Hey everybody it's Ben with Live From The Path. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up on this episode. We brought the folks from Sober Soldiers in to have a conversation about their organization and their focus on addiction recovery and it was a really fun time. Unfortunately our cacophony of hamster wheels and wrenches fell apart about thirty eight minutes in, and I didn't get the whole interview saved. So I I hesitated to put out a partial episode,

but but knowing you, if you listen to the program, you, one, you probably don't care. You're used to a cacophony or two. And two, their message is important. I think their stories are very cool and important, and so I didn't want you to miss out on them. So I do hope you enjoy the episode. I apologize for the break at about thirty eight minutes in. You're just gonna flow right into the next But, anyway, thanks for listening to live from the path. If you wanna know more about sober soldiers, you can find them on Facebook. Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper. You are

live from the path. And you're listening to Live From The Pathway Studios here in Johnston Proper. Where? I gotta do it. Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper, Mike. Knock knock. What the who's there? Live from the

live from the who. Live from the past. I thought of that all by myself. You got them. Save to save that one for Halloween. Yeah. Who's who's who's got them? You you knew I was gonna get zinged? You knew it. You saw it was a setup. It was a good zing. Dang.

It was a perfect zing. Dang it. I got I got roused. Where's the where's the dunk? Yeah. Yeah. We need a We'd add that in later. Okay. Do we need it live, or can we do it prerecorded? Is that fine? No. Prerecorded's lame. Hey. So here's the here's what we heard. I did now this person let me say this. This person did not have the fortitude to use the complaint line. Oh. Oh, man. They just they didn't have

it's a free complaint line. Yeah. I called it the complaint line because I know who you are, and I know what you wanna say. Okay? And I expected to call or text on the complaint line, but I didn't get one. But here's the here's the thing. I've heard tell that we too often speak of the show as being terrible. Yes. I've heard that as well. And we gotta give it up. Yeah. Okay. So here's so here's what I'm gonna say to that. Here's here's my my reaction. I'm gonna do my very best to not spend any time saying how bad the show is. If you promise,

whoever you are and and plus everyone else, to be discerning, I shouldn't have to tell you that the show is bad. The truth will set you free. That's right. You should know this already. I fear for your ability to take the world incorrectly that I have to repeat myself about it a lot. That's right. The podcast numbers are increasing. That's right. They should be going down. It doesn't make any sense how many people listen to the podcast. This is what this is why it comes up because I see the numbers, and I say, good night. We've we've we've deceived people. Obviously, no one's reading Hebrews. Yeah. And they're just plugging right ahead. That's right. Right. If if anyone spent any time in James,

they would hear the first thirty minutes of the show and go, you know what? This isn't good. Yep. This is like kinda move on. Like a tongue moving the ship the wrong direction. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So so so anyway, so here but here's the deal. I'm gonna I'm gonna turn it back over to you, Brethren. I'm gonna say if you can handle and be discerning on your own and get some accountability to make sure you're acting discerningly, okay, then I will stop spending time reminding you that the show is bad, and you should do something else with your time. If

people wanted to call that complete line, Ben, what's the what's the digits? That's 515. If you're bold. If you're a bold man or lady. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you're not just a couch harasser. Okay? You don't listen in your kitchen and drink your coffee and get irritated with me.

You would call the complaint line or text (515) 517-0085. That's (515) 517-0085. That's the unbeknownst to him, Bob Eisenhower complaint line. Yeah. Okay. I swear I really should call him and let him know that that complaint line is still named after him. Yeah. I think I I think it's an honor. I think he should I she she would take it that way. He should probably call and complain. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Listen, fellas. I did not let you use my name for the complaint line. Yeah. Okay. Here's what got going on the show tonight. Here's we're gonna do a secular Solomon. Yeah. Good. It's been a long time. It's been I've have you been preparing? I have not been in

the Solomon area of the bible in probably a year. Okay. So you're free you're freewheeling it. Yeah. You're you're you're sleeping in on the day of the test. Yes. I I I'm I'm hoping that my that my knowledge of old will bring itself forward, and it will give itself away based on the language it uses. Okay. So in months let's start TJ, let's start with you. How how long has it been since you've been picked since you read a proverb? In months? In months.

