Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper. You are live from the path.

You're listening to live from the Path. We're joining from the Pathway Studios, Aaron Johnston Proper. What happened? Dad's given up. He's just searching for I'm looking at the pictures. Nothing happens. Are we live now? Yeah. We're ready. Hey. Shoot. We're in two weeks in a row. No. I'm not gonna do it. Okay. We're not gonna waste the first few minutes. Here's we're gonna go into this show tonight. I'm gonna just keep it in my what what what month is it? My November resolution. November. No waste no waste November. No. Yeah. No waste November. I like it. Here we go. Stuff going on the show tonight. First of all, Jake Brand is in the studio. Jake, thanks for stopping in. Oh, thanks for having me. I'm excited. So so, Mike and I have have spent time with mister Brand. We were in, Ethiopia Yeah. Sharing a room. Yeah. It was a deal. Yeah. A whole week. Yeah. That sounds smelly. That's awful. There's some stories. Apologize wholeheartedly for that. I'm sure he's got gossip.

But, anyway, he's going back. And so listen here. As you as you become endeared to him over the life of the broadcast, just think to yourself, I can probably help this man. Yeah. Yeah. There's no reason to you for you to sit at home and and have all these good vibes that you have for for Jake and then just have your money amassing in your wallet to help him go back over to Ethiopia. So if you're interested in that, we're gonna come out. There's there's a couple places we've been talking about before the show started on how you can help out, and we didn't nail down the best one yet. But by the end of the show, we'll have something. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can't just tell a man, who's who's cold on the street, be warm Yeah. And filled. Yeah. You can't just throw money in the air That's right. God sends it there. You know what? It's like a fleece kind of deal. You go outside and throw a hundy right in the air and Jake will come by and swoop it up. God will do god will do something with that. Yeah. Alright. So stuff we're gonna cover. So there was a there was an I I think this was old. Dan, do you remember how old that that blog post was? Like a couple years, I think. Right? I swear that I've read it before. There was there was a blog post a guy about a guy talking about Operation Christmas Child.

It was like The Spirits and Purse deal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What what Mike, what are you doing? That's just I'm just asking. Okay. What? What? He's, like, snapping and looking at stuff on the screen. Here's the thing. Usually, all the LEDs light up when people talk into the microphones, and they're not doing it. And so I was freaked out. No. Yeah. This is right. Okay. I'll see you. It's working out. We just saw your creepy face behind Ben's creepy face. Hold on. I'm a snap again. Alright. Anyway, so and I think the the the crux of the article was the happened Last year, 2017.

Okay. So what happens when it gets there? Basically, so, like, like, when when when I think, hey, we're boxing up stuff for Operation Christmas Child to to send through Samaritan's Purse to get to all these different places in the world, what happens when it gets there? One, I think, ultimately, are you really helping? But the second thing was, like, do you would you be surprised to find out that there's a there's a cost that is incurred by the various peoples on the other side of that in those countries to actually receive the boxes of stuff that you've been sending out? You know what? I think a lot of this will and we'll we're gonna read parts of the article. Right, man? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so anyway, this the we we talked to the guy from

Hands For Haiti. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, how long ago was that? Maybe last year or something. Yeah. A year and a two years or something. Yeah. And and some of the principles that he talked about about how to do some of this stuff right were were really solid, and I think we'll probably have a lot of bearing on how this thing Yeah. So, anyway, we're gonna talk about that. Mike has some or BUVA's got some Pope style? I do. For the first time in a very long time, I got Pope style. Been a long time. I'm gonna edge my seat right now. Yeah. Some stuff's happened in in my relationship recently. I got a new girlfriend over the last couple months, and I've been failing. And I've been

kind of blaming some stuff on on just how relationships work, and I I kinda figured out it was and I had that revelation. Relationship boy? Gonna call you lazy relationship boy? Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. That's probably a good idea. So, yeah, we're gonna talk a little bit about that and and what God kinda revealed to me this week. Right on. Mike, I can't remember. Did you have something? I got I got, I got Dear Life From The That's right. You're right. That's right. You got some Dear Life From The Path. I also,

our friend Matthew Loftus, on Mere Orthodoxy this week published an article that it said, easier for people to be good, 10 thesis on the bible poverty and justice. And, you know, like, what those that seems to be the realm of which there's often a rub. And so I thought, you know what? Let's, let's start talking through these. And so this week, maybe we'll do one a week, unless it's a slow week, and maybe we'll do five. But, this week, we'll try to get through one and see if we hey. Does this is this sniff right? Is this the the right way to consider the interactions of the bible, poverty, and justice, on on these 10 theses from, from our our our buddy Matthew Loftus? So we'll go through that. Also, a rousing game of secular Solomon. Yes. We'll do secular Solomon. I got my Proverbs pants on. I've been that's what I'm I'm walking through Proverbs. That that's what I'm reading at the moment. You wear you wear special pants? Yeah. I put on my Proverbs pants every morning. That's fantastic. What's what's different about your Proverbs pants? They give me wisdom, Pooh. I have fear of the Lord written all over them. What kind of pants do you wear? That's that's apparently not the right ones. That's phenomenal. Actually, I was I was talking to my daughter

tonight. It just turned out is that she was she was kinda geared up to start reading parts of James. And and she said, you know, there's there's a lot of parts of the bible that just don't they don't strike me. Like, they don't come out of me or anything. And I'm like, you know, here's the thing, love. It's like, I I I've experienced this most decidedly when it came to the Proverbs and the Psalms. Like, I read them and I'm like, yeah, I don't know. You know, I feel like I'm supposed to be getting something out of this and it's just they just roll blank on me. And then it turns out when I started reading Proverbs this time around, I realized that I was asking the wrong question of it. You know, like, I was reading Proverbs and Psalms to try to get something out of it. I was looking to see what the Bible could get out of it for me. And instead of this time, I I rolled into it going, God, I just wanna know you better. And boy, it's just amazing. These things are like fireworks, you know, flying off of me. You know, the Proverbs are making all kinds of sense to me. They're they're jumping off the page. They're they're injuring my mind throughout the day where, like I mean, I used to write Proverbs on my hand and put it as my cell phone lock screen or whatever. I'm like, I gotta remember these Proverbs. These mean something to me. And they would just shake off and not mean anything. And it it it really had to do with with God discerning your approach to it and and looking at your heart and going, look, if this is what you really want, you know, then then I will give wisdom. This is what I will do. But if you're not seeking me, you're just seeking to get something from me, then you don't have what you don't have fear of the Lord. Right? You you you're not starting in the right place. So anyway, it was it was super interesting as you approach your bible reading.

You know, just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. Right? Like it's you're you're not looking at it as a self help book to try to be a better person or whatever. You're just trying to get to know God better, and and and God will root that out in you. Hey, man. That felt like a mini impromptu pope style advice about proverbs. It it kinda did. Get off my lawn. I wanted to set it up just in case you had crappy pope style advice. Well, now I feel like I'm not because you got this whole fear of the lord pants thing. Maybe that was kind of a bishop bishop level. Yeah. Because you've already you've already got a reservation on pope. Hey, man. I'll step down to bishop. That was some pope stuff. Oh, there's a shake up. No. No. No. That's a mistake. There's not a hierarchy. It's you're a mistaken pope. Can you do you get when you leave the when you leave the popery, do you get can you do you get demoted to a different position? No. Actually, you die only? No. No. No. No. The one dude No rats in the murder. The other dude stepped down. And, like, that was actually one of the quandaries. It's like, because the last guy to step down was hundreds of years ago, and so, like, they didn't know what to call him, and they gotta figure out where he's gonna live. Ex pope. What type of things he can wear, like how high a hat he gets. There's gotta be a ruling in the Vatican for the guy.

Yeah. Does he stay around like a like a mother-in-law or something? He just just A pope in law. Yeah. That yeah. That's exactly what you call him. You call him the pope in law, and he gets a room in the left wing. Yeah. Because, like, he doesn't he no longer gets direct counsel from god, so one pope can say one thing and he can't I mean, the yeah. That'd be The lord disconnected. I could see how it could be a quandary. It's good thing I don't do the pope thing. Yeah. Except here. I feel like there's too much weight for me to decide. I I I say pope and law. Yeah. I like Pope a He's he's just the crazy uncle at Christmas. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Look at the guy with the hat. My head's taller. Got a robe.

Alright. Used to be Pope. So the the article came from a a blog called Bush Baby Colvin because motherhood everywhere is an adventure. And, this was dated 03/04/2017. Said it was a fairly typical Thursday in our house. My husband went to the,

pastor's fellowship. The meeting ran late. He got home and scarfed a used be a warm meal and gave me the rundown of news from our region's pastors. I figured that's an unimportant information in this blog. Yeah. I don't But I I feel warm now, though. Okay. Good. Good. I'm glad everything came up. It says the boxes came up again. And ultimately, they're talking about the Operation Christmas Child boxes. Said they are livid. There was the group of pastors he described as mostly gentle shepherds, so they wanted to know more. In a bullet point format, he explained that the Operation Christmas Child boxes had reached the warehouse in Dola and that the Mansa churches needed to come up with the 8 kwacha per box for 5,000 boxes to receive their shipment. That's $4.

