to be full of faith, them

01:17:39.521 --> 01:17:43.841
been walking with 'em in the word,
you know, supposed to be strong.

01:17:43.841 --> 01:17:46.991
And here I was scared to
death that about failing.

01:17:47.471 --> 01:17:50.021
And, uh, and I didn't, I
didn't wanna tell him back.

01:17:50.561 --> 01:17:51.101
Allen.

01:17:51.101 --> 01:17:53.051
So we get in the truck to go home.

01:17:53.051 --> 01:17:56.021
Allen said, Hey, before I take you
back, I'm going to feed you a steak.

01:17:56.081 --> 01:17:57.071
I said, that sounds good.

01:17:57.461 --> 01:18:02.981
So we went to the Western Sizzler in
Augusta, and uh, we're sitting there,

01:18:03.191 --> 01:18:06.761
Allen's sitting over there like you are,
and we're looking, talking and each other,

01:18:06.761 --> 01:18:08.921
and Allen starts grinning and laughing.

01:18:09.371 --> 01:18:10.126
I didn't know what he was doing.

01:18:10.181 --> 01:18:15.791
And all of a sudden this huge
black man walks up and he's just

01:18:15.791 --> 01:18:17.471
chiseled out of a piece of granite.

01:18:17.921 --> 01:18:19.811
Turns out that he's an ex St.

01:18:19.811 --> 01:18:21.491
Louis Cardinal football player.

01:18:21.971 --> 01:18:26.891
He owns, he owns half the Gold's Gym
and he owns that Western Sizzler.

01:18:27.881 --> 01:18:30.221
And he sits down and Alan introduced him.

01:18:30.221 --> 01:18:31.241
We start talking.

01:18:31.721 --> 01:18:35.141
He was a, as the guy was telling
you, he's like a walking king James.

01:18:35.381 --> 01:18:39.911
He quoted scripture to everything
we went to say he had a scripture

01:18:40.271 --> 01:18:42.011
that related to what was going on.

01:18:42.041 --> 01:18:44.441
He just, just just kept on and on.

01:18:44.441 --> 01:18:47.441
And I'm sitting there listening and
listening and there was another gentleman

01:18:47.441 --> 01:18:49.061
sitting over here eating a steak.

01:18:49.061 --> 01:18:50.831
He kind of got in on a conversation.

01:18:51.311 --> 01:18:54.641
Next thing I knew, this
man led him to the Lord.

01:18:55.781 --> 01:18:58.331
And they, at then, they was
exchanging phone numbers.

01:18:58.331 --> 01:19:00.491
He was gonna pick him up and
take him to church Sunday.

01:19:00.521 --> 01:19:00.791
Mm-hmm.

01:19:00.941 --> 01:19:04.931
And he, but he accepted to Christ
right in front of my, and, and

01:19:04.931 --> 01:19:06.671
that, and I just never forget it.

01:19:06.671 --> 01:19:11.351
And, and we were going home,
uh, Allen taking me back.

01:19:11.711 --> 01:19:15.371
It just dawned on me how power
it just, it, I was intrigued.

01:19:15.701 --> 01:19:17.051
Power of the word.

01:19:17.651 --> 01:19:20.021
I was just went to bed that
night thinking, and I was

01:19:20.021 --> 01:19:20.801
just laughing about it.

01:19:20.801 --> 01:19:22.061
I said, Alan, you ever heard?

01:19:22.391 --> 01:19:23.111
He says, no.

01:19:23.111 --> 01:19:25.601
That guy, he, he knew
the scripture, didn't he?

01:19:25.901 --> 01:19:26.861
I said, oh, yeah.

01:19:27.341 --> 01:19:31.001
I went to bed that night thinking about,
uh, how powerful the word of God is.

01:19:31.391 --> 01:19:35.501
The next morning, Sunday, here
come the Baptist Deacons in

01:19:35.501 --> 01:19:36.851
with a Sunday school lesson.

01:19:37.181 --> 01:19:41.081
But, uh, this particular, uh,
doodle wasn't with him this week.

01:19:41.081 --> 01:19:46.211
It was just Barry and, uh, but he had
a, had this skinny white boy with him,

01:19:46.451 --> 01:19:52.151
with long blonde hair, and he had on a
Jesus Freak T-shirt, and he kinda remind

01:19:52.151 --> 01:19:57.521
my brother during the surfing days,
Tommy, you know, and, uh, but guess what?

01:19:57.581 --> 01:20:00.491
He, he started interacting
with those guys in there.

01:20:01.001 --> 01:20:03.281
He could, he was quoting scripture.

01:20:03.821 --> 01:20:06.941
Just off the top of his head,
like it was nobody's business.

01:20:06.941 --> 01:20:10.961
And just, and I was sitting there
listening, and then I heard that voice

01:20:10.961 --> 01:20:12.877
again, that voice, that same voice.

01:20:13.571 --> 01:20:18.371
He said, Johnny, he says, my
word is going to keep you sober.

01:20:18.911 --> 01:20:20.651
My word is your strength.

01:20:21.551 --> 01:20:24.941
And, and it was like, oh, that,
that same feeling, same feeling as

01:20:24.941 --> 01:20:27.131
when I, when I received salvation.

01:20:27.131 --> 01:20:30.641
Same feeling that, that night at three
o'clock in the morning, same one when

01:20:30.641 --> 01:20:36.131
I, I kneeled down and surrendered again,
you know, and asked for forgiveness.

01:20:36.221 --> 01:20:38.861
That same feeling, just, just
that warm feeling fell over

01:20:38.861 --> 01:20:40.871
me and boom, I was at peace.

01:20:41.171 --> 01:20:42.071
That was, that was it.

01:20:42.071 --> 01:20:42.551
I knew.

01:20:43.091 --> 01:20:49.361
So, so going back to, going back to
Fernandina, coming back into reality.

01:20:50.111 --> 01:20:54.101
Did, did the family and the
business receive you back with open

01:20:54.101 --> 01:20:56.111
arms and say, now you're sober.