I've read a proverb this month. Okay. One month. Hey. He's bringing a straight fire, Mike. And the shame trouble. And the shame lands over there. You're sitting on the you got the dunce cap on in the corner Yeah. And he's he prepared. Yeah. I ordered one from Amazon just for occasions like this so I wouldn't have to wear an ill fitting dunce cap, which is even more embarrassing. Okay. Okay. What I was what what about you? Cody. Cody? How how many months? Don't want you wanted me to embarrass myself now. Mike's over a year. Yeah. I sit right next to you. Oh, I'm 37. Okay. Anybody got a calculator? 37 times 12 Yeah. Okay. Will be I'm I'm new to, you know, having a walk in faith. So I So it's alright. I'm I'm actually, you know, starting off with a disadvantage.

I need a a teammate on this game. This is gonna be great. Yeah. Now here's the here. The point of the game the point of the game is to figure out how to sort things out. And here's the deal. You get a bunch of smug old dogs in the corner over here thinking they can go a year without it. And I'm I'm putting I'm putting the ponies on on Cody. Yeah. I think he's gonna take it. Yeah. I think he's gonna take it. I ain't taking it on purpose if that's what you're trying to wink and smile me into. Ain't gonna happen. No. I I have a deeper disadvantage because, like, when I was a kid, I read the King James version. Here it is. The version problem. No. No. This is a big deal because then I went to NIV for, like, thirty years or whatever. And then I went to ESV, and I'm I most recently had been been using the Christian standard version. It's just test driving that. And I'm like, so the words are important and they change them. Right? Really not the same meaning, but it's like there's all these different words. I don't know, Dan. You've been playing that violin ten years, isn't it? The old translation violin. Oh, I don't know. Okay. Well, I'll tell you what. So that's what we got coming up a little bit later on the show. But just so you know who the who the players are in the room, let's let's get to know the folks from Sober Soldiers. So who who wants to who wants to snag it? Let's let's do, like, a just a general introduction on if if you hear the word sober soldiers, here's what you need to be thinking about.

We're just a a faith based family. You put me on the spot. We're we're just a faith based family, generalized around recovery and addiction help. You know, helping people that are struggling with addiction. Awesome. Does it focus on any particular type of addiction or basically any anything? Anything. And and our our family also includes the people that we've affected in our addiction. So, you know, not people that

you know, normal people, I guess you would say. Yep. That have family members that are in addiction. You know, they come to our meetings and stuff and they find out, oh, well, this is why this is like that. You know, that they get a better understanding of addiction to learn how to help that family member that's in active recovery. Gotcha. I really just wanna jump in here and say I love this because usually I go first. So Yeah. He's he sits back and prepares the whole time. So sitting back and watching him stutter through this has really been inspiring to me, so I appreciate that. DJ, if you wanna leave a comment about Cody, you can call the lie from the Path of Complaint line. So what what what started the ministry? What what what kind of triggered sober soldiers coming into existence?

The pandemic. Okay. So we went to we we met in in Prelude, which is treatment facility on the East Side Of Des Moines. And there was unfortunately, there were seven other or seven of us total, and five of those people have you know, they kinda went different ways. So we took this we took this idea and turned it into what it is today. While we're in this treatment facility in in along with their structured program, they kinda tell you, you know, after after this twenty eight days, you need to either be in program a or program b. Yeah. I'm not gonna, you know, name names and cause chaos with that way, but you could probably guess what they are. And and so in twenty eight days, you can't decide

what program's gonna work for you. You're you're still trying to get that cloud out of your mind. I mean Yeah. I'm not sure how much I am allowed to say on this. Are you guys editing out there? I'm a recovering meth addict. Yeah. When I went to treatment, I was homeless, and I really didn't have an understanding of who I was or where where the heck I was even at Right. At the time of meeting. So twenty eight from there to twenty eight days to choose a recovery program for the rest of my life that I'm going to follow, you know, whatever steps or guides or, you know, sponsorship or whatever I'm doing. For doing that and to to do that in twenty eight days seems almost

unheard of. Right? How would you even know the difference? Right? You're like, I live this way, and you're telling me there's options to live another way. I don't understand any of those. Right? Even read the proverbs. Right. Yeah. Alright. Give me a break. No. Give me a damn break. So so so, basically, what what we offer, you know, and and, you know, this is my take on what sober soldiers is, and everybody has their own opinion, you know, as far as what it what value it brings to their life. My my