And the reaction You $3. Jeremy Jeremy said, telling me what I had already calculated. He continued to share the comments from the pastors, Rachel. We don't have this kind of money to aren't these boxes supposed to be free? So we haven't always been at these gatherings during OCC distribution time, and so we're backpedaling a little bit to make sense of the statement. And, ultimately, there's the questions are becoming, like, when we when you, one, pack these Operation Christmas Child boxes and you send them over, what what I have in my mind is that

I'm I'm going to ship them. They're gonna get to an airport somewhere. They're gonna get picked up by some local workers and then distributed to people, kids who need them. Right? Yeah. That's what's in our mind about what's gonna happen. Right? Does anybody think something different? No. No. How how how prevalent is operations Christmas Child? People a lot of people do this. Yeah. And and you and and as as a person doing the box, you you also put in $9 for shipping, assuming that means, okay, that's shipping it to their hut. It's $9 per box? Per box. Okay. Alright. That's a lot of boxes in a big old, you know Writer. Yeah. That's right. You know? So so here was the list of kinda expectations that I think ultimately didn't end up being accurate from their perspective weren't accurate. So expectation one, the $7 shipping costs gets the box to the child because you're paying you're paying to get it shipped. Yeah. That's right now. It's gone up Yep. Since that. So it says, this is certainly the most flagrant of unmet expectations. In my initial quest to understand why the churches of Mansa were paying to receive their boxes, I learned from OCC USA directly that the $7 only ships the containers of boxes as far as the central warehouse in the country, in our case, Dola. It is OCC policy that the national leadership team, volunteers in all Zambian, be responsible for distribution and raising funds to cover in country transportation costs. Historically, in Zambia, this has meant levying a transportation fee or payment amongst the churches in each district. This is against the Zambian churches to whom the box is ultimately gonna end up in. This fee is not optional. This is not a free will offering, and it is announced to the churches that those who do not pay will not receive. OCC policy clearly states that boxes are not to be sold. However, the leadership team's directive to raise funds and their decision to do so by levying a standard transportation fee has effectively translated to a system of selling and buying the boxes.

The national team sells and the church buy churches buy, and that money takes care of the in country transportation cost as per OCC's plan. Some churches have chosen to absorb the cost on behalf of their congregants. Others have merely fronted the cost and then will then resell the boxes to the families themselves. So I would I would agree that that's out outright. Regardless, there there's probably there's justifications for this. And, like, the, Operation Christmas Childs folks do have a response to some of these things. But at its front,

that was not my expectation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my my only experience is in Zimbabwe. Right? And I'm thinking, okay. It's 4,000 US dollars. Right. That's, like, 7,000. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, that that that's the ones churches I'm familiar with, they don't have that kind of money. Right. I I mean I mean, you could put this in, 50 different examples. Right? You're you're you're in the middle of the Midwest and you're completely flooded out. And all these people from around the country send you sandbags, and then they get here and be like, it's gonna be $10 per sandbag for you. Yeah. Like, what? Good luck. I mean, what would all the generosity was wasted in transportation costs. Right? We're feeding an industry. Like, was generous to start with. It's like most of these top heavy companies. Right? Where the where the the very top of the company and the very bottom of the company agree. Right? The the owner's like, look, you gotta you gotta give honest service and you gotta deliver stuff on time. And I want you to work hard and I want you to be home with your family. Right? And then everybody in the middle screws that up, and the guy at the bottom is like, I just wanna do honest service and be home with my family and do a good job. Right? And then somehow, all in the middle, it gets wasted somewhere. And that's exactly what's going on here. The guy that's making the box, giving the box, and putting $7 with it is saying, hey, if if it'll cost me $7 to get this to a kid who needs it, great. And then the churches on the other end, Zimbabwe, going, I mean, $7 is a lot to us, but, I mean, somebody already put all the work into it. We can't let that generosity go to waste. And then in the middle of it, it's just these guys that are they're taking money into the economy and weren't generous at all. They're just exchanging business. Well, so that that was part of the clarification was Operation Christmas Child said, this is our policy. We do not want to create an unhealthy dependency. So we we did talk about that a little bit with with Tim Brand when he was in for for Many Hands for Haiti.

But their goal was to say not to disrupt, like, the Haitian economy. So, like, they don't go away and give away shoes and and, like, totally dry up the shoe market when there's a guy whose livelihood is selling shoes in the downtown square in Haiti. Yeah. And so it's like a consideration of, like, they still gave away, but they were just careful about how they did it in such a way that it didn't. And and they tried to, like, create jobs in Haiti as opposed to, like, just bringing and dumping stuff on on folks. So that was the second expectation that that the gifts are so the question about dependency, I think, is a legitimate one. That hits the second expectation, which which is that the gifts are helpful both in evangelistic outreach and material aid.

And let's see. She says I don't know. I pushed back on the dependency thing though. I mean, this isn't like a a a weekly meal. This is a one time a year gift with silly putty and True. Jump ropes. Mean, I I've seen this stuff people put in there. Right. It's not necessity. It it's it's These kids aren't like, hey. I'm not I've decided not to do anything with my life. I'm gonna live off this silly putty. Yeah. Right. I mean, they can live this stuff. It's supposed to be a gift, a little like, hey. Look at this. It's fun from an American point of view. Yeah. And so in in many cases, they don't even know what to do with the stuff. Yeah. But actually, this is comes back to what Boo was talking about before the show started is being so rich that you give buy someone a $10,000 cake. Right? Where they're thinking, if you'd have just given me the $10 Yeah. I could have eaten like put an addition on this hut. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, we could have piped water in. You know? And and so like, it it doesn't mean that you can't that you don't wanna be generous with silly putty and jump rope. Like, I'm and I I get where your heart's at. Right? But like, if you look at all the money incurred through all of this, wouldn't we have been better off just to send it to a trustworthy dude in Mhmm. In Zimbabwe and let them do it? So yeah. So she she gets to that. She's and and she actually would agree with what Dan was saying is for the second element, like, it helpful material aid? She started to wonder just how many people really consider the shipping of these boxes to be an effective form of relief and or development aid. It seems like Christmas presents don't necessarily need to be sustainable.

So are our friends packing their boxes full of socks and washcloths and toothbrush and Band Aids because they believe they are supplying items that the child actually desperately needs? Like, you're not gonna create a dependency on something that isn't a need. And, I think we recognize that this stuff isn't necessarily a need. But is that but that that's a core question, though. It's like when we do these types of things, do we think, hey. We're meeting a need. Because the question is is that it says, it may be quite right that a child would not have gotten a new toothbrush without that box, and that makes us all feel so useful on this planet. But if material aid is the expectation, this is not a good stewardship of resources. For the cost of that new American toothbrush, a child of Manson could buy 10 toothbrushes in that market. This pattern holds true for many of these necessity items, and here's, some examples. It says cost analysis on the boxes as a whole is even more striking.

Expenditure certainly varies, but if we guesstimate that the average box contents plus shipping is worth $30, seem about right, then we have done a good job of counting the and have we done a good job of counting the alternative cost? Have we considered what could be done with that money instead? In rural Zambia, $30 can pay for 60,000 liters of potable drinking water, 100 kilograms of maize meal feeding a family of five for four months, school fees and uniforms for six elementary kids for a year, two breeding goats, six insecticide treating mosquito nets, 15 gallons of soybeans, and wages for three weeks of farm work. The families are not consulted, of course, meaning no one has ever asked them directly. Would you rather have a box of assorted American goods, or would you rather send all your kids to school this year?

Holy cats. I guess that's sort of what we learned in Ethiopia. Like, we brought stickers, soccer balls, all that good stuff, but we didn't spend a bunch of money. Like, you guys raised the money with the song and we gave, what, $300 to that first orphanage, and they said that feed them for two months, two, three months with the teff. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. It it's it's funny how you know, that's what you think is is and and and some of it's, know, for lack of going over there and some of it's just flat out American arrogance. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, you're like, these kids just need somebody to brighten their day. We'll be the brighten the day police. You know, we show up, we do something fun for the day and and like your heart is definitely in the right place. Don't get me wrong. But you're just thinking about the problem wrong. Right? Like, my kids get excited about stickers because they have food. You know what I'm saying? Like, they have clothes and they go to school. And so they're like, oh, a sticker, it's different. Where they're like, oh, toothbrush, different. Oh, food today, different. You know? And so like, we we just we look at the problem weird because it's not our reality. And and and some of it doesn't it doesn't put our heart in the right place. It just puts our mind. We're blind. You know I'm saying? We try to solve problems with the way we would solve problems in an affluent rich country. I guess my perspective from going there the first time compared to the second time is completely different. Like going there, I thought it was all about just like making their day,

having letting them have fun and now going back, it's like helping them live a better life. Yeah. So I guess, like, just seeing it opening your eyes and all that good stuff is really good. Just it softens your heart. It makes you, I guess, see the problem more like you were saying. It's problem isn't having fun and blowing bubbles. It's eating food and getting education. Yeah. And people like bubbles. You know, I mean, it's not like you're totally wrong. Bubbles are kinda cool. You know, but but like so what was the one of the things that people expect out of it is the evangelistic component?