01:20:56.111 --> 01:20:58.721
You did good before, but
you're gonna do so much better?

01:20:58.721 --> 01:20:59.801
No, not right off.

01:20:59.801 --> 01:21:00.881
Not right off the bat.

01:21:01.541 --> 01:21:04.991
When I, when I first, when I
first came back, I started working

01:21:04.991 --> 01:21:08.561
for a, a boy that I had trained
in the shrimp, that business.

01:21:08.621 --> 01:21:10.121
It had his own business.

01:21:11.081 --> 01:21:14.111
And I went, so I started, I went
back and I was working with him.

01:21:14.111 --> 01:21:15.431
We was building shrimp nets.

01:21:15.941 --> 01:21:19.991
He, and, uh, that's a whole nother
long story, but that's where I was at.

01:21:20.411 --> 01:21:25.271
But the key to the thing about
what happened was though, is me and

01:21:25.271 --> 01:21:29.831
Robins driving back from up there,
I'm thinking about what God told me

01:21:29.831 --> 01:21:31.061
about the power of being his word.

01:21:31.061 --> 01:21:33.131
I'm already kind of thinking,
planning out what I'm gonna be

01:21:33.131 --> 01:21:35.861
doing, you know, and I really didn't
know where I was gonna work then.

01:21:35.861 --> 01:21:39.461
But I told, I said, well, you know,
I don't need to go back to aa.

01:21:41.021 --> 01:21:44.081
Because they, they're not
teaching the word over there.

01:21:44.111 --> 01:21:44.831
You know what I mean?

01:21:44.921 --> 01:21:49.001
The word's being taught at church is where
we go, so I need to get my Bible out.

01:21:49.001 --> 01:21:49.931
I need to go back to church.

01:21:51.161 --> 01:21:54.731
But that voice, Jesus
says, oh, no, no, no, no.

01:21:54.761 --> 01:21:58.541
He stopped me, dead my tracks when
I, by that thought, he said, no,

01:21:58.541 --> 01:22:02.321
you're going back over there because
you're going to tell 'em about me.

01:22:02.381 --> 01:22:02.561
Mm-hmm.

01:22:02.861 --> 01:22:05.591
And I said, I said, Lord,
I'm gonna tell 'em about you.

01:22:06.191 --> 01:22:10.091
I says, you know, they don't
talk about Jesus over there.

01:22:10.181 --> 01:22:13.871
You know, not saying that some,
that's not their higher power.

01:22:14.051 --> 01:22:14.351
Right.

01:22:14.471 --> 01:22:16.121
But it's not, it's not pushed.

01:22:16.151 --> 01:22:16.511
Yeah.

01:22:16.691 --> 01:22:18.041
And, and the Bible's not open over there.

01:22:18.041 --> 01:22:18.341
Whatever.

01:22:18.521 --> 01:22:20.831
Jesus said, no, you're going back
over there to tell 'em about me.

01:22:21.791 --> 01:22:22.421
You know?

01:22:22.421 --> 01:22:23.201
I said, okay.

01:22:23.681 --> 01:22:24.401
And I did.

01:22:24.881 --> 01:22:28.271
And I remember when I went over there,
and as, as time went on, it was just,

01:22:28.661 --> 01:22:31.931
but here's what, here's what, and
this was the biggest big, one of the

01:22:31.931 --> 01:22:36.626
biggest things in my whole recovery,
and walked my walk with God two weeks.

01:22:36.821 --> 01:22:37.151
I what?

01:22:37.151 --> 01:22:37.871
It was about two weeks.

01:22:37.871 --> 01:22:39.041
Well, it was about two weeks in.

01:22:39.791 --> 01:22:42.911
I'm going over there to the mail
room, that's what it's called.

01:22:43.721 --> 01:22:45.941
And, uh, I'm breaking all the anonymities.

01:22:45.971 --> 01:22:49.841
But, you know, I feel like one, one of the
things wrong with alcohol is anonymous.

01:22:49.841 --> 01:22:51.071
It's a little too anonymous.

01:22:51.281 --> 01:22:51.521
Yeah.

01:22:51.521 --> 01:22:55.451
That's, that's something I've noticed
in this community especially, um, you

01:22:55.451 --> 01:23:01.001
know, culture's changed and the way that
the taboo of alcoholism, but, but that's

01:23:01.001 --> 01:23:03.221
changed in this community, in, in region.

01:23:03.221 --> 01:23:04.061
It has changed.

01:23:04.066 --> 01:23:04.116
Yeah.

01:23:04.121 --> 01:23:07.451
And you're probably a lot of the
reason for that is just I take the

01:23:07.451 --> 01:23:12.672
blame, you know, you've got to at
some point, um, you recognize that,

01:23:12.821 --> 01:23:14.651
that we're all broken somehow.

01:23:15.011 --> 01:23:20.291
And, and it's, it's not something
to hide in shame, you know, it's

01:23:20.291 --> 01:23:23.381
the kind of thing that, that the
light bring it into the light.

01:23:23.846 --> 01:23:25.316
And, and there's a lot of hope there.

01:23:25.316 --> 01:23:28.106
I'm glad that there's
anonymity to start with.

01:23:28.106 --> 01:23:30.326
'cause some guys would never
go Right exactly for that.

01:23:30.416 --> 01:23:32.036
And I think that's, that's the reason.

01:23:32.036 --> 01:23:34.916
But eventually it's, there's not
shame, but that's, there's healing.

01:23:35.096 --> 01:23:36.506
And that's when you get healed, right?

01:23:36.506 --> 01:23:39.596
That's when, when you admit
and, you know, and, uh, there's

01:23:39.596 --> 01:23:40.796
a funny story about that too.

01:23:40.796 --> 01:23:45.716
But, but this big thing, Jack, so I'm
going about two weeks in, I'm going to

01:23:45.716 --> 01:23:49.736
the mail room and I'm sitting there and
I'm looking over there and there's this

01:23:49.736 --> 01:23:52.526
chalkboard and you could barely read it.