opinion is when we're in active addiction, we hurt a lot of people, but the ones that are closest to us, our our close blood family is the ones we hurt the most. Mhmm. And so sober soldiers is, for me, it's a recovery family of people that love me for for the, you know, for the ex meth addict I am. Yep. Mhmm. And the and, you know, the guy that stutters and doesn't know how to read proverbs and get all these words out right. You know? And and so so, basically, it's just a giant recovery family of people that love me until I learned how to love myself. That is right on. Right? That's how god does it. That yeah. Yeah. That's very cool. I I was told to move this microphone like this, but how do I drop it? Yeah. I don't know. We had to tie it up from the last guy that was in here. Yeah. Dropping it and broke it. Drop the mic moments really just have to be voiced over so you go and dropped. And then then we know then we know what happened. Alright. Well, that was just one of the And dropped. Yeah. But yeah. To me, that's what happened. I mean and as far as, you know, I'm new to this this I was just baptized last summer. Yeah. And,

you know, I was the you know, growing up, I went to several different denominations of church, so my understanding of it was like, why? You know? Why? Right. Know, if I went from from Lutheran to Christian to Seventh day Adventist, and then, like, there was this time period where my mom's picking weeds, and she's like, you know, and I'm young and being a smart ass, and she's like, well, I'm like, where where do you go when you die, mom? She's like, you just rot in hell, and she's over there picking through. You know, she's Thanks, mom. You know? And so so my my understanding of my understanding of a god or a higher power or whatever you choose to call it has

has come to me on my terms. It took thirty some years for me to to truly believe something that's greater than myself, and and that's what Zobo Soldiers has also done for me. It's allowed me the opportunity to see multiple ways of living Yep. And it with a healthy standards and morals, and that's that's where how I got to this chair tonight. Well, that's awesome. Yeah. It is. That's a great story. And so so so, TJ, what's your does is your story similar or would differ? How would you describe sober soldiers? I would have to agree with with him on everything with sober soldiers.

The the difference between Cody and I, I think, you know, we both lived a different lifestyle when we're when we're stuck in our addiction. You know? He'll tell you the story about how he used to be under a bridge and beg for change, and I kinda lived the fast lifestyle and had the money. It was at the casinos, but we both met and ended up at at the same place. Right. And that was the treatment center we were at. And and then in in my belief, you know, that's a god moment. I've had a lot of god moments in my life where, I mean, I had congestive heart failure before this. My heart was working at 16%. Another god moment that, you know, I should have

recognized when I was out in in Mercy Hospital, I was the youngest one on the heart floor. Yep. And, you know, I went out and tested the waters again, but I believe that that kind of lined up, you know, the god moment for us to cross paths. We came from two different lifestyles, but we came to the same conclusion that we needed to change our lives. And, you know, with, with where we are, you know, our main slogan is god in recovery must come first. You know, we figure without god in place and god in recovery, family or nobody else is gonna have us in their lives. Yep. So we kinda, like he said, take took it off on that from the pandemic. All the meetings when we first got out kinda shut down, and, you know, we wanna do a little more. So from our sober living house, we kinda went live feeds on the basement. So we were bringing, you know, people to a meeting still. Or they're you know, we're just kinda kinda doing what we're doing here, but just on Facebook Live. And Yep. People just kinda tend to take off and take off. And, you know, now our Facebook group has know, we have 2,500 members, and we have we represent 29 states and three countries. So Wow. It's really, really taken off. And then towards the end of the pandemic, our church our home church reached out to us and really loved what we did in support of what we're doing. And so now we hold a live in person meeting every Thursday night at 7PM at Westinwood Open Bible. We have been you know, and god's just brought more blessings and more blessings like people. Puzzles, you know, he's putting together a large puzzle. Like, our story's already written. We understand that it's it's already laid out for us. And if we follow the right path and just continue to do,

you know, the next right thing, continue to, you know, do what we're supposed to be doing in life, that it's written for us. And, you know, and God brings in pieces like he's brought in CJ. You know, we are the we were kind of the faces of sober soldiers, but she is she's the the brains of sober soldiers. We'll give her that. You know? And she has a, you know, amazing story, huge recovery time, and she just you know? So now she's taken over the every other Saturday, we go into the Bernie's halfway house, and these girls bring a a women's empowerment meeting. You know? And we're blessed. Also, since we've done so much with Prelude, coming out of there and being, I mean, I guess, being successful with, you know, recovery and bringing people, we go back in there every Friday night and bring a sober soldiers meeting into them Nice. And treatments. You know? And I've been to a lot of treatment centers in my life,