And like, I just don't see it. You know what I'm saying? Like, of all the things that Jesus told us to do to spread good news about it, it really requires an interaction on somebody's part, you know, and like like they'll know us the way that we love. And like we feel love or maybe we perceive that love is filled by stickers and bubbles and a jump rope. And like I I just don't know maybe if that if that that does mean love to them, then by all means, we should continue to do it and attach a guy with it and have them something to say about it. But like, that means love in our perception to them. And most of the time, we have them wrong Yeah. And what what we think would actually make them feel loved, you know? Maybe part of the solution is they need to Samaritan's Purse needs to do a better job of educating the gift givers because, yeah, we all put it through our own filter, you know, with the their heart's right. I mean, they're they're they're really trying to do the right thing. They just have no clue. Yeah. I mean, I had no clue till I went there like, you hear the stories blah blah blah. Then you go there, like you say, and you see it and you interact with people going, okay, yeah, I'm I'm I I have no idea. Yeah. I had this wrong. You know? Yeah. My my my idea of a bad day is I only have two and a half meals, you you know Yeah. Rather than like one meal for the week, you know.

Yeah. It's We were talking about this a little bit last week because we had gone to a concert where where they had a whatever the guy is. But where they where they adopt Compassion guy. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. I mean, know what he's doing. And and and like I said, I think they're all their hearts are in the right place. But like he was he was nailing on this one little boy who who lived in this country. And he's like, he he sleeps on a dirt floor and he lives in this hut. And I'm like, it's 70 degrees Yeah. Around You know what saying? Like, I hear what you're saying. Like like and it sounds heartless when you say it our way. We're like, yeah. But because I sleep in a bed and I condition my air. And that's all true. You know? But the truth of the matter is that that kid who definitely needs food and definitely needs an education. But like his hut that he lived in, his grandpa lived there and his grandpa before him. Because they live on a mountain, you know, 15 miles out of civilization. And they've been doing it for generations and they don't see it as a detriment. We do because we think that they should be like us. Yeah. But the truth of the matter is you should probably ask them what they need. Not just tell them what they need and then impress it upon them that your lifestyle should be better because mine looks this way. You know? We live in the Midwest. If you don't condition your air, you're living outside. And that's just the truth. Now now sometimes we look at and say, it's I I like to bring up Las Vegas all the time as the height of human arrogance that we built this giant city in the middle of the desert where we pipe water in from two states away trying to keep this thing up and running. Right? That's pretty bold.

But but at the end of the day, you know, we tend to do the same thing within within uninhabitable areas. We say, look, we have to make this comfortable for us. Right? And and a lot of the world just does not see things that way. There's not an air conditioner in Ethiopia at all. Big high rise buildings, twenty twenty stories tall. There's not a heater or an air conditioner in the whole building because they just don't do it. You put on a coat if you're cold. You take it off if you if you're hot. Yeah. The the only places where that exists in the in the capital of Ethiopia are where Chinese businessmen are coming in and, like, paying to do that. But, like yeah. There's not, like, cultural places where that's happening. As matter of fact, it made me think about we're sending American toothbrushes over to Zambia. They were selling sticks in Ethiopia. Did you try any of those, Dan? We our we guy we pulled to the side of the road once. The guy goes, watch this. Yeah. Pulled a branch off a tree. This is how we brush our teeth. That's what we we tried. I was actually kind of impressed by it. Yeah. It was bizarre. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a bit I mean, so so we're trying to round that that whole point up here is what we're trying to say is, like, we we we look at the world with our with our lens on. And and, like, there's some of these things that I'm just not seeing right. And I probably won't see it right because I don't live there. Right? And so what you assume well, I guess what I assumed is, like, these people who do large world mission type stuff, like, have someone in country that can tell you the deal and say, look, you know, if Pathway wants to do Operation Christmas Child this year, look, you're you're sending to Syria. Here's what the need is in Syria. It's not the same as it is in Zimbabwe. You know, they're just different. There's a different culture. There's different things going on. And it's it's it's you know, you gotta be a little bit more specific than that. Yeah. And he did say in in the the blog there that he only knows that one country. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so maybe it's different in other countries. I mean, that's the only experience. Yeah. But, I mean, how could it be? Yeah. You know? If I mean, if I can't We'll charge you guys, but not you guys. Yeah. The policy the the stated policy is is the same everywhere where there is a cost, again, to try to, from their perspective, to to keep the dependency.

And I I would agree, though. I like that doesn't one, it doesn't make a ton of sense. I don't I don't know if they just wanna it's easier to say, I bet it did it used to be 5? I bet it was super easy to be like, hey. $5, you can get this in somebody's hands. And even at seven or nine, you're less than $10. But they made you say, hey, look, it's gonna be an extra $7 per box. Now you're 15 a box and you're like, Well, man. Maybe I don't wanna send these rubber ducky $50 in That's the thing. Shouldn't the truth of it force you to do something different anyway? Yes. Like, if it turns out to be $16 a box and we we have loaded it up with $3 worth of crap, then we say, should we just pool our money together and find the head of whatever there and say, look, we're just gonna send you $5. We're gonna dig to a well. Do great things with it. You know what I'm saying? Here's $5 that you can just do generously and show God's love to people. Tell them the story. Tell them where you got it. Say that God loves you, and we just wanna bless you with and and let him decide where that goes. And that's that's a tough burden on that guy because $5 won't last very long. But, boy, howdy, will he spend it better than we would have on egg shakers and and, you know, whatever those rubber poppers you put on the table and pop up of it. Now, I have seen I have seen catalogs though, where I thought felt like they did this really well. And I think Operation Christmas Child are like, Samaritan's Purse certainly does this. Yeah. Where like you can say, you know, for $50 buys two goats or like whatever the thing is. And you can go out and you're buying kinda tangible things and you get to see what what it cost to hire a tutor for the school children for six months or whatever. And, like but it's in a catalog format. And that's super helpful Yeah. To be honest. Tell me we didn't have that wrong, though. Right? Ben and I were all geeked up. We're gonna, like, we're gonna buy people goats. Oh, yeah. Buy them at the market. So the guy selling them gets the money, and then and then they're sustainable. They can they can feed it and clean up the yard, and then when they need it, they can butcher it. Here's the thing, though. Poor orphanages don't have a refrigerator. Nobody wanted the goats. Yeah. Nobody wanted them. I thought it was genius. Ben and I are just reveling in our own greatness on how we've come up with these goats. We're like, we're gonna buy them goats. It's a great idea. Turns out, they have nowhere to store the goats, and so it's completely wasted. Something I would not know if I didn't go over there. Yeah. Yeah. And so even those catalogs are still a bit iffy. The the the neediest people in in Addis were orphanages filled with three, four hundred girls. They don't have a fridge where to store the goat. So it didn't matter. I mean, it's not like the catalog only said goats. No. I'm just saying.

And so so I and I think the, here's here's what's interesting. And I feel like we've come to come to this point before is that, this doesn't speak this doesn't speak negatively of our intentions. Right. But it does speak cautiously of our blindness. Yeah. Like, where we have to be careful that the way that we want to help is actually helpful. And and we can't be satisfied that, oh, like, hey, the first thing that I thought of, goats. Or or, like, hey, wouldn't it be super cool if we could bring some joy to their life to send the Christmas box? I mean, yeah, it's still a cool thought. It's good thought. But, like, you know, if someone really gave you the choice and said $30

for water for six months or for a Christmas present, like, here's what I do. I you you're probably more inclined to do both. Right? If I had the if I had that perspective, I'd be like, you know what? I'll send the box plus $30 because I want them to play with this thing for six months while drinking fresh water. Right? And so, by trying to solve a small problem and spread a little bit of joy, which got real super careful is this is another aspect to the article of, like, in a poverty culture, you do what you can do to get free stuff. And so, like, if I I sit through a, I sit through a vacation spiel to get a free night at a hotel somewhere, they sit through a gospel presentation.