01:23:53.186 --> 01:23:57.146
And, and, but I think I'm looking at that
thing, trying to figure out what it says.

01:23:57.146 --> 01:24:01.046
And, uh, finally I asked this old timer
in there, I said, what, what does that

01:24:01.046 --> 01:24:02.276
chalkboard, what does that say up there?

01:24:02.281 --> 01:24:04.616
He said, he said, oh,
that's the jail ministry.

01:24:04.706 --> 01:24:05.216
I said, what?

01:24:05.216 --> 01:24:06.116
The jail ministry?

01:24:06.116 --> 01:24:06.716
He said, yeah.

01:24:07.076 --> 01:24:10.886
He said they used to carry a meeting
out to the Nassau County Jail on

01:24:10.886 --> 01:24:13.076
Tuesday nights at seven o'clock.

01:24:13.136 --> 01:24:14.306
And I said, they don't do it anymore.

01:24:14.306 --> 01:24:18.326
He says, ah, it ain't nobody's been in
a couple years that I know of, you know.

01:24:18.866 --> 01:24:19.401
And he said, why?

01:24:19.441 --> 01:24:20.846
I said, oh, oh, don't worry about it.

01:24:20.846 --> 01:24:21.176
And I.

01:24:21.896 --> 01:24:24.896
When I heard the jail, I said,
well, I'm trying to stay outta jail.

01:24:25.203 --> 01:24:29.758
But that thing called my, every
time I went in there, I'm going,

01:24:29.758 --> 01:24:32.128
and finally I said, I said Jesus.

01:24:32.428 --> 01:24:35.038
I said, Lord, you want
me to go to the jail?

01:24:35.758 --> 01:24:37.138
I didn't hear nothing this time.

01:24:37.378 --> 01:24:41.308
I didn't hear nothing, but I knew,
I said, I said, I'll go to the jail.

01:24:41.818 --> 01:24:48.418
And as soon as I said that, that feeling,
it just like that was my reaffirmations.

01:24:48.418 --> 01:24:49.858
It's just like fresh wind.

01:24:50.218 --> 01:24:52.228
I always think about,
well, Jim Sim, fresh Wind.

01:24:52.228 --> 01:24:52.948
Fresh fire.

01:24:52.978 --> 01:24:53.068
Mm-hmm.

01:24:53.428 --> 01:24:57.118
That's what it remind me of is,
uh, boom, he just kicked me out.

01:24:57.363 --> 01:24:58.408
I said, I knew it was right.

01:24:58.468 --> 01:24:58.618
Yeah.

01:24:58.768 --> 01:25:03.058
So what I do next Tuesday night,
I grabbed the alcoholics, no book

01:25:03.058 --> 01:25:05.218
grabbed the big book they call it.

01:25:05.398 --> 01:25:09.028
And uh, I go out there
and I, and it's do jail.

01:25:09.493 --> 01:25:13.243
And I knock on the, I knock on the
door and the guy comes and I said, uh,

01:25:13.783 --> 01:25:17.623
I, they used to have a, a jail, uh,
alcoholic Anonymous meeting out here

01:25:17.623 --> 01:25:19.333
at seven o'clock on Tuesday nights.

01:25:19.663 --> 01:25:21.373
I was just wondering if I can have one.

01:25:22.183 --> 01:25:25.123
And the guy, you know, he
kinda, he said, I, I don't know.

01:25:25.123 --> 01:25:28.603
He said, but I, I'll check,
see, well, about 10 minutes

01:25:28.608 --> 01:25:31.033
later he comes back, come on in.

01:25:32.173 --> 01:25:33.133
I went in there.

01:25:33.133 --> 01:25:35.743
They didn't ask me for my
driver's license, didn't even

01:25:35.743 --> 01:25:37.573
ask me for my name, nothing.

01:25:37.573 --> 01:25:41.083
I go back there and there's a
picnic table outside the pod.

01:25:41.083 --> 01:25:41.833
In the old jail.

01:25:41.833 --> 01:25:45.043
You could see in the pod, you
see all the guys in there.

01:25:45.433 --> 01:25:48.913
So I'm sitting down at the picnic table
and the guard goes over there, opens

01:25:48.913 --> 01:25:54.973
the door, and he hollers aa, aa meeting,
you know, and, and they all looking

01:25:54.973 --> 01:25:57.403
at it, you know, one guy comes out.

01:25:58.003 --> 01:26:03.343
So me and one guy have a meeting and,
and we just talk and, and, uh, and

01:26:03.343 --> 01:26:05.173
just had a AA meeting, you know, share.

01:26:05.203 --> 01:26:06.373
There's just two of us.

01:26:06.373 --> 01:26:07.843
So we had a long time to talk.

01:26:08.293 --> 01:26:12.493
Then we got through, at, at the end
of every AA meeting, we all hold

01:26:12.493 --> 01:26:13.933
hands and say The Lord's Prayer.

01:26:14.113 --> 01:26:15.343
Our father, we are in heaven.

01:26:15.733 --> 01:26:18.283
So me and him held hands
and said The Lord's Prayer.

01:26:18.553 --> 01:26:19.573
All those guys watched it.

01:26:20.203 --> 01:26:21.223
So there, there we go.

01:26:21.673 --> 01:26:23.563
Next week I go back out there again.

01:26:23.563 --> 01:26:25.693
Well, this time there's
about 12 guys came out.

01:26:26.653 --> 01:26:31.693
We had a meeting, went on next time,
about 17, next time's about 30.

01:26:32.113 --> 01:26:33.193
Next time it was getting big.

01:26:33.193 --> 01:26:35.173
So just, just there we go.

01:26:35.623 --> 01:26:37.063
Having meetings at the jail.

01:26:37.063 --> 01:26:38.323
Having meetings at the jail.