to know I mean, a few times, of course, to know that, you know, when I went in there in 2004, they find a higher power if you have to pray to a doorknob, pray to a doorknob. Yeah. And and that was just absurd to me. I was blessed with a with a praying grandmother and a grandmother drug me to church and the still same church that's opened her doors to to my group now and that sits by me every night in in the sober soldiers. Every Thursday night, she sits next to me, and she's prayed many, many prayers to get me to where I am. And she's actually taking the Sober Soldiers family, and the family environment, like he says, is just, just amazing. We got we got a lot of people just that didn't know God. And back to my prayer leader story, I mean, we're the only group that really, you know, I've sat through a lot of meetings and stuff, but we go back into the rooms of the treatment center, and we talk about god. We talk about Jesus Christ, and we can mention those things. And we've had multiple people say that's why they like coming to our meetings because you can say god or Jesus Christ, you don't have to label him a high power. In the same setting. And maybe the effing. And and that's the that's the that's the beauty of it. And sorry to interrupt, but that's the beauty of it. You can take someone that's in a mindset in that twenty eight day mind frame coming off of a ten, twenty, twelve, whatever year, you know, addiction with that cloud in their head, and they can they can understand God and still be themselves and still be accepted with the family we have to offer. Right on. Sorry to interrupt. No. But just I mean, like you said, and just the blessings we get from going back in there Friday. And then, you know, they get out. They come to our meetings, and and some of them never, you know, heard about Jesus Christ. Some have never been to inside of a church, think that, you know, they got the the mindset that they're gonna catch on fire when they walk in. And and they realize when they walk in under our doors with us, they're the way the church treats us is just full of love and acceptance, and that's what we do to them. You know? And we had, a close family member of our Sober Soldier family, Tracy Doss. You know, her cousin was lost in a motorcycle accident on East 14th, and we were able to take the Sober Soldier's family over there for the balloon release. And that just means a lot to people that, you know, that we're that family. We're gonna show up to the funeral. We're gonna show up to the hospital if you need us, and and we have that kind of you know, the biggest thing that's really taken off on our page lately is the Facebook Live button. So we have people just going live all the time. We have a guy by the name of Toby. Toby John sees a he thinks he's Toby worldwide. He gets

up every every morning at 05:15, and he does, you know, live feed. He reads scripture to the group, to people. He gives daily motivation for about thirty minutes each and every morning. So just the interaction, you know, and people hit live button all weekend long. We took we were babysitting where she took another girl, Stephanie's daughter, Stephanie, to the power and or women empowerment at Bernie's, and we had the we babysat the daughter, and then we took them to, took her to Sam's Club. We went live around Sam's Club the whole morning and just sharing what we do in recovery now, what would you know, what we're entrusted with even Sunday morning. You know, we took over the daycare at church so all the moms could go up. Nice. We're entrusted with 15 kids now, and and these are benefits of, you know, following god and being in recovery, things that that we enjoy to do, we know we enjoy doing right now in our life. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's basically what Silver Soldier's about. Boy. Boy, that's a that's a lot going on. I I love I love seeing the church be the church. Let me put it that way. Yeah. I love seeing the church be the church. And

and and and having people sometimes what they what they miss with either what they think about what church is or sometimes what the church has done to be a barrier for for for people to get a shot to see what I feel like I see, like when I see the people of Jesus. Right? Like, have a reaction to it. I've been in the church for most of my life. And, like, sometimes people will explain or talk about an interaction with the church. I'm like, boy, I just

that isn't what I see when I look out. And I have a lot of grace for it. Right? Because I know who I am. I know how what God has done for me. But sometimes like, it's just it's just so hard sometimes because we've been human as a church or because we've overstepped our

our responsibility and and and took taken God's throne for a ride and and caused some some separation from folks. It's I love I love to hear stories of where people actually got to interact with

what the church looks like to me and what I think the church looks like to Jesus. And, like like, what he has it Right. What he intends for it to be and for it to do, and and all of its imperfection and all of his rescue in it for people to actually get to do that and to do it through what you guys are doing. Like, I love it. I love to be able to hear that. So he we we we watched that Chosen show. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we watched we we shared this segment. So we went in front of our church at West Memorial And Baptist. We went in front of them and shared with a youth group or something like that. That was our mission statement. We were the mission of the month. Yeah. What? We were so we were the mission statement for the month for our church. Yep. And we shared with him, and there was a youth group there and stuff. And the video that we played was

the leap lepers. The lepers. Yeah. Yeah. So how everybody was like, get away. Get away. Get away. But he walked right up to that dude and he's like, what's up? Yeah. Right. You know what I'm saying? So that's kinda how we that's kinda how we I'm not saying we're like Jesus in that sense that we just, you know, have no care for our well-being and just approach anything, but we have that mindset in that heart where we you know, anybody can come to our group and we Yep. Open arms. Yep. Yep. The the the the type of things where people feel like there could be a separation,