You would never and I I I I can't imagine one person in in, that organization would ever try to make it seem like those two things are tied together. However, it doesn't mean people won't tie them together. Hey. God loves you. Here's a gift. Oh, gifts didn't show up this year. What does god think of me? As we hand out donuts and coffee every morning, you go, glad you could make it. Here's donuts. These donuts are crappy. We're gonna find another place to go. Anyway, so that that's I I think that's a there's a broad caution that says, one,

like, give, but two, make sure you're you're getting what you feel like. Like, it's okay to be prudent here. Like, just because they say it's for a good cause and it doesn't mean it's not. It's okay to make sure you're getting value out of it. Because you wanna make sure the most out of what God's money's doing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We run into the same thing with with every Christmas, we do we collect stuff for the homeless people. Right? And, like, it doesn't matter what you put on the sign to say, here's what here's what our needs are, like soap, toothbrushes, whatever. People drop off their used crap. Like, it never fails. They need Christmas stockings Yeah. To put where? They definitely need these they need these pants. They need these proverb pants I don't wear anymore. Or just give them to the homeless guy. Like the homeless wants your second hand Proverb pants. But I mean, like, the girls at the school will do this every year. They put a tree out and we say and there's like an ornament on the tree and they pick it off and whatever. And and they and and it never fails. There's boxes and boxes and boxes of like little girls' clothes. Like, you know, I hear what you're saying, but, like, you're basically I'm saving you the drive to Salvation Army. Because here's the thing, I'll take them to homeless people, and when they don't want them, I gotta just turn around and donate them. They turn around going somewhere else. You know, we do our best to source them to where the the need is the most, but half the time, people are just unloading their crap. Yeah. And that sucks. That's that's not fun at all because it just leaves me with a bunch of garbage that I gotta try to redistribute to the Salvation Army after we're done. Okay. Alright. So, I mean, something to pray about, look into, consider as you prepare to give this

holiday season and beyond. Okay. I'm not done with this, Ben. What? No. Yeah. That's it. That that article's over. Okay. Good. She's got me all she's got me all riled up. I guess you are. Yeah. Hey. Hey. Hey. By the way, if you're also done with this, let us know on the complaint line. Give us a call or text at (515) 517-0085.

Now here's the thing. I love you all. I mean, blessings blessings and peace from from our our god the father and lord Jesus Christ from the guys at Life and the Path. But when I say it's a complaint line, I expect to see some complaints. And I appreciate the kind words that we're getting, but I was was kind of excited for a few complaints. So, I mean, if you need to make one up just for my tickles, go ahead and do that this week for for some giggles for old Ben and complain about something in the show. Go ahead, Dave. I was gonna say, I think they should at least give us $9 too. Yeah. And $9. Maybe a box and $9. Makes it to the person that should Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then we'll charge you 10. Yeah. Then we'll sell it to Buva. Wait. $10.

I just paid $10 to get in For a box of complaints. Hey. So, actually, if there were legitimate complaints about me, I think curiosity would kill me, and I would have to pay that. Yes. Okay. Like, I'm I'm gonna be blatantly honest. Even if I knew it was just from you and Ben. What did they say? Yeah. Would probably go, hey, man. There's a legit box full of honest complaints about me.

I'm a curious fella. I gotta know. I guess I don't like the way you say the the s at the end of your sentences. Hey. Before we leave this this topic real quick, Jake is actually going back to Ethiopia this year. And and and Ethiopia and where else? Uganda? Yep. Uganda. Both places. And so,

actually, the complaint line is the best place. This this is gonna be our fail safe. If you are at all interested in in in helping him or his team go over there, I personally have gone with this man. I know I know what his heart is for the people over there. And so if there if there's anything that you'd like to help out even monetarily, hit us up on the complaint line. Just hit a text there with your information and we'll get in touch with you. That way, we can just we can just just do it on the up and up. Yeah. Yeah. That that number is (515) 517-0085. Call or text will work. That's the live from the PATH complaint line slash jake Ethiopia line. Yeah. I guess all I've gotta say is just the hearts of those kids are so good. And Jesus is clearly working in that orf in just that country.

But one orphanage, specifically, Kecenay, Mike and Ben are familiar with it. It's just there's a different type of feel there. Would you agree with that? Like Yeah. There's clearly God working through them and they're so happy with each other. And it's probably different with us not there. Like, it they probably get that spiritual high when there's white Americans with money showing them love.

But when Doesn't that just promote the opposite of what we were just talking about? The white Americans with money show love with cash? We should send someone else in. Well, I I guess That's why you two goat guys aren't going again. Keep your goats. I guess what I was gonna get move on to was we brought them feminine products. Yeah. And there was a huge line of 300 girls and there wasn't 300 products the Yeah. First

We went back. But I guess just though that money wouldn't I'd I wouldn't say it wouldn't help us get there, but it would also help us buy needs that are so important for those girls just Yeah. There there is something to be said about what Jake's saying. Like, if like and and missus I'm not a world traveler for missions. Right? Like, I've been on, like, one. Right? But, like, my experience was is that, like, if you get the opportunity

to go somewhere and serve people and you could spend your American money in country to get the shop shopkeeper who's trying to do legit business some money, buy all the feminine products or soda or teff from that guy instead of shipping it over with you, and then turn around and just give them whatever they need. Maybe they don't need a goat. We were wrong. Maybe they just need teff and barley. Buy them teff and barley. I mean, I think we had it was that that was the one of the the coolest things to ever be a part of. And this is true. Like, being being part of of God's work with with, like, a and having the proper resources is just like a crazy cool thing to be part of. But I think we had $2,800 or I mean, we were we were loaded. Yeah. We had tons of money for to, like, hey, what do you need? Done. And we bought out, like, four pharmacies of feminine products and, like and and these massive stacks of of of of green and taffin and just stuff that you could deliver. And, like, it was just it's it's so hard because, like,

you see needs around you. Like, boy, you're patting your pocket. You're like, don't know how to help. I don't know if I have the money to do it or whatever. And, like, just to have set ourselves up to be able to just have money and say, yes. Whatever you need, yes. We'll we'll figure it out. That that that's that's don't I know. I I can't think of a better experience. It really it really was super fun. And plus, we got to do both. Right? You buying the teff and the barley, and then we showed up with 250 Fanta. And then 10 of the girls tried to give the Fanta back. Yep. That Because they were so excited that they'd given Fanta that they wanted to show their appreciation by giving you the Fanta back. And it was you're just going, oh, man. That's still I got I have two I have two, friendship bracelets on my arm from two of the girls at that Kitchene orphanage,

who, like and we had handed out the friendship bracelet Do them? And I got two more. There's still more. Alright. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So let's see. Let's do this. Buva, here's what I heard.

Yeah. Let's hear it. Someone told me Wrongly. That you were the pope. Heard that. And I said, look. I know Bouva's been out for a while, and I it's it's not impossible that he doesn't spend it around the world standing on balconies. But I said, look, I'm pretty sure he's not the pope. And they insisted

that he was the pope. Really? Yeah. And so so I I can't do anything about it, Buva. They're they're they're on the airwaves and they say, look, we want your pope style advice. We're not leaving we're not leaving here until you give some sort of advice, like the pope would give. Well, I it with that setup, it sounds like I kinda have to.

So the setup for this is, I'm in a new relationship. Gal and I have been best friends for about seven years, and, we started dating about three months ago. First month was great.

It was that kinda whole, like, new relationship feel. We were always having fun together, going on dates, even driving around just, you know, just having fun driving around town was was was right? So last month and a half probably has been kinda rough. You know, we get at each other, we fight a lot, you know, even little things make us fight and get mad at each other. And on multiple occasions, we've walked away from each other and just walked out. It's been it's been pretty rough, to the point that both of us, and this is this is kinda more personal than even I plan on getting, but care about all you and you need to get off my lawn. So, you know, we both on our own without telling each other had had conversations with our friends and and colleagues and confidants about breaking up,

and whether or not it was it was worth it to continue the relationship without knowing that the other one had had that conversation. We both had it. And so, last Tuesday

was, eight years, since I lost my mom. It was an eight year anniversary of my mother's passing. And it was it was a rough day, obviously. You know, it wasn't like I don't go to that day thinking, oh, man. Today's gonna be great, and I'm gonna have a lot of fun. And no. I just I it sucks, and I think about my mom the whole time. Right? And that day got worse because I got a call about a gal who was the

mother of some of the neighborhood girls in my in my neighborhood when I was very young. She was in hospice, and it was gonna be possibly her last day. Her liver had shut down and, her her kidneys were shutting down. And so she was gonna be passing. And so I took the opportunity, and I I went and I spent some time with the girls and with with her, and sat there and was praying and had my had her hand in my hand and were praying with the girls and just sitting there.

The gal that I went to see there with, she was unconscious. She'd been sleeping for a couple days, kind of incoherent. Her body was shutting down, and so she wasn't really there. But, you know, I wanted to pray with her, and I wanted to pray with their girls and kinda talk about how rough the situation is. And it it just kinda hit me as I'm sitting there, you know, in a in an awful place where I'm I'm sad and I'm crying and all this different stuff. And and I I just sat there and I thought to myself that I couldn't stop thinking about my girlfriend and how much I missed her and how much I wish she was with me. And

it hit me that, like, the way that I've been acting, I don't know if she would inherently know that I was missing her in that moment. Like, I don't know if she would inherently know that I couldn't stop thinking about how much I wanted to be next to her and be by her. And we had talked a little bit that day, and and and she had kinda revealed some stuff to me about about some things that I was doing, but I didn't really take it to heart. But it just kinda just hit me like a ton of bricks, how much I've been taking it for granted and and how much I've been,

neglecting her, thinking that that what I was giving which was, you know, half effort in the relationship was enough and and it finally hit me that I've been failing her. And I was sitting here angry at her about stupid stuff that meant absolutely nothing, and I literally never stopped to think, what am I doing wrong?