01:26:38.323 --> 01:26:42.343
And then we moved from the old jail to the
new jail when out there and the new jail,

01:26:42.343 --> 01:26:47.023
you go out there and get buzzed in ya
going and you gotta sign up there walking

01:26:47.023 --> 01:26:49.423
the mile over the, over the old pod.

01:26:50.023 --> 01:26:52.453
And so I did that for 16 years.

01:26:52.663 --> 01:26:52.963
Wow.

01:26:53.173 --> 01:26:53.953
And uh.

01:26:54.463 --> 01:26:57.763
I'll never forget the first time I
really, the really big breakthrough

01:26:57.763 --> 01:27:02.413
is one, I took Tony Nolan in there
and, uh, you know, he's an evangelist.

01:27:02.418 --> 01:27:03.133
Evangelist, yeah.

01:27:03.133 --> 01:27:08.413
And Tony was coming to do a, a crusade,
or a revival revival at our church.

01:27:08.683 --> 01:27:10.573
And I asked Tony if
he'd go to jail with me.

01:27:10.603 --> 01:27:11.623
He said, ah, sure.

01:27:12.103 --> 01:27:15.013
He put his leather jacket on,
kind of kicked his hair up.

01:27:15.013 --> 01:27:15.643
Crazy.

01:27:16.123 --> 01:27:19.603
And we went in there that
night and 27 got saved.

01:27:19.603 --> 01:27:19.933
Wow.

01:27:20.113 --> 01:27:22.938
I mean, he, he just, you know
how he does, you know, he just,

01:27:23.233 --> 01:27:25.303
he's telling him how he grew up.

01:27:25.603 --> 01:27:29.293
His mother was a prostitute and
he was a drug dealer, sin city.

01:27:29.293 --> 01:27:32.503
That's where Tony grew up, is in,
uh, Atlantic Beach over there.

01:27:32.953 --> 01:27:35.113
Sent what they call Sin
City in Jacksonville.

01:27:35.713 --> 01:27:39.823
And, uh, he sucked 'em all in and all
then he just flipped the switch and who,

01:27:39.823 --> 01:27:43.603
what he is now, what he's doing now,
and how much God loves him and all that.

01:27:44.083 --> 01:27:48.103
And you could just see him, you know,
he just, just, the guys just remember.

01:27:48.673 --> 01:27:51.343
And so that, and that's
the way it went over time.

01:27:52.108 --> 01:27:55.738
I, I can't tell you how many got
saved over there in 16 years.

01:27:55.738 --> 01:28:01.078
It was just at, at some point you're,
you're clean, you're sober, you're

01:28:01.078 --> 01:28:07.288
serving Jesus, and you're, you're
faithful in the word and church.

01:28:08.518 --> 01:28:13.228
At what point did you look at those shrimp
nets and say they could be something more,

01:28:15.238 --> 01:28:15.928
you know?

01:28:15.958 --> 01:28:21.568
Well, um, before I ever got sober,
you know, we had kind of switched

01:28:21.568 --> 01:28:27.568
from, uh, or, or we started filling
in with baseball during the slow

01:28:27.568 --> 01:28:29.068
times of the shrimp net business.

01:28:29.128 --> 01:28:33.413
I mean, we were all about, you know,
making money and doing what and

01:28:33.418 --> 01:28:34.648
survive and doing what you need to do.

01:28:34.918 --> 01:28:38.428
So that was already kind of
there, but it was in rehab.

01:28:39.313 --> 01:28:43.243
It was in, it was up there sitting,
sitting on the porch out there with know.

01:28:43.243 --> 01:28:48.133
As long as I was thinking, and, and you
know, at first when I was in rehab, I,

01:28:48.133 --> 01:28:52.663
at Bridge of Hope, Bri, I was thinking,
I don't know if I'm gonna do nets.

01:28:53.028 --> 01:28:54.793
I, I might be a farmer, right?

01:28:54.793 --> 01:28:56.773
Meite or I don't know
what I'm gonna to do.

01:28:56.833 --> 01:29:00.883
That's all I ever done, but I don't know
if I'm gonna do that or, but then what?

01:29:00.913 --> 01:29:04.243
But then God hooks me up with the
midnight, so I'm building catfish things.

01:29:04.273 --> 01:29:04.363
Mm-hmm.

01:29:04.603 --> 01:29:07.153
I say, okay, God, I'm gonna be a net man.

01:29:07.843 --> 01:29:10.033
You know, I kind of, I
kind of took that on.

01:29:10.033 --> 01:29:11.593
I'm gonna be a net man until I die.

01:29:12.283 --> 01:29:15.013
So, but I gotta thinking, I
said, you know what though?

01:29:15.493 --> 01:29:21.043
Those long days of building shrimp nets,
12 hour days trying to make it ends meet,

01:29:21.133 --> 01:29:22.993
we'd it done been in baseball long enough.

01:29:22.993 --> 01:29:25.033
I knew it was more profitable.

01:29:25.678 --> 01:29:29.133
And I done I, I and I, but I asked
the Lord, I said, Lord, if it's all

01:29:29.133 --> 01:29:32.368
right with you, I think I just want
to go back and do baseball and sports.

01:29:32.398 --> 01:29:36.508
And these are the nets, like at the
backstop back, the backstops, the batting

01:29:36.508 --> 01:29:39.028
cages, all the screens and everything.

01:29:39.388 --> 01:29:41.428
And I'd already started installing.

01:29:41.488 --> 01:29:45.958
I, I actually put my first backstop
up when I was about 16, about when,

01:29:46.003 --> 01:29:47.533
when my mama died, and uh mm-hmm.

01:29:47.758 --> 01:29:51.208
So I'd been doing it a long time,
but it's hard, you know, it's

01:29:51.208 --> 01:29:55.078
hard to install backstops and do
anything, drink, you know, drunk.

01:29:55.168 --> 01:29:55.408
Yeah.

01:29:55.978 --> 01:29:56.218
Yeah.

01:29:56.488 --> 01:29:58.333
So it's hard to do a sofa, I Sure, yeah.