it's it's the type of thing that the people of Jesus are about. It's it's it's always it's it's always I've shared this on the show before, but there's a there's a really cool book by a guy named Rodney Stark called The Rise of Christianity. And like he talks about, you know, how do you how do you go from twelve twelve disciple well, 11 disciples, right, into to to like this, the largest

kind of belief system in over three centuries. And like it's ties it back to all these examples of the church being the church. And like what a really good one is is at the time where the the black plague is going around, like people are fleeing, where the people are getting sick and they're and they're dying. The families are leaving. They're like, we can't we don't wanna expose ourselves to this. We gotta get out of here. And when everyone else was leaving,

it was the people of Jesus that were going in. And they go in and they're providing care and they're sitting with people. And some of those some of the Christians are dying too. But I tell you what, the guys who survived the black plague, you know who's telling that story? And you know how many people they're telling it to? Who was there for me? Yahweh was there for me. God was there for me. And and then now the families that left, now they're hearing how someone came in and risked themselves just like Jesus himself did to save another human. And they're like, okay, I see that. I don't just hear it. I see it. I see God using people in these lives to otherwise do these things. And like similarly, the practice of of exposure, like if someone had a kid that they didn't want and just setting the kid kind of out on the outside

to die overnight for either the animals to get or just the, you know, of of the overnight they just wouldn't survive. And it was the Christians who put the parties together at ten, 11:00 at night and they just go looking around and they'd see the kids who were abandoned, they'd pick them up and they'd adopt them. And like every major adoption agency, every major hospital, every major college in The United States, Western Europe, even even in the East were started by Christians. Like, these Christians doing walking around doing the stuff that we're supposed to do and people actually being able to engage in it. We've we we get we get tied up in a war of ideas a lot.

And it matters. Here's the deal. I think your theology matters. I think what we believe about God matters. I think where you're getting that information matters. But people's people's barriers start to break down when they when they smell Jesus and don't even know it. Yeah. When they ran into God when they ran into the church of God like, that's why Adam and Eve were created to be God's idols, the the representation of God on earth to do the things that God would do if he were standing right there. And, like, we retain that in the image of Jesus. And, like, people didn't even know that they ran into Jesus when they see his people doing this like this type of thing when they can feel it. And then they're open and then they can actually hear words that they couldn't hear before because the actions made sense. It didn't seem shallow. It didn't seem hollow. It felt they said, oh, and now I saw that. How do I understand that? Well, here's the words that will help you understand that. They're like, well, hot dang. Now I'm feeling now I get it. And now and that's and and, like, it's overwhelming. It's overwhelming when you when when the church is being the church without some of those barriers, either societal or otherwise, you you get to see the, like, the spirit walking around walking around and flipping the world upside down, and it's it's awesome.

It's just awesome. So you guys as as the fellows were talking, you heard you can find Sober Soldiers on Facebook. That's sober and then soldiers with a z at the end. You find that's distinct. You can find it, and then you can join there's, like, the Facebook page, and then there's the private group. Now do you have to be some other affiliation or whatever to get into the private group? You just gotta ask and No. The private the private the reason for the private group is when we had first started, we were local to, you know Yep. Des Moines and the people that we had just started to get to know in there, you know, people come on to us with, you know, relationship

Yep. And this and that. So and, you know, then you get the bots, the Oh, yeah. You know, when we still get them filtered in sometimes, but the the re so the reason why it's private is, like, you can't just look it up and join. Yep. You you have to be you know, you have to answer a series of, like, do you agree to this group rules questions? Yep. So and and it kinda helps us too. So if one of the group rules is broken, like, we don't have to feel guilty for being like, hey. You broke the rules. You you don't get to be a part of this Right. Right. Right. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So you can find out if you go to the Facebook page, you can they're they're posting. I've saw some some encouraging some encouragement post, and there's yeah. There's a website launch coming up. Yes. Big website. Is it sobersoldiers.com,

or, like, what's it gonna be? It's sobersoldiers.com. Yep. I believe so. Yeah. The page is about done, and we should be launching. This week? This week. Maybe this week. Yes. Should be. Can what what do people see what they go to website, what are they gonna be able to find out there? Well Basic information. Okay. You know, emails, address, direct contacts to you know, because, you know, we're put our we put ourselves out there. We don't wanna just become

the person that, you know, had these ideas and didn't do anything about it. Yeah. Right. Our our direct cell phone numbers and emails will be on this page. And then, you know, we're eventually rolling into opening up a men's three quarter living house, which is a, you know, a transition

home from coming from prison or treatment. Yep. So updates about applications for getting into that home will be on there.