And so I texted her and I said, hey, you know, can we talk? I wanna bring some stuff to you. And so the next day we we sat down and we talked together and I told her I said here's the deal, I'm always talking and I'm always saying things and I'm always the one who brings stuff but I never take time to listen and I'm sorry about that. And I wanna sit down and I wanna listen to you.

I don't wanna talk, I don't wanna give you rebuttals and I don't wanna give you an argument, I just wanna hear what can I do to make this better? And, yes, you're not perfect, and I'm sure I could come up with a couple things, but that's not what this is about. This is about me shutting my mouth and listening and actually listening, not trying to form anything. And so we sat there for for literally an hour and a half, and she just told me things and opened up more than I had ever unfortunately let her because I'm always talking and I'm always trying to interject what I think and I'm always putting my thoughts into the situation.

And so I sat there and I listened to her and it it broke my heart the way that she had brought things up that I'm sitting here thinking that that I'm doing everything I can and I'm putting in a 110% of this relationship and I'm doing everything I can to keep her and she's sitting here telling me she doesn't even feel like she's my girlfriend because she feels like she I'm she's just a best friend that I call every once in a while because I don't actually involve her in things. And I don't tell her about my day, and I don't tell her what I'm doing. She just finds out. And it it floored me because I was sitting there thinking, oh, she's gonna have a couple things, but no. She had a whole list. And

here's where my pope style comes in is, first and foremost, fellas, if you're a talker like me, take some time to do that. Shut yourself up. Don't sit there and try and come up with a rebuttal to everything she says about what's what's wrong or what you're doing. It's not about defending yourself, it's about fixing the situation. And I think that was one of the best things I've ever done in a relationship because I'm I really like to argue and I really like to defend myself and I just stopped myself. And I didn't even apologize to her because I said if I apologize, all it's gonna do is it's gonna turn into me defending myself again, and I don't wanna do that. This is not about me telling you, why I'm doing the things that I'm doing. This is about me listening to your heart and listening about what's wrong and fixing it. So that was my first start. But the second piece is this,

I have been in in a few very serious relationships in my life, not very many, and I've had plenty of girlfriends that lasted a couple weeks or a couple months, but never anything that really felt like it was. And I've always said that I wanted to have a relationship that was God centered. Right? And we all say that. We all say that we want a relationship that has God at the center and things like that. But I've been treating that statement like I treat a lot of my faith.

And my faith sometimes, and I think this goes for a lot of us, goes on that roller coaster, right, where you feel the spiritual highs and you feel the spiritual lows and things like that. And I've been on that roller coaster for a very long time, and I'm tired of being on it, And I'm tired of going on the ups and downs. I wanna find myself in a place like we always say with Enoch, you know, just walking. It's not about, you know, climbing mountains and being in valleys. It's about just walking

and and and being there for the steady. And so we we had this long conversation. I'm sitting there thinking to myself, I'm I'm raw. I'm laid out. I just feel horrible. I want to apologize to her, and I wanna fix it. But I knew that that wasn't the moment to fix it, and I decided that I wasn't gonna do anything but pray. And for the first time,

I sincerely held one of God's daughter's hands and prayed to him about her. And it was weird. I'm not gonna lie. Like, I'm holding her hand talking to him about her. And it it's it's odd and it's awkward at first, but I sat there and I apologized to him for what I've been doing to her. And I sat there and thought to myself like this is this is your daughter.

This is your daughter that I'm holding hands, and I've been treating her this way, and I've been making her feel this way, and I call myself your son. And I tell her I love her on a daily basis and I'm doing all this stuff. And my Pope style is in that.

If you're in that place where you're in a relationship with someone and and and you wanna do that God centered relationship thing, it's not about just going to him when things suck, and it's not just about thanking him when things are amazing, it's about walking and actually taking steps to daily be with him centered around him with your partner, with the person you're with. And I

got scared last week by you guys, because we talked about marriage a little bit. And I heard about the whole, you know, it it's it's not so much the the the the love, goody feelings, and stuff like that. It's being with someone for a long time and dealing with the things are gonna suck. Things are gonna be awful. You don't wanna be around that person sometimes, but what it means is you're with them and you're with them for everything and you stick around for everything. I think that was the first glimpse I got of man this sucks but I don't just want to fix it when or I don't want to fix it when it's awful and I don't just want to be there when it's good. I honestly want to be in a relationship that I want to be here forever

and I gotta figure out how to do that. And then more importantly, I want God at the center of this. We've gotta figure out how to do that too. And if it starts with an awkward prayer after a fight or after me finally coming clean about what I was doing or what I wasn't doing, great. But I can tell you in the last week after just one time talking to God about her, it has been the best relationship I've ever been in. 100%.

We both feel like we're putting our part in. We both feel like we're caring about each other. We're constantly talking. We're constantly thinking about each other. We went to church on Sunday morning and just worshiped God together. Was a just no arguments, no fights, no nick just jabbing at each other, being upset. It was literally just good, amazing, fun time together. And we haven't had that since the beginning. And

my Pope style advice summed up is this, if you're in a relationship with someone and you really want to do that whole, want God centered, it's it's just like walking with faith and it's just like Enoch. It's the daily. It's not just being there at the mountains, and it's not just being there at the valleys. It's just every day refocusing yourself on who he is and what that means for who you and and that and your your partner are. And it's being focused on him so that you could both grow together as followers in Christ and then fall in love each with each other in the process.

Get off the lawn? Get off my lawn. Get off the lawn. I I don't have anything to add. Nicely done, boo boo. I guess, just comparing that to my life, if you a lot of people obviously don't know me, but I'm a senior in high school, so I've grown up through the youth group. And I tend to go on this week long camp, spiritual high, for a week, two weeks, runs out,

have a gradual decline and then you get back and then it's just the same repeating cycle. And that's what it's been like for for me since sixth grade. Yeah. Yep. And then in February,

I I think Mike and Ben might know this, but I had one of my best friends, he committed suicide. It was just bam. That's when God says a storm is gonna hit and it hits, you're like, wow. So

fighting through that was just kinda weird. I looked to God, but not necessarily in the right way. And then over the summer, I went to Ethiopia and I went to two camps. So that was, like, a spiritual high for, like, a month or two. And then I got to got through the school year and it's just gone. Just sunk all the way. And I actually had a couple friends that I'd talk with daily, weekly about God kinda call me out like, dude, you're not giving

your entire life to Jesus, and that's what you've got to do. And I've realized that over the past month that if you're filling yourself up with Jesus, that's what you're gonna pour out and that's how you're gonna feel. I actually went to a retreat this past weekend up at Hidden Acres. It was like the first time I went into a retreat feeling like I know who Jesus is and what he does. And I got the chance to lead my small group with confidence for, like, the first time ever. Like, that's all thanks to just giving time to Jesus and

wanting to know Jesus and not doing a bible plan because someone will get a notification on the bible app like, oh, good. He's reading the bible. You read the bible because you want you you want to feel the love of Jesus in what he's doing. I guess that's whatever my pope thing is. Dig on it, man.

Fill yourself up with Jesus. I'm not the pope of That's what you'll pope is regulated to the pope in law. I'm cool with it. As long as I get a spot at the Vatican. You know what? I I couldn't agree with you fellows more. Like, if there's been any changes that have been noticeable and positive in my life, it's been it's been consistent, obedient reading, and spending time praying. Like, it and it sounds so terrible. When you bring it up to people on the offset, you're like, every day? But I don't wanna like, you know what I'm saying? Like, what do I gotta get up early? What am supposed to sit in my living room by myself with my hands all out or whatever praying? Sounds terrible. You know what I'm saying? And and like, I thought the same thing for years. I know Jesus my whole life. And I'm like, I don't wanna do that. It sounds stupid. These are all religious practices that aren't necessary in following Jesus. That's a lie. Yeah. They are. They are totally. They're religious practices for a reason because that's how you get to know people. I know my wife because I talk to her every day and spend time with her and ask her how things are going and then ask her how her life is happening and all that. And like, I didn't do the same with God. I'd check-in and check out like it was a job. And then and you wonder why you don't like that job because that you didn't get that job a chance. You weren't even trying. So like, I there couldn't be more solid advice, fellas. Solid.

Yeah. It's interesting how much of a surprise it is, perhaps, to find out that like, you you get the full experience of following and being with Jesus when you actually spend time following and being with Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. Like, what? What? That's that's how it works, What's this wizardry? I

think it's kind of kind of the kind of like the the whole 12 strip pro programs out there that you get overwhelmed thinking about, hey, my ultimate goal is to be this great spiritual giant or whatever or, you know, thinking about too far ahead or too far back. You're just you're just today.