01:29:58.593 --> 01:30:02.338
But it is a lot easier
sofa and, uh, and so.

01:30:02.728 --> 01:30:06.358
When I came back, that was, in my
mind, that was the vision I had.

01:30:07.018 --> 01:30:08.428
But I didn't know how
I was gonna get there.

01:30:08.458 --> 01:30:10.828
I was just one day at a
time, one step at a time.

01:30:11.308 --> 01:30:13.948
And, but, and actually I tell
everybody now, you know, it's like

01:30:13.948 --> 01:30:18.898
I surrendered, I tried to write the
story of my life for 40 years, you

01:30:18.898 --> 01:30:21.688
know, and I did a terrible job of it.

01:30:21.853 --> 01:30:23.578
It, it got bad, you know what I mean?

01:30:23.578 --> 01:30:24.838
It, it was a mess.

01:30:25.018 --> 01:30:25.168
Yeah.

01:30:25.168 --> 01:30:28.438
You know, I didn't wanna read it
and certainly nobody else would.

01:30:28.798 --> 01:30:31.168
So that night, three o'clock
in the morning, I pretty much

01:30:31.168 --> 01:30:32.938
just turned a pen over to God.

01:30:32.938 --> 01:30:33.988
And I said, okay, you write it.

01:30:34.168 --> 01:30:34.948
I'm going with you.

01:30:35.218 --> 01:30:36.058
I dunno where we're going.

01:30:36.238 --> 01:30:36.838
You write it.

01:30:37.468 --> 01:30:39.568
And he, and that's the
way it's been ever since.

01:30:40.138 --> 01:30:41.908
And he started writing this thing.

01:30:42.388 --> 01:30:45.028
And, uh, so I get back and I'm
working with this other boy.

01:30:45.538 --> 01:30:50.668
And then, and then at, at some
point, uh, my brother asked me

01:30:50.668 --> 01:30:51.898
to come back to work for him.

01:30:52.768 --> 01:30:53.758
I wasn't sure.

01:30:53.758 --> 01:30:56.728
Wasn't sure about it, but, you
know, and I prayed about it.

01:30:56.758 --> 01:31:01.168
I, I actually took Robin and my kids, we
all went out and met with him and all,

01:31:01.798 --> 01:31:03.778
but it was something, something there.

01:31:03.778 --> 01:31:06.028
The family and I'm, I'm a family guy.

01:31:06.148 --> 01:31:06.238
Mm-hmm.

01:31:06.628 --> 01:31:07.948
Family means a lot to me.

01:31:08.908 --> 01:31:12.868
And so I, but I told, I told
him, I said, I'll come back.

01:31:13.438 --> 01:31:15.628
I said, but I'm not doing
shrimp nets anymore.

01:31:15.958 --> 01:31:19.468
And nothing again, I love the
shrimp and I miss that, you know?

01:31:19.858 --> 01:31:22.438
I said, but I'm, I wanna
go sports baseball.

01:31:22.438 --> 01:31:25.258
I, I done made up my mind that,
oh yeah, yeah, that's fine.

01:31:25.258 --> 01:31:26.428
So let's do it.

01:31:26.818 --> 01:31:27.598
And so we did.

01:31:28.138 --> 01:31:32.188
And God just blessed us and, and
we built a beautiful business.

01:31:32.758 --> 01:31:38.278
And, uh, he put, you know, people in my
life, he put a son-in-law in my life.

01:31:38.338 --> 01:31:41.128
A great Christian man, as good as gold.

01:31:41.128 --> 01:31:44.488
And Utah, one of the biggest
blessings of my life has been him.

01:31:44.773 --> 01:31:45.013
Hmm.

01:31:46.063 --> 01:31:50.323
And, uh, just how, how
it is all turned out.

01:31:50.323 --> 01:31:50.428
I can tell.

01:31:50.433 --> 01:31:57.163
I can tell and I can, I can see the way
that you've influenced Eli and, and the

01:31:57.163 --> 01:31:58.993
impact that you've made in his life.

01:31:59.323 --> 01:32:01.243
And that's been, that's
been beautiful to watch.

01:32:01.273 --> 01:32:01.753
Yeah.

01:32:01.758 --> 01:32:03.613
And, and that works both ways.

01:32:03.613 --> 01:32:03.673
Yeah.

01:32:04.123 --> 01:32:06.283
What a great, what a blessing.

01:32:06.373 --> 01:32:09.613
Tell me, tell me about netting
professionals right now.

01:32:09.823 --> 01:32:13.303
Not to, you know, toot your
horn or whatever, but just to

01:32:13.303 --> 01:32:18.613
show what God's done, um, you
install for the Atlanta Braves.

01:32:18.973 --> 01:32:19.993
Atlanta Braves.

01:32:19.993 --> 01:32:21.433
And who are some of the pro teams?

01:32:21.433 --> 01:32:22.333
Rockies?

01:32:22.423 --> 01:32:26.203
Uh, I did, uh, the Washington National's
new stadium when it was built.

01:32:26.563 --> 01:32:28.063
Fastest stadium ever built.

01:32:28.063 --> 01:32:29.293
We was in the middle of that.

01:32:29.803 --> 01:32:32.623
Me and one guy showed up, they
want to know where the crew was.

01:32:32.623 --> 01:32:33.733
I said, you're looking at it.

01:32:34.213 --> 01:32:38.893
And about four days later we were
waving by and, uh, division one.

01:32:38.983 --> 01:32:40.543
Division one, just about.

01:32:40.963 --> 01:32:45.823
Oh, you know, all the A-C-C-S-C-C
schools and all over in Oklahoma

01:32:45.823 --> 01:32:48.193
and out in that area, Oregon.

01:32:48.883 --> 01:32:50.473
Uh, it's, it is unbelievable.

01:32:50.473 --> 01:32:55.483
I've seen, I've seen pictures of you
with, you know, legendary coaches.

01:32:55.543 --> 01:32:55.903
Yeah.