Probably testimonies will be on there. People you know, personal written testimonies, you know, that won't be paid actors like Pepto Bismol or something like that. That's I knew that was going on with Pepto Bismol. I would do that for free. Yeah. So so testimonies from people. And then, you know, we we got we do all kinds of events, and that's where TJ likes to shine. He likes to talk about our events. We do all kinds of family gatherings where, you know, who knows what, you know, a bonfire could turn into, you know, hanging out till 03:00 in the morning just like you guys were speaking about. And we're not doing anything wrong. We're just having fun, sober,

or clean, or however you say it. We're we're not we're not causing any problems for the community. We're not harming ourselves besides a little little bit of less sleep, but everybody's smiling and loving each other. And that's I know the biggest thing we have coming up, though, is the June 5. We have the one year sober soldiers anniversary. You know, we do a lot of things like tubing.

And and then just, like he said, a lot of family events. And, you know, I guess the the biggest benefit one of the biggest benefits this has brought to my family is, you know, I just know on the radio station we were on earlier, you know, my daughter made a comment, and that's just a family environment. And it lets her, you know, see other people's because not only were you helping, like we said, then, you know, he said at the beginning, the addicts the addicts or the alcoholics or anybody with any problem out there, but we're helping the people that, you know, that we've affected, the the family members that are still dealing with the addicts and that are still hurting. And then we are, and then, and then, you know, the kids are hearing more. You know? Like, my my daughter, you know, she's 23 years old, and I put her through a lot of a lot of crap. And, you know, she's realized now that I was just lost and hurting too, and I and I needed the time to find God. And, you know, and I wake up every morning now and get my scripture. Now, you know, I got my grandson coming around the house, falling asleep with a little bible on his his chest. And, you know, he got they come out, and they want me to read a little scripture to them in the morning. And so it's just little steps of what God's doing. And and and, you know, I wanna say, like, just leaving, you know, something positive behind for them. You know? And and,

it's just really changed my life, my relationship that I have with Jesus Christ, and he is is more powerful now than I ever have. You know? My I'm still blessed to have my grandparents. I do remember my grandpa's, you know, coming. You know? It's getting close for grandpa. Yeah. And, you know, he kinda realizes it, and I'm I'm ready in my life and in my mindset and with with what I believe now and what I'm doing, I I can handle that a lot better, and I know where he's going. You know? And Yeah. And I can be the backbone the family needed me to be all the time. And and that's just because the people in my life that I surround myself with these days and that are helping, you know, helping this sober soldier family. And not only these two here. It's just we we got, you know, our meetings come consistent about, you know, average of fifty, fifty five people every week, and it's new people rotating in. You know, we do a testimony every second Tuesday or second Thursday, excuse me, of the month, and it's always a new testimony. And we're, you know, we were booked till February with testimonies. Oh, man. It's just it's just powerful with what God is doing with this group and this family. You know, we got a lot of people that are just, you know, hurting and just, you know, incarcerated. They got their spouse incarcerated and just don't understand because they've never, you know, been in addiction or they've never used. Right. They just come to our meetings to hear, you know, hear stories and so they can relate. And, you know, we and and then they they you know, we get so many messages that talks about how inspiring it is and how they're feeling different and how, you know, God's they believe God's working. They're reaching out to people that they never thought they'd speak to again. So God's working through this group, and, you know, and we're just we're just here to manage it when it comes down to I feel like we're we're just the managers of of God's ultimate vision, and we're blessed just to be a part of it, really.

Boy, I love I love when you're talking about your daughter and the and that last thing you were sharing too. To to see God able to repair things that like in concept,

like I didn't know could be rescued. You felt because like even like at the time you figure out, like, if you've if you've ever been in situations for you guys that are listening, like, I'm sure you guys can relate in some way or another where you've done you've caused harm in someone's life and you're like even at the time where you see it rightly, you know, boy, I just I know that I'm responsible for that and I caused it. It didn't mean that there was a clear path for redemption in that relationship. Like, there you just didn't know if it could be put back together even if you owned it in the way that you probably should. And and and I just just to see God say, you're welcome. Like just to see yourself rightly and say, look, don't know much. I just I know that I need you. Let's start there. And then God goes, all right now, those things that you you tore down that you didn't even realize you were tearing down,

watch me help you rebuild. Like what a what a cool thing to be a part of. And that that was the thing I've been most thankful just over the last few months. I've been praying differently. A lot of times I think I'll orient my prayer on God, you, you know, hey, thanks. And then can you do blah blah blah. You know? And I think like one of the things that I've been trying to just in my mind think about differently is that like, boy, I'd really like to see this.