Today is all I gotta worry about. Know? I'm gonna read my bible. Today, I'm gonna connect with god. Yeah. Today today, I'll be obedient. That example is funny though. Was like, I like to think of following Christ like being an alcoholic. I'm addicted to you, Jesus. Thanks, Dan. I'm addicted to you, Jesus. I mean, it's that that element of the 12 something is is the the one day at a time thing or I don't know how say Do me a favor. I need you to make me a rap music video called I'm addicted to you, Jesus, and I want you to be as old, white, honky as you possibly can. And so you will go Jesus. Yeah. That will explode on you. I am certain of it. Oh, man. Yep. Because now that's definitely a This is 100%.

Today, I will not be a part. Man. White man enough? That yes. And that best makes it even better. Value at all, but the comedic value alone is for this production. This is how we're gonna get some action on the complete line. I was gonna say, that's gotta be a bonus on the next live for the fast Christmas album is I'm addicted to you, Jesus, by MC Dan. That's true. The first one sold so well. Know. Yeah. Exactly. That will gain. I say we double it.

Remember, you gotta pay for $7 for it to ship to your place and then another 9 for it to get shipped to the proper location. Hey. We could put it out on vinyl, the hipsters buy it right up. Oh, I yep. That's happening. Yeah. Small small batch white man Christmas hip hop from life and the best. We we need to somehow Small batch? Yes. And you throw a small batch on anything. Hipsters and and vegans and everybody's like, oh, I want it. Wait. That means it wasn't made by the big conglomerates? Oh, wait. Yes. It was.

We get people to put it in their Christmas boxes. We'll sell them mint. Hey. Quick sidebar. Did you know that Pabst Blue Ribbon PBR is is brewed, packaged and and and made completely in a Miller facility? That does not surprise me. So they've had like this sixty year agreement. It's always been this way. And and and now Miller Lite goes, because the the the alcohol market is shrinking because of all the craft beers, like the big conglomerates are are are losing a lot of sales. Yeah. And now they don't wanna do it anymore. They don't wanna package PBR. PBR does not have a factory of any kind. They're just label. And and the only other beer the only other beer distributor that can actually fill this order is Anheuser Busch and they go, no, we don't do that. We don't do contract beer fills. Right? And so, like, PBR is looking at going out of existence. It's looking to disappear in the next three to four years. What are the hipsters gonna do? That's what exactly what the article was about is the hipsters lose PBR.

They'll have nowhere to drink. They'll lose PBR and that what's next? Spam? That's gonna be awful. Yeah. It's a big deal. And now for America's fastest growing game show. Man. It's time for or Solomon. That's right. Completely unbeknownst to you,

you've stumbled on America's fastest growing Internet game show, Secular versus Sullivan. Mike, you got your Robert pants off? Oh, where's my I should've brought my scorecard. I'll have to just wing it. Okay. This will be good. As a reminder, here's here's the here's the the gist of the deal. Okay? There's all kinds of wisdom out there, wisdom in quotations. Alright. Do we know where our wisdom's coming from? If you hear someone say a slick phrase, do you say, hey. That's that's bible. I'm gonna change my ways about it. Or do you can we properly identify, no. That's that's Ben Franklin or some guy at a bar, and so maybe I'm not gonna change my ways about it. Yeah. K. So do we know where our wisdom is coming from? So the the game is gonna be this. I'm gonna provide you a proverb,

a bit of wisdom. K? And your job is to tell me whether it's a secular bit of wisdom or whether it's, from the world or whether it's Solomon. And, actually, these are all legitimately from Solomon. They're they're biblical bits of wisdom. K? And, if it is a secular bit of wisdom, we wanna we wanna find out where this nefariousness is coming from, and so you're gonna tell me country of origin. That's the goal. Center is still not a country, Dan. No. Now listen here. Listen here. It covers them all. We seem to have trouble following the rules. These are countries. Countries. Jake being closest to legitimate geography classes, I expect him to nail this. I it gets it gets worse the farther out from geography class you go. It's been sophomore years. It's been sophomore since I've looked at a map. It's gonna be rough. It's gonna be rough times. Alright. Ready? Two. Here we go. That's gonna stop Dan, any?

Alright. Secular or Solomon starting with Buva. Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Secular or Solomon? That's straight Solomon. Buva says it's Solomon. Jake? Solomon. Solomon. Dan. I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna go secular even though it just screams Solomon. I think I think you're tricking us. Boy.

Has nothing to do with the PBR stuff. Secular Epcot Center. What? Can't think of a country. I'm I'm I'm completely blank. No country like that? A single one, Dan. I mean, we're I'm thinking of water. Zimbabwe. Ethiopia. We're talking about Zimbabwe. They have the the, Victoria Falls there. The water come it's pretty special. K. Yeah. Okay. Stolen. On the border to with Zambia. Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Mike, secular Solomon. I'm gonna go I'm gonna go with Solomon with an asterisk. What do mean? I'll I'll explain later. I reject the asterisk. You're going with full Solomon. Solomon dash asterisk. Alright. So stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. The answer is Solomon, Proverbs nine seventeen. Yeah. Any any any of the the the reason I put the asterisk in there is because the Solomon Proverbs don't start till chapter 10.

Anything prior to chapter 10 was not directly attributed to Solomon. What? Yeah. That's true. Did not know that. Alright. Fine. They're from Proverbs then. Yeah. Alright. Here we go. Secular or Solomon, whoever winks the eye causes trouble and a babbling fool will come to ruin.

Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will come to ruin. Secular or Solomon? Jake. Oh, I'm gonna go secular and Canada. Secular Canada? Oh, yeah. Bunch of eyewinkers in Canada. Dan border. Okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'll go Solomon on this one. Solomon, Mike. Solomon. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Tides are turning. Booba. Solomon. Oh, Jake's on a Lone Island. Lone

Island with a with a whiskey Canadian. Whoever winks the eye causes trouble. This is causing me a problem because I copied this from the wrong place on the online, and it's got, like, a footnote in it that's a t. And so it actually reads whoever twinks the eye causes trouble. Pretty sure that's not right. And a babbling fool will come to ruin. It is indeed Solomon. Proverbs 10. Yeah. Proverbs ten ten. Without asterisk. No asterisk. No asterisk. Full on Solomon. Alright. Secular or Solomon, no matter how hard you try, the bull will never give milk. No matter how hard you try, the bull will never give milk. Secular or salt and dan. Oh, man.

I'm Good luck, dan. I'm pretty confident that would be secular, and that that is that is I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna go Mexico. There's confusion in Mexico. You say it's South America and then say Mexico? The Southern I mean Mexico is North America, Dan. Well, I'm thinking south of us. South South North America. America doesn't count till us. Oh, sweet Moses. Dan still treats Texas as a Mexican property.

I've been to the Alamo. Remember the Alamo? Yeah. Mike, secular America's beard. Secular Solomon Mike. I'm gonna go with, secular and Spain. Oh. That was mine too. That was totally mine. Spain ain't the only country with bulls. Fine.

Secular, Paraguay. Secular and France. Yeah. Alright. We France is doing for his bulls. Finally blew up a bucket of cliches here. No matter how hard you try, the bull will never give milk. It is a problem in secular Ukraine. Oh. Ukraine.

Ukraine. You did not see that coming down. Do Ukrainians have bulls? Yeah. I mean, very irritated bulls. I ain't got no milk. Why? They're they're not happy. They're a little sensitive. Apparently, they came up with this proverb because of the actions of someone, and the bowl is on the wrong hands. Your name is Brian. Trying to Yep. Brian. Some Brian guy did it. A Brian guy in Ukraine. Yep.

There's a lot there's a lot of Brian's in Ukraine. Didn't you know that? His name is Vic Roy. Lot of under alright. Secular or Solomon, whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps the thing covered. Oh. Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps the thing covered. Sticular or Solomon, Mike? Solomon. Solomon. Bubba. Solomon. Uh-oh. Jake. Solomon. Solomon. Dan. That that that's pretty wordy. I'm going Solomon. Dan says it's it's verbose.

Only a rich man with lots of wives would be so lengthy, this Proverbs. I need another one. It is indeed. The editor is on my case. Solomon. Proverbs 11. Yeah. Did you just go nine, ten, eleven, twelve, 13? Here's what I'm gonna say.

When I'm pressed for time here's here's what may or may not have happened. I might have got here and say 09:10. Show starts at 10:00. Don't you stay when I think about I get stuff all riled up. I'm getting ready, making some progress, getting some tunes rolling, putting a hat on, all this kind of jazz. Then some dude. Bufa shows up at nine 09:30, 09:32, and and, I mean, is chatting like a caffeine dub hand for twenty minutes. I just went and saw the Grinch movie with my lady, and it was boring. I'm sorry. Let's just say I've heard this pope style advice twice.