01:32:55.933 --> 01:32:57.403
You've met so many people.

01:32:57.403 --> 01:32:58.423
So many people.

01:32:58.428 --> 01:33:04.543
Just, and just to watch, you know,
just like we said earlier, if, if

01:33:04.603 --> 01:33:06.043
the Irish had been sober, you know.

01:33:06.043 --> 01:33:06.103
Yeah.

01:33:06.973 --> 01:33:08.548
What done Exactly.

01:33:08.683 --> 01:33:10.723
You know, it's never too late.

01:33:10.903 --> 01:33:11.503
No.

01:33:11.593 --> 01:33:15.373
And how old were you when you 40, 40
years old when I got sober, 40 years

01:33:15.373 --> 01:33:20.593
old and, and didn't, we didn't start
netting professionals until I was 50.

01:33:20.833 --> 01:33:23.983
So at 50, kind of at 52, I think 52.

01:33:23.983 --> 01:33:27.553
This, this, this amazing
business that, that you've been

01:33:27.553 --> 01:33:30.793
able to build at 52 years old.

01:33:31.153 --> 01:33:35.713
Um, our Lord can restore the
years, the locust of eating.

01:33:35.718 --> 01:33:40.003
He can, he can, you know, and I see
you and Robin and, and just a, uh.

01:33:40.378 --> 01:33:45.238
I, I, I don't know anybody who
would look at y'all's marriage

01:33:45.238 --> 01:33:46.858
and not envy what y'all have.

01:33:47.158 --> 01:33:48.298
Y'all are best friends.

01:33:48.358 --> 01:33:49.078
Oh, we are.

01:33:49.318 --> 01:33:53.248
We've, we've been through it, you know,
and it was her faith and, you know,

01:33:53.248 --> 01:33:57.238
before we even moved there, I wanna
say, will, you know, God put Will in

01:33:57.238 --> 01:34:03.148
my life, will Miner is, uh, and Eli and
Amelia, they're like just best friends.

01:34:03.148 --> 01:34:03.238
Mm-hmm.

01:34:03.563 --> 01:34:06.388
And when we started that
business, God put us together.

01:34:06.598 --> 01:34:09.208
You know, Will's a
brilliant mind and Right.

01:34:09.208 --> 01:34:13.078
And, but he's a great
Christian, a good man.

01:34:13.378 --> 01:34:14.488
He just talks too much.

01:34:14.488 --> 01:34:14.938
That's his, yeah.

01:34:15.603 --> 01:34:19.408
He, he don't say a whole lot,
but he, he's like EF hu though.

01:34:19.408 --> 01:34:21.148
When he does say something, you listen.

01:34:21.148 --> 01:34:22.168
That's true.

01:34:22.168 --> 01:34:27.598
He is, he's a humble and a brilliant
guy and that you really gotta know.

01:34:27.598 --> 01:34:28.888
You, you just love him.

01:34:28.888 --> 01:34:31.768
And, uh, and Eli, it's, it
is been a beautiful thing.

01:34:31.768 --> 01:34:36.418
And looking at, looking at it, I
mean, from, from your children,

01:34:36.988 --> 01:34:38.608
you know, that your associates.

01:34:39.523 --> 01:34:44.743
The losing your, losing your, your,
your building, uh, and then God

01:34:44.743 --> 01:34:46.723
giving you a new, a new, new facility.

01:34:46.723 --> 01:34:48.958
That state of the art, a new
facility, state of the art.

01:34:49.123 --> 01:34:56.983
Um, just seeing all of those things I
from, from a a, a man who's not a pastor.

01:34:57.448 --> 01:34:57.898
Right.

01:34:58.018 --> 01:35:01.288
Um, I don't know many people
who've made the impact on the

01:35:01.288 --> 01:35:04.798
community and a, a lasting legacy.

01:35:05.188 --> 01:35:09.538
Well see, even like, like you see,
you don't realize this, but you don't,

01:35:09.598 --> 01:35:13.468
you, you got your own ideas of how
you ended up in Fernandina, but you

01:35:13.468 --> 01:35:15.058
don't realize, I prayed you here.

01:35:15.148 --> 01:35:18.958
I'm certain, because it was a,
it was a time when, when our,

01:35:19.168 --> 01:35:23.368
when our last pastor left and,
and, and uh, went somewhere else.

01:35:23.908 --> 01:35:27.208
I'm saying like, oh, wait a minute,
now here's my, you know, because

01:35:27.208 --> 01:35:30.150
the whole time I was sober, I
was under his tage, you know?

01:35:30.273 --> 01:35:32.908
And I'm like, okay, God, now what?

01:35:32.908 --> 01:35:33.928
What's this going on?

01:35:33.928 --> 01:35:34.258
You know?

01:35:34.258 --> 01:35:36.598
And you always have
different seasons, you know.

01:35:36.688 --> 01:35:37.738
So, got a new season.

01:35:37.738 --> 01:35:41.008
We had an intern, but the whole
time I'm praying, I said, alright,

01:35:41.068 --> 01:35:44.488
Lord, I know the power's in the
word and I need somebody to.

01:35:44.968 --> 01:35:47.758
I need that mainstay of my life
still bringing me to worse.

01:35:47.758 --> 01:35:49.648
I start praying, praying, praying.

01:35:50.218 --> 01:35:51.838
And how you got here.

01:35:51.838 --> 01:35:55.948
You know, our, our, uh, team,
when Sue Ellen, it was a

01:35:55.948 --> 01:35:57.298
little miracle to work there.

01:35:57.298 --> 01:35:58.678
She ended up being chairman.

01:35:59.248 --> 01:36:00.268
Next thing you know, boom.

01:36:00.268 --> 01:36:03.088
Here comes, here comes
Zach, Terry, you know?

01:36:03.088 --> 01:36:05.758
And, uh, and what a blessing
you've been in my life.

01:36:05.878 --> 01:36:06.898
Well, it's been a amazing for us.