Can I I be thankful for what God allows me to to see? I got to see got to see four baptisms at church this week. Right? Like, how thankful? Like, I I didn't do any of that. I but I got to see God work in it. And like, that's a real blessing. And then like, just just some relationships, things where I thought it was our Mike and I both had this where this is our burden to go in there and like, they're gonna meet Jesus and we're gonna do it. We're gonna be in there helping.

And then people are to meet Jesus and and because God sent someone else completely different. And you know what? I don't I don't care at all. What an awesome thing to be able to see. God, thanks for thanks for putting that the thing that I'm praying on on my mind so that I know when you answered it, so that I could actually see it. Because I mean, obviously, God's working in all this stuff with things I don't even get to see. But like, how thankful to be able to watch that happen and go Yeah. Through no other means was that gonna occur. And thank you for letting me see it and know that like you reached in and you touched a situation that I couldn't have repaired on my own. Like, I I just I I love that. And that's happened to me too. Like, I've I've broken relationships where I've broken situations. I'm like, I don't I don't see a clear path to put that together. And then, like, God finds a path that I didn't conceive as he would. Yeah. You know? And so, boy, I love I love hearing those stories. It's the thing that puts you back down to prayer. Right? Like like, it's an amazing spot that God allows you to be in that goes almost everything you look to go out and do, and you're like, I can't just so we're clear, I can't do this without you. Right? I I don't I literally can't go. It doesn't matter whether I show up with, like, the sweet words or the sweet whatevers. And and, like, I know enough people in recovery and have been around

personally I mean, a a ton of folks where addiction's an issue, and, like, they end up in a program where, like, it's it's you focused. Right? Like, it's all about you. And, like, boy, it tends to start breaking them down. Right? Because you keep failing. Right? Like, it's what addiction is. Like, you you you're like, you do so well, and then all of a sudden you fail, you're like, oh, I'm the worst. You know? And all and the only person you have to to look at is you, and, like, you just you implode. Right? You implode on yourself, and you're like, why am I so bad at this? Why I wanna do better, and I can't do it on my own steam. And, like, the whole time, Jesus is just hanging back and, like, if you just you just need me, just let me let me do. Right? And then and then then you let Jesus do. And then you just start handing more and more over, and you're like, you know what? I don't even wanna do. I just wanna watch you do. You tell me what I can do so I can watch you do what you do. Because you get you get to feel the holy spirit move, and and just it was just like Ben saying, like, there's there's there's folks that, like

I mean, I can't how many times? Like, how late at night and how many times you picked them up from the wrong place and how many times you figured this will help, you know, if we do this. And and and it was always gonna be Jesus, and it was always gonna be his work, And it was and it was always you trying to meddle in the middle of it, you know, like, good heartedly, but you were wrong. Right? Like, Right. It wasn't you. It was it was God's to do. And, like, I if if there's one thing that's that's happened in my life that I've been more just gracious to God and and and praising him for the things that he's done is realize that, like, I'm not as big as part of a plan as I thought I was. I thought I was a real big deal in this thing. You know? Like, I was gonna act a certain way, and then this was gonna happen. And, like but just to be thankful to to to to be on my knees every morning and go, I literally can't go to work and do what you're asking me to do without you. I can't be a good dad. I can't be the dad at all you designed me to be if you're not going to be there. I can't be the husband that you always wanted me to be if I don't let you do the things you want to do. So and then and you get to watch him fulfill those things, and you get get to watch a whole life change.