In either case You're welcome. In either case, it gets about 09:56 or so, and the show is supposed to fire up, and I need a bunch of Solomons. And so I'm just clicking through chapters. Hey, man. Next time be wise and say, hey, Buva. I'm trying to do something. Can you give me, like, ten minutes? Here's the deal. I sympathize with your lady friend. It's tough to get you to stop talking. Agree.

Hey. There's a reason I used I said it. No worries. Okay. Here we go. Secular or Solomon. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and a hatred with it. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it. Secular or Solomon. Booba. Secular Romania. Secular

should put your angry ox eating going in Romania. Jake. Secular, and I'm gonna go with Portugal. A free proverb of the day where you vote with Buva every time, there's nothing but trouble.

Jake is in with Portugal. Dan Hudson. I'm gonna say Proverbs 12. Proverbs 12. Mike. Proverbs? Mike's in with Proverbs. What was Buva, what what what Proverbs do you think it is? I don't think it's Proverbs. I said secular. Oh, you were laughing at the Proverbs. I said Solomon. Okay. Alright. Here we go. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is. And, I mean, that's not much. Right? Like, we're not talking that's not a Hebrew word for veggies. They really mean, like Yeah. Just seasonings. Mustard, seed. Oregano. Yeah. Yeah. You're eating a rock and licking off a little person. As long as there's love in oregano rather than a fat and ox and hate, that is indeed Solomon. That's Solomon. Proverbs 15. Almost had the numbers game down, man. I

can't remember where we left off. Alright. Here we go. Secular or Solomon, do not mistake a goat's beard for a fine stallion's tail. Do not mistake a goat's beard for a fine stallion's tail. Secular or Solomon, Jake Brandt? I'm gonna go secular and where's Rocky from? What what what is that Did say Queens? Balboa? Okay. Is that is that is that an Italian accent? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Italy. Italy. He he's from Philadelphia.

I'm trying to figure out oh, it's because the stallion part, not the goat's beard. Okay. I'm like, I don't know what version of Rocky you've seen, but it had nothing to do with the goat's beard. Okay. I'm with you. Okay. Dan, do not mistake a goat's beard for a fine stallion's tail. Secular. Secular of Kuwait.

Dan's spot on. I can't even wager a guess. I'm gonna go with secular, and and I really I can't I'm gonna go with Latvia. I mean, you're allowed to vote Kuwait as well. No. I can't. If I if I get in league with Dan, his ego gets too high on you. That's like ordering the same dinner together at at at at you can't go to a restaurant and order those chicken fingers at the same time. No. It's not alright. Yeah. I'll have chicken fingers. I'll have the same loser. Yeah. You want original? Yeah. Alright. Fair enough. So Dan was Kuwait.

Jake was Italy. Mike, you were what? Latvia. Lat no doubt. Alright. Bubba. Secular Saudi Arabia. Secular Saudi Arabia. Do not mistake a goat's beard for a fine stallion's tail. It is a problem where there is a free flowing Guinness in Ireland. Oh. It's an Irish problem. Shucks. Goats? I got that. To grab the face of a goat and think this might be a horse's behind. Jake would like to submit that he got the letter I correct. But not Rocky Balboa. But not Rocky Balboa.

The the the Irish Rocky also known as Conor McGregor. I mean, I accept that. Well, actually, Mike's the points, man. He's gonna have to No. Negative five, Jake. Oh, best number. Tough days. I think I've won it, like, a negative 9,000 before. You're doing alright. Alright. Everyone's won today. Secular or Solomon, a rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his in his imagination. A rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his imagination. Secular or Solomon? Dan. Yeah. I'm gonna go Solomon. Solomon, Mike. I really wanna say Solomon because I feel like he was afraid of high walls.

I can't think of anybody else that would be. Except for the Chinese. That's a secular Chinese man. Alright. Boom. Solomon Proverbs four. What? I feel like Ben laid out exactly how he got these proverbs. But then he jumped from 11 to 15, so he's from about 19 now. I may I'm reading them in different order. Oh. I don't just write them down and take them straight from the list. I've been outflanked by Ben.

So certain And I think that's wrong because Proverb four, I'm sure pretty sure he's still, like, stating the case for why wisdom is a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Proverbs 14. Jake, a rich man's Proverbs wealth 16. Is this okay. You're wait. No. Wait. It says he's in. He's in a rich All the way. A rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his imagination. That is indeed Solomon Proverbs 18. Oh,

definitely not Chinese, though. Yeah. No. Certainly not Chinese. Alright. Here we go. Secular or Solomon, just a few more to go. To take revenge on an enemy, give him an give him an give him an elephant. First, he must thank you for the gift, and then the elephant's appetite will deplete your enemy's resources. Was very,

very specific. Love that one. Secular Hannibal? Mike. Carthaginian. Yeah. Secular India. Okay.

Buba. Secular Carthage. Secular Madagascar. Yep. These are all good guesses. Hold on. Boob, I I reject Carthage. No. You can't. I did. It has to it's a current country. I filtered them out. Why does it have to be a current country? Because it does. I'm trying to help you out here. Fine. Secular Egypt. Yeah. Good one, Boob. Exactly the same place.

Dan. I'm gonna go a secular this is the Republic Of The Congo. Congo? The drum. The drum. Republic Of The Bongos. Did I say Congo? Yeah. Congo.

Democratic or republic? Democratic Republic Of The Congos. Yeah. It's a small city in Florida. The United States Of The WIRO. There's a lot of Marengue happening down there. I keep doing that. I keep doing that. It's been more than one hour. Gal who's a refugee from The Congo. Trying to say Congo. Yeah. I don't know things in Congo. Are you from The Congo? Do you do a lot of lines there? Everybody's

always standing in lines. Don't worry about it. Dan never fails me. Never. The Democratic Republic Of The Congress. I mean, if if it's not if it's not a a blatant harassment of a country or, like, like, a complete stereotype, I just I I didn't see it coming. It never fails, Danny. I have more interaction with congress.

You know there's at least five dance troops they met somewhere in this country. Alright. Here we go. To take to take revenge on an enemy given an elephant. First, he must thank you for the gift, and then the elephant's appetite will deplete your enemy's resources. Do never never accept an elephant if you live in Nepal. Oh. It's secular Nepal. Super suspicious.

Oh, man. Hell. Hold on. Phenomenal. Thank you for that, Danny. Here we go. Secular Solomon. Do not confine your children to your own learning for they were born in another time. Do not confine your children to your own learning for they were born in another time. Secular Solomon.

Secular Norway. Secular Norway, Jake. I'm gonna go Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13. Dan Hudson. I'm going I'm going secular. I'm trying to figure out a time traveler. It's a terrifying way to say that. What? Who's secular? I'm trying to figure out time travel. I'm worn out from COVID, man. Born in a different time. I'm

gonna I'm gonna go with oh, I'm completely blank. I'm gonna go time stands still in Antarctica, but we're gonna go there. Antarctica. I'm gonna I'm gonna accept. Yeah. I'm gonna accept this congressman. To after Democratic Republic of the Congress. Mike?

Secular Chile. Secular Chile. By the snare drums. Do not confine your children to your own learning for they were born in another time. It is indeed secular China. Oh, dang. China. The big walls. The big walls. That's right. China is actually very similar to Norway. I've often heard that. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Sister countries. Here we go. Final one. This is for all the well, actually, again, I don't do this score. I don't get to say things like that. Here we go. Jake Jake's gonna lead the way here. Don't bargain for fish which are still in the water. Don't bargain for fish which are still in the water, secular or Solomon. I'm

go Solomon. He's in for Solomon, Dan Hudson. Going I'm going secular fish. Still in the water. Don't bargain for fish. Boy, these are tough ones for me today.

I'm going to go off the coast. Where am I going to? Let's just We don't know, Dan. I don't need I'm just There are no consequences to a wrong answer, Dan. Too difficult. We're going we're going Switzerland. Okay. Yes. The Swiss and all of their fish. Fish and cheese. Mike, don't bargain for fish, which is still in the water. Hey. Have you ever seen an an Israeli proverb?

You know what I'm saying? Do they come up with rule? Called Solomon. You can say it's Solomon. That's what I'm saying. Do they bank on only the words Solomon, or is there, like, otherwise people in Israel? So all the Israel is the people in Israel are sitting there saying, we can't say cool stuff. Someone's gotta There's someone's gotta corner on that market. We've already had one. Okay. I'm a yeah. I'm a stick with it. I'm gonna go secular Israeli. Secular Israeli.

Buva. I'm gonna go with secular Argentina. Don't bargain for fish, which are still in the water. It is indeed secular India. Yeah. Also very similar to Argentina. Obviously. Mike, what are the damages?