01:36:06.898 --> 01:36:09.328
I mean, I've, I've hung on on
every word you've said, and

01:36:09.328 --> 01:36:11.218
I've learned so much more.

01:36:11.218 --> 01:36:14.998
Every, every, every sermon
there's something to be learned.

01:36:14.998 --> 01:36:18.208
And it is, and other things that you've
taught, just like we was talking about

01:36:18.208 --> 01:36:21.448
earlier, about being intentional,
never think about it and all that,

01:36:21.448 --> 01:36:25.228
but when I, you know, in 24 years,
that's what God's called me to do.

01:36:25.228 --> 01:36:26.038
Help others.

01:36:26.518 --> 01:36:31.198
And in that alcohol abuse and drug
abuse, a lot of it is marriage.

01:36:31.198 --> 01:36:35.278
It's a lot of relational, you know,
and I tell 'em all the time, I say,

01:36:35.278 --> 01:36:38.548
look, if you want your marriage
to be work, you, you know, you

01:36:38.548 --> 01:36:40.048
certainly, you gotta put God first.

01:36:40.288 --> 01:36:41.578
You gotta be intentional.

01:36:41.583 --> 01:36:41.753
Mm-hmm.

01:36:41.848 --> 01:36:43.113
And you, you're what with God.

01:36:43.648 --> 01:36:44.908
You gotta be intentional, right?

01:36:45.268 --> 01:36:47.998
It ain't, you can't just sit
back and say, okay, God, do it.

01:36:48.208 --> 01:36:48.448
Right.

01:36:48.478 --> 01:36:50.278
No, you've gotta seek the word.

01:36:50.278 --> 01:36:52.318
You've gotta go, you gotta
get up and go to church.

01:36:52.318 --> 01:36:53.608
You gotta go help others.

01:36:53.908 --> 01:36:56.518
Study the word you got,
you gotta be intentional.

01:36:56.668 --> 01:37:00.178
And that's what anything, and the
business that's netting professionals,

01:37:00.178 --> 01:37:03.598
we, we were intentional about
being the best and building a good

01:37:03.598 --> 01:37:05.818
business, a good Christian business.

01:37:05.818 --> 01:37:08.758
And, and we've definitely
succeeded in doing that.

01:37:08.758 --> 01:37:11.428
And it's, it's been,
it's been a joy to watch.

01:37:11.488 --> 01:37:15.328
And, you know, a lot of people
have preconceived ideas about

01:37:15.328 --> 01:37:20.098
preachers, about First Baptist
churches, whatever it might be.

01:37:20.398 --> 01:37:25.558
And so I hope, I hope a lot of people
see this, but I hope that the right

01:37:25.558 --> 01:37:28.978
people see it, that see that you
and I have a genuine friendship.

01:37:29.038 --> 01:37:29.548
Amen.

01:37:29.608 --> 01:37:30.778
That it's like family.

01:37:30.838 --> 01:37:31.403
Like I, amen.

01:37:31.603 --> 01:37:35.968
I never knew you before we came here,
but it's just like we grew up together.

01:37:35.968 --> 01:37:40.348
I, I'd never forget too, when you first
came United quiz you or you came in.

01:37:41.968 --> 01:37:44.338
The, the body to ask you
questions and all that, right?

01:37:44.578 --> 01:37:46.918
Somebody asked, you said,
what can we do for you?

01:37:46.918 --> 01:37:47.788
How can we help you?

01:37:47.788 --> 01:37:51.268
And all I remember, I'll never
forget you just said, be my friend.

01:37:51.358 --> 01:37:51.718
Right.

01:37:51.928 --> 01:37:53.128
Uh, just be my friend.

01:37:53.128 --> 01:37:56.428
And, and, and that's what you,
I've seen, I've watched you grow.

01:37:57.148 --> 01:37:58.738
I've sitting back, you know, I'm.

01:37:59.063 --> 01:38:00.983
65 just turned 65.

01:38:01.223 --> 01:38:03.743
And, uh, but I've saw, I've seen you grow.

01:38:03.743 --> 01:38:05.213
I've seen your family grow.

01:38:05.453 --> 01:38:09.143
I've seen your kids grow and there
it is been, it's been beautiful.

01:38:09.143 --> 01:38:13.103
And it is, it's a ministry
That's probably, hopefully,

01:38:13.253 --> 01:38:14.723
you know what I've got here.

01:38:14.723 --> 01:38:17.843
I've got a awesome
congregation that's yes.

01:38:17.993 --> 01:38:20.003
Very much filled with friends.

01:38:20.153 --> 01:38:21.833
Not every pastor's got that.

01:38:22.073 --> 01:38:25.853
And I think, I think preachers
just by nature can be peculiar

01:38:25.853 --> 01:38:27.893
and difficult to connect with.

01:38:27.923 --> 01:38:31.373
But, um, but you know, be
a friend of your pastor.

01:38:32.123 --> 01:38:32.633
Exactly.

01:38:32.723 --> 01:38:36.578
Some lonely people out there, you
know, and give 'em some space and go

01:38:36.583 --> 01:38:37.818
and help 'em out when they need you.

01:38:38.218 --> 01:38:38.898
I know, weird.

01:38:38.898 --> 01:38:40.193
They, they're, they're a little weird.

01:38:40.253 --> 01:38:41.093
Let 'em be that way.

01:38:41.273 --> 01:38:42.113
Love them Anyway.

01:38:42.353 --> 01:38:42.923
Um.

01:38:43.288 --> 01:38:46.618
You've, you've been good to me and
brought me a, brought me a bag of shrimp.

01:38:46.888 --> 01:38:51.268
Hey, well that's, you know, I don't,
that's like been a tradition of mine.

01:38:51.268 --> 01:38:53.368
I used to do it for brother
Jeff and all, and that's one,

01:38:53.428 --> 01:38:54.508
the only one thing I offered.

01:38:54.778 --> 01:38:55.978
I still know the shrimpers.