And you're like, I don't even recognize you. And there's there's a friend of mine that, like, he struggled with addiction. I mean, still does. Oh, everybody. Right? Like, you got it. You got it. And and and he struggles with it. And then then he met Jesus. And, like, I was I was gonna go out and pray with him, you know, and and it always been me praying, you know, And he was gonna pray this time. And, like, I couldn't stop crying. Like, the guy I mean, it was it was one of those prayers that it was I mean, it was the holy spirit talking. And I'm like, I could not have been more trying to listen to what he was saying, but trying to thank god at the same time. You know? And I'm like, I don't know how you did I mean, I knew you could do this. I you've always said you could do you say you do these things, and I feel ashamed that I didn't believe you. But listening to this guy just pour his heart out to God, asking for help, acknowledging who he was and and and what Jesus did in his life, and I'm like, what an amazing thing to be a part of. And and you guys are, like, right in the smack middle of it. And what what are just an awesome way to spend your time. You know what I'm saying? What an awesome way to spend your days. Yeah. So so that makes me think, you know, do you have is there any particular

and you can be you can be cautious with names or situations if you feel like you need to. But like, anytime in the last year where where like it just caused you to stop and go, I had no idea this was gonna be able to be part of something like this, this type of change. Every day. Every day. Every single day I wake up, man. And wait, it's so crazy that you just spoke about what you were just talking about how like how like just God was looking over your shoulder the whole entire time, like we're fighting through this addiction. I was just talking about this on the radio show today, how the whole time I was homeless,

I you know, why am I by myself? I'm by myself. You know? I'm doing this on my own. If I wouldn't be alive today if I you know, if he wouldn't have been protecting me in some way, shape, or form, and it took me releasing control of my life to him in order to come through that addiction and be in the shoes I am in today. Yep. So every single day is there's a there's, you know, there's, you know,

names and stories and things that happen every single day makes me thankful for the position I'm in. Yeah. I'd have to agree with him just like inspirating messages that we receive and stuff every single day. I feel blessed. But I have to kinda agree with you. I had to change my my prayer patterns up a little bit too and then and be grateful with you know, for what I have. I've had some unlofty prayers praying for this Dogecoin to go to the moon. And and today, the trombones came out. Wow. Wow. That and just grateful for what's all going on in my life that's good. You know? And I had big dreams for Doge going to make the Silver Soldier's neighborhood.

And, you know, I'm still hanging in there, but I'm still holding on. Wait, Mike. Did you sell the Doge? No. I held tight. I sold it last time. I thought it was gonna go great, and I got back in. Here's the deal. I've been rocking that Robin Hood gave you 20 free bucks or whatever. No. No. No. It started at 5. Right? They gave you $5 free stock. I I haven't put a dime into this thing. I'm letting their $5 just keep on working. And I left it in the Doge, and I might be around 40, and I am super pumped. That's awesome. That's awesome. We've invested in Doge. You know, I had big dreams over the weekend. That snow came on. You know, I went to sleep that night, and I'm just, you know, that's probably not if it's God's will, it'll work out. But everything that's blessed is the blessed we have in this recovery family and what, you know, what we're able to do right now, you know, because in reality of it is, you know, we've had a lot we've been to a lot of funerals this last month. And, you know, a close person to me told me, you know, that would be,

get a suit. We were going to a lot of funerals, a lot of weddings if you're gonna be in recovery. And we've been to three funerals over the past month, and it's been, you know, just I'm very grateful to still be alive and, you know, and and really to not be in federal prison or prison Right. Away from my children. You know? I got a lot of friends that are sentenced to a lot of federal prison time. And in reality, you know, that that lifestyle, they they could take your life your life or, you know, you could be locked away. And not that you couldn't find god there because, you know, you can, and and I truly believe that, but I'm just very grateful. You know? I feel like god has a purpose for me out here, and, it's just another one of those god moments that this is what I need to be doing now. And I feel blessed to have these two on my side. Blessed that we met the pastor today to invite us here. I'm now blessed to meet you guys. I mean, it's just like everything that's going on is just it's just getting better and better in our lives. And and even if it's not financial, it's just the the connections and the you know, just getting people, you know, know about Silver Soldiers and giving them the opportunity.

There's a lot of people out there struggling. I mean, from the pandemic and being locked up. And, and as like I said, the one of the biggest benefits is if you don't feel comfortable coming out to our meeting, just click and go to the page on Thursday night, 7PM, and watch it live. And we interact. His phone's usually recording, so we interact with the people that cannot make it or the people that, you know, don't feel comfortable coming out yet and just try to involve them as well. So Yeah. That's really you know, it's it's truly a god thing. It's truly a blessing to be a part of what we're doing. Yeah. That word purpose hits home. Yeah. You know? Like, I lived the majority of my life, you know, if my my you know,

I don't have complete time to go into my whole childhood and trauma and all But to come out on this end of it with a purpose Yep. You know what I mean? To not, you know I've had I've had family members that shot themselves and hung themselves. Suicide runs deep in my family, and addiction runs deep in my family. And so to come out of the other end of all