So final tally was Buva had positive three points. Ho ho. His best showing in five years. Jake had a total of 75. Dan was in the tank at negative four. And I I came in at a paltry 30. So it looks like Jake was the winner. Oh, man. Yeah. I don't remember getting one right. Yeah. Nicely done, Jake. Accept the points. Yeah. These points don't mean anything a, man, completely based on Mike's opinion of you. Points. You you get glory. That's it. Proverbs 19. Yeah. Yeah. The point scheme is not determinable. It's it's whatever occurs to Mike at the time. Yeah. It's a currency of which we trade. Astonishing. That's the first time I've come out positive. Yeah. Alright. Anyway, congratulations. Hey. If you're interested in hearing more,

secular versus Solomon, can to website. Go to livefromthepath.org and just do a search for secular versus Solomon or just secular or Solomon. Either one is gonna help you out. And, we got clips from some of the guests that have been on the show and run through the the mills to, can we know where our wisdom comes from? And, here's here's how you cheat, and cheating is the right way to win is, just start reading through the proverbs. That way you can be awesome at this game and take in the Lord's word. It's a two for one. It is. You ready? Yeah. I'm ready. Dear life from the path. Our nine year old son makes perfect grades in school. His friends all have cell phones. I believe he should get one also. My husband disagrees and thinks he should be a teenager first and learn more responsibility.

With time changing so quickly and kids getting phones at six and seven years old, am I wrong or is my husband old fashioned in his approach? What? How old was he again? Nine. Yeah. Kid boy's nine. And the mom thinks he should have one. Yeah. The And thinks that his grades have anything to do with it. Yeah. I'm with the dad. The father is pretty smart. I agree with the dad. Yeah. Here's the thing. So my kids have my old cell phones. Right? They work on the WiFi or whatever. And they can watch Netflix on them or something every once in while. They text people in their family. But, like, they lose more of the $50, $75

Apple headphones. I mean, just like it's going out of style, they lose them. Can't find them. You know, tear them up, whatever. They've gone through, five of them. And I keep getting free ones, random places. And and then like a fool, I hand them back out like candy. And and the truth of the matter is they have no reason to have a cell phone at all. Right? It's merely as a gift for me to them. There's no practical reason for them to have them. The fact that their friends have them make no difference to me at all. It really is just just kind of a a fun thing for them to have. And so, like, there's no necessity for them to have it at all. But like an active cell, whatever, ability to call and surf Internet however you want? No. No. I'm I'm 36. I shouldn't have that freedom.

It's nothing but a trap. It's a trap, man. It's a trap. Yeah. By the way, you saying the words, I keep finding them in free places. Yeah. Sounds like you're stealing headphones. That's exactly what that sounds like. If someone was stealing headphones a lot, they'd probably say, I keep finding them in free places. That's the deal. In my pocket. I don't know how I got there. That Richmond going out of business, and they keep poor inventory. I checked the price tag. It said free 50. Now there's people that get phones that don't ever use headphones. You know? Like, they're still in the original packaging. I'm like, we can do them headphones. I get it. I'm just saying it sounds like you're you're thieving some headphones all around town. Be a theft. Anyway, I'm with the dad. I I I I don't even know if there's an exact age. Like, I think it has to do with your kid and out of necessity. Right? Like, if they're but if they're 14 and they're they're at practice early in the morning, practice late at night, and they need a ride or whatever, then, yeah. I mean, they probably need a cell phone. That's when ours got them. It's when they were waiting for us or we were waiting for them. I thought, let's just get them a phone and we can communicate. I got a cell phone when I became mobile.

Like, when I was able to leave without them, basically. I mean, not just school. Like, I could hop in a car and go. Yeah. But I didn't really have, like, a legit cell phone till I was 14, 15 years. I I the standing rule with my kids, like I said, they have my hand me down old phones, to use at home or whatever. And and they they want phones, and I said, you can have one when you buy one. Yeah. And that's pretty much my like, they'll be on still be on my my plan or whatever. But, like, they're gonna pay for the phone. Right. It's not my phone. I'm not using it. So, like, if they want a phone apart from what they absolutely need and if it's just something they want, then they can buy one. I think middle school is the line where I think it becomes, like, a need for most people. Because the difference between fifth and sixth grade is incredible. The freedom people get, like, actual sports practices that are organized by the school instead of by parents and coaches. I think I think that's where I got mine at the end of fifth grade. And then as I got more siblings, my brother got one in like second grade. So I guess Absolutely. Yeah. That's how it works. But I think I think the summer of fifth to sixth grade is a pretty safe time where See, I I would give my kids a flip phone.

Yeah. I got a flip phone. Yeah. I got my first smartphone, I think, eighth grade. Yeah. So I'd say and and the thing is is what the the mom's talking about is, like, these kids that they have smart the smartphone is the problem. Right? Like, there's just a gateway to a whole world Right. That you're in charge of walking them through. And, like, you have to be very careful on what you allow your kids to do. And you're gonna come out as a fuddy duddy and an old man on a lot of this stuff, but like, that's your job. That's the that's the crux. When you had kids, your job is to walk them into a world and like free range on on YouTube and and and the Internet browser, just a mistake. They're gonna wind up in places that they didn't even intend to be. And and like it's it's You know, Dan uses this phrase a lot, it's garbage in, garbage out. You take in a bunch of crap, you're gonna put crap back out. And that's it's just the truth. Anybody want a anybody want a pro nine year old cell phone? No. Nope. I mean k. Secular says, parents teach their children to be responsible by placing some

responsibility on their shoulders. In the current landscape, it's a good idea for a child to have the ability to communicate with a parent in case of an emergency. You You and your husband could give your son a flip phone so he can do that if necessary. Yeah. That's fair. Here you go. Okay. Last one. Ready? Dear life from the path. I had bariatric surgery, gastric sleeve, five months ago. I left my previous job because the way I was treated by my employer and coworkers changed drastically after my procedure. I'm starting a new job soon and do not want to tell my new employer or coworkers that I've had this operation. People always treat you differently once they know. I don't know anyone at the new job, and I prefer to keep this part of my life private. My boyfriend thinks I should tell at least HR in case any medical issues arise while at work because then they would be able to inform medical personnel. I don't think they need to know. What do you think?

No. No. Yeah. No. That's stupid. I am HR. I don't need to know about your bariatric sleeve. Here's the thing. People are weird. Right? Like, they just assume that HR is this faceless organization within their company. It's made up of people that work there. Right? And, like, there's not a there's not like a head medical guy that informs the ambulance driver what happened. Right? They they're not near that organized, and and frankly, nobody cares. Yeah. I I've literally been working HR since I was 22, 23 years old, and never once have I really ever needed that information Yeah. In any situation. Yeah. Like, people coming to me, they're like, well, since you're HR, I need to tell you this. No. You don't. No. That has absolutely nothing to do with my job, and my employers are always like, well, you're HR, so you need to be involved in this. No. No. No. I don't. Are we getting hired, fired, or sued for it? Nah. We're good. Yeah. We're fine. Yeah. I mean, this one's kinda straightforward too. No. It's none of their business. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta tell your health insurance people. They know anyway. They know. They paid for it. Well, they not when you switch jobs. They got a new health care provider.

Well, maybe. But, like, if they ask Maybe. Yeah. I don't No. Right. But that doesn't mean you have a new health care provider. You both of them might offer UnitedHealthcare. Yeah. And it's not a preexisting condition. Yeah. But they probably don't. That's right. It's just something that happened to you. You don't have to tell them every Well, it's not like you got hit by a vehicle. That's something that just happened to you. You decided to do it. Right. But it's not it's not a, like, a a persistent illness. Right. I had knee surgery. I don't tell my every new insurance company I have, hey, by the way, I had knee surgery when I was 17. Yeah. That's true. Alright.

No no no no rebuttal to this man either. No. Secular says, your medical history is your own business. After five months, you should have healed from your surgery. I'm not sure what kind of complication your boyfriend is worried about, but if you experience any, the time to report it to HR will be when they occur. Still in HR's business, really. No. Well, yeah. If you're on, like, a leave of absence because of it, then I I legally can't know. All you need to tell me is, hey. My doctor said I'm not coming to work, and I go, great. Thanks. Appreciate the doctor note. I don't think your boyfriend has much real world experience. He's the exact kind of guy that believes there's some kind of weird connection between HR and the hospital in the area. I'd love to have, like, a daily conversation. It's called HIPAA. I can't know anything. Yeah. Yeah. No. That's foolish. That's it, man. Yes. We got through that. Right on. Well, here's the deal. We did we are out of time. So we're gonna have to move these we're gonna double up on the thesises for mister Loftus next week Yeah. Okay. On justice and all the all this business. Alright. Well, I appreciate hanging out with the show tonight.

Big big thanks again for Jake for coming in. Except for his Thanks for having me. His dominating view on secular versus Solomon. Yeah. You totally rocked that, buddy. He swept the floor. And, again, if you have any thoughts on the show or you wanna to get hooked up with Jake, give us a call or text at (515) 517-0085. That's the Life From The Path complaint line.

Your compliments are welcome, but, you know, we we do like it used for its explicit purpose, which is to complain about the show. Yeah. So you can go ahead and do that. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to Live From The Path.