01:38:55.978 --> 01:38:57.478
I, I know what a fresh shrimp is.

01:38:57.478 --> 01:38:57.808
That's right.

01:38:58.408 --> 01:39:01.438
And, uh, it ain't some frozen
store ball thing, you know?

01:39:01.438 --> 01:39:01.439
Right.

01:39:01.588 --> 01:39:05.278
I like to get 'em fresh off the
boat caught that day and, uh, and

01:39:05.278 --> 01:39:08.068
like to get 'em to you and that,
that's just my way of loving on you.

01:39:08.308 --> 01:39:08.818
I don't know.

01:39:08.823 --> 01:39:12.028
Well, it's, it's spelt I appreciate it,
you know, and, uh, and your family and,

01:39:12.393 --> 01:39:16.528
and I tell you, the church has been such
a blessing to grow up so many people.

01:39:16.948 --> 01:39:21.568
I mean, you see the mentors in there
that, that I've, I've held on to,

01:39:22.198 --> 01:39:26.098
you know, and, and just growed over
the years, you know, just, you know,

01:39:26.158 --> 01:39:29.938
you can hold on somebody else's faith
so long, but there comes a time when

01:39:29.938 --> 01:39:31.768
you gotta cross the Jordan on alone.

01:39:31.768 --> 01:39:31.858
Right.

01:39:31.858 --> 01:39:32.728
And that's when you grow.

01:39:32.728 --> 01:39:33.298
As you grow.

01:39:33.898 --> 01:39:40.078
And I, well, my, my prayer in doing this
is that there's somebody watching that,

01:39:40.198 --> 01:39:42.748
that hopefully they get a little glimpse.

01:39:43.138 --> 01:39:44.728
Of what the future could be like.

01:39:44.998 --> 01:39:45.508
Amen.

01:39:45.508 --> 01:39:46.423
And, and it can.

01:39:46.523 --> 01:39:46.943
Mm-hmm.

01:39:47.323 --> 01:39:51.598
It can, but you got, and you gotta
realize no matter how, how far down

01:39:51.598 --> 01:39:55.858
you've gone, no matter what stage of
life you're in or what you're doing,

01:39:55.858 --> 01:40:01.528
no matter how wrecked your life is and
everything, you're just, all it is is one.

01:40:01.558 --> 01:40:02.578
Surrender away.

01:40:02.578 --> 01:40:03.118
That's right.

01:40:03.238 --> 01:40:03.718
One.

01:40:04.138 --> 01:40:07.498
And if, if the gospel doesn't
work, then it doesn't work at all.

01:40:07.498 --> 01:40:08.098
It doesn't work.

01:40:08.308 --> 01:40:08.968
Exactly.

01:40:09.478 --> 01:40:11.248
Thank you for being here today, Johnny.

01:40:11.308 --> 01:40:13.378
It's been a privilege to
have you in the studio.

01:40:13.678 --> 01:40:14.338
I enjoyed it.

01:40:17.938 --> 01:40:20.128
Cailin: We hope you've been
blessed by today's story.

01:40:20.608 --> 01:40:24.358
In case you haven't noticed, there
are no advertisements on this podcast

01:40:24.688 --> 01:40:26.248
and we hope to keep it that way.

01:40:26.848 --> 01:40:30.988
So if you've heard something that you
think could help someone you know, please

01:40:30.988 --> 01:40:33.208
share it using the link in the show notes.

01:40:34.018 --> 01:40:38.368
Also, if you will give Faith and purpose a
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01:40:38.788 --> 01:40:40.438
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01:40:41.038 --> 01:40:43.858
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how that small effort.

01:40:44.233 --> 01:40:48.673
Can make a big difference in someone's
life, but our Heavenly Father knows.

01:40:49.123 --> 01:40:53.983
Speaking of sharing, if you know a Jesus
follower with a story to tell, please send

01:40:53.983 --> 01:40:56.413
them a link to Faith and Purpose Podcast.

01:40:56.833 --> 01:40:58.993
It may encourage them to tell their story.

01:40:59.443 --> 01:41:01.033
That person may even be you.

01:41:01.483 --> 01:41:04.603
Our only criteria is
that Jesus be glorified.

01:41:05.413 --> 01:41:08.923
Most Christians don't share their
faith because they mistakenly think

01:41:08.923 --> 01:41:11.233
their story is not interesting enough.

01:41:11.608 --> 01:41:15.658
Or that it's self-centered to talk
about themselves or that they are

01:41:15.718 --> 01:41:20.038
not competent to explain the gospel
correctly, but none of that is relevant.

01:41:20.398 --> 01:41:23.878
If Jesus has changed your
life, you have a story to tell.

01:41:24.778 --> 01:41:27.178
All of our stories are completely unique.

01:41:27.508 --> 01:41:32.278
No one has a story like yours, and you
may be the only one who can reach someone

01:41:32.278 --> 01:41:34.228
else through telling your experience.

01:41:34.603 --> 01:41:35.983
So don't be intimidated.

01:41:36.343 --> 01:41:41.743
A story is just that a true account
of your own experience, and no one

01:41:41.743 --> 01:41:43.783
can disagree with your experience.

01:41:44.683 --> 01:41:48.823
When we tell what Jesus has done in
our lives, we are being obedient to his

01:41:48.823 --> 01:41:53.053
command to go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature.

01:41:53.473 --> 01:41:57.343
It's not about theology and it's not
about how interesting or special you are.

01:41:57.673 --> 01:41:59.473
It's all about Jesus.

01:42:00.043 --> 01:42:03.463
So when you are ready to tell
how Jesus has impacted your life,

01:42:03.883 --> 01:42:08.233
you can let Jesse know at his
ministry website, jesse duke.net.

01:42:08.833 --> 01:42:12.013
There you can download guidelines
that will make it easy to

01:42:12.013 --> 01:42:13.543
prepare to tell your story.

01:42:14.083 --> 01:42:16.633
Thank you for listening today and shalom.